After standing still for a moment, Limon slowly turned his head.
He scanned his surroundings once before finally speaking.
“Princess, didn’t you say you needed me for something important and asked me to come?”
“I did.”
“Then what is this?”
Limon asked Li Qingwei, the black-haired girl standing next to him, with an even more skeptical look on his face.
“It’s an inspection.”
“An inspection?”
“Yes. There are things that simply cannot be understood through paperwork alone.”
“No, I get that, but…”
Limon scratched his cheek.
He was a man of action rather than theory.
His philosophy was that swinging a sword once was better than reading a swordsmanship book a hundred times, so he could understand Li Qingwei’s point of view.
However, the reason for his skepticism was the location itself.
“I’m asking why you brought me to an amusement park for an ‘inspection’?”
A roller coaster that looked ancient at a glance.
A haunted house that looked like an actual abandoned building.
A magic theater as shabby as a warehouse.
Sparse shops scattered here and there.
Limon looked in disbelief at the amusement park, which looked less like a theme park and more like an archaeological site that had been built at least 30 years ago.
He glanced around and added another comment.
“And you even brought the kids.”
It was true.
Li Qingwei and Limon hadn’t come here alone.
They were accompanied by a mountain of companions—or more bluntly, useless dependents.
“A carousel! A carousel! I’ve never seen one before!”
“Wow, I really didn’t think we’d get to come to an amusement park.”
“You better be grateful to me! We only came here because my birthday is next month!”
“But my birthday is today.”
“Huh? It is?”
The dependents were children.
All twenty-three of them from the Hanbit Orphanage were running around the amusement park in excitement.
Limon, who had followed along without much thought and ended up being practically kidnapped to an amusement park with a bunch of kids, couldn’t help but feel disgruntled.
Li Qingwei replied to him nonchalantly.
“That’s because the reason I’m visiting this amusement park is for the Sword Lord and the children.”
“What are you talking about?”
“Didn’t you tell me before? To turn the place where Yuna Gyeong passed away into a place where children could come to play?”
“Oh, that? What about it?”
Perhaps because he had said it in passing, Limon tilted his head, only remembering after a brief moment that he was talking about the empty lot where the Liberation Brigade’s headquarters used to be.
Li Qingwei’s answer was simple.
“I thought about it, and it seemed like an amusement park would be the perfect place for children to visit.”
The problem was that the plan itself wasn’t simple.
Limon stared at her with a confused expression at the sudden answer, before his face shifted into one of disbelief.
“…So, before you build an amusement park there, you came here to inspect another one? For reference?”
“It’s basic business practice to consider feasibility before starting any project.”
“The moment you decided to build an amusement park on that wasteland just because of one thing I said, I felt like you lost all sense of business feasibility.”
“It’s fine. It’s the policy of our Seven Dragons Society to make the impossible possible.”
She was saying that with the power of the Seven Dragons Society, it was easy to make even a failing business succeed.
Li Qingwei spoke calmly, then added one more thing with a bright smile as she saw Limon’s complicated expression at her joke-like seriousness.
“Of course, I also intended to earn points by going on a date with the Sword Lord under that pretext.”
“So that was your main goal?!”
“It’s a bit of both, a bit of both.”
“No matter how I look at it, it seems like you’ve put the cart before the horse…”
Limon’s expression became complicated.
Traversing an amusement park with twenty-three children was a daunting prospect.
Anyone who had raised even one child could imagine what kind of manual labor it would be.
And she called this an inspection?
No matter how he looked at it, her actions seemed purely motivated by personal desire.
“Do you hate it?”
Limon stared at Li Qingwei’s face as she asked with a smile, as if she had read his mind.
After a moment, he looked away.
He let out a short laugh as he watched the children arguing over what to ride first before eventually settling it with rock-paper-scissors.
“I didn’t say I hated it.”
Spending a day at an amusement park with a bride and children.
His schedule for the day was decided by that wholesome, family-oriented plan.
Even if there was a gap of several hundred years between him and his prospective bride, and the fact that there were twenty-three children made it significantly different from a normal family.
But Limon didn’t care about such trivial matters.
He naturally stepped in among the children and thrust out his fist.
“Rock, paper, scissors! Rock, paper, scissors! Since I won, I’ll be the one deciding the route today. No complaints, right?”
“What! That’s not fair, jumping in like that!”
“Grandpa Limon is a coward!”
“Grandpa, you cheated! Cheater!”
*Whack!*
“Waaah!”
“No more complaints, right? I’m warning you now, anyone who wanders off should be prepared for 100 flicks to the forehead.”
Experience, strength, reflexes, and a thick skin.
Limon, who had completely dominated the game of rock-paper-scissors, chuckled and began leading the children through the amusement park.
A few children pouted, wanting to play more freely.
But that only lasted a moment.
As they went from ride to ride, their pouting faces were replaced by bright smiles.
It was only natural.
Given the modest circumstances of the Hanbit Orphanage, most of the children were visiting an amusement park for the first time or for the first time in a long while.
Another reason was that Limon was surprisingly good at leading them.
“Grandpa, I want to ride the bumper cars! Bumper cars!”
“Bumper cars? Hmm, the line for that is long right now, so we’ll have to wait 30 minutes. Let’s go somewhere else first.”
“But I like the bumper cars…”
“I said I’d let you ride them later. I’ll even get you the red one you like, Eun-soo.”
“Really?”
“Do you want me to swear on my sword?”
Coaxing the children was basic.
He minimized their waiting time while also buying them balloons, taking photos with mascots, and buying them ice cream.
His guidance was so skillful that one might wonder if he had worked as a guide at this amusement park for 10 years.
As they walked around, Limon glanced at the children’s flushed faces and clapped his hands.
“Alright, we’re taking a 30-minute break here.”
“Aww, why?”
“Don’t stop! Let’s play more!”
“You brats, stop complaining. An old man like me needs regular breaks.”
Of course, Limon wasn’t actually tired.
He was just being considerate of the children, whose stamina was flagging.
Li Qingwei smiled as she watched Limon declare a break at a cafe and buy the children drinks.
“You’re really good with children.”
“Well, I’m at that age.”
“Being older doesn’t necessarily mean someone is good with children.”
“Well, they aren’t Sword Masters.”
“Does being a Sword Master make you good at childcare?”
“No, but it means my back doesn’t hurt no matter how much I play with them.”
Limon chuckled.
Upon hearing that, Li Qingwei nodded with a look of deep impression.
“So a master is different in everything they do.”
“Don’t take a joke so seriously. Unlike the masters of your Seven Dragons Society, I’m just a simple swordsman.”
Limon felt awkward.
The masters of the Seven Dragons Society were beings who had reached the pinnacle of versatility.
Depending on their innate Psionics and the secret arts they had practiced, they possessed combat power comparable to high-level Players, as well as superhuman abilities in their respective fields.
It was thanks to them that the Seven Dragons Society had been able to survive for the past few hundred years.
Politicians who read minds.
Extraordinarily enchanting actors.
Chefs with incredible skills.
Businessmen who could see through mineral veins.
Veterinarians who could communicate with animals.
The masters of the Seven Dragons Society, who possessed the supernatural power of Psionics, excelled in every field.
Of course, they didn’t operate openly, but many still coveted their power and sought out the Seven Dragons Society.
Because they had built such a foundation over hundreds of years, the Society was able to successfully modernize and survive even in this Iron Age.
That was the power of Psionics.
It was the strength of a power that had once ruled the world, originating from the Seven Dragons that had devoured even gods.
So, hearing such words from the Princess of the Seven Dragons Society made Limon, who only knew how to swing a sword, feel more embarrassed than anything.
“I wonder if that’s true.”
That was why Limon looked puzzled when he saw Li Qingwei tilt her head.
“What do you mean?”
“No, I was just wondering if it’s right to call a Sword Master a simple swordsman.”
“What’s so special about a Sword Master? They’re just swordsmen who are good at cutting things and won’t die of old age.”
“I’m not so sure about that…”
Li Qingwei wore a strange expression at the unconvincing words of the man who had cut down a god and achieved Eternal Youth and Immortality.
However, Limon didn’t try to convince her.
Instead, he suddenly took a good look at her.
“By the way, I didn’t know you could wear clothes like that.”
“Does it not suit me?”
“No, it suits you well enough… but it’s not exactly what a princess would wear, is it?”
Shorts that revealed her slender legs.
A slightly oversized boxy tee.
And even a baseball cap.
Instead of the oriental dresses she usually wore, Li Qingwei’s casual outfit was so unexpected that she looked like a different person.
But did it not suit her?
Not at all.
Given her natural beauty, she looked as cute as a popular idol.
It was the law of natural beauty.
“Hehe, I have times when I want to wear different clothes too. Though it’s also partly for a disguise.”
“I don’t know. I doubt it’ll work as a disguise since you’re with me…”
She seemed happy to be told the outfit suited her, wearing a more cheerful smile than usual.
It was then that a girl with eyes as dull as a corpse approached the two.
“Are you done talking?”
“Why? Do you want something else to eat?”
“No, our break time is almost over.”
“Ah, right.”
At Sia’s words, Limon looked back at the children and stood up, scratching the back of his head.
He pulled out the amusement park map and asked.
“Where are we going next?”
“A place where they take cute but brainless animals, lock them up, and force them to make money from tourists using their bodies.”
“Just call it a zoo. Don’t go around saying things that make people misunderstand.”
“But it’s the truth.”
“It’s a truth children don’t need to know, at the very least.”
Complaining about Sia’s words, Limon led the children toward the zoo.
Perhaps because it was so old, the zoo was just as shabby as the other facilities, with only a few basic animals rolling around inside their iron cages.
“Wow, a lion! A lion!”
“Hey lion, look over here!”
“Grandpa, can I give the lion a snack?”
“No, you can’t.”
But the children were happy with just those few animals.
They argued over whether an animal was a mouse or a squirrel, only to be shocked to find out it was actually a monkey.
They got caught trying to sneak food to the animals and got whacked on the forehead.
They even managed to scare the animals by staring at them intensely with eyes like rotten pollack.
They were having so much fun that Limon felt sorry for not bringing them to an amusement park sooner.
‘If Na-kyung were here, it would have been absolute chaos.’
Whether it was because they were from the same orphanage or because they had learned from Yuna Gyeong, Limon wore a bittersweet smile as he watched the children, who were so lively they almost seemed foolish.
“Grandpa. Bird, bird.”
“What? Do you need to pee?”
“No! A bluebird! A bluebird!”
“Hmm?”
At the tip of the child’s finger, Limon saw a single baby bird sitting alone in a nest in the middle of a large cage.
He wore a curious expression.
It had downy feathers as blue as the autumn sky.
A single tuft of white feathers on its crown.
And its small size suggested it was a hatchling.
In many ways, the baby bird’s appearance was cute and particularly eye-catching among the few birds in the zoo.
However, Limon’s expression was strange for a different reason.
‘Why does that little guy look so exhausted?’
The baby bird had its back turned to the visitors, its wings drooping as if it were tired of being an attraction.
It looked so lifeless that if it weren’t for its soft down, it would have looked like an old bird that had reached the end of its eventful life.
“Grandpa, I want that one!”
“Hey now, you can’t buy the animals at a zoo.”
Perhaps because the child’s voice was so loud, the baby bird, which had been huddled in its nest with its back turned, slightly turned its head.
It caught a glimpse of Limon and the children and was about to disinterestedly return to its original position when it suddenly whipped its head back around in shock.
The momentum was so great that it looked as if its plump neck might snap.
But the baby bird didn’t care.
Instead, as if showing off its youthful flexibility, it frantically scanned all twenty-three children.
The baby bird’s eyes grew wider and wider as it identified each child.
Finally, after its gaze passed over Sia and landed on Limon, it gaped its beak.
*Peep?!*
A sound of sheer shock tore through the air.