“You don’t need an escort, right?”
“Yes.”
“Right, then get going. The door is broken and doesn’t shut right, so make sure to pull it tight when you leave.”
After giving a polite bow to Limon, who waved his hand without even turning around, Li Qingwei stepped out of the house.
Since Limon’s house was located in such a secluded alley, the surrounding scenery was more than just bleak; it was eerie.
However, she did not hesitate for a moment.
It was as if she were taking a stroll through a garden.
She naturally navigated her way out of the complex, labyrinth-like alleys shrouded in darkness.
“Was there truly a need for this?”
It was at ê·¸ moment that a voice called out.
Li Qingwei stopped in her tracks as she saw a masked figure in black martial arts attire kneeling in the darkness.
It was impossible to tell how long he had been there.
“I told you not to follow me, Chao.”
“Yes, that is why I was waiting.”
“You know that’s not what I meant.”
The masked man called Chao remained silent.
Whether he agreed or denied it, it would amount to lying to Li Qingwei.
Of course, in that regard, remaining silent was also a form of rudeness.
Li Qingwei did not bother to press him on that fact.
She simply asked with a sigh.
“Do you not like my decision?”
“How could I dare discuss the Princess’s affairs, but…”
Chao bowed his head even deeper.
After hesitating for a long time, he bit his lip and continued.
“However, I cannot understand this one thing.”
If it had been any other time, Chao would never have behaved so recklessly.
His role was strictly to guard and serve Li Qingwei; he had neither the right nor the wisdom to interfere in her actions.
But this was one thing he could not tolerate.
“Why him, of all people?”
“Is it that surprising that I proposed to him?”
“It is beyond surprising. The elders of the clan will not tolerate this.”
The elders were the type to froth at the mouth even if she took someone who wasn’t a member of the Seven Dragons Association as her Prince Consort.
And what if that person was Limon Aspelder?
They might come running with swords drawn the moment they heard the news.
The ill will between the Seven Dragons Association and Limon was that deep and heavy.
“Will they, though?”
“?”
However, Li Qingwei did not acknowledge that obvious fact.
Instead, she merely wore a faint smile.
Having served her for a long time, Chao, who could understand the meaning behind that smile, could not hide his bewilderment.
Li Qingwei calmly asked the flustered Chao.
“Chao. What would you do if your family picked up a gem abandoned on the road?”
“After investigating it thoroughly, if it is a harmless object, I would present it to the Princess.”
“That’s not the sense I meant it in.”
Whether to call him stiff, loyal, or just both, Li Qingwei looked troubled by Chao’s immediate response.
“In any case, you wouldn’t get angry and tell them to throw the gem away, would you?”
Only then did Chao understand the metaphor of the gem Li Qingwei had brought up.
However, he could not agree with it.
“……Is the evaluation of being a ‘discarded gem’ not too generous for such a man?”
It was at that moment.
Li Qingwei’s expression changed strangely.
As if she had heard an absurd joke.
Looking at Chao with an indescribable expression, she suddenly asked.
“Chao, you are twenty-seven years old, right?”
“Yes.”
“As expected of someone born in the Iron Age.”
“What do you mean by that?”
“I’m not blaming you, Chao. It’s just that yours is a generation that thinks of the past only as the past.”
“?”
Looking at Chao, who was puzzled by those cryptic words, Li Qingwei smiled softly.
“Not just you, but many people likely think that way. That things like the power of a Sword Master have no meaning anymore.”
Even most of those born at the tail end of the Heroic Age would feel the same.
It had already been decades since the era changed.
The Constellations and Players had already become mainstream, and the era before that had long since become the past.
“That is why you can use a word like ‘merely’ when referring to him.”
Chao flinched.
It wasn’t just because he couldn’t understand the words of the Princess he revered.
It was because he saw a dull brilliance, as deep as a swamp, contained within her obsidian-like beautiful eyes.
“But Chao, you don’t know.”
Eyes too dark for a young girl.
“What kind of existence a Sword Master truly is.”
As if he had seen an incomprehensible mystery, Li Qingwei left the frozen Chao behind and slowly raised her head.
Looking up at the full moon in the night sky, she continued in a low voice.
“If you knew what kind of existence a Sword Master is, you wouldn’t have such a ridiculous misconception.”
“A misconception……, you mean?”
“The misconception that the reason the Sword Masters lost their glory and fell was because the Iron Age began and Players appeared.”
“……Are you saying that is a misconception?”
“It’s not entirely wrong. Players are indeed one of the reasons.”
Players are remarkable beings.
Not only can they use mysterious abilities without any special training, but they can also obtain all sorts of dungeon byproducts.
“If only Sword Masters could have entered the dungeons, they wouldn’t have fallen like this.”
In that respect, as Li Qingwei pointed out, the simple fact that they could not enter dungeons was reason enough for Sword Masters to be ignored.
“But the biggest reason, after all, is that we are living in a peaceful era.”
Nevertheless, Li Qingwei could say with certainty.
The real reason the Sword Masters fell was not something like that.
“Since the start of the Iron Age, the world has become prosperous, and people have forgotten about war, intoxicated by the wealth and development provided by the dungeons.”
In fact, after the dungeons appeared.
Although there were minor international conflicts, wars or incidents where blood washed blood had almost vanished.
Even the Seven Dragons Association, which was once the most proactive in upending the world, had come out into the light and joined the era.
The benefits of the dungeons were that great.
Great enough to make people forget the past while intoxicated by those benefits.
“That’s why they started thinking. That they no longer need human weapons like Sword Masters.”
Players who provide many benefits.
Sword Masters who know nothing but fighting.
The more they compared the two, the more natural it was for people to treat Sword Masters poorly.
“Without even knowing how foolish of a thought that is.”
A peaceful era, so Sword Masters aren’t needed?
To Li Qingwei, that was the same as arguing to abolish the military because a war was unlikely to happen.
All while having no plan for if that unlikely event actually occurred.
It was a thought that could only be held by those so soaked in peace that their heads had become flower gardens.
Of course, it wasn’t as if there were no countermeasures at all.
“Do we not have the Monarchs instead?”
“The Monarchs……, certainly, they are also those who have reached the limits of humanity.”
The ten Monarchs who reached Level 100.
Their power is on a different level from other Players.
To the point where an individual could decide the rise and fall of a nation.
Because there were ten such Monarchs, people turned away from the relics of the old era known as Sword Masters.
Since they were all superhumans anyway, it was only natural to prefer those who provided immense wealth and prosperity over has-beens who only knew how to swing swords.
“But can they truly take the place of the Sword Lord?”
“……The Monarchs are superhumans.”
Chao substituted his answer with those few words.
Meaning that no matter how strong a Sword Master might be, they could not be as strong as the Monarchs.
Having witnessed the terrifying power of a Monarch even just once, it was the natural answer for Chao.
“That is why I said it. You don’t know what kind of existence a Sword Master is.”
As if she had expected that answer.
Li Qingwei wore a bitter smile.
And she quietly added one more thing.
“But you will find out soon.”
Why Sword Masters cannot enter dungeons.
Why only thirteen Sword Masters were born over the span of nearly a thousand years.
Why the Seven Dragons Association, which fought Limon for hundreds of years, calls him the Sword Lord with such reverence.
Why she braved the danger to personally seek out Limon at a time like this.
Why Limon still wishes to remain as the final shield protecting the world even while fallen like this.
How absurd it is to compare a Monarch to a Sword Master.
And who the enemy they truly should be wary of is.
Few people know these things.
But from now on, many will come to know.
No, they will have no choice but to know.
“Because an awl in a pocket will eventually pierce through, and the rear waves of the Yangtze River can never push away the sky.”
That was why Li Qingwei came here.
The only way for her, who was in a complicated position even within the Seven Dragons Association, to escape her predicament was to win Limon’s heart.
And the only time that was possible was right now.
“……Just what kind of being is a Sword Master that you speak such words?”
Chao still could not understand.
The reason why Li Qingwei was so certain.
Hearing the question Chao asked with a complicated face, she turned around.
Thinking of the alley she had just walked through and Limon’s house at the end of it, she quietly spoke.
“A Sword Master is…….”
“Haaaaam.”
***
After yawning long enough to tear his mouth.
Limon turned off the TV he had been watching for ten hours.
Rising from the sofa, he scratched the back of his head.
“Ah, fuck. I’m bored to death.”
It had already been several days since he met Li Qingwei.
Since then, the only things Limon had done were binge-watching dramas, watching the news, or reading comic books.
In short, it meant he had been rolling around the house all day.
It couldn’t be helped.
If he had friends, he would have visited them, but most of those Limon called friends had been buried in graves long ago.
It wasn’t as if he had the money to go shopping or on a trip.
Games?
That was the definition of triviality.
Since he operated with a Sword Master’s kinetic vision and reaction speed, any game he played became a simple repetitive task where winning was a given.
“Should I go see that bastard Seo Yong-chan?”
To say he would go see the victim while he was on suspension for assault.
If Kang Jung-soo heard this, he would have been more than just horrified; he would have clung to Limon’s pant legs.
Of course, whether Kang Jung-soo cried or not.
Limon had no intention of caring.
The priority was to see if that bull head would appear again if he visited Seo Yong-chan.
And to find out how that bull head would react to him.
In the process, Kang Jung-soo suffering from gastritis due to stress was a minor issue.
‘Ah, should I just make Jung-soo do it instead? I think telling him that if he doesn’t investigate Seo Yong-chan, I’ll go and shake him down personally would work.’
It was while Limon was deep in such contemplation.