Chapter 161
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Translator: 8uhl
Chapter: 161
Chapter Title: Why Is That Guy Popping Up Here?
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The girl with the expressionless face.
Aynsha was in a bind.
According to her precognition, they were supposed to go to the movie theater.
But Rimon had led her somewhere completely off course.
Because of that, her perfect plan to lightly stab him in the heart while he dozed off at the theater had gone up in smoke, which was trouble enough.
But what really had her at a loss was the place itself.
"Ri, a question."
"What?"
"I want to know why we're here."
"Why do you think we'd come to a clothing store? Obviously to buy clothes."
"......I have plenty of clothes. No need to buy more right now. Especially not here."
"You might not need any, but I do."
Rimon brushed off Aynsha's protest without a second thought.
Then, as he glanced around the back of the shabbiest stall in the market they'd wandered into, he casually asked,
"Hey, boss, mind telling me what the cheapest stuff you've got here is?"
"Just pick any with a tag on it. Anything tagged is 5,000 won."
"That's surprisingly good for the price."
"It's all made by clueless students as a hobby, no sewing or crafting skills involved. I took 'em off their hands for 100 won a pop because they felt bad throwing them out."
"Hmm, I see."
Rimon nodded along to the toothless old woman watching a battered TV from inside the stall.
Then he started rummaging through the clothes that weren't even on hangers—just haphazardly sorted and piled in baskets.
The problem was that Rimon began holding each piece up to Aynsha one by one.
"Too pretty."
"This one's cuter than it looks."
"This stands out too much......"
"Perfect, this one's casual enough. Go try it on quick."
"......I don't understand the meaning. It makes no sense."
"If you don't get it, just do what I say. Fitting room's over here."
Aynsha, burdened with an armful of clothes by Rimon and shoved toward the fitting room.
While she reluctantly entered it, Rimon picked out a shirt, jacket, and pants from the piles for himself and changed.
Great as they were, they were still just 5,000-won items.
True to their hobbyist origins, the clothes themselves were utterly ordinary.
But for Rimon, who had been in baggy sweats, it was enough to make him look halfway decent.
The issue was Aynsha.
"Why'd you put the clothes on like that?"
"No Tata. Hard to change."
"Ah, right. Even changing needs an attendant, huh?"
A true princess indeed.
She hardly seemed to have any experience dressing herself.
He tsked at Aynsha, who looked more draped in the clothes than properly wearing them.
But in the end, Rimon followed her into the fitting room and helped her change himself before stepping back to appraise the result, arms crossed.
"Still stands out even like this...... Guess with a base like yours, there's no making you look totally ordinary?"
Shorts that fully exposed her legs.
A slightly baggy shirt.
And a cardigan that bared her shoulders.
Far more ordinary than her previous ethereal draped gown, sure—but Aynsha still drew the eye, leaving Rimon scratching his chin briefly before shrugging.
"Can't be helped. We'll roll with this."
"......A mystery. Confusion. Total disaster."
Rimon seemed somewhat satisfied, but Aynsha just mumbled like a broken doll in response.
Why had things turned out like this?
What was she even doing here?
What did Rimon want?
She'd simply planned to kill Rimon quick and change the future, only to end up as his dress-up doll somehow. She couldn't make sense of it.
Rimon smirked at the dazed, expressionless Aynsha.
Then he plopped a cheap baker-boy hat and oversized sunglasses on her from a nearby stall, teasing,
"Why overthink it? Told you—this is a date."
"......Understood."
She didn't understand at all, really.
But Aynsha decided to accept the situation as it came if she couldn't grasp it.
After all, what mattered to her now wasn't the date's activities, but how to alter the future.
And the moment she glimpsed that future...
Aynsha blinked.
She had seen it, but for a moment, she couldn't comprehend what it was.
Before she could even process it...
The future came to them.
Screech.
"Yo, Fake Know-It-All."
"I've told you countless times—my name is Wayling, not Fake Know-It-All."
The moment Rimon and Aynsha stepped out of the market...
A sedan pulled up right in front of them, as if it had been waiting.
The woman in a suit who stepped out from the driver's seat—Wayling—snapped back at Rimon before politely bowing to Aynsha.
"Wayling of the Black Dragon Clan greets the descendant of the Wise White Dragon Sage Lord."
"......Aynsha. Pleased to meet you."
"Then please, allow me to escort you."
"Understood. I'll be in your care......?"
Aynsha, accustomed to attendants, boarded the sedan as Wayling courteously opened the door.
By the time she realized something was off...
The car was already gliding smoothly away with Wayling and Rimon aboard.
"Location?"
"Yes, the Shanghai Wang Family's intel unit is on it now."
"Why talk like a guy? They're part of the Guardian Intel Division now anyway."
"......"
Wayling looked deeply uncomfortable.
Rimon chuckled at her briefly before reclining his seat, propping his head on his arm, and saying leisurely,
"Wake me when we get there. Entertain the kid so she doesn't get bored—put something on."
True to his word...
Rimon promptly fell asleep.
In his stead, Wayling operated a button to extend the rear screen and politely asked Aynsha,
"White Dragon Princess, we have TV, music, and movies available. Which would you prefer?"
"......Anything's fine."
And so, a short while later...
Until the sedan finally stopped and the woken Rimon led her out...
Aynsha could only stare blankly at the movie playing on the screen, just as her precognition had foreseen.
"Have a good time, then."
"Yeah, tell the princess's crew thanks for prepping—and pull the intel unit back."
After handing something to Rimon and driving off, Wayling departed.
Aynsha finally spoke up again.
"A mystery. I don't know what Ri wants."
"What's wrong? Date itinerary not to your liking?"
"Not at all. No chance to kill Ri. Troubling."
"That so? Guess I'll have to make it more to your taste."
He chuckled at her bluntness once more.
Then Rimon grabbed her wrist and naturally led her in one direction.
Aynsha didn't resist.
No future where she dodged his hand appeared.
Besides, the recent chain of events had already overloaded her mind.
'Strange. Precog keeps lagging. No idea why.'
Normally, she'd have read every possible future by now.
Why today of all days...... No, ever since acting with this man, had her precognition grown so sluggish?
As she pondered the reason inwardly...
Aynsha flinched.
She belatedly read a future where, led by him to the street's end, she saw something.
As if sensing it...
Rimon said meaningfully,
"How's that? Bet dating me's about to get fun now, right?"
"......Not fun. I quit."
"Nah, it'll be fun."
In the end, Rimon led her to the street's edge.
And as he watched the back of a woman walking ahead—someone all too familiar to Aynsha—he continued,
"Chances to tail your nanny don't come around every day."
"Stalking is a crime. I'll turn myself in. Forgive me now, Tata."
Aynsha tried to stop Rimon from secretly tailing Tata. With all her might, sincerely.
But he paid no heed.
"This isn't stalking—it's tailing."
"Don't see the difference."
"Stalking's always a crime. Tailing gets a pass depending on the situation."
"Sophistry. Cowardly excuse. Stop now."
"You cool with that? Then you won't change the future like you want."
"......No idea what tailing has to do with it."
"Everything, obviously."
As if sensing a threat in his words...
Rimon spoke leisurely to Aynsha, who gripped his hand tighter with her expressionless face.
"You said you saw a future where I kill Tata, right?"
"Yes."
"That means there's a reason I have to kill your nanny."
Rimon pointed out coldly.
He wasn't some mad killer.
He was the Sword Duke, who never drew his blade without cause.
Kill the White Dragon Princess's attendant? Risk all-out war with the White Dragon Clan?
Unthinkable under normal circumstances.
So Rimon declared:
Unless Aynsha's precog was wrong, Tata had—or would have—a reason that overrode the 'normal.'
"That's why we're finding out what it is. If we don't, we can't change the future where your nanny dies by my hand."
"We can change it. Just kill Ri."
"Don't wanna die."
"Please somehow."
Like a door-to-door salesman...
Rimon lost his composure at Aynsha earnestly begging him to die with her blank face.
"You really think killing me alone changes the future to a happy ending?"
"Not happy ending. My fated one dies. Regrettable. A tragic sentiment."
"What if you still see your nanny dying even after killing me? Then what?"
"......Don't understand the question."
Ri kills Tata.
No Ri, no Tata death.
She genuinely tilted her head, unable to fathom why Tata would die otherwise.
Rimon sighed at the sight.
"White Dragon Princess, that's why your clan gets called idiots."
"Tata said so. It's slander. Envy from those who can't see the future."
"Think what you want, but if you can't kill me right now, shut up and follow. I'm not dying for your nanny."
"......"
In the end, Aynsha had no choice but to silently trail after Rimon.
No matter what she did here...
No future where Rimon died appeared.
Thus, stealthily tailing Tata, Rimon and Aynsha suddenly halted.
Tata had entered a dingy bar in an increasingly secluded alley.
Aynsha, who'd been following Rimon reluctantly, tilted her head at the scene.
"......Strange."
"What is?"
"Tata doesn't drink. No idea why she'd come to a bar."
"That so?"
Rimon narrowed his eyes.
If a nondrinker heads to a bar, nine times out of ten it's to meet someone.
The key was who.
For Aynsha's attendant to meet someone alone in a shady spot like this—it had to be no ordinary person.
Nice. Might solve this quicker than expected... Huh?
As he watched the bar...
Rimon raised one eyebrow.
While debating whether to enter, a man emerged from the opposite alley.
Hesitant steps, full of unease.
Wary glances darting around.
A briefcase clutched tight.
Advertising suspicion with his whole body, Rimon made an odd face at the man.
Not because of his behavior or looks.
Because Rimon knew him.
"......Why the hell is that bastard here?"
The former power broker of WIM Guild.
The man who'd fallen due to his own schemes.
As Mun Cheonyeop hurriedly entered the bar, Rimon couldn't help but be dumbfounded.