Chapter 163
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Translator: 8uhl
Chapter: 163
Chapter Title: I'll Beat You Down
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Click.
The white-haired woman hung up the phone.
Tata muttered to herself in a dry, emotionless voice.
"Thanks to you, Princess, my schedule's gone way off track."
Originally, Aynsha should still have been on her date with her fated counterpart.
And she should only have realized the situation after Tata had finished all her preparations perfectly and set everything in motion.
But that plan had crumbled.
The very fact that Aynsha had called her at this point was proof enough.
Of course, she could have answered the call, played it off like nothing was wrong, and stalled for time.
Aynsha trusted her absolutely, after all.
Even so, Tata hadn't done it because she had foreseen her own failure the moment she met Aynsha.
"Still, it doesn't matter."
The schedule was ruined.
Aynsha's trust was discarded.
Danger was closing in fast.
Yet Tata felt no disappointment, no worry.
She simply spun on her heel with a faint smile and continued in a low voice.
"No matter what desperate struggles the Princess puts up now, the future is already set."
With that, Tata followed the path leading to the future she had seen, briefcase in hand, walking onward in silence.
When Tata had made contact with Moon Cheonyeop.
And when he had found the Liberation Brigade's business card on him.
Rimon couldn't help but honestly reflect on his own arrogance in thinking nothing could be more headache-inducing than that.
Reality always exceeded imagination, after all.
"Your nanny said she's betraying you and hung up?"
"Yes."
"Didn't you say she would never betray you?"
"Yes. That's why it's such a shock."
Sometimes words were better left unsaid.
Watching Aynsha respond bluntly even with her expressionless face, Rimon felt another headache coming on.
He spoke lowly.
"Princess."
[The entire Black Dragon Clan has switched to high alert.]
"What about the spies we had on your nanny?"
[Unfortunately, they've lost her trail.]
"Yeah, figured as much."
Rimon sighed.
He had no intention of blaming the Shanghai Wang Family's spies.
They'd tracked her easily at first only because she hadn't been on guard.
Chasing a precog who was dead set on escaping wasn't easy, even for the stealth experts of the Black Dragon Clan.
Especially if that precog was an elder-level master from the White Dragon Clan.
[Shall I assemble a pursuit team?]
"No, I'll handle the tracking. You dig deeper into that side of things instead."
[Do you really think it's necessary right now?]
"We're not the White Dragon Clan."
[...You're right.]
With that simple explanation, Li Chingwei seemed convinced.
She exchanged a few more words with Rimon before ending the call.
Then she turned to Aynsha.
"Let's go."
"Question. Where to?"
"Where do you think? To meet your nanny."
"Tata ran away. Can't see future where we find her. No way to track."
"That's just your opinion."
Rimon smirked at Aynsha's blunt reply.
Then he stated flatly.
"You might not know this, but I've never let a single opponent I've fought escape, no matter where or how they run."
You can't escape a Sword Master.
It was a saying that had arisen after Rimon chased the Demon God around the Earth thirty-seven times and finally killed it.
He was a master tracker and hunter, with many secrets to his trade.
One of them was his superhuman senses.
The five senses of a Sword Master that could pinpoint an opponent's presence even ten li away.
Using those senses, Rimon was methodically following Tata's trail.
"Hmm, looks like she stopped here for a bit based on the footprints... Some errand? No, she must've gotten your call here."
"No hesitation in her steps, but it took time to move, so she probably foresaw some countermeasures."
"Which means high chance she prepared something against pursuit... Well, we'll find out as we go."
Footprints that even most people couldn't discern.
Yet from them alone, Rimon pieced together not just Tata's path, but her actions and thought process. It was truly astonishing.
Even a tracer with tracking skills would be awestruck.
That was why the silently watching Aynsha finally spoke up bluntly.
"Rimon, question."
"What?"
"Why waste time? Want to know."
"Does it look like I'm wasting time to you?"
"Yes."
Aynsha nodded immediately.
Then continued with her blank face.
"No need to check Tata's every move. Just know where she went. Could catch up much faster."
Aynsha's point was valid.
Rimon's tracking was slowed because he meticulously reviewed every action Tata had taken and when.
Without that, he could have gone several times faster.
But hearing it, Rimon made a bored face.
"Catch up how? Then what?"
"Find Tata. Catch her."
"In other words, you want me to just rush ahead and kill your nanny?"
"...Subdue first. Then interrogate."
"Doubt it. I guarantee you, if I meet her now, even without intent to kill, she'll end up dead."
"..."
"You know why, right?"
It was less a warning and more a threat.
But Aynsha knew.
Rimon's words had a high chance of coming true.
So she didn't argue.
Just offered a compromise.
"Then just kill her."
"...Weren't you the one who said you wanted to save your nanny no matter what?"
"That was earlier me."
Rimon was dumbfounded by the statement that upended all prior premises.
Aynsha spoke coldly.
"Tata betrayed us. Can't let her live. Seven Dragons Society rules."
She had wanted to save Tata even if it meant killing her fated one because she was essential talent for the White Dragon Clan.
But now that she'd betrayed the clan, she had to be executed.
With a face like a mask,
in an emotionless, blunt voice,
and above all, unwavering eyes.
Without a hint of hesitation, Aynsha declared it.
Watching her, Rimon suddenly understood.
She might look like a somewhat dim girl, but she was the White Dragon Princess.
One of the Seven Lords of the Seven Dragons Society, on par with Li Chingwei...
"Yeah. I thought you were doing something commendable for a fool, but in the end, a fool's just a fool."
"...?"
...the Seven Dragons Society's biggest fool, that is.
Aynsha tilted her head, not understanding why she was being called a fool.
To her, Rimon said lowly.
"Aynsha, no, White Dragon Princess. I won't interfere with your choice. That's just how your clan is, and you're making the decision as their princess."
No matter how pathetic or lamentable it seemed, it was their way.
No reason for him to meddle.
"But if you try to interfere with what I'm doing, you'll need resolve to match."
Still, since fate had intertwined them via prophecy, she had the right, if not the reason, to interfere with him.
Aynsha said nothing, staring blankly at the cold Rimon, just blinking.
Leading her along, Rimon continued pursuing Tata's trail.
Analyzing every action and thought she'd had along the way in detail.
The result of that obsessive tracking.
Rimon finally found it.
A burning drum slightly off Tata's escape route, and the briefcase tossed inside it.
Its contents already reduced to ash, the briefcase itself half-melted, shell barely remaining.
But Rimon, who had tenaciously followed Tata's traces, could infer much from that alone.
'Burned the briefcase? Why?'
'Did she take out the contents first?'
'No, no signs of opening it midway.'
'...It wasn't the contents she needed. It was to acquire the karma of obtaining this briefcase, to establish the future that would result.'
'Very White Dragon Clan-like method.'
'In that case...'
"Aynsha."
Aynsha didn't ask why he'd called her.
As foreseen the moment she spotted the drum, she simply unfurled her cardigan and draped it over Rimon's head.
Clang!
The dagger that should have struck his occiput bounced off harmlessly.
But Aynsha showed no joy at her success.
She just muttered blankly.
"Confusing. Shocking. Astonishing."
"What took you so long to say it."
Rimon chuckled.
His eyes fixed on the burning briefcase, he continued lowly.
"Did you think the elder who held real power in your clan while acting as your stand-in wouldn't betray you, but the rest of the clan would stay loyal as ever?"
"..."
Aynsha didn't reply.
She just stared blankly at the group now surrounding them, dressed in white priest-like robes.
Her former guards, who should have knelt in respect.
Now White Dragon Clan cultivators, weapons drawn and aimed at her.
"Hold them off for a bit. Don't kill them yet."
"All traitors."
"If you're so confident you can find your nanny without me and the Black Dragons, go ahead."
"..."
Aynsha's shoulders slumped, her face still blank.
Leaving her to handle the interlopers, Rimon sank back into thought.
Because of that, Aynsha faced her former guards alone and spoke lowly.
"Warning."
With a blank face and blunt voice.
To the many White Dragon Clan members encircling her, she declared.
"Drop your weapons and surrender now. I'll show some mercy."
Objectively, it was absurd.
She was alone, while they numbered over a hundred—a hundredfold difference.
And they weren't ordinary White Dragon Clan members.
Cultivators equivalent to Black Dragon Clan warriors, every one a master.
The fact they'd accompanied the princess as guards proved they were the clan's elite.
Yet not one mocked her warning.
They simply heightened their psionics to the limit amid the growing tension.
It was only natural.
Standing before them was the White Dragon Princess.
The clan's strongest master, even beyond her peerless prophetic gifts.
"Fine."
Aynsha felt no disappointment seeing the cultivators refuse to surrender.
She had foreseen this anyway.
She'd only issued the warning because she'd seen herself do so in the future.
With the same blunt attitude born of foreseeing the battle's end, Aynsha continued coldly.
"If you want to die that badly, I'll kill you all..., no, I'll beat you down."