Chapter 219
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Translator: 8uhl
Chapter: 219
Chapter Title: The Most Important Question
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What surfaced was a smile.
Like flower petals stained with drops of blood.
An utterly chilling smile, and yet all the more beautiful and seductive for it. Seeing Rose freeze at the sight, Li Chingwei murmured softly.
"And Rose, you still have a chance."
"...What kind of chance?"
"The chance to kill me, bury all the secrets, and claim the Sword Duke for yourself without anyone knowing."
"...!"
Rose swallowed hard, caught off guard by words she never could have imagined.
But Li Chingwei didn't miss it.
Not the momentary contraction of her pupils, nor the faint tremor rippling through the blood droplet trailing down the blade.
And so, with an even more bewitching smile, she added one more line.
"Or you could become my accomplice, like Aynsha."
"An accomplice, you say?"
"Yes. She declared war on me, staking 49% of Tiamat's shares to steal my position as the Sword Duke's fiancée."
Rose was stunned.
She had anticipated that Aynsha had seen through this much.
After all, she had already performed publicly with Rimon once.
But she never dreamed that the White Dragon Princess would become Li Chingwei's accomplice and go that far.
"That's why you can't let your guard down around the White Dragon Clan. They always slip through cracks in ways you least expect."
Li Chingwei chuckled softly.
It was foolish in true White Dragon Clan fashion, but at the same time, the most cunning choice.
She had offloaded the risk onto her fiancée, Li Chingwei, while gaining a step ahead of the other princesses in claiming Rimon.
"Especially now with Aynsha."
It probably wasn't calculated.
Just like with Rimon, the White Dragon Clan's psyonic abilities influenced her intuition and instincts.
Normally overshadowed by her precognition, it rarely surfaced—but abandoning prophecy altogether had made it stand out more sharply.
"But if we were truly competing fairly, you'd be the most advantaged among us, Rose."
A faint smile curved her lips.
Li Chingwei trailed her finger along the blade and whispered softly.
"The Sword Duke has always been friendly toward the Blue Dragon Clan. I heard you two got along quite well even back in London."
Like a snake coiling around its prey.
Or a lover's caress.
Her fingers stroked the blade with excruciating gentleness and slowness.
"If you showed him your honest affection, Rose, don't you think it might sway his heart?"
But it was her whisper—barely audible, seeping in like mist—that truly made the sword tremble more than her touch.
"He might even seriously consider breaking off our engagement and taking you as his new fiancée."
Her throat grew parched.
What she felt was thirst.
A primal, scorching desire no mere water could quench, forcing her to swallow dryly.
"Tell me, Rose."
Reading her mind from the twitch in her throat, Li Chingwei deepened her smile and asked.
"Don't you want the chance to fairly steal the Sword Duke right out from under me?"
Humanity's Last Sword Master, who had proven his supremacy by felling even the Monarch.
The sole means—and target—to fulfill the Seven Dragon Society's long-cherished wish.
Claiming him exclusively, a being whose very existence swayed the world's hegemony? You could do it.
Like the whisper of a demon granting wishes.
Her voice was so sweet.
So irresistibly tempting.
Rose, entranced by her obsidian eyes...
Slash!
...Slashed at Li Chingwei.
She glared ferociously at the figure dissolving into black mist, then turned on her heel and said in a stiff voice.
"Don't toy with me."
"Toy with you? That's harsh. I just wanted an honest answer."
How long had it been an illusion?
The black-haired girl emerged lightly from the shadows, smiling faintly as she posed the question.
"So, Rose—what's your choice?"
She glared at Li Chingwei with heavy eyes for a long while.
Finally, Rose sheathed her sword and spun around.
"...Out of respect for the grace the Sword Duke showed me, I won't reveal this."
Not for the Seven Dragon Society.
Not for Li Chingwei.
Solely for the face of the man who saved London's citizens. She'd bury the matter of dragon psyonics—for now.
And likewise, pretend she hadn't heard about that "chance" either.
With that curt declaration, Rose glanced back with a piercing glare.
"But Li Chingwei—don't think this tightrope walk will last forever."
Crackle.
And that was it.
Rose vanished through space, as if she had never been there to begin with.
Li Chingwei stared at the empty spot for a moment before speaking.
"...You've changed, Rose."
The old Rose would have told the other princesses no matter what she said.
She was the Blue Dragon Princess, after all.
Yet if Rose chose to bury the truth, there was only one reason.
A desire planted in her heart by someone had made the once righteous and rigid Rose more selfish and flexible.
And so Li Chingwei was certain.
Pretending not to hear was her answer in itself.
"At least she didn't notice that much. Lucky break."
Perhaps overwhelmed by all the shocking revelations.
Li Chingwei chuckled at Rose's departure, oblivious to the one crucial lie woven into her tale.
Had Rose caught that single falsehood, she might have forced a decisive battle right there.
Provoking her to cloud her mind had been deliberate.
In that sense, Li Chingwei had passed a truly critical hurdle.
"Though hiding it won't last much longer."
But she didn't forget.
As Rose warned, this balancing act would soon hit its limit.
With fragments of info on Rimon already leaking, it was only a matter of time before the other princesses pieced it together.
And then, they wouldn't let it slide like this.
Rose, too noble to indulge her instincts, and Aynsha, accustomed to emotional control through her precognition—they were exceptions.
The others lacked that restraint and wouldn't bother with it anyway.
Even Rose and Aynsha posed threats.
Aynsha, sharper in intuition now that she'd ditched prophecy.
Rose, fallen from her noble princess act, now willing to compromise with evil.
Enemy or ally.
They were several times more troublesome than before.
Thus, Li Chingwei could only give a wry smile, thinking of the man who had changed them.
"The Sword Duke really should stick to just teaching sword mastery."
Having lived eons as the tower's master, raising seven Sword Masters.
Or perhaps just his meddlesome nature.
Li Chingwei shook her head lightly at Rimon's habit of instructing the slow-witted.
"Having such an overachieving fiancée is tough work."
She sighed once.
Then glanced at her finger, sliced by Rose's blade.
Admiring the blood droplets still trickling like artwork, she rubbed her fingers together and murmured softly.
"The eighth dragon psyonic..."
What the Seven Dragon Society had sought for centuries.
The essential means to fulfill their wish, an instinctive craving for any princess.
With that in mind, Li Chingwei continued languidly.
"It would have been better if it didn't exist."
Boom! Kwang! Kwarung!
Each step forward sent his body reeling backward, chains bursting from shadows to deflect his sword.
The eagle-headed demon's feathers rained down as flames engulfing the air, while serpents and scorpions spewed from the snake demon's maw surged like waves across the floor.
On top of that, the six blades of the three-headed, six-armed demon sliced through walls and floors like paper, blocking his path.
The combined assault of five demons, each surpassing high-rank players, was a storm of death itself.
One problem.
Their opponent was none other than Rimon.
Flash!
Spinning like a top, Rimon swung his sword, sword light scattering like petals to blanket the area.
The flaming feathers bounced back at his blade's touch, roasting the serpents and scorpions in an instant.
Rimon's counter didn't end there.
Diving into the hesitating three-headed demon's guard amid the rebounding flames, he lopped off one head in a flash.
Worth calling a demon?
Now two-headed and six-armed, it rampaged fiercer than ever instead of dying or fleeing.
But its strikes merely cleaved empty air.
Its six blades missed Rimon's clothes entirely, whiffing repeatedly.
With Rimon so close, the bulky demon struggled to swing effectively.
"Tsk tsk. Swordsmanship's decent... but why lug around six arms? Creates blind spots like this."
Slash!
In less than a minute, the three-headed demon lost its remaining heads and collapsed.
Four demons left.
Rimon glanced at their positions, kicked up one of the fallen demon's swords, and smacked it with his own.
Dragon-Slaying Demon-Cleaving Sword: Bullet Strike
斬魔龍殺劍 彈擊
My blade is faster than bullets.
我的刀比子弹快
Kagagagang!
The six blades were deflected in an instant.
And the swords flew like arrows, splitting the eagle and snake demons' heads in a fraction of a second.
Two remained.
The shadow demon blocking with chains, and the puppet demon warping space to divert them aside.
Clink.
'Hmm, these two are at least demigod-tier.'
The shadow demon wielding unbreakable chains.
The puppet demon twisting Rimon's trajectory with grotesque finger movements.
Narrowing his eyes at their near-apotheosis power, Rimon could guess their original divine might.
'Impressive, but still.'
Ultimately, remnants of gods defeated by dragons.
And the Sword Master who felled even those dragons stepped forward casually.
Dodging chains—one step.
Passing magic—one step.
Severing the puppet demon—one step.
Only after the puppet demon's torso hit the floor diagonally bisected did the last shadow demon realize defeat.
It spread chains like a net to block Rimon and flee.
Futile.
Before it could retreat, Rimon's lightning sword pierced the net's gaps, impaling it.
"You can come out now."
[...Already done?]
"Yeah."
[Sometimes I think traveling with you means the real world needs a balance patch too.]
The basket Rimon had held in one hand throughout the fight.
Yuna Kyung peeked out, tongue clicking at the demons reduced to dark residue.
Former gods, still stronger than most high-rank players.
Shredded in minutes—utterly ridiculous.
As Rimon sheathed his sword, ignoring her grumbling.
Step, step.
Quiet footsteps echoed from the passage ahead.
Unlike Yuna Kyung flinching at possible more demons, Rimon crossed his arms leisurely.
He'd known who it was from the footsteps.
Flowing robes.
Snow-white hair.
Doll-like expressionless face.
The girl emerging calmly from the passage, lamp in hand—an unforgettable silhouette.
Aynsha showed no surprise at Rimon amid the demon corpses.
She asked in her usual flat tone.
"Did you bring Tata's Krembo? I want to know."