Chapter 224
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Translator: 8uhl
Chapter: 224
Chapter Title: When, and How.
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Rimon shook his head slowly as he watched Ainsha, the white-haired girl puffing out her chest and spouting utter nonsense.
Who in their right mind would take this hopeless fool off his hands?
Just the thought made a surge of responsibility well up inside him.
But there was no way to return this foolish princess to her proper place, leaving Rimon with nothing to do but rack his brain.
What snapped him out of it was a voice laced with amusement.
"I was worried this trip had turned out harder than expected, with London's mess piling on top of Ainsha's issues, but you look just fine. What a relief."
"Hard trip? Please. It was barely a picnic."
The black-haired girl smiled faintly.
Rimon gave a light snort as he glanced at Li Chingwei.
After leaving Tartarus, he'd had Tata escort Ainsha back and returned home immediately.
There was no reason to linger now that the search for the missing girl was complete.
...He just hadn't expected Tata to have packed his bags in advance and shoved Ainsha his way, dragging her along for the ride.
This is why you can't trust the White Dragon Clan.
By that point, Rimon could piece together the hidden story.
The disappearance had just been a pretext.
In the end, the fact that word of her vanishing had reached him at all was Tata's scheme to force him and Ainsha together.
No matter how much foresight she'd had that he'd return safely, slacking on the princess's search like that?
It was the kind of reckless boldness you'd expect—truly fitting of nurse and princess alike, a masterful act of idiocy.
But that idiocy had yielded gains, which was the White Dragon Clan's real headache.
"For just a picnic, it seems like you stirred up quite the storm."
Li Chingwei gave a wry smile.
In the week Rimon had been gone, the world had turned upside down.
Monsters had suddenly appeared in the heart of the British Empire—London—turning it into a warzone, forcing a massive evacuation of all citizens.
The aftermath of such a massive incident couldn't be minor.
But what truly rocked the world wasn't London's damage—it was news of one man.
The death of Magic Lord Karl!
Even those who brushed off the London reports couldn't hide their shock at that.
In this player-dominated era,
no one had imagined an untouchable absolute like a Lord could die so abruptly.
"It kept me busier than usual, too."
"Hm. Yeah, I bet it did."
Not just managing the Black Dragon Clan's enterprises amid the roiling global stock markets,
but monitoring the frantic movements of governments and the top ten guilds through Leviathan's branches.
Rimon nodded along as he watched the calmly speaking Li Chingwei.
Having slain absolutes more than once or twice, he knew better than anyone how much chaos their deaths wrought.
She was holding up fine only because she was Li Chingwei; anyone else would've collapsed from overwork.
"Which brings me to something I've been dying to ask..."
That was why
Rimon, mid-nod, turned to the side with an utterly peculiar expression.
"Countess, what are you doing here?"
The blue-haired woman who'd been sipping tea alongside Li Chingwei since his return.
Rimon stared at Rose in disbelief.
He hadn't expected to see her again so soon after bidding farewell in London just days ago.
No matter how busy Karl's death made everyone, her workload alone outstripped anyone else's by a crushing margin.
"Didn't you say you'd be swamped? And you probably are. So how do you have time to sit here drinking tea?"
"Well..."
Her face flushed slightly.
Rose couldn't muster a proper reply.
Instead, Li Chingwei, sipping her tea leisurely, spoke up for her.
"Oh, Rose came to consult with me."
"Consult?"
"London's reconstruction needs more hands, so she wants help from our clan businesses, like Black Dragon Construction."
"In other words, business?"
"Yes. We haven't settled on detailed terms yet, so we'll need a few more 'consultations.'"
Li Chingwei nodded.
She turned to Rose, whose eyes had widened ever so slightly, and smiled her usual faint smile.
"Right, Rose?"
Rose bit her lip.
She met Li Chingwei's obsidian eyes with a heavy gaze, and only after a long pause did she slowly nod.
"...As Li Chingwei says."
"Hmm, I see."
Rimon nodded.
The Seven Dragon Society clans each specialized in different fields.
The Black Dragon Clan's mainstays were hospitality and dining, like Leviathan, but they excelled in construction too.
They had the tech and know-how from building hotels worldwide.
So Rose seeking their aid for London's rebuild wasn't unreasonable.
...If only she didn't answer like a knight grudgingly yielding to blackmail, treating plain business talk like a villain's trap.
The Black Dragon Clan being the Black Dragon Clan again.
Rimon instantly sensed some unspoken exchange between the two princesses.
But he didn't show it.
If they'd reached some agreement on their own, whatever the reason, he saw no need to meddle.
He trusted his fiancée to handle it properly.
So instead of prying into Rose's presence, Rimon changed the subject.
"Anyway, what do you think about that?"
"About what?"
"What the ghost of that saint, Sheera, said."
Li Chingwei's expression turned peculiar at his words, and Rose straightened up.
They'd already heard the broad strokes of what happened in Tartarus, so they grasped the gravity.
"A meteor shower, right?"
"There've been plenty in the last century or so, but only one comes to mind immediately."
"No doubt about it. It couldn't be any other."
"Yeah, probably that day."
The composed Li Chingwei.
The serious Rose.
And even the impassive Ainsha's flat declaration.
Rimon nodded in agreement with the three princesses' unanimous opinion, despite their wildly different personalities.
One event had flashed in his mind the instant he'd heard "meteor shower."
"The day the constellations first appeared."
32 years ago.
The day constellations and dungeons first appeared in this world, ending the age of heroes.
As if celebrating the new era's dawn, a meteor shower had rained down across the globe like biblical rain. Rimon continued softly, recalling it.
"That old hag Syr said my violin was just a plain cursed divine relic when it was first made."
"But later, something sealed itself into it, right?"
"Yeah."
"Violin mere vessel. Key is sealed contents."
"If a star really fell into the violin during that meteor shower..."
The legendary great witch's appraisal and the saint's ghost's testimony.
Combining them led to one conclusion.
"The Seven Arks weren't made as arks from the start. They 'appeared' 32 years ago."
He'd half-expected it since even the violin's creator, Syr, knew nothing beyond a certain point.
He just hadn't known who, when, why, or how.
But Sheera's words confirmed two: when and how.
"So you're saying seven stars from that worldwide meteor shower embedded into objects, becoming the Seven Arks."
"Most likely."
"...Any guesses on what happened that day?"
"You think I know?"
Rimon scratched his cheek.
He'd witnessed the meteor shower pouring like rain 32 years ago.
The problem was how much else had happened that day.
Dungeons popping up worldwide out of nowhere, players contracting with constellations, stars falling—
With the world in chaos from freak upheavals, who'd had time to stargaze?
Back then, unable to see constellations directly, he might've missed key details anyway.
"But one thing's clear."
"What's that?"
"We can narrow the Seven Arks' search somewhat."
"...Indeed. You're right."
Li Chingwei nodded after a brief think.
"The remaining Arks must be among antiques made at least 32 years ago."
"Focus on divine relic-grade magic tools suitable as sealing mediums, or treasures on par."
Divine relics were strategic assets.
Even amid Europe's devastation, only nine had trickled into London; the rest were national treasures or church relics.
In other words, rare.
Sure, worldwide, hundreds might qualify.
But that beat vague prophecy-hunting by miles.
"Stars too. Vital clue."
Ainsha chimed in.
The White Dragon Clan's probes found witnesses near Tartarus seeing stars fall 32 years back.
Dismissed as hallucinations without meteor traces, but if signs, similar events marked other Arks.
"We should check London's records from 32 years ago to confirm, but the Liberation Brigade's likely using the same clue."
"Meaning they don't know what the Arks are either?"
"Yeah. If they did, they'd have found them by now."
Rimon stated flatly.
No hard proof yet, but the Arks had likely spawned randomly worldwide.
"And one more thing... Nah, not confirmed, so skip it."
He started to speak, then shook his head.
Rimon rummaged in his luggage.
And placed one item on the table.
"Anyway, be careful hunting Arks. The Brigade will come at us harder now."
As Li Chingwei, Rose, and Ainsha watched, Rimon calmly continued while opening the glass case on the table.
Click.
"Now that they've lost this to us."
At that moment,
the three princesses fell silent.
Not from ignorance of the item's nature.
As Seven Dragon Society princesses surrounded by treasures daily, they knew its value all too well—their eyes were glued.
"...So this is the item you mentioned."
"Yeah."
Rimon nodded readily.
He gazed at the object he'd taken from the British Museum after killing Crown Prince Edward.
The second Seven Ark, gifted by the 27th lineage witches and Rose as thanks for saving London—following the Heartblack Violin.
"A relic of Platon, the Word Master."