Chapter 254
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Translator: 8uhl
Chapter: 254
Chapter Title: It Has Begun.
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[Hello?]
[Team leader, can you hear me?]
[If you're listening, say something, come on!]
After struggling for a while with the ring-shaped telepathy item fastened around her slender ankle, Yuna Kyung let out a sigh.
She shrugged her wing membranes.
[No response, as expected.]
Li Chingwei, who had been silently watching her efforts from the side, pondered for a moment at Yuna Kyung's words before speaking up.
"...It looks like the second-worst scenario has unfolded."
[Second-worst?]
"The Sword Duke's identity has been exposed."
[What? That's bad!]
Yuna Kyung jumped in surprise.
She had learned all too well over the past few days just how deeply the Green Dragon Clan held grudges and what their relationship with Rimon was like.
To her, it sounded like a declaration that war was about to break out.
"No, fortunately, it seems we've avoided the absolute worst case. At least the Sword Duke won't have to fight the Green Dragon Clan right away."
Li Chingwei wore a peculiar expression.
If the two had clashed, Quetzalcoatl headquarters wouldn't be this quiet.
It was a relief, but at the same time, a source of worry.
"The problem is that it looks like the Sword Duke used the Scales."
[No way. That's the risky ability he was holding back on, and he tried to use it on that scary sister of yours?]
"It means the situation left him no choice but to risk it anyway."
Li Chingwei gave a wry smile.
She had no idea what circumstances led to Maya discovering his identity.
But given the sudden loss of contact, the most reasonable guess was that Rimon had been exposed and resorted to the Scales' coercive power.
There was only one way to make the grudge-holding Green Dragon Clan cooperate with Rimon.
Give them a chance to settle that grudge.
"Good thing I passed along some information in advance."
[Information like... the location of the Forest Guild?]
"Yes. If the Forest Guild is producing and distributing ambrosia, that intel should hold considerable value to Maya."
If the Scales had been used, Rimon and Maya were probably locked in a fierce coercive power struggle by now.
Her information might not give him an overwhelming edge, but it could help him weather at least one critical moment.
Li Chingwei spoke calmly.
Yuna Kyung looked uneasy.
[Princess sister, do the Black Dragon Clan have precognition abilities too?]
"No, of course not."
[Then how did you know to hand over the info ahead of time?]
"It wasn't prediction. Just preparing for the worst."
Only the world's greatest prophet, Ainsha, could foresee something like this precisely and prepare exactly what's needed.
Li Chingwei lacked both the ability and the talent for that.
But she could anticipate various worst-case scenarios and prepare trump cards useful for each one.
Anyone could do that with a bit of forethought.
[...That sounds easy, but it's like saying just build an underground bunker, an ark, and a spaceship for whatever apocalypse comes.]
"Preparation averts peril."
[Not overpreparation?]
"Who knows. The Seven Dragon Society has never found the need for that saying when it comes to matters involving the Sword Duke."
[Uh, um...]
Whether through transcendent swordsmanship or superhuman intuition and experience, Rimon always slipped through predictions and struck vulnerabilities.
No matter how thoroughly they prepared, they often ended up unilaterally massacred.
Yuna Kyung sweated coldly for a moment as she watched Li Chingwei smile and say the outrageous with a grin.
She hurriedly opened her beak.
[A-anyway, you sure got your hands on info like the Forest Guild's base somehow.]
Brazil was the Green Dragon Clan's home turf.
Impressive that she uncovered something even they didn't know.
Li Chingwei chuckled at Yuna Kyung, whose admiration was half genuine and half an attempt to change the subject.
"It's our specialty, after all."
The Black Dragon Clan had always excelled in espionage, intrigue, and one other field within the Seven Dragon Society.
Even after the clan's fall, their eyes and ears hadn't vanished entirely.
Building and maintaining Hotel Leviathan worldwide during that hellish Heroes Age was possible only thanks to their intelligence network.
"Of course, Tzushyan maintaining the spy network so well made the investigation easier."
Tzushyan, the head manager of the São Paulo Leviathan and overall head of Brazil's intelligence ops.
If she hadn't flagged the gang suspected as Forest Guild lackeys in advance, pinpointing their location in a day would have been impossible.
Yuna Kyung muttered uneasily at the humbly speaking Li Chingwei.
[Thinking about it again, your clan's abilities are seriously cheat-level.]
"Really? Compared to other clans, I think ours is pretty ordinary."
[...Do you even know what 'ordinary' means?]
Mind-reading telepathy.
Soul-subjugating Hypnotic Gaze Style.
How were these 'absolute' in espionage—borderline cheating—abilities ordinary?
Li Chingwei let out a soft sigh at Yuna Kyung's incredulous look.
"There's nothing more we can do with our clan's abilities."
Their prepared countermeasures ended here.
No way to help Rimon with any further surprises.
As she predicted, Maya had likely already forbidden him from any contact with the Black Dragon Clan.
All that remained was to trust Rimon and wait.
The simplest, yet hardest task.
[Well, don't worry too much. What else could go wrong?]
Li Chingwei gave a wry smile at Yuna Kyung's response, which made the hard task seem effortless.
"Something will."
[Huh?]
Rimon suddenly exposed, and Barbara—who was watching him—vanishing without a trace.
Something must have happened to the Green Dragon Clan.
Which meant a major incident was about to unfold.
The grudge-holding Green Dragon Clan wouldn't just let whatever happened slide.
Yuna Kyung looked uneasy at Li Chingwei's firm declaration about the 'something' to come.
[Come on, even you think that's a bit too much worrying...]
Yuna Kyung couldn't finish her sentence.
The communicator Li Chingwei had received from Tzushyan suddenly rang.
[Princess, I have an urgent report.]
The Green Dragon Clan was mobilizing.
Maya and Rimon were with them.
Heading to a specific suspected location.
After hearing Tzushyan's hasty report—which matched Li Chingwei's prediction exactly—Yuna Kyung blurted out in a daze.
[...Princess sister, why not just switch to White Dragon Princess while you're at it?]
Li Chingwei didn't reply to Yuna Kyung's half-joking, half-serious remark.
She merely sighed, recalling another worst-case scenario she had anticipated when handing over the Forest Guild's location—but hoped wouldn't happen.
"It has begun."
Something that would happen eventually.
But why now, of all times?
And what variable would Rimon's involvement introduce, leading to what outcome?
As even she couldn't predict anymore, Li Chingwei could only gaze out the window with deep, heavy eyes.
The Amazon.
The world's largest jungle, comprising over half of all tropical rainforests.
Vast enough to be called the Earth's lungs, its territory could swallow several mid-sized countries whole.
Yet the areas humans could access in the Amazon were extremely limited.
Not just because ordinary people couldn't survive the venomous insects, plants, swamps, and beasts for even a few days.
Even high-level players avoided it for certain reasons.
That's why the sentries posted in treetop watchtowers prioritized poker over vigilance, taking it easy.
No intruders would come to this remote jungle.
If any did, they'd deal with them or flee when the time came.
An unthinkable mindset for sentries, but natural for them.
They were gangsters originally.
Criminals who lived for the moment's pleasure and profit, unbound by logic or duty, dying on the streets without a care.
"Full house!"
"What? No way!"
"Believe it or not, pay up, punk!"
"Kekekeke, that guy's bluffing so hard he's about to lose his underwear."
"Huh? Did you hear something?"
"Don't dodge, show your cards."
"I'm not dodging, I swear I heard something..."
In the midst of their poker game.
One gangster glanced around and stiffened.
The watchtower, built near the treetops for a full view.
From there, he spotted a strange ripple starting from the distant, silent jungle.
Ssssh.
Trees shaking.
Slowly, gently.
Not just one.
Dozens, hundreds, maybe thousands.
As if the forest itself had turned into the sea, waving like ocean swells, widening the gangster's eyes.
Th-that...!
The sentries finally noticed the anomaly and dropped their cards.
They hurriedly tried to sound the alarm.
Or tried to.
Pfuk!
If an intruder hadn't suddenly crashed through the ceiling, piercing the heart of the one reaching for the alarm.
"G-Green Dragon Clan!"
Revealing red attire.
Twin spears in hand.
Crucially, green hair.
Unmistakable features made the surviving sentries grab their guns in horror.
The intruder didn't stop them.
She merely pulled her spear from the corpse and eyed them coldly.
Confused by her inexplicable inaction yet driven by fear and survival instinct to shoot—
Thud!
The sentries collapsed en masse.
Not attacked by the intruder or anyone else.
The moment a strange scent brushed their noses.
Their heads rang, bodies stiffened—that was it.
Urk!
And it didn't end there.
Agonizing pain like fire in their guts surged, black dead blood pouring from their mouths.
P-Poison!
They realized too late.
She hadn't needed to stop them.
The faint toxic fragrance from her nearly bare skin had already been corroding them.
"S-save... us."
"Antidote, please...!"
Feeling the poison spread, life ebbing—
The sentries writhed in pain, reaching out, begging.
But the intruder didn't twitch an eyebrow.
She just watched them die with sharp, chilling eyes.
And soon after.
From the watchtower left with only Barbara's tear-streaked corpse, she lightly leaped away.
This wasn't isolated to one post.
Secret outposts scattered across the vast Amazon were being silently annihilated without resistance.
By hundreds of scantily clad invaders racing through the jungle.
The Green Dragon Clan, rulers of South America.
The Forest Guild, hegemons of this era.
Thus, in the profound silence of the distant jungle, their war began.