Chapter 263
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Translator: 8uhl
Chapter: 263
Chapter Title: Because It's a Bit Cheeky
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If they lost even the search party, the Green Dragon Clan would crumble under the Monster Lord's counterattack.
Brazil would fall into the hands of the Forest Guild, and they wouldn't even be able to protect Maya.
Li Chingwei said it lightly, then added as if it had just occurred to her.
"Ah, of course, it might be possible to at least evacuate Maya out of the country. But in exchange, most of the Green Dragon Clan would die, and they'd lose everything."
"……."
"Maya would be in real trouble then. She'd be saddled with a debt she couldn't repay in a lifetime."
The Green Dragon Clan held ironclad favors and grudges as their creed.
How reckless would Maya become in seeking revenge if most of the clan died to save her?
As Giselle's eyes twitched anxiously while watching Li Chingwei speak with concern.
Thud!
"Barbara of the Green Dragon Clan humbly begs a favor of the successor of the Great Black Dragon God."
Barbara suddenly dropped to her knees before Li Chingwei and bowed her head to the floor.
"Barbara! What madness is this?"
Giselle cried out in shock.
But Barbara didn't budge.
She simply continued speaking from her bowed position.
"The princess always said that everything the Black Dragon Princess does has meaning."
A casual remark.
A natural smile.
Even the simplest glance.
Everything carried intent, manipulating people and weaving hidden schemes—that was the Black Dragon Princess.
Li Chingwei gave a wry smile at Maya's assessment of her.
"That's a bit of an overestimation."
"But you said that because you have a surefire way to save the princess, don't you?"
Giselle and the elders flinched.
All eyes turned to her instantly.
As if she'd been asked a terribly awkward question.
She met their gazes with a troubled expression, and only after a long pause did she reluctantly nod.
"If you're asking if there's a safer way to rescue Maya... yes, there is."
Gulp.
Was it Giselle who swallowed dryly, or one of the other elders?
It didn't matter.
Everyone in the Green Dragon Clan there was equally parched with anticipation at those words.
But only one dared to ask for the plan.
"Please tell us the method. If you do, our entire clan will never forget the Black Dragon Princess's grace."
"Barbara, watch your words!"
Giselle shouted without thinking.
The other elders rebuked her rash statement with their glares.
"What should I watch?"
"Do you really not know?"
"No, I don't."
Far from heeding Giselle's rebuke, Barbara lifted her head.
She looked each elder in the eye and asked sharply.
"The princess's safety is the top priority right now, and the Black Dragon Princess has the solution. Why hesitate?"
"……."
Giselle had no reply.
Nor did the other elders.
If it had been another princess.
Say, the White Dragon Princess or the Blue Dragon Princess, they would have gladly sought help.
Even the Gold Dragon Princess or Red Dragon Princess—they'd have hesitated a bit but still asked for cooperation.
Even if it was the Silver Dragon Princess, they might have listened to her opinion after immense deliberation.
But she was the Black Dragon Princess.
How dangerous it was to owe a favor to the Black Dragon Clan.
The elders, with their long lives of experience, wanted to avoid that choice like the plague.
"I know it's a choice we'll regret. But to save the princess, I'd even sell my body to the Sword Duke."
"You fool……."
Giselle closed her eyes.
After agonizing for a long while, she finally opened her weary mouth.
"Do as you will."
"Elder Giselle!"
"The child isn't wrong."
The other elders groaned as Giselle admitted what had to be admitted.
The Black Dragon Clan excelled in schemes and plots, and as their princess, Li Chingwei undoubtedly had strategies they couldn't even imagine.
The problem was that listening to those strategies was probably part of her scheme.
'This is a devil's contract.'
'But to save the princess…….'
'……No choice, is there.'
The elders wore grim expressions but couldn't stop Barbara.
The price would be exorbitant.
They couldn't trust the other party.
They knew they'd regret it.
Yet no one could refuse a deal with the devil who appeared in their hour of greatest need, granting their wish.
For them, with Maya as their utmost priority, they had no choice but to seek her counsel, whatever plot she hid.
"Black Dragon Princess, please guide us."
Having received the elders' approval, Barbara begged again for grace.
She gazed silently at Barbara, who sought wisdom with the resolve to sell out her nation to save her revered princess.
Li Chingwei muttered absently.
"……You wouldn't need something like your body anyway."
"Pardon?"
"No, nothing. I just meant you don't need to see my advice as a favor."
"What does that……?"
"But there is a condition."
The elders, brimming with open suspicion and doubt, all wore 'as expected' expressions.
They took 'condition' to mean paying the price upfront.
Most elders were even relieved.
Better to pay a clear price now than be manipulated later under the guise of 'grace.'
"What do you want?"
"What I want is……."
But moments later.
When Li Chingwei revealed her 'condition.'
The elders couldn't be pleased—they were uniformly shocked.
"That's!"
"Impossible!"
"I understand it's hard to accept, but this condition is essential to executing my plan."
Confusion, shock, even anger.
Li Chingwei slowly scanned the elders who had shot to their feet, faces full of emotion.
Finally, she turned to Barbara, still kneeling before her, and added with a gentle smile.
"Of course, you can refuse my proposal. I'll just help you another way."
This was the Green Dragon Clan's affair anyway.
She'd merely offered one option; the choice was theirs.
Barbara bit her lip, watching Li Chingwei speak as if spectating a fire at someone else's house.
Li Chingwei's detached attitude was natural.
They were criminal organizations from the start.
They cooperated only because of shared roots.
No obligation to help each other.
When the Black Dragon Clan had fallen, even the Blue Dragon Clan hadn't hesitated to snatch Hotel Leviathan shares.
In that light, Li Chingwei's condition wasn't utterly absurd.
There was precedent, and depending on the situation, it could even be reasonable.
The issue was one thing.
Could they trust Li Chingwei?
Trusting the Black Dragon Clan was foolishness even the White Dragon Clan avoided, making it not worth considering...
"We'll accept your condition. So please tell us how to save the princess first."
"Do the others agree?"
"……Yes."
"By the authority of the elders' council, we accept the Black Dragon Princess's condition."
Barbara answered with resolute eyes.
The Green Dragon Clan's elders agreed with heavy hearts.
Only then did Li Chingwei speak.
"The best thing you can do right now is simple."
A method that would have been ignored or gotten her thrown out of the council chamber if said earlier.
But now, with the condition approved, she could proceed as she wished. Li Chingwei revealed her plan with a beaming smile.
"Don't rescue Maya."
"……!!! "
Don't trust the Black Dragon Clan.
That age-old adage had its reasons.
Realizing it in less than 10 seconds, Barbara could only wear a dumbfounded expression.
[They had that look like they'd handed over their entire fortune to save their daughter only to get scammed, that sister and the elders...]
"It's understandable."
They'd accepted Li Chingwei's condition to save Maya, only for the first step to be forbidding her rescue.
They deserved credit for not calling it a scam outright.
Yuna Kyung gave Li Chingwei a queasy look as she spoke so nonchalantly.
She hadn't voiced it.
But their eyes—mixed with shock, betrayal, doubt, and regret—had already branded Li Chingwei a perfect con artist.
That's why Yuna Kyung found herself asking unconsciously.
[Princess sister, was it really necessary to do it this way?]
"Did I seem too heartless?"
[Not heartless, but... if you'd just told them about the White Dragon Princess sister's prophecy, wouldn't it have been easier to resolve?]
"No, that wouldn't have worked."
Li Chingwei shook her head.
Dispatching the Black Dragon Clan from Hotel Leviathan's São Paulo branch to aid the Green Dragon Clan.
That had been thanks to Ainsha's prophecy.
But using it to persuade the Green Dragon Clan would have invited even more suspicion and obstacles than now.
"The White Dragon Clan rarely shares the future willingly."
[……Even for a major incident where the Green Dragon Clan could fall and Brazil be destroyed if not stopped?]
"The more crucial the event, the higher the price they demand—that's how the White Dragon Clan gained their current prosperity."
Don't forget.
The White Dragon Clan was also a pillar of the Seven Dragon Society.
Seeing the future and always choosing optimally, they ignored other clans' disasters if it didn't benefit theirs.
If Rimon weren't in Brazil, they'd have tried trading on this prophecy too.
"If Ainsha had prophesied out of goodwill, and I stepped in with pure benevolence, the Green Dragon Clan wouldn't have believed it even on their deathbeds."
[……Sometimes I think about it, but how have you dragons survived a thousand years without collapsing?]
"The situation was different back then."
The Seven Dragon Society of the past had no choice but to unite.
When your lips are gone, your teeth feel the cold.
In the Heroes Age, with multiple Sword Masters besides Rimon, they had to pool strength to survive.
Even then, aid came only when absolutely necessary, and only for a price.
In this peaceful era, selfless help was unbelievable, even from the White Dragon Clan.
Especially from Li Chingwei herself.
[Knowing the future but hard to speak it... what a frustrating situation...]
"……Frustrating, is it."
Yuna Kyung muttered in disbelief.
Li Chingwei murmured to herself with a strange expression, then smiled gently moments later.
"I think it's fortunate I don't know the future."
[Huh? Why?]
"Those who know the future are ruled by it."
[……?]
"If the entire Green Dragon Clan knew Ainsha's prophecy and acted on it, the situation could have worsened."
If they learned Maya's location from the prophecy?
The elders would have sent a rescue team, no matter the sacrifice.
If they learned of a traitor?
They'd have tortured and killed hundreds or thousands of innocents to root them out.
In the ensuing chaos, the Green Dragon Clan would collapse without even striking at the Monster Lord.
"That's what knowing the future means."
Prophecies aren't omnipotent.
The more you try to change the future.
The more it becomes self-fulfilling or worsens—countless cases.
That's why the future-seeing White Dragon Clan was long called the weakest in the Seven Dragon Society.
Yuna Kyung nodded at Li Chingwei's warning-like words.
[I see... so you hid the prophecy on purpose and played the villain?]
"The smoothest negotiation is moving as the other side expects."
If someone suspects you, just show scheming, lying, and betrayal as they anticipate.
Li Chingwei added calmly with a smile.
"It's a bit cheeky too."
[Cheeky? What?]
"A clan that values favors above all is completely forgetting the one who gave them the greatest grace in this incident."
[……Ah.]
Yuna Kyung realized.
There had been another missing person besides Maya in this battle.
For example, Rimon, who stayed behind to block the pursuit team and hadn't returned.
[That... it's awkward to say with contact cut off, but honestly, I don't think anything happened to that team leader.]
"Yes, the Sword Duke is surely safe."
Li Chingwei said calmly.
Whether in the jungle or against the Forest Guild.
Rimon wouldn't be in peril over something this minor.
"Maya too."
She wasn't overly worried about Maya either.
Even if Maya steeled herself to die for the clan to escape, her princess instincts wouldn't allow it.
If her life were truly at stake, they'd have known by now.
"That's why I didn't send a search party."
[Huh?]
"What Maya needs now isn't a half-baked rescue team or treatment—it's someone who can change her fate."
One who could even weigh futures.
Thus possessing the power to alter others', even the world's, destinies.
Thinking of the ultimate tracker more reliable than ten million searchers, Li Chingwei could only give a wry smile.