Chapter 289
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Translator: 8uhl
Chapter: 289
Chapter Title: I Have a Proposal.
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"...Do I look like the kind of seed who'd deliberately push people away out of fear of getting hurt?"
"No one in this world goes unscathed. And those who hurt others just by being around them are even more so."
As the Green Dragon Princess, who had grown weary of her poison harming others and always kept everyone at arm's length with her cynical, pessimistic demeanor.
Watching the Sword Master, who was always nonchalant and snide in his mockery.
Maia said softly.
"You carry a poison called time."
A man who had attained immortality.
A man whose mere existence hastened the deaths of those around him.
She couldn't even begin to imagine how many friends' deaths he had witnessed, how much envy and resentment he had endured.
But she could vaguely sense it.
"That's why you never compromise on hostage situations."
"......"
"If our thorough revenge is to avoid getting hurt, then your ruthlessness toward hostages must be because it's your one weakness."
He was the type to scoff and brush off any schemes aimed at him.
But when a friend got hurt because of him, or an innocent died, he unleashed his fury without restraint.
Just look at what happened when Yuna Kyung died.
He took a nation's president hostage to exact blood payment and even drew his sword against the Infinite Monarch.
That alone showed how much Rimon cherished his acquaintances and how sensitive he was to their harm.
But no matter how strong he was.
No matter how thoroughly he pursued revenge.
He couldn't protect everyone alone.
That's why he established an iron rule to eliminate hostage situations altogether.
He made that rule widely known to prevent his acquaintances from getting hurt because of him and to keep them at a distance from him.
"So I get it now. It's just a difference in degree and method, but in the end, you've chosen to push others away and live alone—just like me."
Some might see him as a superhuman who always wins no matter what, untouched by pain.
But Maia could assert otherwise.
There was no such thing as an invincible body.
Nor an invulnerable heart—it was nothing but an illusion.
Indeed, nearly half of the 13 Sword Masters in history had descended into madness and committed massacres, proving that point.
Even Sword Masters who reached immortality...
No, precisely because they did, they couldn't endure the mental scars accumulated over endless years.
Rimon was the same.
In fact, having lived longer than any other Sword Master, he must have suffered more wounds.
He had endured and healed them through superhuman will, holding on.
Like a famed sword forged after thousands upon thousands of hammer strikes, he had grown stronger through repeated wounds over long ages, forging a heart of steel.
That was the Last Sword Master.
Rimon Asfelder.
But that heart of steel was neither perfect nor flawless.
It was riddled with scars and blemishes from molten, hardened marks intertwined over the ages.
To the point where he chose to live as a lone mad dog, avoiding attachments as much as possible.
"What I can't understand is why you don't push me away."
That's why Maia couldn't comprehend it.
Why Rimon, who treated everyone with razor-sharp coldness, never sharpened his blade against her.
Because she faithfully played the role of slave?
That was nonsense.
If it were just a simple contract, he wouldn't have risked losing the scales to rescue her, nor given her such a gift after the contract ended.
"...It's awkward for you to ask that, assuming I'm Ironclad Night Pine."
"Because of what the Sword Demon did?"
"......"
It was just a moment.
Too vague for denial,
Too reluctant for affirmation.
Rimon, who had tried to brush it off with an ambiguous quip like a joke, instantly shut his mouth.
And that uncharacteristic reaction from the usually brazen man was a clearer answer than any words.
"Indeed. Now I understand."
She nodded once.
Maia looked at Rimon with shadowed eyes and stated firmly.
"You've felt a debt of the heart toward me."
* * *
If any other member of the Seven Dragon Society had heard her.
They would have been dumbfounded.
Rimon Asfelder, the Seven Dragon Society's mortal enemy, who had slain the princess multiple times and cut down their kin without mercy.
For him to feel indebted to their princess was more absurd than the sun rising in the west.
But she, who never forgot grudges.
And thus remembered a distant past more than any other princess.
She had come to somewhat understand the man Rimon was.
Among the scars etched into his steel heart, some were left by the Seven Dragon Society—and vice versa.
"Guilt?"
"Well, guilt might not be the right word."
For slaying her ancestors in the past.
Or for killing her.
Rimon shook his head lightly.
"But if you're asking if I feel a debt of the heart... yes, I won't deny it, at least."
And as the one who sold information on the Green Dragon Clan to those approaching him for silver coins.
Who informed the Sword Demon of their stronghold, providing the cause for the massacre of innocents, elders, and infants.
Rimon readily acknowledged her point.
"It's contradictory."
"You mean feeling no guilt but still a debt?"
"No, that you'd consider something like that a debt."
"...Are you saying the massacre of most of my clan because of me is 'something like that'?"
"It is something like that."
Rimon looked incredulous.
To him, Maia replied in her characteristic pessimistic tone.
"Just as you're our enemy, we're yours too."
"......"
Rimon didn't deny it.
In the final Sword Dragon War, the Sword Emperor—who fought alongside him and the Sword Demon against three dragons and met his end.
The battlefield was created by the Black Dragon.
The fatal wound came from the Gold Dragon.
But it was the Green Dragon's poisoned blood that stopped the Sword Emperor's breath.
In that sense, the Seven Dragon Society—especially the three clans—were undoubtedly enemies to Rimon as well, the ones responsible for his master's death.
"If it were us, we'd kill the enemy's spawn and even their extended family without regret."
"You would."
"So why do you feel sorry for it?"
"Sorry...?"
A soft chuckle escaped him.
Rimon met Maia's gaze directly and spoke.
"To be clear, I don't regret cutting down your ancestors."
Even if he could go back to that time.
He would make the same choice.
Back then, the Seven Dragon Society was an organization plotting world subversion.
They had to be exterminated to protect the world, and the princess was the core of it.
"The debt I feel is for dragging in those who shouldn't have been involved, causing unnecessary sacrifices."
"...So you're sorry for slaying the enemy out of revenge?"
"More precisely, for crossing the line of revenge."
Rimon stated flatly.
He didn't deny revenge itself.
He believed it closer to justice to kill the enemy himself than leave it to flimsy laws and watch family members of the enemy live fat and happy.
But that's why he thought revenge had lines that must not be crossed.
Not satisfied with killing?
Then kill more cruelly.
Or strip them of everything and plunge them into despair.
But killing the enemy's family as a means was clearly crossing that line.
Some might see the enemy's family as guilty and feel true satisfaction only by tearing them apart before their eyes.
But the moment innocents are harmed, it's no longer revenge.
Just crime.
And the most crucial reason: expanding revenge's scope like that has no end.
"Revenge is no different from poison in how easily it harms you as much as the enemy."
The deeper the grudge.
The more revenge destroys you.
And the greater the satisfaction when repaid.
But that's why emptiness follows completion.
Like the stronger the drug's effect, the deeper the sense of loss after it fades.
"It's a vicious narcotic too."
And like any addict.
Those hooked on revenge obsess over it to overcome the void.
First the enemy.
Then their family.
Later, friends and relatives.
Still not enough? Anyone sharing their nationality, religion, race, gender.
Anyone with even a tenuous link, mercilessly harmed.
No logic there.
It's no longer about settling grudges—it's just chasing the thrill and satisfaction of revenge.
Even with the smug righteousness of 'justified vengeance,' like some dark hero.
"You know well what fate awaits those addicted to that drug."
She couldn't not know.
Worse than Rimon.
The Sword Demon, who slaughtered a tenth of humanity by mercilessly cutting down anyone or any group even slightly linked to them, was the Seven Dragon Society's worst nightmare.
'...So that's how it was.'
Only then did Maia understand.
In the past Heroes' Age.
Rimon had raised seven Sword Masters.
Meaning he could have mobilized them all to hunt the Seven Dragon Society.
But he never forced them to fight.
He only refrained from stopping his disciples from battling them.
Always, eternally, invariably.
He alone confronted the Seven Dragon Society.
Leading the charge to protect the world.
She once thought it arrogance or vengeful fury.
But that was a misconception.
'We may have been his sworn foes, but we never became his true enemies.'
It made sense.
By Rimon's creed, the grudge against the Sword Emperor was settled when the seven dragons died.
He fought the Seven Dragon Society only because they threatened the world.
And in that process, endless new grudge cycles formed.
Rimon fought silently alone, unwilling to drag his disciples into that chain of revenge.
Even if he couldn't eradicate them.
Even knowing those he saved might one day return with grudges.
Just as he blocked the Sword Demon, who massacred half the Green Dragon Clan and pursued the remnants for total annihilation.
'What an absurd man.'
That's why Maia inwardly sighed.
In deliberately pushing others away and living like a hedgehog, he resembled her.
But their inner worlds were worlds apart.
She, unable to endure even one death like Karra's, lived to avoid more pain.
He, pushing others away to protect them, chose to incur grudges and wounds rather than become a butcher like the Sword Demon.
The gulf between them was as vast as heaven and earth.
That's why Maia spoke without thinking.
"Rimon, I have a proposal."
"What might that be?"
Until just moments ago.
She had been agonizing.
Whether to make this proposal.
And if she even should.
But having crossed death's threshold once, she didn't want regrets anymore.
And understanding Rimon left no reason to hesitate.
Maia said softly.
"Become my consort."
Even at that out-of-left-field remark, Rimon wasn't greatly surprised.
He just scratched his cheek.
"If it's about securing an heir, you no longer need to choose me for that."
"No, it has to be you."
"...Because of the eighth Dragon Psionic?"
Rimon sighed.
From the moment she learned he possessed the eighth Dragon Psionic and used it to heal her.
He had anticipated this much.
The eighth Dragon Psionic was the Seven Dragon Society's long-cherished wish.
For Maia especially, it was the sole solution to her lifelong dilemma.
So he had prepared a get-well gift, but naturally, she preferred a perfect fix over a temporary one.
"Not just that."
At Maia's response, Rimon looked surprised.
"Don't tell me you're repaying the favor with your body? Or taking responsibility since I saw you naked?"
"I don't care about favors. Nor do I plan such nonsense."
"Then why must it be me?"
Why choose her enemy as consort with no other reason?
To the skeptical Rimon, Maia answered honestly.
"Because I've come to like you."