Chapter 300
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Translator: 8uhl
Chapter: 300
Chapter Title: I Shouldn't Have Done That
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"...World War."
Was it because of that shocking word?
He muttered softly to himself once.
Rimon drained his glass in one gulp.
Then he held out the empty glass to the side and quietly opened his mouth.
"You think things will escalate that far?"
"It's worth it."
After the Iron Age had dawned.
No, perhaps even from the Bronze Age onward, they were willing to risk losing everything they'd built just to claim Rimon.
Li Chingwei calmly poured liquor into the glass he offered as she replied.
Rimon chuckled.
"I felt the same way when I heard about your World Peace Plan, Princess. You value me far too highly."
"It's an accurate assessment. Especially now that it's been revealed you possess a dragon psionic."
"You think so?"
"These days, even half the shares in Leviathan wouldn't be enough to dare propose marriage to the Sword Duke."
Rimon hadn't been undervalued in the past either.
He was the absolute being who had fought the entire Seven Dragon Society, the only one capable of slaying constellations.
But the fact that he held the eighth dragon psionic elevated his value to an entirely different level.
"To fulfill the Seven Dragon Society's long-cherished wish, you've become an indispensable existence for us."
"The Seven Dragon Society's long-cherished wish..."
Rimon let out a sigh.
Then, in a languid voice that sounded either weary or exhausted, he murmured.
"So you're saying you still haven't given up on that grandiose goal of reshaping the world."
"We're the Seven Dragon Society, after all."
No matter how finely they dressed, a beast could never become human.
The essence of the Seven Dragon Society was a religion.
No matter how much time passed.
No matter if they modernized and became conglomerates.
Abandoning their raison d'être—their long-cherished wish—was impossible as long as they remained the Seven Dragon Society.
Li Chingwei stated it plainly and lifted her glass again.
Savoring the subtle scent of Rimon's body mingling with the whiskey's aroma, she continued.
"No matter what era of peace arrives, our utopia remains the same."
"The Bronze Age?"
"Yes. That's why we've strived to bring it back."
By overthrowing the world.
By reclaiming their lost hegemony.
By seizing control of the world's criminal organizations and clashing with Rimon.
The efforts of the Seven Dragon Society over centuries had transcended obsession into madness.
"And yet we've kept failing."
"Half of that was probably because of me."
"The bigger problem was the other half."
If the entire Seven Dragon Society united.
If the seven princesses pooled their strength.
They might have not only matched Rimon evenly but even defeated him.
In truth, when two or more clans of the Seven Dragon Society allied in the past, even Sword Masters avoided battle.
Yet the reason they were unilaterally hunted during the Heroes Age wasn't solely because the whole world was their enemy.
It was because they had no reason to stake their clans' futures on the fight.
"Even if we conquered the world and overcame the Sword Duke, we lacked the one thing most essential to creating our utopia."
The moment he heard those words.
Rimon stopped tilting his glass.
As the Seven Dragon Society's arch-nemesis.
As a survivor of the Bronze Age.
He knew better than anyone what was indispensable to realizing their dreamed utopia.
"The seven dragons."
It was obvious.
The Bronze Age wasn't just history.
It referred to the world itself, ruled by dragons.
In that sense, dragons were more than essential to the Seven Dragon Society's utopia—they were absolute.
"Yes. So by all rights, our wish should have been the pipe dream you call it, Sword Duke."
"By all rights..."
With a chuckle.
Rimon said in a joking tone.
"Hearing that from your mouth makes it sound awfully strange."
"I imagine so."
Li Chingwei nodded.
Then, as if she'd heard a particularly amusing joke, she smiled faintly and continued.
"After all, we seven princesses are the beings our progenitors created precisely to defy that natural order."
Before the genesis even occurred.
The seven dragons who endured the cataclysm that destroyed the world, fell into long slumber, and awoke.
They hated the extinction that slaughtered their kind, yet lamented their own inevitable doom.
And so they took measures.
The most prominent being the seven princesses of the Seven Dragon Society.
Offspring hatched from eggs born by accepting human affection, born to resist the fate of extinction.
"It was still a failed attempt."
"As you say. We were far too inadequate to be true heirs of dragons."
Half-blooded dragon essence.
Frail flesh compared to psionics.
Mental, physical, and spiritual flaws besides.
Compared to the seven dragons who devoured even avatars and dominated the world, they were excessively imperfect.
"That's why we're princesses."
As one such princess.
Li Chingwei spoke in a calm, subdued voice.
"Ultimately, we're nothing more than vessels to bear perfect dragons."
That was why even they, leaders of their clans, were called merely princesses, not queens or empresses.
In the Seven Dragon Society, only dragons were perfect.
No matter their dragon heritage, they had no right to claim kingship.
Just as a treasured princess in a royal family is ultimately married off for alliances without inheriting the throne.
"But you couldn't fulfill your duty as true princesses."
"Yes. With the half dragon essence we inherited, all we could do was pass on this imperfect bloodline generation after generation."
Bowing her head slightly.
Gazing at her reflection in the glass.
Li Chingwei quietly continued.
"And there's only one way to complete this imperfect chain."
"...The eighth dragon psionic."
"Exactly."
That was why the Seven Dragon Society had scoured for the eighth dragon psionic for centuries.
And why, upon learning Rimon possessed it, the other princesses raged enough to want to tear her apart for hiding it.
Li Chingwei confessed plainly.
"If we mate with the Sword Duke and lay eggs, true dragons will revive for the first time in centuries."
Even after hearing that confession.
Rimon wasn't surprised.
He already knew.
So he just chuckled.
"What a ridiculous situation."
For centuries, he'd fought the Seven Dragon Society, most warily blocking the revival of dragons.
Yet the sole key to it was in his possession.
Irony at its finest.
"From our Seven Dragon Society's perspective, it's enough to make us weep."
"Are we talking tears of joy or sorrow?"
"Who knows. If I had to say, probably both."
Li Chingwei giggled.
Even she herself, upon first learning Rimon had a dragon psionic, had felt emotions beyond words.
"By rights, I should have told everyone the moment I found out."
For good or ill.
It was undoubtedly the most crucial fact tied to the entire society's destiny.
"But I didn't."
Hiding it was betrayal unforgivable to the Seven Dragon Society.
So she was the sinner, and Charlotte's judgment was just.
Li Chingwei stated calmly.
Ainsah or Maia might be different, but Rose—ever upright—had stayed silent throughout the assembly, proving it.
"You must have had good reason."
"When Rose came to me demanding answers about your dragon psionic, I told her as much."
To prevent infighting in the Seven Dragon Society.
To protect Rimon.
That was why she'd hidden it, she'd said to Rose with a blade at her throat.
Recalling those words, Li Chingwei smiled faintly.
"But that was a lie."
"A lie?"
"It was partly true, but the real reason was different."
Was it her righteous nature?
That naive girl had swallowed such an absurd lie simply because "you would have done it."
Pitying her vulnerability.
Enying her purity.
As Li Chingwei spoke bitterly, Rimon asked.
"What was this real reason, then?"
Li Chingwei didn't answer.
She merely tilted the glass in her hand.
Gulp, gulp.
She knew better than anyone that a princess like her wouldn't get drunk on this much liquor.
Yet as if borrowing the power of intoxication on a whim, she downed the remaining whiskey in one go.
Then she turned to face Rimon.
And quietly said.
"The truth is... I simply didn't want to let anyone else have you, Sword Duke."
"Like the Golden Dragon Princess said, you wanted to monopolize the eighth dragon psionic?"
"No. The dragon psionic doesn't matter."
"...Did you just call the dragon psionic 'doesn't matter'?"
"Yes."
Li Chingwei met Rimon's incredulous gaze calmly.
Rimon's dragon psionic had only come to light after he acquired the Heart of Darkness Violin.
Before that, neither he nor the princesses had suspected.
Yet the girl who had staked her entire clan and offered half of Leviathan's shares in proposal smiled faintly.
"What I wanted from the start wasn't the eighth dragon psionic—it was you, Sword Duke."
Because of his transcendent power?
Or because he could slay constellations?
Those factors might play a part.
But they didn't matter.
Just as she'd proposed before even knowing of the psionic.
Even without such power, she would have proposed to Rimon.
"Because I'd already fallen for you long ago."
At that moment.
Rimon fell silent.
It wasn't just the unexpected answer.
The serious expression on Li Chingwei's face, replacing her usual smile.
And her eyes, calmly serene without a flicker.
They left him momentarily speechless.
"...I remember our first meeting as when you proposed to me."
"Yes, that's right."
"And yet you fell for me?"
"You can fall for someone you've never met."
With a faint smile.
Mysterious, befitting the Black Dragon Princess.
Her inscrutable smile lingering.
Li Chingwei held out her now-empty glass.
Only after Rimon awkwardly refilled it did she take another sip of whiskey and continue.
"Truth be told, I'm not the only one."
"What do you mean?"
"It's about the traits we princesses inherited from our progenitors."
Legends of dragons share common traits, fantastical though they may be.
Hoarding treasure.
Obsessing over it.
Kidnapping beautiful princesses.
Accepting pure virgins as tribute.
Quaint for beings who devoured even avatars.
Yet those myths persist widely for one reason.
Some of it was true.
A beautiful princess like treasure.
In other words, an acute sense for detecting mates and a mad obsession to monopolize them, even by abduction.
"We were just blinded by hatred for you."
"Even without the dragon psionic, we'd have instinctively been drawn to you."
If there had been no psionic.
Would Ainsah, Rose, and Maia have felt nothing for Rimon?
The one man who could alter their fates, ease their burdens, and offer them warmth?
Li Chingwei was certain.
No.
It was only a matter of sooner or later.
Once they shed their enmity and met Rimon, affection was inevitable.
For even half-dragons were dragons at heart.
Instinctively recognizing treasure's value and coveting it.
The Golden Dragon Princess's perfect greed was proof.
"And like hiding treasure in a lair to guard it, we'd have done anything to monopolize you."
"...Just like I did."
A touch bitterly.
Yet somewhat relieved.
Li Chingwei continued calmly.
"That's why I wanted to keep you all to myself."
"I didn't want to share these feelings with Ainsah, Rose, Maia—or anyone."
"Even if it meant deceiving all the other princesses, abandoning the Seven Dragon Society's wish, and burying the psionic forever."
"But this is how it ended."
Knowing it would lead to ruin.
Like a dragon slain by a knight for kidnapping a princess.
Or hunted by those coveting its rare treasure.
The girl who couldn't contain her greed for Rimon, acting to monopolize him and turning the entire society against her, smiled faintly.
"I shouldn't have done that."
"For your sake, Sword Duke. For the other princesses'. And for my own."
"I realized it back in that jungle, as I should have done from the start."
Dying Maia.
Rimon lamenting as he held her.
Witnessing the twisted fate born of her selfishness, one that never should have been.
The girl, belatedly aware of her wrong, resolved to undo it now.
"So, Sword Duke. I beg you."
A plea she'd hoped to avoid forever, even in death.
But one she knew she had to make eventually.
Li Chingwei spoke calmly.
"Please annul our engagement."