Chapter 302
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Translator: 8uhl
Chapter: 302
Chapter Title: Don't Worry.
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Was it because of that cold voice?
Or the smile vanishing from her face?
Even though he'd seen her countless times before, she looked utterly unfamiliar.
The black-haired princess spoke.
"Maia said it, didn't she? That love is like poison."
Craving it relentlessly.
Unable to control yourself.
And willing to do anything to have it—love is undoubtedly the most potent drug in the world.
"In that sense, I'm just as ruined by you as anyone, Sword Duke."
The girl who had met Rimon before anyone else and proposed to him first.
In Maia's words, the princess most addicted to Rimon out of all the Seven Dragon Society's princesses—and the most broken one.
After her confession, leaning against his shoulder, Rimon fell silent for a long moment before finally speaking.
"...And yet you're suggesting I break off our engagement and take another princess as my bride?"
"It's not something I want to say, either."
"Then why?"
"Because it's what has to be done."
Sometimes you have to abandon what's precious.
Even if you don't want to.
Li Chingwei stated it plainly, and Rimon couldn't argue.
He, who had slain even his own disciple to protect the world, knew that better than anyone.
"Actually, I have a question for you."
As he fell silent, Li Chingwei smiled faintly and asked.
"If I said I wanted to monopolize you, Sword Duke, could you do that for me?"
"...I'm already your fiancé."
"Yes, that's true. But the monopoly I'm talking about is more than that."
She pressed her nose to Rimon's neck.
Inhaling his faint cyonic scent.
With a cold breath, she uttered words even chillier.
"Don't give flowers to Maia ever again."
Maia, who could no longer control her own toxicity without Rimon's sculpture, would gradually have her lifespan eaten away.
"Don't play music for Rose."
Rose, who found peace only through Rimon's music, would struggle under the weight of her own sense of responsibility.
"Let Einsha wither away alone."
Einsha, who maintained her emotions through her love for Rimon, would turn doll-like and die from unrequited affection.
"Let the other princesses you've abandoned go mad or perish. Look only at me. Think only of me."
No sharing his music, sculptures, swordsmanship, gazes, conversations, scent, sympathy, affection, or desire.
Not even a fragment.
Use it all only for her.
Without a hint of exaggeration, voicing exactly what she desired from him.
Li Chingwei smiled.
Cold as a crescent moon.
Yet all the more seductive for it.
Beautiful in a spine-chilling way.
"Could you do that?"
Rimon didn't turn to look at the black dragon princess begging to have him all to herself.
As if he already knew what expression she wore.
His gaze fixed on the night sky, he answered softly.
"If that's what you truly want."
"As expected from the Sword Duke. I knew you'd say that."
Li Chingwei chuckled.
Now that he'd sworn never to abandon her...
No, even without that vow, he would have answered the same.
This ancient swordsman, who had lived since the Bronze Age, was not the type to shirk responsibility for his fiancée, betrothed or not.
"Then I'd be truly happy."
A smile bloomed on her face,
Like a girl hearing the ideal proposal from her first love.
Poignant, pure, and bright.
With that single smile lingering,
"But in turn, you'd be just as miserable."
Rimon paused at Li Chingwei's lament.
Then, tilting his glass, he murmured softly.
"I never knew you'd consider the other princesses' misfortune your own."
"Of course. I only realized it after seeing you grieve while holding dying Maia."
"That you're kinder than I thought?"
"No."
Leaning against his shoulder.
Tilting her own glass in kind.
Li Chingwei answered quietly.
"I can watch the other princesses meet their ruin without a care, but I know I couldn't be happy seeing you hurt."
"..."
Even if Maia died then.
Rimon would have only grieved.
He wouldn't have broken.
But a wound to match would have scarred his heart.
And the more he watched Rose, Einsha, or the other princesses heading toward ruin, the deeper those scars would grow.
"I want to monopolize you, Sword Duke, but I don't want to break you."
Love is poison, after all.
The more you adore someone.
The more you change and shatter yourself.
And the same for them.
In that sense, she did harbor the desire to dye Rimon in her own black hue.
Even if another princess died or the world ended.
She wanted him to care for nothing but her.
That's the nature of a dragon's love.
But she couldn't.
"The Sword Duke I'm in love with is you as you are now."
Prickly yet kind, aloof yet nosy, old-fashioned yet never one to swing his sword recklessly—an absolute being.
The last Sword Master.
Humanity's Guardian Deity.
She knew all too well she'd regret tainting him with her desires.
So the princess chose to admire her hero as a girl.
Rather than possess him as a woman.
Li Chingwei gazed at her hero and smiled faintly.
"So, Sword Duke."
"I'm begging you sincerely."
"Just as you did with Einsha, Rose, and Maia."
"Give your heart to the other princesses too. Let them become addicted to you and break."
"Save those imperfect dragon cyonics, doomed to struggle eternally and perish. Free them from fate."
It didn't matter if it was affection,
Sympathy,
Or duty.
If he pitied the other princesses even a little, then understand them, help them—instead of rejecting them.
Hearing her plea, Rimon closed his eyes.
"...That's not something I couldn't do."
He was a man of the old era, after all.
He'd seen kings, queens, generals, and ministers marry for strategy, keeping three wives and four concubines as a matter of course.
There was no reason for him to feel shocked or repulsed by Li Chingwei's proposal of a new political marriage now.
But he had reason to feel something else.
"But princess, before I give that answer, I suppose I need to scold you first."
"Pardon?"
As Li Chingwei blinked at the sudden remark,
Rimon pulled her waist close.
And leaped down.
To the top floor of the Leviathan right below—the penthouse she used as her lodging.
Striding into a room, he unceremoniously dropped the woman he held onto the bed.
Only after plopping down on her rear did Li Chingwei snap to her senses and ask, bewildered.
Or try to.
"Why...?"
Why was he doing this all of a sudden?
But Li Chingwei couldn't finish her question.
Because Rimon sealed her lips with his own.
Stiffening at the unexpected kiss lasted only a moment.
As she parted her lips instinctively, something boldly invaded, coiling around her tongue, making her shudder.
Reflexively, she tried to pull away.
But it was futile.
She couldn't escape Rimon's grasp—one hand gripping her jaw, the other wrapped around her waist.
Hot breath seeped in.
Viscous saliva mingled.
Until he teased her sensitive gums, grazed her neat teeth, and toyed mercilessly with her tongue.
Like a lamb caught by a wolf.
Unable to resist at all.
Forgetting even to breathe, her body trembling violently—only then was Li Chingwei released, after every corner of her mouth had been thoroughly invaded without mercy.
"Ha, ah..."
Was the kiss too long?
Or the stimulation too intense?
Even after they parted, a thick thread of saliva stretched between their lips, snapping to stain her skin.
Panting raggedly, it took her a long while before she could speak properly, her face slightly flushed.
"Sword Duke, what... are you doing?"
"Punishing a princess who's already forgotten my warning three times."
"Punishment...?"
"You really forgot?"
The first time, when they made their contract with Li Chingwei.
The second, when Einsha proposed.
The third, when he met Maia.
Three times he'd warned—declared—Rimon repeated it once more.
"That you're already mine."
"That's..."
"From the way you just spoke, it seems you don't understand what that means at all."
Rimon reached out.
And said plainly.
"So I'll etch it into your body this time, so you'll never forget."
"...!"
Smoothly.
In an instant, as his hand brushed her slender waist, the belt hiding her hidden sword loosened.
The protective garment tougher than armor slipped off, and through the disheveled hem, her secretly concealed skin emerged.
No time to panic at how easily her clothes came undone compared to putting them on.
One hand pushed her down.
Already weakened, she couldn't even resist as she was laid on the bed, Rimon mounting her naturally.
He whispered softly.
"If you're asking me not to ignore the other princesses, you should have known I'd never leave you alone either."
Always acting so clever.
How could she not know something this obvious?
This was discipline for her foolishness—a punishment, he said, as he slipped his hand between her thighs.
Gliding his fingers along her sleek skin,
Effortlessly unbuckling and tossing aside the leather belt laden with hidden weapons and poisons on her thigh.
Stiffening at the ticklish touch on her bare skin,
Only then did she realize she was completely disarmed, defenseless. Li Chingwei murmured blankly.
"Um... Sword Duke? If we do this, I really feel like I'll be torn apart."
All the princesses had gathered because of her cutting in line.
If she crossed the line with Rimon here, countermeasures or not, she'd be as good as dead.
Ignoring her racing heart, she pointed it out rationally, but Rimon just smirked.
"Don't worry."
He kissed her neck.
Stamping a red mark on her pale skin.
As if to say trust only him, he whispered in her ear.
"I'll stop after just a little."
"Sword Duke, wait...!"
For some reason, those words terrified her more.
The fear of being devoured.
The craving to be devoured.
As Li Chingwei wavered between the two,
Rimon expertly stripped away her clothes—a mix of martial robes and archer's garb.
Finally tugging down the last scrap covering her pert breasts, he buried his face between the shyly revealed soft mounds.
And the moment he bit her peak.
The mind of the Seven Dragon Society's craftiest princess went blank as fresh snow.
[I wonder if Princess Sis and Team Leader are okay?]
With the hotel evacuated for the major operation, the orphanage kids had moved to temporary lodging too. To watch over them—and because Rimon said not to wander since something dangerous might happen—Yuna Kyung stood guard at the temp lodging, pondering.
It was late by now.
The meeting should be over, so should she send El Hwa?
Or go check herself?
After a moment's thought, Yuna Kyung scratched her head with a wing.
[Eh... they'll handle it themselves.]
If those two couldn't manage, she wouldn't be much help anyway.
Besides, if she interrupted another good moment, next time it wouldn't end with a missile barrage.
[Well, they're officially engaged, after all. They deserve some alone time.]
That old fogey Rimon wouldn't cross the line before formal marriage, but if Li Chingwei pushed, a kiss or two wasn't impossible.
So leave them be tonight.
The innocent fledgling—single across her past and present lives—grumbled as she prepared for bed.