Chapter 73
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Translator: MadScientist
Chapter: 73
Chapter Title: Strike
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It wasn't just a simple impact. It was an explosion.
The thick blackboard made of ebony split precisely in half and flew off to both sides. Cracks spiderwebbed across the wall behind it.
The banquet hall trembled from the immense destructive force.
"Everyone, stop!!!"
Cheonwi's Lion's Roar exploded forth.
The shout, laced with internal energy, reverberated as if it would tear eardrums apart.
"Is this a marketplace? Or a dogfighting pit?!"
In an instant, an unbelievable silence fell.
The swords and whips that had been aimed at each other's throats froze mid-air. Hands reaching for hair came to a halt. The heroines, bristling with murderous intent, flinched and looked toward Cheonwi.
At the end of their gazes stood not the usual sly, jovial Cheonwi, but a man with chillingly sunken eyes.
The only sound was the chunks of shattered blackboard clattering to the floor.
Cheonwi slowly, very slowly, scanned the room.
Iron Blood, meeting his eyes, stealthily sheathed her sword. Tira hurriedly coiled her whip behind her back and pretended to look away. Even Yeonhwa hid her face with her fan and averted her gaze.
They sensed it instinctively.
Cheonwi was truly angry.
"Good. Very good."
Cheonwi growled lowly. It was sarcasm.
"I tried to resolve this through talk, and you've turned it into a complete mess. Have you trampled the Inner Palace's rules and the military's code of conduct underfoot?"
No one could reply.
Cheonwi roughly undid his collar.
"Since words don't work, we'll do it my way. Everyone, sit down. Now."
It was a command. One carrying an irresistible absolute authority.
The beauties shuffled awkwardly back to their seats amid the wreckage of chairs and overturned tables. Snowflower Princess crawled out from under the table and knelt on her knees.
Cheonwi stepped down from the dais and approached them. His shadow engulfed the heroines.
Seeing his icy expression, the heroines instinctively realized.
They had crossed a taboo. They had touched the most fearsome reverse scale: Cheonwi's disposition.
This man was endlessly carefree on ordinary days, but once provoked, he was a monster that could make even the Emperor tremble.
In the silence, Cheonwi's lips slowly parted. The declaration that followed shattered their imaginations.
"Your excessive displays of affection are honestly suffocating. Order has collapsed, courtesy has vanished. In this state, I can't spend the night with anyone."
Cheonwi declared, hands thrust into his pockets.
"Time for punishment. Effective immediately... 'indefinite suspension'."
For a moment, silence washed over the banquet hall like a bucket of cold water.
"Suspension...? What does that mean?"
Iron Blood asked blankly. It wasn't that she didn't understand the words—it was denial of the reality she couldn't accept.
Cheonwi drove the nail in.
"My 'sword' is sealed in its sheath. No one enters my chambers without my permission. Days of the week? All confiscated. No skinship, no bedding together, no lewd jokes. Full strike."
It was no different from a death sentence.
"No, you can't!"
Tira was the first to scream. Clutching her head, she rolled on the floor.
"My ovulation day! My baby! Check the calendar—it's perfect timing right now! Miss this, and it's another month of waiting!"
"You're joking, right? Cutting off supplies in the middle of tactical training?"
Iron Blood's face paled.
"Supplies are lifeblood for a soldier! Without regular 'energy' infusions, my internal energy will dry up! Cut me off, and I'll desert! Seriously, I'll desert and defect to the enemy!"
"Then desert, by all means."
Cheonwi replied without batting an eye.
"I do just fine alone. Finally time to read those books I couldn't get to, meditate—sounds great. I'll savor the joys of solitude."
Cheonwi turned away coolly, without a hint of regret.
His resolute attitude shattered the heroines' reason. Pride? Dignity? The Empress's majesty? None of it mattered anymore. The terror of cold, Cheonwi-less beds starting tonight dominated them.
"D-don't go!"
As Cheonwi headed for the banquet hall doors, the heroines rushed him en masse.
Thud! Grab!
Women clung to Cheonwi's legs like cicadas. Warriors who commanded the world, lofty royals, dragged pathetically across the floor as they desperately held on.
"I was wrong! I'll give more money! Even the throne! No, my entire fortune! Please, just retract the suspension!"
Yeonhwa clutched Cheonwi's pant leg, pleading. Her eye makeup smeared, turning her into a panda.
"Master! I'll bark if you say bark! Woof! Arf! Grrr! Please don't abandon me! Without you, I can't even breathe—I'm just furniture!"
Sword Queen rubbed her face against Cheonwi's shoe, unleashing her masochistic instincts. For her, neglect play was torture, not reward.
"O-oppa... it's cold... You know I have poor circulation... If you don't hold me, I'll freeze to death... Sob sob..."
Snowflower Princess clung to Cheonwi's waist, tears and snot streaming down. It wasn't an act of feigned pitifulness—it was a cry for survival.
But Cheonwi was firm.
"Let go. You're stretching my clothes."
He coldly shook off Tira and Iron Blood from his legs.
"No soup until you write reflections. Ten A4 pages each: what you did wrong, how you'll foster a healthy harem culture going forward. Detail it thoroughly. If it lacks sincerity, the suspension extends."
"Ten pages?! To a barbarian like me, write?! Just tell me to slay a dragon instead!"
Tira wailed, but Cheonwi ignored her.
"Then go slay a dragon. Of course, even if you do, suspension stays."
Cheonwi ruthlessly shook them off and sauntered out of the banquet hall.
Bam.
The heavy door slammed shut, striking their hearts.
Only silence remained in the banquet hall.
Shattered furnishings, torn curtains, and the world's beauties sprawled on the floor. They stared blankly at the closed door, dazed.
"Did we... go too far?"
Tira muttered blankly. Her wild vitality gone, she looked like a rain-soaked puppy.
"Operation failed... full retreat... no, total defeat."
Iron Blood pounded the floor in lament.
"We're all dead now..."
"A reflection from the Empress...?"
Yeonhwa touched her forehead with trembling hands. Yet even in despair, her eyes spun rapidly. She couldn't back down like this. Nights without Cheonwi were unimaginable.
Meanwhile, Cheonwi, out in the corridor, whistled as he walked.
"Whew..."
He glanced back at the closed door and curled his lips.
'The path to mastering push-pull is long and arduous.'
Too much indulgence lately had made them climb all over him. Sometimes, you had to draw a firm line, yank away what you'd given, to teach them value.
'Tease with giving, then snatch away. Perfect effect.'
Cheonwi hummed cheerfully, just imagining it. Tonight, a sweet, uninterrupted sleep for the first time in ages. And when they came crawling with reflections, that's when true negotiations from a position of power would begin.
Cheonwi's steps lightened.
But the thoughts of those left in the banquet hall churned far more fiercely than he anticipated.
"This is... that."
Sword Queen swept back her disheveled hair and stood. Her eyes gleamed coldly once more.
"Master's taming us right now. This... kinda exciting?"
"Get a grip... One wrong move, and we're done. How do I even write a reflection? I can't write..."
Tira grumbled.
"No."
Yeonhwa's eyes flashed. She picked up the fallen hot spring key from the floor.
"Reflections won't cut it. To sway Cheonwi's heart, we need not just apology, but 'sincerity'."
"Sincerity?"
"It's coming soon. His Majesty's birthday banquet."
The heroines' gazes focused on Yeonhwa's words.
"That's when all the empire's high officials gather. Cheonwi must attend as the Emperor's closest aide. There... we show sincerity that moves Cheonwi—no, everyone present."
"Pin him down in a public spot where he can't squirm?"
Snowflower Princess swallowed hard.
"Exactly. Make his 'sex strike' declaration fade into irrelevance. That night, he'll crawl into our beds on his own."
Iron Blood grinned.
"Operation name: 'Emperor's Birthday Reclamation Battle'? I like it."
Cheonwi's 'sex strike' declaration draped the Imperial Palace nights in silence, but it was the calm before the storm. The anxious heroines seized the approaching 'Emperor's Birthday Banquet' as their chance, steeling themselves for a dangerous resolve to win back Cheonwi's heart.
Their eyes no longer held enmity toward each other. They burned with the fierce alliance to conquer their 'common target', Cheonwi.
A few days later, the Imperial Palace's grand banquet hall.
To celebrate the Emperor's birthday, the empire's every power broker gathered in one place. Chandeliers adorning the ceiling blazed brilliantly, tables groaned under mountains of delicacies.
Musicians played, dancers whirled, yet the banquet hall's atmosphere simmered strangely.
The highest seat: the jade throne where the Emperor should sit.
And beside it, Cheonwi's place.
Both were empty.
Ministers murmured, glancing at each other. The Prime Minister sweated profusely, whispering to the eunuch beside him.
"His Majesty... still hasn't stopped coughing?"
The Prime Minister's voice trembled. His gaze fixed on the grand banquet hall's highest point: the empty jade throne.
It was the Emperor's birthday. The empire's nobles and envoys filled the hall. Chandeliers shone like the sun, tables overflowed with delicacies fit to spoil. Yet the banquet's protagonist, the Emperor himself, was nowhere to be seen.
"Well... um..."
Chief Eunuch Jo fidgeted, sweat pouring like rain.
"Indulging in... beauties..."
"What? With envoys watching hawk-eyed, skipping his birthday banquet for women?! Absurd!"
The Prime Minister clicked his tongue. Whispers rippled among the ministers like waves: the kingdom's in shambles, omens of ruin, disloyal rumors swirled.
Then.
Thud, thud.
Heavy footsteps crossed the noisy hall. Silence fell instantly. All eyes turned to the entrance.
It was Cheonwi.
He wore plain black ceremonial robes, devoid of ornament, but the pressure radiating from him overwhelmed the gold-bedecked officials. Cheonwi ascended the dais wordlessly.
And plopped down right beside the Emperor's jade throne.
In the seat meant for the Empress.
"Ch-Cheonwi Regent! That's Her Majesty's seat!"