* * *

RUMBLE.

The labyrinth covering the lobby collapsed. As the altered building returned to its original form, Li Qingyu felt the restrictions binding her entire body fall away. She spoke quietly.

"It's finally over."

"Shall I release the formation?"

"Yes. We've caught all the attackers anyway."

With Li Qingyu's permission, Yo U-in gave a small signal to the Ink Dragon Unit stationed in the lobby. A moment later, the change began.

Leviathan seemed to shimmer, and the darkness that had invisibly surrounded the building slowly dispersed. In its place appeared an encircling formation: hundreds of warriors in martial uniforms emerged from beyond the veil of darkness, arrayed in a vast formation.

"I should thank everyone who came to help. Things must be chaotic at the subsidiaries too, yet they came all this way."

"There is no need to thank us. Helping you is our duty, Your Highness."

"That's precisely why I'm grateful: they did what they were supposed to do." Li Qingyu smiled.

Ryu Gang-cheol's death and the end of the attacks hadn't made things any easier for the subsidiaries. Those that hadn't signed contracts with Guardian, and therefore received no support from the Infinity Guild, had suffered numerous casualties. Yet their warriors had rushed here despite being covered in blood. She had every reason to thank them—especially when her clan had openly scorned her as the one responsible for the Black Dragon Clan's decline.

'At least I won't have to worry about the clan's support for a while.'

Li Qingyu didn't believe they had all rushed here out of loyalty to her. If anything, it was the opposite. Having seen Limon in action today, they now knew what a Sword Master was. They had also realized that once Li Qingyu and Limon were engaged, his sword might be turned on them. More of the warriors had probably hurried here to compete in professing their loyalty, belated though it was.

But that didn't matter. Whether their loyalty was sincere or served some ulterior purpose, it was enough for Li Qingyu that they did what they were supposed to do. They were the Black Dragon Clan, a clan of plots and schemes, and she was their princess.

"Doing what you're supposed to do is surprisingly difficult."

"Do you think so?"

"If our intruders had done what they were supposed to, they wouldn't have set foot inside Leviathan so easily."

"... I see. You're right." Yo U-in readily conceded the point.

Bellows and the other ghosts of the Liberation Brigade had been wary of the Seven Dragons Society's fearsome reputation, but they hadn't properly investigated Leviathan itself. So Bellows had died without ever knowing that even if Limon hadn't stopped him, he would never have escaped this place alive.

This was Leviathan, a fortress packed with ancient mysteries—from dragon formations to magical barriers and the blessings of spirits—at enormous expense by the Seven Dragons Society. Even Sword Masters had never dared enter it lightly.

"Then may I leave the cleanup to you?"

"Yes. Don't worry about the rest. Please get some rest."

He needed to have his broken arm treated before anything else, yet Yo U-in answered calmly, and Li Qingyu didn't bother asking whether he would be all right. He was Leviathan's general manager precisely because he could handle this much.

She left Yo U-in to deal with the aftermath, including settling matters within the clan, and focused on what only she could do. Such as dealing with a rather unusual temporary security guard.

"Should I call you the Infinite Monarch?"

"Please, speak to me casually."

"No, I couldn't." Speak casually to a Monarch? If word got out, there would be headlines claiming the Black Dragon Clan's princess had disrespected one. The Seven Dragons Society and the ten great guilds represented the wealth and might of the modern age. As leaders of those two vast groups, every move the two of them made could affect the world.

"To be honest, I'm a little surprised."

"By what?"

"I didn't expect you to help us so wholeheartedly."

Li Qingyu had good reason to say so. Even with the enormous fee she'd offered, getting one of the ten great guilds to sign a security contract had been extraordinary. For a Monarch to personally act as a guard was far beyond even his employer's expectations. Lee Cheon-gi's answer was simple.

"Given who the employer is, I didn't feel like risking my life by slacking off."

"True. He's not someone you can fool with a token effort." Li Qingyu chuckled.

Limon had grumbled more than once about the fee she'd paid the Infinity Guild. If Lee Cheon-gi had merely pretended to fight, Limon would undoubtedly have called him a money-grubbing fucking fraud and taken him apart.

"You seem to know the Sword Lord well."

"Of course. I'm the Sword Lord's fiancée." As if it were only natural for a bride-to-be to know her future husband well, Li Qingyu answered with a hint of pride. Then she tilted her head.

"Since you brought him up, is there something you'd like to know about the Sword Lord?"

"It's not something I'm particularly curious about, but there is something I'd like to know if I can."

"Such as why he took his friend's life but spared yours, even though you were his enemy?"

"How did you know?"

"How could I not?" She didn't need to read his mind. Ever since Limon had left, Lee Cheon-gi had been unable to take his eyes off Eugene's body. One look told her his question concerned Eugene.

"Then do you know the answer?"

"Yes. Whatever else might be difficult to explain, the reason the Sword Lord spared you is quite simple." Li Qingyu nodded readily. Then, with a perfect smile, she told him the answer anyone who knew Limon even a little would already know—but one Lee Cheon-gi himself might never have realized.

"Because you were an idiot."

"... I wasn't asking for a joke." Perhaps he was too dumbfounded to respond at once. Only after a brief silence did Lee Cheon-gi speak quietly. The fact that he remained composed even then showed patience worthy of praise.

"That's good. I wasn't joking either." Li Qingyu hadn't been teasing him. She had given him her sincere answer, which was why she went out of her way to explain why she could only consider him an idiot.

"When the Sword Lord called you out at the Blue House, you went to fight him alone, didn't you?"

"Surely you aren't calling me an idiot because of that?"

"I am. No one had even attempted to fight a Sword Master head-on, one-on-one, for hundreds of years."

"..." Lee Cheon-gi fell silent. He might not have understood before, but having fought Limon, he now had some idea of what a Sword Master was. Fighting one alone was like jumping naked into a volcano full of boiling lava and trying to reach the other side of the planet.

And what would people call someone who actually tried that and survived? Calling him merely an "idiot" was remarkably considerate of Li Qingyu.

"... You're saying that idiocy is why the Sword Lord spared me?"

"Yes. Because of that idiocy, the Sword Lord saw you not merely as an enemy, but as a challenger trying to rise to the position of an absolute being."

If Lee Cheon-gi had truly been the one who held the children hostage and laid the trap, he would never have gone to fight Limon alone. Or he would have prepared some other scheme. A schemer who never moved without layers of contingency plans thought differently from an absolute being who settled everything through his own strength. By appearing before Limon alone, Lee Cheon-gi had proved he wasn't behind the plot.

"And the Sword Lord has generally been generous to challengers like that."

"Why?" A king whose throne was threatened would never forgive a rebel. Lee Cheon-gi asked calmly why Limon was different, and Li Qingyu smiled.

"Do you think an elephant would fly into a rage after being bitten by an ant and insist on stamping it to death?"

"Even an ant can kill a lion if it tears into its heart."

"Yes, but not an ant that charges straight at it, declaring it will defeat it."

"..." Perhaps he resented being reduced to an ant. Li Qingyu chuckled at the sight of Lee Cheon-gi, who had offered a calm rebuttal only to be just as calmly crushed.

"That's why the Sword Lord is indifferent to challenges against him or threats to him personally. He doesn't even perceive them as threats."

A king executed a rebel's relatives down to distant cousins because he needed fear to protect his throne. But a true absolute being had no such need. No matter who challenged him or how many times, he could hold his position through his own strength alone.

"If the Sword Lord had disposed of every challenger like you... well, wouldn't most of the countries that exist today have been destroyed long ago?"

"... Isn't that rather an odd scale to measure it by?"

"Many of those who challenged him for the position of absolute being were nations and organizations." During the chaotic Age of Heroes, the great powers seeking world supremacy through their Sword Masters had each clashed with Limon, then master of the Sword Tower. To powers intent on monopolizing Sword Masters, the ultimate asymmetric force, the Sword Tower's practice of teaching all humanity equally was an obstacle simply by existing.

World history would have been different if Limon hadn't ended those wars with minimal losses each time, Li Qingyu explained calmly. Then she added one more thing.

"Of course, those who used underhanded tricks to harm innocents instead of challenging him openly had to pay the price."

What truly angered Limon was when someone targeted those close to him or harmed good people, rather than attacking him. Those who did so always had to pay their blood debt. As she said this, Li Qingyu looked at Lee Cheon-gi's eye, hidden beneath his hair.

"The Sword Lord took your eye not because you challenged him. It was a warning for the innocent subordinate he lost because of your foolishness."

"... I see. I understand." Only then did Lee Cheon-gi understand that Limon had meant it literally when he said Lee was too stupid to be worth punishing. Had he played even the slightest direct part in Yu Na-gyeong's death, he would already be dead. He also understood why, of all the Sword Masters, Limon alone had been called humanity's guardian deity. For someone capable of destroying a country simply because he disliked it, choosing not to was reason enough to be revered.

"Does that answer your question?"

"Yes."

"I'm glad. If you're that quick to understand, you'll understand the warning I'm about to give you, too."

"... What warning?"

"A warning not to presume to test his mercy just because you now know what kind of man the Sword Lord is." Li Qingyu smiled.

"Remember this, Infinite Monarch."

Her smile was as beautiful as ever.

"I'm not as merciful as he is."

Her voice was perfectly calm and composed.

"If you're ungrateful enough to raise your sword against the Sword Lord again, or if you forget his warning and become a puppet of 'something' once more..."

She spoke as casually as if she were describing the tea and sweets served at teatime.

"I'll use the full power of the Seven Dragons Society to kill you."

Yet the girl's eyes, deep and murky as a swamp, held not the slightest trace of a smile as she looked at him. Lee Cheon-gi slowly nodded to Li Qingyu and thought:

The groom threatened him and put him to work. The bride put him to work and threatened him. They really were made for each other.

"Oh, and there's something I'd like to ask while we're talking."

Apparently satisfied that Lee Cheon-gi had taken her warning to heart, Li Qingyu smiled and casually posed a question, as though it had just occurred to her.

"Before I met the Sword Lord, why did you target me?"