* * *

After the long night ended and the Liberation Brigade's ghost was dealt with, the Black Dragon Clan's subsidiaries, including Leviathan, grew even busier than they had been before the attacks. They had damaged facilities to repair, starting with the lobby, gaps left by the dead and injured to fill, and new events to plan to get their struggling businesses back on track. As the Seven Dragon Group, not just the Seven Dragons Society, they had no shortage of work to do.

Guardian was especially busy. Having led the defense of the subsidiaries, it already had plenty to sort out and check. On top of that, requests to join the Guardian System came flooding in from the remaining domestic subsidiaries and even those on the mainland. As Guardian's only full-time employee, Wei Ling was on the verge of collapsing from overwork. Remarkably, she handled most of it alone by working late.

"... Where the hell has that damned head of ours gone to slack off at a time like this?" Of course, she spent the entire time cursing the head who never once showed his face.

Thanks to their efforts, the Black Dragon Clan's subsidiaries quickly returned to normal—quickly enough to disappoint those who had hoped to exploit the chaos to expand their influence. But not every subsidiary could recover on its own. Some had suffered too much damage and ultimately needed Leviathan's support.

"I must say, I'm surprised."

"By what?"

"I didn't know you had a talent for paperwork too, Sword Lord."

"... Are you making fun of me?"

"No, I mean it."

Limon frowned as he flipped rapidly through a stack of documents. Watching him, Li Qingyu couldn't help murmuring in admiration.

"Even an expert of the Seven Dragons Society couldn't process this many documents so quickly."

"That's just because their eyes and reflexes can't keep up with mine. All I'm doing is sorting them."

"Sorting is still paperwork, you know."

"Sure it is."

Limon clicked his tongue as he organized the haphazard piles by type, subsidiary, priority, and date, pulling out duplicates and documents that didn't belong. Ordinarily, their paperwork wouldn't have been this sloppy, but clan members across every subsidiary were so busy dealing with the aftermath of the attacks that the documents had come in without any order.

'Reminds me of sorting paperwork on the battlefield.'

Fortunately, no matter how jumbled the documents were, Limon could sort them in the blink of an eye. It was a simple task that even a new hire could have done. His speed was the absurd part. With his extraordinary physical abilities, he sorted documents as fast as a hundred new hires working together—reason enough for Li Qingyu to be impressed.

Yet he couldn't take the compliment at face value, for one reason: Li Qingyu was processing each batch the moment he handed it to her.

"How is your brain wired that you can get through these so fast?"

"I understand how all the Black Dragon Clan's operations fit together. I only have to read the important parts."

"Am I the only one who thinks understanding all those operations is the abnormal part?"

"You must be imagining it."

She sounded as though she genuinely thought nothing of it, calmly marking errors in the documents as she answered. Limon shook his head in disbelief. Wei Ling was impressive at handling work, but Li Qingyu was on another level entirely, leafing through mountains of documents with a cheerful smile.

["Why did God make a monster couple like you two just to make people the world over feel inadequate?"]

"I've cut down a god before, but I don't remember one making me."

"Our founders were dragons, though."

["Yes, yes. Of course they were."]

To Yu Na-gyeong, an ordinary baby bird, they were both infuriatingly gifted. 'In novels, people who get reincarnated always get some incredible cheat power and stomp everyone. So why am I just an ordinary flying ra... No, a bluebird?'

She was still grumbling inwardly when she teleported in with another bundle of documents. Just then, Limon's pager rang.

["Sword Lord, the guest you mentioned has arrived."]

"Hm? Already?"

["Yes. He seems to have pushed himself, so I showed him straight to the reception room."]

"All right. I'll be there now."

After taking Yo U-in's call, Limon rose at once and turned to Li Qingyu.

"Princess, what about you?"

"Is this about him?"

"Yeah. I thought it might be better if you came too."

She looked thoughtful for a moment, then shook her head.

"I'll stay here."

"You sure?"

"That matter is already settled. All that's left is a formality."

With a mountain of work already waiting, she had no time to waste on such minor cleanup. She pressed her seal onto a document and added with a smile:

"More importantly, I think you should be the one to finish this yourself, Sword Lord."

"All right. I'll be back."

["Oh, me! I'm coming with you!"]

Limon didn't press Li Qingyu further. He simply scooped up the fluttering Yu Na-gyeong and ambled toward Leviathan's reception room to meet the guest waiting for him. In fact, the only reason he'd been helping with paperwork—uncharacteristic as that was—had been to pass the time until this guest arrived.

"Well now, you've come!"

"Don't get up. Stay seated."

With a casual wave, Limon stopped the man who was struggling to rise from his wheelchair to greet him. He studied the man for a moment, then spoke.

"I thought so back then too, but you really are hard to kill. Even for a master-level expert, I didn't expect you to survive all that."

"I owe it all to your kindness, Sword Lord."

"Spare me the flattery. You know better than anyone that I had no intention of saving you, Director Wang."

Both arms were gone, one severed at the shoulder and the other at the elbow. Bandages covered half his face, and a cast enclosed his leg. The mustached middle-aged man looked less like a patient in critical condition than a living corpse. Wang Gi-neung grinned at Limon's words.

"Your intentions don't matter. What matters is that I'm alive thanks to you, Sword Lord."

"Enough flattery. Get to the point."

"Yes, sir."

Even a master-level expert ought to have been suffering terribly, physically and mentally, in his condition. But Wang Gi-neung smiled as if he felt no pain at all and jerked his chin toward the warrior holding his wheelchair. As the warrior presented a small box, Wang spoke.

"Please accept it."

"What's this?"

"A blood-signed pledge offering you all the Wang family of Shanghai's assets and shares, along with the loyalty of everyone in our household."

["What?!"]

Yu Na-gyeong jumped in surprise. Though the Wang family stood at the bottom of the Black Dragon Clan, it was still a distinguished house with centuries of history and immense accumulated wealth. For Wang Gi-neung to offer up everything it owned was as startling as it was baffling.

Limon, however, showed no surprise. He simply said, "Offering your entire fortune as a bribe to save your life? Things must be looking pretty bad for you."

"Someone has to take responsibility for what happened."

"And your family is the perfect scapegoat? You took charge of the initial investigation, accomplished nothing, and suffered heavy losses."

"We brought it on ourselves."

If they hadn't made such a spectacle of announcing Ryu Gang-cheol's capture, they might have been able to smooth things over. Greed had been their mistake.

Limon watched Wang Gi-neung smile as he answered, then asked bluntly:

"Why offer this to me instead of the princess?"

"Because to Her Highness, our family is more trouble than it's worth now. To you, Sword Lord, we could be a reliable source of private funds."

"In other words, you took me for a sucker who'd go out of his way to protect your family?"

"How could you think that? I'm making this request because I trust your fairness and integrity, Sword Lord."

"You mean you're counting on me being hard up, not fair and upright."

Limon gave a short laugh. Since the Liberation Brigade's attack had been repelled, Li Qingyu's standing among the Black Dragon Clan had changed dramatically. The same people who had once dismissed her as the foolish princess who'd brought the clan to ruin were now trying every way they could to win her favor. With Limon, it was different. Far fewer looked down on him than before, but many had grown wary and kept their distance. Unlike Li Qingyu, who was their princess, Limon was the Seven Dragons Society's old enemy. However much he'd done to protect the Black Dragon Clan, they could revere his power without trusting him.

In that respect, Wang Gi-neung's offer had its appeal. The Wang family of Shanghai was a distinguished house, after all. Taking the whole family under his wing would give Limon a force he could command as his own hands and feet.

"You found the person who'd pay the most for a family on the verge of ruin. I'll give you this: you've got a keen eye for an opportunity."

"Reading the room is how our family became distinguished in the first place."

Wang Gi-neung grinned, apparently taking that as acceptance. Limon answered evenly.

"Don't celebrate yet. I acknowledged your instincts. I never said I'd accept your paltry offer."

"... What do you mean?"

"Are you asking because you don't know, or because you don't want to know?"

Perhaps the answer was so unexpected that Wang Gi-neung doubted his own ears. At the sight of his bewildered expression, Limon decided to show him what he meant.

"I mean I don't need this garbage."

"...!"

SLICE!

Limon's sword cut through the air. A moment later, Wang Gi-neung froze as the box fell to the floor in two halves. Limon had cut down, without hesitation, what amounted to everything the Wang family possessed. The sight wiped the smile from the face of a man who'd kept grinning even with death looming over him.

"... May I ask why?"

"No grand reason. You're just not the only one who knows how to read a situation."

As Limon spoke quietly, the reception room door opened and a masked figure appeared. Wang Gi-neung swallowed a groan. It wasn't because the warrior accompanying him had silently left the room, as though trading places with the masked figure, without any instruction from him. It was what the newcomer carried: a box identical to the one Limon had just cut apart, but several times larger. Wang went cold at the sight.

Limon took the box in one hand, making sure Wang Gi-neung had a good view. Unlike the light box he'd cut apart, this one had some heft. He set it on his lap, tapped it with his fingers, and spoke in a low voice. "Wang Gi-neung. You treated me like a sucker and ended up like that. What makes you arrogant enough to think you can still use me?"