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["I'll go check on the kids for a bit..." ]

POP

Perhaps the enormity of what she'd heard had worn her out. Not long after Yu Na-gyeong left by Teleportation, looking exhausted, an unexpected visitor came to the reception room.

"Did your talk with the Wang family head go well?"

"... Princess, what are you doing here?"

Li Qingyu, the black-haired girl who had come through the door, tilted her head at Limon's less-than-enthusiastic question.

"Is this a bad time?"

"It's not the timing. What happened to the work you had left?"

"I asked another clan member to sort the documents instead of you, Sword Lord, but it's taking longer than I expected. I came down for a moment while they finish."

"You can handle the paperwork without sorting it, can't you?"

"It's a matter of efficiency."

Work suffered without proper rest, she replied with perfect nonchalance. Limon gave her an odd look, then glanced at what stood in front of her.

"So that's why you came? With all that?"

"A tea break with a few refreshments is more effective than a break without them."

"That's a bit much for 'a few refreshments,' isn't it?"

A steaming teapot. Pastries stacked on a seven-tier stand. An assortment of other snacks besides. There was more than enough for a full tea party, never mind a simple tea break. Limon scratched his cheek, but Qingyu merely wheeled the cart in and answered lightly.

"We have something to celebrate. There's no time to throw a party just yet, so we'll have to toast with tea instead."

"... Don't tell me you stayed behind earlier to prepare this."

"Who knows? What do you think?"

Qingyu answered with an enigmatic smile. She set out the refreshments herself, then continued as she poured tea into the cups.

"Congratulations on bringing the Wang family of Shanghai under your command, Sword Lord."

"Is that really worth congratulating me for?"

"Of course. At last, you have a faction within the Seven Dragons Society loyal to you alone."

Qingyu smiled. Limon might have held a senior position in the Black Dragon Clan until now, but as her prospective husband, he had largely been wielding authority borrowed from her name. Even Guardian was something Qingyu had given him, and he ran it with attendants she'd assigned. Now things were different. He had proved his strength as a Sword Master by resolving the recent crisis, and with the Wang family of Shanghai's forces in his hands, no one in the Black Dragon Clan could dismiss him as a figurehead anymore. At last, Limon had secured the minimum support he needed to make the Seven Dragons Society his own.

"The Wang family's strength and wealth are considerable. They'll be more than enough to serve as your vanguard when you move to rule the Seven Dragons Society."

The Wang family of Shanghai was a distinguished clan. Its assets alone easily surpassed those of most major corporations, and it had the resources and personnel to maintain combat units. If the Seven Dragons Society was a vast empire and each clan a kingdom, the Wang family was a lord with lands of its own. Subjugating them meant acquiring those lands, and that mattered. Even the finest knight was merely a swordsman alone, but a lord with land could contend for supremacy.

The Wang family was only the beginning. With them as a foundation, Limon could gradually expand his forces and amass far greater wealth and power, like the many conquerors in history who had started with a small domain and risen to become kings—or more.

"Besides, some of the constellation powers you've newly acquired will be tremendously useful as you expand your forces."

Reputation and the Wang family weren't all Limon had gained by defeating the Liberation Brigade. He had also cut down the constellations of Ryu Gang-cheol, Eugene, and Bellows and absorbed their powers, greatly expanding what he could do. But his greatest gain was the ability to wield the Violin of Deepest Black perfectly. A single performance for Eugene had let him fully assimilate the power of all three constellations. For Limon and Qingyu, that meant a great deal: now that absorbing fragments of starlight no longer had side effects, he could cut down as many constellations as he wished.

"After all you've gained, Sword Lord, how could I not congratulate you?"

Qingyu beamed as though she had gained it all herself. Limon let out a small laugh.

"By that logic, I'm not the only one who deserves congratulations."

Limon took the teapot from her. Her eyes widened briefly at the unexpected gesture, then she smiled with delight and politely held out her cup in both hands. As he poured her tea, he said evenly,

"Congratulations on taking back control of your clan, Black Dragon Princess."

"The elders still have their own faction. Aren't you congratulating me a little early?"

"It's only a question of sooner or later."

Limon chuckled. Qingyu had gained even more from the incident than he had. She had swept away decades of distrust and restored her authority as princess. And authority was no small thing: in the Seven Dragons Society, both a religion and a criminal organization, a princess's authority had once been absolute. It was remarkable that Qingyu had engineered a scheme that dragged her own authority through the mud, all to stop one man—Limon.

"You made good use of this crisis."

"A crisis is an opportunity."

Limon set down the teapot and raised his cup. Qingyu gently touched hers to it and continued calmly.

"In fact, you're right. Taking control of the clan is only a matter of time. What worries me is something else."

"The Liberation Brigade?"

"Yes."

Limon wasn't surprised. He had just been discussing them with Yu Na-gyeong. He simply asked,

"Think you can track them down?"

"Honestly, it's too much for the Black Dragon Clan to handle alone."

"Right. I thought so."

Limon nodded at the answer he'd expected. The Liberation Brigade was a phantom organization that investigative agencies around the world had pursued in vain. Just three of its members had wreaked havoc on the Black Dragon Clan's subsidiaries and Leviathan itself. Of course, they couldn't have run so wild in the Chinese Federation of Seventy-Seven States. Here, the clan had only a branch, and its influence in this country, which Limon had protected for centuries, was negligible compared with its power back home. Even so, the Brigade was clearly dangerous. Finding them was only half the problem. Even master-level experts might suffer losses rather than capture them.

"And there's something else I'm worried about."

"Worried? You?"

Limon looked puzzled. Few words seemed less suited to the scheming princess of the Black Dragon Clan. Qingyu asked him quietly,

"Do you remember when we first met, Sword Lord? The Infinite Monarch was pursuing me."

"Hmm... Yes. That did happen."

He'd forgotten about it at the time, absorbed in collecting his blood debt, but it certainly wasn't something to overlook. Monarchs might be the absolute beings of their age, but laying a hand on Qingyu could easily have sparked a war with the Seven Dragons Society.

"Since I met the Infinite Monarch again, I asked him about it—why he was pursuing me."

"What did that presumptuous bastard say?"

"He said he wanted a treasured artifact of the Black Dragon Clan that I possessed."

Limon raised his eyebrows before he knew it. He gazed at her in silence, tilted his head, and asked seriously,

"What's that?"

"What could it be?"

As though she were just as curious, Qingyu tilted her head to match his and went on in an unruffled voice.

"According to the Infinite Monarch, it's a supreme treasure containing the power of our founders, one that grants its owner the power of an absolute being."

"... I've fought you people for centuries, and this is the first I've heard of any damn thing like that."

Limon looked even more dubious. "What a coincidence. I'm a princess of the Seven Dragons Society, and I didn't know we had such a treasure either."

She'd found it absurd when she heard it herself, and seemed happy to let Limon find it just as absurd. Smiling, Qingyu nodded and added pointedly,

"So I asked the Infinite Monarch where he'd heard this rumor. An interesting name came up."

"... You don't mean that bastard?"

"Yes. Chief Park—Park Hyeon-gun, the man from whom you personally collected your blood debt."

Perhaps because he hadn't expected to hear that name again, Limon wore an unreadable expression. Qingyu explained calmly,

"It isn't strange. He managed the Infinity Guild on the Infinite Monarch's behalf, and apparently all important intelligence passed through him."

"But it's different if the intelligence was false."

"It is."

"... If a Monarch believed such suspicious intelligence, it must have looked convincing."

"And few organizations could secretly fabricate and plant intelligence convincing enough to fool even one of the ten great guilds."

"And that bastard..."

"Had ties to the Liberation Brigade."

Park Hyeon-gun had used the Liberation Brigade's headquarters as a trap, rigged it with explosives, and lured Limon inside. That alone proved his connection to them. It was entirely possible, then, that the Brigade had fed specific intelligence through him.

"You're saying the Brigade used that bastard to set the Infinity Guild against your clan?"

"I don't know. There's no way to tell whether they wanted a simple clash or something more."

Qingyu shook her head. Park Hyeon-gun, their point of contact, was already dead; even if he had lived, he likely wouldn't have known the Brigade's secrets. But she had another reason for bringing this up.

"What matters is that the Liberation Brigade may have reached into the other great guilds as well."

"Isn't that taking your suspicions too far?"

"If this were all we had to go on, yes."

Park Hyeon-gun was only one case. Drawing such a sweeping conclusion from him alone would be a stretch; traitors could turn up anywhere. So she said quietly,

"But what if one of the Liberation Brigade's ghosts stated flatly that the ten great guilds wouldn't intervene even if the Seven Dragons Society fell?"

"... Are you sure?"

"I extracted it using the Soul-Seizing Demon Eye School."

"Fucking hell..."

Limon swore. As the Seven Dragons Society's old enemy, he knew how frightening the Soul-Seizing Demon Eye School was. He knew, too, what it meant that Bellows had been able to make such a claim while under its influence.

"If even the ten great guilds are tangled up with the Liberation Brigade, this really is beyond what the Black Dragon Clan can handle alone."

The ten great guilds held sway over this era. However many high-level players the Liberation Brigade had, it was still a criminal organization; the guilds were in another league. But if the Brigade had planted agents at the heart of the great guilds, as it had used Park Hyeon-gun to steer Lee Cheon-gi's actions, hunting a pest could mean finding themselves up against a beast.

"Yes. Beyond what the Black Dragon Clan can handle alone."

Qingyu readily admitted they lacked the strength. But Limon caught the qualification she kept repeating.

"... So to catch the Liberation Brigade, we'll need the strength of the entire Seven Dragons Society."

"Exactly."

This was nothing new. The Liberation Brigade had simply brought the need into focus sooner. From the moment they had decided to face the constellations, drawing in the whole Seven Dragons Society had been an inevitable step. The question was how.

"You can't make the Society move right now, can you?"

"No."

The Black Dragon Clan had already sold off nearly half its stake in Leviathan. Even within the same Seven Dragons Society, Qingyu had lost nearly half her power, leaving her with virtually no say.

"Then we'll have to win over the other princesses... Think that's possible?"

"Not by ordinary means."

"Not by extraordinary means either."

Limon frowned. Even he had no way to force a princess of the Seven Dragons Society to follow him. If threats and intimidation worked on them, they wouldn't have opposed him for centuries. He would have to secure their willing cooperation somehow, but persuasion from Qingyu, who was already betrothed to him, was unlikely to work. After all, Limon was the Seven Dragons Society's sworn enemy.

"Hmm. I used to think so too..."

"... Why 'used to'?"

That was why Limon looked at Qingyu's peculiar expression in puzzlement.

"I'm not certain, but I think we might be able to win at least one of them over."