"Really?"

"Yes, provided you help us, Sword Lord."

"If you need my help, is there a princess who's suddenly found herself in need of a swordsman?"

Drawing on his experience, Limon offered the most reasonable conclusion he could think of. Li Qingyu was an exception. Otherwise, he could think of no reason a princess of the Seven Dragons Society would borrow the strength of an enemy.

"No. To be precise, what we need isn't your strength, Sword Lord, but..."

KNOCK, KNOCK.

Qingyu's expression grew more complicated at Limon's suggestion. Just as she was about to explain, a light knock sounded.

"Your Highness, I'm sorry to disturb your rest, but may I come in for a moment?"

"... Has something else happened?"

"Nothing particularly important, but there's something I need to tell the Sword Lord."

"Me?"

After getting permission from the puzzled Limon and Qingyu, Yo U-in entered the reception room and took two photographs from his pocket.

"Do you happen to know these two?"

"Huh? Why do you have pictures of them?"

"I came across them by chance while tracing that guest Eugene's movements..."

Limon looked surprised at the photographs of Mr. Jeong, the live café's owner, and producer Kim Seung-jun. With Eugene dead, he had no reason to see either of them again. Why show him their pictures?

Yo U-in answered his unspoken question with a serious expression. "It seems the two of them are in a rather difficult position because of you and that guest, Sword Lord."

* * *

At the live café where Eugene had worked, Mr. Jeong and producer Kim Seung-jun sat with their heads together, their faces dark and haggard.

"Sir, you still haven't managed to reach Eugene?"

"Would I be sitting here like this if I had?"

"Why didn't you get her contact information? You're supposed to have your part-timers' numbers."

"You little punk! You're the one who introduced her to me. You should've had her number!"

"I was planning to get it out of you later."

"You recommended Eugene for the job because you wanted me to get her number for you?!"

For a moment, Mr. Jeong looked ready to seize Kim Seung-jun by the collar and shake him senseless. Then he sighed.

"Forget it. Beating you up won't solve anything now."

Mr. Jeong gulped down cold water, trying to cool his temper. Only then did Kim Seung-jun feel guilty enough to avert his eyes. It wasn't directly his fault, but Mr. Jeong was in this predicament because he'd introduced Eugene to him.

"What about that young friend of Eugene's? We should at least talk to him."

"If I don't even have Eugene's number, do you think I have Mr. Lee's?"

"... Some achievement that is, you idiot."

Mr. Jeong raked a hand roughly through his hair. He needed to talk to Eugene to have any hope of sorting this out, but she'd suddenly stopped coming to work without a word. Having been blindsided like this, he felt ready to burst.

Perhaps afraid that anger might turn on him, Kim Seung-jun watched Mr. Jeong warily before cautiously voicing a suspicion.

"But sir, isn't the timing strange?"

"What timing?"

"Losing contact with Eugene right now, of all times. Is it really a coincidence?"

"If it's not a coincidence, what is it? You don't seriously think that bastard kidnapped her?"

"Maybe not kidnapped, but he could have pulled something."

Mr. Jeong scoffed at Kim Seung-jun's conspiracy theory. "He's doing all this because he wants Eugene. What would he gain by pulling a stunt like that behind the scenes?"

"Maybe he approached her, and she ignored him and insisted on doing things her own way."

"Oh, come on. Eugene may be an oddball who cares about nothing but music, and that bastard may have something wrong with his personality, but surely he wouldn't go that far."

"... Sir, did saying that out loud just make you worry it's actually pretty likely?"

"... Is it that obvious?"

"Your eyes are shaking like California during the Spirit Upheaval."

"Damn it!"

At Kim Seung-jun's blunt observation, Mr. Jeong gave up pretending to be calm. His leg bouncing openly, he asked, "What do we do? Call the police?"

"The police wouldn't even make it through WIM's front door."

"What about that PAB place? The one that specializes in arresting players."

"Didn't you see the news? It was disbanded recently."

"Then what the hell am I supposed to do?"

"I'm saying you should calm down. We don't even know for sure that Chief Moon pulled anything on Eugene."

"You little bastard! You dump a whole barrel of worries on me and then tell me that?"

Mr. Jeong flew into a rage like a descended constellation. At last he grabbed Kim Seung-jun by the collar and shook him. Just then, the café's firmly shut door opened.

"We're closed today. Please come back another time!"

Perhaps it was a shopkeeper's instinct. Mr. Jeong had heard the door open as if by magic, and politely turned the customer away even as he shook Kim Seung-jun. Inwardly, he grumbled about the impatient visitor who had ignored the [CLOSED] sign.

"Is that so? Then should I just leave?"

"...!?"

The instant he heard the visitor's voice, Mr. Jeong whipped around toward the entrance, all trace of his earlier indifference gone. It was the voice he and Kim Seung-jun had been waiting so desperately to hear that they had scarcely thought of anything else.

"Lee! Where have you been all this time?!"

BANG!

Perhaps Mr. Jeong was a little too glad to see him. He drove Kim Seung-jun, whom he was still holding, headfirst into the floor and turned to greet Limon.

Limon muttered awkwardly, "... If you were in the middle of murdering someone, you could've locked the door. Now you've embarrassed the poor witness who walked in on you."

* * *

"I'm reporting you. I'm reporting you for attempted murder..."

"Don't exaggerate. How is a little bump on the head attempted murder?"

"You piledrove a perfectly healthy man headfirst into a bare floor, and that's what you have to say?!"

"Ahem. People do things like that when they get excited."

"If you get excited twice, are you going to actually kill someone?!"

Watching the two argue, Yu Na-gyeong opened her beak without thinking.

["I never noticed before, but seeing producer Kim Seung-jun like this, I feel a strange sense of kinship with him."]

"Maybe it's because you both let words fly out before they pass through your brains."

["Hmm. Could that be it?"]

Yu Na-gyeong tilted her head as she looked at the bump on Kim Seung-jun's head.

Limon tapped the table lightly to get their attention. "Hey, you two. It's nice that you're getting along so well, but didn't you have something you wanted from me?"

"Oh, right!"

"Do you know where Eugene is, or what she's doing?"

As if only now remembering why they'd been waiting for Limon, they both hurried to ask about Eugene. Looking at their faces, where worry mingled with hope and anxiety with anticipation, Limon was silent a moment before answering.

"She went to America."

"What?"

"Why would she suddenly go to America?!"

"She was always a wanderer. I suppose it was time for her to move on."

Limon spoke quietly. There was nothing to be gained, for either side, by telling an ordinary café owner and a producer that Eugene had been a criminal, or that he'd killed her because of it.

"Good God."

"Could the timing be any worse...?"

But Limon's news alone was enough to make their faces resemble The Scream. To the two men, who looked as if the world had ended, he asked evenly, "Why? Will something terrible happen without Eugene?"

"It's not so much that something will happen as that it already has."

With a sigh, Kim Seung-jun was about to explain—if only another visitor hadn't arrived just then.

"Ha ha ha! Boss, how's business?"

A man in sunglasses flung open the café door with a boisterous laugh. Moon Cheon-yeop of the WIM Guild grinned as he surveyed the empty café, then feigned surprise when he spotted Limon.

"Well, if it isn't Mr. Lee! I've looked everywhere for you. I never expected to run into you here by chance."

'Chance, my ass.'

Kim Seung-jun grumbled inwardly. In the past few days alone, Moon Cheon-yeop had come to the café dozens of times looking for Limon and Eugene.

Whether he knew that or not, Limon regarded Moon impassively. "You were looking for me? Why?"

"Oh, it's nothing much. There's something I need to give you."

As if he'd been waiting for that question, Moon pulled an envelope from his briefcase and held it out.

"Here are the lawsuit papers."

"..."

"They're still being processed by the court, but they'll go through anyway. I'm giving them to you early so you can find yourself a lawyer."

Moon offered the papers as casually as if they were a wedding invitation. Limon, however, was neither surprised nor flustered by the unexpected gift. He simply asked coldly, "I don't recall doing anything that would get me sued."

He wasn't wrong. It was Limon Aspelder who had committed treason and taken the president hostage. Under the identity of Lee, all he'd done was go around playing guitar with a killer from the Liberation Brigade.

Moon looked at him with an air of regret. "Unfortunately, we've received a report that the original song you and Eugene performed is remarkably similar to one registered by a composer under exclusive contract with WIM."

"Are you saying we plagiarized your song?"

"Now, now, you shouldn't throw around a dangerous accusation like that. A musician's career is at stake."

Songs could happen to sound alike, after all. Without specifying who had made whose song sound like the other's, Moon glanced at Mr. Jeong.

"Of course, even if there was plagiarism, we could let it go if the song hadn't been used commercially. But Eugene was paid to perform here."

"I told you, she was paid for her part-time work, not for performing!"

"Now, now. Be reasonable. You had her perform and paid her, but it wasn't a performance fee? Does that make sense?"

"Urgh."

Mr. Jeong groaned at the perfectly reasonable point. They'd made that convoluted arrangement because Eugene hated earning money from music, but objectively, his explanation sounded like complete nonsense.

"I'm sure you didn't know, Boss, but if you don't want to find yourself accused of tax evasion as well, please cooperate with the investigation."

'You bastard! You're the one who already pinned that accusation on me!'

Mr. Jeong swallowed the words before they escaped.

"You should be careful too, Producer Kim. It wouldn't be good if word got around that you tried to book a musician who plagiarized someone else's song to headline your new program."

'You *ing *!'

Kim Seung-jun, about whom word had already spread far and wide, likewise cursed him inwardly.

But neither Mr. Jeong nor Kim Seung-jun could do more than grit their teeth. If they challenged Moon, he would play innocent as he had all along, and the pressure on them would only grow. Backed by WIM and, beyond it, the enormous guild Midas, Moon had the power to do that. A high-level player was already someone most ordinary players could hardly stand against.

Moon looked pleased with himself for having cowed the two men. He turned back to Limon with a sly smile.

"It's a shame. If you and Eugene had signed with our guild, you wouldn't have been caught up in a plagiarism dispute like this."

Limon had been watching Moon's behavior silently, arms folded. He spoke in a languid voice. "... So that's what you're saying? If I don't want things to get worse, I should get on my knees and beg now?"

"Now, now, of course not. I'm only suggesting we find a way to settle this amicably."

The "amicable" solution was already decided: Limon and Eugene only had to shut up and sign the contract. If they chose the other, "unpleasant" solution, it wouldn't just be the two of them in trouble. Mr. Jeong and Kim Seung-jun, who had nothing to do with it, would suffer in all sorts of ways too.

Limon watched Moon's triumphant face for a moment. The man didn't seem to imagine he might refuse. Then Limon spoke quietly.

"Hey."