* * *

The expressionless girl, Ainsha, was at a loss. According to her vision, they should have gone to the movie theater, but Limon had led her somewhere entirely different.

Having her perfect plan to give his heart a little stab while he slept in the theater fall through was troubling enough. But what truly baffled her most was the place itself.

"Lee, I have a question."

"What?"

"I would like to know why we came here."

"Why else would we come to a clothing store? To buy clothes, obviously."

"... I have many clothes. I do not need to buy any now. Especially not here."

"You might not, but I do."

Limon casually overruled Ainsha's objections. Looking toward the back of the shabbiest clothing store in the market they had stopped at along the way, he asked offhandedly,

"Ma'am, which clothes here are the cheapest?"

"Just pick whatever you like over there. Everything there's five thousand won."

"They're awfully nice for that price."

"Some students without any of them sewing skells—or skills, whatever they're called—made 'em as a hobby. Said it'd be a shame to throw 'em out and asked me to sell 'em for even a hundred won, so I took 'em."

"Hmm, is that so?"

Limon nodded at the toothless old woman watching an ancient television in the back of the shop. Then he began rummaging through the clothes, which weren't even on hangers, just roughly sorted and piled in baskets. The problem was that he held each piece he pulled out up against Ainsha.

"Too pretty."

"This one's cuter than I expected."

"This stands out too much, too..."

"Good. This should be plain enough. Hurry up and try it on."

"... I do not see the point. I do not understand."

"Then just do as you're told. Here, the changing room's this way."

Limon thrust an armful of clothes into Ainsha's arms and pushed her along. While she found herself ushered into the changing room before she quite knew what was happening, he picked a shirt, jacket, and trousers from the piles and changed as well.

However nice they were, these were still five-thousand-won clothes. As one might expect from garments made as a hobby, the clothes themselves were unremarkable. Even so, they made Limon, who had been wearing a shabby tracksuit, look reasonably presentable.

Ainsha was the problem.

"Why did you put them on like that?"

"Tata is not here. Changing is difficult."

"Ah, right. You need someone to help you get dressed, too?"

A princess through and through, perhaps. She seemed to have little experience even changing her own clothes. Limon briefly clicked his tongue at Ainsha, who looked as though she had merely draped the clothes over herself rather than put them on. In the end, he followed her into the changing room and helped her himself, then folded his arms as he surveyed the result.

"You still stand out... Is it impossible to make you look any more ordinary when you're this good-looking to begin with?"

Shorts that left her legs exposed. A slightly loose shirt. And a cardigan that bared her shoulders. She looked much more ordinary than she had wrapped in that flowing fabric, but she still stood out. Limon scratched his chin for a moment as he looked at her, then shrugged.

"Can't be helped. Let's go with this."

"... This is puzzling. This is confusing. This is a complete disaster."

Unlike Limon, who seemed rather satisfied with something, Ainsha muttered like a broken doll.

Why had things turned out this way? What was she doing here? What did Limon want to do? She had simply tried to change the future by killing him, only to somehow end up a dress-up doll. She could make no sense of it.

Limon chuckled at the dazed look on her expressionless face. He put a flat cap and a pair of large-framed glasses he had picked out at a nearby shop on her, then said mischievously,

"Why are you overthinking it? I told you, this is a date."

"... I understand."

In fact, she understood nothing at all. But Ainsha decided to accept the situation even without understanding it. What mattered to her now wasn't what they did on their date, but how to change the future.

The moment she looked into the future for that purpose, Ainsha blinked. She had read the future, but for a moment she could not understand what she had seen.

Before she could make sense of it, that future came to them.

SCREECH

"Hey, Miss Too-Clever-for-Her-Own-Good. You're here."

"As I have told you repeatedly, my name is Wei Ling, not Miss Too-Clever-for-Her-Own-Good."

Just as Limon and Ainsha emerged from the market, a car appeared as though it had been waiting for them and stopped in front of the pair. Wei Ling, a woman dressed as a man in a suit, stepped out of the driver's seat. After delivering her sharp reply to Limon, she bowed politely to Ainsha.

"Wei Ling of the Black Dragon Clan pays her respects to the descendant of the Wise White Dragon Sage."

"... I am Ainsha. It is a pleasure to meet you."

"Then allow me to escort you."

"Understood. I will be escorted...?"

As Wei Ling courteously opened the door, Ainsha climbed into the car out of her ingrained habit of accepting service. By the time she belatedly realized something was strange, the car, with Wei Ling and Limon aboard, was already pulling smoothly away.

"The location? Have you confirmed it?"

"Yes. The Wang family of Shanghai's intelligence unit is keeping watch now."

"Why talk like they're someone else's people? They've been incorporated into Guardian's intelligence unit now."

"..."

Limon snickered briefly at the visibly uncomfortable Wei Ling, then reclined his seat, pillowed his head on his arms, and said languidly,

"I'm going to take a nap. Put something on so the girl doesn't get bored. Wake me when we arrive."

True to his word, Limon fell asleep right then and there. Taking over for him, Wei Ling operated a button to bring out the rear-seat screen and politely asked Ainsha,

"Your Highness, we have television, music, and movies available. Which would you prefer?"

"... Anything is fine."

And so, until the car finally stopped a short while later and the awakened Limon took her out with him, Ainsha had no choice but to watch the movie playing on the screen with an expressionless face, just as she had foreseen.

"I wish you a pleasant time."

"Right. Tell the princess thanks for going to all the trouble of arranging this. And have the intelligence team pull back."

After handing something to Limon, Wei Ling drove away again. Only then did Ainsha finally speak.

"I am puzzled. I do not know what you want to do, Lee."

"Why? Don't you like our date itinerary?"

"I do not. There is no opportunity to kill you. It is troubling."

"Really? Then I'll make sure you like it."

Limon chuckled at her blunt words, took her wrist, and naturally led her in one direction. Ainsha did not resist. She could see no future in which she avoided his hand. Besides, the series of events that had just unfolded had already overloaded her mind.

'This is strange. My visions keep coming late. I do not know why.'

Normally, she would have read all these futures long ago. Why was her foresight so sluggish today... no, ever since she had begun accompanying this man?

As she pondered the reason, Ainsha flinched. The moment he led her to the far end of the street, she belatedly read a future in which she would see something.

As though he had noticed, Limon said meaningfully,

"Well? Doesn't it look like our date's about to get interesting?"

"... It is not interesting. We are stopping."

"No, it'll be interesting."

Limon led her all the way to the end of the street despite her objections. Watching the back of a woman walking up ahead—a figure all too familiar to Ainsha—he continued,

"You don't often get a chance to tail your own nanny, after all."

* * *

"Stalking is a crime. Turn yourself in. Tata will still forgive you if you do it now."

Ainsha tried to stop Limon from secretly following Tata. With every ounce of her strength, and in complete earnest.

But he paid her no mind.

"This isn't stalking. It's tailing someone."

"I do not understand the difference."

"Stalking is always a crime, but tailing someone can be acceptable depending on the circumstances. That's the difference."

"That is sophistry. A cowardly excuse. Stop immediately."

"Are you sure that's all right? Then you won't be able to change the future the way you want."

"... I do not know what that has to do with tailing her."

"Of course it has something to do with it."

As if she sensed a threat in his words, Ainsha tightened her grip on his hand, her face expressionless. Limon spoke calmly.

"You said you saw a future where I kill Tata, right?"

"Correct."

"That means I have a reason why I absolutely must kill your nanny."

His observation was cold and matter-of-fact.

He wasn't a crazed murderer. He was the Sword Lord, who did not draw his sword recklessly when there was no need. And killing the White Dragon Princess's close aide? Risking an all-out war with the White Dragon Clan? Under ordinary circumstances, it would never happen.

That was why Limon could say with certainty that, unless Ainsha's foresight was wrong, Tata either had or would come to have a reason to cause something beyond those "ordinary circumstances."

"That's why I'm trying to find out what that reason is. Without knowing it, we won't be able to change the future where your nanny dies at my hands."

"We can change it. You simply need to die."

"But I don't want to die."

"Please find a way to do so anyway."

Like some door-to-door salesperson, Ainsha asked him to die with an expressionless face and one hundred percent sincerity. Limon was dumbfounded.

"Listen. Do you really think that as long as I die, the future will change and everything will have a happy ending?"

"It is not a happy ending. My destined partner dies. It is tragic. My heart is breaking."

"What if you still see a future where your nanny dies after killing me? What will you do then?"

"... I do not understand the question."

Limon was the one who would kill Tata. If Limon died, that couldn't happen. So why would Tata die again? Ainsha tilted her head, apparently genuinely unable to understand.

Limon sighed at her.

"White Dragon Princess, this is why people call your clan idiots."

"Tata told me. That is a false rumor. A slander born of the jealousy of those who cannot see the future."

"You're free to think whatever you like, but if you aren't confident you can kill me right now, keep quiet and follow me. I have no intention of dying for your nanny."

"..."

In the end, Ainsha had no choice but to follow Limon silently. Whatever she did here, she could see no future in which he died.

As they stealthily tailed Tata, Limon and Ainsha suddenly stopped. Tata had ventured farther into a secluded alley and stepped into a shabby bar. Even Ainsha, who had been following Limon reluctantly, tilted her head at the sight.

"... This is strange."

"What is?"

"Tata does not drink. I do not know why she has come to a bar."

"Really?"

Limon narrowed his eyes. If someone who didn't drink came to a bar, odds were they had come to meet someone. The important question was who. If Ainsha's close aide had to meet that person alone, and in a secluded place like this at that, they were clearly no ordinary person.

'This is good. With any luck, I might find a solution sooner than I expected... Huh?'

As he watched the bar, Limon raised an eyebrow. While he was debating whether to go inside, a man appeared from the alley on the opposite side.

His anxious, hesitant steps. His wary glances all around. Even the briefcase clutched to his chest. The man seemed to advertise his own suspiciousness with his entire body, and Limon's expression turned peculiar as he watched him. Not because of his behavior or appearance, but because Limon knew him.

"... Why the hell is that bastard showing up here?"

The former power behind the WIM Guild. The man Limon's own scheming had brought down. Watching Moon Cheon-yeop hurry into the bar, Limon could only stare in disbelief.