* * *

CLICK.

The white-haired woman ended the call. Tata murmured to herself in a flat voice.

“Her Highness has thrown the schedule considerably off course.”

Under the original plan, Ainsha should still have been on her date with her destined partner. She was only supposed to realize what was happening after Tata had completed every last preparation and set things in motion.

But that plan had fallen apart. The very fact that Ainsha had summoned her at this point proved it.

Of course, she could have answered the summons, pretended nothing was wrong, and offered a plausible excuse to buy time. Ainsha trusted her completely. Yet Tata had not done so because she had seen a future in which meeting Ainsha ultimately led to her failure.

“It does not matter.”

The schedule had collapsed. She had discarded Ainsha’s trust. Danger was closing in fast.

Yet Tata felt neither disappointment nor worry. She merely turned around and continued softly.

“Whatever desperate struggle Her Highness puts up now, the future is already decided.”

And so, briefcase in hand, Tata walked silently along the path leading to the future she had seen.

* * *

When Tata had made contact with Moon Cheon-yeop, and he had found a Liberation Brigade business card on the man, Limon had thought things could not possibly become more troublesome. Now he sincerely reflected on his own arrogance. He had forgotten that reality always surpassed imagination.

“Your nanny said she was going to betray you, then hung up?”

“That is correct.”

“Didn’t you say there was absolutely no way your nanny had betrayed you?”

“That is correct. Hence my shock.”

If only she weren’t so quick with her answers. Watching Ainsha enunciate every word despite her expressionless face gave Limon yet another headache. After a moment, he spoke quietly.

“Princess.”

[“The entire Black Dragon Clan is on emergency footing.”]

“What about the intelligence team we put on her nanny?”

[“Unfortunately, they say they have lost her trail.”]

“Right. I figured as much.”

Limon sighed. He had no intention of blaming the Wang family of Shanghai’s intelligence team. They had only located Tata so easily at first because she had not been on guard against them. Tracking a precognitive determined to escape was no easy task even for the Black Dragon Clan, with all its expertise in stealth. Especially when the target was a master-level expert who held no less a position than elder of the White Dragon Clan.

[“Shall I assemble a pursuit team?”]

“No, I’ll handle the pursuit. You investigate that end further instead.”

[“Do you think there is any need to do that now?”]

“We’re not the White Dragon Clan, are we?”

[“... Indeed. You are right.”]

Apparently satisfied by that simple explanation, Li Qingyu exchanged a few more words with Limon before ending their conversation.

He turned to Ainsha.

“Let’s go.”

“I have a question. I would like to know where we are going.”

“Where do you think? To see your nanny.”

“Tata has fled. I see no future in which we find her. There is no way to find her.”

“That’s what you think.”

Limon gave a faint chuckle at Ainsha’s blunt reply, then stated unequivocally,

“You may not know this, but once I’ve fought someone, I’ve never lost them, no matter where or how they run.”

* * *

You cannot escape a Sword Master.

That saying had first arisen after Limon circled the earth thirty-seven times before killing a fleeing Demon God.

Limon was that accomplished a tracker and hunter, and there were many secrets behind his prowess. One was his hypersenses: a Sword Master’s five senses, which could distinguish a target’s presence precisely and locate it even from ten li away.

Using those senses, Limon was following Tata’s traces one by one.

“Hmm. From the footprints, it looks like she stopped here for a moment... Did she have something to do? No, she must have taken your call here.”

“There’s no hesitation in her steps, but she took a while to move. She must have seen a vision in which she considered her options.”

“Then she probably devised some countermeasure against pursuit... Well, we’ll find out as we go.”

The footprints were ordinarily difficult even to discern. Yet from those alone, Limon deduced not only Tata’s route but her actions and thought processes. His skill was truly astonishing—enough to leave even a Tracer with a tracking skill dumbfounded.

That was why Ainsha, who had been silently watching him, spoke in her blunt voice.

“Lee, I have a question.”

“What is it?”

“I would like to know why you are wasting time.”

“You think I’m wasting time?”

“Yes.”

Ainsha nodded immediately, then continued with an expressionless face.

“There is no need to check Tata’s every action. We only need to know where she went. Then we can follow much faster.”

Ainsha had a valid point. Limon’s pursuit was slow because he was examining exactly what Tata had done and when. Otherwise, he could have tracked her several times faster.

But Limon looked unimpressed by her words.

“And once we catch up? What then?”

“We find Tata. We capture her.”

“So, in short, you want me to hurry after your nanny and kill her?”

“... We subdue her first. Then we interrogate her.”

“I wonder. I can guarantee you that if I meet your nanny now, I’ll end up killing her, however little I want to.”

“...”

“You know why, don’t you?”

It sounded more like a threat than a warning. But Ainsha knew that Limon’s words were likely to come true. So she did not argue. She merely offered a suitable alternative.

“Then you can simply kill her.”

“... Weren’t you the one who said you wanted to save your nanny at any cost?”

“That was the earlier me.”

As Limon stared in disbelief at a statement that overturned the entire premise of their efforts, Ainsha spoke coolly.

“Tata has betrayed us. She must not be allowed to live. Those are the rules of the Seven Dragons Society.”

She explained that she had wanted to save Tata, even at the cost of killing Lee, her destined partner, because Tata was indispensable to the White Dragon Clan. But now that Tata had betrayed the clan, she had to be executed.

Her face was expressionless as a mask, her blunt voice devoid of emotion, and above all, her eyes unwavering. Watching Ainsha declare this without the slightest hesitation, Limon understood anew. However much she resembled a rather dim-witted girl, she was the White Dragon Princess. One of the seven rulers of the Seven Dragons Society, standing shoulder to shoulder with Li Qingyu...

“Right. I thought you were doing something commendable for an idiot, but in the end, an idiot can’t help being an idiot.”

“...?”

...and the greatest idiot in the Seven Dragons Society.

Ainsha tilted her head, as though unable to understand why he was calling her an idiot. Limon spoke to her quietly.

“Ainsha—no, White Dragon Princess. I won’t interfere with your choice. That’s the sort of clan you are, and as their princess, you’ve only made the decision expected of you.”

However pathetic—indeed, lamentable—it seemed, that was their way. He had no reason to interfere.

“But if you intend to obstruct what I’m trying to do, you’d better be prepared for the consequences.”

Now that the prophecy had entangled him in this, he might have no reason to interfere, but he had every right. Faced with Limon’s cold words, Ainsha could say nothing. She merely blinked blankly.

Leading her onward, Limon continued following Tata’s trail, meticulously reading and analyzing every action she had taken along the way and every state of mind behind it.

That relentless pursuit finally led Limon to a discovery: a fiercely burning metal drum a little way off Tata’s escape route, with the briefcase thrown inside it.

Its contents had already burned to ash, leaving only a half-melted shell. But Limon, who had followed Tata’s traces with ruthless thoroughness, could infer a great deal from that alone.

‘She burned the briefcase? Why?’

‘Did she take out its contents first?’

‘No. There were no signs of her deliberately opening the case along the way.’

‘... It wasn’t the contents she needed. She needed to establish the causal link of obtaining this case, so that the resulting future could come to pass.’

‘That’s a very White Dragon Clan way of doing things.’

‘In that case...’

“Ainsha.”

Ainsha did not ask why he had called her. Following the vision she had seen the moment they discovered the drum, she merely spread out the cardigan she was wearing and covered the back of Limon’s head.

CLANG!

That alone easily deflected the dagger that would otherwise have struck the back of Limon’s head.

But Ainsha took no pleasure whatsoever in what she had accomplished. She merely muttered with an expressionless face,

“I am confused. I am shocked. I am appalled.”

“Why the surprise now?”

Limon chuckled faintly. Keeping his gaze fixed on the burning briefcase, he continued quietly.

“The elder who held the real power in your clan in your stead betrayed you. Did you think the other clan members would remain just as loyal to you?”

“...”

Ainsha did not answer. She merely stared expressionlessly at the crowd that had surrounded them before she knew it, dressed in white garments resembling priests’ robes. Her guards, who ought to have knelt and paid their respects. The White Dragon Clan monks now holding weapons aimed at her instead.

“Hold them off for a moment. Don’t kill them yet.”

“They are all traitors.”

“Do as you like, if you’re confident you can find your nanny without help from me or the Black Dragon Clan.”

“...”

Ainsha’s shoulders slumped, though her face remained expressionless. Leaving her to deal with the interference, Limon sank back into thought.

Thus left to face her former guards alone, Ainsha spoke quietly.

“I am warning you.”

With an expressionless face and a blunt voice, she declared to the many White Dragon Clan members surrounding her,

“I advise you to drop your weapons and surrender, even now. Then I will show you some leniency.”

Objectively, it was an absurd thing to say. Ainsha stood alone, while several hundred White Dragon Clan members surrounded them. In numbers alone, they outmatched her a full hundredfold.

Moreover, these were no ordinary White Dragon Clan members. They were monks, the equivalent of the Black Dragon Clan’s warriors, and every one of them was a combat unit member who had reached the ranks of experts. The very fact that they had accompanied the princess as her guards proved they were the White Dragon Clan’s finest.

Yet not a single one scoffed at Ainsha’s warning. Instead, amid mounting tension, they pushed their psionics to the limit.

It was only natural. They were facing the White Dragon Princess. Before she was the greatest prophet of her era, she was the strongest martial expert in the White Dragon Clan.

“Very well.”

Even when the monks ultimately refused to surrender, Ainsha was not disappointed. Her precognition had already shown her that this would happen. She had only offered them the chance because she had seen herself do so in the future.

With the same blunt composure afforded by having already foreseen the outcome of this battle, Ainsha continued coldly.

“If you are so eager to die, I will kill you all—...beat you all.”