* * *

An exceptionally large window offered a view of the entire panorama. Before it, a woman stood talking on her smartphone, holding it to her ear.

"... That's how it turned out."

["I see. So you failed after all."]

"Sorry I failed."

["Your apologies are unnecessary. Only results matter."]

The voice coming over the phone was cold and flat. Its fundamental lack of humanity was not merely the effect of a voice-altering item, but she was not intimidated. She simply offered a brisk rebuttal.

"If you want results, give me proper support. You can't expect results when you suddenly assign me a job with barely any support."

["I told you from the outset that support was impossible with that plague demon in the country."]

"I know," she said irritably. Taking off her sunglasses, she continued.

"Though I don't understand what's so important about some violinist that you'd make me do this crap in the first place."

["There was a prophecy. A prophecy that he would become the spark that threatens our organization's very survival."]

"You believe a mere musician could do something that enormous? Seriously?"

["Believe it. The great star's foresight is never wrong."]

"For all that, our organization's situation in this country seems to have gotten awfully bad lately. Is that just my imagination?"

["You are free to think what you like. But if you entertain any thought of defying the organization..."]

"I have no intention of doing that." She snorted.

It wasn't just because she knew that betraying the organization would seal her death at that very moment. Though publicly known for her kind character, she needed to keep relying on the organization's power to indulge her hobby.

["Then follow your instructions."]

"About that, is it really all right for me to pull out now? What about the mission I was working on?"

["We are abandoning the attempt to establish a pawn in Midas. You discarded the pawn you used as a contact this time anyway."]

"I can always get another pawn."

["Even so, no. Proceeding rashly with plans in that country is now too dangerous."]

Things might have been different before, but they could no longer pursue reckless operations in a country where they had already lost their base, the pawn planted in Infinity, and no fewer than three senior officers. Having stated this coldly, the voice continued in a low tone.

["Above all, matters here are now more important than those there. So get moving."]

"Yes, yes. Orders are orders."

["Lastly, I will repeat myself: take care not to let anyone pick up your trail."]

"Don't worry. As instructed, I never made direct contact or interfered. All I did was give a pawn a little encouragement."

Answering with a mocking edge, she turned around. She took hold of the suitcase behind her and said briefly,

"Then I'll see you when I arrive, Comrade."

["Good luck, Comrade."]

CLICK

After ending the call, she deactivated her anti-eavesdropping item and headed straight for the boarding gate, pulling her suitcase and muttering.

"I'm a popular singer everyone in this country knows, you know, and they still work me like this. I'll have to become a senior officer soon, if only to make up for this indignity..."

A hidden officer of the Liberation Brigade, and the secret mastermind behind this affair, Claire boarded the plane grumbling all the while. She was leaving this accursed country with its plague god to carry out a new mission.

But she had no idea that two pairs of eyes had been watching her intently throughout—from her phone call to her boarding the plane.

* * *

["She's gone."]

"Yeah."

["You think she didn't notice?"]

"If she'd noticed, would she have done something so suspicious in plain sight in the middle of an airport? Including a phone call practically announcing she belongs to the Liberation Brigade?"

["Well, she even used an anti-eavesdropping item. She probably never imagined anyone could listen in through that."]

Yu Na-gyeong pointed this out dispassionately. Using an anti-eavesdropping item meant Claire had taken every precaution she could. It was simply that Limon defied all common sense by listening to that silent conversation with a single thread, without using either a bug or a skill.

Limon snorted at her words.

"For someone in a criminal organization, letting us pick up her trail this easily is far too careless."

["No, there was nothing easy about that! You and the Princess are the strange ones for figuring out she belonged to the Liberation Brigade, Team Leader!"]

"What's strange about it? There were plenty of clues."

There was a reason Limon had restored even the business card to its original place and quietly withdrawn after finding a Liberation Brigade card on Moon Cheon-yeop, rather than finishing him off on the spot. He wanted to investigate who was behind him.

He could understand Tata happening to encounter a man who bore him a grudge. She was a member of the White Dragon Clan, after all. But was it also coincidence that the man had become involved in an incident that could cause strife within the Seven Dragons Society?

What if it wasn't? Could someone behind the scenes have been using Moon Cheon-yeop?

An old hand like Limon did not leave that suspicion uninvestigated. While he pursued Tata, he entrusted Li Qingyu with investigating who was behind Moon Cheon-yeop, and she had admirably lived up to his expectations.

She discovered that Claire was the one who had summoned a high-level healer to treat him and subtly fanned his resentment toward Limon under the guise of comforting him. She even learned that he had effectively obtained the Liberation Brigade's business card thanks to Claire.

Claire, who was confident she had covered her tracks perfectly, would have been dumbfounded had she known.

["I almost feel sorry for the Liberation Brigade. If that man hadn't caught your attention and been put under surveillance, Team Leader, their trail wouldn't have been exposed so easily."]

"What surveillance? All we did was plant a few bugs while he was hospitalized."

["... That absolutely counts as surveillance. Back in the PAB, it would've gotten you disciplined."]

"But now I'm the Black Dragon Clan's head of security."

["Who on earth put a sword in a mad dog's mouth...?"]

"Who else? Our princess."

Whatever else might be said about the Seven Dragons Society, Limon liked how it let him run wild, using any means necessary to beat down people he couldn't stand. Watching him chuckle over this, Yu Na-gyeong could only marvel.

The bugs had now become a means of picking up the Liberation Brigade's trail, but originally they had been planted on Limon's simple instruction to find something to hold over Moon Cheon-yeop. Thinking of what weakness he might have found and how he might have used it if this incident hadn't happened almost made her pity the man.

Of course, it was all his own doing, so there was no room for sympathy. From the moment he used the Liberation Brigade's business card, he had effectively booked himself a trip to prison.

Yu Na-gyeong therefore swept away that tiny trace of pity for Moon Cheon-yeop and turned her attention elsewhere.

["By the way, Team Leader. Are you really okay with letting her leave like that? A high-level player in the eighties must be at least an officer."]

"It's not every day we get a lead on the Liberation Brigade." Limon sneered.

The Liberation Brigade had handled this affair far too sloppily, much like the White Dragon Clan, which had been so intent on obtaining a result that it ignored the process. The fact that an officer, not some rank-and-file member, hadn't even realized her trail had been exposed made that plain.

Considering how ruthlessly the Liberation Brigade cut off anyone whose trail was discovered, this was a truly rare opportunity.

"If we follow that tail carefully, won't we catch at least the body—and, with luck, the head too?"

["Like the person she was speaking to?"]

"Right. Anyone who can order an officer-level player around that easily must at least be one of the ghosts."

["Well, that's certainly true... But what if you end up losing even this lead?"]

"Who do you think you're asking?"

["... Now that I think about it, that was a pointless question."]

Seeing Limon's cold smile, Yu Na-gyeong finally shook her head. No matter how far Claire went, how she changed her appearance, or where she hid, escaping safely had ceased to be an option the moment she caught his eye.

No one could escape a Sword Master.

In the end, all they had to do now was secretly track Claire and wait for her to make contact with the Liberation Brigade. Judging by the call, she was at least receiving orders directly from one of its ghosts. With luck, they might further reduce the ranks of those ghosts, now down to nine following the deaths of Eugene, Ryu Gang-cheol, and Bellows. Sabotaging the Brigade's operations or uncovering its secrets along the way would be icing on the cake.

["I never imagined something that started as just a date would turn into all this."]

"You can say that again." Limon gave a small laugh.

When Ainsha had asked him to die to save Tata, it had seemed like quite a headache. But it had all ended without anyone dying, and he had even picked up the Liberation Brigade's trail. In the end, everything had worked out.

That was why Yu Na-gyeong, who had been gazing steadily at the departing plane, suddenly spoke.

["... Team Leader, I'm just curious."]

"About what?"

["About 'that time.' If I'd pleaded with you like the White Dragon Princess, saying I'd betrayed you but didn't want to die and asking you to do something about it, what would've happened?"]

It was far too weighty a question to ask lightly out of curiosity. Yet Limon was neither flustered nor hesitant. He simply answered as casually as if she had asked what would have happened if he'd eaten something different for dinner last night.

"You would've lived."

["And my younger siblings?"]

"I could probably have saved them. Eight or nine times out of ten."

["... So not a hundred percent."]

"I'm a Sword Master, not a god."

A god connected to the order of the world, capable of altering it to suit a desired outcome, might always be able to guarantee a hundred percent. But ultimately, he was a swordsman. Though he could kill gods and cut through even the order of the world, he was not a being who could take the world apart and remake it like a toy.

That was why even Limon had no choice but to establish a rule against compromising in hostage situations. He knew from experience that if he compromised once, the same tactic would be used ten or a hundred more times, and the number of hostages sacrificed in vain would grow accordingly.

Likewise, Yu Na-gyeong knew that Limon had chosen the option most likely to save the children, so she nodded calmly.

["Well, that's good enough, then."]

"You're taking that rather easily."

["You asked me back then, remember? Which mattered more—my life or my siblings' lives."]

"So you're satisfied because your siblings are safe?"

["Even if I didn't get the best outcome, I was able to protect what mattered most."]

If she had said her own life mattered back then, perhaps she could have survived and the children could have been rescued too. But unlike what had actually happened, one or two of the children might instead have been killed or injured. Or the worst might have occurred: after Yu Na-gyeong blew herself up, the children, no longer needed, could have been disposed of as well.

Simply having avoided those possibilities was enough to satisfy her.

["Besides, even though I died, I've been reborn as this adorable bluebird."]

How could she have had an experience like this if she hadn't died back then? Watching Yu Na-gyeong smile and joke about it, Limon couldn't help letting out a bemused chuckle.

... Of course, that smile would have melted away had he known what Li Qingyu and Ainsha were discussing at that very moment.