Limon was clearly dumbfounded. He repeated her request, sounding as though he'd just heard a particularly nasty joke. But Wei Ling remained calm. "It's necessary for my work right now." ["No, what I mean is, how could your work possibly require..."] He broke off mid-protest. After a brief silence, he asked again in an entirely different, serious voice.

["... Where are you right now?"]

"Heavenly Flower Department Store."

["What's the situation?"]

"Multiple dead, one injured. One enemy, believed to be among those who attacked Black Dragon Construction."

["Man or woman? Weapon, height, weight, facial features?"]

"Appears to be in his late twenties, 177 to 178 centimeters tall and around 60 kilograms. Uses a knife and wears a Halloween mask."

["Have you fought him? Knowing you, I'd guess you tried an ambush first."]

"He evaded my Viper Seeks Its Prey move when I aimed for his heart from behind."

["Completely?"]

"I got his left shoulder instead."

Perhaps he had realized this was no joke. Limon and Wei Ling exchanged only the information they needed, quickly. Listening to their call, the young man asked uneasily, "Hey, comrade. Talking about a man like that right in front of him isn't very polite, is it?" Yet he made no move to interrupt her call. He wanted to know what she could be thinking, talking on the phone at a time like this.

["I see. Got it. He's that knife-wielding bastard who likes dissecting people."] With the young man standing by, Limon heard a few more details from Wei Ling and murmured as though he understood the situation. As though he now knew everything he needed to. Wei Ling asked quietly, "Can you do it?"

["One last check. Is that bastard alone? No one else?"]

"Yes."

["Hmm, is that so? Then you're in luck. Either of the other two would be tricky, but with that bastard, we can make it work somehow."]

A low laugh followed—too deep to sound delighted, too light to sound grave. When that strangely wistful laugh faded, Limon continued quietly. ["Consider it an honor."]

Even though Wei Ling might die, Limon was neither shaken nor tense. It wasn't because he felt nothing for her. Too far to reach in time. An enemy too strong to face. A danger too great to overcome. He was accustomed to all of it. He had faced enemies that threatened the world, overcome the impossible time and again, and saved humanity. And he had been the Sword Tower's first and last master, the teacher of seven of the thirteen Sword Masters in history. Limon spoke with a laugh. ["Of all the swordsmen who've passed through the Sword Tower, you're the first I've ever taught swordsmanship to on the spot in three minutes."]

* * *

["Ready?"] Wei Ling switched her smartphone to speaker mode, tucked it securely into the welt pocket on her chest, and answered quietly, "Ready."

["Just to be safe, do exactly as I say. The fight you're about to enter will cost you your head if you hesitate for even an instant."]

"I understand. Just make sure you don't make a mistake."

["Of all the things to worry about. Who do you think I am?"]

"The head who dumps all his work on me and goes off to have fun every day?"

["That's got nothing to do with this."]

"If you'd so much as come here on business, I doubt we'd have to manage this complicated three-legged race."

["That's why I'm giving you a free private lesson instead, isn't it? Hey, in the old days, even royalty had to empty the treasury for a single lesson from me!"]

"Leave the old days in the past."

"... Say, comrade. Miss—or whatever you are. I'm a little confused here." After listening to them for some time with a half-vacant look, the young man raised a hand. He scratched the back of his head vigorously and asked, as if he couldn't make sense of it at all, "You're going to fight me like that?"

"Yes."

"With that phone of yours, um... taking advice as you go?"

"More or less."

"..."

His jaw dropped. He had met his share of lunatics and knew well enough that he himself was hardly normal. But even he had never heard anything so insane in his life.

"Are you out of your mind, Chao Wei Ling!" Xue Rong, watching from behind, was equally speechless. He knew martial arts well enough—or rather, precisely because he did, he knew how insane her plan was.

"I know it's crazy too." To be honest, Wei Ling knew she was attempting something extraordinary. It might be one thing in a game of Go or janggi, but fighting when one badly timed blink could get her killed, guided by someone who wasn't even there to watch? Driving a race car with her eyes shut, following only the navigator's voice, would give her a better chance of survival. Even so, she did not change her mind. Others might think her mad, and she might have her own doubts, but there was someone she trusted more than herself.

"But I trust Her Highness."

"..."

Li Qingyu had chosen Limon as her partner. She had spoken of his greatness again and again. Surely he could manage this much. Xue Rong was struck dumb by Wei Ling's declaration, delivered without so much as a twitch of her eyebrow. Even as a fellow Black Dragon Clan warrior, he could only be appalled by her almost religious faith in and loyalty to the princess.

"Ha! Now this is interesting." The young man chuckled and beckoned Wei Ling with his knife. "Come on, then. Give it your best shot. Since you've shown me something amusing, I'll let you have the first strike."

"I don't need you to—"

["Oh, a bastard who knows a master's manners? Take the offer. If he's arrogant enough to do something stupid, there's no reason to refuse."]

"... I won't refuse, then. Thank you."

"... Right. Go ahead."

Wei Ling's neck reddened with embarrassment at having reversed herself. The young man nodded awkwardly, suddenly cast as an arrogant bastard doing something stupid. Having embarrassed both the one giving ground and the one accepting it, Limon calmly issued his instructions.

["Take the low stance of Hidden Spirit Sword's opening form."]

"The low stance... sir?" Wei Ling paused. In the Voidless Advancing Sword Style she had learned, Hidden Spirit Sword was a move performed from a low posture to attack upward. It had no low stance with the sword pointed down.

["Why? Can't you do it? Tell me now, then. If you can't follow even this much straightaway, you'll die there."] However ingenious the swordsmanship he taught her, it would be useless if she couldn't put it into practice. Half taunt, half warning.

"I didn't say I couldn't." Wei Ling followed his instructions, if a little late. The result was an odd posture, as though she were about to drive her sword into the ground rather than fight someone, but she did not hesitate again. She had already entrusted her life to him when she agreed to follow his guidance. His warning had made her realize that questioning every instruction would only get her killed.

["Stay one jang and one cheok—330 centimeters—from your opponent. Set your stride at four chon, 12 centimeters, and keep the tip of your sword exactly level with his ankles."]

"Done."

["Good. No need to answer from now on. Just move as soon as I tell you to."]

"..."

'He's insane...!' Wei Ling answered with silence. Watching her, Xue Rong swallowed another curse, unable to bring himself to say it aloud. He was a warrior too, after all. He knew perfectly well that the battle had begun the moment she took her opening stance; anything he said now would only distract her. As Xue Rong swallowed a groan and the young man grinned—

["Bowstring Sword Shadow. Three steps right."]

WHOOSH!

At Limon's brief command, Wei Ling shot forward like an arrow.

"That's such an obvious trick—huh?" The young man sneered and swung his knife at her headlong charge, then his eyes widened. Already low, she sank even lower as she rushed him and slid almost flat beneath his left arm.

["Falling Wax Seals Retreat. Inverted-Heaven stance."] The young man turned with the terrifying reflexes of a high-level player to pursue her, but there was nothing where he looked. Before he could turn fully, Wei Ling had driven her sword into the floor without breaking the momentum of her charge and sprung upward from the impact. She flipped upside down in midair and planted both feet against the ceiling.

["Inverted Sky Fang. Lightning-strike stance."]

SHRAAK!

Her sword plunged like lightning from above, narrowly slicing across the young man's back.

'W-what is this?' Limon's voice had come just before Wei Ling dropped, giving the young man barely enough warning to avoid having his skull split open. Cold sweat broke out on his skin. She hadn't gotten any faster. She wasn't using a different sword style. Yet somehow her sword was harder to deal with than it had been when she ambushed him from behind. The eerie feeling of being robbed in broad daylight put him on edge. And this was only the beginning.

["Shaded Path Wave, Wind-Cleaving Ghost's Trace, Turbulent Heart of Wolves and Tigers. Chain-strike stance."]

SHRASHASHASHANG!

Her sword went relentlessly for his legs while she crouched nearly flat, then she flipped up as if launched by a spring and thrust at his groin. He dodged in alarm, but her sword tip wavered like a butterfly caught in a storm and grazed his thigh instead. At times it struck wildly from concealment; at others it withdrew in dazzling flourishes, or rushed in with disarming calm. Each instruction from the smartphone sent her sword out in another bewildering way. The young man was so occupied with dodging its blade that he could barely see Wei Ling at all.

"Y-you, comrade...!" He retreated in a frenzy, then shouted before he could stop himself, bewildered and furious. "What kind of sorcery are you using?!" It would be one thing if she had contracted with a constellation and received a skill. But how could merely following instructions over the phone make Wei Ling, who had been weaker than him, so vastly more capable? He could not understand it. Yet at that moment, he was not the one most shocked by what he was seeing.

'Good God!' Xue Rong swallowed a groan. He might not have been as skilled as the young man, but he was still an elite Black Dragon Clan warrior. More importantly, he was watching rather than fighting, and could at least make out why the young man had been driven entirely onto the defensive. 'Sword Lord, you insane bastard...! You're reading his movements without even seeing them and devising counters on the spot?!'