Solo Swordmaster

Chapter 92: A New Challenge

Yo Ouin stiffened. He realized why the princess refused to ask Limon for help.

“Princess, that means…”

“Yes. It is not something the princess of the Black Dragon Clan should be saying.”

Li Chingwei quietly chuckled. She would have done it if it was solely for the Black Dragon Clan. The clan would regain stability and income, and she would raise her status.

“But it’s something I must question as the future wife of the Master of Swords.”

To Limon, however, being an onlooker was better. If he resolved the situation, the Shanghai Royal Family would become indebted to him—waiting for the problem to worsen and the family more desperate would be more advantageous.

“Yo Ouin. What should I prioritize—my princess or wife status?”

Her devotion to the Black Dragon Clan and her loyalty to Limon could not coexist. She had to choose which side she would take.

After a moment of silence, Yo Ouin smiled bitterly.

“Loyalty to the Master of Swords, of course.”

“…I expected you would tell me to go after both.”

Li Chingwei looked at him with genuine surprise.

“Simultaneously chasing two rabbits will only make you lose both. And you cannot compare a thousand pigeons to one phoenix.”

“Very wise.”

Satisfied by his calm answer, Li Chingwei returned to her documents with a bright smile.

“Either way, I will have to take action.”

That was when her phone rang. Her demeanor immediately changed to happy, like she’d forgotten her previous concerns.

“Have you called to hear the voice of your lovely future wife, Master of Swords?”

“That’s a shame. I would be thrilled if you were.”

“So what is it?”

“Yes, yes… what?

“Is that possible?”

“Of course not. I just asked out of surprise.”

“Yes, I will prepare it right away.”

Li Chingwei ended the call with a bitter smile.

She turned to Yo Ouin, who had taken a step back not to disturb her call.

“We don’t need a new plan anymore.”

***

“Hey, you’re here.”

“Apologies for being late. Did I make you wait long?”

“…It hasn’t even been ten minutes since I called.”

“Every 30 minutes apart from my beloved husband feels like three autumns.”

“Isn’t it ‘every minute feels like three years?”

“That lacks affection.”

“…Any more of that, and I’ll suffocate,” Limon said, shaking his head at her haste.

“Did you bring what I asked?”

“Yes.”

With a nod and a wave of Yo Ouin’s hand, dozens of maids and housemen entered the room and set down some boxes.

“As the Master of Swords has requested, the commonly found elements.”

“Hm, it’s more than I thought.”

“It’s most likely because there are multiple things of different magnitudes.”

“Really?”

“I will take some out if there are too many.”

“No, it’s okay. There’s no reason to pick and choose when you went to the effort of gathering all this in such a short time.”

Limon looked inside the box and nodded in satisfaction. Though there were multiple identical items, the fact they managed to gather this much was already beyond his expectations.

Li Chingwei tilted her head to the side.

“But why did you ask me for this?”

“Hm. Did I call you when you were busy?”

“I always have time to spare. I just thought you could ask Chao for these things.”

Yo Ouin silently marveled—lying with a straight face like that, she really was the Black Dragon Princess. Whether Limon was aware of her blatant lie or not, he remained nonchalant.

“That dummy brain is frantically inspecting your subsidiaries’ security. It’ll be trouble if I give her another job.”

“I see. Certainly, you should always place workers with the right talent in the right position.”

“Yeah, you get it.”

“[…Uh, I think you’re using that in the wrong context.]”

How did ‘right talent for the right position’ apply when Limon went to the CEO for not wanting to call his secretary?

Yo Ouin judged them with his eyes while Yoo Na-kyung called it out.

But Li Chingwei paid no heed to their judgemental stares. She looked amused.

“Are you planning to use this to catch the culprits?”

“It’s nothing too grand. I just used your advice as a reference.”

“My advice?”

Li Chingwei tilted her head. She was sharp but couldn’t remember when she had given him advice.

Limon picked up one of the boxes and flipped it over. Out came a roulette table, darts, dice, pencils, cards, lottery boxes, Pop-up Pirate, and many more—just junk.

Opening the other boxes, though different in size and shape, all yielded similar contents.

“Let’s see… Should this do /invite/reaperscans

***

Walking to a corner of the practice room, he began rummaging through something without even glancing at the contents of the boxes. Finding what he was looking for, Limon turned back around and handed the items out.

“Here.”

“Okay.”

“[What?]”

Li Chingwei was innocently beaming as she always did. Yo Ouin was perplexed, and Yoo Na-kyung was confused. She caught the metal beater used for triangles and blinked.

“[Boss? What’s this for?]”

“Use it. Why else would I give you a metal beater?”

“[… There’s no triangle here.]”

“There’s a lot of other stuff you can beat.”

Limon pointed to the objects scattered across the floor. Yoo Na-kyung’s beak dropped as she understood.

“[Wait. So you just want us to beat this pile of junk?]”

“Yeah. Ignore the order or rhythm or whatever. Just hit everything at least once.”

“[Why?!]”

“So I can know the criminals’ next target.”

“[This is worse than paying the temple for better CSAT scores!]”

“A player with prophetic skills cheated. Weren’t there over a hundred people with perfect scores that year?”

“[307 to be exact— Wait, that’s not important right now!]”

Yoo Na-kyung jumped up and down. She was used to Limon’s antics, but this was too much for her to agree to without any explanation.

Ding~

“Like this?”

Unlike the bird, the other girl in the room didn’t hesitate to do as he instructed.

“Yep, you got it.”

“I am a maiden from a respectable family. I know basic oriental music.”

Excited by the compliment, Li Chingwei lightly tapped on the pile with added rhythm.

“I’ve played traditional drums before, but this feels awkward.”

“There’s no need to make a good sound. It’s better to be messy, in fact.”

Loyalty got the old man to move as well. He sat in a lotus position in his nice suit, in his old age, and started to tap the junk pile as well.

“What are you doing? Hurry up and start hitting.”

“[…Ugh, screw it! I don’t know anymore!]”

After a moment of silence, Limon finally got Yoo Na-kyung to capitulate.

‘Hmm.’

The princess’ experience with oriental music was telling, as Li Chingwei’s tapping didn’t sound half-bad. And fitting to a Seven Dragons Association master, Yo Ouin’s sound was rough but steady, following along with his princess to his best effort.

On the other side, Yoo Na-kyung was a hot mess, whether from being thrust into this situation without apparent reason or because the metal stick was hard to control with her beak.

‘What a mess,’ Limon muttered in his mind.

The bird would have thrown a tantrum if she heard him.

‘I thought it would cause disharmony if they all tapped relentlessly, but that princess is too good.’

Though, he wasn’t referring to the noise. Instead, he was referring to the music.

“Oh, well. I guess it doesn’t matter.”

He lightly shook his head and whipped out the abyssal black violin.

“I can make up for it.”

His body automatically moved into the proper form. Like an arrow pulling back on a bow, Limon thought to himself.

‘To be honest, I’m not too sure about this.’

When he predicted the culprits’ targets, he was sure of himself. There was no way that he, a swordmaster, could get the Demon Slaying Sword technique wrong.

But what about this time? He was doubtful this method would even work.

‘No choice but to try.’

If he didn’t do anything now, there was no knowing how much worse the damage could get. When he played along to Eugene’s chaotic song, he felt interested in the ‘possibilities’.

Of course, this was only a matter of chance—closer to delusion than reality and more likely to fail than anything. It felt more like a waste even to try.

‘Challenges are more fun when there is no solution.’

But Limon was motivated by the challenge instead of being held back by failure.

He moved the bow against the violin strings. And as soon as he did, all of the world’s possibilities unfurled in the form of sound from the abyssal black /invite/reaperscans

——