Chapter 231 - Who Will Offer It?

* * *

CRASH!

It all happened in an instant. Maia struck Arbella across the cheek, and Arbella went flying like a roe deer hit by a truck, crashing into a table laden with delicacies and overturning it.

Yu Na-gyeong froze, her eyes wide at the unexpected turn of events. The dancers, musicians, and servants, already rigid with fear, turned paler still. But Maia paid no attention to their frightened gazes. She merely spoke in an icy voice.

“Arbella.”

“Y-yes... Yes.”

The slap had been hard enough to break an ordinary person's neck. Yet Arbella was, after all, an expert of the Seven Dragons Society. Though blood spilled from her torn mouth, she prostrated herself before Maia, who addressed her coldly.

“Apologize to the Black Dragon Princess and beg her forgiveness.”

Arbella had no idea why she had been slapped, or what she was supposed to apologize to Li Qingyu for.

THUD!

“I, Arbella of the Green Dragon Clan, offer my apologies to the descendant of the Awe-Inspiring Black Dragon Lord.”

Nevertheless, without a moment's hesitation, Arbella knelt before Li Qingyu and struck her forehead against the floor, begging forgiveness. Maia had commanded it. She needed no other reason.

Li Qingyu gazed silently at Arbella, then finally gave a slight nod.

“I accept your apology.”

“Thank you for your boundless grace.”

As if to express her sincere gratitude, Arbella struck her forehead against the floor again. Maia spoke to her coldly.

“Withdraw. Remaining here in such a ridiculous state will only bring me further shame.”

“Yes, Your Highness.”

Just as she had knelt and begged forgiveness without delay, Arbella immediately left the banquet hall. Maia did not so much as glance at her retreating figure. She simply had Barbara dismiss the dancers and place a matching table and chair opposite Li Qingyu, then took that seat.

“Resume the music.”

“What are you waiting for? Start playing!”

“Y-yes!”

Her sister had just been expelled, yet Barbara was anything but cowed. If anything, she grew more assertive as she barked at the musicians. Only after the trembling musicians struggled to resume playing did Maia turn her gaze to Li Qingyu for the first time.

“It has been a long time, Li Qingyu.”

“It certainly has been a while since we last met in person, Maia.”

Li Qingyu smiled, perfectly naturally, as though nothing had happened. Anyone else would have been inwardly grateful for her consideration and taken the opportunity to pretend that disgraceful scene had never occurred.

“I ask your understanding for the insult my foolish aide inflicted upon you through her thoughtless conduct.”

But Maia did not bury the matter of Arbella. Instead, she brought up the disgrace herself, twisting her pale, bluish lips into a cynical sneer.

“Not that there is anything you can do, whether you are understanding or not.”

The words were openly barbed. Even so, Li Qingyu remained unperturbed. She merely nodded readily, still smiling brightly.

“Quite true. How could I dare complain over something so trivial to a major shareholder who owns a full seven percent of our Leviathan?”

“Are you saying you would have lodged an official protest if not for my shares?”

“It hardly warrants an official protest.”

At that answer, Maia regarded her with cynical eyes.

“Do not play innocent. If I had not punished her myself, you would have used this incident as leverage over that imbecile and exploited her.”

“Surely not.”

Li Qingyu answered shamelessly with a smile, as though she had no such dark intentions. Watching her, Maia spoke coldly.

“Do whatever you can, then. Anyone foolish enough to fall for your tricks is of no use to our clan anyway.”

Her sharp words carried icy mockery. Just as an ant could never stop a rolling wheel, no matter how frantically it struggled, whatever Li Qingyu schemed would be futile. Maia spoke as though determined to insult her.

Still smiling brightly, without the slightest loss of composure, Li Qingyu replied, “I have no particular intention of scheming, but I shall gratefully remember your considerate offer.”

“Hmph.”

Perhaps Li Qingyu's unshakable composure had taken all the fun out of it. Maia snorted, then leaned back in her chair, folded her arms, and spoke coldly.

“Enough idle talk. Get to the point. Unlike you, I do not have time to spare.”

“... Yes, I imagine not.”

Li Qingyu briefly smiled wryly despite herself, recalling the mountain of paperwork that must have buried Yo U-in and Wei Ling by now. Then she spoke calmly.

“As you have no doubt already guessed, my request is simple. I want this gentleman treated.”

Maia slowly followed her gaze. She regarded Hermann, the middle-aged man sitting beside Li Qingyu with his face stiff with tension, through gloomy eyes before speaking.

“This sculptor?”

“Did you know Mr. Hermann?”

“Enough joking. Why would I be acquainted with someone so insignificant?”

“Then you knew just by looking at him this time, too.”

“Do not state the obvious.”

Maia sneered as Li Qingyu nodded, as though she had expected as much. Pointing at Hermann with a finger encased in a smooth glove, she continued mockingly.

“His body so plainly bears the marks of a man determined to live and fucking die as a sculptor. Unless one's eyes are purely ornamental, how could anyone fail to see it?”

“...”

Muscles deformed by excessive strain. Emphysema caused by inhaling dust while sculpting. Hands that trembled even when he ate, and stiff joints. Then there were the scars, calluses, and traces of burns on his fingers and the backs of his hands.

As Maia mockingly declared that his very body was a certificate attesting to a lifetime as a sculptor, Hermann's expression grew complicated. Should he admire her for recognizing his ailments at a glance? Feel satisfied that she had acknowledged his life as a sculptor? Or feel ashamed—or angry—at her ridicule for having ruined his own body? His emotions were so tangled that he no longer knew what expression to wear.

But Maia paid no attention to his expression. The sneer on her lips merely deepened.

“The only thing I cannot understand is why a man who, judging by his symptoms, should have died long ago is still alive and well.”

“That would be thanks to the Divine Monarch.”

“The Divine Monarch... I see. Yes, this is precisely the sort of thing that quack of a woman would do.”

Maia nodded slowly, as though Li Qingyu's answer had finally made things clear. At her words, Yu Na-gyeong and Hermann wore bizarre expressions. Li Qingyu, on the other hand, chuckled as though she had expected that reaction.

“Your assessment is as merciless as ever.”

“What is merciless about calling a quack a quack?”

Where was the patient ill, and why? How should the illness be treated, what aftereffects would remain, and what needed to be managed to prevent a recurrence? If someone understood none of that properly, simply fixed patients with a skill and abandoned them because they were cured, how were they any different from a peddler selling cure-alls? Listening to Maia's cynical remarks, Yu Na-gyeong murmured dazedly.

[“You really do live long enough to see everything. I never thought I'd hear someone call the Divine Monarch a quack.”]

Calling the world's greatest healer a quack. It was such a terrifyingly harsh appraisal that even Cir's description of the Monarch of Magic as an ill-mannered little shit seemed like a slightly mischievous compliment by comparison.

'She's not entirely wrong. Though there's probably a fair bit of personal feeling mixed in, too.'

[“Personal feeling?”]

'Have you forgotten what Quetzalcoatl does?'

[“... Oh. Right, that makes sense.”]

Yu Na-gyeong understood. It was well known that the Divine Monarch's founding of the Saint Guild and provision of inexpensive treatment had nearly shattered the existing medical industry. With that history, Maia, the Green Dragon Princess, could hardly be fond of the Divine Monarch.

That was also why Li Qingyu spoke as though things had become quite amusing. “Unfortunately, I am told that while the Divine Monarch saved his life, she could not completely cure his illness.”

“So you want me to treat someone who is little more than the scraps that quack left after her meal?”

“I think this is quite a good opportunity for you as well, Maia. Don't you agree?”

Quetzalcoatl would have cured a patient even the Divine Monarch could not treat. If that became known, it would be an excellent opportunity to boost the stock prices of companies managed by the Green Dragon Clan and screw over the Divine Monarch at the same time. Maia stared gloomily at Li Qingyu as she made that suggestion with a bright smile, then nodded.

“It certainly would not be a bad thing.”

Treating a single patient would provide tremendous publicity and keep a business rival in check. Accepting was only natural for a businessperson.

“But I can create as many such trifling opportunities as I please.”

That reasoning, however, applied only to an ordinary businessperson. Not to Maia, the owner of Quetzalcoatl, the giant corporation that dominated the global medical industry. No matter how rare the illness or how precarious the patient's condition, she could procure as many as she wished with a single word.

“So, Li Qingyu, do not try to gloss over the matter with nonsense. Give me a proper answer.”

Thus Maia spoke firmly, not as the chairwoman of Seven Dragon, but as the Green Dragon Princess of the Seven Dragons Society. She continued, looking at Li Qingyu with gloomy green eyes.

“Whose life will you offer?”

“...!”

Utterly resolute and simply cynical, she twisted her pale, bluish lips into a faint sneer. At her words, Yu Na-gyeong's and Hermann's eyes widened.

But Li Qingyu was not surprised in the least. She merely smiled and answered as though she had fully expected this.

“Offering a life? You make it sound far too frightening.”

“Does it make you uncomfortable to hear?”

“Paying your price does not necessarily mean dying, does it, Maia? It merely means that people often end up living as though they were dead.”

Dying and living as though dead might seem similar, but they were distinctly different. Maia sneered as Li Qingyu pointed that out with perfect nonchalance.

“Then I shall ask once more.”

Maia. Chairwoman of Quetzalcoatl. Princess of the Green Dragon Clan, whose members were born with the psionic power of biological manipulation (healing). Even after the dawn of the Iron Age, she had been hailed as the greatest pharmacist, physician, and healer until the Divine Monarch appeared. Indeed, more than a few people whom high-level healers had deemed beyond saving had been treated successfully by her.

Yet far from spreading word of that fact, her patients hushed it up and tried to conceal it. In a world-weary voice, Maia voiced the reason she had become a symbol of despair rather than salvation.

“First decide who will become a slave and serve me as the price for my treatment.”