Chapter 239 - It's Already Over

* * *

Deep within a densely forested jungle stood a village.

No, to be precise, it was hard to call it a village.

An enormous wooden palisade tangled with vines, a swamp encircling it like a moat, and suspicious-looking men standing guard atop the walls with guns—the place was so heavily guarded that it resembled a fortress more than a village.

At the heart of that fortress, in a mansion incomparably grander and more lavish than the other buildings, a man was enjoying his meal.

CRUNCH, CRUNCH.

He held a whole roasted boar haunch the size of a forearm in one hand and tore into it, slurped seafood stew straight from the bowl, and drained a beer mug in a single gulp.

Bloated as an elephant, he sat alone at a table laden with enough food to leave dozens of diners stuffed, devouring it all himself.

Gula set down his empty beer mug, gave a small belch, and casually asked,

"Urp. So who did you say had what happen to him?"

"Antonio is dead..."

"Who the fuck is that?"

"... The boss of the gang distributing ambrosia in São Paulo."

"We had a bastard like that?"

He stuffed an entire sandwich into his mouth and briefly searched his memory.

By the time he had chewed and swallowed it, he still hadn't remembered. Reaching for the crocodile meat as though it hardly mattered, he asked,

"Anyway, why'd he croak? Did he get high and go into a dungeon or something?"

"It seems the Green Dragon Princess has made a move..."

At that moment, Gula stopped just short of picking up the crocodile meat.

A gleam lit his previously dull eyes as he turned toward the old man.

"That bitch got involved personally?"

"Yes... They say he killed himself after she interrogated him."

"Heh heh heh. Is that so?"

After a brief, sinister chuckle, Gula snatched up the crocodile meat in a crushing grip, crunched through it bones and all, and muttered,

"That bitch usually stays holed up and never comes out. If she's making a move herself, she must really be shitting herself."

"We cannot be certain yet. She may have had some other objective..."

"Shut up! If I say that's how it is, that's how it is!"

THWACK!

Gula hurled the half-eaten crocodile meat into the face of the old man delivering his report in a phlegmy voice and roared.

He huffed at the old man, who bowed his head apologetically, then picked up another dish and spoke again.

"There are other gangs in São Paulo, right? Set up a new distribution network through them. Double the quantity this time, too."

"That will leave a trail..."

"I'm doing it to leave a trail."

Gula raised his unusually dark left hand and stroked the left side of his face, smiling chillingly.

"That way, I can really fuck that damned bitch over."

"... As you wish."

In the end, the old man obeyed Gula's instructions.

A new distribution network was necessary anyway, and he had no right to refuse.

"Oh, and that guy the bitch killed—Anton, Antus, whatever his name was?"

"You mean Antonio?"

"Yeah. Kill every last one of his men. If he had a family, grab them, tear them limb from limb, and hang them in front of the door."

"Is there any particular reason to go that far...?"

"We have to show them what happens to failures. That'll make the others work harder, won't it?"

"... Understood."

Whether the old man genuinely agreed or merely pretended to out of fear, Gula didn't care.

Fear him and obey his commands. He expected nothing more from his subordinates anyway, and any subordinate who failed to do either was already dead.

So Gula raised his hand to stroke the left side of his face again and laughed happily.

"Heh heh heh... Just wait a little longer, Green Dragon Princess. I'll repay you for that day without fail."

* * *

["... To do something like that on the very first day. That's Maia for you."]

"We expected this much, didn't we?"

["Being expected doesn't make it any less troublesome."]

Li Qingyu smiled wryly.

She had expected Maia to discover soon that Limon wasn't a member of the Black Dragon Clan, and to become much more aggressive in probing his secrets afterward.

But to use a gang to test him before even a single day had passed? Events were progressing far faster than she had ever anticipated.

"Still, this is a pretty good outcome. Now that we've reached a tacit agreement, she won't openly try to uncover my identity."

["Instead, she'll try to uncover your secrets by other means, Sword Lord."]

On the very first day, she had sent him to capture a gang boss all by himself.

What would she make him do tomorrow? The mere thought drew a sigh from Li Qingyu.

Unlike her, however, Limon remained utterly unruffled.

"Well, how much could those other methods amount to? All I have to do is handle them properly."

["Yes, that's true."]

'If only you didn't possess Dragon Psionics, Sword Lord, I could think so too.'

Li Qingyu murmured inwardly.

It wasn't that she didn't trust Limon.

The problem was that he possessed the very essence of psionics, and Limon himself didn't know it.

Not knowing what secret one was hiding could make one its perfect guardian—but it could also lead to revealing that secret in the most unexpected way.

["In any case, Sword Lord, please never let your guard down. She is the Green Dragon Princess."]

That was why Li Qingyu cautioned him so earnestly.

It wasn't merely concern over Maia's keen discernment as the world's foremost physician and pharmacist.

If anything, the problem was the very fact that she was the Green Dragon Clan's princess.

"Don't worry. I know perfectly well what the Green Dragon Clan is like."

Limon found nothing particularly strange about Li Qingyu's warning.

When hiding a secret, the Green Dragon Clan could, depending on the circumstances, be harder to deal with than the mind-reading Black Dragon Clan or the future-seeing White Dragon Clan.

Of course, he was still confident he could conceal his identity.

So he set aside those needless worries and changed the subject.

"More importantly, Princess, do you know what ambrosia is?"

["Well, I know of a few different kinds of ambrosia."]

A certain salad in America, for instance.

Or a healing item in a game.

Or...

["The best-known is the food of the gods in Greek mythology, but I assume you mean a different ambrosia, Sword Lord?"]

"It'd be strange for the Green Dragon Princess to go out personally just to look for some paltry food of the gods, wouldn't it?"

["Most people would find asking a gang boss about it stranger."]

Only a Sword Master who had slain even gods would dismiss their food as something so paltry. Li Qingyu chuckled at Limon's choice of words before speaking calmly.

["In any case, if Maia went out of her way to investigate its source personally, it certainly isn't anything ordinary."]

Maia spent most of the year shut away in her residence and rarely went out unless something significant happened. Given her disposition, this was certainly unusual.

After Li Qingyu candidly offered her opinion, Limon asked quietly,

"Could you look into that ambrosia for me?"

["Even though it might offend Maia?"]

"She mentioned it openly in front of me. That must mean I can dig into it if I want. Looking around a bit shouldn't cause a problem."

If even Li Qingyu, a fellow member of the Seven Dragons Society, knew nothing about it, then it was either utterly trivial or, conversely, something being concealed because it was too important.

Why, then, had Maia deliberately revealed it in front of him?

Scratching his cheek as he pondered her intentions, Limon suddenly added,

"Besides, something about that ambrosia is strangely bothering me."

["... In short, you have a bad feeling about it?"]

"Well, you could put it that way."

Leaving something that gave him this sort of nagging feeling alone had rarely ended well for him.

At Limon's answer, delivered as though it were the most obvious thing in the world, Li Qingyu nodded with a wry smile.

["Understood. If you say so, Sword Lord, I'll look into ambrosia."]

"Good. I'm counting on you."

Limon spoke evenly.

Ordinarily, he would have investigated it himself, but he was currently tied to the Green Dragon Princess.

In that regard, it was fortunate that Li Qingyu had come along. At least when it came to investigating things and digging up information, few people were as dependable as she was.

... Of course, anyone else, even if they trusted her abilities, would have been too afraid of being stabbed in the back to do this.

'Really, being the Sword Lord's bride-to-be isn't easy in any number of ways.'

Smiling at the ever-unchanging weight of his trust, Li Qingyu suddenly asked something she had forgotten.

["Come to think of it, Sword Lord, when did Maia say she would begin treatment?"]

"The sculptor's treatment?"

Perhaps she had been too worried.

Limon chuckled at Li Qingyu only now asking about the most important matter.

Then he looked at Hermann, who was staring at his own hands in astonishment after the needles packed densely across his body had been removed, and quietly continued.

"It's already over."

* * *

"To be precise, only today's treatment is over."

Maia spoke with a cold sneer, as though mocking spectators who acted as if they had already won just because their team had scored one goal in the first half.

Yet Hermann felt no displeasure at her blatant mockery.

No, he couldn't.

He was too busy marveling at his hands, which were moving normally rather than trembling as they usually did.

"H-how...?"

Hermann was stunned.

Of course, the treatment he had received from Maia was by no means slight.

She had tied a thin thread around his wrist to read his pulse, checked his condition with cutting-edge equipment, given him all manner of medicinal decoctions, and applied acupuncture while he sweated black perspiration in a bathtub, among other things.

He had been so busy undergoing treatment all day that he couldn't even remember everything done to him.

But one thing was certain.

Less than a day had passed since treatment began.

That alone was enough to make him wonder whether he was dreaming. He simply couldn't believe that the trembling and pain in his hands, which had tormented him for years, had vanished in a single day.

"An illness even the Divine Monarch couldn't cure, healed in just one day...!"

"Do you dare compare me to that worthless quack?"

"Th-that wasn't what I meant. I'm simply so astonished. Please understand."

Hermann found himself offering what sounded like an excuse.

Maia stared at him sharply, then gave a cold snort and spoke.

"It is hardly anything remarkable. Your illness arose because your body had reached the end of its lifespan. I have merely put its root cause on hold."

"What do you mean by that?"

Hermann looked puzzled for a moment.

He couldn't quite understand what she meant by putting the root cause of his illness on hold.

So when Limon chuckled beside him and spoke, his face went blank.

"What else? It means your lifespan has been extended by about ten years."

"My lifespan... extended?"

"Indeed."

To get a car with a flat tire moving, one didn't necessarily have to repair the tire.

Another option was to add a twelve-cylinder engine and an alloy frame, converting it into an eight-wheel-drive vehicle that could run perfectly well even with a few wheels missing.

As Maia explained with a sneer, Hermann could only let his jaw drop.