Chapter 254 - It Has Begun

* * *

["Hello?"]

["Team Leader, can you hear me?"]

["If you're listening, answer me, will you? Come on!"]

After spending a long while struggling with the ring-shaped Telepathy item fastened around her slender ankle, Yu Na-gyeong sighed and shrugged her wings.

["Still no answer."]

Li Qingyu, who had quietly watched her efforts from beside her, looked thoughtful for a moment before speaking.

"... It seems the second-worst scenario has occurred."

["The second-worst scenario?"]

"It appears the Sword Lord's identity has been exposed."

["What? Then we're in big trouble!"]

Yu Na-gyeong started in alarm. Over the past few days, she had learned all too painfully how strictly the Green Dragon Clan repaid favors and grudges, and what sort of relationship they had with Limon. To her, that sounded like an announcement that war was about to break out.

"No. Fortunately, it seems we've avoided the worst. At the very least, the Sword Lord won't be fighting the Green Dragon Clan right away."

Li Qingyu wore a peculiar expression. Had the two clashed, Quetzalcoatl's headquarters could hardly have remained this quiet. That was fortunate, but also cause for concern.

"The problem is that the Sword Lord seems to have used the scales."

["Oh, surely not. He was avoiding that ability because it seemed so risky already. Why would he use it on that scary woman, of all people?"]

"It would mean he found himself in a situation where he had no choice, even with that risk."

Li Qingyu smiled wryly. She did not know what circumstances had led Maia to discover his identity. But given the sudden loss of contact, the most reasonable inference was that Limon had been exposed and used the scales' coercive power.

There could only have been one way to make the Green Dragon Clan, who never forgot a grudge, cooperate with him: offer them a chance to settle that grudge.

"I'm glad I gave him some information in advance."

["Information...like the Forest Guild's location?"]

"Yes. If the Forest Guild is producing and distributing ambrosia, information about them should be quite valuable to Maia as well."

If he had used the scales, Limon and Maia would be locked in a fierce struggle for coercive power by now. Li Qingyu calmly explained that although her information might not give him an overwhelming advantage in that contest, it should at least get him through one difficult moment.

Yu Na-gyeong looked dubious.

["Princess, does the Black Dragon Clan have precognition too, by any chance?"]

"No, of course not."

["Then how did you know this would happen and give him that information beforehand?"]

"I didn't specifically predict it. I merely prepared for the worst."

Ainsha, the world's greatest prophet, might have managed it. But Li Qingyu had neither the ability nor the talent to foresee this exact situation and prepare only the precise countermeasures required.

Instead, she could envision various worst-case scenarios and prepare a trump card useful for each. Anyone capable of thinking could do that much.

["... That's easy to say, but it sounds like you're telling me to have an underground bunker, an ark, and a spaceship ready for whatever apocalypse comes, whenever it happens."]

"Better safe than sorry."

["Not 'too much of a good thing'?"]

"Well, at least in the Seven Dragons Society, we've never felt the need for that expression when dealing with the Sword Lord."

["Uh, um..."]

Whether through swordsmanship beyond imagination or superhuman intuition and experience, Limon always defied their predictions and caught them off guard. No matter how thoroughly they prepared, they were often slaughtered without being able to fight back—or so Li Qingyu claimed with a cheerful smile. After breaking into a cold sweat at those outrageous words, Yu Na-gyeong hurriedly opened her beak.

["B-by the way, it's impressive that you managed to obtain information like the location of the Forest Guild's base."]

Brazil was the Green Dragon Clan's home territory. Finding out something even they did not know was quite a feat. Seeing that Yu Na-gyeong was plainly half impressed and half trying to change the subject, Li Qingyu chuckled.

"Well, this is our specialty."

Even within the Seven Dragons Society, the Black Dragon Clan had always excelled at espionage, intrigue, and one other field. Their fall had not cost them all their eyes and ears. Indeed, their intelligence capabilities were what had allowed them to establish and maintain Leviathan Hotels around the world during the hellish Age of Heroes.

"Of course, the investigation would have been more difficult if Zixuan hadn't kept our intelligence network in such good shape."

Zixuan was the general manager of São Paulo's Leviathan and the head of their intelligence network in Brazil. Had she not already identified a gang suspected of serving as the Forest Guild's agents, they could not have located the guild in a single day. As Li Qingyu explained this modestly, Yu Na-gyeong muttered with a dubious look.

["It strikes me all over again: your clan's abilities are seriously broken."]

"Are they? I think our clan is fairly ordinary compared with the others."

["... Do you even know what 'ordinary' means?"]

Telepathy that read minds. The Soul-Seizing Demon Eye School that controlled them. What was ordinary about supernatural powers so dominant in intelligence warfare that they were practically cheating? Under Yu Na-gyeong's incredulous gaze, Li Qingyu let out a soft sigh.

"Because there is nothing more our clan's abilities can do."

That was the extent of her preparations. Whatever unexpected development came next, she had no further means of helping Limon. If her expectations were correct, Maia would already have forbidden him all contact with the Black Dragon Clan.

All she could do now was trust Limon and wait. The easiest thing to do, and yet the hardest.

["Well, don't worry too much. Surely nothing else is going to happen now."]

Li Qingyu smiled wryly at Yu Na-gyeong's reply. She made that difficult task look so easy.

"Something will, I expect."

["What?"]

With Limon's identity suddenly exposed and Barbara, who had been watching Li Qingyu, abruptly disappearing, something must have happened to the Green Dragon Clan. That also meant a major incident was about to begin. Whatever had been done to them, a clan so strict about repaying favors and grudges would never let it pass.

Yu Na-gyeong looked doubtful as Li Qingyu stated with certainty that something else would happen.

["Come on, even so, I think you're worrying a little too much—"]

She never finished her sentence. At that very moment, the pager Li Qingyu had received from Zixuan suddenly began to ring.

["Your Highness, I have an urgent report."]

The Green Dragon Clan had mobilized. Maia and Limon were among them. Their destination was believed to be a certain specific location. As Zixuan delivered her hurried report, which matched Li Qingyu's predictions exactly, Yu Na-gyeong blurted out with an unwittingly dumbfounded expression:

["... Princess, why not take this opportunity to switch jobs and become the White Dragon Princess?"]

Li Qingyu did not bother answering her half-joking, half-serious suggestion. She merely sighed, recalling another worst-case scenario she had considered—but never hoped for—ever since passing along the Forest Guild's location.

"It has begun."

It was something that would have happened eventually. But why did it have to happen now? And what new variable would Limon's involvement introduce, with what consequences? Faced with a situation that even she now found difficult to predict, Li Qingyu could only look out the window, her eyes dark and heavy.

* * *

The Amazon. The world's largest jungle, accounting for more than half of all tropical rainforest. Its expanse was so vast that it was called the lungs of the Earth; in terms of area alone, it could have accommodated five or six reasonably sized countries with room to spare.

Yet only a tiny portion of the Amazon rainforest was actually accessible to humans. With its poisonous insects and plants, swamps, and wild beasts, ordinary people would struggle to survive even a few days. For a certain reason, even most high-level players were reluctant to enter the Amazon.

"Full house!"

"What? No fucking way!"

"Way or no way, hand over the money, asshole!"

"Heh heh heh. That bastard tried bluffing, and now he's about to lose even his underwear."

That was why the sentries stationed in a treetop watch post were idly enjoying poker rather than keeping watch. No intruder would come to this remote jungle. Even if one did, they could decide then whether to stop them or run away.

It was an unthinkable attitude for sentries, but to them it was only natural. They were gangsters by trade: street criminals who lived for today alone, driven by immediate pleasure and profit rather than reason or a sense of duty.

"Huh? Did you hear something?"

"Quit changing the subject and show your cards."

"No, I'm not changing the subject. I really thought I heard something..."

As they engrossed themselves in poker, one gangster looking around suddenly stiffened. The watch post stood near the top of a tree, giving them a clear view in every direction. From that vantage point, he could see a strange disturbance beginning in the distance, where the jungle had lain still.

RUSTLE...

The trees swayed. Slowly, gently. And not just one tree. At least dozens, or hundreds—perhaps thousands. The gangster's eyes widened at the sight of the forest rolling in waves, as though the woodland itself had become a sea.

"Th-that...!"

Belatedly noticing the anomaly, the sentries dropped their cards and hurried to ring the alarm bell. Or rather, they tried to.

THUNK!

They would have succeeded had an intruder not suddenly crashed through the ceiling and dropped down, piercing the heart of the sentry reaching for the bell.

"G-Green Dragon Clan!"

A revealing red outfit. A pair of spears in her hands. And, most telling of all, green hair. Terrified by the intruder's unmistakable appearance, the remaining sentries reflexively raised their guns.

The intruder made no effort to stop them. She merely pulled her spear out of the corpse and regarded them with cold eyes.

Confused by that inexplicable behavior, they nevertheless tried to fire, driven by terror and the instinct to survive.

CRASH!

The sentries all collapsed. The intruder had not made a move against them, nor had anyone else attacked. The instant a strange fragrance brushed their noses, their heads suddenly reeled and their bodies went rigid.

GURK!

Nor did the changes end there. Pain flared in their bellies as though a fire had been lit inside them, and black, dead blood began pouring from their mouths.

"P-poison!"

Only then did they realize why the intruder had not stopped them: she had no need to. The faint poisonous fragrance emanating from her skin, exposed by her nearly naked attire, had already been eating away at them.

"S-spare me."

"An antidote, please...!"

Perhaps it was because they could feel the poison spreading through their bodies with every passing moment, their lives fading away. Even as they writhed in pain, the sentries reached toward the intruder and begged for their lives.

But the intruder did not so much as twitch an eyebrow. She merely watched them die with a murderous gaze.

A short while later, Barbara lightly leaped from the watch post, leaving behind only corpses that had finally died weeping bloody tears.

It was not happening at that watch post alone. Hidden posts scattered throughout the vast Amazon rainforest were being annihilated one after another, without a chance to resist, by hundreds of intruders racing through the jungle with barely their most intimate parts covered.

The Green Dragon Clan, rulers of the South American continent. The Forest Guild, a dominant power of the present age. Thus, amid the stillness of that far-reaching jungle, the war between the two powers announced its beginning.