#215. Necessity rather than coincidence.
Hair as blue as the sea.
A clean, spotless uniform.
Even a face as beautiful as a sculpture.
A woman of lofty yet innocent beauty who will make the hearts of many men beat with just one smile.
However, instead of her usual gentle smile, the Blue Dragon Princess, who possessed a force as sharp as a blade, looked at Li Qingyu with eyes as cold as a winter lake.
“What are you thinking about Li Qingyu?”
Soft lips parted and what flowed out was a cold voice as much as the eyes.
If Yuna-kyung saw it, Rose asked again and again with a cold face that made her doubt whether she would be the same person as the kind princess she knew.
“No, what kind of scheme are you plotting?”
“It would be embarrassing for you to come to me and say what kind of scheming it is.”
Li Qingyu put on a puzzled expression.
And with a gentle sigh, he spoke.
“It’s because our clan has more than one scheme. If you don’t point it out, I won’t know what to say first.”
“…Is that so.”
The answer is too truthful to be a joke and too calm to be serious.
Rose, however, was not taken aback.
I just moved my wrist slightly.
“Then I will ask straight forward.”
As if he would not let go if he said even the slightest nonsense, he pressed the blade closer to Li Qingyu’s neck.
In a cold voice, Rose revealed the purpose of his visit to her.
“Why does ‘he’ have ‘it’?”
What Limon couldn’t bear to ask.
However, as a princess of the same Seven Dragons, she heard the questions she had to ask and answer, so she had to be silent for a while.
Li Qingyu smiled bitterly.
“Chao didn’t seem to notice, so I thought I could pass if I did well, but it seems like it was too much.”
To some extent, this was an expected result.
Rose was not a careless princess enough to see Limon slashing Carol right in front of her nose and not even notice her identity.
Even as long as he played the dark violin, there was a good chance that Rose felt ‘it’.
So it was.
The fact that Li Qingyu accepted as non-resistance when Rose crossed the space and thrust a blade at her throat.
It was the same thing that Najik did to Rose.
“Would you believe me if I told you I didn’t know about ‘it’ and it was just a coincidence?”
“…Are you serious?”
“Because it is true.”
Li Qingyu nodded calmly.
There was no flicker in those obsidian-deep and dull eyes, so it was hard to see that he was lying.
“I can’t believe it.”
But Rose flatly denied her words.
It wasn’t just because he was well aware of how foolish it was to believe in the Black Dragon Princess, who was capable of scheming and conspiracy.
If what Limon had was just an ordinary psionic, Rose would have been a little concerned about the authenticity of Li Qingyu’s words.
Innate talent is important for psionics, but acquired hard work is also an important power.
Anyone could acquire psionics depending on how much they trained in the seventy-two kinds.
One problem.
When playing the dark violin.
It was that Rose felt the perfect resonance for Limon.
It is a synchronicity in which each other’s energy is naturally stabilized and amplified, which is different from the method of artificially inducing psionics.
And as the Blue Dragon Princess, she could instinctively know the identity of the resonance.
“That’s dragon psionic.”
What many masters of the Seven Dragons did not get even though they worked hard enough to lose their lives.
The more fundamental and transcendent power of the dragon, which is on a different level from psionics, which are accumulated through acquired training.
Therefore, only the seven princesses of the Seven Dragons, who inherited the dragon’s blood, were born with the purest psionics that could be handled.
“Is it a coincidence that the swordsmith has the essence of the ‘eighth’ psionic that the Seven Dragons have been looking for for nearly a thousand years?”
Psionic Essence.
Dragon psionic as you might call it otherwise.
It is an indispensable element to achieve the Seven Dragons’ long-cherished wish, and is incomparably more valuable than a controlling stake in the Seven Dragons Group.
How could it be a coincidence that Li Mon, who had it, became Li Qingyu’s fiancée?
Li Qingyu’s answer to Rose’s cold question was clear.
“It’s your coincidence.”
“…”
Maybe it was because I didn’t know that even Li Qingyu would act so brazenly.
Rose in silence.
Li Qingyu smiled at her and added a word.
“If you think about it logically, it’s more like an inevitability than a coincidence.”
“What logic do you mean?”
“The reason why swordsmiths have dragon psionics.”
Rose’s eyes twitched.
Why… No, how could Limon, the archenemy of the Seven Dragons, have a dragon psionic?
It was information that any member of the Seven Dragons would want to know, even if it cost hundreds of thousands of dollars.
However, Li Qingyu did not bother digging into her agitation.
He just kept talking calmly, as if he were having a small talk.
“In the first place, Rose knows very well why our seven princesses are born with the essence of psionics from generation to generation, right?”
“Isn’t it because we inherited the true blood of our ancestors?”
“that’s right. There are other factors as well, but in the end, the most important thing is the founder’s blood.”
It was common knowledge to any warrior of the Seven Dragons.
But why did he mention it again? Li Qingyu calmly explained to Rose, who was looking at him with suspicion on her cold face.
“This means that the blood of our ancestors contained a purer psionic essence than the one our seven princesses inherited.”
That moment.
Rose’s eyes widened.
It was only then that I realized what Li Qingyu was trying to say.
“…Are you saying that the swordsmith obtained the dragon psionic contained in the founder’s blood when he was covered in blood while fighting the founder?”
* * *
Jerusalem, the last holy place in the world.
To every devout religious person it was like paradise itself.
After the incarnation was eaten by seven dragons in the Bronze Age and all other holy places were destroyed, Jerusalem was the only place where one could meet God directly.
But there is one fact that most people overlook.
That there is a paradise on earth.
That means there is also hell.
[…In short, this is hell?]
“If I had to say it, it’s closer to the Holy League’s dump.”
Jerusalem’s Underground.
As they walked along the aisle that stretched out in the vast darkness, Limon calmly continued.
“At the same time, it is an abandoned fortress of the gods and the most cursed cemetery in the world.”
[What can I do to have such a bizarre identity?]
“Well, it’s not surprisingly complicated.”
Limon paused for a moment.
He then held up a torch and continued talking while looking at the mural depicting the battle of the gods with seven dragons carved on the wall.
“It’s just that this was one of the last battlegrounds of the Silver Age.”
End of the Silver Age.
At that time, the world was dominated by priests and witches who dealt with magical powers, and incarnations that descended to the ground.
However, after the awakening of the seven dragons that had been asleep to avoid an ancient disaster, the incarnations were turned from great rulers to prey.
Of course, the gods didn’t get along either.
He mobilizes priests and witches who follow him to spread the magic of the myth, and bestows sacred objects on the magic knight, who was called a hero, to instruct him to hunt dragons.
He used all means to confront the seven dragons.
But the results were disastrous.
No magic, no great heroes.
In the end, the incarnations could not be prevented from being eaten by the dragon.
In addition, as those who were persecuted by witch hunts and religious wars at the time became followers of the dragon and established the Seven Dragons, the gods were increasingly driven into a corner.
To such an extent that they had no choice but to run away and lose even their holy places.
“In the end, only three places survived the invasion of the seven dragons until the end of the Silver Age.”
Limon calmly mentioned the three places.
The first is London, which was defended by Avalon, one of the most powerful magics of the Silver Age, centering on the three great witches.
The second is the fairy kingdom where the ancient spirits remained with the fairy queen who was the absolute ruler of the golden age.
And…
[The last one was Jerusalem?]
“Yeah, it was exactly this place.”
At that time, all other holy sites had already been destroyed.
After being chased by the seven dragons, the gods, who had no place to escape anymore, made a final stand in Jerusalem, the last remaining holy land.
And forgetting the grudges of the past, they worked together to create a huge labyrinth beneath Jerusalem.
That is Tartarus.
It was an underground fortress with a total of 666 floors where numerous miracles of God dwelled.
[As the team leader said, I understand that this is a fortress. Why is there an explanation of a graveyard and a garbage dump?]
“It’s literally because the body is buried like a mountain.”
Limon moved along the wall.
And he continued talking while looking at the picture of the corpse piled up at the end of the mural depicting the fierce fight with the dragon.
“There are magic knights, witch priests, and even dead bodies of gods here.”
[…
Are there any corpses left?]
Jerusalem was the place where the most people died among the final battlegrounds of the Silver Age.
Unlike Avalon, which was protected by heroic spirits, or the Fairy Kingdom, which was protected by spirits, they had to fight directly against the dragon.
and when they die.
The body was automatically hidden in Tartarus.
It was because of the curse placed on this underground labyrinth by the gods, who were wary of the dragon eating them and becoming stronger.
And the more the corpses piled up, the stronger the curse of Tartarus became.
At that time, they were in such a predicament that they had to use even the corpse of a god as a sacrifice.
It must have been worthwhile for the black magician to stick out his tongue and stubbornly resisted at all costs.
Eventually, Jerusalem was able to hold out until the Silver Age ended, and the remaining gods managed to make peace with the seven dragons.
Of course, it was more like total surrender than a peace treaty.
At any rate, the gods were satisfied with being able to survive and maintain their lives, and went up to earth again and reestablished the Order in Jerusalem.
However, the curse left in Tartarus did not disappear even after that.
After all, the gods used this place to seal cursed objects, important secrets, or imprison sinners.
That was the reason Limon evaluated this place as a cursed graveyard and a dump for the Holy League.
[…No matter how much they were cornered, the gods did a terrible thing to even use the corpse as firewood.]
“That’s how terrifying the seven dragons were to the gods.”
Originally, war is a way to make each other impoverished.
No matter how much one side has an overwhelming advantage, if the fight heats up, you have no choice but to take some damage in the end.
The problem is that in the fight between the seven dragons and the gods, that natural logic did not work.
“Every time the seven dragons ate an incarnation, they regained their former strength and became stronger. How awful must that have seemed to the gods?”
[That’s not all that surprising to the player.]
“That’s because the player is weird.”
Limon said sullenly.
Players who can become stronger just by catching monsters in dungeons are just abnormal.
Originally, repeating a desperate fight against a formidable enemy, far from becoming stronger, was a perfect thing to become an asshole.
In fact, even if it was just him and the sword emperor, every time he fought the seven dragons and was covered with their blood, he got a bone disease and had to recuperate for several months.
“To become stronger unconditionally just by defeating the enemy, would it be human if that was possible?”
Limon was cynical.
Then, in a mocking tone, he added a word.
“It must be a monster or a dragon wearing a human mask.”
