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Translator: 8uhl
Chapter: 15
Chapter Title: Severed Ties
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"You're a hero of this country!"
"Were a hero."
Wasn't it you who called me a traitor?
Rimon cut off Kang Jeongsu with a mocking remark, letting out a scoff.
"And so what if I was a hero? You think that even now, with the state of things, I'd go easy on anyone charging at me to kill me, all for the sake of the nation? Ignoring my warnings and coming at me like that?"
"...."
"You mad bastard."
Kang Jeongsu was speechless.
In truth, he had expected as much.
No, more precisely, he hadn't anticipated this kind of fallout.
He had only planned for the aftermath of killing Rimon—he'd never even imagined failure.
"And watch your words. What you're really worried about isn't the future of the nation."
Rimon extended one hand.
He grabbed Kang Jeongsu by the collar, yanking him close to force their eyes level, and spoke coldly.
"It's the flimsy power and political position you'd lose over this."
"Urk...!"
Kang Jeongsu ground his teeth.
Because Rimon had hit the nail on the head.
The burden he'd shouldered to execute this plan had been immense.
He'd gathered high-level players through sheer force of will, enduring mockery about burning down the whole house to catch one flea.
But if he'd managed to kill Rimon.
If he'd secured a connection to the Infinite Monarch.
In the long term, he could have built an even stronger political foundation.
But now, it was over.
Failing to capture Rimon was bad enough.
Losing dozens of high-level players was catastrophic.
Now, keeping his position as PAB Director would be a miracle; he was lucky not to end up shouldering all the blame and rotting in prison.
"You think you can get away with pulling something like this unscathed?"
"What's the reason I wouldn't?"
"There are plenty! Starting with the leaders of [Stardust] and [Cheonjong] who just fled from here—they'll hunt you for the rest of your life!"
Kang Jeongsu shouted with venom.
The two top-class players he'd prepared as his aces.
When Mira and An Donggwon suddenly bolted, he'd trembled with rage at their shamelessness.
But now, they were all he had left to pin his hopes on.
With the core strike team lost and his guild members slaughtered in the meantime, they wouldn't just slink away after that disgrace.
They'd pursue revenge by any means necessary.
And with the Infinite Monarch's power added to the mix, even Rimon would fall.
"Hm?"
As if he'd heard some absurd joke.
Rimon made a strange face.
He tilted his head, asking for confirmation.
"Fled? Who?"
"I told you! [Stardust] and...."
"No, I mean."
Rimon kicked something on the ground.
"If you're talking about those guys who ditched their underlings and ran off earlier, they're right here?"
"What kind of nonsense...?"
Kang Jeongsu tried to scoff at the ridiculous claim, but the next moment, he froze.
The thing Rimon had kicked.
He felt an eerie familiarity from the head with its eyes burst out—the one that had terrified him moments ago.
Without eyeballs and with its face twisted in agony, it was hard to recognize.
But that face was definitely....
An Donggwon!!!
The leader of the massive guild [Cheonjong], which commanded dozens of mid-to-small guilds and subcontractors under it.
One of the less than a hundred top-class players in the world.
Now reduced to just a head, Kang Jeongsu trembled at the sight of his face.
"H-how? I saw them running away!"
"Jeongsu, you pathetic fool. Did you really not know? Or did you know and ignore it?"
Like he was looking at a dim-witted but endearing nephew.
Wearing a smile that seemed so kind and amused.
Yet with cold contempt in his golden eyes as he gazed down, Rimon asked softly.
"Didn't your grandfather tell you? You can't escape a Sword Master."
"...."
"Yeah, I figured as much."
Kang Jeongsu's face twisted.
Seeing it, Rimon nodded slowly.
Kang Jeongsu's grandfather, who had joined Rimon in wars multiple times, wouldn't have failed to mention such basic knowledge.
Kang Jeongsu had simply dismissed it as exaggerated bravado.
Idiots.
You can't escape a Sword Master.
Ever since Rimon, long ago, chased a fleeing demon god around the Earth thirty-seven times and finally plunged his sword into its heart.
It had become common knowledge.
The era changed, and even that faded into obscurity.
Still, if they'd bothered to learn even a little about Sword Masters, they wouldn't have run from him.
They would have knelt and surrendered from the start.
Or fought to the death.
In the end, despite coming to capture him, they hadn't researched Sword Masters at all.
Or like Kang Jeongsu, they'd known and sneered.
Tsking at their foolishness, Rimon said to Kang Jeongsu.
"If there are more people I need to kill, tell me now. That way, even if you die, you'll feel less wronged."
"A-are you saying you're going to kill me?!"
"Yeah."
"I was just following orders!"
"...Hey, you fucking bastard, is that really what you want to say right now?"
Rimon was dumbfounded.
There were limits to shamelessness.
Even considering the subordinates who'd fought and died on his orders, that was something he should never say.
"Th-that was... a mistake."
"Mistake... No, forget it. No more words."
Rimon shook his head.
He released Kang Jeongsu's collar and drew his sword.
Only then, seeing the gleaming blade, did Kang Jeongsu seem to realize Rimon was serious.
Scrambling on the ground, he clung to Rimon's feet, begging.
"Elder, no, Uncle! Please spare me! For the sake of your bond with my grandfather, please...!"
Rimon paused for a moment.
At the word "Uncle."
A figure from the past overlapped with Kang Jeongsu.
A little kid who'd pissed himself in fear at their first meeting, always peeking from behind his grandfather.
Yet he'd come running with a bright smile whenever offered a snack, the foolish child.
"B-besides, if you kill me too, you'll be branded a traitor for good. You won't have a place anywhere in this country!"
Seizing the silence as an opportunity.
Kang Jeongsu desperately listed what Rimon could gain by sparing him.
Now with a potbelly and jaded by schemes and betrayal, never satisfied with the power he had, Rimon said softly to him.
"Jeongsu, I've never once feared becoming a traitor in all my life."
"...Pardon?"
"If anything, the nation has always feared me becoming one."
"What do you...."
Slash.
Kang Jeongsu, gaping foolishly as he asked.
But he couldn't finish his question.
His eyes bulged at Rimon before he clutched his spurting neck and collapsed.
"Guh, guk...! Grrrk!"
True to his role as PAB Director, armed with all sorts of items.
Even with his artery severed, he thrashed without losing consciousness. Watching him, Rimon murmured languidly.
"That's why I told you—if you want to live, grovel and beg for your life."
Rimon had already warned them.
No mercy for those who opposed him.
From the moment they ignored that, they'd kicked away their last chance at survival.
"Well, I was planning to kill you anyway."
"Gu... Heuk!"
"Feeling wronged? Can't be helped. Na-kyung must've felt even more so. You can go keep her company."
Kang Jeongsu twitched, blood pouring from his neck.
Rimon sat lightly beside him.
Gazing up at the starry night sky, he spoke casually.
"Remember?"
"That time your grandfather begged and begged to watch the meteor shower together."
"You've always had big dreams. You even wished on the shooting stars to become president right off the bat."
"Your grandfather bragged you had the makings of a general."
"I tsked, seeing a kid already eyeing power—thought your prospects looked yellow."
Like telling old tales to a nephew.
Rimon spoke softly beside Kang Jeongsu.
Without so much as glancing at the man dying in a pool of blood.
Until his convulsing limbs stilled in spasms.
His bloodshot pupils dilated.
And the spurting blood stopped.
Only after Kang Jeongsu's body went fully limp did Rimon, still gazing at the stars, stop talking.
Then he looked down at him with lonely eyes, the man who'd kept his eyes wide open to the end.
...In the end, it came to this again.
He didn't regret striking him down.
Kang Jeongsu didn't deserve to feel wronged.
Beheading a child he'd watched grow up? He'd done it plenty of times before.
Still, Rimon's regret wasn't for Kang Jeongsu, but for his grandfather.
"Myeongjin, your promise didn't even last a century."
He'd vowed to honor him as a benefactor for generations.
A man who'd said what others wouldn't even joke about, and meant it.
Who'd upheld his word his whole life, leaving it as his dying wish.
Remembering Kang Myeongjin, Rimon sighed shortly.
"Well, even after being discarded by the nation like trash, if your promise had held, I'd have been more shocked."
Whether Kang Jeongsu had orchestrated this.
Or the Infinite Monarch Lee Cheongi.
Without government tacit approval, they couldn't have razed buildings in the heart of the city.
Mobilizing this many high-level players was borderline treason itself.
Above all, the existence of the 909 Unit—incapable of acting without the command authority's permission—proved the government's full involvement.
The nation Rimon had devoted most of his long life to protecting had chosen to discard its outdated hero.
Just like Kang Jeongsu betrayed him for a tie to the monarch, under the pretext of national interest.
"Still, after guarding the country for centuries, they toss me out after just thirty-some years of change? Shameless bastards."
Rimon chuckled.
He knew it was inevitable once Sword Masters were treated as relics.
He knew people forget.
That eternal promises don't exist.
That trust breaks.
He'd lived long enough to know well.
Yet Rimon had formed bonds he knew would break, trusted people, and kept protecting this nation.
Adapting to the changing era rather than resisting it.
But now, that was over.
With the nation abandoning him, he no longer owed it any loyalty.
Whether their attempt to kill me was pure intent or not, who knows.
Rimon glanced aside.
At Kang Jeongsu's corpse sprawled in its own blood.
More precisely, at the one-eyed old woman's shadow beside it, her head split open and melting away.
Kang Jeongsu never knew.
Before he even crawled away to escape.
That Rimon had already cut down the old woman's shadow as she tried to abandon him and flee.
That amid this mountain of corpses and sea of blood weren't just 200 bodies, but 200 shadows cast by starlight as well.
That Rimon's warning hadn't applied only to humans.
That even the great beings in the starry seats couldn't escape a Sword Master.