At the Palace Lord’s words, I tilted my head.
A request? What’s that about?
I should at least hear them out first.
“What is it you want to ask of me?”
“There’s something I want you to find. It’s hard to locate by ordinary means, but with her Ice Crystal Eyes, it should be easy.”
“If I find it for you, what will you give me in return?”
“If you find it, it won’t only benefit this palace. It’ll be good for Snow Wind Palace as well.”
“…?”
“Thanks to you owning a secret vault, I can save myself some explanation.”
No way?
“What I want to find are the things the Ice Guardian Beast, who served the former Snow Wind Palace Lord, hid somewhere.”
“I get that finding those would be good for Snow Wind Palace, but why do you want them, Palace Lord?”
“Ah, actually, I entrusted something to the former Snow Wind Palace Lord. That person clearly said they’d store it in their own secret vault. I want to find it, but anything the Ice Guardian Beast hid can’t be seen by anyone except their master.”
“But Deputy Gwak can see it, right?”
“Yes.”
Hmm, what should I do?
I had no idea what was in the former Snow Wind Palace Lord’s secret vault, but my instincts were telling me I needed to find it.
The problem was, I had to drag Lady Seohyang into this.
“All right.”
Lady Seohyang answered first.
“If I can help, of course I should step up.”
“Thank you.”
“Um… are you really okay with this?”
At my question, she nodded.
“It’s fine. I’m glad I can be of help.”
.
.
.
Brother Jin-ho was surrounded by Mother-in-law, Grandmother-in-law, and my sister-in-law’s aunts…
Huh?
I tilted my head.
“What are you doing right now?”
“Ah, I’m learning how to throw hidden weapons.”
“Hidden weapons?”
“Yeah. I’m not learning them properly, just picking up the basics. As you know, I’m a man, so I can’t learn the Ice Palace’s martial arts.”
Come to think of it, hadn’t Brother Jin-ho always been terrible at delicate techniques like throwing hidden weapons?
Swoosh–! Thunk!
“Hmm, your form’s finally looking decent.”
“It’s all thanks to Mother-in-law’s guidance. Hahaha.”
But seeing him now, it felt less like Brother Jin-ho lacked talent and more like he’d just never learned properly.
Well, come to think of it, I’ve never seen the External Chief Administrator use hidden weapons either.
This was a good opportunity for Brother Jin-ho.
Still, playing around by throwing hidden weapons… it really is the North Sea Ice Palace.
I told Brother Jin-ho I had to step out for a bit because of a request from the Palace Lord.
“Then I’ll be back.”
“Yeah, go and come back safely.”
With that, I stepped through the Gate of Mist together with Lady Seohyang and headed for the Ice Palace Inn.
Young Palace Lord Bing Hae-rin walked beside me.
Seeing the Young Palace Lord being sent along, it seemed what the Palace Lord wanted was pretty important.
Well, of course. The Palace Lord wouldn’t be trying so hard to find it otherwise.
When the Palace Lord first saw Lady Seohyang and their face lit up, the real reason might have been that they’d finally seen a way to find that item.
But still… just what is it the Palace Lord is looking for?
I was curious, but I couldn’t exactly ask Young Palace Lord Bing Hae-rin…
Well, I’ll find out naturally sooner or later.
When we arrived at the Ice Palace Inn, Palgap greeted me at the door.
“Young Master, you’ve come?”
“You knew I was coming?”
We’d agreed I’d be leaving the Ice Palace tomorrow morning, so I thought he’d be resting inside the inn right now.
“I just had a feeling Young Master would come, so I stepped outside.”
Seriously, Palgap’s intuition was something else.
Just then, maybe because they heard my voice, the other Escort Guards hurried out.
“You’ve returned?”
“You’ve come out earlier than we expected. Is something the matter?”
At that question, I nodded.
“There’s something I need to take care of for a bit. So, does anyone have time to come with me?”
They answered my question without hesitation.
“We are always waiting for our lord’s command.”
“Please give the order.”
It was really reassuring.
A little later, we were fully prepared and set out.
“So… are we supposed to search this entire vast North Sea?”
At my question, Young Palace Lord Bing Hae-rin shook her head.
“Of course not. Do you know how big the North Sea is? The Palace Lord would never make such an unreasonable request.”
“Then…”
“Most likely around where Snow Wind Palace used to stand, somewhere in that area.”
“…”
I hesitated for a moment, then carefully asked.
“Are you all right with that?”
“Huh? With what?”
“That place is…”
“It’s fine. I barely even remember it anyway.”
She spoke calmly.
“Let’s hurry. If the snow wind starts blowing, it’ll slow us down.”
And so we headed toward the place where Snow Wind Palace had once stood.
When we climbed a hill of packed snow, I saw something far in the distance.
That was probably where Snow Wind Palace had been.
Just as they’d said, everything had been destroyed.
Only traces remained; nothing that looked meaningful was left.
“There’s no point getting any closer. And I don’t recommend it either.”
The ones who wiped out Snow Wind Palace might still be watching that area.
And from watching Geumryeong, I’d figured out that the Ice Guardian Beast was quite smart.
With Snow Wind Palace on the brink of annihilation, there was no way the things were hidden inside the palace or right nearby.
But since it had to stay close to its master, it couldn’t have gone extremely far either.
So it had to be somewhere around here.
But even after searching around for a long time with that in mind, I couldn’t sense anything at all.
There was nothing but a vast, snow–covered plain.
Just where in the world did they hide it?
I felt completely at a loss as to how we were supposed to find it.
Still, it was way too early to give up.
We grabbed long poles and started stabbing deep into the snow as we searched.
It had already been close to twenty years since Snow Wind Palace was wiped out.
Considering the terrain and weather here, whatever we were looking for was most likely buried under the snow.
We wandered through the snow like that for about two hours.
“Kui?”
Just then, Geumryeong, who had been tucked inside my sleeve, tilted its head.
“What is it, Geumryeong?”
“Kui!”
Geumryeong popped out of my sleeve and hopped down onto the snow, then scampered off somewhere, patter, patter, patter.
“Huff, huff!”
Geumryeong tapped at the ground and drooled all over the place.
Ah, what a waste!
That’s medicine!
But if Geumryeong was drooling like that, it meant there was something over there it really liked, right?
I lifted Geumryeong up in my arms and said,
“Let’s try digging here.”
“Yes.”
We dug where Geumryeong had been standing, and soon found something.
What’s this?
I picked it up. It was a bundle filled with gold taels.
Why is this lying here?
More importantly, what should we do with this?
With that question in mind, I looked at Young Palace Lord Bing Hae-rin.
“The law of the North Sea is that whoever gets their hands on it owns it.”
“I see.”
I counted the gold taels in the bundle. Eleven in total.
“It’s rare for it to divide this cleanly. This is real luck.”
Our group was nine people: me, Lady Seohyang, Palgap, and six Escort Guards.
Add Young Palace Lord Bing Hae-rin, and that made ten.
And of course we couldn’t leave out Geumryeong, who’d played the decisive role in finding these gold taels.
I handed one to each person.
Then I held one of the gold taels out to Geumryeong.
“Here, eat. This one’s yours.”
“Kui?”
Geumryeong looked at me as if asking if it was really okay to eat it, and I nodded.
Geumryeong gulped the gold tael down in one go.
Wow, not just a gold coin, but a huge gold tael swallowed in one bite. Impressive.
Watching that, a clever idea popped into my head.
“From now on, sniff out pricey stuff like this around here. I’ll give you a cut as your fee.”
“Kuiiit!”
Geumryeong happily waddled around the area, searching.
“Hm? You want us to dig here?”
Where Geumryeong pointed, there were silver taels.
Tap, tap, tap, tap.
“Oh? There’s something here too?”
There, we found an elixir.
Waddle, waddle, waddle.
“Something here as well?”
There, we found gold coins.
“Huh, why in the world is there so much treasure buried all over the North Sea?”
Young Palace Lord Bing Hae-rin answered my question.
“The North Sea is also a land of fugitives.”
Right, there was a saying like that about the North Sea.
It’s one of the main places people head to when they can no longer live openly in the Central Plains.
Naturally, they’d liquidate their assets and turn everything into gold or silver.
They would have come here to hide, dreaming that someday they’d return to the Central Plains.
But there was something they didn’t know.
Just how harsh and unforgiving the North Sea really was.
The spirit beasts that constantly stalked them, hungry for blood, were the lesser danger.
Countless more probably froze to death when sudden snow winds swept through.
Their corpses would be dragged off by spirit beasts, and only their wealth would be left behind.
Blood–thirsty spirit beasts don’t eat gold or silver.
“So in the end, all this belongs to no one.”
“Most likely.”
While we were talking, Geumryeong started acting strangely.
Instead of drooling like before, it kept tilting its head back and forth.
It was the kind of reaction that said it sensed something valuable buried in the snow, but wasn’t sure.
Could it be?
I spoke to everyone.
“Let’s dig here.”
“Yes.”
We grabbed shovels and started digging. This time, we had to dig quite deep.
How far down had we gone like that?
Thunk.
The shovel hit something with a dull sound.
From that point, we carefully dug around that spot.
But nothing visible appeared.
We could only tell that something hard was there.
Then Lady Seohyang spoke in a trembling voice.
“There’s… something there.”
“What?”
“That… it looks like it’s wrapped in cloth or something… Am I the only one who can see it?”
“It seems so.”
At my answer, Lady Seohyang hopped down from above, took the shovel from my hand, and dug a bit to the side of where we’d been working.
Then, as if lifting something with both hands, she raised it up.
In that moment, our mouths all fell open.
Because what had been hidden was finally revealed.
All sorts of things were piled up there.
Not just gold and silver treasure, but small boxes, scrolls, and various weapons as well.
It was an absolutely staggering amount.
And on one of the small boxes, there were words written.
[To my son Myeong-hyeon, Young Palace Lord of Snow Wind Palace]
I bit my lip.
This was something the Palace Lord of Snow Wind Palace had left for their own son.
We’d found the right place.
Was it because of this box that I’d had that gut feeling we had to find it?
I took out one of the gold coins from the pile and handed it to Geumryeong.
“Here, this is your share.”
“Kui?”
It was a look that clearly asked why that was all I was giving.
“Geumryeong, think about it. I said I’d give you a bit as a fee, but I never promised how much, did I?”
“Ku… kui…”
Geumryeong’s face was full of confusion.
“And you’ve eaten a lot today already. You had a gold tael, gold coins, and even silver taels, remember? If you eat too much, you’ll get a stomachache.”
Uh… do Ice Guardian Beast even get stomachaches?
Probably not, but still…
“Anyway, let’s stop at this for today. Move everything here into my secret vault. You can do that, right?”
Geumryeong nodded.
Once everything had been moved into my secret vault, the only thing left was…
Climbing back up out of the snow pit we’d dug.
My Escort Guards were all at least first–rate warriors, so they climbed up with ease.
Palgap, whose skills had improved a lot, also made it up without much trouble.
But Lady Seohyang wasn’t at that level yet, so I had no choice but to carry her up.
“Maybe I shouldn’t have come down in the first place.”
“Not at all. If not for you, who else could have found those things?”
I scooped her up in both arms.
Lady Seohyang’s face flushed red, and I couldn’t help but chuckle.
From this angle, she really did look beautiful.
Gah! What am I even thinking right now…
Shaking off those thoughts, I kicked off the ground, leaped up, and set her down gently.
For some reason… it felt like the scent of plum blossoms around her had soaked into me and wouldn’t fade.
.
.
.
We returned to the Ice Palace Inn.
The day was already fading, and before we knew it, evening had come.
Together with Lady Seohyang and Young Palace Lord Bing Hae-rin, I once again passed through the Gate of Mist toward the North Sea Ice Palace.
Then we headed straight for the Palace Lord’s quarters.
“Come in.”
As expected, the Palace Lord knew we’d arrived.
We went inside, and the Palace Lord offered us seats.
“How did it go?”
A faint look of expectation was on the Palace Lord’s face.
I spoke with a confident smile.
“We found it.”
“Truly?”
“Yes.”
I rose from my seat and opened my secret vault.
Then I took out everything we’d found today and laid it out in front of us. I didn’t know which of them was the item the Palace Lord wanted, after all.
The Palace Lord rummaged through the things I’d laid out.
After searching for quite some time, the Palace Lord’s hand suddenly stopped at one spot.
In that hand was a very old box.
The box was so worn it looked like it might fall apart at any moment, yet the Palace Lord carefully cradled it as if it were incredibly precious.
Then the Palace Lord sank down right there, set the box on their knees, and gently opened the lid.
When the lid opened, what appeared were several sheets of old paper… and a single blue jade ring.
The jade ring had no carving or ornamentation at all; it was utterly plain.
The Palace Lord looked at it with an aching, tender gaze.
Just what in the world is that ring, for the Palace Lord to look at it so wistfully?
–TL Notes–
Tired of seeing Ads? Then please support me on Patreon! Any tier of subscription will make it so you won’t get any ads!
If you want to support me or give me feedback, you can do it at patreon.com/InsanityTheGame
Join my Discord! https://discord.gg/BWaP3AHHpt