We headed for the North Sea Ice Palace.
Although it was called the North Sea Branch, the branch was still a fair distance from the North Sea Ice Palace.
As we were traveling…
“Waaaah!”
We heard a child crying somewhere.
“Isn't that a child's cry?”
“Could there be another Child-Wail Bird?”
Once you've been frightened by one thing, even something that only resembles it can give you a scare.
We had suffered quite a bit because of the Child-Wail Birds, so our first response was to be wary.
“Let's go look.”
“Yes, my lord.”
I was about to tell Lady Seohyang to wait here for a little while with the other Escort Guards.
But she spoke before I could.
“I'd like to go with you.”
When she said something like that, there was usually a reason for it.
And even if she were to find herself in danger, a Child-Wail Bird was something I had the ability to deal with. I could rescue her from one without a problem. With that in mind, I nodded.
“Of course.”
We headed toward the place the cries were coming from.
“Waaaaah! Waaaah!”
The crying reached us again.
Soon, all of us had no choice but to stop in our tracks.
“Oh, no!”
“Is that an illusion, sir? Is it real?”
I nodded.
“It looks real.”
Lady Seohyang nodded as well, her eyes filled with pity.
The three people before us were dressed in thick clothing, and they were all wrapped in one another's arms.
Snow had piled thickly over their bodies.
Escort Guard Jin Yu and Escort Guard Yeo Eung-am went over to them, brushed away the snow, and examined them. Then both shook their heads.
“It's too late.”
“They're all dead.”
“Waaaaah!”
The crying came again.
“There seems to be a child here.”
Usually, once children began crying, they would keep on crying, without stopping. But if a child cried only at intervals, as this one was doing, it was a sign that there was something wrong with the child's condition.
With a troubled expression, Escort Guard Yeo Eung-am pointed to one spot.
“Here. There seems to be a child inside this woman's clothing, held against her chest.”
She must have done that to pass as much of her body heat as possible to the child.
Even though the woman was dead, he seemed reluctant to undo her clothes and expose the bare skin beneath them.
Lady Seohyang stepped forward.
“I'll take the child out.”
The other Escort Guards stepped back, and Lady Seohyang reached inside the woman's clothes and brought the child out of her arms.
So this… this was why she'd said she wanted to come with us.
It was a little girl who looked about two years old.
But her face had turned blue, and frostbite had begun killing the flesh of her fingers and toes.
“Oh, the poor thing…”
Lady Seohyang sat down and held the child in her arms.
Just then, Geumryeong emerged from inside my sleeve.
“Kui?”
Geumryeong approached the child and licked her fingers and toes. As the little one did so, the child's fingers and toes, whose flesh had already begun dying, gradually started to recover.
But it was far too cold here.
Palgap spoke up.
“Young Master, I think we should put this around the child's neck for a little while.”
He was referring to the He Clan Jade necklace, a gift from the emperor.
Whenever Palgap made a trip to the North Sea, he made a point of putting that necklace on without fail.
That was why he could travel back and forth without feeling the cold any more than my Escort Guards or I did.
“Will you be all right without it?”
“Heh! I can manage this much, sir. I went to the North Sea Ice Palace without it before.”
That was true.
And Palgap's martial arts had improved a great deal since then.
“Saving the child comes first right now, doesn't it, sir?”
“Thank you.”
Palgap put the He Clan Jade necklace around the child's neck, solving the problem of keeping her warm.
But there was still another problem to deal with.
“She must have gone without food for a long time. We should give her something to eat.”
“Then, since it's getting dark anyway, let's camp here for the night.”
We began preparing to spend the night outdoors.
First, I took out the firewood I had stored in my Hidden Vault. Firewood wasn't easy to come by in the North Sea.
Palgap lit a fire and hung a pot over it.
The wood crackled as it began burning vigorously. We put snow and rice flour into the pot hanging above it and set it to boil.
Today, we were making thin rice gruel for the child.
Palgap ladled some into a bowl, and Lady Seohyang blew gently on it to cool it, feeding the child a little at a time.
Thankfully, the child worked her lips and swallowed the gruel.
She was going to live!
Only then did all of us breathe easier.
Escort Guard Seo Wu stood up and spoke.
“We should attend to the bodies first.”
If we left them like this, it would only be a matter of time before bloodstained Spirit Beasts ate them.
First, we set out a separate pile of firewood nearby.
And we put aside anything that might help us establish who they were.
Come to think of it, I remembered the people we'd found before, the ones who had frozen to death on their way to join the North Sea Ice Palace.
Escort Guard Yeo Eung-am seemed to have found something.
“Here's an identity token!”
I took the token and examined it.
Engraved on it were the words Myeonggong Gang Clan, Sect Leader Gang Hu.
When he saw it, Escort Guard Seo Wu spoke.
“I've heard of the Myeonggong Gang Clan. It was a sect in Shanxi. If I remember correctly, it lost a struggle for power against Unorthodox factions and was wiped out.”
“Then they must have fled from there and made it as far as this place.”
For martial artists who fled all the way to this place, their purpose in coming was usually to find the Elixirs said to exist in the North Sea.
These people had probably come with that same purpose. They must have hoped to become stronger by obtaining those Elixirs, so that they could take their revenge and rebuild their sect.
Looking at the members of their party, there were two men, one woman, and one child.
That would make them a young Sect Leader and his wife, their child, and an Escort Guard.
But this was how the dreams they had cherished had come to an end: their dreams of taking revenge, and of rebuilding their sect.
All they had left behind was one little daughter.
Since they were martial artists, they must have had some confidence in their own abilities when they chose to come to the North Sea. But that choice had led them to a tragic end.
The North Sea was a far more pitiless and coldhearted land than they had imagined.
Still, we had saved their daughter. Should I call that fortunate?
After gathering their belongings, we laid the bodies on the firewood. Then we poured oil over them and lit the fire.
“Waaaaah!”
As though she instinctively understood that this was the moment she was parting from her family, the child began to cry.
Lady Seohyang patted her gently and spoke.
“Yes, I know how you feel. But you've only just gotten a little of your strength back. You mustn't use it all up here. I know you're sad, but try to bear it for today, all right? This is the life your parents saved for you, after all.”
Watching her, I found a bitter taste rising in my mouth before I knew it.
If I put even one foot wrong, I could end up in the same position as those people.
So even if my progress was slow, I had to move forward carefully, one step at a time.
Dawn came, and we resumed our journey to the North Sea Ice Palace.
Palgap would carry the child.
“Is it too much for you?”
“Not at all, sir. And the He Clan Jade necklace she's wearing keeps me warm, too.”
The child seemed comfortable with Palgap as well, nestling firmly against his chest.
As we traveled, a familiar building came into view.
“The Ice Palace Inn.”
“So it is. I'm even happy to see it now.”
Once we'd reached the Ice Palace Inn, we could consider ourselves to have arrived at the North Sea Ice Palace.
When we reached the inn, the twin brothers who served as its waiters came out to welcome us.
“Welcome.”
“It's good to see you again.”
“Please come inside. This is…”
“The safest place in the North Sea.”
Their timing was always so perfectly matched that I wondered whether they had rehearsed it. No matter how often I saw it, I found it remarkable.
“It's good to see you. Has all been well at the North Sea Ice Palace?”
One of the twins answered my question.
“It seems so.”
“That's a relief.”
They greeted Lady Seohyang beside me with even greater respect than they had shown to me.
“Our respects to the Divine Maiden.”
“Please, come inside.”
“…”
When we went in, the palace disciples inside the inn all turned their attention to us.
They began greeting me, but as soon as they saw Lady Seohyang, every one of them prostrated herself before her.
“Our respects to the Divine Maiden.”
Lady Seohyang possessed the Ice Crystal Eyes. That was why people in the North Sea Ice Palace called her the Divine Maiden.
In other words, it would be fair to think of her standing in the North Sea Ice Palace as practically second only to the Palace Lord herself.
Lady Seohyang, however, spoke with embarrassment.
“I understand how you feel, but this is terribly embarrassing for me. Please, just treat me a little more casually.”
“We couldn't do that.”
“Then at least stop prostrating yourselves every time you see me. If you neglect your duties because you're busy paying your respects to me, that will bring discredit on the North Sea Ice Palace. Surely that wouldn't make any sense?”
At Lady Seohyang's words, they nodded.
“Understood.”
“Then we'll do as you ask.”
I addressed them.
“We've come to see the Palace Lord. Please send word to the Ice Palace and show us to some rooms.”
“Understood.”
“And is there anyone here who can look after a child?”
“Pardon?”
“A child?”
I indicated the little girl in Palgap's arms and explained the whole story.
They gave bitter smiles as they answered.
“A Dream Seeker's child.”
A Dream Seeker was someone who pursued a dream.
“It does happen now and then: someone finds an Elixir here and gains martial abilities beyond compare. I imagine that's why the Dream Seekers never stop coming to this place.”
The disciple who had spoken took the child from Palgap's arms and held her.
“Would you allow our Ice Palace to take her into our care?”
“I don't mind, but is there a reason?”
“Yes.”
She nodded.
“It's one of our customs to raise girls found in the North Sea and bring them into the North Sea Ice Palace as disciples. Part of its purpose is to ensure that the lives lost in the North Sea were not lost in vain.”
“I see.”
“And it's an advantage for them to grow up in the North Sea from an early age as well.”
We were the ones who had found this child. But when you came right down to it, it was the North Sea that had saved her life.
Then it seemed only right that we should entrust the child's future to the North Sea Ice Palace.
“We would be grateful if you did that for her. Please take good care of her.”
“What is the child's name?”
“We don't know. We gathered the belongings of the people we believe were her parents, but none of those things told us her name.”
“Then please give her a name.”
“Me?”
“Yes. When someone finds the surviving child of a Dream Seeker, our custom is for the first person who found the child to choose the name.”
In that case, I would have to give her a name, but…
—Kui?
Was I sure I could manage that?
Geumryeong, you didn't have to tell me. I already knew I had no talent for naming things.
Then there was nothing else for it.
“Deputy Gwak.”
“Yes?”
“Deputy Gwak, please choose a name for this child. If I come up with a strange one, she might resent me for the rest of her life.”
Palgap nodded at my words.
Palgap. What was that nod supposed to mean?
Lady Seohyang smiled as she answered.
“Of course. As your wife, it's only natural that I should lighten my husband's burdens.”
“Thank you.”
At that, the eyes of the disciple who had heard us widened.
“What? A-Are the two of you married?”
“To be precise, we're engaged. We plan to marry this fall, and telling the Palace Lord about it is one of the reasons we've come here.”
“I see.”
“Congratulations on your marriage.”
“Thank you.”
“Still, it's rather startling. There has never been a married Divine Maiden in the history of our Ice Palace…”
I gave a little chuckle.
“Just because it hasn't happened before doesn't mean it can never happen. You'll simply have to get used to it.”
“Yes. I suppose we will.”
“Then, to return to what we were discussing, what should the child's name be?”
Lady Seohyang considered it for a moment before speaking.
“How about I-jin? We'd write I with the character for an earring, and jin with the character that means true. That first character, I, also carries the sense of something shining and precious. So together, the name would mean truly shining and precious.”
“I-jin. That's a good name.”
When it came to giving someone a name, Lady Seohyang really did have far more talent than I had.
The Ice Palace disciple spoke.
“It's a good name. Then we will call this child I-jin.”
I would have liked to give her Gang, her father's surname, as well. But once she became a North Sea Ice Palace disciple, she would receive a surname in accordance with the palace's customs. There wouldn't be much point in it.
The next day…
Someone I was glad to see came to meet us from the North Sea Ice Palace.
“It's been a while.”
“Ah, Young Palace Lord.”
Young Palace Lord Bing Hae-rin spoke.
“We're both Young Palace Lords now. You needn't address me with quite so much deference.”
“Then I won't.”
The Young Palace Lord turned from me toward Deputy Gwak and offered her a respectful greeting.
“My respects to the Divine Maiden.”
“It's good to see you.”
“Let's go, then. The Palace Lord is waiting.”
Leaving Palgap and my Escort Guards at the Ice Palace Inn, I went with Lady Seohyang through the Mist Gate to the North Sea Ice Palace.
“Have you been well?”
At my question, Young Palace Lord Bing Hae-rin nodded.
“I've been well.”
But her face creased a little.
“Some Child-Wail Birds seem to have come down into the area south of us, though. I've been racking my brains over how to deal with them.”
Child-Wail Birds?
“Oh… you mean those?”
I smiled awkwardly as I answered.
“I caught all of them on my way here.”
“What?”
“There were five in all.”
She stopped walking and blinked at me.
“How did you manage to catch them? They're rather difficult Spirit Beasts to handle.”
“Just… well, somehow or other, I managed to catch them.”
I didn't really want to explain it in detail, so I gave her a vague answer.
Fortunately, she accepted what I said without pressing me.
“Well, with Snow Wind Palace's martial arts, I suppose they wouldn't have been so difficult to deal with.”
Soon we reached the North Sea Ice Palace.
No matter how many times I saw that palace built entirely out of ice, I couldn't help marveling at the mystery of it.
As soon as we arrived at the Ice Palace, we were shown to the Palace Lord's quarters.
“As the Young Palace Lord of Snow Wind Palace, I pay my respects to the ruler of the North Sea Ice Palace.”
“My respects to the ruler of the North Sea Ice Palace.”
Reclining languidly, the Palace Lord took the long pipe from her mouth and answered our greetings.
“Welcome. So, what brings you here?”
“I've come to tell you something, Palace Lord. Deputy Gwak here and I are getting married.”
“I see. Well, I had expected as much.”
She nodded as she continued.
“I would have been very hurt if you hadn't told me.”
I smiled as though I were perfectly at ease, while inwardly letting out a sigh of relief.
Just as my master had said, she would have sulked if we hadn't told her.
Whew. That had been enough to make me break out in a cold sweat.
–TL Notes–
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