Chapter 600: North Sea (2)
Translator: RaidenTL
Chapter 600: North Sea (2)
“What in the world are you talking about…?”
Yuri looked at me with utter disbelief. It seemed she couldn’t bring herself to accept what I was implying.
Without a word, I kicked the dead man’s body, flipping it over. His back came into view immediately.
“…Huh?” Yuri gasped.
There was fresh blood matting the fur tied to his back.
“He killed the original owner and stole these clothes.”
It could have been the blood of a beast from the surrounding wastes, but there were other signs.
“His movements were clumsy, as if he hadn’t fully adjusted to the weight of the furs.”
That wasn’t the only thing that felt off. There was a subtle distortion in his gait, a lingering sense of unfamiliarity with his own attire. The moment he spotted us, he had tried to act natural, but…
‘The tension within him.’
The emotions radiating off him were gratingly clear to me.
Tension? Of course, he could be tense. It was only natural to be on edge if an outsider approached a secret hideout. But his tension was different. It was laced with the anxiety of someone trying too hard to perform a role.
And, most importantly…
‘He wasn’t on guard.’
When we appeared, he hadn’t shown a single hint of wariness. That was what had truly convinced me. After that, he had tried to lead us somewhere without even properly assessing who we were. There were simply too many red flags to ignore.
As I gave her a brief explanation, Yuri’s expression crumbled.
“That’s impossible… It can’t be…”
“There’s no such thing as ‘can’t be’ in this world.”
I knew that better than anyone just by looking at my own life. Nothing was truly impossible.
“B-But this place…! No one can enter unless they carry the bloodline of the Ice Palace!”
A place only those of the Ice Palace bloodline could access. I nodded at Yuri’s frantic words.
‘Was that why he touched the wall earlier?’
It seemed he had a method he was confident in. But…
“Regardless of the rules, it was breached.”
“That’s…”
“Does it look like anything else to you?”
Whatever the method, the fact remained that the sanctum had been violated. So what if only the bloodline could come and go? The reality had already unfolded before our eyes.
I looked down at the dead man and narrowed my eyes.
‘It doesn’t seem like they were planning a surprise attack.’
They hadn’t been trying to kill us. They weren’t skilled actors, and their martial attainment was crude at best.
‘Did they not know how strong the Young Lady’s escorts were?’
Woobeom and Useok. One was at the perfected Peak Realm, and the other—though injured—was in the Fusion Realm. It was obvious they couldn’t be taken down by men of this caliber. There was a chance the enemy was ignorant of their strength, but the probability was remarkably low.
‘Then, what was their intention…?’
Perhaps it was as I’d suspected earlier. Their goal was to lead us somewhere. That might be why they had deliberately stationed men with such low martial prowess.
“…That… that can’t be…”
Yuri was still in a state of shock, looking completely dazed. I walked over to the man the Dishonored Venerable had captured and threw a question at her.
“Hey.”
“Yes…?”
“Including you, how many children does the Lord of the Ice Palace have?”
“Why… are you asking that?”
“Just tell me. Give me the breakdown by gender.”
She hesitated for a moment, but Yuri quickly answered.
“…There are four of us in total.”
“The order?”
“Starting with the First Young Master, then the First Young Lady, the Second Young Master, and finally, me.”
“Among them, who is the most ambitious?”
“Ambitious, you say…?”
Yuri froze mid-sentence. It seemed she had finally realized the intent behind my questions.
“Don’t tell me… You think there’s a traitor among the bloodline?”
Her tone was thick with displeasure. It seemed the family got along well enough for her to take offense at the suggestion.
“I’m just asking.”
If you aren’t of the bloodline, you can’t know about this place, nor can you open it. Those were Yuri’s own words. Yet, the fact that these men were inside meant…
‘One of the bloodline must have betrayed the rest.’
It was the most logical suspicion. A child’s rebellion, vying for the throne. It was a common enough occurrence in the Central Plains. Hadn’t seas of blood often been spilled over the coveted position of a clan leader?
At my suspicion, Yuri’s face hardened.
“…That is absolutely impossible. The bloodline cannot betray one another.”
“You seem very certain of that.”
“...”
The bloodline cannot betray one another. The nuance of her words was peculiar.
‘Did they place a seal on each other or something?’
If so, it was a convenient yet cruel method. Since Yuri spoke with such conviction, I decided to consider other possibilities for now. But regardless of the 'how'…
“It doesn’t matter anyway.”
I tossed the dead man aside. Then, I grabbed the unconscious survivor by the neck and hoisted him up.
“If I don’t know the answer, I just have to ask.”
Vwoom!
I surged a stream of Qi into the unconscious man.
“—Gahk!?”
The man’s eyes snapped open as he regained his senses. Seeing this, I tightened my grip.
Squeeze!
“Guhhh…!”
I restrained him so he couldn’t thrash about. Seeing this, the Dishonored Venerable spoke up.
“Shall I do it for you?”
I let out a short, dry laugh. He had realized I was about to torture the man. The Dishonored Venerable didn’t know I was a regressor, nor did he know the things I had done in my past life. Perhaps he was trying to stop a youth who had barely passed his twentieth year from staining his hands with torture.
But I was certain of one thing.
“It’s fine.”
In this particular field, I was at least more experienced than the Dishonored Venerable. I turned my head toward Seong Yul.
“Come here.”
“Yes.”
There was only one reason I called for him.
‘He said he could detect lies.’
Or rather, he could feel them. It was a useful power to have at a time like this. I pulled Seong Yul to my side and slightly loosened my grip on the man’s throat.
“Krr…”
His breath hitched, and the man barely managed to exhale.
“Heok… heok…”
His eyes darted around frantically, trying to assess the situation.
“Why… why are you doing this?”
Has he figured it out? He was quick to start acting. As I stared at him in silence, the man turned urgently to Yuri, who stood behind me.
“Young Lady…! W-What is the meaning of this…!”
Hearing the man’s voice, Yuri started to move toward us. The moment I felt her approach, I applied pressure.
Grip!
“Gak!?”
I forced his mouth open. And then—
Crack!
“Grrgh.”
I ripped out a molar and tossed it away. Just as I thought, there was a poison capsule hidden inside. I dusted off my hands and looked the man in the eye.
“From now on, you will only speak the truth. You are not to utter a single lie.”
As I spoke, a coldness began to spread through my chest. Anxiety welled up, but I forcefully suppressed it with heat. At the same time, I had to keep my head cool. In situations like this, I had to judge rationally.
‘That is the only way.’
I repeated it to myself like a mantra. But it wasn’t as easy as it sounded.
‘This has gone to hell.’
The process Yuri had described was tangled from the very beginning. A prepared hideout. A safe path to the Ice Palace. That was supposed to be the start, but for it to fall apart so early…
‘To put it another way…’
It meant the situation was far worse than I had anticipated. If that was the case…
‘What about Namgung Bi-ah?’
What state was she in? Could something have happened to her? When those thoughts surfaced, I wanted to smash everything in sight to pieces.
But I had to endure. Humans break too easily to be smashed. For now, I had to endure.
“What… what in the world are you talking about…!” the man shouted.
His acting wasn’t bad. His tearful words sounded truly sincere.
“What did you do to the men who were originally stationed here?”
“The ones who were here…! I don’t know what you’re talking about…!”
At the man’s words, I glanced at Seong Yul. Seong Yul gave a slight shake of his head.
A lie.
Seeing that, I reached for the man’s face and—without hesitation—plucked out his left eyeball.
Splurt!
“Gyaaaaaaaah—!!”
Blood sprayed as the man let out a harrowing scream. Red droplets splattered onto my cheek. The faces of those around me filled with shock. Normally, I might have cared about their reaction, but right now, I couldn't be bothered. All that remained was a cold, sharp sense of urgency.
“Hu-euh… uhhhh…”
He let out a pained groan, reduced to a one-eyed mess in an instant. Watching him, I spoke.
“One eye is enough to see, isn’t it?”
My voice was laced with thorns. It seemed I couldn’t control my temper even if I tried.
“If you lie again…”
I had to focus all my nerves. I had to stop my hands, which felt like they would tear him limb from limb at any moment.
“I’ll pull out your liver and show it to you while you're still breathing.”
Controlling the damage so he wouldn’t die was all too easy. A person doesn’t die from losing a few organs. They just suffer excruciating pain.
“Now, I’ll ask again.”
Ten times. The body can endure about ten major traumas before failing. That’s what my past life had taught me.
“What were you doing here?”
At my question, the man’s remaining pupil trembled. His body might hold out, but how many times could his mind endure?
My curiosity was resolved soon after.
Four times. The man lied a total of four times. By the time he gave his fifth answer—the truth—he had breathed his last.
And among the answers I obtained… was the confirmation that a member of the Ice Palace bloodline was indeed involved in the rebellion.
* * *
A vast, open plain lay buried under heavy snow. Beneath a raging blizzard, the pristine white was stained a visceral crimson.
It was all blood. Among the countless bodies strewn across the ground, not a single one was still breathing. The blood flowing from the fallen soaked deep into the frozen earth.
In the midst of this brutal scene, a woman fell to her knees.
Cough!
Blood trickled from beneath the white fox mask she wore. A deep sword wound gapped in her abdomen, staining her clothes.
“Huu… huu…”
Her breathing was ragged—a clear sign that she was at her limit. It was a situation where it wouldn’t be strange for her to collapse at any moment. Even so, the woman used her sword as a crutch, barely holding herself upright.
“You’re in a sorry state.”
At the voice, the woman lifted her head. Standing before her was the person who had orchestrated this tragedy.
The woman looked at the young man and asked, her voice barely a whisper, “…Why…?”
But her meaning was clear.
“Why did I do it?” A bitter look crossed the young man’s face. “Well, I’m not sure.”
His voice was dry and parched.
“Let me ask you instead. Why are you doing this? You have no connection to the Palace Lord. You are nothing more than a stranger. There is no reason for you to protect him. Why go this far?”
“...”
The woman offered no reply. Still taciturn. He had once found that silence rather agreeable, but now, it only fueled his frustration.
“…The one you must protect is not the Palace Lord, is it?”
“...”
There was no answer this time either. But something changed.
Shhhk.
“…!”
The woman was slowly rising to her feet. Even if the blow had missed her vitals, she shouldn't have been able to stand. Yet, she straightened her posture without a single groan. Then, she leveled her sword at the young man.
“…Hah.”
So that was her answer. Realizing this, the young man let out a heavy sigh.
She was still strong. They say you become like the one you love—was it because she resembled that friend of his? Her stubbornness was no joke.
Was there truly no other way? The young man bit his lip until it bled. After a long silence, he finally spoke.
“I’m sorry.”
He raised his sword. There was no longer any room for retreat.
“For me… this is the only way.”
“...”
The tip of his sword was aimed true. There would be no more words.
A moment of silence followed. After a brief battle of wills, the woman moved first.
Swish!
Despite her mangled body, the woman’s sword thrust forward without a tremor. The young man swung his own blade to meet it.
The ultimate art of Wudang unfolded from his fingertips. In an instant, Lightning Qi and Taoist Qi clashed.
Krrrrrumble—!!!
The energies collided and exploded, a blinding flash of light erupting across the snowy plain. A roar like a clap of thunder echoed through the storm.
It was a fleeting moment. Before long, the light subsided.
Only one person remained standing. The young man stood with his sword drawn, his breath hitching.
Thud.
The woman collapsed powerlessly to the ground.
“...”
The young man’s eyes were dark and heavy as he watched her. There was no sense of triumph in his gaze, only wretchedness—for the situation, and for himself.
He approached the woman, lifted her limp body, and slung her over his shoulder. She was not dead; she had merely lost consciousness.
Sensing her faint heartbeat, the young man whispered quietly.
“…I’m sorry. Sister-in-law.”
With those words, he turned and disappeared into the white-out of the blizzard.
Now, all that remained were thick pools of blood and a field of corpses.
And a crescent-shaped hair accessory, lying forgotten in the snow—a gift the woman had once cherished.