Chapter 218: Leaving for the North Sea-2
Translator: RaidenTL
Chapter 218: Leaving for the North Sea-2
Rumble, rumble.
Suddenly, the carriage began to shake violently, letting out a loud, clattering noise.
"Aaaaah!"
Un-hye screamed despite herself. The sudden jolting had caught her completely off guard.
"What’s going on!?"
Regaining her composure quickly, she shouted toward the coachman driving the carriage.
"Oh, my apologies. A rabbit suddenly jumped out, you see."
The coachman replied from outside, his voice sounding apologetic in response to her scolding.
"A rabbit?" Un-hye asked.
"Yes, it darted right in front of the carriage."
"What happened to it?"
"Well, I just ran it over. What else could I do?"
"Ugh..."
Hearing the coachman’s words, Un-hye felt a surge of nausea. An image of the rabbit being crushed flashed through her mind.
"You should have avoided it! Why would you just run it over!?" she protested.
Though she hadn't officially taken her final vows, she was still a Buddhist disciple. How could she stand by and watch a life be taken?
"Haha, young lady, when an animal jumps out while you're driving a carriage, you have to run it over. If you jerk the reins to avoid it, the whole carriage will flip."
The coachman let out a dry chuckle as he explained the reality of the situation.
"But... still..."
Un-hye wanted to say something more, but she couldn't find the words. As he said, she couldn't exactly demand he flip the carriage just to save one rabbit.
"Junior Sister, let it go," Seol-hyang said from beside her, looking indifferent. "We can't overturn the carriage for a single rabbit, can we?"
"I know, but... it’s so sad," Un-hye replied, her expression drooping.
She felt a pang of guilt. She couldn't help but think that if they hadn't been pushing the carriage so fast in the first place, the rabbit might not have died.
"I think it's a shame, too. We should have caught it and eaten it. What a waste to just leave it behind," Seol-hyang added, her face twisted in genuine regret.
"How can you say that!?" Un-hye cried out, her face flushing. She assumed Seol-hyang was just teasing her.
"I’m serious. Junior Sister, you have no idea how delicious rabbit meat is," Seol-hyang continued, her voice laced with sincere longing.
Unlike Un-hye, who had been tucked away on Mount Emei since she was an infant, Seol-hyang had entered the Emei Sect after already being well-acquainted with the secular world. To someone like her, the Emei diet—which strictly forbade meat—was a continuous cycle of suffering worse than hell.
How could they expect someone at an age where they needed a balanced diet to grow to stick to nothing but vegetables? She wasn't a calf raised on fodder, after all.
From the initiation rites to the daily meals, there wasn't a single thing about Emei that Seol-hyang liked. Having developed a deep resentment toward the diet, she began to roam the mountains whenever she had private training time—solely to hunt for meat.
Of course, she would have been severely punished if caught, but she was past the point of caring. Since she had joined Emei without any real devotion anyway, she had the mindset that it didn't matter if she got kicked out for eating meat.
One day, while roaming the mountains, she spotted a rabbit and spent the entire day chasing it. However, even after running all day, she couldn't catch it. A rabbit was far too experienced an opponent for a mere ten-year-old child to catch.
Seol-hyang had been devastated. She had missed a rare opportunity for meat, and she didn't know when the next one would come.
That despair became a powerful motivation for her. Vowing never to miss again, she threw herself into her martial arts with a frenzy. In less than a month, she reached a level where she could easily snatch a rabbit.
When she finally caught one, she gave it a rough cleaning, built a fire, and roasted it on the spot. Soon, the golden-brown roasted rabbit meat sat before her, and she took a large bite, savoring every morsel.
A moment later, tears welled in Seol-hyang’s eyes. It was the first meat she had tasted in the three months since joining the sect. Moreover, the month of effort she had poured into catching that rabbit acted like the perfect seasoning, making the meat taste even more savory.
After that, she spent every spare moment roaming the mountains to catch and roast rabbits, writhing in happiness with every bite. Of course, she was eventually caught by her master, Guwol Shin-ni, and had her backside thrashed soundly.
To Seol-hyang, a rabbit was simply a delicious meal steeped in fond memories. Seeing one left behind on the road felt like a tragic waste.
"Ugh... Senior Sister... you're cruel," Un-hye said, looking at her with a look of disbelief. How could a disciple of a Buddhist sect talk about the taste of meat? And a cute, tiny rabbit at that!
"Junior Sister, I'm a secular disciple, so it's fine," Seol-hyang said with a slight smirk.
"But you're treated the same as a main sect disciple," Un-hye countered.
"Exactly. Isn't it great? I have all the rights but none of the responsibilities," Seol-hyang replied, looking thoroughly satisfied.
Un-hye shook her head. Her senior sister was as willful as ever.
Rumble, rumble.
The carriage jolted again, sending Un-hye and Seol-hyang momentarily airborne.
Thud.
"Ouch!" Un-hye cried out, having landed hard on her bottom.
"Are you okay?" Seol-hyang asked, sounding concerned.
Un-hye kept rubbing her backside, the pain refusing to subside. "Ugh... I wish we could have gone on horseback instead of taking a carriage..."
"Do you even know how to ride a horse?" Seol-hyang asked with a mischievous grin. It was funny hearing a girl who was experiencing a carriage for the first time claim that riding a horse would be better.
"Wouldn't it be better than this?" Un-hye argued. "Besides, if we're going on a search party, shouldn't we go as fast as possible? Why did we have to take a carriage?"
"Because we have to carry supplies."
"Supplies?"
"Do you know how many people are in this search party? It’s nearly fifty. To carry enough food for everyone, plus the tents and sleeping bags to block the North Sea blizzards, we need carriages," Seol-hyang explained calmly.
"Then wouldn't it be better to just use large wagons?"
"We're not a merchant caravan. We don't have enough cargo to justify wagons," Seol-hyang said, shaking her head.
"Sigh."
Accepting the logic, Un-hye let out a long sigh. She realized that, like it or not, the carriage was their only option.
"More importantly, what did you think when you saw him?"
"Saw who?"
"You know, Hero Jang Sun-woo..." Seol-hyang said, her voice dropping to a suggestive tone as she looked at Un-hye.
"He seemed pretty ordinary," Un-hye replied without much thought. Her impression of Sun-woo was that he was just a normal person.
The rumors had described him as a massive man over nine feet tall, covered in bulging muscles with a fierce countenance, but the reality was a man with an average face you could find anywhere. He wasn't ugly, but he wasn't exceptionally handsome either.
"Ordinary!? Junior Sister, did you not see those profound, mysterious eyes of his!?" Seol-hyang barked, sounding offended.
Un-hye searched her memory, trying to recall Sun-woo’s appearance. Eyes glazed with exhaustion, a slumped posture, and a gloomy expression... where was the "profound mystery" in that?
"Rather than profound, he just looked exhausted."
"Then what about those clearly defined arm muscles and those well-developed, sturdy thighs!?"
"Do people usually look at those things so closely?" Un-hye asked, taken aback. As a Buddhist disciple, where on earth was her sister looking?
"........."
Seol-hyang had no answer. She shifted her gaze away, her eyes darting to the side.
"Sigh... Senior Sister, even if you're a secular disciple, you're still a disciple of Emei. Is it right for you to be so boy-crazy?" Un-hye said, putting on a stern face.
"I'm not being boy-crazy. I'm just saying he's cool."
"It’s the same thing. What woman in the world scrutinizes a man she just met like that?"
"Most women do."
"Don't lie to me!" Un-hye shouted. Who did she think she was fooling?
Even though she had lived a cloistered life since childhood and knew nothing of men, she could at least tell when Seol-hyang was bluffing. Scrutinizing someone from the start was incredibly rude, regardless of gender.
"Junior Sister, you have no experience with the secular world. It's only natural for young men and women to check each other out. They're seeing if the other person is their ideal partner."
"That's ridiculous!"
"I'm telling you the truth. Think about it. You have to know what someone looks like before you can date them, and eventually, marry them, right?"
"Well... I suppose..." Un-hye felt Seol-hyang’s words were strangely persuasive.
"Flip the script. Could you spend the rest of your life eating, sleeping, and bathing with a man whose face you didn't even know?"
"What kind of thing is that to say to a Buddhist!?"
"It's a hypothetical! Just imagine you're an ordinary village woman. Well?"
"........."
Un-hye’s face turned beet red in an instant. To a sheltered Buddhist disciple, such a hypothetical was far too provocative.
"I... I don't think... I could," Un-hye stammered.
"See?" Seol-hyang smiled, looking satisfied.
"Still, I think it's wrong to look at Young Master Jang that way."
"Why?"
"He's already betrothed to the female warrior Tang Seo-yoon," Un-hye said with a serious expression.
"It's fine. I'm just curious; it's not like I'm trying to steal him," Seol-hyang said dismissively. Un-hye, however, continued to watch her with suspicious eyes.
*
"Yaaaawn."
Meanwhile, in another carriage, Cheongsu couldn't hold back his boredom and let out a long yawn. They had been traveling all day, and there was no sign of stopping.
"Are you sleepy?" Cheongsong asked with a slight smile.
"A little... when do you think we'll be able to rest?" Cheongsu asked, his voice drained of energy.
"The horses need to rest, and traveling through the mountains at night is dangerous, so we should be stopping soon."
"Phew." Hearing Cheongsong’s words, Cheongsu finally breathed a sigh of relief.
"We have to travel like this for months, and you're already complaining?" Cheonggil interjected. He seemed annoyed that Cheongsu was already whining when they still had a vast distance to cover.
"Ugh... that's horrifying." Cheongsu made a face. As Cheonggil said, it had only been one day. The thought of continuing like this for months was daunting.
"Couldn't we just go on horseback instead?" Cheongsu asked his senior brothers. He was tired of just sitting still and staring at the scenery. At least on a horse, he wouldn't be so bored.
"That would be difficult. The winds of the North Sea aren't something you can endure with just your body. Without a carriage, it would be hard even to enter the region," Cheongsong explained calmly.
The cold of the North Sea was beyond imagination. Since they didn't know how many months they would have to stay there, a carriage—which served as both a means of transport and a shield against the elements—was an absolute necessity.
"Sigh." Cheongsu let out a small sigh, realizing he was stuck in the carriage.
"By the way, did you see Young Master Jang?" Cheongsong asked, changing the subject to Jang Sun-woo.
"Young Master Jang Sun-woo?" Cheongsu asked, puzzled.
"Yes. The one who defeated the Dragon and Phoenix single-handedly."
"I saw him, but... I didn't get the feeling that he was incredibly strong," Cheongsu said, recalling his impression of the man.
"Is that so?" Cheongsong asked, sounding surprised. This was the complete opposite of the excitement Cheongsu had shown before they left the sect, when he was eager to learn from the man.
"What about you, Cheonggil?" Cheongsong turned to the other disciple.
"I also didn't get the impression that he was exceptionally powerful."
"Hmm."
Hearing their responses, Cheongsong stroked his chin and closed his eyes. He began to slowly recall his own memory of Sun-woo.
A balanced face, solid pectoral muscles, dense muscles that looked like twisted steel cables, and sturdy thighs that looked extraordinary at a glance... Just by his appearance, it was clear he was a well-trained martial artist.
But that was it. He didn't feel any overwhelming pressure or aura from the man.
'Is he a master of external martial arts?'
Cheongsong shook his head. Unless he was the Palace Master of the Southern Savage Beast Palace, there was no way someone could overwhelm all the Dragon and Phoenix geniuses with external arts alone.
Cheongsong’s expression grew infinitely more serious. His mind was now entirely consumed with thoughts of Sun-woo.