Chapter 289: Don't You Want to Move Here Too?
Translator: RaidenTL
Chapter 289: Don't You Want to Move Here Too?
"Speak clearly. What exactly do you mean by 'a mess'?"
Bukgung Yeon glared at Sun-woo, her face flushed with anger. She couldn't understand why he was nitpicking. What could be more important than nurturing the sect's disciples? Furthermore, wasn't it only natural to be selective when accepting them?
Besides, collecting money in the name of protection fees was a tradition that had been passed down through generations in the North Sea Ice Palace. So, how could he utter such nonsense, calling her plan a mess? It made no sense to her.
Bukgung Yeon thought to herself: He’s just looking for an excuse. He’s clearly trying to find a flaw so he can snatch the Ice Essence all for himself.
She glared at Sun-woo with murderous intent. If he didn't provide a convincing explanation, she intended to turn him into an ice statue for his insolence.
"Your plan was flawed from the very beginning," Sun-woo said, looking at her with a calm expression.
"What?"
"The plan to select and accept disciples from the village."
"What's wrong with that plan?" she shot back, her expression one of genuine confusion.
"It seems you haven't grasped the situation in the village at all, Palace Master." Sun-woo continued, his expression turning grave. "Currently, there is no one in the village fit to become a disciple of the North Sea Ice Palace."
"No disciples?! What do you mean?"
"I mean there are absolutely no young children in the village capable of learning martial arts."
"What?"
Bukgung Yeon looked flustered at Sun-woo's words. No children? What on earth did that mean? How could there be no children in a place where people lived? She couldn't wrap her head around it.
"It's a fact I discovered while inevitably wandering around the village today."
Sun-woo recounted what he had learned while scouring the village to find Sword Man.
"There is a rule that was established as soon as the Evil Demon occupied the village twenty years ago. Do you know what it is?" Sun-woo asked, looking directly at Bukgung Yeon.
"I don't know," she replied, shaking her head.
"The Right of the First Night."
Sun-woo’s eyes glinted as he continued.
"He decreed that any bride getting married must spend her first night with him before she could sleep with her groom. What do you think the result was?"
"……"
"The marriage rate plummeted, and the birth rate dropped proportionally. No one wanted to have their beloved taken by the Evil Demon."
"Is that... is that true?"
"Of course it is. It's a fact. Furthermore, the brides who underwent the Right of the First Night were often gang-raped by the monsters of the Demon Troops. Who would want to get married under those conditions? And without marriage, who would want to bring a child into this hellscape?"
Sun-woo glared at Bukgung Yeon with a sharp gaze as he laid out the internal affairs of the Ice Palace. His eyes contained a silent reproach: How can the Palace Master know less about the internal situation than a complete outsider like me?
"Becoming a disciple of the North Sea Ice Palace is, of course, a great honor. It’s an opportunity to learn divine arts that are unparalleled in the world. But how can you accept disciples when there are no people to begin with?"
"……"
Bukgung Yeon couldn't say a word. A wave of shame washed over her.
It had been exactly three days since she arrived at the village. Within a day, she had killed all the monsters of the Demon Troops, and afterward, she had hunted down those who collaborated with them one by one, turning them into ice statues.
Then, she had simply waited. She waited for the Evil Demon to return.
During that time, Bukgung Yeon had never once asked about the village. She hadn't asked what atrocities the Evil Demon and his troops had committed, how they had exploited the people, what the population was, what the age distribution looked like, or how much monthly revenue was being generated.
Her mind had been entirely occupied with settling old grudges and reorganizing the North Sea Ice Palace. She hadn't known. She hadn't known such a tragic history was hidden within the village.
She felt ashamed. Ashamed that she, the ruler, knew less than an outsider who had been there for only a day.
Bukgung Yeon bit her lip hard. What kind of ruler of the North Sea was she? What kind of supreme master? How could she claim to rule the North Sea when she didn't even know the plight of the village under her own command?
She was embarrassed. She wanted to crawl into a hole and hide.
Sun-woo was right. It was a mess. Her plan had been flawed from the start. Her expression turned vacant.
"For twenty years, the village has recorded a low birth rate, and the elderly population has grown. The current productive workforce is concentrated in the middle-aged and older brackets. If time continues to pass like this, they will become elderly, and the productive workforce will be cut by more than half. Eventually, you won't even be able to collect taxes. In such a situation, you're leisurely talking about collecting protection fees and rebuilding the sect? What on earth were you thinking?"
Sun-woo criticized her in a scathing tone. How could she act so complacently, thinking only of past glory when the situation was so dire?
Sun-woo realized that having high martial arts prowess was entirely different from having a grasp on reality. She was an idealist—an idealist dreaming of fantasies without understanding the actual state of affairs.
Sun-woo looked up at Bukgung Yeon. She looked utterly devastated. She must have realized just how reckless and groundless her dreams were.
"I didn't think of it..."
Bukgung Yeon finally spoke, her voice heavy with gloom.
"……I didn't know the village had such a history..."
She murmured in a quiet tone, her voice thick with shame. She felt exposed, as if she were standing naked before them.
How ignorant must he think she is? How much must he be laughing at her shallow thinking? She didn't know, and that uncertainty made her even more ashamed.
Even though she had reached the supreme realm of the Profound Realm, causing many of her emotions to fade, this feeling of shame would not dissipate. Her lofty pride and self-esteem had clearly been cracked.
"You're right.... I'm a mess.... A total mess..."
The majestic and intimidating aura she first displayed was nowhere to be found. Now, there was only a woman left, shivering with the shame of her own flaws.
Is this enough? Sun-woo wondered. He thought he might have pushed her far enough.
"Ahem, ahem."
Sun-woo cleared his throat. He had given her enough of the whip; now it was time for the carrot. A very delicious carrot at that.
"Palace Master."
"……What."
Bukgung Yeon replied in a dejected voice.
"No plan can be perfect from the beginning. It’s a process of reaching perfection through various trials and errors."
Sun-woo’s eyes sparkled as he spoke to her.
"Right now, you've simply gone through a bit of trial and error. So, don't blame yourself too much. How could a perfect plan come out when the preliminary investigation wasn't even done properly?"
Sun-woo comforted her in a soft voice.
"I'm not fit to be the Palace Master...... How can the ruler know less about her own domain than an outsider?"
Despite Sun-woo's gentle consolation, Bukgung Yeon began to reproach herself even more.
"No. If not you, who else could ascend to the supreme position of ruling the North Sea?"
Sun-woo looked at her with a calm gaze. His eyes were so steady that they actually inspired trust.
"……"
"You've only been in the position of Palace Master for about three days, haven't you? Who in the world can do everything perfectly from the start? Because it's the first time, you trip, you fall, and then you stand back up and learn how to walk straight."
"……"
At Sun-woo's gentle comfort, Bukgung Yeon lowered her head slightly. Hearing those words made her feel a bit better.
Seeing this, Sun-woo decided to drive the point home.
"Palace Master."
"...Speak."
"May I say something a bit bold?"
"..Yes."
"What the North Sea Ice Palace needs right now isn't the Ice Essence. It's money. If you have enough money, the problem of disciples can be easily solved."
"……How?"
Whether it was because his repeated eloquence had built trust, Bukgung Yeon asked for a method rather than getting angry.
"If there are no people in the North Sea Ice Palace, you just need to bring them in. You can recruit people from the Central Plains. You bring the people to you."
"Would they come just because I called?" Bukgung Yeon asked, sounding unsure.
"That's exactly why you need money. If you implement an aggressive immigration policy backed by abundant funds, do you think they could resist? Currently, there are countless people in the Central Plains living lives worse than livestock. To them, the Ice Palace's aggressive immigration policy would be a ray of moonlight in the dark night."
Sun-woo began to work his tongue even more smoothly to persuade her. The tide was in; he had to row even faster.
"Would they really migrate all the way to this freezing North Sea?" Bukgung Yeon asked worriedly.
"Isn't there a saying that money can even make ghosts do your bidding? If you invest enough capital, everyone will come running to the North Sea. You implement an active immigration policy, targeting poor newlyweds who have just married. Tell them you'll provide settlement subsidies first. That will catch everyone's attention. Then, you provide jobs so they can support themselves."
"What kind of jobs should I give them? I don't know."
"Don't worry about that. Currently, skilled workers like those in breweries and smithies are delaying their retirement because there are no replacements. But if young workers come, they can pass on their skills and retire."
"But wouldn't it be difficult to turn everyone into skilled workers? The number of such positions is limited."
"That's fine. There's plenty of other work in the North Sea. Geographically, the North Sea Ice Palace is located right in the center of the North Sea. Therefore, merchants trading in the North Sea must inevitably pass through the Ice Palace. You do business with them."
Sun-woo looked at Bukgung Yeon with sparkling eyes.
"Since they have no choice but to pass through the North Sea Ice Palace, it wouldn't matter if you fleeced them with higher prices than usual. Even if you charged double... no, four times the price, they'd still buy because they have no other choice."
"……Is that true?"
"Of course. The ones who come to the North Sea are usually large merchant guilds. They have plenty of money. They won't hesitate to spend it."
"Won't they protest?"
"Protest? How can they protest when there's no other place to properly resupply without stopping at the North Sea Ice Palace? If anyone complains, you can just kick them out without mercy. Then everyone will accept it without a word."
Sun-woo explained the geographical advantages of the North Sea Ice Palace and how to exploit them. The Ice Palace was a strategic hub—a transportation nexus that countless merchants trading with the North Sea had to use. If they utilized that advantage well, they could generate profits incomparable to anything before.
"And then, you convert a portion of the profits earned through them into taxes. Then money will gather again, and with that money, you can expand the immigration policy. Then the population will increase even more. Ultimately, you'll be able to lead the North Sea Ice Palace into a new golden age."
Sun-woo spoke to Bukgung Yeon with a face full of conviction.
"To realize all these plans, money is needed. A massive amount of money. And you, Palace Master, possess the mystical artifact that can provide that capital. The Ice Essence! Please, Palace Master, consider this seriously. Whether you find glory or despair twenty years from now depends entirely on you! I believe you will make the wise choice."
Sun-woo poured out his passionate speech, looking at Bukgung Yeon with burning eyes. His voice was so powerful and full of confidence that it naturally inspired trust in the listener.
"……"
And after hearing his words, Bukgung Yeon stared at Sun-woo with a dazed expression.
The man she first thought was a lunatic... the man she felt was insolent and didn't know his place... now looked different.
Thump.
Suddenly, her heart began to race. She was flustered. This had never happened before.
Having reached the Profound Realm, many of her emotions had withered away. Furthermore, didn't the Heavenly Yin Ice Soul Divine Art she practiced make one's emotions cold and dry?
Yet, strangely, her heart was pounding. This was the first time in her twenty-eight years of life that this had happened. Her heart was racing for a man.
Originally, she had considered having a relationship with a man who had decent genes—not necessarily marriage, but just for the sake of an heir. Since most of her emotions were worn away, things like purity or affection didn't mean much to her.
But now, her mind had changed. She wanted his seed. She wanted to offer her purity. To the man standing before her.
"……Haa."
Bukgung Yeon, who had been staring at Sun-woo with burning eyes, let out a hot breath. It was hard to endure. A tingling sensation began to spread throughout her entire body.
"By any chance," she managed to say, struggling against the tingling sensation. "Don't you want to move here too?"
She licked her alluring lips as she spoke.
And hearing her words, Sun-woo felt a wave of bewilderment. What on earth was she talking about all of a sudden?