Nothing at All Is Happening (4)
“Did you say you wanted to dig up Ice Crystals yourself?”
Seol Cheon-sang’s face showed clear bewilderment as he looked at Chung Myung. He had wondered what this morning’s request for an audience was about, but Chung Myung had abruptly come out with something completely baffling.
“Yeah.”
Chung Myung nodded, looking utterly unconcerned.
Seol Cheon-sang narrowed his eyes and asked, “Do you even know how Ice Crystals are mined?”
“I don’t, so I figured I’d go see for myself.”
“……”
For a moment, Seol Cheon-sang was left speechless as he stared at Chung Myung.
This little Daoist from the Central Plains had a talent for rubbing people raw with every single thing he said. If one thought about it, none of his words were all that offensive—so why did they make one want to snap like this?
What a troublesome brat.
From Seol Cheon-sang’s perspective, the best possible outcome would be for these people to keep their heads down, return to the Central Plains, and testify that nothing had gone wrong in the Ice Palace. The more they poked around, the more troublesome things would become.
But on the other hand…
Seol Cheon-sang studied Chung Myung with a strange expression before speaking slowly.
“Ice Crystals are, as the name suggests, essences formed from extreme yin energy. On the surface they appear to be gemstones, but they are neither jewels nor minerals.”
“Yes, I know. I’ve seen Ice Crystals before.”
He had seen them when they used them to make the Honwon Dan.
But Seol Cheon-sang only shook his head, as if that was not the answer he wanted.
“No. It seems you don’t understand very well.”
“Huh?”
“What matters here is that Ice Crystals are things formed by gathering extreme yin energy. That means the place where they’re found is the harshest, coldest region in the entire North Sea.”
His voice dropped, as though he were trying to frighten them a little.
“And the thing you must overcome to dig them out isn’t just the cold.”
“……”
“You’re martial artists, so you may think you can just spread your qi and find that extreme yin energy without trouble. But if it were that easy, why would the Ice Palace go to all that effort to mine them?”
Seol Cheon-sang swept his gaze across Mount Hua’s disciples.
“The frozen land itself is a place of extreme yin. In such a land, finding a specific concentration of that yin as a source is no easy task. You just keep digging and digging, never knowing where it might be. Ice Crystals are things you have to rely on luck to find.”
The mouths of Mount Hua’s disciples fell open.
They had never imagined that mining Ice Crystals would be so difficult.
“And even after hearing all that, you still want to dig them yourselves? Even though I said I’d give them to you if you just waited here in comfort?”
Yet even after that warning, Chung Myung only grinned and nodded.
“Yeah.”
“……”
At that far too casual answer, Seol Cheon-sang’s brow furrowed.
“Why?”
“If we wait, it sounds like it’ll never end.”
Chung Myung shrugged.
“If production’s gone down, that means they’re hard to find, right? Which means no one knows when the Ice Crystals are going to show up. So if we go help, wouldn’t that make it faster, even if only a little?”
He kept that lazy, teasing smile on his face as he spoke.
“And honestly, sitting around here being treated as guests while we wait just doesn’t suit us.”
Seol Cheon-sang, who had been listening in silence, let out a short, hollow laugh.
Then he looked at the Mount Hua Divine Dragon with half-lidded eyes, his expression turning faintly cold as though he were probing for hidden intent.
After a moment, he spoke.
“Do as you please.”
“Thank you.”
Seol Cheon-sang, who answered much more readily than expected, gave them a benevolent smile.
“As your host, I’d prefer to dissuade you, but it wouldn’t be polite to stop a guest from doing as he wishes no matter what.”
“Right. We feel better this way too.”
Seeing how breezily Chung Myung answered, Seol Cheon-sang shook his head. The brat really was impossible to read.
Once the conversation had mostly wrapped up, Baek Cheon stepped forward and cupped his hands.
“Thank you for indulging our unreasonable request.”
“It’s not that unreasonable. It’s hardly such a major matter.”
“Still, from a guest’s position, it was not something we should have asked so casually. We were impatient and overstepped, so please forgive us.”
At the dignified and courteous reply, Seol Cheon-sang looked at Baek Cheon again.
Good bearing.
Even though he did not particularly think well of Mount Hua’s disciples, Baek Cheon’s posture was worthy of admiration.
He lowered himself without losing an ounce of pride.
That was not a matter of speech or simple politeness. It was the bearing of a martial artist who trusted himself and walked his own path.
In contrast…
“By the way,”
As Chung Myung, who had stepped back, suddenly stuck his head in again, the corner of Seol Cheon-sang’s eye twitched.
There’s no doubt they’re from the same school.
They had learned the same things and lived the same kind of life, so how could the difference between them be so vast?
And this one—this one—was supposedly the Mount Hua Divine Dragon?
Ignoring Seol Cheon-sang’s faintly changing expression, Chung Myung calmly went on with what he wanted to say.
“Then the Ice Crystals we mine ourselves, we can buy them from you, right?”
“……The Ice Crystals?”
“Yeah. Since you said you’d give them to us. You also said we probably wouldn’t be able to mine them properly anyway. Then there shouldn’t be any problem with us buying however much we manage to dig up.”
Then he brought a hand up to cover his mouth and whispered in a low voice, as if sharing a secret.
“It’d be even better if you gave us a discount, since we mined them ourselves.”
Seol Cheon-sang laughed in disbelief.
“……Do as you please.”
“Hehe. Thanks.”
Chung Myung grinned foolishly and stepped back.
“I’ll have someone give the order and take you to the place where the Ice Crystals are mined. Departure will be this afternoon, so rest until then.”
“We appreciate your consideration.”
Mount Hua’s disciples bowed deeply and withdrew.
After they had all left the room, one of the elders who had been watching quietly approached Seol Cheon-sang and said, “Palace Lord, I worry whether it is truly wise to send them to the Ice Crystal Mine.”
“Leave them be.”
Seol Cheon-sang waved a hand as if annoyed.
“It’s not a pleasant place to show outsiders, but it’s better than letting those brats wander all over the Ice Palace sticking their noses into everything.”
“Still, if they end up taking too many Ice Crystals…”
The elder trailed off, glancing around cautiously.
He wanted to say that the North Sea was already short on Ice Crystals. But that was not something to mention where other people might hear it. It would inevitably lead them to think about why the supply had become so scarce in the first place.
Seol Cheon-sang smoothly took up the elder’s words.
“What skill could a bunch of greenhorns possibly have to mine Ice Crystals?”
A thin, sly smile formed at the corner of his mouth.
“When people are young, they’re full of reckless confidence. To those who’ve yet to taste enough of the world’s bitterness, everything seems easy. But reality is never so kind as one imagines.”
He tilted his head slightly and said, “They’re young rising talents from the Central Plains who’ve enjoyed one victory after another, so they probably don’t fear much. But the land of the North Sea is no place for those who are not hard on themselves. Teaching them that fact won’t be such a bad thing.”
Looking up at the ceiling, the corner of Seol Cheon-sang’s mouth lifted a little further.
It was a smile he could wear only because he did not know that among those greenhorns was one man who had tasted the world’s bitterness far too deeply.
* * *
“……That one?”
“……”
“Well, if you’re talking about a connection, I suppose this counts as one?”
“……”
Song Won stood in stony silence, and veins began to bulge on his forehead.
Why me?
Song Won was a man whose ability was recognized even in the North Sea Ice Palace, where capable fighters were everywhere. The reason he had been able to become the Ice Palace’s security captain at such a young age was due to his exceptional skill.
And yet why on earth did he have to be the one guiding these bratty little punks?
Of course, it was true that he had promised to guide them. But that had only meant inside the Ice Palace. He had never once intended to escort them all the way to the Ice Crystal Mine.
What on earth is the Palace Lord thinking…?
But an order was an order. Song Won had no power to refuse it.
And then—
“You seem to have more free time than I thought?”
“……”
If not for that infuriating little pest, this wouldn’t have been quite so painful.
“We’ll be leaving now.”
Watching Song Won pointedly ignore Chung Myung, Mount Hua’s disciples could not help but feel admiration.
It was no easy thing to ignore Chung Myung’s mockery, even for people with considerable discipline. Hadn’t countless people from the Central Plains already proven that with their own bodies?
And yet this young martial artist from the Ice Palace was managing it.
Wise.
As expected, not someone easy to deal with.
He inspires trust.
As Mount Hua’s disciples showered him with bright, sparkling looks, Song Won flinched in confusion.
Central Plains martial artists are impossible to understand.
Though the merchants who had come to the North Sea for trade had seemed perfectly normal…
“This way, please.”
He led Mount Hua’s disciples around to the rear of the Ice Palace.
“Where are we going?”
“Aren’t we going to the mine?”
“Then we should be heading out through the main gate. Why are we going to the back?”
To Baek Cheon’s question, Chung Myung tilted his head and said, “Sounds like nonsense.”
“……Hey, you little bastard?”
“No, I mean it really does sound like nonsense.”
“Huh?”
Baek Cheon, grinding his teeth, turned to Chung Myung with a look that clearly asked what the hell he meant. Just then, he heard the sound Chung Myung had been talking about as well.
Woof! Woof woof!
“……Huh? It really is dog barking?”
What the hell was with the dogs barking all of a sudden…?
Their question was answered almost immediately.
Woof! Woof woof!
In the open space at the back were several large sleds, each easily big enough to carry two or three people, along with dogs harnessed to them.
“……Dogs?”
“Dog sleds. On snowy roads where horses or cattle struggle, sleds pulled by dogs are the fastest.”
“Oh…”
Everyone marveled at the handsome dogs, the likes of which one could not see in the Central Plains. Their thick fur and sharp eyes were particularly impressive.
“Wow, they’re amazing!”
Jo Gul, excited, approached the dogs and reached out a hand.
But.
Growl!
In an instant, one of the dogs snapped at Jo Gul’s hand. He yelped and leapt backward in shock.
At his dazed reaction, Song Won let out a quiet snort of laughter.
“You’d better be careful. They may look like dogs, but they have wolf blood in them. You might as well consider them almost wolves.”
“……”
“As long as you behave, nothing will happen.”
“Behave?”
Chung Myung, who had been listening, gave a snort.
“They’re dogs, aren’t they?”
“……You’re really just courting trouble.”
Before Song Won could even try to stop him, Chung Myung swaggered toward the growling dogs. The dogs tied to the sleds all rose at once, baring their teeth at him.
Watching that scene, Song Won sneered inwardly once again.
Of course, as a martial artist, Chung Myung probably wouldn’t be badly injured by a dog bite, but he would definitely be embarrassed.
But then something happened that he could never have imagined.
Rustle.
The collar area of the clothes Chung Myung wore suddenly stirred, and a pure white marten poked its head out.
Kiieeeeek!
A sharp, fierce cry burst from such a cute face, and it even bared its tiny teeth.
“……Well now.”
Song Won let out an incredulous laugh aloud.
But then a shocking sight unfolded before his eyes.
Whimper!
Yelp!
Song Won’s eyes flew wide open.
The dogs that had looked ready to lunge at Chung Myung any second now suddenly cowered in terror and tucked their tails. They began trembling uncontrollably.
Some of them were so terrified they even wet themselves.
“What in the— how is this possible…?”
Dogs with wolf blood in them were scared of a marten?
Was that even remotely believable?
“W-what’s wrong with you idiots!”
“Pull yourselves together!”
The sled drivers, stunned by the incomprehensible situation, yanked hard on the dogs’ reins. But the dogs showed no signs of calming down, even under the familiar hands of their handlers.
Thud.
At that moment, Baek Ah slipped out of Chung Myung’s clothes and landed lightly on the ground. Then it swept its gaze over the dogs and glared.
The dogs flinched and immediately shoved their tails between their legs, shrinking down even further.
“What in the world are these things…”
How could ordinary dogs possibly stand against a spirit beast that could take on a tiger the size of a house? Even if they had been true wolves, the result would have been the same.
Tap!
Baek Ah tapped the ground once with a forepaw, as if mocking the dogs, then spun around in place. After that, it stood straight and proud and looked up at Chung Myung.
“What?”
“……”
But the response it wanted never came. Baek Ah, suddenly dejected, climbed up Chung Myung’s leg and crawled back into his clothes.
Song Won, having witnessed the entire exchange, looked at Mount Hua’s disciples with eyes full of disbelief. Yet they all seemed entirely unsurprised.
“Aren’t we going?”
“……Yes, we’re going.”
With a slightly sour expression, Song Won pointed at the sleds.
“Get on.”
Mount Hua’s disciples divided into pairs and trios and climbed aboard. Song Won took the lead sled.
“We’re in your care.”
Just looking at Chung Myung grinning so idiotically made irritation keep rising inside him.
Let’s see how long that grin lasts.
Grinding his teeth a little, he set the sled in motion.