Then I’ll Make You Remember Me (5)
“Palace Lord!”
At the sudden, urgent cry, Seol Cheon-sang lifted his head with a sour look on his face.
Before long, the door to his office was thrown open and an elder came running in, breathless and flustered.
“What is it?”
Seol Cheon-sang asked in a cold voice.
Under ordinary circumstances, he would not have received an elder with such sharpness. No matter what he might think inwardly, the elders remaining in the Ice Palace were still people he needed to soothe and keep in line.
But now that he had found out the Ice Palace’s information was leaking to the Demonic Sect, his words refused to come out gently.
“S-something terrible has happened.”
“Don’t make a spectacle of yourself. Speak. What is it?”
The elder shouted, his face flushed bright red.
“M-martial artists are invading the Ice Palace.”
“...What?”
Seol Cheon-sang frowned.
It was news enough to shock anyone, but he managed to keep his composure. What followed, however, was enough to shatter that calm in an instant.
“It seems the ones who followed the former Palace Lord have gathered their forces and are attacking...”
“What did you say!”
Kwaaaang!
Seol Cheon-sang slammed his fist down on the desk and sprang to his feet. The marble tabletop shattered to pieces, stone dust scattering everywhere.
He ground his teeth, his face twisted into something hideous.
“Those bastards dare...”
He had known there were still remnants who had escaped the purge and were hiding somewhere in the North Sea.
The reason he had not hunted them down and eliminated them all was not because he was merciful. It was simply because he lacked the manpower to scour this vast, frozen region from end to end.
Besides, the central figure had already disappeared. Without Seol So-baek stepping forward personally, he had judged it almost impossible for that scattered rabble to regroup.
“How in the world did those bastards manage to gather again?”
“W-well, it seems the former elders who escaped from the mine used the former Palace Lord’s son to rally the remaining forces.”
The moment he heard the words elders and the former Palace Lord’s son, anger surged across Seol Cheon-sang’s face.
“Who is leading them?”
“Someone in the lead saw First Elder... no, Yeo Sa-hon.”
“I spared those worms because I pitied the sight of them living like dead mice, and now they’re coming to invade the Ice Palace? Those no-account trash!”
Seol Cheon-sang roared.
“Prepare to meet the enemy immediately! Now!”
“Y-yes, Palace Lord!”
“Pull back everyone sent out to search, and close the gates!”
“Yes!”
“Move! Now!”
At the razor-edged shout, the elder didn’t even dare answer properly. He simply scrambled out of the room.
Left alone in his office, Seol Cheon-sang heaved ragged breaths, unable to restrain his fury.
From the mine... and now even Seol So-baek?
He had just received word that the people who had gone missing during the search had returned and reported that the disciples of Mount Hua had ruined the chance to capture the former Palace Lord’s son.
“What in the world are these bastards...”
Seol So-baek.
Yeo Sa-hon.
And Mount Hua’s disciples, wedging themselves between the two people who should never have been linked. It was so absurd it was hard to believe. What in such a short span of time had those bastards done to make one impossible situation after another pile up like this?
“...No. This is better.”
Seol Cheon-sang began striding forward.
He was going to wipe out those Mount Hua bastards anyway, wasn’t he?
“I’ll use this chance to butcher that Seol So-baek brat, the remnants from the past, and every last one of those Mount Hua scum!”
A murderous chill burst from Seol Cheon-sang’s eyes.
A massive host of warriors raced across the snowfield with ferocious momentum.
As the procession stretched onward, its numbers kept swelling. Those who arrived late were joining in, and the line was growing by the minute.
“Amazing.”
“Amitabha. Their momentum is lifting everyone even higher.”
Mount Hua’s disciples looked on in astonishment at the people charging ahead of them.
Even when they first set out, they had thought the morale was high, but as time passed, it had not fallen at all. If anything, it kept rising.
“Well, it makes sense, doesn’t it? More and more supporters keep joining them.”
“True.”
The procession, which had begun with two hundred, had grown to four hundred as the escapees from the mine joined them, and with those they met along the way, it had now reached a total of five hundred.
Even Mount Hua’s disciples, watching from the perspective of outsiders, found themselves thinking, Maybe this can really become something now. So what of those who were actually in the middle of it?
“There were this many people all along. So why were they suppressed for so long?”
At Jo Gul’s question, Baek Cheon answered quietly.
“No matter how much firewood you have, if you don’t light it, it’s still just a pile of wood.”
“...So the fire’s only just been lit now?”
“That’s right.”
“Still, this does seem a bit different from the Central Plains. Even though he’s the former Palace Lord’s son, once word spread that Lord Seol was alive, everyone came pouring out like this.”
“That’s not it.”
“...Huh?”
Baek Cheon didn’t answer. He only looked ahead with a bitter expression.
If it had been before, he might have thought the same as Jo Gul. But after spending so long with someone so relentlessly negative and cynical, he had stopped believing only what he saw at face value.
Seol So-baek had already been alive before now.
And the reason Han Yi-myung had not revealed that fact until this very moment was simple.
Even if they gathered those who supported Seol So-baek, it would have been impossible to stand against the Ice Palace.
“If not for the ones who escaped from the Ice Crystal Mine, no matter how widely news of Seol So-baek spread, no one would have gathered. Because they’re there, people can finally think it might be worth trying.”
“That does make sense.”
Baek Cheon cast a strange glance back over his shoulder.
Come to think of it, this is because of that bastard too...
If Chung Myung hadn’t turned the mine upside down, this situation would never have come to pass. Even if they had managed to escape, if Chung Myung hadn’t been able to break their restraints, it would have ended as nothing more than an escape.
At this point, he found it frightening.
Who could have imagined that one person, in a foreign land thousands of miles from anyone he knew, could accomplish something like this?
He really is incredible...
“What’re you staring at?”
“...”
Baek Cheon shook his head and faced forward again.
In more ways than one.
Countless thoughts raced through his head, but he had to set them aside.
The familiar white fortress walls were finally appearing ahead.
“Sasuk!”
“Yeah.”
Baek Cheon said it like he was spitting the words out.
“It’s the Ice Palace.”
The feeling was completely different from the first time he had stood before these walls and the present.
Back then, he had simply been awed by the grandeur of those pure white walls.
But now that majesty felt oppressive beyond words.
The thick, heavy gate and the towering walls, so high you could throw your neck back until it ached and still not see the top, drove home once again the brutal reality of what they were up against: the North Sea Ice Palace, the force that dominated the North Sea in its entirety.
“Sasuk.”
“...Yeah.”
It seemed they weren’t the only ones feeling that pressure from the walls.
The momentum that had been soaring sky-high in front was visibly faltering.
No one had given any orders, yet the pace of their charge gradually slowed.
By the time they reached a hundred jang from the walls, everyone naturally came to a stop.
Gulp.
Someone’s dry swallow rang out loud and clear. Even the blizzard, which had been raging until then, seemed to quiet, and that tiny sound spread far and wide, awakening everyone’s tension.
“The Ice Palace...”
“It’s the Ice Palace.”
“...”
Baek Cheon was a little taken aback. The sky-high momentum they’d had until now felt like a lie.
Is confronting the Ice Palace as a North Sea native something that carries more pressure than we imagined?
He couldn’t tell whether it was because of their loyalty to the Ice Palace or because they knew better than anyone just how formidable it was. Everyone was hesitating, glancing at one another, unable to step forward first.
That was when—
“What’re you all doing?”
“...”
Baek Cheon turned with a displeased look.
The most oblivious man in the world was plodding out in front of them, looking completely baffled as to why everyone was standing around blocking the way.
Baek Cheon said in a subdued voice, “...It looks like we’ve reached the Ice Palace.”
“Then we should be moving faster. Why are you standing there instead of charging in?”
“I was just...”
At Chung Myung’s question, Baek Cheon trailed off. He couldn’t exactly say, with all these people listening, that they all seemed to have gotten scared stiff.
“What, are you lot standing around deciding who gets to lead? Fighting over the front?”
“...”
Chung Myung snickered and walked forward with lazy, unhurried steps.
He stopped, unexpectedly, right in front of Seol So-baek.
Seol So-baek looked up at him with a pale face, the tension on his features plain to see.
Chung Myung smiled and said, “Why the long face?”
“...Pardon?”
“Tsk, tsk. A kid being quick-witted isn’t always a good thing. A kid should act like a kid.”
He set his hand on the child’s head and roughened his hair up with a scrubbing motion.
“Didn’t I tell you? You don’t need to do anything.”
“...M-Master Daoist.”
“You really are an old man in a child’s body.”
Chung Myung gave a snort and lifted his hand from Seol So-baek’s head.
“You’ve done well just getting this far. So stand up straight. Put some color back in your face too. From here on out, the adults will take care of it.”
From behind, Jo Gul muttered under his breath, “He’s still only half-grown himself.”
“Jo Gul, shut your mouth.”
“Yes, sir.”
Yoon Jong spoke low and glared, and Jo Gul flinched and shrank his neck in.
Chung Myung looked silently at the Ice Palace walls for a moment, then flicked the Dark Fragrance Plum Blossom Sword forward.
“Sasuk.”
“Yeah.”
“Get ready. Let’s go.”
“Got it!”
Baek Cheon took his place beside Chung Myung without another word. Yu I-seol stepped into position with exacting, measured steps on Baek Cheon’s other side, opposite Chung Myung, and Dang Soso hurried to follow just behind them.
“Ugh. These days it feels like we’re on the vanguard every single time.”
“What of it? It’s familiar. Kind of nice, honestly.”
Jo Gul and Yoon Jong fell in behind Chung Myung.
“Amitabha.”
Hye Yeon took his place behind Yoon Jong with an unshaken, resolute expression.
By the time Mount Hua’s disciples had formed their line, Yeo Sa-hon looked at them with an incredulous face and asked, “Wh-what are you planning to do?”
“Hoho. That old man says the funniest things. What do you think we’re here to do after coming all this way? We’re just going to charge straight in, of course.”
At Chung Myung’s casual answer, Yeo Sa-hon shut his mouth.
This had originally been his role.
“Wait... for now, at least let us form ranks...”
“Old man.”
Chung Myung looked at Yeo Sa-hon and grinned.
“War is one of those things that goes to hell the second you dither. The longer time passes, the bigger the fear gets. And once a fire goes out, there’s no bringing it back no matter what you do.”
“...”
But Yeo Sa-hon’s face was still full of worry.
“Don’t worry.”
Chung Myung curled the corners of his mouth into a wicked smile.
“I’m amazing at starting fires.”
Baek Cheon, listening from the side, slowly nodded.
“He does suit arsonist better than Taoist.”
“Dong-ryong, keep your mouth shut.”
Yeo Sa-hon stared at Chung Myung with dazed eyes.
Does this man truly know no fear?
They were in a situation where they had to face the Ice Palace with limited troops. No matter how little they knew about the palace, there was no way one could be this fearless.
And not just Chung Myung, either—none of his companions showed the slightest trace of fear.
What kind of sect is Mount Hua, exactly...?
Then Chung Myung said firmly, “Anyway, if you’re scared and can’t go, then stay here. We’ll handle it ourselves.”
“What did you say!”
“You insolent—!”
Crude shouts exploded from all around them.
The prisoners from the mine who had received Mount Hua’s help couldn’t bring themselves to add their voices, but those who didn’t know Chung Myung or Mount Hua well seemed badly wounded in their pride.
“What? Did I say something wrong?”
“You—!”
Chung Myung laughed at the enraged men.
“People from the North Sea are supposed to be rough and fearless, but now it looks like you’re actually pretty selective, huh? Too scared to fight the Ice Palace, but we’re easy to look down on?”
Gritting teeth and clenched fists could be heard from all around.
“We—!”
“Ah, forget it.”
Someone looked ready to shout something back, but Chung Myung cut them off with a decisive wave of his hand.
“All the arguing in the world won’t prove anything. If you’re not cowards, then show it. We’ll start first.”
Chung Myung spun on his heel.
“Sasuk!”
“Got it!”
Cheng!
Baek Cheon drew his sword without hesitation. The rest of Mount Hua’s disciples all drew theirs at once as well.
“Let’s go!”
“Yes!”
As Baek Cheon surged into a run at the front, Mount Hua’s disciples and Hye Yeon followed without looking back.
Like a black meteor, they charged straight toward the white fortress wall, and the people left behind stood there with their mouths hanging open.
“Th-tho-those...”
“Damn it!”
The warriors of the North Sea stared at the scene, utterly flustered.
Then—
“What are you all doing!”
Yeo Sa-hon’s voice thundered out.
“This is our fight! Are you really going to let outsiders who have nothing to do with the North Sea be the first to climb the Ice Palace walls?”
The fear that had touched him only moments ago was gone as if it had never been there, and his eyes burned with fierce light.
“North Sea men would rather die than be shamed! Move!”
The warriors of the North Sea, faces flushed with anger, erupted in a single great roar.
As Yeo Sa-hon started running at the head, those who had been standing still surged forward with thunderous momentum toward the walls.
“Don’t fall behind!”
“Catch up!”
“We’ll be the first over the wall!”
There was no hesitation left now. No one looked back as they drove themselves harder and harder, racing onward.
Right now.
The opening movement of a war that would decide the fate of the North Sea had begun.