Nice to Meet You, Really. (5)
Whiiiiiish!
A knife-edge wind swept fiercely across the land.
The guards of the Ice Palace stationed atop the walls pulled the fur-lined coats wrapped around their faces tighter and let out low groans.
Even for those born and raised in the North Sea, the bitter winter wind was hard to endure. And this year’s winter was especially brutal.
The guards huddled their shoulders, gritting their teeth against the numbness creeping into their fingertips.
Ordinarily, when the wind blew this hard, they would have bent low and done whatever they could to preserve a little more body heat.
But just yesterday, the Palace Lord had lost his head, and a new man had taken his place.
In a situation like this, there wasn’t a soul with the nerve to get clever.
“Not a single ant in sight.”
“Hmm.”
The watch commander, who had come to the wall to receive the report, stared into the distance with narrowed eyes.
It was hard to believe there had been such a fierce battle just yesterday. The falling snow had covered everything cleanly, as though none of it had ever happened.
“Th-then, Commander.”
“Hmm?”
“What happens to us now?”
“What do you mean, what happens?”
“I mean... the Palace Lord has changed. Things probably won’t be the same as before.”
At those words, the commander found himself glancing over his shoulder.
Even though he knew no one would come all the way up to this freezing, towering wall to spy on them, he felt uneasy for no reason at all.
“Nothing changes.”
He faced forward again and spoke firmly.
“We are still warriors of the Ice Palace. The only thing that changed is the Palace Lord. Elder Yeo Sa-hon was once the man who led the Ice Palace, was he not? And so was Administrator Han Yi-myung.”
“That’s true, but...”
“We do nothing more than carry out orders.”
The guards still looked uneasy, but they nodded in silence for the moment. The commander exhaled a quiet sigh where they could not hear it.
It’s only natural they’d be uneasy.
Elder Yeo had publicly declared that he would not punish those who had followed Seol Cheon-sang, but how could anyone know what would happen in the world?
Seol Cheon-sang had murdered the former Palace Lord and seized the seat for himself. Naturally, the current Palace Lord, Seol So-baek, would bear a grudge against him.
And perhaps... perhaps that grudge would be poured onto those who had followed Seol Cheon-sang as well.
Everyone understood that much, and so the unease blooming in their chests would not go away.
“For people like us, all we can do is follow orders.”
No one could deny that Seol Cheon-sang had been a vicious man.
But even so, he had been a Palace Lord who carried the blood of the Seol family. What could an ordinary member of the Ice Palace have possibly done to him?
Then one of the guards spoke up cautiously.
“It’s not my place to say this, but... isn’t the new Palace Lord rather young?”
The commander turned the cold eye of his gaze on the speaker.
“Watch your mouth.”
“......”
“He is the rightful heir, descended from the blood of the Seol family. If not him, then who else would become Palace Lord?”
“I spoke too thoughtlessly.”
“Stop thinking nonsense and keep watch properly!”
“Yes, sir!”
He scowled and spoke sternly, yet another sigh escaped his lips.
This is chaotic.
It felt as though something were pressing hard against his chest, clogging his breathing. The frustration simply would not go away.
Then another blast of wind swept over the walls.
The chill bore straight into their bones, and the guards instinctively hunched their shoulders again. No matter how many winters a man survived, he never grew accustomed to that cursed blade wind.
One guard who had turned his head away from the snow striking his face frowned and looked forward again.
And then—
“Huh?”
He narrowed his eyes and stared intently at the vast plain beyond the wall.
At first, he thought it was a trick of the light. With a blizzard raging like this, seeing things that weren’t there would hardly be strange.
But... if it wasn’t a mistake?
The man jerked hard and shouted in alarm.
“C-Commander! There’s something over there!”
“What?”
Those who had been huddled over and staring at the ground all lifted their heads at once and strained their eyes.
But soon they were tilting their heads in confusion.
“What do you mean, something?”
“There’s some dark thing over there...”
The commander stared hard at the spot the man was pointing to.
“Hmm?”
Keeping his eyes fixed on that one place until they burned from the cold wind, he finally began to make something out as well.
The blizzard made the view hard to see, but there was definitely something black on the snowfield that had not been there before.
Wild beasts?
No. If it was clear enough to be seen from this far away, then it couldn’t possibly be just one or two animals bunching together.
“What do we do? Report it?”
“Let’s watch a little longer first. It might be nothing, so there’s no need to panic—”
That was when it happened.
The commander, who had been speaking, suddenly fell silent, his expression darkening.
That?
What had only moments ago looked like a murky black shape was now far clearer. More than that, it felt much larger than before.
Given the distance between the wall and that point, there was only one conclusion to draw: it was moving rapidly toward them.
Report it...
Then the people beside him turned pale and shouted.
“They’re approaching!”
“They’re coming fast!”
“Commander!”
The commander whirled around and looked to the bell hanging at the edge of the wall.
“Ring the bell and send the signal! The blizzard may carry the sound poorly, so—Jaho! You go to the palace and report that suspicious figures are approaching the wall! Right now!”
“Yes, sir!”
The man called Jaho leaped down from the wall.
“Notify the other squads as well and put them on full alert! Hurry!”
“Yes, sir!”
Once the orders were given, the commander snapped his head back and opened his eyes wide enough to split.
They’re already—?!
He had only just issued a few orders.
Yet the unidentified black shapes were already close enough to be seen clearly.
Just how fast are they?
Cold sweat began to run down his back. Swallowing dryly, the commander looked down at the approaching figures. A chill crawled up his spine with the tension.
People!
Now he could see it clearly.
It was no illusion, no beast. They were unmistakably human silhouettes.
A group of people wrapped head to toe in black capes was advancing toward the Ice Palace at terrifying speed. At that pace, they would reach the wall in just...
At that moment, the speed of the charging figures increased even more.
The commander shouted in panic.
“B-Bows! Get the bows ready immediately! Now, now, no—now!”
The black figures that had reached the front in an instant began climbing the wall without a moment’s hesitation. Seeing that, the commander screamed himself hoarse.
“Shoot! Shoot them down! Hurry—!”
But just then—
“No.”
A strange voice whispered low, right beside his ear.
It was so chilling that hearing it alone made him feel something was terribly wrong.
The commander turned slowly.
His heart dropped, and the blood in his veins turned icy.
W-When...?
He had never once taken his eyes off them, so when had this man climbed all the way up onto the wall?
In that instant, something utterly cold seized his throat. The moment he realized it was a human hand, his heart lurched wildly beyond control, as though it would burst from his chest.
A grotesque voice dug into his ear.
“For the unbelievers who do not follow the teachings of the Church, death is the only just ending. And those who have raised a hand against the faithful have only one fate.”
“Kh... khrrk...”
The hand gripping his throat slowly began to bore deeper into his flesh.
And then—
Crack.
The sound of bone splintering rang out with horrifying clarity, and at the same time the commander’s neck twisted violently to the side.
“......”
Seeing his limp body, the Ice Palace warriors went as pale as the snow of the North Sea.
Thud.
The man tossed the commander’s body aside as casually as if discarding trash, then slowly swept his cold gaze over them.
“From the very beginning, I...”
The man, the Law Enforcer of the Church, let his eyes bleed red as he spoke in a tone thick with contempt.
“...have found it disgusting to breathe the same air as unbelievers like you.”
Fwoosh!
At that moment, black shadows burst up onto the wall all at once.
“Kill them all. Not a single one of those who dared interfere with the Church’s rites may live.”
“Heavenly Demon returns! Ten thousand demons rejoice!”
The black fiends shouted in unison and crashed into the Ice Palace warriors on the wall.
“Aaaaaaaah!”
“Aaaaaaaah!”
The once-quiet wall was drenched in blood in an instant.
The Law Enforcer watched the scene with indifferent eyes before turning toward the opposite side of the wall and walking on.
The vast white expanse of the Ice Palace spread before him.
“...Fools.”
If they had obediently surrendered the Ice Crystals, they could at least have kept their wretched lives until the day the Great Heavenly Demon was resurrected.
Once they had rejected that mercy, the fate of the Ice Palace had already been sealed.
Still—
The ones carrying the Ice Crystals must be those Central Plains dogs.
The Law Enforcer never once forgot his mission.
Crushing the Ice Palace for daring to defy the Church and replace their own Palace Lord was important, but recovering the Ice Crystals was a task far more important than that.
He had to recover them, even if he had to wager his life for it.
The Law Enforcer’s cold eyes drilled into the Ice Palace.
“Heavenly Demon returns. Ten thousand demons rejoice.”
A voice filled with terrifying faith spread through the blizzard.
“Who did you say had attacked?”
Yeo Sa-hon sprang to his feet.
“W-We haven’t yet confirmed the enemy’s identity!”
“Damn it...”
Yeo Sa-hon ground his teeth and clenched his fist tight.
“Are they Seol Cheon-sang’s remnants?”
“Rather than that... based on their clothing, they seem to be from the Demonic Sect.”
“The Demonic Sect?”
At the unexpected news, Yeo Sa-hon’s face turned blue in an instant.
The Demonic Sect?
Why on earth would the Demonic Sect be attacking all of a sudden?
No. Even if the Demonic Sect was aiming for the Ice Palace, why would they strike so abruptly?
For a moment, Yeo Sa-hon had no idea how to respond and was left floundering.
“How many are there?”
“T-That... we couldn’t tell exactly! They rushed in before we could count them...”
“You fool!”
Yeo Sa-hon barked furiously.
“The enemy is attacking, and you don’t even know how many there are, or who they are? Are the people on the wall all scarecrows?”
As Yeo Sa-hon flew into a rage, the man who had rushed to report the situation lowered his head in shame. It was Han Yi-myung who calmed him.
“Please calm yourself, Elder. Our priority should be responding, should it not?”
At his words, Yeo Sa-hon’s expression hardened. Then, with a resolute face, he shouted, “Immediately announce that the enemy has attacked and gather every force in the Ice Palace!”
But the one who received the order did not answer at once. Instead, he glanced at Yeo Sa-hon carefully.
“E-Elder... what about the Palace Lord?”
Yeo Sa-hon’s face twisted bitterly.
“In a situation this urgent, where is the time to go looking for the Palace Lord? Do you mean to say that if the Palace Lord does not personally command you, you’ll stand there waiting even if the enemy cuts off your head?”
“N-No, sir! I will follow the order!”
The startled man hurried out. Yeo Sa-hon looked at the closed door, then slammed his hand against the table.
What in the world is this...?
He had been about to rush outside in a panic when Han Yi-myung spoke carefully.
“Elder.”
“What is it?”
“...If the enemy who has attacked truly is from the Demonic Sect, what do you intend to do?”
Yeo Sa-hon fell silent for a moment, unable to find an answer.
The Demonic Sect.
If those bastards had truly attacked, it would be the worst possible outcome. But there was only one thing he could say.
“We didn’t avoid war because we were afraid of them! We only worried about the damage it would cause. If they truly have their eyes on the Ice Palace, then we’ll make them pay the price!”
“......Yes, sir.”
It was only a statement, and Yeo Sa-hon himself did not actually wish for that outcome.
“Administrator Han, bring the guards and have them protect the Palace Lord.”
“Understood.”
“And...”
Yeo Sa-hon opened his mouth as if he meant to say something, then hesitated before forcing the words out in a lower voice.
“Find out what the Mount Hua Sect disciples are doing.”
“Why would they—”
“I said find out, so find out!”
“...Understood.”
Yeo Sa-hon left the room with his face set hard. Watching his back, Han Yi-myung let out a breath he had been holding.
Nothing is easy.
He had thought things would settle once Seol Cheon-sang was driven out, but that had been far too naïve.
For now, we have to stop the enemy. And protect the Palace Lord first.
Han Yi-myung forcibly steadied his chaotic mind, gathered himself, and ran toward the inner palace.
As fate would have it, however... neither Yeo Sa-hon nor Han Yi-myung, nor anyone else in the Ice Palace, truly understood what it meant to face the Demonic Sect.
They did not understand why the name of the Demonic Sect had remained a synonym for fear even after a hundred years had passed.
That ignorance was their most fatal mistake.