Misunderstandings
"I'm sorry, but I'm not a member of the North Sea Ice Palace."
When I said that, Byeokunja's brows arched into a lopsided shape, and he burst out laughing.
"Tsk, tsk, you little brat. You've got white hair and blue eyes, and you use the Ice Soul Divine Art—how can you say you're not from the Ice Palace? By that logic, you might as well tell me I'm not from Jongnam."
Ah. How was I supposed to put this?
Just a moment ago, when I slapped away the flying shard of a sword with my hand, I had unconsciously let the energy of the Ice Soul Divine Art flow together with the Golden Dragon Body. It was faint, almost negligible, but it had definitely come out.
Byeokunja had probably seen that and decided to follow me all this way.
"You may not believe me no matter what I say, but I have nothing to do with the North Sea Ice Palace."
"Eh...? What sort of story do you have that you keep denying it even when I say it's fine? My, my. Fine, fine. I understand. I understand. You've clearly made some sort of vow. All right, then, I'll say you have no connection to them. If you wish it, so be it. But why does a child with such lovely features speak so stiffly? Like a man, no less?"
I could feel my head spinning. Even after I said no, he was still going on as if he knew better than I did.
"Ah! Of course. If a woman is traveling alone, her speech might grow rigid like that. But why insist on it when you even wear a bamboo hat and veil? Your voice is lovely too."
I wasn't doing this on purpose.
I'd been dropped into a woman's body, yes, but trying to speak like a woman too was another matter entirely.
Honestly... I wasn't even sure I could.
"I have my reasons."
"What reasons could possibly be so complicated? Hah. The Ice Palace has always been picky about strange things. I suppose it's because of the customs of the outer lands, but... tsk."
Truthfully, I wanted to ignore the Murim Alliance, ignore Kaifeng, ignore all of it and just go back to the inn.
How was I supposed to shake this old man off?
But telling him, "Please leave now," felt incredibly rude too.
"All right. Be that as it may, child of the Ice Palace. What is your name?"
"Senior. I told you, I'm not a person of the Ice Palace—"
"Ah, yes, yes. I understand, I understand. You said you have no connection to the Ice Palace. Right."
"My name is Baek Harin."
"Hmm. So. Not connected to the Ice Palace, yet you have white hair and blue eyes, and your surname is Baek. I see. Hoho."
What was this? Was Baek a common surname in the North Sea Ice Palace or something?
No, wait. Come to think of it, that did sound plausible. Man, this was ridiculous. I hadn't done any of this on purpose, either.
"So why did you come out into the Central Plains? I've heard rumors. That someone from the Ice Palace came all the way here in search of something. What are you looking for? Did you find it?"
"Senior. Huu. I told you, I have nothing to do with the Ice Palace—"
"Good heavens, really! Next time I meet the palace lord, I'll have words with him! Hm!? If you've run into someone you're fated to meet, you should at least receive some proper help! Hm!? If you're going to do it, you might as well do it right! What sort of glory and fortune do they think they'll gain by ordering some child to keep it all to herself—"
Forget it. I didn't even know anymore.
This was just him making one assumption after another all by himself, so I had nothing left to say.
How was I supposed to prove this? Was there even a way to prove I had nothing to do with the Ice Palace?
Damn that Ice Soul Divine Art. Even without learning it, this would already be hard to believe.
But now that I'd learned the Ice Soul Divine Art, there was no getting around it.
No matter what I said, he'd probably still go on like this. Sigh.
"Very well. If you place such importance on your palace's rules, then this old man won't say any more about it. So? Where are you headed now?"
"I..."
I almost said I was going to the Murim Alliance or the Beggars' Sect main branch, but I shut my mouth again at once.
If I said that, he'd ask why I was going there, and then I'd have to explain that it was to entrust the manual for the Ice Soul Divine Art.
That sounded a little strange, didn't it? And besides, I had no idea how I was supposed to explain it to him.
Ah! Right. I should just tell this old man everything.
And then go to the Murim Alliance with him.
He seemed like a pretty famous person, so something like that should be possible, right?
Just as I was thinking that and about to speak to Byeokunja, he suddenly said in a flat voice, almost sounding dejected,
"Oh? That's a secret too? You can't tell me? Hoho. So that's how it is. I'm making things difficult for you, am I? Then this old man will take his leave. I will be sure to tell the palace lord just how hurt I was when I meet her later."
With those words, Byeokunja vanished as though he were made of smoke.
"Uh..."
And I could only stare dumbly at the spot where he had been, completely bewildered.
He disappeared so fast I couldn't even tell which direction he'd gone in.
Wow. What a headache. How had things turned out like this?
Honestly, that old man wouldn't even listen to what people said! Why did he have to pile on his own conclusions and then leave?
Thanks to him, I was completely drained, and in the end I came back to the inn instead of going to the Murim Alliance or anywhere else.
I flopped onto the bed and lay there, staring blankly up at the wooden ceiling.
Ah. My back hurts. This damn bed. Such a hard bed.
I want to sleep in a bed with a mattress.
That was my honest feeling. What I needed most right now was a spring mattress that wouldn't bounce or sag.
This body. A woman's body is nice because it's light, but... it's incredibly inconvenient.
Especially when it comes to lying face down. All this flesh makes it awkward.
Once that thought opened the floodgates, everything I'd deliberately ignored over the past few days—while I focused only on what needed to be done in this world—came spilling out all at once.
This body. A woman's body.
Honestly, it scared me a little. The emotion I felt toward this body was unmistakably fear.
I was even afraid to touch my chest or the lower part of my body carelessly.
And over the past few days, the thing I'd feared most of all was the toilet.
Though, to be fair, even in the first place, the toilet here was dreadful. No, here they called it a latrine.
A latrine I didn't want to be in for even one more second. And on top of that, I had a woman's body now, which made it even worse.
So, just like during my first week at training camp, the same thing had happened again.
I still hadn't been able to do a proper number two.
Disgusting.
And I still hadn't bathed, either. I couldn't bring myself to even think about it.
The funny thing was that even after going days without washing, a woman's body didn't seem to get sticky at all.
Was it because it was naturally dry? Or because I'd learned martial arts? Was it due to my external arts?
I wanted to wash. I wanted to shampoo my hair too.
Of course, my hair didn't even look oily. I hadn't washed it once since coming here, and there wasn't a single matted strand.
Still, I wanted to wash. Was there anywhere I could bathe?
If I went to a slightly better inn, there would probably be a bath basin or something.
I must have been more stressed out than I realized because of that old man Byeokunja. Otherwise I wouldn't be thinking this way.
So I sat up abruptly and checked how much silver I had on me.
I had more than I expected after catching those perverted bastards.
At this rate... staying a day at a good inn wouldn't exactly be a luxury, would it?
Then tomorrow it was. I'd already paid for this inn today, after all.
Thinking that made me feel better.
Right. Forget misunderstandings or whatever. I should just do what I came here to do.
Misunderstandings like that would probably clear up someday. No idea when, though.
So for the rest of the day, I stayed in the room and carefully checked the martial arts I'd learned.
Two external arts: the Golden Dragon Body and the Iron Body Weight-Adding Force.
The Golden Dragon Body didn't really have any form to it.
It was an external art devoted purely to hardening the body.
But the Iron Body Weight-Adding Force did have forms of its own.
They were mostly methods for producing great power with little force.
The core of the art was sa-ryang-bal-cheon-geun—Four Taels Deflects a Thousand Catty.
Most people knew it as the skill of using four taels of small force to overcome an opponent's thousand-catty strength, but in truth, the meaning was a little different.
Originally, it meant: if you have the strength to handle a thousand catty, then even four taels of force is enough to control it.
In other words, first you become strong, then you worry about the rest.
So after mastering the Iron Body Weight-Adding Force, my strength had become absurdly powerful, allowing me to produce tremendous force anywhere, at any time.
Mm. A saber. I needed to get a saber.
With the Iron Body Weight-Adding Force, even if I picked up a saber the size of my own body, I could swing it around as lightly as if I were holding a small sword.
And no matter how much martial arts surpassed common scientific sense, the basic laws of physics still held.
In other words, the heavier the mass, the greater the destructive power.
So if I had a saber, just grabbing it and swinging it would help me overcome some of my weaknesses.
My biggest weakness was my lack of inner energy.
Ah. Come to think of it, I had other martial arts too, didn't I?
Moonlight Divine Art. And the Fragmenting Light Sword Art.
The Moonlight Divine Art was still impossible for me to understand. I couldn't make head or tail of it. I didn't even know whether it was movement or not... well, whatever.
But the Fragmenting Light Sword Art was different.
It was clearly a sword art meant for wielding a sword.
So I recalled the formula once, picked up my cheap iron sword, and slowly tried to follow along.
Ugh. This was hard.
I mimicked the moves for quite a while, but even simply copying the motions was incredibly difficult.
Was this something that needed inner energy to support it? The movements felt almost like acrobatics.
Still, even without fully understanding it, I could tell this was an extremely fast sword art.
It was full of words like lightning, swift, rapid, and speed...
Maybe if you wanted to cut light, you had to be fast first?
But no matter how fast a human was, the speed of light was impossible, wasn't it? Half of half of half of that would still be impossible.
What was interesting was that after I kept swinging the sword late into the night and tried to imitate all the forms according to the formula, one star lit up for the Fragmenting Light Sword Art.
Oh. Was that because it was my first time? They were being pretty generous.
I figured it must be judging me simply for having tried each move once.
Still, once results became visible like that, motivation naturally followed.
So I tried the twelve forms of the Fragmenting Light Sword Art again, this time with a posture far more stable than before.
Faster. Even faster. Far, far faster.
And yet still stable. At least enough that it looked like a sword art.
But even after I swung it around for a long while, the star count didn't rise any further.
Well, it wasn't like the world was going to hand things over that easily. One star was something to be grateful for.
So I put the sword away for the night and lay back down on the bed.
Then, since I couldn't bear it, I folded the blanket to make it as soft as possible and lay back down on top of it.
I'd have to sleep like this for now.
Ah. I really wish I had a soft bed. Seriously.