Chapter 41: Execution
Translator: RaidenTL
Chapter 41: Execution
The head of the elders of the Northern Sea Ice Palace.
Seol Un-gang, Chairman of the Ice Council, felt everyone’s gaze fixated on him and glared back with fury.
“Silence! How dare you spout such nonsense in this sacred hall!”
It was the height of audacity—the thief playing the victim.
Hyeok Ryeon-yeom’s lips curled into a smirk at Seol Un-gang’s outburst.
“Elder. I keep telling you, the witnesses are right here.”
Step. Step.
A warmth began to spread.
A warm breeze started to blow through the Palace Lord’s Hall, a place that was always chilled by the northern winds. Simultaneously, flames began to flicker across Hyeok Ryeon-yeom’s body.
“Guh… ugh…”
The assassins from Blood Tears, still gagged, let out muffled groans. Even though he hadn’t laid a finger on them, they were trembling in terror.
‘It’s because of the Extreme Yang Qi.’
The assassins were likely experiencing the sensation of their dantians being scorched.
“Are you going to feign ignorance until the very end?”
“This is a frame-up! This is a plot by the Demonic Cultist Hyeok Ryeon-yeom to further infiltrate the affairs of the Ice Palace!”
Chairman Seol Un-gang was no longer looking at Hyeok Ryeon-yeom. He began to appeal to everyone gathered in the Great Hall, his voice thick with feigned injustice.
“I am being wronged!”
—Tsk, tsk. Look at that acting.
—If I didn’t know better, I’d think he really was innocent.
Even the Sword Venerable and the Demon Empress were clicking their tongues in disgust.
“The answer will come if we ask them.”
Creak—
The assassins of Blood Tears were forced to their feet.
“I may not look it, but I’m quite confident in my ability to extract information.”
Whoosh!
The gags in the assassins' mouths were incinerated by a sudden burst of flame.
“Aaaargh!”
Being well-trained, the assassins tried to endure the pain. But it wouldn’t last long. Why?
‘Because they’ve never experienced the agony of being burned alive.’
As he watched the assassins struggle to suppress their screams, Seol Un-gang’s eyes flashed with a murderous light.
“These are the assassins who attacked the Ice Palace!”
Swish!
Seol Un-gang’s palm strike lunged toward the Blood Tears assassins.
Thwack!
The heads of the assassins exploded.
Several martial artists watching the scene furrowed their brows. Hyeok Ryeon-yeom didn’t bother to stop the killing. They were scum who deserved to die anyway.
Rather, he had a different point to make.
“Did you just… kill them to silence them?”
“Silencing them? Me? This elder simply executed those who deserved death.”
Dead men tell no tales. Seol Un-gang was someone who understood that principle all too well. And for someone of his status, killing a person or two here wouldn't usually be questioned by—
Cr-crack!
There was someone who would question it.
The headless bodies of the Blood Tears assassins were instantly encased in ice.
“…What is the meaning of this, Young Palace Lord!”
“You didn’t hesitate for a second to kill them, Chairman.”
“That is because they were clearly the ones who attacked the Ice Palace…”
“Exactly!”
Flash—!
Extreme Yin Qi erupted from the Young Palace Lord’s body.
Cr-cr-crack—
A bone-chilling cold, like the bitter winds of the northern tundra, began to freeze the very air in the hall.
“Just as the Captain of the Little Snow Unit said, it’s clear that you were the one who commissioned Blood Tears.”
Rumble—
“Un-gang.”
The Ice Emperor, Seol Baek-ho, rose from his seat.
“Was it this seat… that you coveted so much until the very end?”
“Palace Lord, I… I am being framed.”
Seol Un-gang maintained his plea of innocence without a single change in his expression.
“The assassins testified, and you personally silenced them. Do you still intend to play the ignorant victim?”
“You brat!”
Unable to contain himself any longer, Chairman Seol Un-gang lunged at Hyeok Ryeon-yeom.
Hyeok Ryeon-yeom was already fully prepared. Just as he was about to swing his sword at the charging Seol Un-gang—
Boom!
“Cough!”
Seol Baek-ho dropped from the air.
“Wasn’t it this throne you lusted after? If you wanted the position of Palace Lord, you should have fought me. Why lay a hand on my innocent son-in-law?”
Hyeok Ryeon-yeom looked at Seol Baek-ho’s back. A majesty he had only ever felt from the Heavenly Demon, Hyeok Ryeon-hwi, was radiating from the Ice Palace Lord.
The heads of the Five Great Families stiffened as they saw the Ice Palace Lord personally step in to block Chairman Seol Un-gang.
‘The Palace Lord, who always remained seated, has stood up.’
The family heads knew all too well what happened whenever the Ice Palace Lord left his throne.
Boom!
Seol Baek-ho, who had landed on top of Seol Un-gang from above, pinned him down with his massive weight.
“Gah!”
If the Demonic Cult followed the principle of the strong ruling the weak, the Ice Palace followed the law of the jungle.
“The strong dominate the weak.”
Chairman Seol Un-gang’s surname was ‘Seol.’ He shared the same bloodline as the Ice Palace Lord, Seol Baek-ho. They were brothers.
One became the Palace Lord, while the other became the Chairman of the Council created by the elders. The stark difference in their status must have led to endless comparisons between the two.
“Lady Seol. What is the relationship between Chairman Seol Un-gang and the Palace Lord?”
“He is my uncle.”
His younger brother.
One was the Lord of the Northern Sea Ice Palace. The other was the Chairman of the Ice Council. That clear distinction had led to this inevitable conclusion.
“So you lost.”
Seol Un-gang had always been the weaker one. Perhaps that was why he attempted to overthrow the palace—to drag Seol Baek-ho down.
“Hehe… Brother, are you going to cast me aside this time as well?”
“Cast you aside?”
“Since you became the Palace Lord, you haven’t looked at me once! Even after I became an elder, all your attention was on your daughter, the Young Palace Lord. You didn’t give a damn about me, your own family!”
Seol Un-gang screamed in a fit of rage.
Trying to muster his energy was futile. Seol Baek-ho and Seol Un-gang essentially practiced the same martial arts. It was the nature of Yin energy to be consumed by a stronger source of the same energy. Thus, Seol Un-gang could never have surpassed Seol Baek-ho in his entire life.
However, Hyeok Ryeon-yeom knew better.
‘He didn’t care about you?’
When you’re still standing there alive?
From Seol Baek-ho’s perspective, Seol Un-gang was nothing but a lingering threat who could stab him in the back at any moment. If this were the Demonic Cult—
‘You’d already be dead and buried.’
Glancing sideways, he saw that Hyeok Ryeon-mu also had a look of incomprehension. If Hyeok Ryeon-mu had become the Cult Leader, he would have felt the need to kill both Hyeok Ryeon-geuk and Hyeok Ryeon-yeom. No matter if they were blood brothers, there could only be one sun in the sky.
In other words:
‘The fact that Seol Un-gang is even alive right now is proof that Seol Baek-ho cared for him deeply. Even if he didn't show it outwardly.’
—Tsk, tsk. This is why it’s much better not to have siblings.
The Sword Venerable clicked his tongue as he watched Seol Un-gang’s wailing. It seemed he had experienced something similar.
—I can understand Elder Seol to some extent. It is difficult to coexist with a Palace Lord.
If Seol Un-gang had been someone who understood this, he would have been a reliable pillar for Seol Baek-ho whenever the Lord was away. But Seol Un-gang was consumed by an inferiority complex. He believed that if only Seol Baek-ho weren't there, he would have been the Palace Lord.
The family heads also looked at Seol Un-gang with pity. They were contemporaries who had once competed with Seol Baek-ho. These outsiders understood the sentiment with which Seol Baek-ho had spared his brother’s life better than the brother himself.
Having realized the full story, Hyeok Ryeon-yeom had no choice but to step forward.
Step. Step.
“I apologize, Palace Lord, for my impudence in interrupting.”
He first apologized to his father-in-law. Cutting through the blizzard-like chill, Hyeok Ryeon-yeom stood beside Seol Baek-ho.
“Captain of the Little Snow Unit?”
“I will take over from here for a moment.”
Leaving those words, Hyeok Ryeon-yeom stood before Seol Un-gang.
“Chairman.”
“Yes, you. It’s all because of you! If you hadn't come to the Ice Palace, Seol Yerin would be dead, and I could have ousted a despair-ridden Seol Baek-ho and become the Palace Lord myself!”
Seol Un-gang had given up on everything and was spiraling into self-destruction. Madness flickered through his white hair. There was no point in talking to a man already driven insane by his own ambition.
“You’re wrong. Even without me, you would never have become the Palace Lord.”
“What?”
“And since you seem to be under a grave delusion, I must boldly point something out. You should consider yourself lucky.”
“……What?”
“Brother, if you were to become the Young Cult Leader, who would you kill first?”
Hyeok Ryeon-yeom directed his question to Hyeok Ryeon-mu.
“Well… either you, Yeom, or Brother Hyeok Ryeon-geuk.”
“Did you hear that? If you had been born into our Cult, Chairman, you would have been a corpse long ago. The fact that you are alive right now is the ultimate proof of how much the Palace Lord cared for you.”
At Hyeok Ryeon-yeom’s words, Seol Un-gang’s expression began to stiffen.
“That’s enough, Captain.”
“I apologize, Palace Lord. But I have more to say.”
Hyeok Ryeon-yeom’s eyes turned cold.
“I’m saying that everything you enjoy right now was given to you through the Palace Lord’s consideration and care. And yet, you repay that grace by planning to kill the Palace Lord and your own niece? You unfilial bastard.”
Whoosh—!
Flames erupted.
“Hyeok Ryeon-yeom!”
“I am sorry.”
He had died once before. That experience had taught him something.
‘Those who remain as a future threat must be dealt with.’
If you show mercy, you never know when they will aim for your back again. And from what he had seen, his father-in-law was a man of deep, hidden affection. He was simply someone who couldn't express it outwardly.
‘The reason he put me through all those tests, even though I saved the Young Palace Lord, was for the same reason.’
It was because he wanted Hyeok Ryeon-yeom to be recognized in the North Sea. Thanks to that warmth, Hyeok Ryeon-yeom had been able to find his place in the Ice Palace.
Therefore:
‘I must do what the Palace Lord cannot.’
That was his role as the matrilocal son-in-law. It was the destiny of the man who would become the Young Palace Lord’s sword.
First Form of the Fire Control Sword.
“Flame Flash.”
The Flame Extreme Sword, drawn in an instant, lunged toward Seol Un-gang’s neck. The flames blocked all vision, leaving only Seol Un-gang and Hyeok Ryeon-yeom to face each other in that final moment.
Hyeok Ryeon-yeom looked directly into Seol Un-gang’s eyes. In those eyes, which sensed imminent death, there was a flicker of remorse.
Slice—
Thud. Roll.
Whoosh!
The flames surged.
“Hyeok Ryeon-yeom!”
“As the Captain of the Little Snow Unit protecting the Young Palace Lord, I have executed Seol Un-gang, Chairman of the Ice Council.”
Leaving the burning corpse of Seol Un-gang behind, Hyeok Ryeon-yeom knelt before the Ice Palace Lord, Seol Baek-ho.
“If my actions were wrong, please punish me. I will accept any sentence.”
Hyeok Ryeon-yeom had committed an act that no one else in the Ice Palace dared to do. Seeing this, Hyeok Ryeon-mu smirked, while Moyong Geum’s eyes widened in shock.
And then—
“I believe the Captain’s actions were justified, Palace Lord.”
The Young Palace Lord, Seol Yerin, stepped forward to protect Hyeok Ryeon-yeom.
Now, all that remained was the judgment of the Ice Palace Lord. Every eye in the hall was fixed on Seol Baek-ho.
The man known as the Ice Emperor silently gazed at the burning remains of his brother. Would he punish Hyeok Ryeon-yeom for killing his sibling? Or would he reward him for eliminating the culprit who attacked the palace?
Seol Baek-ho’s choice was…
“…Chief Officer.”
“Yes, Palace Lord.”
“Prepare for Chairman Seol’s funeral.”
It was silence.