< Episode 588 > The Little Princess of the Northern Sea Ice Palace.
When I returned to the Baihua Merchant Guild after finishing my work,
if there was something I wanted to do right away, it was naturally finding Moyong Huia.
‘I have to go eat.’
Though I’d just come back from doing something that spoiled my appetite,
I thought that should come first, since we were meeting after a long time.
But.
“Vice Leader.”
“…Yes, Guild Leader.”
Right now, it truly wasn’t an atmosphere where I could do such a thing.
“If you have something to say, I will hear it first.”
At Lady Mi’s frigid words, the atmosphere crumbled in an instant.
It was clearly summer, yet for some reason, it felt as though a blizzard was raging.
“...”
Having heard this, Moyong Huia fell briefly silent before speaking to Lady Mi.
“I am sorry. It is my fault for being careless.”
There were no excuses.
It was an answer befitting Moyong Huia perfectly.
‘Judging from the situation…’
she seemed to be getting scolded for losing the Little Princess.
‘Hmm.’
The Little Princess who had run away was at fault to begin with, but
failing to catch her was, to some extent, Moyong Huia’s problem as well.
No matter how unfair it was,
‘That’s what it means to be the one in charge.’
If you took responsibility for a task, you had to take the scolding when things went awry.
Since Moyong Huia would have known that when she accepted it, I had nothing more to say.
Tap, tap.
It was the sound of Lady Mi tapping her desk.
Tapping with her fingers, perhaps?
Hearing that, I recalled something.
‘It’s the same habit as Father.’
I think Father often used to do that when he was thinking too.
I thought it a rather strange coincidence.
“I have grasped the situation through the reports.”
“Yes.”
“You may say it was an unexpected situation, but I trust you are well aware that you are in a position to take responsibility.”
“I will accept any punishment.”
“Very well. In that case….”
‘…’
I retracted the aura I had extended after hearing up to that point.
Eavesdropping any further seemed like it would become a problem.
Leaning against the wall with my eyes closed, time passed.
Creeeak.
The door opened, and Moyong Huia walked out.
“Ah.”
Moyong Huia stopped short upon seeing me.
“…What. You were here?”
“Just, had nothing to do.”
Even I thought it was a lame thing to say.
Hearing this, Moyong Huia asked with a slight frown.
“Then, I suppose you heard everything?”
“…Heard what?”
At my nonchalant answer, Moyong Huia broke into a faint smile.
“You still can’t lie, can you?”
“No, what do you mean? What lie did I tell?”
“It’s fine. Rather than being good at it… not being able to lie is better.”
She had a look that said she wouldn’t believe anything I said.
Is it that obvious? Good grief…
‘Maybe I should wear a mask at all times.’
That’s how much the thought crossed my mind.
When I tried to follow Moyong Huia, she looked at me and tilted her head.
“Is it all right not to pay your respects to the Leader?”
“It’s fine.”
It didn’t seem like the right situation to see him right now, and
if he needed me, he would call. That’s what I thought.
“Hmm, I think it would be better if you went.”
“What?”
“It’s nothing. You’re here to eat, right?”
I tried to react to Moyong Huia’s muttering, but she quickly caught on to why I had come and started walking ahead.
“Fine. I just got thoroughly scolded, so I’m feeling a bit peckish.”
I wasn’t sure what getting scolded had to do with being hungry,
but now was not the time to nitpick.
If I did, I would obviously get picked apart.
No matter how dense I was,
I could tell she was in a subtly bad mood right now.
I knew Moyong Huia was holding back her emotions.
Moyong Huia walked calmly.
Then she suddenly turned her head to look at me.
“Come to think of it. What are we going to eat?”
Hearing that, I replied as if it were obvious.
“Dumplings.”
“...”
The moment she heard that, Moyong Huia’s face scrunched up fiercely.
What the hell, what’s wrong with dumplings…?
******************
That’s what I said, but in the end, I couldn’t eat dumplings.
The inn where we always ate was in a bad location,
and Moyong Huia strongly objected as well.
She really didn’t seem to want to eat dumplings.
So in the end, we had no choice but to find the restaurant located within the guild.
Given the hour, it was a quiet time.
We sat around the largest table and waited for the food.
Glug, glug.
Moyong Huia carefully poured water.
First, in front of me; second, in front of herself.
Finally, she poured some for Dang Soyeol as well,
“Here you go.”
and held the water jug out to Seongyul.
Meaning he should pour and drink for himself.
Watching that, I clicked my tongue inwardly.
‘She’s certainly as firm with her boundaries as ever.’
Even such a trivial act carried such a thick wall for this guy, whoever he was.
It was the same Moyong Huia as always.
Seongyul showed no particular reaction.
It was safe to assume he didn’t even care.
“So. Who is this?”
“Ah.”
Moyong Huia had asked about Seongyul.
Come to think of it, I hadn’t introduced him at all.
“A friend?”
I answered half-heartedly because it was a hassle.
“…Ah, I see.”
After hearing my answer, Moyong Huia looked at Seongyul.
For some reason, her eyes held sympathy.
“What? Why are you looking at him like that?”
“Cheer up.”
She even offered Seongyul encouragement.
“Cheer up about what? What for?”
“When is the food coming? It’s a bit late today.”
“…We only ordered before you poured the water. How would it be out already?”
This is really absurd.
“Even so. This slave… no, this friend feels a bit different from the usual ones.”
“You just said slave….”
“It’s hot. It is summer, after all.”
“...”
I decided to stop talking.
It certainly was summer.
It was so stiflingly hot, I felt as though I’d die from a fit of rage.
Since talking more would only be a loss for me anyway, I decided to get to the main point.
“…Explain what happened.”
I spoke with a hint of emotion, and only then did Moyong Huia clear her throat a few times.
The reason I’d insisted on eating together was, ultimately, to hear the story.
“What explanation would you like?”
“The Little Princess.”
“Mm.”
Moyong Huia let out a low hum.
Watching her, I spoke.
“If you’re not going to explain, forget it.”
I said flatly, and question marks flickered in Moyong Huia’s eyes.
“Aren’t you curious?”
How could I not be curious?
I was definitely curious, but.
“Even if you don’t tell me. I have plenty of ways to find out anyway.”
“...”
*Sigh.*
Moyong Huia let out a short sigh at that.
“…I suppose those methods are none too peaceful, are they?”
“Well, that’s a matter of taste.”
I said with a smile.
Yes, a matter of taste.
A difference in perspective.
“People don’t usually package such things as ‘taste,’ Young Master.”
“Anyway. Are you going to talk or not?”
Even if Moyong Huia didn’t speak here, I would find out eventually.
Since Lady Mi had said this matter was related to me, I too felt the need to find out.
Could the aloof girl of the sharp-witted Moyong clan not know this?
Surely not.
‘Yet the fact that she’s reluctant to speak means—’
—there is something to it.
Ah, of course.
‘Even knowing that, I have no intention of backing down.’
I looked at Moyong Huia with that sentiment.
“...”
A few seconds passed after our eyes met.
“…What is it you wish to know?”
In the end, Moyong Huia raised the white flag first.
That was a relief.
It seemed I wouldn’t have to do anything bothersome.
“Young Master.”
“Yes?”
“Even if you hear the story from me now. You will hear a separate explanation from the Leader later anyway.”
“I suppose so.”
“And yet, will you still hear it now?”
Moyong Huia was right.
I would be able to hear an explanation to some extent anyway.
But.
“Hearing it from you first is more important than that.”
Rather than the stories I would hear later,
I needed to hear the story from Moyong Huia’s position first.
Among those who would speak to me about this, Moyong Huia would be the one most on my side.
“…Really.”
Moyong Huia averted her gaze slightly at my words.
I could faintly see that her ears had reddened a bit as well.
It seemed she had more or less grasped the meaning behind my words.
“What… do you wish to ask?”
“Ah, what I wanted to ask first was….”
It was a question I had decided on long before coming here.
Why the Little Princess had come here.
How the Baihua Merchant Guild—rather than the martial alliance—had ended up being entrusted with such a matter.
Those were not things I needed to hear later.
What I wanted to ask was exactly this:
“Why did you lose the Little Princess?”
“...”
Moyong Huia’s eyes went wide at the question.
Yes, that was what I wanted to ask first and foremost.
“You’ve broken through the wall. Right?”
“…Yes.”
“When did you break through?”
“It’s been several months. Not long after we parted ways, Young Master.”
“Hm.”
Moyong Huia had already reached the Pinnacle.
The congenital illness she possessed—I had taken the time to melt it all away.
Afterward, Moyong Huia had begun training in martial arts once more and thus broken through the wall.
Having started again after several years without training,
she must have put in tremendous effort; it was certainly something to celebrate, but—
“The Little Princess was at the threshold of the First-rate realm.”
Now was not the time to celebrate lightly.
“Moreover, none of the guards around her were weak.”
The personnel deployed by the guild were one thing,
but the Little Princess of the Ice Palace wouldn’t have come alone, so the palace’s own guards would have been the same.
And yet, a first-rate Little Princess slipped through their surveillance?
“That’s not something that normally happens.”
“Mmph.”
“How did it come to that?”
These words were not blaming Moyong Huia for incompetence.
It was exactly because it was such a strange occurrence that I had to ask. Especially…
‘At that time. The sensation I felt from the Little Princess.’
When light had erupted from the Little Princess’s body.
Along with the light, I had sensed a strange aura.
She had clearly been trying to do something.
It kept nagging at me.
I asked harboring that doubt, and Moyong Huia cautiously opened her mouth.
“You are right, Young Master. It was a situation where she absolutely could not be lost… We even deliberately deployed personnel to ensure it.”
“But.”
“Nothing about the situation was particularly strange. We were walking with her surrounded. I was right beside her.”
No matter how you looked at it, listening to her description alone, there were no gaps for her to escape.
Another person might have been different, but Moyong Huia never let her guard down.
Precisely because I knew she was such a person, I understood it even less.
“But… at some point when I looked beside me, the Little Princess had vanished.”
I tilted my head at her words.
“Vanished?”
“Yes, she vanished in an instant. Without even a moment to sense her presence…”
“Hmm.”
Vanishing suddenly like that.
‘Then, as expected…’
‘She must have done something.’
What she had tried to do to me. It seemed she had used that to escape.
What was it? What method did she use?
‘A precious artifact?’
That seemed the most likely possibility.
‘If that is the case here.’
Just why had the Little Princess run away?
What reason did she have to come all the way to the Central Plains just to escape?
Such questions arose, but this was not something to ask Moyong Huia.
Because this was something even she would not yet know.
“Is this all you wished to ask?”
Since I was no longer asking questions, Moyong Huia spoke.
“No, there’s still one more left.”
Unfortunately, it was not yet time to finish asking.
The most important thing remained.
“The Little Princess’s face. She looked a lot like you.”
“Ah….”
A slight change crossed Moyong Huia’s expression at the question.
I did not miss it.
“Was that simply a coincidence?”
It was a question that might seem strange.
After all, it was tantamount to suspecting something was afoot merely because two people looked alike.
Even if she was only half of such descent, Moyong Huia too was a person of the Northern Sea.
Her light blue eyes proved as much.
As for the Northern Sea’s Little Princess, I didn’t know what the relation might be,
but since she was likewise born of the Palace Lord, it was only natural that the two might resemble each other.
It was merely that they looked excessively alike.
I felt that finding it strange was the stranger thing in itself, but…
looking into Moyong Huia’s eyes, I could tell.
“That is…”
That she too felt something was off.
“I don’t really know.”
“You don’t know?”
“Yes. When I first saw her, I was truly very surprised.”
I’m sure.
If it were me, I’d be surprised to see someone who looked like me.
I’d probably feel bad about it too.
“But conversely, the Little Princess didn’t seem surprised at all.”
“Mhm.”
This was the part that bothered me most.
Moyong Huia had been surprised the moment she saw her, yet the Little Princess had been perfectly fine…
“She didn’t react to my face at all. She simply asked me something.”
“Something?”
“Yes. What she asked then was clearly…”
[Truly… you have escaped the Curse of the Ice Crystal?]
That is what she said.
‘The Curse of the Ice Crystal?’
Hearing those words, I paused for a moment. The Ice Crystal. I had heard of it before.
I believe it was said to be the symbolic precious artifact of the Northern Sea, in which tremendous cold energy was condensed.
The curse of the Ice Crystal?
And upon seeing Moyong Huia, at that?
Tap, tap.
I drummed my fingers on the table as the thought came to mind.
‘Could it be related to her constitution?’
The meridian-severing condition Moyong Huia had possessed.
I wondered if that was what she meant, but—
‘How would the Little Princess know about that?’
The person who had mentioned it was the problem.
Moreover, her saying the curse was cured meant she knew Moyong Huia had received treatment.
Looking at this,
‘She didn’t come merely for a stroll, it seems.’
The reason the Little Princess had sought out the Central Plains seemed to be something far weightier than expected.
Doubts compounded.
I had a feeling something was amiss.
As I was continuing to turn over these questions,
“Excuse me.”
someone approached us and spoke.
“I have brought a message from the Leader.”
It was an employee of the guild.
Everyone looked at him, wondering what this was about.
He relayed the message in a calm voice.
“‘The Little Princess has regained consciousness.’ That is what the Leader instructed me to convey.”
Hearing that, I had to furrow my brow.
The person at the center of this matter had woken up, so I was to come up at once.
That was clearly what he meant.
The problem was.
“…Our food hasn’t even arrived yet.”
The meal I had ordered wouldn’t be touched even once.