〈 Episode 592 〉 The Little Princess of the North Sea Ice Palace.
If you ask how I knew.
At first, it was the smile she was wearing.
Clearly, there was nothing wrong with the bright smile on her face.
Yet, for some reason, that smile felt unsettling.
Why? I couldn’t tell.
It was purely instinct.
If asked whether I believed in something so trivial, I could answer firmly: yes.
Because.
‘I’m utterly devoid of luck.’
In my life, a bad premonition had never once missed its mark.
That was what made me trust my instincts.
So I had to find out.
I had to find the reason why this girl named Yuri from the North Sea felt so unsettling, a reason to give my instincts more certainty.
[Is it true that you lifted the curse?]
The first thing she brought up was about the curse.
From this, I could see that the woman’s goal was to cure ‘Meridian Severance,’ or to lift the ‘curse.’
‘Though it might not be.’
I had to approach it thinking that way for now.
If Yuri’s purpose was truly this, several questions arose.
First.
‘Why did a blood relative of the Ice Palace come personally?’
Even if it was said that treatment was possible.
For a blood relative of the outside martial world to come see me personally involved too many problems.
‘Couldn’t they have sent someone first to verify?’
Believing unverified information, a blood relative came in person?
Making such a difficult choice even in a safe situation, given the relationship between the Central Plains and the North Sea?
It was not easily believable.
Ah, of course, there was one thing that would make this possible.
Desperation.
The urgency of needing treatment immediately.
If that were the case, I could understand to some extent, but….
The second reason I harbored doubts was related to this.
‘She’s different.’
I didn’t feel that from Yuri.
Then let’s think of other reasons.
Did she say she wanted to sightsee in the Central Plains?
That she wanted to come so badly?
Recalling Yuri who had spoken thus, I laughed.
‘Like hell.’
To bear such risk for that reason alone?
If her head were full of flowers instead of brains, perhaps.
‘But she’s not.’
At first, I thought she might be.
But seeing her now, it was clear.
The Little Princess of the North Sea was no fool.
She was neither stupid nor innocent.
Now let’s organize this.
‘Even though she’s a blood relative, she came directly to the Central Plains to verify if someone could provide treatment.’
The problem here is that she can control this so-called curse herself.
‘In other words, it means the situation is not that urgent.’
It wasn’t urgent enough to be on the verge of death.
Yet it was significant enough for a blood relative to come personally.
This meant the cure was urgently needed.
‘But the one who needs to receive it is not her.’
It meant someone important enough for such a blood relative to move.
“So….”
Amidst the heightening atmosphere.
Yuri spoke while looking at me.
“You mean you dared speak of the Palace Lord for just that reason?”
Her glaring gaze was intense.
Her tone had changed drastically as well.
No.
Rather than changed….
“Is that your original tone?”
She had revealed her true self.
“…”
Yuri frowned upon hearing the question.
Seeing that, I smiled.
“Now that the mask is broken, you look much better.”
“…You.”
“I’ve been feeling sick inside. But now I feel a bit better.”
Was it a bit like kin aversion?
I certainly had that kind of feeling.
The more I spoke, the sharper Yuri’s gaze became.
“I still… haven’t heard an answer.”
“Are you telling me to talk now? Then I’ll lay my cards out too.”
“Why did you speak of the Palace Lord?”
The reason was too flimsy to speak of him.
That’s how it seemed to Yuri.
And that’s how I thought too.
Those two reasons alone were far too lacking in information to judge the Ice Palace Lord’s condition.
Right.
‘If those were the only two, that would be the case.’
If those were the only reasons, I wouldn’t have been so certain.
I shifted my gaze.
Past Yuri, Ubeom was glaring this way. It was directed at the one beside him.
I pointed at him with my finger.
The suddenly singled-out figure flinched.
“That person is the third reason.”
“What?”
Yuri expressed doubt at the sudden accusation.
Yuri had two guards.
Ubeom was making such a fuss that attention didn’t easily fall on him, but there was one more.
A build that looked far smaller and thinner compared to the large Ubeom.
He was exactly the third reason.
“This is absurd, what reason would you find in a guard—”
“Infiltration, escape. I’m not sure about assassination, but anyway, he’s a martial artist of that type, right?”
The man reacted particularly strongly to my words.
His build was like that.
A martial artist’s physique changes according to the martial arts learned from childhood.
Swordsmen have a relatively balanced, light build.
The reason assassins have small, thin builds is the same.
And it was for the same reason that martial combat types who train external arts are generally bulky.
Though there are cases like mine where one doesn’t grow due to congenital issues.
‘But that’s just my own peculiarity, so moving on.’
Even someone like me possessed the traits of a martial combat type.
Ah, though maybe not now, since I just shed my shell.
Anyway.
The build’s characteristics and the faint presence I sensed were the evidence.
He was a martial artist specialized in stealth and infiltration.
When I mentioned this after grasping it.
“Ha.”
Yuri let out a short scoff.
It was slightly mocking.
“What’s the problem with that?”
Right.
It wasn’t a big problem.
What did it matter if a guard was a martial combat type or whatever?
He only needs to fulfill his role as a guard.
Moreover.
‘Since they’re coming to the outside martial world, anything could happen.’
It was an unpredictable situation.
It would be natural to place him to protect a blood relative in such a situation.
As a means to safely escape if need be.
However.
“But then why is he suffering from internal injuries?”
“…!”
Yuri’s eyes widened at the blunt remark.
She looked at me with eyes wide as lanterns.
Yes, he was suffering from internal injuries.
He seemed quite injured; I could sense his breathing was subtly disturbed.
People who usually practice stealth are mostly trained to endure torture.
They should have higher pain tolerance than ordinary people.
For such a person to be struggling that much.
‘It means he’s quite severely injured.’
It wouldn’t be wrong to say his insides are practically shattered.
At Yuri’s flustered expression, I continued.
“Internal injuries are common enough.”
It’s common for guards to get hurt protecting their charge.
That in itself is nothing strange.
One might even say he had fulfilled his role as a guard.
“But if that’s the case, he shouldn’t have come here, should he?”
That was the problem right now.
I shifted my gaze to look at Murong Xiya.
“Were there any battles on the way here?”
“…Not that I recall.”
“Then there weren’t any.”
I didn’t know how far Murong Xiya had gone to escort Yuri. However, if there had been no battles since meeting her, it meant this was from long before.
Even if there had been a battle in the Central Plains.
“They should have turned back.”
They should have immediately headed back to the North Sea.
There are people targeting you in the Central Plains where no one knows you.
If they were just ordinary thugs, perhaps.
I narrowed my eyes at the man.
‘That guard is at the Transcendent Realm level.’
The man suffering from internal injuries was far stronger than the one called Ubeom.
He was quite strong to be a mere guard.
Well, as a blood relative of a ruler, they might have assigned a strong martial artist.
Leaving that aside.
‘Something that could injure someone like that. And in the Central Plains?’
Realizing this, unless they were fools, they would have tried to return to the North Sea. But they didn’t.
That meant.
‘These internal injuries weren’t sustained here.’
The probability was high.
Then where?
If not here, it was obvious.
“You mean he was injured in the North Sea, not the Central Plains….”
They wouldn’t have brought an injured person along as a guard to begin with.
This meant something major had happened in the North Sea.
“That you still came to the Central Plains even after suffering that.”
“…”
“Treatment is that urgent. Or.”
I turned my head to look at Yuri.
“You needed to take refuge.”
“…”
Perhaps it was a situation where she had to flee to the Central Plains.
*Clack.*
Yuri clenched her fist at my words.
I didn’t miss that.
“Even though something big happened on the way from the North Sea here, you didn’t give up the schedule. Right?”
“That’s….”
“Something big enough to happen to the daughter of the Ice Palace Lord. At first, I wondered if you had fallen out of your father’s favor.”
That was also one of my predictions.
I had dismissed it because another possibility seemed more likely.
“Or, since you seem to have many siblings, you might be killing each other over competing interests.”
Just as there is much infighting over the position of family head in prestigious clans.
I didn’t think the North Sea would be any different.
“If not that, something else might be targeting your side.”
Not another blood relative, but an outside force could have done so.
But what’s important now is this.
“That in such a situation, you came to the Central Plains.”
In the end, this was it.
“Moreover, that you came seeking a cure for the curse.”
The fact that you came here asking for the curse to be cured even in such a situation.
It’s correct to see this as being for someone else, not yourself.
Now then, let’s organize.
A blood relative who couldn’t be protected.
Who came to foreign lands even after being attacked in her own territory.
The person you seek after all this is one who can cure a disease afflicting a blood relative.
Yet you yourself do not seem to be the one in need.
Then, what situation would need to occur for this woman’s position to become precarious?
There were two answers.
One.
“Either the Ice Palace Lord is trying to kill you.”
The second.
“Or conversely, a situation where the Ice Palace Lord cannot protect you.”
“…”
While I was pondering this.
Yuri had come to me seeking a cure.
There was only one method I could choose.
“…So that’s why you mentioned the Palace Lord.”
I brought up the Ice Palace Lord directly to gauge the reaction.
After saying this and seeing Yuri’s reaction, I could be certain.
“I was half certain from the beginning, so it was just for confirmation.”
There was a problem with the Ice Palace Lord’s body.
It was likely the curse Yuri spoke of.
And some force had intervened in that opening.
So Yuri came to hide herself, and at the same time.
“Hearing that I had cured Meridian Severance, you came to the Central Plains. Isn’t that right?”
That was the story I had anticipated.
After I roughly organized and told her, Yuri looked at me and fell silent for a moment.
And before long, she opened her mouth again.
“…It’s somewhat plausible, but couldn’t I have faked my reaction?”
The reaction shown upon hearing the Ice Palace Lord mentioned could have been false.
Hearing Yuri, I pointed at her finger.
“What?”
She checked where my finger was pointing. I was pointing at the ring she wore.
“That ring.”
Looking at it, I spoke.
“No matter how I look at it, it doesn’t seem like a common artifact.”
The thing making the room cold right now seemed to be that artifact.
Even.
‘That artifact had been concealing the man’s internal injuries.’
It clouded the surroundings with an inexplicable chill.
This was why I was late in grasping the man’s internal injuries.
The ring she had likely used to flee just moments ago was probably that ring as well.
“It’s something you received separately to come here. The one who gave it was probably the Ice Palace Lord.”
“How can you be certain of that?”
“Instinct.”
“What?”
Honestly, this was purely instinct.
It just felt that way.
‘Such an artifact might be common in the North Sea.’
But it didn’t seem that way.
If it were something she had from the beginning, that would be different.
‘It just feels that way.’
I thought the only one who could give out an artifact of that level was the Ice Palace Lord.
Though I don’t know exactly what power the artifact holds.
“…”
Having heard until the last word, Yuri looked at me with a dumbfounded expression.
She seemed at a loss, having laid out the explanation so diligently only for me to end with ‘instinct.’
But what can you do.
It really is just instinct.
Silence hovered for a while.
No one spoke.
I simply stared quietly at Yuri.
And so, a brief moment passed.
“Sigh….”
A sigh heavy with exhaustion came from Yuri’s lips.
“…The White Fox’s words were way off.”
She spoke, brushing her forehead as if exhausted.
“She said you were like a cute puppy. You’re nothing less than a vicious venomous snake.”
“…?”
At those words, I had to frown deeply.
What puppy…?