Chapter 5

“I’ve actually witnessed the martial arts of the Northern Sea Ice Palace. This is the greatest honor of my life!”

The middle-aged man who had recognized the title “Six Tiger Swords” breathed excitedly.

“The Ice Palace? Really? That isolated place…? I’ve traveled around the Central Plains since I was young, but this is the first time I’ve ever met someone from the Northern Sea!”

Ironically, the leader who had questioned me turned pale at the mention of the Northern Sea Ice Palace and fled.

Meanwhile, the ordinary townspeople approached me enthusiastically.

“You know about the Ice Palace?”

“Of course! Isn’t it that mysterious sect built entirely from ice, a thousand days north of here?”

I received a completely unexpected answer.

A thousand days?

Almost three years?

No, it wasn’t nearly that far.

And there was no ice castle.

Seriously, how could that make any sense?

Even the Northern Sea’s snow melted during summer.

Bingyue Lake only froze around November.

“The Northern Pole Star Emperor became famous for beheading the Blood-Bearded Demon Emperor during the last Demonic Cult invasion! I never imagined I’d meet the precious daughter of the Ice Palace Lord in person!”

“Oh.”

At least that part was correct.

Their information about the Ice Palace contained many mistakes.

But some people knew Father’s title, and everyone seemed surprisingly friendly.

Perhaps they were simply people who loved martial world gossip.

“That beautiful young lady defeated the Six Tiger Swords?”

“How did she do it?”

“She just touched him like this…”

“I’ve heard that anything touched by an Ice Palace martial artist freezes solid. She must have used something like that.”

Haha.

I knew similar martial arts.

But I wasn’t a magician.

“Huh!”

Even people who didn’t openly chatter like the middle-aged man wandered around the inn, trying to catch a glimpse of me.

This was the northern part of the Central Plains, and probably a town where Ice Palace members occasionally passed through.

Apparently Father and the others had never bothered revealing who they were.

“H-Hero…”

The man who had cleaned the floor stood nervously, twisting his fingers.

His whole body trembled as he searched for somewhere to look.

“Hmm.”

I crouched down and ran my finger across the floor to check how well he had cleaned it.

“Eeeeeek!”

“I wasn’t planning to scold you over a little dust.”

The man screamed loudly enough to shake the entire inn.

“I think he thought you were about to use that martial art again.”

One of the curious onlookers whispered.

Come to think of it…

That was probably true.

“That’s good enough. Come here.”

“H-Huff… ugh…”

Even though I was trying to show mercy, the poor man had apparently lost the ability to speak.

Still, his survival instincts remained.

He practically crawled over to me.

As promised, I removed the cold yin energy from his body and allowed him to return home.

“Here. This is for the broken table.”

“Oh my! Thank you!”

When I handed the money to the innkeeper, he bowed deeply.

Using the money I had collected from the martial artists, I paid for the damage and gave him an entire money pouch to cover everyone’s meals that had been interrupted.

“Oh, right. You never got to finish your meal either, did you?”

The disturbance had finally ended.

As I turned to return upstairs, I noticed the bruised boy.

Pushed aside by the crowd gathering around me, he still stood there awkwardly, tightly hugging his bundle.

“Please bring one more bowl of noodles for this child.”

Poor thing.

He must have been terrified.

I ordered food for him and invited him to our table.

He had been staring blankly at me, but quickly came to his senses and hurried after me.

“Ah! Thank you… thank you so much!”

I hoped he wasn’t still suffering from the beating.

The boy bowed repeatedly in gratitude.

“I’d been running away for three days. I thought I’d definitely be beaten to death when they caught me.”

“They weren’t much to worry about.”

I shrugged casually and invited him to sit comfortably.

Commander Baek-ung looked intimidating, but people from the Northern Sea were generally kind to children.

He even placed the chopsticks in front of the boy himself.

“This child is…”

“Ah, my name is So-un.”

I had already heard his name from the Six Tiger Swords, but this time the boy introduced himself properly.

His name was So-un.

His mother had died giving birth to him.

His father had been a servant working for the Yu Family Manor.

Although his father loved him and worked honestly, he had died several years ago while running an errand for the Manor Lord.

Fortunately, the Yu Family Manor hadn’t thrown So-un out.

He continued serving as the First Young Master’s attendant.

Then, last year, he happened to meet a martial arts master called Neunggwang Sword.

That changed everything.

“He told me I had talent and gave me a token. But the Manor Lord recognized it and took it away.”

“What? That old miser actually stole from a child? How miserable you must have been.”

Seriously.

What kind of people were they?

They stole from a child.

Then they talked about justice after beating him for stealing it back.

“Maybe I should’ve hit them a little more.”

“N-No! It’s really alright!”

When I muttered that perhaps I had solved things too peacefully, So-un frantically waved his hands.

“Young Lady, shall we wipe out the entire Yu Family Manor?”

Commander Baek-ung calmly took things even further.

“Are we the Demonic Cult or something?”

Just look at So-un’s face.

He looked horrified.

He really needed to stop making jokes like that.

The Northern Sea Ice Palace already had enough strange rumors surrounding it.

People from outside wouldn’t realize he was joking.

“Haha.”

“We need to reach Luoyang. We don’t have time for that.”

“Since you ride so well, Young Lady, we actually have plenty of time.”

Even so.

This hadn’t happened in our own territory.

It was just an incident we happened to encounter during our journey.

There was no reason to go that far.

I reassured So-un that Commander Baek-ung had only been joking.

“Tsk. I finally get the chance to escort you, yet our opponents were far too weak for me to properly witness your abilities.”

The Ice Palace members were all much stronger than I was.

Yet they constantly praised me like this.

I told him to stop saying such strange things.

But Commander Baek-ung still looked genuinely disappointed.

“I wish someone stronger had shown up… Well, since things turned out this way, why don’t you travel with us to the Heavenly Martial Academy? I’m Han Yang-hwi, commander of the White Bear Unit of the Northern Sea Ice Palace.”

At last he stopped talking nonsense and introduced himself.

“Huh?”

“Hm?”

But something strange about what he had just said caught my attention.

“So-un, you’re going to the Heavenly Martial Academy too?”

I had heard him mention an academy earlier.

But there was more than one academy in the vast Central Plains.

I had naturally assumed he meant somewhere else.

“Young Lady… are you going to the Heavenly Martial Academy too?”

Wait.

Really?

Commander Baek-ung looked even more surprised than I was.

“So-un mentioned Neunggwang Sword earlier, didn’t he? That’s Kwak Do-cheon, one of the Five Swords of Jeomchang and an instructor at the Heavenly Martial Academy.”

How was I supposed to know that?

I hadn’t even entered the academy yet.

How could I possibly know the professors’ names?

Commander Baek-ung pointed toward So-un’s bundle.

“The token Neunggwang Sword gave you… that’s an admission token for the Heavenly Martial Academy, isn’t it?”

“…Yes.”

After hesitating for a moment, So-un nodded.

Now everything made sense.

The stolen item really had been an admission token.

Every year, the Heavenly Martial Academy accepted many students through recommendations from major sects and instructors.

Anyone carrying one of those tokens could skip the entrance examination entirely.

I had the same kind of token Father had given me.

Wait.

More importantly…

“I thought you had to be at least fifteen years old to enter the academy.”

The academy wasn’t a daycare.

Naturally, there was a minimum age requirement.

That was why Father had waited until this year before bringing it up.

Wouldn’t So-un be too young?

So-un blinked awkwardly before smiling.

“Um… I’m sixteen.”

What?

***

What had Neunggwang Sword seen in So-un?

Even considering that children from the Northern Sea tended to grow bigger, So-un was shorter than average.

He wasn’t particularly well built either.

When I first met him, I had honestly thought he was only thirteen or fourteen.

“N-No… I couldn’t possibly speak casually to you, Young Lady…”

“At least stop calling me ‘Young Lady.'”

His personality wasn’t especially bold or confident either.

He even refused when I told him we would soon be classmates and that he could speak casually.

“You’re a better rider than I expected.”

“Ah… really? I don’t know. I just sit still.”

Still, his physical abilities weren’t bad.

Even though he claimed it was his first time riding a horse, he balanced himself well.

He managed to keep up despite riding for nearly ten hours every day.

“Acorn noodles!”

However, So-un’s true talent lay elsewhere.

“What? Why is this so delicious?”

“I’ve never tasted anything like this either.”

He had somehow turned ordinary acorns gathered from the mountains into an incredible meal.

“Hehe. Sometimes I couldn’t get enough food at the Yu Family Manor, so I became pretty confident in my cooking.”

They actually let a child go hungry?

Well…

He was older than me.

Still.

Had he failed to grow properly because he hadn’t eaten enough?

“That’s…”

Hearing his story made me wonder if I should have at least gone back to scold the Yu Family Manor.

“I’m glad you like it, Young Lady. If I get the chance at the academy, I’ll cook for you again.”

The food really…

Really was delicious.

Honestly, if someone told me Neunggwang Sword had recruited So-un as a personal cook after tasting his cooking, I would have believed it.

I thanked him sincerely.

A few days later…

“Those lights must be Luoyang.”

After crossing almost the entire Central Plains in one journey, Commander Baek-ung looked strangely disappointed.

He had apparently hoped the Yu Family Manor’s martial artists would chase after So-un and attack us.

But were they really that foolish?

Not once had they appeared after we left the town.

In any case, we finally arrived safely in Luoyang.

As we traveled farther south, the roads became smoother and villages appeared more frequently.

Even so, the journey had not been easy.

I had confidently promised everyone back at the Ice Palace that I’d visit during vacations.

But at this rate, simply traveling there and back might take up the whole break.

I had heard the Northern Sea was far from the Central Plains.

Actually making the trip made me realize just how far it really was.

“My name is Seol Su-ryeo. I’ve been recommended by Seol Baek-young, Lord of the Northern Sea Ice Palace.”

The Heavenly Martial Academy stood south of Luoyang, slightly outside the city itself.

The students’ living quarters were hidden behind walls and inner gates.

Even so, the two enormous halls and the long training grounds visible from outside were incredibly impressive.

I approached the white hall where new arrivals were being received and presented my token.

“The Northern Sea Ice Palace?”

The man sitting behind the desk calmly flipped through his list.

Then he looked up at my face and froze.

He didn’t seem to be an instructor.

Perhaps an older student?

Or an assistant?

“You’re the daughter of the Northern Pole Star Emperor?”

“Yes.”

“My goodness!”

Father had clearly informed the academy beforehand.

Still, it seemed even the assistants hadn’t heard about it.

He blinked repeatedly in shock.

Then he hurriedly searched through the documents until he found my name.

“My goodness! The Northern Sea Ice Palace actually sent a student! Welcome!”

Apparently my name had been recorded.

But Father’s name hadn’t been written on the recommendation list.

Even though Father had increased his contact with the Martial Alliance, someone at this level still found it astonishing.

The assistant asked me many curious questions.

“The entrance ceremony will be held here on the first day of the third month!”

After answering his questions politely, I stepped aside for So-un.

“Um… Neunggwang Sword gave me this token. My name is So-un…”

“Hm?”

Unlike me, whose name had already been recorded…

No one seemed to know anything about So-un.

“Hmm… ah! You’ll need to wait at Black Rock Hall.”

After checking the list for a while, the assistant pointed toward a black-tiled building.

He explained that So-un’s identity would need to be confirmed personally.

Would one of the instructors come verify everything?

If the First Young Master of the Yu Family Manor had shown up with the token instead, he probably would have been humiliated.

“Will it take long?”

“Probably. We have to investigate, and I’m not even sure whether he’s currently in Luoyang.”

What?

If the instructor wasn’t even in Luoyang…

Would So-un have to keep waiting until he returned?

He would certainly arrive before the entrance ceremony.

Still, it didn’t sound like something that would be finished in just an hour or two.

“So-un, you have enough money, right?”

“Y-Yes. Of course.”

“If you’re delayed, I’ll see you at the entrance ceremony. We’ll be staying at the Hwangyeong Inn. Come find us if you need anything.”

So-un looked slightly flustered.

Still, he bowed respectfully.

“Yes! Thank you so much! Thank you for traveling with me!”

There wasn’t much point in waiting with him.

After telling him where we would be staying, Commander Baek-ung and I left the academy.

“It looks like they’re holding the entrance examination.”

On the way out, Commander Baek-ung pointed toward the training grounds.

We had arrived early, so the entrance exams were still underway.

Recommendation tokens really are convenient.

There were so many applicants.

If I had taken the regular examination instead, would I have passed?

Commander Baek-ung said most of the examinees weren’t particularly impressive.

Still, they had gathered from all across the Central Plains.

Hmm.

The talented heirs Father had mentioned, like those from the Namgung Clan and the Beast Palace, would probably also enter through recommendation.

Coming from great families with fierce internal competition…

I suddenly wondered how I would measure up against them.

Well, all I can do is work hard.

I quietly observed the future rivals I’d be competing against for spiritual medicines before leaving the academy.

I had heard students couldn’t leave freely after enrollment.

So I intended to enjoy as much delicious food as possible beforehand.

We checked into the Hwangyeong Inn, where we’d stay until the entrance ceremony.

Then we sat in a quiet corner on the first floor and ordered a fish dish.

“It will take a little while. Is that alright?”

“Of course.”

I smiled and nodded to the waiter before looking around.

Because both the Martial Alliance branch and the Heavenly Martial Academy were located here, Luoyang had more martial artists than any place I had visited before.

Even so, no one was fighting.

The city felt surprisingly orderly.

“Young Lady, one of the stirrups is damaged. I’ll stop by the blacksmith for a moment.”

Apparently the headmaster of the Heavenly Martial Academy, Venerable Seongak, hated martial artists causing trouble for ordinary people.

Commander Baek-ung, who hadn’t left my side once during the journey despite insisting there was no danger, finally relaxed after reaching Luoyang.

I stayed at the inn, quietly observing the martial artists around me and trying to judge their strength while waiting for the food.

“Um… Miss.”

“Hm?”

Less than fifteen minutes later…

The waiter returned empty-handed, trembling nervously.

“What? Are you out of ingredients? That’s alright. I’ll order something else.”

“No… it’s just… someone is looking for you…”