A Baby Cat Who Commands the Dog Clan - Chapter 224

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This chapter was translated by Lunox Novels. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
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Chapter 224
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It had been five days since I arrived at the Northern Ice Palace—or rather, since I was confined here.
I spent my time in the inner chamber of the Guest Hall doing nothing but amusing myself.
Actually, let me correct that—I wasn’t doing nothing.
I was busy building rapport with those sent to watch over me.
“Would you like to see this? It’s a book I brought from Anhui.”
“Your child has a fever? This medicinal herb is from the Central Plains. Brew it and have them drink it—it will work wonderfully!”
The warriors of the Snow Wind Squad, who had been wary on the first day, had their guard completely lowered after three or four days.
Clink.
I set down the teacup from my lips and smiled contentedly.
On the first day, I was shocked to receive plain hot water without even steeped tea leaves, but now I could enjoy a properly fragrant brew.
‘Nam Goong Mu Young once told me that to win people’s hearts, one must know how to loosen the purse strings.’
It was especially easy to grow close to Seol Eung, a girl of similar age.
“I switched my shift today to come here, my lady!”
Even now, I sat across from Seol Eung, conversing like sisters.
I touched her long, flowing silver hair with admiration.
“Wow, your hair is so beautiful.”
“Oh, someone like me from the countryside? Your hair is far more exquisite, my lady.”
“No, your silver hair is just as lovely as the young ladies from the martial arts families of Anhui.”
“Really?”
“Of course. It would be even nicer with more ornate accessories… Oh, I have an idea!”
I pulled a blue silk ribbon from my sleeve.
It was a hair tie I had been distributing to people since childhood.
“Let’s try this, Seol Eung.”
My smooth fingers parted her silver hair and wove it skillfully into a braid.
With her beautiful silver hair styled in the Central Plains fashion, Seol Eung looked truly radiant.
“The Northern Sea’s greatest beauty was right here all along!”
I clapped my hands together in delight.
Seol Eung’s face flushed with joy, but then she sighed deeply.
“But what good does it do? I’m the weakest martial artist in the Snow Wind Squad, so I’m always scolded by the commander.”
I swallowed hard.
‘Seol Eung is finally opening up to me about her troubles…!’
Truth be told, I had been curious about the circumstances of Seol Eung, who was called a “half-blood.”
I wanted to help if there was anything I could do.
I opened my eyes wide and asked back.
“Why is that? I heard all five clans of the Northern Ice Palace possess superior martial techniques.”
“That’s true, but… my meridians are apparently narrower than others.”
A martial artist would never reveal their weaknesses to just anyone.
Yet Seol Eung was chattering away to me about her body’s limitations.
‘That’s how much she trusts me.’
Hong Seol’s heart ached with a sharp, piercing pain.
The Northern Ice Palace’s most prominent martial families were the Bing, Seol, Han, Eom, and Baek Clans.
Among them, the Seol Clan—to which Seol Eung belonged—was the weakest.
When a clan was weak, a talented successor with exceptional martial prowess should emerge to become the clan’s pillar of strength.
Yet Seol Eung, the heir to the Seol Clan, had been born with a frail body as a martial artist.
“If only I could obtain a prestigious elixir like the other clans do, I wouldn’t burden everyone so constantly.”
Seol Eung’s shoulders sagged.
‘That’s right—if I want to make Seol Eung truly mine, I need to help her to this extent.’
After a moment’s deliberation, I withdrew a small wooden box, no larger than a pigeon’s egg, from my bosom.
“Please accept this, Miss Seol. It’s a Summoning Pellet.”
“Pardon?”
A Summoning Pellet.
It was one of Shaolin’s legendary elixirs, said to enhance inner cultivation.
I had brought it along—something Bing Yu Hua had collected while traveling through the Central Plains, kept in case it might someday prove useful.
“The Summoning Pellet is effective regardless of the nature of one’s inner cultivation, so it will certainly help you.”
“But Miss Hong! This is far too generous. How long have you even known me…!”
“Miss Seol opened her heart to me, didn’t she?”
“But…”
“Please accept it as a token of our friendship. Do you know how much joy these five days have brought me because of you?”
“Are you… truly certain?”
“Of course! I’m so eager to see you achieve even greater heights after taking the Summoning Pellet!”
Seol Eung’s hand unconsciously moved closer to the pellet, then hesitated and stopped.
She quickly pulled her hand back with her other hand and squeezed her eyes shut.
“I can’t, I mustn’t accept this! The Palace Master will scold me if she finds out!”
Hong Seol laughed brightly. A clever idea had just occurred to her.
“Well then, how about this instead?”
Thunk.
I, seated in my chair, suddenly dropped the wooden box containing the Summoning Pellet.
The small box, sliding gently across the floor, came to rest precisely beside Seol Eung’s leather shoe, exactly as I had intended.
I called out loudly enough for those outside to hear.
“Oh dear, this elixir is useless to me, so I’ll have to discard it. Miss Seol, could you help me clean it up instead?”
A knowing smile flickered across Seol Eung’s perceptive face.
“Of course, Miss Hong! I’ll help lighten the servants’ burden and put the item away for you.”
Seol Eung picked up the wooden box from the floor, carefully brushed away the dust, and tucked it into her bosom.
She rose and offered me a respectful martial salute.
Then, as if I had just remembered something, I spoke.
“By the way, there’s something I’d like to ask you, Miss Seol.”
Seol Eung nodded with solemn determination.
“Yes, please ask me anything!”
If Hong Seol wished it, Seol Eung seemed ready to divulge everything about the Northern Sea Ice Palace—save only their secret martial techniques.
Hong Seol cut straight to her most pressing question.
“Did the Snow Wind Squad Master perhaps harbor unrequited feelings for our Medicine Master in the past?”
In that instant, Hong Seol could have sworn she saw Seol Eung’s hair, pinned up on both sides, bristle with tension.
“Pardon?”
“…No? The atmosphere just felt strange.”
Seol Eung laughed with a dismissive wave of her hand.
“Not at all! That’s quite an absurd notion!”
For all her cleverness, Miss Miao was utterly hopeless when it came to matters of the heart.
Seol Eung’s expression as she laughed, wiping tears from the corners of her eyes, made that abundantly clear.
Hong Seol asked awkwardly.
“Then why did the Squad Master’s demeanor grow so cold? They seemed quite close before, when the Medicine Master was still here.”
“Well…”
“If it wasn’t unrequited love… then did something happen after the Medicine Master sealed their dantian and left the Ice Palace?”
Seol Eung’s gaze drifted upward as if searching her memory.
“Well, you see, according to what the Snow Wind Squad’s seniors told me… there was indeed a case of unrequited love.”
“I knew it!”
Hong Seol’s face brightened.
“Not toward Lady Bing Yu Hua! The Snow Wind Squad Master harbored unrequited feelings for Bing Xiao Yue, who was the Young Mistress at that time.”
Bing… Xiao Yue?
The name sounded familiar.
‘Could she be referring to that Young Mistress who cherished the Medicine Master?’
How intriguing.
Hong Seol leaned her body toward Seol Eung with growing interest.
“This is fascinating! Tell me more details.”
“Well, not long after Lady Bing Yu Hua departed from the Ice Palace, the Young Mistress…”
Seol Eung, who had been craning her neck to listen for sounds from outside, leaned close to Hong Seol and whispered.
“…left as well.”
“Hmm? What did you say?”
“She left the Northern Sea Ice Palace! The Young Mistress herself, no less—she said she’d found a man she loved!”
“She did?”
“And that wasn’t all. After her, three or four more people scaled the palace walls to be with their lovers. It caused the Palace Master no small amount of worry, I’m told.”
“Really?”
Hong Seol was utterly dumbfounded.
‘So… for a time, elopement became fashionable in the Northern Sea Ice Palace?’
The Northern Sea was an isolated realm.
Traditionally, martial artists within the palace married only among themselves.
‘Which is why all the martial artists here bear only the surnames Bing, Han, Seol, Eom, and Baek.’
Yet Bing Yu Hua had fallen completely for Nam Goong On, the Young Master of the Nam Goong Family Estate, and left the Northern Sea Ice Palace.
Inspired by that, the Young Mistress—Bing Yu Hua’s close elder sister, Bing Xiao Yue—had subsequently abandoned the Ice Palace as well.
None other than the unrequited love of the Snow Wind Squad Master herself.
“Wait, so that’s why everyone has been angry with the Medicine Master?”
Now it made sense.
Hong Seol murmured blankly.
“They had every right to be upset….”
“Exactly! Until then, no one in the Northern Ice Palace had even considered marrying a man from outside. Bing Yu Hua essentially set a trend.”
Seol Eung lowered her voice to a whisper.
“And you know what’s truly shocking? The Second Palace Master actually performed a midnight elopement. A midnight. Elopement!”
“Is that really true?”
“Yes! She saw Bing Yu Hua go first and realized that if she were honest and sealed her dantian, she’d be finished as a martial artist.”
Seol Eung raised her index finger and spoke cheerfully.
“So she secretly fled in the dead of night! Truly befitting the spirit of the Second Palace Master of the Northern Sea Ice Palace.”
Seol Eung, who had been speaking excitedly, faltered. Guilt suddenly seemed to wash over her.
“…Though the Palace Master suffered greatly afterward.”
Oh dear.
Hong Seol nodded with an expression caught between laughter and tears.
“If the Second Palace Master abandoned everything to follow him, he must have been quite an extraordinary man?”
At the very least, wouldn’t he have possessed features as refined as Baek Elder Brother’s?
“Hmm…. That’s the strange part.”
Seol Eung scratched her temple with her finger as she answered.
“Well, no one in the Northern Sea has ever seen the Second Palace Master in the company of a man.”
Yet the letter she left behind unmistakably stated she was departing to find a lifelong companion.
Hong Seol fell into contemplation.
‘Surely that companion isn’t a pet, is it?’
No.
Hong Seol shook her head, dismissing the frivolous thought.
In any case, the Northern Sea Ice Palace seemed to be a gathering place for hopeless romantics.
‘But the rift between the Northern Sea Ice Palace and the Medicine Master runs deeper than I expected.’
This was troublesome.
At this rate, I wouldn’t even be permitted to train before the Ten Thousand Year Ice Peak.
Even my proposal for the Central Plains to join hands against the Demonic Cult would be flatly rejected.
“Hmm….”
Then this was indeed the moment it was needed.
The tome carefully kept in my embrace—the Twelve Beast Martial Art.
The moment Hong Seol confirmed the solid texture of the tome with her fingertips.
Creak.
The Inner Chamber door swung open.
“Who goes there!”
Hong Seol cried out in displeasure.
It was a terribly rude way to greet a guest.
Given how much Hong Seol had won the hearts of the Northern Sea Ice Palace people in recent times, there was only one person capable of such an act.
Han Poong Geom, Master of the Snow Wind Squad.
The tragic man who harbored unrequited love for the Young Palace Mistress Bing Xiao Yue!
With eyes wide open like an axe blade, he revealed himself at last.
“The Palace Mistress who was away has returned. Outsiders must steel themselves accordingly!”

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This chapter was translated by Lunox Novels. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
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