North Sea Martial Arts Warrior - Chapter 18

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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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18. The Closed Door

“Aaaahhh!”
The scream shattered against the ten-thousand-year-old ice wall, shattering into fragments.
Seven Ice Pillars, each three paces high, stood in the courtyard before Ice Heart Hall.
Atop them… Karani’s subordinates were bound like beasts, their bodies trembling in the night wind.
Each time the iron chains bit into their flesh twisted, a grotesque metallic shriek rang out. The frozen skin cracked and split, dark red blood seeping through.
“Uuuaaaahhh…!”
“Mercy, Palace Master…!”
Desperate pleas erupted from atop the ice pillars.
But Mukara did not move. She gazed up at the sight with an indifferent eye.
“State the charges.”
“Yes, Palace Master.”
Hyeongdangjoo stepped forward.
A scroll hung from his hand.
“These men are accused of disclosing the secrets of the Ice Palace and leaking information to spies of the Central Plains….”
“Enough.”
Mukara raised her hand, cutting him short.
“I need not hear more.”
“But, but Palace Master. We must establish the evidence….”
“Evidence?”
Mukara’s mouth twisted, her gaze turning eerily luminous.
She spoke softly and swiftly, barely audible to those beside her.
“That they served Karani—that is their crime. What other evidence do you need?”
…….
Hyeongdangjoo fell silent.
He could not refute. No—to refute would be to find himself hanging from one of those ice pillars.
“So many rats have soiled the palace.”
Mukara murmured softly. Her voice was colder than the howling winds of the Northern Sea.
“Palace Master! I know nothing! Please…!”
“Silence.”
Mukara made a gesture.
A guard climbed onto the ice pillar and gagged the prisoner’s mouth. The screaming transformed into stifled moans.
“Do the same for the rest. Gag them all.”
“We obey.”
The guards moved as one.
The prisoners atop the ice pillars thrashed, but shackled as they were, they could not even struggle.
“…How long should we keep them suspended?”
“Until I command it. Before then—do not take them down, even if they stop breathing.”
Hyeongdangjoo bowed his head.
“We obey.”
Mukara turned away.
Behind her, fresh moans of anguish erupted. Yet she did not pause.
Her hands trembled as she walked into the darkness of Ice Heart Hall.
The meridians near her heart twisted and constricted. The deeper her obsession with power grew, the more that fear—that Airak might return—became a poison that flowed through her veins.
‘I must erase all trace of Karani. Completely.’
She hid her shaking hands deep within her sleeves and gritted her teeth.
‘Only then do I survive. Before Airak comes….’
Mukara entered her sleeping chambers and stood before the mirror.
A pallid face stared back. Shadows lay thick beneath her eyes.
“It must be eternal.”
She murmured to herself.
“This throne… it must be eternal.”
The fortress wall built from terror was the only refuge she could lean upon.

* * *

The blizzard came howling in, flaying skin from bone.
Airak stopped at the entrance to Selli Village.
“This is Selli Village, Chieftain.”
Taikan pointed ahead.
“The last time I came, you could see the tavern lights glowing from far away….”
“Now there’s nothing.”
Harkhu tilted his head, puzzled.
“Have they put out the fires and gone to sleep?”
“At this hour?”
Arko muttered uncertainly.
“This is when outsiders flood in after nightfall. Why aren’t they doing business?”
“Something’s wrong.”
Garkan sniffed the air.
“No smoke smell. The hearths aren’t even lit.”
The entire village lay silent as a vast tomb. Only wind swept through the empty streets.
When the group stepped before the tavern door, a sharp metallic screech pierced their ears from within—someone frantically barring it shut.
“You hear that?”
Harkhu’s eyes narrowed.
“That’s the sound of a bar going down. They’re locking us out the moment they see us.”
Snuff.
Even the faint candlelight seeping through the tavern’s latticed window vanished.
“Chieftain, something is wrong here.”
Garkan, massive-framed, gripped the Ice Iron Chain and stepped forward, frost settling across his unkempt beard.
“What’s the problem?”
“The candle went out. They’re hiding from us.”
“Open the door!”
Garkan pounded on it, shouting.
“Chieftain Airak has arrived! A Northern Sea Warrior has graced you with his presence!”
But there was no answer.
Garkan threw his shoulder against the wood with force, yet the door would not budge—blocked from within by some heavy beam.
“Open up, damn it! We’re guests, and this is how you treat us?”
……
Terrified eyes flashed between the lattice gaps, then disappeared.
The tavern keeper and the villagers alike maintained a silence as absolute as death itself.
“This is strange.”
Taikan furrowed his brow.
“Chieftain Airak should be welcomed anywhere in the Northern Sea….”
“There’s something here.”
Arko muttered darkly.
“Did you see their eyes? That wasn’t fear of us. They’re terrified of something else entirely.”
“Should we force it?”
Garkan asked, gauging Airak’s mood.
“Breaking down a door is nothing.”
Airak did not answer.
A night in the Northern Sea is lethal. To turn away a traveler from your door is the same as condemning him to freeze. Not because they are of the Airak Tribe, but because anyone would deserve shelter. The law of the north knows no exception.
Garkan’s fury stemmed from this violation.
Airak turned and walked away from the village. The harsh wind whipped at his weathered Grey Wolf Fur.
“Let them be. They’ve done nothing worthy of judgment.”
When Airak finally spoke, the air seemed to freeze.
“Why, Chieftain? Such rudeness should not go unmet….”
“Silence, at times, cuts sharper than any blade.”
Airak spoke as he swept away accumulated snow in a rough motion, standing apart from the village yet where it remained clearly visible.
“What they fear is not us. It is something that will come after us.”
“Something that will come after us?”
“Yes. They know something.”
Airak lowered himself into a cross-legged seat. A pale hand rested upon the blood-red hilt of the Wangok Blade.
“Waiting will reveal all.”
Garkan and Arko, Taikan and Harkhu likewise settled silently in a circle around him. One hundred winters, a cold that kills—yet the Airak Tribe endures within it.
“We’re spending the night here, then, Chieftain?”
Harkhu asked.
“Are you complaining?”
“No. Just asking.”
“If you’re cold, move. It’s good for your circulation.”
“…Yes.”
All night, only the wind’s mournful wail cut through Selli Village. Beyond the tightly shut door, the killing intent in those watching eyes needled Airak’s spine like countless pins.

* * *

At that same moment, an eerie quiet hung over a secluded manor in the Central Plains.
“Father….”
Cheok Harin’s eyes opened.
After taking the Northern Sea Snow Lotus Pill, she had fallen into a deep sleep for the first time and now awakened. The faint blue pallor that had always marked her complexion began, at last, to warm with color.
“Harin.”
Cheok Unhwi approached the head of his daughter’s bed.
Relief flickered across his eyes.
“You’re awake. How do you feel?”
“Good. Much better, actually. That medicine… it’s truly remarkable.”
“I’m glad.”
Cheok Unhwi brushed back his daughter’s hair.
“Father, where did you get that medicine?”
……
“It must have been difficult to obtain.”
“Don’t worry. Your father took care of it.”
“But…”
“Harin.”
Cheok Unhwi’s voice turned firm.
“Your being alive is what matters. That’s all. Don’t concern yourself with anything else.”
Cheok Harin fell silent. Tears gathered in her eyes.
“Thank you, Father. You suffered so much because of me, didn’t you?”
“Suffered nothing. What matters is that you recover.”
……
“Rest now. You’re not fully recovered yet.”
Cheok Harin closed her eyes again.
Cheok Unhwi confirmed his daughter had fallen asleep, then stepped out of the room. A cold wind brushed against his face.
‘That child doesn’t know. Where the medicine came from. What price was paid for it.’
He clenched his teeth.
‘She never needs to know. Never.’
“Lord of the Manor.”
The Chief Steward approached.
“What is it?”
“A messenger pigeon has arrived from the Northern Sea scouts. There are reports of unusual movements from the Ice Palace.”
“Unusual movements?”
“Word of a purge. The new Palace Master is executing the previous Palace Master’s closest associates.”
Cheok Unhwi’s eyes flickered.
“A new Palace Master…”
“Perhaps we could redirect their attention that way…”
“No. A wolf that has tasted blood won’t change its course.”
“Lord?”
“They haven’t set foot in the Central Plains yet. We watch. For now, we watch and wait.”
“Understood.”

The Chief Steward withdrew.
Cheok Unhwi remained alone, gazing northward at the sky.
“I’d thought it wouldn’t end with the Ice Palace Master’s blood… but what will come of the enmity of the Northern Sea?”
He muttered as if speaking only to himself.
The sensation from that day when he’d cut down Karani lingered intact in his fingertips.
‘The Ice Palace Master… she laughed. As she died.’
A master’s instinct warned him: this calm was merely a breath before a far greater storm descended.

* * *

In the gray light before dawn, a sound shattered the silence of Selli Village.
“Tribe leader.”
Taikan’s voice was low.
“Do you hear it?”
“I do.”
Airak opened his eyes slowly.
A rhythmic creaking echoed from the edge of the village in the distance.
It was the sound of a cart’s wheels grinding across frozen earth with a piercing wail, drawing ever closer.
“Cart wheels.”
Harkhu’s grip tightened on the hilt of his sword.
“Who comes in the dead of dawn like this?”
“That sound is the answer, isn’t it?”
Arko laughed, low and grim.
“What the villagers have been dreading.”
The cart’s approach grew louder. Inside the tavern, the villagers’ breathing turned ragged. Someone let out a small cry, and another hastily stifled it.
“Look at their reaction.”
Garkan murmured.
“They’re terrified. Whoever rides in that cart…”
“We’ll know soon enough.”
Airak rose from his seat. A cold glint flickered in his gray eyes.
The cart came to a halt at the village entrance.
Then footsteps crunched across the snow. Not one set—many footsteps advanced toward the village square.
Airak’s hand rested on the hilt of the Wangok Blade.
His men seized their weapons in unison.
The source of this silence was about to reveal itself at last.

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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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