Surviving as the Terminally Ill Young Lady of the North Sea Ice Palace - Chapter 13

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

Chapter 13
Click.
Click.
Click.
I tried to push the door open.
But unlike the bookcase that had yielded so easily, the iron door didn’t budge an inch.
‘What?’
I’d thought I’d found the secret chamber so quickly.
It seemed the antidote wouldn’t be handed over so readily.
‘Stay calm. Think this through.’
I examined my surroundings slowly.
Circling the library once—its walls lined with books—I turned my attention back to the door.
The bookcase no longer moved.
And the door…….
‘Ah.’
There was no need to overthink it. A hole was visible in the metal.
It looked to be almost exactly the same diameter as the spear that had come flying the moment I’d entered Long Spear Hall.
Now that I thought about it, that spear had been unusually large.
Was this a mechanism where you inserted the spear to open the door?
There was no harm in testing the theory.
I’d left the spear I’d caught initially lying on the floor, so I stepped back into the Corridor to retrieve it.
Just in case it didn’t fit, I picked up several other spears scattered about as well.
“Goodness, don’t rush back like that!”
Since I’d already sprung the traps in the Corridor earlier, I moved lightly—
—and Myeong-seong, who was emerging from another chamber near the entrance, let out a startled cry.
“Why are you taking those?”
“I think I might need them.”
“Have you found a clue?”
“Yes. I found a door that looks suspicious.”
I disclosed the truth to them both without reservation.
“Remarkable!”
Namgung Min wore a displeased expression, but he dutifully helped gather the spears as well.
The two men remained cautious with each step through the Corridor.
Yet only one new spear shot out.
“This door certainly looks as if it guards some momentous secret!”
Myeong-seong spoke with keen interest, and Namgung Min nodded slightly in agreement.
I inserted the spear I’d brought into the hole.
Click.
My guess had been right.
The spear fit into the opening like a perfect key.
When I applied pressure, the door swung open with ease.
“Oh!”
The Hidden Chamber resembled a space where some master had undergone years of Closed-Door Training.
Hundreds of long spears were densely embedded in the walls on both sides.
But what caught the eye even more were the numerous deep, intricate spear marks scattered across every surface—walls, floor, and ceiling alike.
And in front of us hung a red pouch.
It was identical in form to the one Peng Zhong-geol had shown us briefly.
“So they didn’t hide the antidote anywhere too eccentric.”
“Thanks to you, Seol So-jeo, we’ve found the antidote quickly!”
“……I’m glad.”
Myeong-seong smiled brightly, while Namgung Min spoke with evident displeasure written across his face.
Well, however we looked at it, we’d found what we came for.
We stepped into the chamber to retrieve the pouch.
Boom! Boom! Boom! Boom! Boom!
The walls responded at once.
How many seconds had passed?
Before long, the spears that I’d thought were merely decorative……
Or rather, the ones I’d actually been somewhat cautious about all along—came flying toward us.
“……!”
“Dodge!”
I quickly pushed Namgung Min and Myeong-seong back into the Library.
The three of us tumbled backward as the door swung shut.
“Ugh…….”
At least the iron door was thick enough to be a mercy.
Even spears honed to razor edges couldn’t pierce it.
No one was hurt.
But the mechanisms inside this Hidden Chamber were in a league of their own compared to those in the Corridor.
“Sorry for shoving you like that. Are you alright?”
“Ugh…… No, thank you.”
Namgung Min, Myeong-seong, and I dusted ourselves off and stood.
Though we’d been shoved without warning, no one blamed me — we’d dodged the spears because of it.
“You saw the Antidote Pill, right?”
“……Yes.”
“Do you think we can get it?”
No one spoke.
At just one step toward the Antidote Pill, dozens of spears had shot forth.
And that was only the first row of mechanisms firing.
To reach the Antidote Pill itself, we’d have to face hundreds of spears without exaggeration.
“What if we opened and closed the door like we just did, triggering them all at once?”
Namgung Min suggested it, but Myeong-seong and I shook our heads.
Namgung Min hadn’t seen it while being shoved back, it seemed.
The moment the iron door shut, other spears filled its place.
“They were sharp, weren’t they?”
“……These were different from those.”
The spears in this room were honed far more keenly than those that shot from the Corridor.
They had the keenness and speed to pierce a body clean through.
Standing among them, you’d be shredded by dozens, hundreds of them.
“I don’t think this was made for us to pass through.”
Myeong-seong said so.
I agreed — that mechanism didn’t seem designed for novice Trainees like us at all.
Perhaps it was installed for some master of the Spear Technique to practice responding to hundreds of flying spears?
“Hmm…….”
But the Library itself was safe.
I leaned against the wall and ran through the scene I’d just witnessed over and over in my mind.
I’d trained through visualization many times without stimulating the Nine Yin Meridian Points.
My mental simulations were quite sharp.
“Perhaps we should leave and find another Antidote Pill before it’s too late.”
It was Myeong-seong himself who’d said he wouldn’t take a crooked path.
Yet now that circumstances had become like this, he opened his mouth cautiously.
“I’m not saying we’d steal from another Trainee — maybe we’d just happen to find one while searching…….”
After coming this far?
No, wait.
There is definitely an answer here.
And it would be a problem a fifteen-year-old could solve.
The pattern of spears shooting from the Corridor, the way to open the door — wasn’t it all simpler than it first seemed?
I continued to replay the scene I’d witnessed in my mind.
Could I deflect over a hundred spears?
That was absolutely impossible.
The Spear Technique Manual outside must contain martial techniques, or there must be some special method to handle them.
But there was no way to master it in a single day.
‘I don’t need to deflect them all.’
What about dodging?
Would there be gaps between hundreds of spears?
No — the moment the first spear struck the ground, it’d be over.
“Speed is what matters.”
“Right. Before another Trainee finds it…….”
I shook my head.
I wasn’t looking for the answer in another Antidote Pill.
A method had occurred to me.
“Run straight through, and pass before the spears shoot out.”
Long Spear Hall was designed with a Mechanical Trap System that responds to pressure from footsteps.
Inevitably, there was a delay between stepping and the device activating.
Each time, I’d either watched the movement or listened to the speed and dodged accordingly.
The number and sharpness of the spears varied, that was all.
The gap between the first step and the spears shooting out was the same in this chamber too.
“What? This is nothing like the spears that erupted one at a time in the corridor!”
“But if the spears had truly flown the moment we entered, we wouldn’t have been able to dodge backward like this.”
I felt certain we could do this.
“You’re going back in?”
Namgung Min looked equally alarmed.
But I inserted the spear once more to open the door.
“You two fall back to the corridor entirely.”
The spears wouldn’t reach beyond the iron door.
Still, I made the trainees pull back to be safe.
“Truly…….”
“It’s possible.”
I opened the door with conviction.
And without a moment’s hesitation, I bolted in a straight line toward the pouch.
I could run far enough.
I just had to keep running.
Clang-clang-clang!
The wall shuddered, and the mechanism sprang to life.
Spears shot down right behind me, and the next device activated as well, but.
I had no hesitation whatsoever.
‘Got it!’
Slash!
I snatched the pouch while pressing myself flat against the wall.
Then I drew my sword.
The first row of spears I’d observed didn’t point toward the walls.
But I couldn’t know what the devices behind them would do.
Shriek—! Whoooosh!
Hundreds of spears came crashing down with a chilling sound that cut the air.
Yet not a single one flew toward me.
“Without Inner Energy, she pulled that off……?”
“Seol So-jeo! Are you hurt?”
Told you it was possible.
I waved the Red Pouch at the worried trainees.
“Success!”
Now that I’d found the answer, it didn’t seem so difficult after all.
It wasn’t that I hadn’t been afraid.
But by observing the first row carefully instead of panicking, I could discern that there was a delay between the step and the response.
Myeong-seong has sharp eyes too—if he hadn’t been gripped by fear, he would have noticed it.
I wondered if this was some kind of test of courage.
Feeling quite pleased with myself, I opened the pouch.
……
The contents were not what I expected.
I wasn’t judging by appearance alone.
How should I know what an antidote to Mountain Poison looks like?
The problem was that there were only two Antidote Pills inside.
Three trainees sent through Long Spear Hall, and only two antidote pills.
So they wanted the trainees to fight each other over this too?
‘This is excessive, truly.’
Even if someone passed through Long Spear Hall, if they didn’t get an antidote pill, they’d either have to live without Inner Energy.
Or they’d have to steal one quickly from another trainee in a different group—that was the structure.
At this rate, the other locations marked on the Name Plates wouldn’t have antidote pills matching the number of trainees either, and ultimately the trainees would have to fight amongst themselves.
‘Right, Peng Zhong-geol also showed me the pouch earlier and said we had to fight to win…….’
Then suddenly, I remembered his exact words.
He hadn’t said the trainees had to fight each other.
He’d said if they fought him and won, he would give them the antidote.
And he’d actually held a Red Pouch in his hand.
‘Wasn’t the whole point to show me what it actually looks like?’
Only then did I realize there were three ways to obtain an antidote pill.
Get it from the location written on the name plate.
If you can’t get it there, fight the trainees and steal theirs.
Or challenge a martial arts instructor.
The other martial arts instructors besides Peng Zhong-geol were also wearing pouches at their waists.
……Perhaps whatever fell short of the total number could be obtained by challenging the martial arts instructors.
“Seol So-jeo! What’s wrong? Isn’t the antidote pill there?”
As I held the pouch in contemplation, Myeong-seong called out loudly.
Just as before, spears had been replenished, so if the two of them tried to approach, spears would shoot out again.
Even though I’d shown them the way and they understood that all they had to do was run quickly, actually charging in would still be frightening for them.
‘Hmm.’
First, though, came the matter of distribution.
I was the one who found the chamber. I was the one who passed through it in one go.
And I was the only one who saw that there were two antidote pills.
How to handle these pills was, naturally enough,
up to me.
I calculated what the martial arts instructors would have set as the correct answer.
Then, turning slightly away, I slipped one of the antidote pills into my sleeve.
“It’s not that there’s nothing… just one antidote pill, it seems?”
I spoke calmly.
Either way, both of these belong to me now.
Surviving as the Time-Limited Heiress of Beihai Frost Palace (Serialized)
Author │ Fragrant Deer
Publisher │ Kim Ju-hyeong
Published by │ J Plus Media Co., Ltd.
Marketing │ Han Jae-hyeok
Address │ 401, 11 Digital-ro 33-gil, Guro-gu, Seoul (Guro-dong, Ace Techno Tower 8)
Email │ [email protected]
Website │ www.jayplemedia.com
ⓒ Fragrant Deer 2026
※This work is published by J Plus Media Co., Ltd. in accordance with a contract with the copyright holder. The content may not be used in any form or by any means without permission from the company and author.
Violation of this may result in criminal and civil legal liability.

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