Surviving as the Terminally Ill Young Lady of the North Sea Ice Palace - Chapter 23

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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 23
What could it be? Why was Eun Hyeon struggling so much to climb the mountain?
Of course, this wasn’t exactly a gentle slope.
But it was hardly a forbidding cliff—not for a martial artist with Inner Power, let alone a disciple of Hwasan, known for its treacherous terrain.
“Didn’t you find the Antidote?”
When I drew closer and asked, Eun Hyeon, who had been breathing heavily, lifted his head.
“You alright? Want some water?”
I offered my water canteen kindly enough.
But he regarded me with a look of strange wariness in his eyes.
At first I didn’t understand why.
But thinking about it, I’d been poisoned by the Mountain Poison after recklessly eating food from the Academy, just like everyone else.
“Nothing’s in it. I took it from the Dormitory, watched the others drink first, and drank some myself.”
I took a sip of water to show him, then offered the canteen to Eun Hyeon again.
“……Thank you.”
Only then did he accept it and gulp down the water eagerly.
I waited for Eun Hyeon to finish drinking and catch his breath before asking again.
“Was your team’s Antidote hidden in some kind of formation like the others?”
“No.”
“Hmm? So you didn’t find it?”
“Correct.”
He’d stood unmoved even when the Entrance Ceremony ended.
And this morning he’d charged into the Long Spear Hall without hesitation, so I’d naturally assumed he’d recovered his Inner Power.
“What happened? Can I ask what was in your team’s area?”
“There were no special mechanisms. Another student simply found it first.”
Wait, what?
So it was just hidden in the open space somewhere, like the Antidotes from the other teams that had been tucked high up or buried underground.
Hmm, if there had been a formation, we could’ve broken through first.
Just bad luck, then.
“Dammit, there was only one? We should’ve snatched it faster!”
Thinking that we’d missed the timing to steal it while searching, not knowing there was only one, I slapped my knee in frustration.
“Steal it?”
“Right. Our Martial Masters wouldn’t have put only one in there if they didn’t want us fighting and tearing into each other, would they?”
“……Is that what it was?”
But Eun Hyeon responded as if he’d never even considered such an approach until now.
The moment I’d realized that Namgung Min and I—and even Myeongseong from Hwasan—couldn’t reach the Antidote, we’d started scheming to plunder the other teams’ students.
Yet despite not looking particularly naive, he had that innocent streak about him.
‘Or is it? His face actually looks full of cunning, doesn’t it?’
Still youthful, but Eun Hyeon had sharp, well-defined features and was quite handsome.
And right now, worn out and with his clothes torn in places, he gave off the tragic air of a pretty young thing.
Yet his eyes burned with such intensity.
He was like the hero from some old wuxia novel, rushing headlong into an Evil Sect’s lair to save a child.
‘In five years—no, three or four—he’s going to be something special.’
Not my type right now, but watching him grow up at the Academy might be entertaining.
The same one people said had ruthless hands—yet his temperament was surprisingly righteous.
He had a certain contrasting charm.
“Setting that aside, why are you all beat up? Did you attempt some dangerous task without your Inner Power?”
Wondering if I’d stared too intently at his face, I shifted my gaze to his clothes.
Even if I wanted to do work at the Geunhaeng Hall that earned lots of Merit Points, for now all I could manage were odd jobs.
“I sparred with our Martial Master.”
I’d wondered if he’d had a Fortuitous Encounter within just two days at the Academy.
But the answer that came back was surprising for entirely different reasons.
“……Out of nowhere?”
“I thought that was the only way if we couldn’t obtain the Antidote from the designated place.”
As Eun Hyeon spoke briefly, at first I didn’t understand what he meant.
But it wasn’t a fight for no reason.
Even after the Entrance Ceremony, any student could challenge their Martial Master, and if they met the standards set, they could obtain the Antidote.
“Ah, so the Academy really does offer quite a few chances?”
“…….”
“Oh geez, sorry. You lost, didn’t you?”
Eun Hyeon nodded.
True, I’d hidden the fact that I’d recovered my Inner Power and challenged Peng Zhongjie to exploit an opening.
Eun Hyeon clearly looked like he didn’t have any friends.
It’d be nearly impossible for an ordinary student to defeat a Martial Master.
“Why don’t you gather a few students like I did? They let me take on up to three-on-one.”
“If someone lacks skill and fumbles around nearby, it becomes a hindrance.”
“Fair point. If the coordination’s off, that could happen… Myeongseong already fought me as well, right?”
The moment Myeongseong’s name was mentioned, wrinkles seemed to crease Eun Hyeon’s brow.
“I heard you, Myeongseong, and Namgung Min executed a Combined Assault. Three people, and none of them seemed particularly skilled at coordination. Wasn’t it really just you fighting alone?”
For the first time, the boy asked a real question instead of passively answering mine.
“Ah, the coordination wasn’t perfect, but it wasn’t quite like that. Mmm, if I hadn’t been forbidden from challenging multiple times, I’d have fought alongside you too—too bad about that.”
He’d been so busy searching for the Antidote that he must not have seen my Martial Trial.
I explained to him how the three of us had coordinated to cut Peng Zhongjie’s sleeve.
Eun Hyeon listened to my account with great attention.
Then he raised another question.
“Why are you trying to help me?”
What kind of question was that?
It wasn’t because he was handsome or anything.
“If I can help, I naturally want to help anyone. Watching someone climb to the Dormitory with such difficulty—it breaks my heart.”
No, that wasn’t it either.
I would’ve helped plenty of other people if it weren’t Eun Hyeon.
Trials against a Martial Master themselves were excellent stepping stones for growth as a martial artist—of course I wanted to gain as much experience as possible.
Besides, with the surplus only in my possession, there were people willing to buy a rare Antidote for thirty Silver Coins.
If I challenged multiple times and earned ten Silver Coins each time while taking mercenary work, that would be perfect.
“…I’ve never met anyone like you before.”
Despite the fact that I’d actually done nothing but talk a big game.
Eun Hyeon’s face took on a strangely moved expression.
“Then, would it be all right if I asked for one favor?”
“Mm… what is it?”
The boy who looked like a protagonist had said something impressive, so I’d responded with equal flourish.
But I couldn’t do anything that required too much effort.
And I certainly couldn’t help with anything like theft or robbery that could be exposed and damage my reputation as a model student.
I asked carefully, weighing the pros and cons before committing.
“I’d like you to be my Martial Trial partner.”
But Eun Hyeon’s request wasn’t particularly difficult.
* * *
By now I’d acknowledged that I ranked among the stronger students.
But fighting me was completely different from fighting a Martial Master.
So how could being my trial partner help Eun Hyeon?
I found out the next morning when I watched Eun Hyeon challenge a Martial Master.
“Same rules as yesterday. Make just one dot on my clothes and I’ll give you the Antidote. No cutting or tearing, and the dot has to be smaller than the width of a thumb joint, got it?”
The Martial Master Eun Hyeon was challenging was Myeonggyeong, the swordmaster of Hwasan.
His direct teacher, no less.
He looked far younger than Peng Zhongjie.
While not quite as clean-cut as Gwak Docheon to my taste, he was a fairly upright-looking man.
Myeongseong was also fairly handsome.
Did the Hwasan Faction only accept pretty disciples?
“I’m not challenging alongside him. I’ve already obtained an Antidote by cutting Martial Master Peng’s sleeve and have been forbidden from retrying. I simply wished to observe and think things through with him, if you’d permit it, so I accompanied Student Eun Hyeon.”
Myeonggyeong’s eyebrows twitched.
“Huh? You already got one? Then what, you brought our boy here just to help him?”
“Yes.”
“Bringing such a lovely young lady…!”
His face bright with surprise, he muttered to Eun Hyeon about whether he’d made a friend.
Wasn’t it how things worked at school—if you knew someone’s name and face in the same year, you could roughly call them a friend?
When I nodded in agreement, Eun Hyeon’s posture stiffened oddly.
‘This is going to be much harder than cutting a sleeve.’
It wasn’t like Peng Zhongjie’s task, where you just cut the sleeve uniformly.
It seemed each Martial Master set a slightly different challenge.
To make a dot with an ink-brushed sword without tearing the cloth at all would require extremely delicate control.
Especially for Eun Hyeon, whose attacks tended to be quite rough.
“Haha, sure. Look all you want, learn, and think it over. It’s the Academy after all—bring more friends if you’d like!”
Fortunately, Myeonggyeong readily granted me permission to observe.
By watching their Martial Trial and observing Myeonggyeong’s movements as closely as possible, I could replicate them while serving as his practice partner.
I offered Myeonggyeong a respectful bow as a gesture of thanks.
Then I stepped back a few paces from the Training Ground and sharpened my gaze.
Surviving as the Northern Sea Ice Palace’s Young Lady on Borrowed Time (Serialized)
Author │ Sahyang Noru
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, Acetech Tower 8)
Email │ [email protected]
Website │ www.jayplemedia.com
© Sahyang Noru 2026
※This work has been published by J Plus Media Co., Ltd. in accordance with a contract with the copyright holder, and its contents may not be used in any form or by any means without permission from the company and the author.
Violation of this restriction may result in criminal and civil legal liability.

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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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