Surviving as the Terminally Ill Young Lady of the North Sea Ice Palace - Chapter 52

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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 52
From the castle gate to the Academy was a stone’s throw if you headed straight south.
But the main gate of Cheonmu Academy had a guard, so we had to be careful.
Eun Hyun and I circled through the grass as we had when leaving, searching for the gap in the fence.
“Still, I’m grateful we found the Aconite Root. If it weren’t for you, I’d have had no choice but to miss the course.”
Fair enough.
It was honestly a brilliant idea.
If I’d really been fifteen, I would have spoken my thoughts aloud without filter.
But I was a reincarnator with years of experience, so I gave an appropriately measured answer befitting a young lady of Buk Hae Bing Palace.
“If you hadn’t timed the harvest right, you wouldn’t have had the chance on your own either.”
“Ah…….”
“Let’s say we helped each other. But why are you so set on taking Herbal Medicine Study?”
I had my own reasons — drawing closer to Divine Medicine because of my Severed Pulse Syndrome — but it wasn’t a subject most martial artists would pursue.
Was what he told Yak Seon yesterday really true?
That there was a child he wanted to heal?
“Yes… there’s a child I really want to cure.”
He said the same thing.
There’s someone he wants to kill, and someone he desperately wants to heal.
The boy was young, had no friends, yet his relationships were strangely complicated.
I tilted my head, curious.
“In Hwasan?”
The Hwasan Sect was a major power, and surely they had talented physicians with institutions like the Medicine Hall.
Wouldn’t they provide all necessary medical care for their disciples?
As I cocked my head, Eun Hyun hesitated before speaking.
“No. Not Hwasan… Before my master took me in, there was a child I’ve known since we were small. Like family.”
“Your younger sister?”
His expression seemed so tender that I ventured the guess.
“Something like that. The truth is… she’s my nursemaid’s daughter.”
Eun Hyun hesitated a moment longer before finally opening up.
Oh, so she was really a girl?
A nursemaid’s daughter — wasn’t that the classic childhood sweetheart, the sickly beauty?
“Wow, you had a nursemaid? So you were a young master from a good family before you joined Hwasan?”
I tried to imagine Eun Hyun’s household.
Right, he did have that young master air about him.
Maybe not quite of the Five Great Houses’ caliber, but the Eun household — something in that range?
Now that I thought about it, there was something refined in his bearing that surpassed the way the others in our Dormitory introduced themselves.
“They’ve all passed away. Now there’s no one left. My nursemaid too is gone… The only family I have left is that child.”
Ah…….
What started as a casual question.
Had suddenly turned grave.
If only that sick child remained as family, then both Eun Hyun and his nursemaid’s daughter were orphans now.
In this life, I had a strong father.
But in my past life I’d walked a similar path, so I felt keenly the loneliness he must carry.
At least he had that child. Maybe that made him better off than my former self.
“Where is she being treated now?”
“When my master took me in, he entrusted her to someone he knew. It’s… more care than treatment, I’d say. The medicine does nothing, and all I can do is watch her waste away.”
“That must have been hard.”
I offered a brief word of comfort.
Eun Hyun’s face darkened, and he nodded.
“Yes. I’ve searched everywhere trying to find a way to help her, but self-study has its limits, and meeting a true physician is nearly impossible.”
My father had managed to bring the Master Physician in White because he was the lord of Buk Hae Bing Palace — an authority figure’s privilege.
An orphan child with nothing couldn’t possibly search out rumors of a renowned physician and somehow find their way to them. It was nearly impossible.
Was that girl lying in bed somewhere even now?
I’d wandered the brink of death myself before meeting the Master Physician in White, so even though I didn’t know her name or her face, I could imagine something of that unknown girl’s heart.
It must be agonizing, and cold, and hopeless.
I’d suffered too, but my father suffered more, and watching him suffer was the hardest part.
I was grateful he searched so hard for treatment options.
But I genuinely hoped that because of me, my beloved father’s life wouldn’t be difficult.
Maybe that girl Eun Hyun wanted to heal was worrying about him just the same?
But I didn’t offer the hollow platitude that he should enjoy his own life instead.
“I’ll be able to cure her. I’m sure of it.”
A patient’s hope is a patient’s hope, after all.
And I wanted to support Eun Hyun’s wish.
“……Do you really think so?”
When I spoke with such certainty, Eun Hyun lifted his sunken face and looked at me.
“Of course. Divine Medicine can supposedly summon the very souls of the dead, can’t it? If you master that art, what couldn’t you do?”
“……That’s true.”
Eun Hyun laughed softly.
It wasn’t meant to be mere comfort.
Just looking at the miraculous elixirs that Divine Medicine could produce, it seemed like almost any illness could be cured.
If they spoke as though even Severed Pulse Syndrome could be treated, wasn’t there no disease beyond their reach?
Besides, even without Divine Medicine itself, I had a peculiar presentiment that this girl wouldn’t die.
Because she was the lady’s daughter, after all.
If this world were a martial arts novel with Eun Hyun as its protagonist, wouldn’t this girl be perfectly positioned as the heroine?
They would find some miraculous medicine and cure her, one way or another.
“I’m grateful for the encouragement. Because I obtained the Aconite Root thanks to you, I have this opportunity, and I shall dedicate myself to it.”
“Don’t bother with further courtesies. I got them because I needed them too.”
Last time, I’d told him to use gratitude instead of “I won’t forget your kindness,”
and he’d taken the instruction rather too well to heart.
Since I felt I’d heard enough expressions of thanks regarding the Aconite Root matter, I prompted him again on this subject.
“Who is it you wish to cure?”
“A palace resident of Buk Hae Bing Palace……someone like family to me, I suppose. Well, not a relationship quite as unique as yours, but all the palace residents could be said to be family.”
“I see.”
I gave a vague response, recalling what I’d told Divine Medicine before.
If I’d needed to fabricate details, it would have been rather awkward.
But we arrived at Cheonmu Academy almost immediately.
I wrapped up the conversation quickly and passed through the rear gate.
* * *
After I’d brought the Maeknuri and Chokcho to the Dormitory,
I entered the Medicine Hall with a racing heart.
“I have brought the Aconite Root you requested. Ten roots.”
Eun Hyun set down the cloth bundle he’d been holding against his chest and began to unwrap it slowly.
“Hmm?”
At first, Divine Medicine watched us with an expression of amusement.
He looked absolutely certain they couldn’t possibly be genuine Aconite Roots.
‘So he knew they couldn’t get it from the Academy and was trying to trick us.’
Well, that was fine. The trick was rather delicious, after all.
Eun Hyun untied the cord and opened the cloth.
Though I couldn’t distinguish premium from inferior quality, at first glance ten Aconite Roots with sturdy, fresh-looking roots appeared before us,
and in that moment, Divine Medicine’s mouth fell open.
“How……how did you possibly……?”
Wasn’t it something that shouldn’t be handled with bare hands?
Divine Medicine suddenly grabbed one of the Aconite Roots and examined it this way and that as though unable to believe it.
“This can’t be real!”
His eyes trembled slightly, and his lips quivered.
Hmm, couldn’t he muster a better reaction?
I was hoping for a loud gasp and complete shock, you know?
At some point, my ambition had shifted from genuinely wanting to study Herbal Medicine Study to grinding my teeth imagining the look on Divine Medicine’s face when he was caught off guard.
So his reaction was slightly disappointing.
“These are Aconite Roots harvested with utmost care to avoid any damage, exactly as you instructed.”
I didn’t mention the source.
Though I hadn’t dug them myself, someone must have harvested them.
I simply brazened my way forward.
“Ha, hahahaha!”
Divine Medicine burst into delighted laughter.
“Was there a student at the Academy who possessed Aconite Roots? Ha—unless the heavens themselves blessed my disciple, how else could such a thing be……! Not mere fragments, but whole salted roots—who on earth carries such things around?”
Divine Medicine naturally realized they hadn’t been dug fresh.
They’d been salted as a preservative for transport from Sacheon to here,
and besides, Divine Medicine would certainly be able to tell how recently they’d been harvested.
“……Wait. Don’t tell me……you purchased these somewhere?”
Ding-dong. Correct!
I broke into a wide smile.
“You promised, didn’t you, that if we brought back even a single root, you’d accept both of us as your disciples?”
“Hehehehe…… hehe…… hehehehe…….”
Yak Seon’s hearty laughter rolled on, an acknowledgment of defeat.
Neither Eun Hyun nor I harbored any taste for ridiculing the vanquished.
We waited while he gathered his scattered thoughts.
“……I’ve lost. That a mere student cadet would escape the Academy itself just to obtain Aconite Root…… Very well. To show no regard for means or method—that too is the mark of a true physician.”
And at last.
“I cannot help but concede. I shall teach you Herbal Medicine Study as you wish. Just don’t you dare run away!”
He had accepted his fate as a master.
Surviving as the Terminally Ill Young Lady of Buk Hae Bing Palace (Serialized)
Author │ Sahyang Noru
Publisher │ Kim Ju-hyung
Published by │ JPlusmedia Co., Ltd.
Marketing │ Han Jae-hyuk
Address │ 401, 11 Digital-ro 33-gil, Guro-gu, Seoul (Guro-dong, Ace Techno Tower 8th)
Email │ [email protected]
Website │ www.jayplemedia.com
ⓒ Sahyang Noru 2026
※This work is published by JPlusmedia Co., Ltd. under contract with the copyright holder, and 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.

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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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