Surviving as the Terminally Ill Young Lady of the North Sea Ice Palace - Chapter 87

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

Chapter 87
I would have preferred it if Namgoong Min and Myeong Seong were both floundering in the water.
Unfortunately, Namgoong Min had calmly made his way to the Shoreline with Im So Jeong and Namgoong A Yeong tucked under either arm.
And Myeong Seong had fallen into the water far from where I stood.
“Protect your group! Protect your group!”
“Damn it!”
“Who was that?”
The moment the cadets realized Paeng Ho had been eliminated, they began watching each other with intense suspicion, clutching their teammates close.
Not that Water Combat was my specialty either.
I’d always planned to use that technique only once, and I was satisfied with having cleanly eliminated Paeng Ho.
‘This is just the beginning anyway.’
I climbed onto the island, brushed off my clothes, and surveyed the terrain.
It was called an island, but it was quite large.
Perhaps it had been connected to the mainland long ago,
because the Shoreline was lined with reeds and sand, but further inland a low mountain rose up, densely forested with trees.
The faint sounds of wild animals suggested an independent ecosystem had taken root here.
‘So I’m supposed to survive here for four days?’
I could drink from the river, and I knew enough about Hunting to manage that much.
Simple survival wouldn’t be a problem.
‘…But I had no intention of hiding out the whole time anyway.’
From the moment I heard that first place could earn five hundred points, my goal was clear.
An opportunity to rake in public points like this didn’t come around often.
If I was going to earn the two thousand points needed this semester to pay Yak Seon for a Grand Heaven Pill, I had to aim for the highest score no matter what.
‘Let me think….’
I climbed to the island’s highest point, identifying places to hide along the way, seized the high ground, and looked down over the terrain below.
The sound didn’t carry well, but the cadets who had just reached the Shoreline were already drawing swords and eyeing each other warily.
Those who had been close before were forming groups.
The ones who had followed Paeng Ho seemed to waver without their center of gravity,
but somehow they pulled together and disappeared into the forest.
I watched from above and waited for the Shoreline to settle, but no fighting broke out there.
‘First, I’ll deal with the small fry while gathering supplies, and try to let the real competitors tear each other apart.’
Whoosh.
I’d gotten a sense of the terrain and had a plan.
I carefully began tracking a group of cadets who had already started hunting at a distance.
* * *
The Cheonmyeong Hall had more than twenty cadets in my cohort, but aside from Namgoong Min and Paeng Ho, there weren’t many truly strong ones among them.
Every year the top talent from a family couldn’t always come, so occasionally a cadet from a minor branch line would enroll, and there were quite a few like Pung Seung who had paid money for a recommendation.
Cadets who had gotten in this way would sometimes attach themselves to a student from their own family faction who ranked higher among the seniors or peers,
and some would try to befriend promising cadets from the Jijeong Hall.
“We’re almost there! Look how the skin is crisping up!”
“Ah, not yet! Wait just a bit longer. If we eat something half-cooked here, we could get food poisoning—that’d be real trouble.”
But Namgoong Min had never taken on followers beyond the two who already followed him,
and Paeng Ho had been eliminated the moment the Competition started.
Myeong Seong normally kept such people around, but it seemed he’d cast them off without mercy in this Hunting Competition.
Yet even without a leader, the kids who had formed a group naturally continued to move together.
‘Paeng Jin Cheol is pretty good at grilling Meat.’
My second target was the four-person party made up of those who had followed Paeng Ho.
As a group, these were the loudest voices in the Academy,
and the moment they arrived on the island, they hunted without bothering to hide their presence, then began cleaning and preparing the food.
“Maybe we should lower the heat a bit?”
“Hmm, the outside does seem to be burning….”
Paeng Jin Cheol, who had tried poisonous mushrooms early on, apparently knew his way around cooking and was grilling the Meat quite skillfully.
I had originally planned to strike while they were hunting,
but I wasn’t exactly skilled at butchering game myself, you understand?
…So while I waited, I kept watch on my prey from a safe distance until they were almost done cooking.
“Let me have a taste!”
The aroma was starting to drift,
and the Meat was turning a perfect golden brown.
The moment Paeng Jin Cheol brought the skewer to his mouth,
I rushed at them with my sword drawn.
Screech!
“What, what is it? An attack!”
“Seol So Jeong?!”
“How long have you been there?”
People are most defenseless when they’re eating or sleeping.
When they first started grilling the meat, one of them had been keeping watch.
But the moment they were about to take their first bite after all that hunting and cooking, they’d completely lost focus to the food.
“Aah!”
The one holding a sword dropped it the instant I nicked his arm.
Paeng Jin Cheol and the other three didn’t even manage to draw their weapons.
Clang! Thwack! Crash!
I subdued the careless ones with swift efficiency.
Snip! Snap!
I cut the cords binding their identification tablets to their waists.
“You’ve even prepared dinner? How thoughtful. I’ll eat well.”
“No! Isn’t this too much? How can you attack someone before they’ve even finished eating?!”
“There’s a saying — you don’t even touch a dog while it eats!”
“When you consider the purpose of this training, a Demonic Cult member is fair game, even if a dog isn’t.”
The students protested bitterly.
But I was simply playing the hunter’s role as it should be played.
“Aaaaah!”
“Wait, just a moment!”
I collected three tablets and approached my last prey, Paeng Jin Cheol.
“P-please! Take the others’ tablets first! I’ll tell you where the other ones are hiding! I saw them over there just now!”
“Hmm?”
Surprisingly, Paeng Jin Cheol was proposing a deal.
Well, a group like this one, wandering about openly without hiding, isn’t all that difficult to catch.
But those determined to lie low until the very last day could prove rather troublesome.
From his perspective, all he needs to do is avoid being in the first ten eliminations, so there’s no reason to refuse if he gives up their location.
“What?”
“You’re going to betray them?”
The students whose tablets had already been taken were shocked.
“Please…! I can’t live another month without Internal Energy! I’m begging you!”
Paeng Jin Cheol’s desperation was clear.
Right — this one participated actively as Candidate Four at the auction, didn’t he?
I didn’t know his name then, but he’d been actively cooperative both at the auction and during the poisoned mushroom experiment a few days ago.
“The location, and thirty points of merit value.”
“B-but I don’t have any merit value left to give.”
Dammit, I should have practiced Near-Walking beforehand!
“Then thirty silver taels.”
“…I’ll give it!”
Good, the deal is struck.
“No, how can you betray students from your own Cheonmyeong Hall? We’d even agreed to target Inbon Hall students first…!”
“Wait, Seol So Jeong already has two tablets — did you steal Paeng Ho’s too…?”
“That was me.”
The other three, excluding Paeng Jin Cheol, fumed about exposing his deal to Paeng Ho.
“Hmph! You’ve never lived without Internal Energy, so you don’t understand my desperation!”
Paeng Jin Cheol simply bowed gratefully that I’d accepted the deal.
“Aaaaah!”
These kids really are loud.
Well, I understand their feelings, but I need to eat.
“You can seek revenge after the Hunting Competition ends. Head for the Shoreline.”
I sent the three away and picked up the meat Paeng Jin Cheol had grilled.
“I understand I’m eliminated…but could I at least have one bite before I go?”
The students who’d gone through all the hunting, cleaning, and cooking gazed longingly at the meat.
“What are you doing? My teacher clearly said that once you’re eliminated, you must leave for the Shoreline immediately!”
Paeng Jin Cheol stepped forward, citing the rules to chase them away.
Actually, I don’t mind sharing the food — I can always hunt again tomorrow.
But I didn’t stop Paeng Jin Cheol.
“Seol So Jeong…! I will not forget this humiliation!”
Why would I resort to such humiliation?
In any case, fifty points acquired.
I shared a pleasant dinner with Paeng Jin Cheol, and
following his directions, I made my way to the hideout where the Cheonmyeong Hall cadets were supposedly concealed.
“There, behind that tree—there’s something like a rocky cave.”
I was almost disappointed, thinking it might be one of the locations I’d already identified during my earlier survey of the mountain.
But he had brought genuinely useful information after all.
Paeng Jin Cheol said that a group of cadets had decided to hide within that perfectly concealed cave.
“Once we eliminate ten cadets from Jijeong Hall or Inbon Hall first, those ones agreed to concede the match to us.”
“How many of them are in there?”
“Eight in total.”
Well—that’s clever.
It seemed cadets like Pung Seung and Shim Yang O were hiding there,
and since they only needed to avoid the bottom ten anyway, banding together with the dormitory students was a rather attractive arrangement.
“All right, then—we’ll have to attack while they’re sleeping.”
That is, assuming no traitor surfaces at lightning speed.
Surviving as the Young Lady of Buk Hae Ice Palace with a Time Limit (Serialized)
Author │ Musk Deer
Publisher │ Kim Ju Hyeong
Publishing House │ J-Plus Media Co., Ltd.
Marketing │ Han Jae Hyeok
Address │ 401, Ace Techno Tower 8th, 11 Digital-ro 33-gil, Guro-gu, Seoul (Guro-dong)
Email │ [email protected]
Website │ www.jayplemedia.com
ⓒ Musk Deer 2026
※This work is published by J-Plus Media 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.

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