Surviving as the Terminally Ill Young Lady of the North Sea Ice Palace - Chapter 90

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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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Episode 90
Myeong Seong, Un Cheon, and Eun Hyun.
None of them were the type to simply hide away.
So why hadn’t I caught so much as a glimpse of any of them since arriving on the island?
First, there was Myeong Seong, the direct disciple of the Hua Shan Sect master, who went about playing the lead role at Jijeong Hall.
With his competitive spirit, I’d expected him to actively hunt for tokens.
And the students who followed him alongside Cheong Seong and a Kunlun disciple were incomparably stronger than those under Paeng Ho’s command.
Personally, I’d marked his group as one of my most formidable rivals.
As for Un Cheon of the Wudang Sect—his strength and stamina were somewhat lacking, which was why he’d even been dragged into Paeng Jung Geol’s early morning supplemental training class.
But whether it was the superior swordsmanship of the Wudang style or simply his own keen instincts, whenever I watched his martial matches, something always stood out.
I’d heard that the Wudang martial arts were supposed to bloom late, so it was probably the latter.
In a tournament like the hunting competition where one could plan strategy, he seemed like the type who’d shine quite brightly.
‘As for Eun Hyun…’
Eun Hyun was the sort who gave his all in every lesson and every match.
As both hunter and hunted, he seemed the type to fight with everything he had—it was his principle.
But right now, with the Jade Bead requiring treatment, he desperately needed contribution points. So maybe he was deliberately staying hidden.
To secure points steadily, it made more sense to steal tokens only from opponents he could beat with absolute certainty and survive to the end.
“But I somehow doubt he’d resort to such clever scheming.”
So why couldn’t I find any of them?
Could they have been eliminated early, falling to a coordinated attack from Myeong Seong’s group?
I wandered the island, finding it strange.
I wanted to ask someone about it.
By the second day, it wasn’t just those three—I could hardly see any cadets at all.
Either the ones in hiding had decided to go without food supplies and fast for the four days, or most of them had already been eliminated on the first day.
Possibly both.
Clink! Clink! Clink!
Then again, my Jade Token sounded so loud and brilliant that everyone who heard me approaching might have just fled.
Still, I’d managed to catch a few.
“Ahhhhh!”
I’d hunted three cadets from Cheonmyeong Hall who came to the Coastal Shore for water and ran when they heard my token, chasing them down.
“Since we’ve met this way, I won’t hold back!”
“Ah, Dan Ri Hyang! You’re not running?”
I’d also dealt with the combination of Dan Ri Hyang and Jeong Ha Rin, who’d stood their ground and fought despite my threatening approach.
“Ugh… This is infuriating!”
“So you’ve beaten three people? Well, I’ll put them to good use!”
“H-How many people have you hunted? Wrapped in tokens like that…!”
“I’ve benefited from those of you who’ve been carrying multiple tokens.”
Now that I thought about it, how many did I have? Thirty-two?
Clink! Clink! Clink!
I’d moved about diligently, but my hunting yields weren’t as good as the first day.
As evening fell, hunger began to gnaw at me.
I’d been hoping to find someone else’s freshly hunted game to take for myself.
But by the second day, there wasn’t a soul leisurely hunting around.
I decided to head back to the cave, thinking I’d eat the meat Pung Seung’s group had left behind.
“Miss.”
But as the sun began to set.
Just as I was almost back at the cave.
One of the rivals I’d been seeking stepped into my path of their own accord.
“Hmm? You’ve gathered quite a few tokens yourself?”
It was Eun Hyun.
I quickly counted the tokens with my eyes.
Eleven? No wonder I hadn’t seen the others!
Unlike me, who had spread them out at careful intervals to avoid making noise when I had that many, keeping the spacing deliberate and awkward.
Eun Hyun had strung his tokens elegantly on one side.
“…And you, Miss, seem to have engaged in quite a number of martial matches.”
“Well, I’ve been hunting hard enough.”
Of course, by this point I had nowhere left to tie thirty-two tokens, so I’d even fashioned a necklace and was wearing it around my neck.
I was displaying rather excessive fashion in every respect.
Clink! Clink!
I approached Eun Hyun with a noisy clatter.
“Have you eaten dinner?”
I asked him in a friendly tone.
Eun Hyun shook his head without running away or drawing his sword.
“I thought as much. You haven’t hunted, and you haven’t taken anyone’s tokens either?”
“Taken them…?”
As expected, he had no cunning about him.
Right—there was no way someone like this would move efficiently, targeting only weak opponents he could certainly defeat.
“I was about to eat now. Want to join me?”
I suggested we share a meal together.
After all, the fact that he’d shown himself so openly meant he’d come to fight me.
And now that I’d seen he was carrying eleven tokens, I had no intention of letting him go.
But attacking a friend who’d been starving for two days seemed too cruel, given how gaunt his face had become.
“…Is that truly acceptable?”
“If you tell me whose tokens you took and who you killed for them.”
And whether he’d managed to defeat Myeong Seong.
If I could learn which cadets were still alive, it would help me formulate a strategy.
“Ah, very well.”
I gestured toward my waist as I asked.
Eun Hyun readily agreed to share the information he had.
I led him into the cave.
“There’s a cave like this on the mountain?”
“Good hiding place, isn’t it? I barely found it myself.”
Though I have Paeng Jin Cheol’s betrayal to thank for using it as my hideout.
Either way, having invited him here, I might as well show off my accommodations and offer him a meal.
“Go ahead and eat.”
Of course, all I had was meat that Pung Seung and his group had cooked the day before.
The cave was cool, but it might have spoiled, so—
I tasted it first to make sure it was safe before handing it to Eun Hyun.
“…Ah, I wasn’t suspecting anything.”
“Hm? Suspecting what?”
But as Eun Hyun accepted the meat, his expression grew uncomfortable.
When I tilted my head in confusion at what he meant, he waved his hand dismissively, saying it was nothing.
“That I’d poisoned it?”
Wow—I’d thought he was naive, but he was being cautious to that extent?
Even I hadn’t thought to put anything suspicious in the food!
“Now that I think about it, you hesitated even when I gave you a water pouch before, didn’t you?”
Well, that was right after you’d consumed the Mountain Empty Poison in the food, so—
It made sense to suspect whether he might be a spy for the Director.
But today was something of a shock.
When I pouted deliberately, Eun Hyun hastily clarified.
“I wasn’t suspecting poison back then either. I was simply confused as to why you were giving me water.”
“Oh, that so?”
“…Truthfully, even now I don’t understand why you’re sharing meat with me. I was surprised when you gave me the sweet persimmon and left earlier as well.”
Goodness, why was he making such a serious face over something like that?
“There’s no real reason. If I had to say, it’s because the way you munch away is cute.”
That serious expression was rather beautiful, too.
Actually, it might suit him best of all.
If Namgung Ah Young was endearing the way she glared at me while still accepting fruit without refusing—
Then Eun Hyun was touching the heart, holding food with solemn gravity, his eyes blinking in bewilderment at my words.
It wasn’t comparable to Gwak Do Cheon, who was beautiful in any expression.
But children had their own particular charm.
“….”
After I taught him to say thank you, he’d been punctilious about offering small courtesies in return.
This time, even after finishing the meat, he said nothing.
Eun Hyun had neatly consumed half of what remained and finally opened his mouth.
“You asked who I’d defeated, yes? Seok Il Am, Jang Hwan, I Hon, Hye Gak…”
“Mm? Ah, yes.”
I stopped teasing Eun Hyun and listened carefully to the information.
Two cadets from Cheonmyeong Hall, three from Jijeong Hall, and two from Inbon Hall.
He’d hunted quite evenly.
“What happened to Myeong Seong?”
“I heard that Senior Martial Brother was eliminated, sir.”
I’d asked out of curiosity, since Myeong Seong’s name had been absent.
“What? By whom?”
“The Taoist Master who lost to Cheong Seong told me that Myeong Seong was attacked while traveling with Senior Martial Brother, and managed to escape alone.”
Already eliminated?
An attacker capable of striking down Myeong Seong would have to be…
“Apparently the Taoists from Wudang Sect collaborated with the warriors of Zhong Nan and ambushed them together.”
“Tch…”
Un Cheon’s faction—the very group I’d considered my most formidable rival.
So that’s where everyone had gone. There was internal conflict brewing within Jijeong Hall.
It’s true that Maeng Ryeong Ji despises the Nine Schools and One Faction as a whole.
And the major sects don’t particularly concern themselves with the New External Martial World.
Each believes themselves superior, which meant their relations were hardly harmonious to begin with.
Un Cheon defeating Myeong Seong was somewhat unexpected, but either way, having one of them eliminated worked in my favor.
Could it be that Namgung Min, who fled to avoid me, had already crossed paths with them as well?
“Thanks for the information. Want to hear about the ones I’ve eliminated?”
“…Please do.”
Like Eun Hyun, I rattled off the names of everyone whose tokens I’d taken directly, and for those I didn’t know, I described their distinguishing features.
“So the young lady who snatched Young Master Paeng’s token right at the start was Miss Pung…?”
“That’s right, what.”
After hearing everything, Eun Hyun’s jaw dropped several times.
The information exchange ended there.
In truth, this intelligence would only matter to whichever one of us survived.
“You finished eating?”
“Yes, thank you.”
After confirming that Eun Hyun had finished his meal,
I picked up my sword and stepped outside the cave.
And probably for the first and last time during the Hunting Competition,
“Shall we fight then?”
I formally challenged him to a martial match.
Surviving as the Buk Hae Ice Palace’s Young Lady with a Time Limit (Serialized)
Author | Sashyang Noru
Publisher | Kim Joo Hyung
Published by | J Plus Media Co., Ltd.
Marketing | Han Jae Hyuk
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© Sashyang Noru 2026
※This work is published by J Plus Media Co., Ltd. under contract with the copyright holder, and the contents may not be used in any form or by any means without permission from the company and author.
Violation of this is subject to 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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