Surviving as the Terminally Ill Young Lady of the North Sea Ice Palace - Chapter 94

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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 94
The three instructors vanished completely from sight.
“Oh no—what do we do? Are we really trapped on an island?”
“How are we supposed to get back to land……!”
The cadets, who’d assumed they’d soon be returning to the Academy, fell into confusion all over again.
Some fretted about how many days they’d have to endure here, whether there was enough food, and other such worries.
“Calm down. The river isn’t that deep, is it? The current’s weak!”
“Ah…….”
“R-really?”
That’s when Paeng Ho spoke up.
Though he’d lost some authority by being eliminated first in this Hunting Competition, admittedly.
Still, he was right.
Surely they didn’t mean to actually trap us on an island?
They probably just wanted us to cross over ourselves, to get familiar with the water.
“What if we can’t touch the bottom midway?”
Hmm—at So Un’s height, that spot where she’d stumbled earlier had been dicey indeed.
“If it comes to that, we could chop down a log and ride it across, couldn’t we?”
That seemed better than trying to teach swimming on the spot.
We might not manage a proper boat, but surely we could fashion a simple raft big enough for one person?
“But—is that allowed?”
“They said to come however we can. What does it matter?”
So Un’s face brightened at my suggestion.
“Ha! Compared to the rapids in the rainforest, this is nothing!”
Of course, Maeng Ryeong Ji advocated pushing through bare-handed.
Honestly, I felt I could handle a river this tame myself.
“No, I couldn’t burden you all—I should just make a raft myself…….”
“The Beast Palace does not abandon its companions!”
The moment So Un said he’d fell trees and build one alone.
Maeng Ryeong Ji and Gu Won, who lived off the meals he prepared, immediately pledged their help.
I’d received a mushroom recommendation from So Un not long ago, and hadn’t had a chance to repay him during the Hunting Competition.
So I decided to help him this time.
“This doesn’t need to be a real raft. Just slip your arms through and see how it feels?”
“Oh, that’s perfect! I think I can walk just fine like this!”
“Good. When we hit the deep parts, just float. We’ll pull you across.”
Maeng Ryeong Ji felled a tree.
Gu Won and I shaped the logs and lashed them together side by side.
We made it so he could hook just his arms through it and lean on it like a tube.
So Un seemed confident that this alone would be enough to cross.
“I see—that’s how you do it.”
“We should fell some trees too…….”
Other cadets from the Dormitory watched what we were doing and copied us.
“What are you using to tie the logs together?”
“The cord we had binding our Jade Tokens—we wove it together. It’s all we had left, but if you don’t have any, couldn’t you just take a single log of suitable size and use it like a raft instead?”
Several even came over to ask directly.
Sim Yang O was among them—the one who’d chosen concealment to keep watch, had his position revealed by Paeng Jin Cheol’s betrayal, and had his token stolen.
“Ah……! Thank you so much!”
“By the way—did you avoid being in the first ten eliminated?”
“Oh, yes. I was thirteenth!”
I answered his question readily enough.
Sim Yang O’s expression was quite bright.
Since he’d never expected to survive to the end anyway, there seemed to be no bitterness holding him back.
“That’s fortunate. Of all the kids hiding out there, you fought the best.”
“What? I couldn’t do anything—I just took hits……?”
But you held off three exchanges, clashing blades the whole time.
A sentinel’s role was to do just that.
“Wow, it’s floating!”
Some cadets, like us, were crossing with just a log or two.
Others had managed to craft something quite respectable in that short span, even fashioning oars.
“I’ll go first and scout how deep it gets!”
Though none of the cadets had formally studied watermanship.
Some of the children who were confident swimmers volunteered to go check the water depth.
I’d played in lakes often enough as a child that I was fairly confident in the water myself.
But when Jeong Ha Rin, who was usually quiet in Inbon Hall, raised her hand, I yielded the role to her this time.
Right—the Pota Gate was on a proper island in the sea, wasn’t it?
‘Is this the sentimental camping bonfire moment of a training camp?’
The children who had been grinding against each other through the cooperative quest naturally made their peace.
Crossing the Yellow River had a difficulty level that was reasonably low.
While there were places where the water deepened beyond where one’s feet could touch the bottom, the current wasn’t fierce like in a narrow gorge.
And no particularly dangerous creatures appeared.
“Ugh, help! Help! Save me!”
Just one boy—the log he’d been holding gave way and sank into the water midway.
In a spot that wasn’t even that deep, a bit of a commotion broke out.
“Compose yourself, Cadet Cheong Song! If you come just a little further this way, it’s not that deep! Grab hold of me!”
Myeong Sung, who was nearby, rescued him quickly, so no real trouble came of it.
Wasn’t the whole point that when the captain shouted “Cross the river!”, the entire Martial Force Squad was supposed to wade across together?
There were more kids afraid of water than I’d expected.
Must be a big regional difference without swimming pools.
The Murim Alliance probably conducts underwater combat training, doesn’t it?
“What? Why did the wood suddenly sink?”
Curious about what happened, I waded over to examine the log the boy in the water had been relying on.
“Cough! Hack, cough. Ugh…….”
“Ah, Miss Sul.”
The boy who’d fallen into the water was trembling as he clung tightly to Myeong Sung, frightened.
But Myeong Sung seemed genuinely pleased to see me.
“Ah, I think the rotted part of the wood absorbed water and became heavy.”
“That was it?”
After examining the log briefly, I quickly figured out why it had sunk.
Had he chosen this one thinking a hollow interior would be light?
Over the past four days, much like So Un hiding herself, he’d relied on a rotted log, and water seeped in through that section, causing it to sink midway.
When I revealed the secret, Myeong Sung marveled at how I could know such a thing.
“In any case, I’m sorry we didn’t get to fight you properly this time.”
“Tell me about it. Un Cheon got to you first?”
“He did. Who’d have thought those Jongnam bastards would join hands with him!”
Having come this way, I chatted briefly with Myeong Sung.
When I casually brought up the story of being ambushed by Un Cheon, he gnashed his teeth.
The Huashan Faction and Jongnam Faction were originally on poor terms at the sect level, always growling at each other.
Yet Myeong Sung and Un Cheon got along well enough in Jijeong Hall.
So the fact that Un Cheon had drawn in disciples from Jongnam to attack him was galling.
“The enemy of my enemy is a friend, as they say.”
I laughed, amused.
I also told him that all but one of the ones who’d attacked him had been taken down by Nam Gung Min, and one by me.
While I was searching for So Un, the eliminated students must have already exchanged information with each other, so he already knew that much.
But when I told him specifically how the Jongnam disciple had been caught, he was delighted.
“Agh!”
“Yipe!”
While we were talking, a child at the front of the line crossing the river suddenly lost his footing.
Since the Yellow River was murky, the bottom was hard to see.
We were standing roughly in the middle of a group of fifty-seven, so there was considerable distance from the front.
And our feet were on solid ground.
But that sound alone made the boy who’d just fallen in the water earlier start in fright.
“Oh no, it gets a bit deeper from here!”
Of course, the cadet who’d confidently taken the lead quickly surfaced using the Dog Paddle and warned the others.
“Ugh…….”
The boy who’d lost the log he’d been depending on trembled with fear.
“The students up front will check where the water gets shallower again, so how about you just hold your breath and walk across until we reach that point?”
“……That would be better.”
Hmm, would it be odd to ask for a ride on a raft?
Would it be a bit embarrassing to ask the merchant-family children from Cheonmyeong Hall?
“You’re from Kunlun, aren’t you? Don’t you have many rivers there?”
“The river in front of our mountain gate is narrow, shallow, and very cold. We draw water and do laundry there, but I’ve never immersed my body in it before.”
Is it just a mountain stream, then?
Well, what mountain wouldn’t have a river?
“Is the water very cold?”
“Murderously cold—though I shouldn’t complain to a young lady from the Ice Palace. Ahem, perhaps not quite as harsh as Buk Hae, but Kunlun Mountain is frigid indeed. In winter, the peaks vanish beneath snow.”
“Really?”
The Kunlun Disciple, who had been friendly with Myeong Sung, hesitated mid-boast about the cold.
Kunlun Faction—among the Nine Schools and One Faction, it was the one most distant from worldly affairs, with a distinctly Daoist character about it.
Located in the northwest of the Central Plains, whenever the Demonic Sect rose up in the Xinjiang region and threatened the Central Plains, Kunlun always stood foremost as a shield wall against them.
I’d never really thought of it as a particularly cold place.
But being in the north and in high mountains, it made sense that it would be freezing.
‘Now that I think about it, didn’t Wang Yak Ro’s journal mention a Salt Lake that doesn’t freeze even in winter? Ordinary lakes and rivers must be different.’
I’d already been planning to visit the Salt Lake during the break and search for traces of the Millennium Fire Lotus.
And I’d been waiting for a chance to ask about it from a student from Kunlun Faction.
“I’ve heard there’s a lake on Kunlun Mountain that never freezes. Do you happen to know anything about it?”
I seized the moment and posed the question to him.
Surviving as the Young Lady of the Buk Hae Ice Palace with a Time Limit (Serialized)
Author │ Sah Hyang No Ru
Publisher │ Kim Ju Hyeong
Published by │ J Plus Media Co., Ltd.
Marketing │ Han Jae Hyeok
Address │ 401st Floor, Ace Techno Tower 8, 11 Digital-ro 33-gil, Guro-gu, Seoul (Guro-dong)
Email │ [email protected]
Website │ www.jayplemedia.com
ⓒ Sah Hyang No Ru 2026
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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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