Chapter 41 : Execution
The head of the North Sea Ice Palace’s Elders.
The Chairman of the Ice Council, Seol Un-gang, raised his eyebrows as everyone’s gaze focused on him.
“Silence! How dare you spout such nonsense in this sacred presence!”
It was truly a case of a thief raising a club.
I curled the corners of my lips at the sight of Seol Un-gang losing his temper.
“Elder. I keep telling you, the witnesses are right here, aren’t they?”
Step, step.
It was warm.
A warm breeze began to blow in the Palace Lord’s Hall, which had always been chilled by the north wind.
At the same time, flames erupted from my entire body.
“Kughhh—”
The assassins of Blood Tears, who were still gagged, groaned in agony.
The reason the assassins of Blood Tears feared me, even though I hadn't done anything yet, was simple.
‘Because of the Extreme Yang Qi.’
The assassins of Blood Tears must be tasting the pain of their qi centers burning right now.
“Are you going to feign ignorance until the end?”
“It is a frame-up! It is a plot by the Demonic Cultist Hyeokryeon Yeom to infiltrate deeper into the affairs of the Ice Palace!”
Chairman Seol Un-gang was no longer looking at me.
He began to plead his innocence to everyone gathered in the great hall.
“I am innocent!”
—Tsk tsk, he’s quite good at acting.
—If someone else saw this, they might actually think he’s innocent.
It was enough to make even the Sword Venerable and the Demon Queen click their tongues.
“We’ll get the answer if we ask them.”
Grrrk—
The assassins of Blood Tears raised their bodies.
“I may look like this, but I’m actually quite confident in torture.”
Fwoosh!
The gags in the assassins' mouths burst into flames.
“Kuuughhh!”
Being well-trained, the assassins were enduring the pain.
But they wouldn’t last long.
Why?
‘Because they’ve likely never felt the pain of burning alive.’
Seol Un-gang’s eyes flashed as he watched the assassins suppressing their groans.
“They are the assassins who attacked the Ice Palace!”
Whoosh!
Chairman Seol Un-gang’s palm strike pounced upon the assassins of Blood Tears.
Splat—!
The heads of the Blood Tears assassins exploded.
Some of the martial artists watching frowned at the sight.
I didn’t intentionally stop the assassins from being killed.
They were scum who deserved to die anyway.
Rather,
“Did you just… silence the witnesses?”
“Silencing the witnesses? Me? This Elder simply killed those who deserved to die.”
Dead men tell no tales.
Seol Un-gang was one of the people who knew that fact all too well.
And for someone of Seol Un-gang’s status, killing a person or two here wouldn’t cause anyone to say anything……
Crack, crackle—
There was someone.
The headless bodies of the Blood Tears assassins froze exactly as they were.
“…What is the meaning of this, Young Palace Head!”
“Chairman, you had absolutely no hesitation in killing these men.”
“That is because it is clear they are the ones who attacked the Ice Palace…….”
“Exactly!”
Whoosh—
Extreme Yin Qi soared from the Young Palace Head’s body.
Crackle—
A chill as bone-cutting as the north wind froze the space around us.
“Just as the Small Snow Squad Captain said, it is clear that you, Chairman, placed the request with Blood Tears.”
Rumble—
“Un-gang.”
The Ice King, Seol Baek-ho, rose from his seat.
“Did you want to sit in this seat…… until the very end?”
“Palace Lord, I… am innocent.”
Seol Un-gang claimed his innocence without a single change in his expression until the end.
“The assassins testified, and you even silenced them yourself. Are you saying you will plead ignorance even after this?”
“You insolent brat!”
Chairman Seol Un-gang could no longer hold back and rushed toward me.
I, too, was already fully prepared.
Just as I was about to swing my sword at the charging Seol Un-gang.
Bang!
“Cough!”
Seol Baek-ho dropped from the air.
“Wasn’t it this throne you coveted? If you coveted the position of Palace Lord, you should have fought me. Why do you touch my innocent son-in-law?”
I looked at Seol Baek-ho’s back.
A dignity I had only ever felt from the Heavenly Demon, Hyeokryeon Hwi, was radiating from the Ice Palace Lord.
***
The heads of the Five Great Clans stiffened as they saw the Ice Palace Lord personally block Chairman Seol Un-gang.
‘The Palace Lord, who always remained seated, has risen.’
The Clan Heads knew all too well what happened when the Ice Palace Lord left his throne.
Bang!
Seol Baek-ho, having fallen from the sky atop Chairman Seol Un-gang, pressured him with his massive weight.
“Kuhuk!”
If the Demonic Cult followed the principle that the strong reign supreme.
The Ice Palace followed the law of the jungle.
“The strong rule the weak.”
Chairman Seol Un-gang’s surname was ‘Seol’.
He clearly shared the same surname as the Ice Palace Lord, Seol Baek-ho.
That meant they were blood-related family, yet one became the Palace Lord and the other became the head of the elders created by the Council of Elders.
The stark difference in status must have led to endless comparisons between the two.
“Miss Seol. What is the relationship between Chairman Seol Un-gang and the Palace Lord?”
“He is my uncle.”
It meant he was her father’s younger brother.
The younger brother of the Palace Lord, Seol Baek-ho.
One was the Lord of the North Sea Ice Palace.
The other was the Chairman of the Council of Elders, the Ice Council.
The apparent difference was producing a distinct result.
“He lost.”
Seol Un-gang was always the weaker one.
Was that why?
His attempt to overthrow the Ice Palace seemed to be for the sake of dragging down the Ice Palace Lord, Seol Baek-ho.
“Khehehe— Brother, are you going to cast me aside this time as well?”
“Cast aside?”
“Ever since you became the Palace Lord, you never once sought me out. Even though I became an Elder, all your attention was on your daughter, the Young Palace Head. You didn’t even care about me, your own family!”
Seol Un-gang shouted as if screaming in spite.
Raising his qi was useless.
Seol Baek-ho and Seol Un-gang would have basically learned the same martial arts.
It is the nature of Yin Qi to be devoured by the qi of the stronger one.
That was why Seol Un-gang could never surpass Seol Baek-ho in his lifetime.
But I knew.
‘He didn’t care?’
When he is alive and well like that?
From Seol Baek-ho’s perspective, Seol Un-gang was no different from a future threat who could stab him in the back at any moment.
If it were the Demonic Cult.
‘He would have already been dead and buried in the ground.’
Glancing sideways, I saw Hyeokryeon Mu wearing an expression that said he also couldn't understand.
Hyeokryeon Mu likely thought that if he became the Cult Leader, he would have to kill Hyeokryeon Geuk and me.
Because no matter if they are blood brothers, there can only be one sun.
In other words,
‘The very fact that Seol Un-gang is alive right now means Seol Baek-ho cared deeply for him. Even if he didn't show it on the outside.’
—Tsk tsk, this is why it’s much better to have no siblings.
The Sword Venerable clicked his tongue upon seeing Seol Un-gang’s wailing.
It seemed the Sword Venerable had a similar experience.
—I can understand Elder Seol, too. Coexisting with the Palace Lord is a difficult thing.
If Seol Un-gang had been a man who understood this, he would have taken Seol Baek-ho’s place as a sturdy pillar when Seol Baek-ho was away.
But Seol Un-gang seemed to always harbor an inferiority complex toward Seol Baek-ho.
Because he believed that if not for Seol Baek-ho, he would have become the Palace Lord.
The Clan Heads were also looking at Seol Un-gang with pitying eyes.
As contemporaries of Seol Baek-ho, they were the ones who would have competed with him.
Others who were not family understood with what heart Seol Baek-ho had kept his brother alive.
I, having realized the full truth of all this, had no choice but to step forward.
Step— step—
“I apologize, Palace Lord. For interrupting so rudely.”
I apologized to my father-in-law first.
Piercing through the snowy cold that was blowing like a blizzard, I stood next to Seol Baek-ho.
“Small Snow Squad Captain?”
“I will intervene for a moment from here.”
Leaving those words behind, I stood in front of Seol Un-gang.
“Chairman.”
“Yes, you bastard. It is because of you! If only you hadn't come to the Ice Palace, Seol Ye-rin would have died, and I could have pushed aside Seol Baek-ho, who would have been lost in grief, and become the Palace Lord myself!”
Seol Un-gang was… giving up on everything and destroying himself.
Madness could be seen flickering through his white hair.
Although words likely wouldn't reach someone who had already gone mad from his own ambition.
“That is incorrect. Even if I weren't here, you could not have become the Palace Lord, Chairman.”
“What?”
“And since you seem to be thinking wrongly, I dare to point something out. Consider yourself lucky.”
“……What?”
“Brother, if you became the Young Cult Leader, who would you kill first?”
My question was directed at Hyeokryeon Mu.
“Well… you, Yeom, or Hyung-nim (Hyeokryeon Geuk).”
“Did you see that? If you, Chairman, were from Our Cult, you would no longer be a person of this world. The fact that you are alive right now is proof of how much the Palace Lord cared for you.”
At my words, Chairman Seol Un-gang’s expression began to stiffen gradually.
“Stop it, Small Snow Squad Captain.”
“I apologize, Palace Lord. I think I need to speak a little more.”
My eyes turned cold.
“Everything you are enjoying right now. I am telling you that the person who considered and cared for all of that was the Palace Lord. Yet, you failed to recognize such grace and instead planned to kill the Palace Lord and even your niece? You ungrateful bastard.”
Fwoosh—
Flames soared.
“Hyeokryeon Yeom!”
“I apologize.”
There is something I realized after dying once.
‘Those who will remain as future trouble must be dealt with.’
If you show mercy, you never know when they will aim for your back again.
And the father-in-law I have experienced so far is a man with much affection.
He is just a person who cannot show it on the outside.
‘The various tests he gave me, who is no different from the benefactor who saved the Young Palace Head, must be in that same context.’
Because of his desire for me to be recognized in the North Sea somehow.
Thanks to that warmth, I was able to establish myself in the Ice Palace.
So,
‘I must do what the Palace Lord cannot do.’
That is what a live-in son-in-law is for.
And it is the fate of the person who will become the Young Palace Head’s sword in the future.
Fire Art Sword First Form.
“Flame Flash.”
The Flame Extreme Sword, drawn in an instant, rushed toward Seol Un-gang’s neck.
Flames blocked all vision.
The only ones who could witness this were Seol Un-gang and myself.
The final moment.
I faced Seol Un-gang’s eyes.
The eyes that sensed death contained deep regret.
Slash—
Thud, roll.
Roar!
Flames soared up.
“Hyeokryeon Yeom!”
“As the Captain of the Small Snow Squad protecting the Young Palace Head, I have executed the Chairman of the Council of Elders’ Ice Council, Seol Un-gang.”
Leaving the burning corpse of Seol Un-gang behind me.
I knelt before the Ice Palace Lord, Seol Baek-ho.
“If it was a wrongful action, please punish me. I will sweetly accept any disposition.”
I committed an act that no one in the Ice Palace had dared to do.
Seeing that, Hyeokryeon Mu grinned.
Moyong Geum widened his eyes.
And,
“I believe the Small Snow Squad Captain’s action was appropriate, Palace Lord.”
The Young Palace Head, Seol Ye-rin, defended me.
Now, all that remained was the judgment of the Ice Palace Lord, Seol Baek-ho.
The gazes of everyone gathered in the Palace Lord’s Hall turned toward Seol Baek-ho.
The man with the title of Ice King, the Lord of the North Sea Ice Palace, silently stared at his brother's burning corpse.
Would he punish me for killing his brother?
Or would he give a reward for executing the culprit who attacked the Ice Palace?
Seol Baek-ho’s choice was,
“…General Manager.”
“Yes, Palace Lord.”
“Prepare for Chairman Seol’s funeral.”
He gave no answer.