The North Sea Martial Warrior - Chapter 02

========== 2. BLOOD OATH ==========

Ice Heart Hall.

A space where a thousand years of silence had settled.

Only the pale blue light emitted by the luminous pearls embedded in the walls flowed, as if comforting the souls of the dead.

Central altar.

A woman lay inside a transparent ten-thousand-year ice coffin.

The 12th Ice Palace Master, Karani.

Her silver hair was scattered like waves, and her skin, white and smooth like snow, looked as if it would flush with red blood at any moment.

Thirty years.

The mountains and rivers had changed three times, but… her time had stopped here. The ‘girl’ in Airak’s memory was taxidermied just as she was in the past… completely unchanged.

Airak stood before the coffin.

Dozens of spear tips were aimed at his back, but his senses were only reaching out to the woman in the coffin.

‘…….’

His expression was frozen as if wearing an ice mask.

However, the fist hidden under his sleeve trembled minutely, enough for his fingernails to dig into his flesh and draw droplets of blood.

Thirty years.

It was a face he had never forgotten for that long time.

In the extreme cold of the Extreme Yin Land, he thought of her face every night when his bones froze. That was the only reason he could endure without going insane.

A vain hope that they might meet again someday.

But to think he would meet her like this.

He reached out his hand.

His fingers touched the cold coffin lid.

“No!”

Mukara’s scream tore through the silence.

“According to the rules of the Ice Palace, no one can open the coffin until the burial! Take your hand off immediately!”

It was a hollow shout.

Strength entered Airak’s hand. The muscles of his entire body were pulled taut like a bowstring.

Kugugugu.

The massive ice mass screamed.

The sound of a taboo that had been closed for hundreds of years being broken.

Airak pushed the coffin lid open without hesitation.

Kwang…!

The giant ice slab slammed into the floor and shattered into pieces.

Shards flew everywhere, and that roar became the signal that turned the sacred funeral hall into a slaughterhouse.

“Insolent!”

“How dare you touch the Palace Master’s noble body!”

“Strike that madman down! Strip his bones!”

Chaeng! Chachaeng!

The Ice Palace warriors drew their swords in unison.

Pale sword light filled the Ice Heart Hall.

A dozen experts at the lead rushed toward Airak’s back. A blind murderous intent to execute the stranger.

Airak did not look back.

Whether blades flew from behind or not, his gaze was nailed to Karani.

Just before the sword tips could pierce Airak’s wolf skin.

Chwararak…!

It was not the sound of cutting wind. It was a ferocious roar of iron whipping through the air. A black snake that had flown from somewhere coiled around the warriors’ swords and struck them into the air.

“Ugh?”

The warriors didn’t even have time to be flustered.

Steel clashed with steel, and sparks flew.

Kagang! Chaeng!

The Ice Palace swords, called famous swords, bent like taffy or bounced into the air.

That wasn’t the end. The dancing black shadow… the heavy iron chain as thick as a finger writhed like a living creature and snatched the warriors’ ankles.

“Argh!”

“Wh-what is this…!”

Udangtangtang!

Dozens of warriors soared into the air. An irresistible monster strength threw them.

The chain wrapped around the ice pillars on the ceiling and returned, and the warriors hung upside down like a string of dried fish, struggling.

“Let go! What is the meaning of this!”

A giant shadow cast over the struggling warriors.

Kung.

The floor of the Ice Heart Hall vibrated.

A giant man wearing bear skin walked in, winding the iron chain around his wrist. With every step, the ice on the floor cracked with a jjeok-jjeok sound.

Garkan.

The ‘Blizzard Claw’ of the Northern Sea.

He snorted and yanked the chain. The hanging warriors collided with each other and screamed.

“Know your place.”

Garkan’s gaze swept over Mukara. It was clear mockery.

“If I fought with the Chief-nim, it wouldn’t even take a second. Yet you bastards dare! Do you have two lives?”

A booming lion’s roar hit their eardrums.

“Be grateful. If the Chief-nim had used his own hands, you would be ice shards mixed with blood by now.”

Mukara’s eyes widened.

The legendary Garkan was calling that young man ‘Chief-nim’ and acting as a subordinate. And with genuine awe at that.

‘Chief? Is the Airak tribe really! Does a Northern Sea Martial Warrior actually exist? No way… is it real?’

Mukara’s gaze turned to Airak’s back.

The back of the man wearing the worn wolf skin suddenly looked as huge as a mountain.

The legend was real.

Airak erased the commotion behind him.

In his world, there was only the woman before him.

On the outside, she looked peaceful. Like Sleeping Beauty.

But Airak’s senses were not deceived.

The fishy smell of blood mixed in the cold air. And the shroud pulled up to the end of her neck, forced, so very forced.

She was desperately hiding something.

Airak’s hand grabbed Karani’s collar. His fingertips turned white.

“No….”

Mukara groaned, but it was too late.

Jjiik….

The silk was torn away. And the hell hidden under the white cloth was revealed.

“…….”

Airak’s breathing stopped. His heart sank.

It was a deception.

The peace on her face was hypocrisy for the living.

The body hidden under the shroud had no intact parts.

A long laceration from her collarbone to her abdomen. It was so deep that the flesh had split open to reveal the bone. The stab wound that had pierced through her side had ruptured her organs. The slashes carved into her thighs and arms were miserable traces of not even being able to defend herself.

Her white skin was covered in red and black wounds, looking like rags.

‘Ah…’

Airak’s eyes became bloodshot.

How much it must have hurt.

In this cold place, alone, receiving the blades, how scared she must have been.

While dying in pain, who did she call for? Waiting for me who didn’t come, did she resent me, or did she miss me?

His fingers trembled as he traced the deepest wound.

From shoulder to chest, a fatal wound drawn diagonally.

Jjirits.

The sensation touching his fingertips was alien.

It wasn’t cold.

The wound area, which should have been frozen as a corpse of the Ice Palace, was charred black. The surrounding flesh had turned like charcoal. Heat that hadn’t disappeared even though thirty days had passed.

‘Fire energy.’

It was not the martial arts of the Northern Sea. The Ice Palace bastards might handle ice, but they don’t handle fire. This was a trace of a collision of internal energy containing extreme Yang energy.

Airak narrowed his eyes.

The cross-section of the wound.

Smooth as a mirror. It wasn’t crushed by a saw or an axe. A cut surface that the crude Northern Sea sabers could not imitate. A fast sword, quick as the wind and sharp as light.

A speed that takes a life before one can even feel the pain of flesh tearing.

‘Central Plains.’

He was certain. Doubt became conviction, and conviction became murderous intent.

The culprit was not inside the Ice Palace.

Even if an internal traitor had opened the door, the ones who wielded the swords came from the Central Plains. Those who came from that warm and fertile land trampled the flower of this barren land.

It wasn’t one.

He scanned the other wounds.

Each with a different sword trajectory. Different depth. Different waves of internal energy.

‘Seven… no, eight.’

At least eight experts.

In a closed room with nowhere to run, eight blades dug into her body.

They didn’t stop their swords until the moment her breath ceased.

“Eudeudeuk.”

A sound like a beast chewing bones came from Airak’s mouth.

The temperature of the Ice Heart Hall dropped rapidly.

White frost spread from under Airak’s feet. The ice on the floor screamed and cracked jjeok-jjeok.

He slowly lowered his upper body.

He pressed his forehead against Karani’s cold forehead.

The temperature of death was transmitted to his skin.

Cold.

Too cold.

Thirty years ago, her forehead was warm.

The night the blizzard was raging. She leaned her body and whispered.

‘It’s strange. You are so cold, but when I’m by your side, it’s warm.’

At that time, her breath brushed his cheek. Living warmth. The sound of a beating heart.

Now there was nothing.

No breath, no heartbeat, no eyes looking at him and smiling.

Airak’s fingers caressed her cheek.

Skin hardened like ice.

‘…You’re late.’

No voice came out. What he hadn’t shed even once in thirty years welled up in his eyes.

Memories of the distant past flashed by.

That day thirty years ago, the night the blizzard was blowing.

She was crying. In front of the fate of having to become the Ice Palace Master, she held Airak’s hand and asked.

‘You’ll wait, right?’

‘…….’

‘Until I finish what I have to do. You’ll stay alive until then, right?’

Back then, she was warm. If he held her in his arms, he could hear her heartbeat.

He missed that warmth so desperately.

Airak closed his eyes.

A world for just the two of them was created. Noise, killing intent, Mukara’s gaze were all erased.

Only the dead lover, himself, and the blood oath remained.

He opened his mouth.

The language of the Airak tribe. The language of the wolf.

“Targa, Karani.”

(I swear, Karani.)

The low voice rang like a spell. A vow staking his soul.

“Ortera, Kansa Bella.”

(Don’t cross the river and wait.)

Hot things flowed from his eyes and wet Karani’s cheek. It was tears, but it was closer to lava than sadness.

“Senin Oernen… Yubera.”

(Those who killed you… I will send them soon.)

What was contained in his voice was not sadness.

It was hatred that seemed to freeze everything in the world. That hatred was so cold that it made the listener’s heart freeze.

“Birge Asira. Birge Kuisan.”

(Cross over together. Let’s rest together.)

Airak lifted his head.

He carefully closed Karani’s eyes.

He adjusted her torn collar to cover the horrific wounds. So she wouldn’t be cold anymore.

His touch was infinitely tender, but the eyes that turned back were no longer human.

A wolf’s instinct with emotions deleted, chasing only the goal.

He looked at Mukara.

No, he stared into the void beyond Mukara.

“Excuse me… what is your relationship with the previous Palace Master….”

Mukara asked in a trembling voice.

Pressed by the overwhelming momentum, honorifics popped out without her knowing.

She instinctively sensed. That she was standing in front of a huge disaster right now.

Airak did not answer. He didn’t feel it was worth answering.

Instead, Garkan clattered his chains and sneered.

“Vice Palace Master. No, are you the Palace Master now? That’s none of your business.”

“As long as you are involved in the affairs of the Ice Palace, we have the right to know….”

“Right?”

Airak opened his mouth.

The air in the Ice Heart Hall froze. A chill that would make your lungs tear if you inhaled.

“You bastards who don’t look for the murderer when the Palace Master is dead, you talk about rights?”

Mukara was speechless.

The embarrassment of someone whose core was pierced. And the shame as if her own flaws were exposed flushed her face red.

Airak turned away as if he had no more business.

Ttubuk. Ttubuk.

Every time he took a step, the Ice Palace warriors opened the path. There was no one with the courage to dare block his front. Only a cool chill remained where he passed.

Garkan followed and asked.

“Chief. Where are you going?”

Airak’s steps stopped. It was in front of the giant door of the Ice Heart Hall.

His gaze was not toward the north, but toward the far, far south. Beyond the blizzard, that distant place.

Wind blew through the gap in the open door of the Ice Palace.

It was the north wind that always blew from north to south. A wind that hadn’t changed for thousands of years.

But at that moment.

The ferocious killing intent that erupted from Airak’s body shook the atmosphere.

Hwi-i-i-ing…!

The blizzard flowed backward.

A giant whirlwind rose, and for the first time, the wind of the Northern Sea began to howl toward the south.

As if a wolf pack was leaving for a hunt.

Even the wind had changed direction following his murderous intent.

“Central Plains.”

The word that fell from Airak’s mouth was a declaration of war.

Now, the wolf is coming down from the mountain.

The sheep won’t even have time to pray.