Chapter 12

TL: pineapples

ED: Sid

***

“You don’t have to repeat yourself. I acted like a complete stranger so you don’t have to worry”

“My sources have said that rats from the North Sea have infiltrated the Great 100,000 Mountain. Young Miss’ condition must never be revealed.”

The princess of the North Sea Ice Palace declared that she would return the anger of losing her daughter to Cheonma.

A North Sea rat was a spy sent by the North Sea Palace to locate the child.

“Wasn’t the rumor spread that the Young Miss is in town and has been recuperating since a month ago? Plus I’ve alerted the servants so they won’t let their guard down.”

“I’m so glad that Young Miss uses honorifics. Who would ever believe that the Leader’s daughter would be so respectful?”

He smoothly talked about the child, who had taken the life-saving oil and underwent a transformation. As her body had transformed to one that could accept martial arts, her undeveloped muscles had also been repaired.

Though listening to her babble with her small lips was cute, listening to her perfect pronunciation was even cuter. The child was polite in her greetings and was kind.

While watching her do this and that with her cute face, his hands itched. He wanted to hug her so badly.

If she was a random child from another faction, he would have been scoffed at himself for doing such childish things at such an age. However, since it was their child, it was acceptable.

The child still had a bright side despite suffering vicious abuse by Bing Eun-seol. That was how exceptional the child was.

So, the elders wanted the child to learn a different martial arts rather than dark arts. Rather than something going wrong and the magic backlash causing death, a stable power, albeit slow, was better for the child. Though they wanted to procure a magic book for the child right away, the situation with the North Sea Ice Palace had given them no room to breathe.

That was why Cheonma had left the child in their care and went down to the village to attract the attention of the spies. In the meantime, the elders were happy to protect the child and give her some random trinkets. Of course, to avoid suspicion, they were pretending to not care about her.

However, actually doing that was more difficult than exceeding the limits of martial arts.

The Poison King looked at his hand and sighed.

“Hu… when I saw those little fingers make the flower ring… I almost started crying. It was the first time in 80 years that I’ve felt that emotion.”

“For me, it was when I heard that I looked good with the flowers. I’ve never heard that before in my life and almost started crying as well.”

Seems that the saying that you cry a lot when you get old was right. But the elders shook their heads, denying that the saying applied to them.

“By the way, what did the Xi King prepare? Maybe he will give her a zombie?”

He was a person that even the elders respected. On the surface, he was a shabby old man with a wrinkled face and a curved back, but he was called the Xi King (the king of dead bodies) by the elders.

The Xi King closed his eyes and silently smiled.

————————————————————————-

“Who am I going to meet today?”

I thought as I sat down on the flower bed.

It was the time to be alive. Seoyoung is nice and all, but sometimes it was boring with just her. It was boring to keep talking with a person who went by the book.

The old men also looked interesting. Maybe they thought this was a place to practise martial arts?

Even though they were magicians, they weren’t necessarily evil.

Their words were blunt, but I felt warmth from their words. They gave me presents even though they didn’t even know who I was.

Of course, there were some things I didn’t know, such as why they were giving me gifts. But I still felt good.

It’s not because I’m the daughter of the Leader, but they were just giving me presents.

So, I didn’t tell them my real identity.

It felt a bit wrong to lie but I couldn’t do anything about that. If I tell them my secret, they would cause trouble in the future.

They probably thought I was some regular child, so I’ll just pretend like I am. But have there ever been any other kids here besides me? I don’t think I’ve seen anyone else.

I tilted my head in confusion.

“Girl, a child shouldn’t sit in the cold.”

“Kuhak!”

The sudden voice frightened me. I almost fell over in surprise but a warm hand held me back from falling.

“Be careful.”

He was an old man with wrinkles on his face and eyes were like the ones from a Hahoe mask. He was already short but because of the hump on his back his posture was bent. Thus he looked even smaller.

The old man put down his stick, pulled me up, and dusted my clothes off.

“Are you hurt?”

“No, sir.”

“This old man must have scared you. I’m sorry.”

“No worries, sir. My liver is the size of my tiny fist.” TL: a Korean saying meaning that she gets easily scared.

“Hehe, but that size seems appropriate.”

I was going to say that my liver was the size of a bean, but I was so surprised that I said something else. While I was a little embarrassed about choosing the wrong words, the old man reached out to me.

“My child, I was wondering if you’re sick. Do you mind if I check?”

—————————————————————————————

“Here.”

I held my wrist out without any hesitation.

“You shouldn’t give your wrist so easily to others. Do you understand?” The old man said in a stern voice.

“I know, I know it’s dangerous.”

“So why did you allow an old man that you met for the first time to touch such an important part?”

In my previous life, there used to be an old man who looked quite similar and lived in the house next to the underground studio where I lived. He lived alone in that small house. The bent-over old man lived by selling waste paper and empty bottles.

When we ran into each other on the way, we only greeted each other and were not very close.

But one day the old man started to leave milk or bread in front of my house. Even though he didn’t have anything to eat himself.

I hated that so much. He seemed to pity me. He was treating me like a beggar.

So one day I got angry. And scolded him that I had money so he didn’t need to do this.

What did the old man say then?

“Don’t think I’m helping you, kid, instead you’re the one helping me. I’m not happy to think that a child as young as my granddaughter is starving.”

It turned out that the walls of my studio were very thin. So the old man heard my lamentation of “I ran out of money to buy ramen… I’m hungry”.

Looking at this old grandpa reminded me of the old man next door. The old man that said “It’s not dirty, so you can eat it”. The old man who kept giving me food even though I never thanked him.

I smiled.

“Just because I like you, grandpa.”

The old fogey stared at me for a moment then grabbed me by the wrist. I sat absentmindedly because it didn’t hurt at all. But then the old man grinned.

“Your powers have increased.”

“Excuse me? Grandpa, I never learned martial arts.”

“Your internal qi is power that can cultivate martial arts well. You don’t necessarily need to learn martial arts to have these powers.”

“… do I really have powers?”

Why didn’t I know?

“Huh? Uh?”

At that moment, I felt a strange movement in my lower stomach.

As soon as I felt something slowly turning in a circle, my body became light.

“These are your powers. Remember this feeling and practice moving it every morning.”

This was the basic power one needed to practise martial arts. Without these basic powers, it was useless to learn martial arts.

So when I was thinking about how to build up my inner strength, I already had it!? What is this lucky development?

With this, I was halfway to my escape once I learned martial arts properly.  All I needed to do now was to get money to escape.

“I will practice everyday!”

“Good, I need to give a nice child a present.”

The old grandpa took something out of his clothes and gave it to me.

“What is this?”

“Open it up.”

Once I untied the cloth, I saw a white branch about 30 centimeters long. TL: for the yankees, this is about a foot.

At the end, there was a white flower bud about the size of a thumb, but strangely, it didn’t fall off.

What is that, it’s so cute!

I touched the branch and put it down in surprise.

It was because I felt my energy drained as soon as I touched it with my fingertips.

“Oh, oh? Grandpa, this is weird!”

“It’s a tree that grows with cold energy. Your powers are close to the cold, so feed it.”

A tree that grows when I feed it with my powers! As expected, he was a martial artist! I exclaimed.

“Wow, that’s amazing! How do I give it powers?”

“If you want to feed it energy, grab the tree like you did just now and let go if you want to stop. You can use it to practice your control over your qi.”

“Oh, this is too difficult.”

“Take your time. The branch doesn’t need a lot of energy because it is still young. Since it’s you, you will learn quickly. One piece of advice though: don’t pamper it.”

It was advice that could only be said to a child. It was like how an adult gives a child a doll and asks them to take good care of it.

I held back my laughter and clasped my hands like a child.

“I understand. I’ll raise it strictly!”

“Of course.”

“But what should I do when it’s fully grown?”

The old man was silent for a moment and then whispered with a playful expression.

“Ten thousand flowers will bloom at the end of the tree.”

Wow, now there’s only one flower on it, but it’s going to grow to ten thousand?

“Do you want to hear another secret?”

Wow, this old man was a storyteller. He was definitely a storyteller. My eyes twinkled.

“Please tell me!”

“The flowers that bloom on this ice branch are more precious than some jewels.”

‘… that’s crazy.’

I realized. My last question had been answered.

“Grandpa!”

Clinging onto the old man’s neck, I kissed him on the cheek.

Jok jok jok. TL note: SFX of kissing

Grandfather stroked my hair and laughed loudly. It was such a bright smile that I couldn’t even see his eyes at all.