Meeting A Girl

Namgung Mu-baek went round to the clinic where Jong So-bin worked and found the door shut. That was a disappointment.

“Is she not seeing patients today? Or has she gone out on a call? Even then she would hardly shut the door on her other patients. Strange.”

He paced about for a good while before putting a question to a servant who came out through the door.

“Is Miss Jong within?”

The servant looked Namgung Mu-baek up and down, took him for one more of the men who came trailing after Jong So-bin, and answered without much interest.

“She said there was an urgent matter today and went out early this morning.”

“Not on a house call?”

“No. She is away.”

“When will she return?”

“She went without setting a day for it, so this humble one does not know.”

“Haa.”

He had come with his mind made up, and with Jong So-bin gone he was left hollow.

At that same hour Jong So-bin was at a mountain stronghold, and masked women stood ranged in a line around her.

“How can such a thing be?”

Before her lay a broken block of ice. Hot as the day was, the ice was not melting, and the inside of it was empty.

“Third Protector. Does the Ice Sacred Body ever wake of itself?”

Hwa-yeong shook her head.

“This subordinate hears of it now for the first time. In all the history of our Palace there is no account of the Ice Sacred Body waking of itself.”

“They say all was well until yesterday, so the Ice Sacred Body woke last night or at dawn and left this place. There has not been time to go far. If we make inquiries hereabouts we should find a trace.”

Jong So-bin’s face was full of dismay as she went on.

“Put this place in order quickly and erase every trace of us.”

“Yes, Young Palace Lord.”

Even as Hwa-yeong answered, her head turned sharply. Far off, a band of people was coming up toward them.

“Young Palace Lord. They look like the band that has been on our trail these last few days.”

“Yes. They are coming straight for us. All of you, make ready to fight.”

The figures had been dots in the distance a moment ago; in an instant they were on the mountaintop where Jong So-bin stood.

“Young Palace Lord.”

Jong So-bin took in the arrivals at a glance and her face darkened. Among them stood one of the Elder Faction that held the North Sea Ice Palace now.

“What brings Elder Yu all the way out here? Do you mean to have me killed as well, come what may? Was the Palace Lord not enough for you?”

The sharp-featured old woman answered, her face cold and still.

“The North Sea Ice Palace has been run by the Palace Lord and the Elders together in every generation. And then the Palace Lord set about being rid of the Elder Faction, so we resisted because there was nothing else to be done. The Young Palace Lord knows this perfectly well.”

“That was to stop the Elder Faction from drawing in an outside power. Of all places — how could you think of drawing in the Blood Cult? And is our Palace the better for it now?”

Jong So-bin’s words cut, and the elder, Yu Yeok-rip, worked her mouth.

“Hand over the Ice Sacred Body. The Ice Sacred Body belongs to the Ice Palace, not to the Young Palace Lord personally.”

“Why? Do you mean to offer up the Ice Sacred Body to the Blood Cult as well?”

“Haah. The Blood Cult is a power that will give us our footing to advance into the Central Plains. There is no need to see nothing but bad in it. And is the Young Palace Lord not one whose life will soon be over without a Solar Body? How long must we go on carrying such a fate?”

Yu Yeok-rip let out a long, heavy sigh and continued.

“We must come out into the Central Plains, overcome our fate, and make the Ice Palace one of the pillars of the murim. If we do not, we shall all be winnowed out. Is the Young Palace Lord herself not posing as a physician in order to find a Solar Body? How long do you mean to live like that?”

Jong So-bin shook her head.

“The Ice Palace has worth only where it stands, in the North Sea.”

“Your thinking is more hidebound than the previous Palace Lord’s. Our Ice Palace is a house with the strength to master the whole murim. It is time we thought of the people of the Palace and went out into the world.”

“From the day the Elder Faction assassinated the Palace Lord I have taken no interest in what you do. Whether you go out into the world or set up a school in the murim, I shall take no interest. Do as you please.”

“And we shall take no interest in whatever the Young Palace Lord does. But the Ice Sacred Body you must hand over.”

“And if I say I do not have it?”

Yu Yeok-rip let her killing intent loose as she spoke.

“Then we shall take the Ice Sacred Body if we have to kill the Young Palace Lord for it.”

At a lift of her hand, women in white closed a ring around them.

“You have brought a great many.”

On her own side stood only herself and the Third Protector Hwa-yeong, but the rest of her people were not even first-rate masters. The masters Yu Yeok-rip had brought were all elites of the Ice Palace, and the elder herself was a master the Young Palace Lord and Hwa-yeong together could not be sure of beating.

So Jong So-bin decided to be honest.

“You are a step too late. The Ice Sacred Body has already woken and gone.”

“What nonsense is this! How could the Ice Sacred Body have woken alone!”

“If you doubt it so much, look for yourself.”

Jong So-bin led them into the stronghold, to where the block of ice that would not melt was kept. Yu Yeok-rip looked at the hollow inside it and knitted her brow.

“Is that truly the case?”

“We were startled ourselves, and were in the middle of getting at the truth of it.”

Yu Yeok-rip touched the ice and sighed.

“So it is.”

There was no mistaking it. The Ice Sacred Body had lain sleeping in this ice, and ice grown out of ice crystal would not melt unless true qi were turned on it. To wake the Ice Sacred Body from outside, a person had to melt the ice crystal with internal qi. The block was still here, unmelted, which meant the Ice Sacred Body had woken of itself and broken the ice.

“So in the end nobody knows where the Ice Sacred Body has gone! And why did you bring the thing here at all!”

Yu Yeok-rip turned the blame on Jong So-bin.

“Better than the Ice Sacred Body falling into another power’s hands. Do you imagine the Blood Cult would simply leave the Ice Sacred Body be?”

Jong So-bin went on.

“Have you given any thought to the calamity that will come if the Ice Sacred Body passes into the Blood Cult’s hands? Elder Yu!”

“How should we hand the Ice Sacred Body to the Blood Cult? That is the Young Palace Lord’s misunderstanding.”

“Even if the Elder Faction has no such intention, the Blood Cult will certainly get the Ice Sacred Body into its hands. That will be why it joined hands with the Elder Faction in the first place.”

Yu Yeok-rip judged it not worth an answer and gave the subordinates around her an order.

“You will search out the Ice Sacred Body, working from the stronghold outward. Find even the smallest sign!”

At the word, several dozen women in white scattered. Matters standing as they now did, Jong So-bin found herself hoping instead that the Ice Sacred Body was keeping well hidden, out of Yu Yeok-rip’s reach.

“We cannot simply stand about in a daze either. Turn out every hand we can use and find the Ice Sacred Body.”

“Yes, Young Palace Lord.”

“The Ice Sacred Body must not pass into Elder Yu’s hands.”

Jong So-bin ground her teeth.

On my way back from buying the herbs I needed, the husband and wife at the noodle stall saw me and called out gladly.

“Scholar! Good day to you!”

I smiled and returned their greeting.

“Is the trade going well?”

As I came up to the stall, the smell rising off the broth was not what it had been. A faint scent of medicinal herbs ran through it now, and it smelled like something worth eating.

“How is it? Are they selling well?”

The man broke into a wide smile at that.

“It gave us a real surprise. We put in the herbs you told us of, Scholar, and drew them off together with the rest, and the customers say the broth is delicious — we have twice as many as before.”

“Is that so? As good as all that?”

The man at the noodle stall scratched his head.

“The customers say it is good, but I do not know how it will be to your taste, Scholar.”

I sat down on the stool and said,

“That is well timed. I was feeling a little peckish — I shall have a bowl of noodles.”

I took up a mouthful and was full of admiration.

“It is good. The broth is clean on the tongue and has a savory depth to it.”

A flavor like this meant they had taken the herbs I named and worked out the proportions that tasted best.

“You have worked hard at it.”

“It is all owing to you, Scholar.”

And sure enough, passers-by and merchants alike greeted me, polished off a bowl of noodles apiece and went their way. There were not a few of them. In the short while it took me to eat mine, ten customers came and went.

Just then a rumbling came from behind me, and I turned round. A girl who looked a little past ten was staring hard at the noodles.

The girl’s clothes caught the eye. Her skin was so bright and clear that her face looked almost pale, with no mark of hardship on it. Against that she wore coarse hemp, the sort a slash-and-burn farmer might wear, and it hung loose on her besides, the way second-hand clothes do.

“Would you like a bowl of noodles?”

I asked the girl, and she nodded. I pointed to the seat beside me.

“Sit here.”

She looked at me a moment, then sat down beside me.

“One bowl of noodles, please.”

For all that she looked hungry, the girl ate her noodles with perfect decorum. She ate slowly, as though savoring them, and drank down every last drop of the broth.

“Brother, can I have another bowl?”

I grinned at the girl, who called me Brother as naturally as breathing¹.

A voice with breeding in it. Her speech and her manner made it plain she was no girl who had been raised carelessly.

“It is good. It is really good.”

At the girl’s praise the noodle-seller’s wife boasted.

“Of course it is. The broth in these noodles is made by a secret method the Scholar here taught us.”

“Truly?”

The girl glanced at me and nodded.

“Brother. What do you do? Are you a cook?”

She spoke down to me from first to last, and yet it was neither ill-mannered nor unlikable. Not because she was pretty, but because she did it so entirely naturally, like someone who had spent her whole life speaking down to people.

“No, I’m a scholar.”

“Oh, is that so? What’s your name, Brother Scholar?”

“My name’s Cheon Tae-san.”

“That’s a name to suit a handsome Brother Scholar.”

“Much obliged.”

The girl’s antics were charming, and without thinking I stroked her head. Her black hair was like silk, so I smoothed it once more.

“Huh?”

The girl’s eyes came open bright and clear, and she said to me,

“Someone told me you mustn’t go stroking a woman’s head as you please. Who was it, now.”

The girl seemed to think about it, then shook her head.

“I can’t remember.”

“Sorry if it bothered you. I won’t take the price of the noodles, by way of amends.”

“Huh? Really? Then stroke it once more.”

“Why?”

“So I can have another bowl.”

“Hahaha. All right. Another bowl here, please.”

I stroked the girl’s silken hair again.

“What’s your name?”

“My name is…”

She seemed to think for a long while, then tilted her head.

“That’s strange. I can’t remember my name.”

She had the face of someone who genuinely could not remember.

“Why can’t I remember my name?”

I looked at the girl a while, then asked,

“Do you know where your home is?”

“Home?”

The girl went on tilting her head.

“I can’t remember my home either.”

For someone who could remember neither her name nor her home, she was on the cheerful side.

“Do you have anywhere to stay just now?”

She rolled her eyes upward and thought a long while, then shook her head.

“No.”

The noodle-seller’s wife spoke with pity in her eyes.

“Scholar, the harvest has been bad of late and there are a great many more orphans about. On North Road alone the number of little beggars has risen noticeably.”

And sure enough, vagrants and beggars were always to be seen on North Road, though today their number seemed to have doubled. The noodle-seller’s wife took the girl for one more of the children set wandering and begging for their food.

“Is there nothing else you remember?”

“That’s the strange part. There’s nothing I remember about myself. Other things I remember.”

It occurred to me that she might have taken an injury or a shock and lost part of her memory.

“Thank you for the meal, Brother Scholar.”

The girl whose name I did not know finished her noodles and dipped her head slightly to me.

“Where were you going?”

“Mm, an older man bought me something good to eat earlier and told me to come find him if I had nowhere to sleep. I thought I’d go there.”

With that the girl went off into an alley.

“Scholar, will it do to leave that child to herself like that?”

I was worried too, so I made my way quietly toward the alley the girl had disappeared into.