By Zephyria 
HF 25
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* * *
He had thought that Mu-gyeong usually returned home regularly, but it had been several days since he had last been seen. There had been no word from him since he left to track the Blood Cult. The saying that no news is good news did not apply to Ho-yeon.
No matter how exceptional Mu-gyeong’s martial prowess was, there were many masters in the world. Yesterday, he tried to brush it off, wondering if he had simply gone far away, but he had spent the night tossing and turning, and due to his anxiety, he couldn’t even perform meditative breathing properly.
Worried that he might have been injured somewhere, Ho-yeon spent the midday searching for Mu-gyeong here and there. He skipped lunch and only returned to the cottage when evening fell. Since he had told Ruju the same excuse he gave Young Master Yeom—that he wouldn’t be able to work for a while—he had managed to secure fifteen days of time.
Ho-yeon fiddled with his newly darkened hair.
‘Surely he didn’t leave me behind and just go?’
Ho-yeon became utterly depressed. Though he felt no cold, he lay curled up, crumpled on the bed. He remained motionless, like a piece of ice that would melt away if the morning sun rose to shine upon the bed.
Cold frost energy repeatedly leaked from the corners of his mouth. Fortunately, the problem in his dantian had been restored early, but it seemed the side effects remained. However, this was merely a guess, as he had rarely used the sealed internal energy, leaving him with no clear indicator.
I can’t be like this… Ho-yeon tried to get up and attempt meditative breathing somehow, but he couldn’t move a muscle.
Having spent the entire day running around with a body that hadn’t slept properly—like someone suffering from insomnia—his physical form could not withstand the fatigue. The cold he felt in his own body felt as if his bones were being carved. He thought about heating a stone in the brazier and bringing it over, but he couldn’t even move a single finger.
He didn’t want to fall asleep. He was afraid that if he slept now, he might freeze to death.
Since the high-body-temperature Mu-gyeong had been by his side, it had been a very long time since he had felt this cold and lonely. His eyelids felt as if they were frozen, closing and opening very slowly, before Ho-yeon finally closed his eyes in silence. Hoping that he would at least not have nightmares.
* * *
Today, as always, Ho-yeon was trapped in the cave beneath the Eternal Snow Mountains.
Since all the children beside him had frozen to death, starved to death, or died of illness, Ho-yeon was alone. No, to be precise, he wasn’t entirely alone.
The Ice Dragon, known as a legendary being, was watching Ho-yeon while coiled in a far corner, its body spanning hundreds of feet. Even so, the Ice Dragon did not approach Ho-yeon at all. Not a single scale budged. This was because frost would scatter whenever the Ice Dragon moved.
The Ice Dragon’s scales were a transparent blue, and each individual scale boasted the hardness and sharpness of steel. The Ice Dragon simply watched Ho-yeon, who had been left alone after all the other children died.
At first, Ho-yeon was extremely wary of the Ice Dragon, but seeing that it did not approach further, he repeatedly chewed on the fasting pills beside him.
An ordinary human would have frozen to death long before even facing the Ice Dragon’s massive body. Thus, this was the first time the Ice Dragon had encountered a human from such a close distance.
The Ice Dragon had a habit of yawning, and since an immense frost energy spread every time it did, the Ice Dragon had to exercise great patience for the sake of the human, who was as small as a single scale.
The Ice Dragon observed Ho-yeon for a very long time. Even from a distance where the human could not see it. The Ice Dragon could tell what the child was doing and what he was saying just by the energy Ho-yeon emitted.
Like the other children, Ho-yeon had fallen into the depths of the Eternal Snow Mountains due to human greed. However, amidst the larger children who acted viciously just to survive, he looked after the small and fragile ones. There were days he fought until his nose bled, and he even wailed uncontrollably when a child he had fought with died.
Watching the unchanging Ho-yeon, the Ice Dragon couldn’t help but grow fond of the child. It vowed that one day, it would send him back up to the surface. However, it would take an enormous amount of time for the child to become accustomed to its frost energy. A mere human lifespan was not nearly enough.
Thus, while ten years had passed in the time of the real world before the Ice Dragon reached Ho-yeon, over a hundred years had passed in the underground space of the Eternal Snow Mountains created by the Ice Dragon.
The Ice Dragon also kept Ho-yeon asleep for a very long time so that his physical body could adapt to the severe frost energy. However, simply sleeping was not the solution. Ho-yeon had to perform meditative breathing on his own to create a body suitable for ice art. This was because the energy emitted by the Ice Dragon was ice art itself.
Furthermore, the Ice Dragon worried that Ho-yeon might die of loneliness. Therefore, it brought items from the outside for him. When Ho-yeon spent time alone, he embroidered with silk that the Ice Dragon had obtained using its powers. There were also a Go board and ice marbles, but since Ho-yeon had loved drawing since he was young, he only showed interest in embroidery.
“Child, I wish to send you up, but if I approach any further, your body will freeze solid.”
At the voice of the Ice Dragon speaking to him for the first time, Ho-yeon, who was embroidering, opened his blue-grey eyes wide. At that time, Ho-yeon was nineteen, and it had been ten years since he was trapped beneath the Eternal Snow Mountains. His hair was not a pure white; it was slightly duller than the silver thread in his hand.
“I promise that when you can withstand my frost energy, I will send you up.”
Ho-yeon had assumed that he and the children who had already died had come as prey for the Ice Dragon. However, the Ice Dragon only chewed on eternal ice and seemed to have no interest in human bodies.
“I do not lie, so you may trust me.”
At first, he wondered if the Ice Dragon’s voice was a telepathic transmission, but it was not a sound carried using internal energy. The Ice Dragon’s thoughts were being transmitted directly into his mind. Because of this, Ho-yeon could not even tell if the Ice Dragon was female or male.
After a long time had passed, one day, the Ice Dragon used its massive front paw to break the ice it was eating into very fine pieces. It broke and broke it until it was no larger than a grain of sand to the Ice Dragon. Then, moving its claws delicately, the Ice Dragon flicked it toward Ho-yeon. It was eternal ice containing a very faint amount of the inner power of the ice dragon.
“You must eat only one every seven days. I can count the passing days, so I will send you this eternal ice each time.”
Even with the Ice Dragon’s tiny movement, a flurry of frost that felt as if it would freeze his entire body rushed in again. The Ice Dragon held its breath, hoping only that Ho-yeon would not freeze to death. However, Ho-yeon’s entire body turned bluish in an instant.
It had taken the Ice Dragon a long time to reveal itself to Ho-yeon like this. Now that the human could finally see it, it seemed it was about to lose the human.
The Ice Dragon had only moved its claws slightly. But to the human, it felt no different from the powerful ice storms that raged across the Eternal Snow Mountains. It was a miscalculation to think that it had approached slowly over a long period of time.
Despite the effort put in over all that time, Ho-yeon was dying. Everything it had done previously was about to go to waste because of a single, trivial flick of a claw. The Ice Dragon could neither pull back nor move closer. If it did, Ho-yeon would lose his breath even faster.
A day passed, and then two more, and Ho-yeon’s breath continued to fade by the moment. Would he be able to hold on for even half a day more? After that, Ho-yeon would no longer look like a living being.
The Ice Dragon watched the dying child without blinking. Then, as if having decided something, it lifted its head sharply. There seemed to be no trace of hesitation.
“Open the barrier right now.”
Even while freezing to death, Ho-yeon heard the Ice Dragon’s voice. His thoughts had stopped to the point where he couldn’t even wonder why the Ice Dragon’s voice sounded so desperate.
He felt no sensation in the arms wrapped around his body, but he expected them to snap with the slightest impact. Therefore, Ho-yeon curled his body further and pressed against the wall. No, in truth, his body could not move at all.
“Fire Dragon! Are you not dying as well!”
As if something was not going as planned, the Ice Dragon vented its anger several times and shouted in frustration.
Ho-yeon realized why the Ice Dragon had transmitted its voice to his mind rather than through its mouth when speaking before. As the cave shook violently from the Ice Dragon’s roar, it felt as if his entire body would be shattered. However, since death was not far off, the Ice Dragon’s voice also gradually faded from his consciousness.