Seol Jungcheon.
He was no fool. In fact, if he were, there’s no way he could have reached that level.
He’d sensed it from the very beginning.
That Seol Unwi had no interest in things like etings.
It was a curious thing.
Even though the topic of that eting was as grave as the possible annihilation of the Everlasting Snow Palace, his attitude treated it like sothing trivial.
Anyone would think that kind of reaction went beyond strange and into madness. But Seol Jungcheon wasn’t like that.
If anything, he found it intriguing.
“You looked like you had sothing to say. Go ahead, then. Let’s see what matters to you that much.”
“I’ll be direct.”
“Good. I prefer that.”
“I’m going to take Yangnyeong.”
“...You?”
“Yes.”
Again, it was strange.
Was that really all he ca to say?
But that thought changed with what Seol Unwi said next.
“Wasn’t that the reason you sent to the Snow Compression Branch in the first place?”
“Not exactly.”
“Is that so? I thought it was the sa, in the sense of proving myself.”
“You’re saying... you intend to prove your worth that way?”
“I’m a bastard son, aren’t I.”
“...”
“For soone like to be recognized, it’s only natural that I have to build achievents. And you’ve been giving constant opportunities to do so.”
There was sothing about Seol Unwi’s words that gave Seol Jungcheon a strange feeling.
It wasn’t just a back-and-forth of argunts. There seed to be sothing else layered within those words.
He read it imdiately.
“How much do you know?”
“I know most of it. That you’ve been giving chances. That you assigned soone to either protect ... or watch . That you kept throwing trials my way.”
The Everlasting Snow Palace wasn’t full of fools. There’s no way they didn’t know that the Snow Compression Branch leader had been hollowed out and turned into a puppet by the people beneath him.
There’s only one explanation.
They knew—and allowed it.
And they had good reason.
“You wanted to prove myself. So now I will.”
“You really... have changed.”
“I had to. And if I manage to take Yangnyeong, I’ll have exceeded your expectations—so I’d like to ask for sothing, if I may.”
“You want sothing?”
“There are two things. But if I achieve that much, I believe you’ll give the first without needing to ask.”
“And the second?”
“I need a core from a Ten-Thousand-Year Fla Carp.”
As the na suggests, it’s a carp that has lived ten thousand years.
It’s treated as a spiritual beast. Any creature that lives over a thousand years naturally forms a core. And that core releases energy that no elixir can ever compare to...
“And what would a martial artist even do with sothing so rare?”
“What do you think a martial artist would do with it?”
Seol Unwi raised both arms slightly.
“This body’s too damn weak. I need to consu sothing like a Fla Carp’s core just to break through and start over. What else can I do?”
It was strange.
Truly strange.
“You sound like soone else entirely.”
“Soone else, huh... Palace Lord. I had a very long dream recently.”
“The sa dream you spoke of before?”
“Yes. In that dream, I ruled the world... and yet I regretted one single mont from the past. Obsessively.”
“Regret, is it...”
“It held down my entire life. I couldn’t see opportunities for what they were. I locked myself away in a prison I built with my own hands, lived a aningless life, ignored what mattered, ran away... I never want to live like that again. I imagine you must’ve had regrets of your own too, Palace Lord.”
“You think I have?”
“You did father a bastard, didn’t you?”
“That I did.”
“Even after giving him countless chances, hearing report after report about how that fool didn’t even recognize them as chances... I imagine you regretted it. Didn’t you?”
Surprisingly,
Seol Jungcheon didn’t even take ti to think. He spoke with unwavering certainty.
“No.”
“...I see. I thought you might say that.”
Seol Jungcheon rose from his seat.
“Do you think I’m a cold man?”
“You are the Lord of the Everlasting Snow Palace. It only makes sense that your martial arts—and your heart—are cold.”
“Even so... if I’m cold as a Palace Lord, then how do I seem to you as a father?”
“...”
“The title of Palace Lord... it’s ultimately just a role. A matter of governance.”
Seol Unwi quietly listened to his words. Seol Jungcheon descended from the platform with heavy, deliberate steps and stopped right in front of him.
“You can’t lead a force this great with strength alone. You need relationships, justification—legitimacy. Those co first. Strength only matters after. You have three older brothers and one older sister. All of them have backgrounds. And those backgrounds support this palace.”
“So you’re saying... I have the least value.”
Seol Jungcheon let out a short chuckle.
Unexpected.
It was the first ti Seol Unwi had ever seen his father laugh like that.
“I won’t deny that your value is low. Coldly speaking, you’re not soone anyone in the palace pays attention to. Nor do you show much promise.”
He paused briefly, looking down at his son.
“You asked before—whether I had regrets.”
“Yes.”
“I’ll answer you now. I did. Your mother, Iryeong, was a woman who loved not the Palace Lord... but the man nad Seol Jungcheon.”
“...”
“And I loved her. I could’ve given her everything. You... were the gift she left behind. Regrets? Of course. If I had brought her here to the palace, I might have noticed she had sealed her own ridians. She used martial training as an excuse, but she was suppressing her own flow of energy. I was too blind. I missed my chance. And I lost her.”
“...”
“When you asked if I had regrets... what you really ant was, do I regret bringing you into this world? Isn’t that right?”
“Yes.”
“Then I’ll speak plainly. I don’t regret it at all.”
“...”
“Even if you were a bastard. Even if you’d been born without eyes, without arms... even without a dantian. I still would’ve smiled the mont you ca into this world.”
“...”
“I wanted you to realize it on your own. To understand my position. I never said these things to you because I truly believed... that one day, you would.”
“...”
“I won’t deny that either. I wanted too much. Not one thing, not two—three, then more. And the more I wanted, the more isolated you must have felt. Even so, I waited. Do I seem cold to you?”
“You seem a little... harsh.”
“Harsh, huh... You’re welco to resent . Call heartless if you like. I’ll accept it without complaint. I’ve done enough to deserve that.”
He wasn’t wrong.
But there was one thing that had to be made clear.
Seol Jungcheon cared about Seol Unwi.
And what was it that Seol Unwi had co to realize—too late?
This.
His father’s heart.
How could soone as weak as Seol Unwi have run away from within the territory of the Everlasting Snow Palace?
How could he have entered a secret realm—alone?
That secret realm...
It was Inspector Seong who had told him about it. But was he really the only one who knew?
Of course not.
It was Seol Jungcheon who knew. And Seol Jungcheon who let it happen.
It was in that place that Seol Unwi cultivated strength and stepped back into the world. Afterward, he shook up the martial realm and beca a powerhouse.
And throughout that entire path, Seol Jungcheon silently supported him.
Until the day he died.
That part—was real.
After Seol Jungcheon’s death, the Everlasting Snow Palace began to rot. And Seol Unwi couldn’t just stand by and watch it happen.
At first, he tried to persuade them. Then again. And again, a third ti.
But when words no longer worked, by the fourth ti—he stopped speaking.
He was no dutiful son. But he didn’t want to be an unfilial one either.
He wanted to honor what his father stood for.
If the Everlasting Snow Palace chose to walk “that kind of path,” then it deserved to collapse.
So Seol Unwi started a war—alone.
And in the end, the palace fell. At the hands of the bastard son, Seol Unwi.
That was the truth.
And not for a single mont does Seol Unwi regret what he did.
Because he firmly believed that if it had been Seol Jungcheon, he would have made the exact sa choice.
With unwavering eyes, Seol Unwi said,
“I won’t point fingers. I won’t resent you.”
“...Hmm.”
“On the contrary—I’m only grateful.”
“Grateful...”
“I’ve never been good with words. I don’t know if I get that from you, or from my mother, who’s passed... but I do know how to speak from the heart.”
Seol Unwi took a step back—and clasped his hands in a martial salute.
“Your boundless grace, Palace Lord... I realized it far too late.”
“...”
“I intend to repay it. But if you wish to cast out... I’ll leave, without a shred of regret.”
Seol Jungcheon reached out and gently wrapped both of Seol Unwi’s arms—with a single hand.
That’s how large Seol Jungcheon’s hands were. No exaggeration—inhumanly large.
“Even if you beco a ‘Blood Seal,’ I would never cast you out.”
Seol Unwi let out an awkward smile.
“So... you knew.”
“I was inford. More than that, you already killed the Ice Snow Sword Mark, didn’t you? There’s no way Inspector Seong could have kept quiet after that.”
“I understand.”
“Never forget. You are my son.”
“I know that. Pal... no. Father.”
For the first ti—
It was the first ti he’d ever said those words, with Seol Jungcheon standing right in front of him.
Father.
So close, and yet so distant. The most difficult person in the world to face.
“...That’s good. Hearing you call ‘Father’ like that.”
“If we ever et privately again, I’ll say it every ti.”
Seol Jungcheon burst into laughter.
A deep, satisfied laugh—and while laughing like that, a sudden question ca to him.
“Just now... You said there were two things you wanted. One was the Fla Carp’s core. So what’s the other?”
There was only one answer.
“The Complete Snow Codex.”
A martial manual containing the full history and legacy of the Everlasting Snow Palace, passed down only to the direct bloodline of the Palace Lord.
You could call it a ◆ Nоvеlіgһt ◆ (Only on Nоvеlіgһt) scripture—or, as the na says, a complete codex.
Upon hearing this, Seol Jungcheon responded without hesitation.
“If that’s what you want, I could show it to you right now.”
Seol Unwi shook his head.
“That’s not what I want.”
“...Hmm...”
“I intend to prove I’m worthy.”
“...”
“Only if I prove myself will there be no resistance to learning from the Snow Codex. And if there is resistance—then that resistance itself will justify what cos next.”
“You an... you’re ready to draw blood.”
“No matter which path you choose to walk from here, Father—I’m certain it won’t be the sa path I take.”
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