Do You Happen to Know Dan Mok-gyeong? (3)
“It’s incredibly spacious~”
“They said it was the largest unit, so that makes sense.”
It wasn’t an empty boast when they claimed the patrol unit handled public security. With this many people, maintaining order was only natural. And to manage such a massive force, the headquarters that doubled as their barracks had to be this enormous. From what I remembered, they even had separate dedicated dormitories… but that wasn’t important right now.
If possible, I wanted to use the excuse of sightseeing to wander around the patrol headquarters and look for Dan Mok-gyeong.
I dug through my hazy memories, trying to recall every detail of her description.
From the patrol unit’s perspective, she was supposed to be a seemingly innocent, pretty boy… right?
She hadn’t been an adult when she joined the patrol, so she would still look like a youthful young man with a somewhat delicate face.
What else was there?
There had to be at least one distinctive clue that could help identify her.
I kept racking my brain. In the end, the biggest hint would probably be in the original novel I’d read. But how many readers actually paid close attention to the protagonist’s physical description?
From a reader’s perspective, whether the main character was a flower-like beauty or an ugly brute didn’t really matter. As long as the story was entertaining, that was enough.
…For that very reason, I couldn’t pull any clear clues from the shattered, foggy fragments of my memory.
Now that I thought about it, I vaguely remembered her carrying something around with her.
A cat? A dog?
No, was it a spirit beast?
I was pretty sure some kind of pet had appeared, but I couldn’t be certain.
There were so many wuxia novels out there. How was I supposed to remember the traits of a generic protagonist from a mass-produced one?
She hadn’t exactly been overflowing with standout personality either.
“Mister?”
“Ah, what were we talking about again?”
“We were talking about how huge the patrol unit is.”
Her voice sounded a little sulky. It seemed she was upset that I hadn’t answered her. I turned to Hye-ryeong, whose cheeks were slightly puffed out, and said,
“Sorry. My head’s a bit of a mess right now.”
“Why is your head a mess?”
“…I was thinking about the past.”
When I gave the easiest excuse for dodging the question, Hye-ryeong’s expression changed. Since she already knew I’d been a soldier, her face quickly filled with sympathy instead.
“Bad memories?”
“Not exactly.”
I turned my head and glanced around. Countless eyes were fixed on us. Most were filled with curiosity, but some carried clear hostility.
Or rather, it was more like jealousy than outright hostility.
I crossed my arms and spoke.
“The first unit I was assigned to was something like the patrol.”
Soldiers holding the front lines.
My beginning had been utterly humble.
That was only natural.
I wasn’t the legitimate son of some knightly family. I was just one random peasant dragged in because I had a bit of talent.
In that situation, I had clenched my teeth and endured the brutal training, racked my brain to squeeze out any strategy I could, and eventually caught the captain’s eye. That was how I’d rolled across the battlefields.
…Just how the hell had I survived?
To rise all the way to knighthood on a battlefield where hundreds died every day… thinking about it now, surviving a war where ninety-nine out of a hundred men perished was truly remarkable.
All my comrades had died except for me.
“Tsk. There really ought to be a heaven.”
At least then it wouldn’t feel so unfair.
“Heaven?”
“Think of it like paradise.”
“There’s a paradise in the Western Regions too?”
“Of course. People’s imaginations aren’t that different no matter where they’re from.”
Does this district not have one?
“Shall we head further inside?”
“Yes!”
I walked deeper into the patrol headquarters. There hadn’t been any man who looked like Dan Mok-gyeong in the front courtyard anyway. Since her ‘appearance’ had been mentioned multiple times as outstanding, it was fortunate that narrowing down the candidates would be easy.
Anyone ugly could immediately be ruled out.
After passing the front courtyard and entering the outer area along the wall, I spotted a simple training ground. It seemed to be where the patrol members trained. Since it was apparently break time, the field was packed with people sitting around and chatting.
Good thing we didn’t come during training. If we had, we would’ve had to turn around and leave immediately.
Of course, they might have deliberately avoided training because they’d been notified of our visit, but we weren’t exactly important people, so there was no reason for them to go that far.
“Mister, everyone’s staring at us.”
“I think they’re mostly staring at you.”
“I’m scared~”
Hye-ryeong made a fuss in an incredibly awkward, almost robotic voice, then hid behind my back and pretended to peek out cautiously.
“Want me to put the bamboo hat on you?”
“The bamboo hat?”
I loosened the strap of my bamboo hat and placed it on Hye-ryeong’s head. In an instant, the hat completely covered her face. She grabbed the brim with both hands and looked up at me.
“I can’t see your face anymore, mister.”
“You said the stares were bothering you.”
“…A westerner?”
“I’ve only heard rumors about…”
“The blue-eyed lion?”
“Who’s the young lady next to him?”
“Can’t you tell just by looking? She’s wearing the uniform of the Hainan Sword Sect.”
I wasn’t sure if hiding my face would actually reduce the attention, but it was better than doing nothing. Instead, I was the one drawing eyes now. Still, there probably wouldn’t be many people here brave enough to approach me. The xenophobia in this place was no joke.
“I don’t want to wear it.”
“Suit yourself.”
I took the bamboo hat back and put it on my own head. The harsh sunlight beating down from above naturally bounced off the wide brim.
“These people have training to do, so let’s move on.”
“Okaaay~”
We passed the training ground and entered the rear courtyard.
“Whoa…”
“There really are a lot of people.”
An endless wall of laundry racks. The sight of countless clothes flapping in the wind was quite a spectacle in its own way. And weaving between the racks, diligently hanging up the laundry, were the patrol members themselves.
They didn’t use servants for this?
Well, hiring servants cost money, so making the patrol members do the laundry was probably more convenient. Come to think of it, the protagonist had also started out doing odd jobs in the beginning.
Though, true to her protagonist status, she’d gotten promoted within a few days.
“Hanging up that many clothes… it looks like it would take all day even if you worked nonstop…”
“That’s why there are so many people doing it.”
I used to do stuff like this too. Cleaning the guts and blood off the knights’ armor had been an important duty. When battles dragged on, the filth stuck so badly that there were more than a few times I’d wanted to just hurl the armor away.
Recalling a past that held no nostalgia, I scanned the people hanging laundry. Maybe Dan Mok-gyeong was among them.
Once again, I rolled my eyes across the crowd, picking out candidates one by one.
Handsome, handsome, handsome, handsome…
…There was one.
Among the many sturdy young men, I spotted a boy who stood out.
Just as described in the original work—a youth with black hair and black eyes, still carrying a youthful face. Because he was quite young, he gave off a strongly androgynous impression.
“Mister?”
“That kid over there… did some noble family’s young master run away from home and join up?”
I pointed at the pretty boy who still had traces of youth on his face and spoke in a casual tone. Hye-ryeong followed my finger with her gaze, then looked back at me with a puzzled expression.
“Isn’t that a girl?”
“What?”
A girl?
I looked again at the person I was pointing at. The youth wearing a somewhat loose-fitting patrol uniform and hanging up laundry. The clothes were so baggy that it was genuinely difficult to determine gender from outward appearance alone.
And with that androgynous face on top of it, it was almost impossible to tell.
“Doesn’t he look too frail to be a man? There’s no muscle either…”
To verify whether Hye-ryeong was right, I strode straight toward the boy I suspected was Dan Mok-gyeong. Eyes converged on me, but it couldn’t be helped.
More important than standing out was confirming whether the person I’d just found was the protagonist from the original novel.
“Mister?!”
The mixture of curiosity at possibly meeting the protagonist of this world and relief that the world I knew was real made my steps faster than usual.
“Hey.”
“…What is it?”
A wary gaze.
The boy who turned to look at me set down the laundry basket and looked up.
Not very tall.
Or maybe I’m just big?
I raised both hands to appear as harmless as possible.
“I only have one question. Can you answer it?”
“…Why me?”
“Because I think you might be able to answer it.”
His wariness was no joke.
Though that wasn’t strange.
When a foreigner suddenly approached and spoke to you, anyone would be on guard.
“Are you asking a mere squad member like me? If you have questions, perhaps someone higher than—”
“No… it’s a question only you can answer.”
What should I even ask?
I carefully refined my final question. There was no need to complicate it. I might as well be direct.
This might become the single biggest turning point in this world.
“Do you happen to know someone named Dan Mok-gyeong?”
“…I don’t know that name.”
In response to my question, a trembling answer came back.