Tribute

After the hunters left, I made the rounds of all thirteen passes, meeting with each pass commander one by one.

The border was vast, and the Empire's garrisons were deployed across its entire expanse, so there was no telling when or where the hunters might run into a soldier under one of the commanders' commands. The coordinates that allowed crossing over from Earth weren't limited to the area around Pamagok, either — giving warning in advance was the only way to prevent unnecessary bloodshed.

The commanders were puzzled when I told them I had granted the barbarians leniency, but from what they could see, the strangers didn't amount to much of a force. Since I wasn't asking them to open their gates or offer aid — merely to hold their fire and leave the outsiders alone — most of them complied without complaint.

There was, of course, one voice of concern. It belonged to No Chil, who had recently transferred into the post of commander of the 13th Pass.

"Ah, Your Excellency the Grand Marshal, to think you would travel so far just to grace me with your presence!"

The moment word of my arrival reached him, he came rushing out of the fortress walls to greet me, practically falling over his own feet. His face was plastered with a look that said, Why does this bastard keep showing up? — but not a word of it passed his lips.

"If you wished to see my face, a simple summons would have sufficed. This old servant frets that I might be squandering the precious hours of a Grand Marshal so burdened with duty."

"Haha, not at all. We're old acquaintances, aren't we?"

Our roles had reversed entirely since the old days. No Chil had once conspired with Gu Sam to check my rise. He had never laid hands on Pamagok directly, so even after I became Grand Marshal I let him keep his post — but I did make a point of visiting him from time to time.

He knew perfectly well what he'd done wrong, and every visit I made, he stuffed bribes into my hands by the fistful. From a good family, with connections reaching into both the military and the court, he had amassed quite a fortune even while playing commander in a far-flung corner of the frontier.

"What's this golden toad? I don't recall seeing this ornament before."

"Some time ago, a great house in Heukseo sent it in celebration of this old servant's seventieth birthday."

"Is that so? Tsk. They seem awfully eager to repay a debt — a pity it doesn't suit a man of your standing, Lord No."

"Oh, not at all! How could such a trinket of mere metal compare to the boundless grace Your Excellency has shown me! Allow me to send it along with you on your way!"

I was satisfied. So the golden goblin that spits out treasure lived here, did it?

No Chil had applied for a transfer to the 13th Pass, the farthest post in the realm from the 3rd, all to get away from me. It hadn't worked. Having once again harvested a handsome crop today, I relayed the matter of the hunters to him as well.

"So they are barbarians from beyond even the lands beyond the seas……"

"They're to be called 'Daehan.' What is your thinking on how to handle them, Lord No?"

I asked the other commanders the same question, but none of them had anything notable to offer. Bunhui, in particular, seemed to have forgotten the hunters existed entirely.

Whatever his past conduct, I rated No Chil highly. When the great upheaval concluded, he was the one who had informed Gu Sam that the Heavenly Emperor, whose grip on power remained shaky, intended to elevate a Grand Marshal and launch a campaign against the barbarians.

Being old in the Tianyu Empire meant, above all, that you had survived. A man who had clawed his way through the endless snake pit of central politics in his youth possessed precisely the seasoned judgment I lacked.

"If this old servant may presume to offer his meager counsel……"

"Speak, then."

"A relationship with foreign peoples is a gate that, once opened, is exceedingly hard to close again. Never more so than when they begin offering tribute of their own accord to curry favor."

Once a foot slips through a carelessly opened gate, the crack reveals the very vault of the house. No Chil advised me to accept only what was useful from the tribute and, above all, to refuse private gifts. If word of it reached the capital, the central officials would be sure to look upon me with jealousy.

"And one must never demand something simply because it catches the eye. Ahem. This is, of course, a principle that must hold between superior and subordinate as well, not merely with barbarians."

"Haha, I know that well enough. Have I ever once done such a thing?"

"Heh heh."

I had never once demanded the golden toad. Wasn't it No Chil who kept insisting on handing it over?

Tribute only became a problem if I took from the barbarians — the hunters — so from his perspective, whatever I squeezed out of him cost him nothing. No Chil excused himself, saying he needed to visit the privy, and stepped out of the office for a moment. Shortly after, a great shout of "HYAAH!" rang out from outside. He soon returned as if nothing had happened and took his seat again.

"What was out there?"

"A rooster, Your Excellency."

"Loud-voiced creature, isn't it. Now — anything else?"

"One last thing: beware of opportunists."

"Opportunists?"

"Men who ride the tide of the moment and seek only to line their own pockets."

Those people, he warned me again and again, were the true vermin that would poison relations between peoples.

"Your counsel is appreciated. I'll be going, then. That was fine tea."

"You… you finished it all? H-how was it?"

"Hmm? This?"

I looked down at the empty teacup on the table. Boicha, was it called?

In all my years as a frontier commander I had never once tasted it, though I'd heard it traded at a considerable price in Cheondo. The flavor, frankly…… was utterly ordinary.

At first it made me cough and set my insides burning, but the heat soon melted away pleasantly, and I felt my gi grow stronger than before. Perhaps it was imagination, but my whole condition seemed improved.

"It went down well. Not bad at all."

"Kgh……!"

"What? Something the matter?"

"N-nothing at all, Your Excellency. I shall await your next visit."

Golden toad in tow, I returned to Pamagok. Before long, just as No Chil had predicted, the Association began sending over one offering after another.

"Ha-aaave you dined weeeell, Your Excellency……!"

It was Moon Seoyoung, a B-Rank hunter and the direct aide to Director Park Ingyu. Having learned the Empire's long-abandoned, outlandish court greetings from historical dramas, she arrived with the other hunters bearing the Association's gifts — each of them hauling a suitcase stuffed to bursting.

Since they had to pass through the belly of a magic beast, large items were apparently out of the question. Electronics, they said, didn't function inside the Tower anyway.

After Park Gyu had inspected the luggage, they presented the items to me one by one. As expected, the vast majority left me cold.

"This is wild ginseng sent personally by the Association President, out ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠of concern for Your Excellency's ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠health."

"Only days ago, out of concern for a subordinate's health, I traveled all the way to distant Heukseo myself. If your master is worried, let him come in person and show his face. Concern conveyed by way of a mere object — what manner of nonsense is that?"

"I-I beg your forgiveness!!"

"The smell alone is offensive. Take it away. Next."

"This is gold — we call it gold bar. It's a resource prized in every civilization, so the government dug deep into its budget and passed an emergency appropriation to……"

"How could such worthless metal compare to the grace I have shown before the Heavenly Emperor? I have no need of it."

They had been told plainly how it worked: the mana stones that lay around us like so much gravel were, to them, treasures beyond reckoning.

Naturally, if the hunters wished to hunt magic beasts and harvest mana stones in Pamagok, they needed my permission. And for that privilege, they had prepared goods of equal — or at least nominally comparable — value by Earth's standards, and not one of them satisfied me.

Each time I rejected a gift, the faces of Moon Seoyoung and her colleagues darkened by an extra degree. Still, not everything was useless.

"What is that red stuff in the round jar? The severed heads of your enemies?"

"N-no, Your Excellency!"

"It's one of the foods we eat. What's in that suitcase isn't tribute or anything of the sort."

"The smell is offensive."

"Our apologies — it's a fermented food. We'll remove it at on……"

"Left outside, it might lure in magic beasts. I'll keep it somewhere safe myself. Bring it here."

"Excuse me?"

Kimchi after fifteen years — how could anyone possibly resist? I'd have to sneak it with rice later.

And so they had brought ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠a mountain of tribute, and all I had accepted was a single jar of kimchi. That would never buy permission to hunt within Pamagok. Just as the hunters were sinking into gloom, something caught my eye.

It wasn't anything from the suitcases. I rose from my seat and pointed at the short-haired woman kneeling on the floor with her usual expression of abject humiliation.

"Shin Yuyu, was it?"

"M-me!?"

Pamagok admitted only small groups, and was lethally dangerous besides, so the Association kept Shin Yuyu on retainer to guarantee its staff's safety. What she stood to gain was her consulting fee — and the mana stones, which converted to money all the same.

She never refused the Association's requests. Not because she was sweet-natured despite that foul mouth of hers. I knew there was a reason behind her behavior.

"I have an interest in that book you keep tucked at your waist. I wish to examine it. Bring it here."

"………"

The Cheongirok. A divine artifact summoned through Shin Yuyu's ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠unique ability, Leak of Heaven's Secrets. Its bearer could divine the future through her ancestral spirits.

That was why she kept working with the Association. That was why, from our very first meeting until now, she had swallowed her fury and knelt before me. All of it, surely, on that book's advice. It was an object whose value no ordinary treasure could even approach.

"I won't be confiscating it. Lend it to me for a moment. You said yourself I can't use it without your permission, did you not?"

"Kgh… here……"

Once again she cracked the book open to check its contents, and then trudged up the steps with the most reluctant stride imaginable. I lifted her lightly and set her down on the armrest of my chair.

"Wh-what are you doing!?"

"Don't go anywhere. Stay beside me."

Well, someone had to show me how to use the thing.

Just as Shin Yuyu had instructed, I pictured our current situation in precise detail in my mind, then rested my hand on the book's cover. And when I opened it to whatever page happened to catch —

"Ooooh."

"Who's No Chil?"

"A man I trust."

Frankly, I'd assumed he would still be harboring a grudge — I did come knocking practically every other day to shake him down for valuables. But against all my expectations, No Chil appeared to be a genuinely loyal retainer.

Now that he'd proven trustworthy, perhaps I should cut back my visits a little?

No. On the contrary, all the more reason to call on him even more often and forge a deep and lasting friendship.

Before I formed my second question, I glanced up at Shin Yuyu. She was perched on the armrest, one hand pressed between her knees as if worried the hem of her skirt might betray her.

If I kept her at my side, I could use the Cheongirok again and again. Might her ancestral spirits even advise me on matters like this?

They were, at bottom, spirits devoted to protecting their own descendant — so I had my doubts they'd look kindly on me. But nothing ventured, nothing gained.

"That is such utter bullshit, seriously……!"

"What was that you said?"

"N-nothing at all."

I couldn't make heads or tails of it. Still, if I kept at it, I'd be granted more readings — so it didn't seem to be an ill omen.

Three readings a day, was it? Then I had one attempt left.

Nothing in particular came to mind that I wanted to know, but those kimchi-robbed Koreans wouldn't be able to linger here long anyway — better to wring the book dry while I could.

Without much thought, I opened to the first page.

The book was informing me that uninvited guests would soon be paying a visit.