Back to Sinju
Not yet.
After crushing the Aztecs, I'd returned to Ara for some well-earned rest — and then something strange happened.
"Miss, did you hear the news?"
"From the south?"
Central America, I suppose? Starting from the lands around Mexico, tribe after tribe was submitting themselves to us.
"They say you're a true god, Miss. Or an angel."
"Not a god, please. Let's go with angel…."
God was far too heavy a title for me. My moods swung wildly, and I only worked when I felt like it. At my core, I was practically human.
"I'm really no different from a human who just lives a long time."
"Ah…."
What was she scribbling now? I couldn't even ask. Whenever I peeked over, she'd twist the notebook away so I couldn't see it.
So unfair. I'd given up trying to look ages ago.
"Well, either way, no fighting works just fine for me!"
"You seem to have a great deal of fun when you're firing that pistol of yours, though?"
"That's because they're enemies!"
"Oh…."
More scribbling. What on earth was she writing down?
"So expansion southward should go smoothly, then?"
"As far as where the Aztecs came from, it shouldn't be difficult at all."
I could probably leave this place to sort itself out.
"Then I suppose I can head back up to Sinju."
"Oh? I've never actually been there!"
"Didn't you pass through on your way down?"
"We only stopped there! I stayed on the wooden train the whole time, watching trees go by, and then we left."
Come to think of it, she'd been with me down here for seven years now, hadn't she? In the prime of her youth, too. Tsk tsk….
Wait. Hold on. Has she never gotten married?
"Hold on — you're not married?"
"Excuse me?"
"You're thirty-seven already!"
"What are you talking about! I have four kids!"
"Huh?"
So she ditched her kids AND her husband to come out here?
"You heartless woman."
"What is that supposed to mean?"
"Abandoning your family to chase a job…."
"Huh? They came with me! What are you even saying?"
Oh? Her husband and kids came along too?
"When?"
"From the very first day?"
"Then what does your husband do?"
"He stays home and looks after the children, I suppose?"
Whoa. What…? That's a massive, practically revolutionary, thoroughly modern arrangement.
Isn't that way ahead of its time?
"Impressive…."
"It's pretty ordinary, actually."
Women's social standing had risen enormously. Well, the boys rarely went into civil service anyway, so women filled most of the positions.
All in all, the men seemed to live with the women firmly holding their reins….
"I guess we'll all go up together, then."
"Everyone will travel however suits them, I imagine?"
It was practically at the level of a dog that's run off from home — if it gets hungry, it'll find its own way back, right?
"Right. Let's head back to Sinju."
The Eastern Continent was genuinely wider than Siberia.
Taking the train from Ara in the south all the way up to Sinju took a full three days.
Compared to the five days it took to cross Siberia, that might sound short — but this land was riddled with rivers and endless, fertile plains, honestly one of the most livable places on earth.
Screeeeech.
Yes — the train. You truly did a magnificent thing.
Without trains, none of this would have even been a dream. As our territory grew, keeping ordinary people supplied and connected had become far more important than any messenger's speed for governance.
I'd told them ages ago to lay track eastward. How far had they gotten?
Keeeeee.
"Looks like we've arrived!"
"Huh? Already?"
"What do you mean, already? It's been three whole days! Sitting still that long, I feel like I'm coming down with an ache all over."
And yet you zipped around this cramped train car like it was nothing….
Sinju, after so long away. The atmosphere was clearly quite different from Sinsi.
Plenty of people had migrated over from the Original Continent, but the natives who'd joined us vastly outnumbered them, so the bloodlines had thinned and blended — many faces looked similar to the Original Continent folk yet somehow distinct.
Skin especially. On the Original Continent, light skin was common, but here complexions ran closer to brown or golden.
"Let's rest for about a week first."
"Yes! I should go spend some time with my family!"
"Yes, yes."
It'd been ages since she'd been home. There'd be cleaning and plenty to do. She'd earned a vacation.
I sent Moses off, and the moment I returned to the temple, there stood the Prime Minister, waiting for me with an armful of papers….
So I don't get to rest?
"It's been a while."
"I am honored to meet you for the first time."
Oh? He'd been replaced? And here I'd thought my memory was slipping….
"Ah! Sorry about that. Anyway — welcome."
"I've organized everything accomplished in your absence and brought it up for you."
Was he sulking? Or was his face just naturally like that?
"Isn't that a bit much? Such a waste of paper…."
"The top one is the summary. The rest I brought along since I was coming anyway."
What a relief. No exaggeration — the stack was as tall as I am….
He meant the reference materials from the archives, didn't he?
"The port? Shall we build it in Ara?"
"Yes. Timber is abundant, and according to the natives, it should be easy enough to lay rail down there as well."
Hm? Really? We'd be building a canal eventually too, so that didn't sound bad at all.
Flap, flap.
Hm. Plenty of native settlers flowing in, calm seas, and coastlines touching two great oceans on either side — that was the situation.
"Right. Let's proceed. And you do remember we need to send ships east as well and finish mapping the rest, don't you?"
"Yes."
Our world map was only half a map. Even the Horned Whales found it too dangerous to round the southern tip of the Eastern Continent or skirt its north.
On top of that, the western European coasts bristled with watchfulness — short of starting a war and blasting everything to splinters, it was hard to get near.
What we were doing was confirming coastlines and sounding depths, inch by inch. It'd come in handy someday.
"It'd be nice if a better ship came along."
"Hm…? See the bottom there?"
"What's at the bottom? Huh?"
They'd built a ship out of iron? Already?
Yi Seong-gye? Choe Mu-seon? Shim Deok-bu? What is this? Why are these gentlemen showing up here?
"They've already made a ship of iron?"
"It's still in the early research stages — not something to sail on just yet, but they've built it for study purposes."
Still, come on. Ten ja is fairly big, isn't it?
That's what, fifteen to sixteen meters? Wouldn't that be just right as a river transport vessel?
"Ah… rivets…."
So rivets have finally arrived…. Those things are a maintenance nightmare. You have to check for loosened ones constantly, well in advance. Keep that up and the upkeep will cost more than the ship itself.
Ugh. I'd been planning to let it be until power technology improved and welding came along. Well, if it's happened at this point, call it destiny?
Thank goodness the fuss over wrapping wooden hulls in iron plates never got out of hand.
"Yes. It's a technique for joining iron plates — apparently it would have been impossible without it."
"But rivets? Why is it called that?"
"Haneul-nim used to punch through and join plate-armor nails that way, and… she apparently called them that?"
Oh? So I must have muttered it out loud without realizing?
Ugh, fine, fine. Forget English, forget everything — I'll just write whatever comes to mind. After some three thousand years of it, even I get mixed up.
"Er… I suppose so."
"There's still a great deal to improve, they say. The rust problem, and the engine output as well."
Come to think of it, without a steam turbine, long voyages would be impossible anyway, wouldn't they?
Can you even build a turbine without welding? For all I know, those kids are just building themselves a pile of scrap.
"Tell them not to overdo it. The way it works now — chugging back and forth inside a cylinder — long-range voyages are simply impossible, not if they try until they drop dead."
"Oh? Really?"
"Yes. It burns an absolutely monstrous amount of fuel."
From what I remember, steam engines before turbines could manage maybe a few hundred kilometers. To circle the entire globe, how much low-grade coal would they need to haul? It boggles the mind.
"Better they just sail under canvas until the engine efficiency improves. Tell them to keep to coastal waters for now. The open ocean is absolutely forbidden."
I had to keep them from ever going out there. Give them an inch of ambiguity and all I'd get back was a mountain of useless contraptions.
Still, with a few of those around, they'd be invincible in the shallows.
"They'll figure it out soon enough once they try — they won't make it far. Unless they want to build floating tombs bobbing in the middle of the ocean, they'll keep their distance on their own."
"Oh? That'd be an awfully expensive tomb…."
Right? And if they all die out there and one of the ships gets captured — catastrophe. Steam engine, cannon, shells — a devastating leak of technology, all of it.
"Tell them to rack their brains properly and build a different engine, or raise the efficiency. Electricity would do it — but they'll need to build a proper generator first, I expect?"
"That's quite a lot to pass along. Haha."
"Yes. Do make sure to talk them out of throwing themselves at it."
People being people, forbid one thing and they'll add ten more — but surely they'd listen to me?
"Quite a few people will be disappointed."
"If a ship breaks down and drifts out there, it's a genuine disaster."
Their lives aside, the technology leak alone would be catastrophic.
Thanks to our steel output we'd come out ahead no matter what, but there was no need to hand it over willingly, was there?
Flap, flap.
And this would be the budget proposal…. Am I getting old? My eyes are going blurry — these numbers look off.
"Gah…."
What is this? How many zeroes are attached to these figures? And 'build as many as needed'?
"…?"
"What is this budget for?"
"I drafted it before I heard your remarks just now. Once steamships start appearing, we'll be needing coal, won't we?"
That's exactly why I just said all that! Ah — I said it just now, so this went up before….
"Right. The day will come when low-grade coal is needed everywhere."
These people treat the steam engine far too lightly, don't they? Make enough low-grade coal and they think they can steam their way across the entire world?
Setting up and maintaining a port near every island and nation with coal deposits isn't nearly as easy as it sounds.
"Since we've confirmed the steamship's potential, we intend to purchase land in various countries and secure ports and coal supplies."
"Honestly…. The money…. You people really do spend it like it isn't yours…."
These guys…. Several trillion per port, with the required budget set to 'infinite'….
"Don't build too many! Build only as many as needed once engine efficiency actually improves. And some other engine might come along first, you know?"
"Hm? Is there something better than a steamship?"
"Plenty."
The internal combustion engine alone put them beyond comparison.
And this wretched, short-legged steam engine of theirs — absolutely not. However deep our pockets, wasn't this going too far?
"Whew…. You know black oil, right?"
"Yes. We've been buying quite a lot of it lately — it seeps from hot ground."
Since we couldn't yet drill through deep rock strata, we'd been purchasing oil that bubbled up naturally from the surface in the Middle East for a good while now.
"Has the research into separating that substance been continuing?"
"Yes. It produces an oil that catches fire wonderfully well, but it's quite impossible to eat, so it's being used as lamp oil."
"What? Wait — why would anyone EAT it?"
Were they out of their minds trying to die? Medieval scientists are truly something else….
"It's oil. Why wouldn't you eat it?"
Well, fair enough — if all you've ever known is animal fat and plant oils, you'd probably assume any oil was for eating. Though the smell alone should have screamed 'do not consume,' shouldn't it?
"Good grief…. Tell them NOT to eat it…."
To think someone actually put that stuff in their mouth. Are they even still alive?
"That black stuff — it's called crude oil, and we're going to need a great deal of it. Tell them to research it diligently."
"Does it have something to do with engines?"
"Yes. First, for improving steam engine efficiency — and second, for an entirely new kind of engine. The second one uses it."
Keep separating the oil into its components and the internal combustion engine will come along eventually, won't it? It's really just a hair's breadth from the steam piston — all it takes is flipping the idea around.
And petroleum is absolutely packed with useful substances!
"Hm… now that I think about it, that's not bad at all. We wouldn't need to plant as many soybeans."
"Right? That's one of its advantages, isn't it?"
Then again, don't we already have far too much farmland? Even farming half-heartedly, we'd honestly manage to feed the entire earth.
Which was why the amount of alcohol being brewed in Daehan probably rivaled the water supply by now….
And when you say taverns, that's our Mudo again. Are they going to be okay?