Their Grand Outing
Clank, clank, clank.
Ten soldiers of Daehan marched into the Seneca village.
They had come to escort the five villagers invited to tour Sinju, and every one of them arrived in full armor with rifles slung across their backs, leading horses along. And it was the horses that drew nearly all the attention.
"What is that animal?"
"Hm? You don't have horses?"
Come to think of it, horses had never once been seen in the Eastern Continent. No horses on land this vast — with grasslands that stretched on forever?
What was going on? Had they gone extinct here or something?
"It's an animal people ride. It's sturdy and has great endurance, so it's perfect for carrying people like your Mother over long distances."
If you're just going far, a human can go farther on foot — but a horse can carry loads while it travels. Each has its strengths, doesn't it?
"Ohhh…."
"Sure, they both have their good points, but horses are just plain convenient."
Hm. Just like people loving their cars back in the day, it seemed the young native men here had decided they wanted one.
"Miss!"
"It's Miss!"
That's right. I am the idol of this era, after all.
"Been keeping well?"
"And have you been well, Miss?"
"With you here, Miss, how could we possibly live in comfort without you!"
For people saying that, their shiny, well-fed faces told a different story. Been eating and sleeping just fine, haven't you? At least wet your lips before you lie, you rascals.
"Bring them safely, now."
"Leave it to us!"
"Off you go! If things go well, I get to go home too."
"Yes, ma'am!"
And so the five sightseers of the Seneca tribe set out beyond the village palisade. They were in for the shock of their lives, I could already tell.
Riding on horseback alone put them in another world entirely.
With the Seneca villagers riding an animal they had never seen before, the ten escorts moved along in silence.
The road was long — a full week's walk, no less.
"You don't think beasts will charge us again, do you?"
"Hard to say…."
On the way to the Seneca village they had already crossed paths with a cougar and lost one of the horses. It had been snatched in the night while they rested, before anyone could lay a hand on it.
"By day we'll be in a big group, so nothing should dare attack us — but stay alert."
"Yes, sir."
Animals rarely pick fights with a pack larger than themselves, so daylight was relatively safe.
As they walked, the natives suddenly began murmuring among themselves.
"What's going on? Go and ask them!"
"Right away!"
The man who had taught the natives their language had come along, since communication was the only way to guide them and answer their endless questions.
He spoke with the villagers, then returned wearing a slightly worried expression.
"They say the land ahead is a bear's territory, sir?"
"A bear? How big can it be?"
The squad leader, a man from the Original Continent, had never seen a beast anywhere that outweighed the animals of Daehan. Whatever came out, he was confident he could handle it — and so they walked on for five more days.
"GUOOOOOARGH!"
"What the—!"
"It's a bear!"
"How is anything that big!"
The creature that appeared was even larger than the bears of Daehan. One swipe of those forepaws looked like it could erase not just a head but an entire torso.
"Take aim and fire one shot into the air — a warning shot, now!"
A trained army has its procedures, after all.
Even facing a wild animal, they refused to kill it carelessly, hoping to drive it away.
"BANG!-"
The gunshot thundered and echoed through the forest, and the bear flinched for a moment.
"It's coming. Fire again!"
"Yes, sir!"
"BANG!-"
"GUOOOOARGH—"
Was it cowed? Or merely curious? It tilted its head back and forth, and the standoff stretched on — while on the other side, the Seneca fell into their own panic.
"A bear has appeared!"
"They carry weapons that hurl thunder! The sound is enormous!"
"The bear has shrunk back!"
"No! It's dangerous! They mean to attack it!"
Unfortunately, no soldier heard a word of it.
"GUOOOARGH!"
The bear, having hunched down briefly, began charging toward them like a galloping beast. And a bear that thinks its opponents are slow runs faster than anyone could imagine.
At short range, a bear can match the speed of a car rolling through city streets, and in the blink of an eye it was upon the soldiers — a heartbeat away from tearing into a man.
"GET DOWN!"
"AAAAARGH!"
The targeted man dropped flat in an instant,
"BANG! RATATAT! BANG!"
and at such close range, nine rounds tore straight through the bear's body.
"Guooargh… guooooo…."
"Poor creature…."
It could all have been avoided if the bear had simply backed off, but watching it thrash in agony, their hearts ached.
"Let it go in peace."
"Yes, sir."
"BANG!-"
"…."
It was the greatest mercy they could offer. Soon the wounded bear, still twisting in pain, went still.
The soldiers gazed down in solemn silence, each praying in their own way — a natural act here in the Eastern Continent.
Most of them were native young men themselves, people who had always lived believing that animals were connected to something spiritual.
Once the rite to comfort the bear's spirit was finished, the Seneca villagers finally turned to the question they had been putting off.
"That staff of theirs was a weapon!"
"Does it hurl thunder, then?"
"And nothing could be seen leaving it!"
"To fell even a bear in a single stroke…."
Shock had settled deep into them.
"If they had chosen to fight us…?"
Gulp….
"…."
The longer they imagined it, the more speechless they became, and a faint fear began to creep into their hearts.
What if these people had seized them not as guests, but simply to extract information?
"Stop worrying about nothing."
"Mother?"
"Why bother with all that when they could just burn everything down and take what they want!"
Who knew how many people like that existed in the world — but even just the ten standing here looked like more than enough to flatten a village like theirs into a scorched field, didn't they?
They had come this far. All they could do now was trust, and go on.
On the seventh day after leaving the village, the travelers finally arrived at the easternmost fortress.
"What is that?"
"Could it be a settlement, like our village?"
"Is the secret of that farming in there?"
"It looks far too small for that…."
No one had explained anything to them, and the waiting was maddening. How much farther, and to where…?
"WHOOOOOOOONK!"
"Gah! What is that sound!"
"Something is coming from over there!"
The five Seneca visitors threw their hands up in alarm at the blast of the train whistle. They were so stunned that even the Mother had lost her composure, trembling faintly.
"…."
"…."
For a long moment they could only stare, speechless.
"Chugga chugga, chugga chugga, SCREEEEEECH."
"What in the world is that…."
"What is happening?"
A train belching black smoke could be a little frightening the first time you saw one. Add in the spine-chilling shriek of the brakes straining to bring it to a halt, and it was enough to rattle anyone.
"Mother…."
"Heh heh…."
With their composure in tatters, the Seneca villagers boarded the train and departed for Sinju.
Only after riding for about a day did their tongues begin to loosen.
"Mother, what do you suppose this is?"
"It's better than those horses, isn't it?"
"To cross such distances so quickly!"
"What could be waiting at the end of the line?"
Once they had adjusted a little, the natives fell head over heels for the train and began exploring every corner of it.
"CLANG! CRACK."
"Ah… my tomahawk…."
The railcar's metal plating looked so solid that he swung his axe at it — and the axe shattered. His treasured possession was gone in a single stroke.
"They are mighty…."
"And to think I once considered fighting these people."
"We nearly brought ruin on ourselves…."
They marveled when food appeared, marveled crossing an immense lake, marveled that the thing kept running even at night — they marveled so relentlessly their jaws never had a chance to close.
And then they reached Illini.
"GREAT HEAVENS!"
"What village could be this enormous!"
"It stretches on forever!"
A great settlement had grown where the rail lines crossed, but even that already exceeded anything their imaginations could hold.
What stunned them even more, though, was this:
"We're still going?"
"Just how vast is this land?"
"The place we lived was tiny!"
And then they began cutting straight across an immense plain.
"There's nothing left to be surprised by now."
"I suppose so…."
After being astonished so many times in a row, nothing seemed capable of shocking them anymore.
Next came a brief stop at Taepyeong, on the way to Sinju.
"Is this it?"
"An even bigger village!"
"This is what they call a city, they said?"
"SCREEEECH."
Restocked with fuel and water, the train began to move again.
"What? We're still going!"
"Just how far do they mean to take us!"
Days locked inside the railcar were starting to wear on their bodies. You can only lie down for a day or two before it becomes unbearable — with nowhere to wander, the restlessness was suffocating.
Another day passed like that, and then something came into view.
"What is that?"
"It looks like a tree?"
"A tree can be that big?"
They gaped at the tree of Sinju, visible in the far distance.
Several more hours slipped by.
"The tree keeps getting bigger!"
"It must reach all the way to the sky!?"
They were stunned by the tree, then stunned all over again when they stepped off into Sinju, thick with people.
And when they saw the Gulleongsoe tractors churning up the endless fields, they nearly fainted on the spot. In the end, all five collapsed with exhaustion just three days into their tour.
The shock had been so great it had taken a toll on their bodies as well.
"Eheheh. Mountains of food…."
"So much armor, so many axes!"
"I can't wait to tell the children back home."
Even flat on their backs in bed, their faces were full of smiles, as if pleasant dreams were playing behind their eyes. They would get along with the Iroquois just fine, it seemed.
While the Seneca villagers were sightseeing in Sinju, I was taking a stroll through their village.
"They're not very wary of us, are they?"
"The further a culture climbs from its beginnings, the more courteously it tends to treat its guests, I've found."
"Ah~ you've really been around, haven't you?"
I'd seen plenty of ugly hospitality in my time too, but still — it had been a long while since I enjoyed a culture this welcoming.
"They say our people were persecuted and scorned wherever we went…."
"That's your sad history. But you live well now, so let it rest in the past."
"Yes…."
They had endured over a thousand years of torment before reaching Daehan. Of course it would be carved into their bones.
And frankly, I'm just relieved they don't go sprinting out the door with bombs strapped to their chests screaming for revenge….
Practically every Jew left in the world lives in Daehan now anyway, so that sort of thing shouldn't ever happen again.
"Still, it's such a peaceful village. Aside from the palisade, it's almost identical to a village back home."
"Settled life built around farming is naturally stable, and stability is what breeds abundance."
The village was made up of longhouses — homes stretched end to end in a row — with a workshop here, a workshop there, scattered at intervals. Honestly, there wasn't much to gawk at.
"Ahahaha!"
"Hey, over there!"
What a peaceful village. The very fact that children could run around laughing like that said everything about how secure their lives were.
"I hope the visit goes well."
"It will."
Villages like this gather maybe forty or fifty people for a big council — these five will breeze past a crowd of tens of thousands with room to spare.
"Hurry!"
"Quick, get him home!"
We were wandering leisurely around the village when commotion broke out near the gate, and people came streaming in carrying the wounded.
Some had been struck by arrows; others had torn arms or legs, or skulls split open.
Whatever had happened, they came pouring in badly hurt.
"What do you suppose happened?"
"There must be a tribe nearby they don't get along with."
"Fighting everywhere you go, it seems…."
Apparently food had run short, so hunting parties were ranging farther out. If food was scarce here, it was scarce everywhere, wasn't it?
The farther the hunters wandered, the more inevitable these territorial clashes became.
"All of this comes down to too little to eat."
"Couldn't they simply buy what they lack from places that have plenty?"
"Do you know what it takes for a market big enough for that to actually form?"
"Hmm, what?"
"A food surplus. Without it, the whole idea is dead on arrival."
Commerce only becomes possible when farm produce outgrows immediate need. That surplus is what frees up labor — and those freed hands make crafts and tools.
That is what gets traded, what gets exchanged.
Or else one tribe nearby discovers how to produce a great deal of food, seizes the initiative, and that becomes the seed from which a nation grows. That's how I see it, anyway.
"Speaking of which, do you think those folks over there are all right? Let's have a look, shall we?"
There'd be something we could help with, wouldn't there? And while we're at it — maybe it's time to make a few more friends for our side, hm?