The Blue-Eyed Girl
「KWA-RRRRRUMBLE…」
People ran, glancing back at the mountain as it slowly vanished behind them. Just how terrified must they have been?
"Huck! Huck!"
"Kaaahk!"
"Uuwek!"
Those who had run for their very lives lay sprawled everywhere.
"Woo-sam. What on earth is going on…."
"I didn't expect it to be this bad either…."
He was fairly certain he'd seen the training lesson about detonating things carefully in the mountains. Woo-sam found himself regretting not studying a little harder.
"Shall we head over for now?"
"Woo-sam… let's go a little later."
Amaru's legs had gone to jelly — he had absolutely no intention of going now — and besides, there was always the chance something might collapse late, so he meant to wait a bit longer.
「KA-BOOM!」
"Gah!"
"What now?!"
Unlike modern explosives, manufactured with precision and uniformity by cutting-edge equipment, some stragglers were simply bound to go off late.
Clutching their pounding hearts, the people lingered for well over an hour.
"C-can we go now?"
"Think it's safe?"
"I don't really…."
"Phew…."
They couldn't wait forever, so the group slowly edged forward. They'd gone maybe fifty steps?
Beyond the cliff edge, a magnificent sight spread out below them.
The collapsing mountain had completely dammed the waterway, and the water was steadily pooling behind it.
A natural rockfill dam had been born. As the water gathered, the earth would drink it in — with some reinforcement work and a good planting of grass, it would make a splendid dam indeed.
Two years after the mountain came down.
This land, which the locals had come to call Wonnam after the name of Daehan's port, had been transformed beyond recognition.
"It's truly remarkable."
"Haha, just thinking about that day still makes me dizzy…."
The Wonnam Dam the two friends now gazed down upon had been the beginning of it all. The water had risen and risen — and once evaporation and usage struck a balance with the inflow, it had simply become a lake.
They had reinforced the collapsed earth and rock, of course, but the valley was so deep that its capacity to hold water was extraordinary — and the flow of the river itself was modest.
"Look at those fields. Who could ever have imagined it?"
The Wonnam they looked upon no longer resembled a land of brutal, arid climate. Wherever the aqueducts ran, verdant green flourished.
And when Daehan airlifted in fertilizer, the region transformed into farmland that could be cultivated all year round.
Water was still a limited resource, so they focused on crops that demanded less of it.
"And at last, you've made commander?"
"Heh heh heh. Are you ready?"
"I've been waiting for this day."
The Aymara had never forgotten how the strangers, who at first seemed to have come merely seeking land to farm, gradually grew in strength and stole away their homeland.
When that band began tearing their communities apart, working them like slaves, and treating them as lesser beings, they had resisted and fought — only to be driven bit by bit into the barrenest of lands.
And even that wasn't enough for them. It had been two years since the Aymara fled to Wonnam.
"So — have you found any gold or silver?"
"Hahaha. Just call in those Company fellows. They'll dig up however much you want."
Woo-sam had already summoned the people of the Daehan Company. They were no doubt sprinting over, feet ablaze.
These were men who would leap smiling into the fires of hell if there was gold at the bottom of them.
Once the Daehan Company entered the region and confirmed the gold and silver, an absolutely staggering wave of support came pouring into Wonnam.
"Huh? What's this?"
"Hmm. It's a weapon that uses gunpowder — stronger than a bow, though it takes a while to reload."
What Woo-sam held was an old muzzle-loading flintlock rifle from long ago.
"Isn't it just worse, then?"
"It can strike at truly long range. And even if the enemy wears armor, it punches right through."
Judging by rate of fire alone, it looked like a weapon with no practical use whatsoever — but it was the pinnacle of what black powder could achieve.
A weapon on an entirely different plane from the personal firearms Europe and China were only beginning to tinker with.
"Ohh…."
"Just bring in the gold and silver. Weapons, we've agreed to supply in any quantity."
"You'll provide those as well?"
"Explosives?"
The difference explosives made in mining was enormous. Amaru, who had been developing mines lately, knew that difference all too well — which was why he raised the question, cautious and a little afraid.
The memory of the day the mountain collapsed was still painfully vivid….
"If we're talking about it, our own people will come and handle it. As you know, it's genuinely dangerous."
"Of course. No one on our side wants to touch it with their own hands either."
Watching Amaru break into a cold sweat in this sweltering heat, it seemed the shock of that day had become a trauma.
"We'll send you people. Even if war breaks out, train thoroughly before you begin."
"Naturally. And for the armor's sake alone, we'll need to train for a while."
Their battlefield would be mostly mountainous terrain. The armor grew unbearably hot in the sun, so they ended up draping cloth over the outside.
That was largely because staggering quantities of Daehan cotton cloth were flowing in — so much so that the women of Wonnam had all but given up weaving entirely.
The Aymara's native weaving tradition was on the verge of disappearing.
"The armor will help you enormously, I imagine."
"I saw it myself. Even smashing it with rock left barely a scratch. So long as you build the strength to run in it, nothing could touch you."
A warrior in plate armor would be the ancient equivalent of a modern tank.
Something only artillery could bring down.
The stone axes and arrows used as weapons here would simply ricochet off as the armored warrior charged.
"Once they've grown accustomed to the armor, fighting those people could become nothing short of a one-sided slaughter."
The eyes of Woo-sam and Amaru, deep in conversation, gleamed cold and sharp.
"Now, as you saw yesterday, let me walk through it once more."
In the early morning, before the sun had even risen, fifty-three women sat huddled together near the port beneath the glow of electric lamps.
They had come asking to learn how to use rifles, vowing to defend their village should the worst come to pass.
"This gunpowder is extremely dangerous. One jolt, handled carelessly, and it can go off. Be careful at all times."
Even as he explained it over and over, Lee Yung's eyes kept drifting to the blue-eyed woman in the very front row.
Whether from embarrassment or not, her cheeks were flushed red enough to show even through her brown skin — Lee Yung thought it was adorable, and kept on with the lesson.
There was no way those around him could miss the atmosphere.
The other fifty-two women watched with amused smiles, only mildly confused about whether this was a class or a courtship.
"Shall we take a short break?"
"Yes!"
"Thank you for your hard work!"
After teaching for a good while, they decided on a short rest. Everyone scattered into little groups, and Lee Yung retreated to one side, settling onto a rock.
Someone approached him.
"Excuse me, I have a question."
A young woman's voice — in fluent Daehan.
"Yes? What is—"
Lee Yung turned his head to answer, and the words died on his lips. Standing before him was a truly beautiful woman: brown-skinned, with large, striking eyes, a straight nose, and full, upturned lips.
Above all, those deep blue eyes — so rare in this land — drew him in like a spell, mysterious and luminous.
"Um, hello?"
"Ah! Yes! Please, go ahead."
"Can women use those rifles too?"
"Yes. In Daehan, plenty of women use them."
Since they were widely used for hunting, it wasn't unusual for women to handle them as well.
"Could we learn too?"
"Are you planning to go to the battlefield?"
"If the men go off to fight, it's we who must protect the village, isn't it?"
Lee Yung was taken aback. She was nothing like the rather passive women of this place.
"Oh… well, yes. Marching to war in that armor would be difficult, but it would be more than enough to form a defensive line and hold the village."
"Please teach us as well."
"Do you have many friends who'd join?"
"Yes."
Somehow, Lee Yung found himself liking this place more and more. He thought that, if anything, the women here were more impressive than the men — and he rose to his feet.
"Bring everyone. Let's all learn together."
"We can't. The men would hate it."
"Ah…."
Not all the women of this place were so spirited. Only a few with real resolve were.
Still, Lee Yung wasn't disappointed. What mattered was that such women existed at all.
"Then when would be convenient?"
"We can't go outside at night…."
"Early in the morning, then?"
"Is that all right with you?"
They couldn't roam about at night, and they had to tend the fields by day — so early morning was the only time left. Lee Yung already knew this, and answered without missing a beat.
"A request from a beautiful woman is worth staking my life on."
"…Excuse me?"
For a moment, she wondered if she'd misheard. By Aymara standards, she was a woman considered barely ordinary.
By their standards, a beauty was someone with broad, sturdy hips — built to endure.
But she was tall as a man, with narrow hips and slender limbs.
What she didn't know was that in Daehan, a woman with her figure — full-chested and slim — was the height of popularity. And her bold, clear features and those mysterious eyes only made her more captivating.
"S-stop teasing me. I'm being serious!"
"So am I. Completely serious."
Anyone watching would have wondered — had Lee Yung always been like this? So bold with a woman?
His father, were he to see it, would have thrown both hands up in celebration.
"Th-then, lessons starting tomorrow morning, please."
"Yes. See you tomorrow."
Realizing he wasn't joking, she somehow found herself blushing, and turned back toward her friends, face glowing red.
Glancing back over her shoulder again and again as she went — apparently the feeling wasn't one-sided.
It was a fine thing that Lee Yung had taken an interest in a woman — but one misstep, and he'd be planting his flag here for good. If his father found out, he wouldn't be able to celebrate quite so wholeheartedly.
"Now, as you saw yesterday, let me explain it all once more."
Before sunrise, in the pale pre-dawn light, fifty-three women sat gathered close together near the port, beneath the warm glow of electric lamps.
They had come to learn the rifle, declaring they would defend their village if it ever came to that.
"This gunpowder is truly dangerous. A mere shock can set it off if you're careless. Be careful, always."
Even as he explained, again and again, Lee Yung's gaze never strayed far from the blue-eyed woman in the front row.
Her cheeks, flushed crimson against her brown skin — whether from shyness or the early hour, he didn't know. Lee Yung thought she was adorable, and carried on.
No one around them could have missed the mood.
The other fifty-two watched with knowing smiles, only half-sure whether this counted as a lesson or a love affair.
"Shall we rest for a moment?"
"Yes!"
"While we're resting, I have a question."
Human concentration has its limits, they say — which is why proper breaks are what make learning stick. The rest wasn't strictly necessary, but the moment Lee Yung called it, a question came flying at him.
"Do you have a girlfriend?"
"Ohh~"
"Kyaa~"
A crowd of women in their late teens and early twenties — was the question really a surprise?
"Sadly, I did nothing but study before enlisting in the army, so I've never even held a woman's hand."
"Wow~"
"Lucky you, Rari~"
Lee Yung answered easily, thinking that if he'd ever had a little sister, she might have been something like these girls.
And the face of the blue-eyed girl sitting at the very front grew only redder.
Lee Yung still didn't even know her name.
Rari — a pretty name, meaning fox.