Robinson's Diary (3)
Three months have passed since we left the native village behind, and still we walk. South, always south.
This is Daehan, without a doubt. No country in Europe could go three months along a single road without a city springing up somewhere.
"It's a bit frightening, isn't it…."
"Could we have taken the wrong road?"
"If we had, it would hardly be kept this well…."
The others were right. There had been side paths along the way, but every one of them had been small — tracks leading to other native villages nearby, most likely.
Just how vast was the land of Daehan?
Clip-clop. Clip-clop.
"Do you need any help there?"
As we followed the road, wagons had begun to appear now and again.
Apparently we cut a rather sorry figure, because every passing traveler asked if we needed assistance. It was a little embarrassing.
"No, we're quite all right. We're in no hurry."
"Ah. A tribe of fur traders, are you? Haha. Travel safely, then."
Just as I thought — they didn't even suspect we were Europeans.
They took us for some minor people who had drifted in from somewhere or other. City life, it seemed, wasn't so pleasant for everyone; there were plenty of small peoples living in their own ways out here.
"Once we reach a city, we could sell the furs and use them for travel expenses, couldn't we?"
"Good thinking. I'll take a bit more care with the curing, then."
We had been paid in Daehan coin before leaving London, but in case it ran short, we had decided to collect and sell hides along the way.
As the bundles of leather grew heavier, our steps slowed further. Honestly — however you looked at it, what kind of place had no city after months of walking?
"Hm? The road's bending a little?"
"Oh — so it is!"
Had we finally reached the southern edge? Surely now we would see a city!
Madness…. We thought a city had to appear soon, and we have been walking twelve more days….
"Well…. one thing is certain. The land is tremendously vast."
"Who could say how far it stretches…."
How did they govern a country this enormous? I truly wanted to stop the next person we met and ask.
If a rebellion broke out in some distant province, the news wouldn't even reach the capital before the rebels had already seized the whole region.
"Huh?"
"What is it?"
"Why does the land suddenly change from here?"
"What? What? What is that?"
The scholars began to murmur among themselves. What did they mean, the land 'changed'? It wasn't as if a stretch of green could be worse than the ice, could it?
And yet — it really was remarkable. From this point on, grass and trees appeared in abundance, out of nowhere.
It was as if someone had cast a spell on the border.
"This is…. quite beyond me."
"The weather hasn't grown any warmer, though. How can plants suddenly grow this thickly from here on?"
"Heh heh…."
The scholars, it turned out, were not particularly clever either. Listening quietly, I realized they didn't know a single thing.
So we walked on through the forest for several more days.
Screeeech! Krrr-rrr-rrrrr.
"Hm? What on earth is that sound?"
"Something heavy rolling, I'd say."
A sound none of us had ever heard before — rather like several dozen boulders grinding along together. But what was that shrieking, whistle-like note mixed in with it?
"Good heavens…."
"What in the world is that…."
Past the forest, an enormous stretch of farmland opened up along the roadside — and, God help me…
a silver monster none of us had ever seen was spewing black smoke as it tore the earth open, furrow by furrow.
"Oh…. good Lord…."
"Black smoke…. Could it be that we have been walking through Hell all this while?"
"That would explain the endless frozen wastes…."
Rubbish, all of it. Then what do we call those kind-hearted folk who kept offering us help? Honestly, that religion of theirs had abandoned its people long ago.
Still — that thing really was hard to believe.
"Everyone, snap out of it! That is a machine of some kind. The ground is plowed wherever that silver carriage passes — it seems to do the work of oxen and men in their stead."
"Oh! I see…."
"So it wasn't Hell after all."
Thankfully, people began to come to their senses.
"But how does it move?"
"Could it be like those trains, or the ironclads?"
"Oh! Must be, I suppose."
"Does anyone here know what it is?"
"The one who did drowned in the ice…."
They gawked for a long while, trying to puzzle it out. Evidently the only man who might have known the answer had frozen to death in that ice hole…. What a shame.
"Cough…. I need paper…."
"Damn it all…."
He wanted to write something down, it seemed, but had nothing to write on. With us all half-frozen to death back there, everything had long since been burned as kindling.
"But tell me — in cold like this, how are crops growing so beautifully over there?"
Walking a little further down, we found another field where wheat stood in full, healthy ear.
There was even a strange vine plant I had never laid eyes on before.
"Who can say…."
"Some special variety of wheat?"
"If any of it ripens as we pass, let's gather a few seeds. Something that grows even in this cold would be worth a fortune back in Europe, wouldn't it?"
"Oh!"
These scholars — they had already received prize money enough to idle away the rest of their lives. Honestly.
And as we descended further, we kept encountering one astonishing thing after another.
"That's a city?"
"Yes! So many people!"
"What nonsense. That's a small village, nothing more. A city is still far ahead! These folk would faint if they ever saw Sinsi."
What we had taken for a city turned out to be merely a little village — and that was a genuine shock to us.
Even with an enormous population living there, the city proper, we were told, lay still further south.
Just how many people could possibly live in a city….
"If something like this counts as a small village, how many people must live in this country?"
"We don't even know how many villages there are, so first…."
"Good heavens…."
After that, whatever thoughts occupied them, the others fell remarkably quiet.
The city was clearly drawing nearer now — truly staggering crowds came and went along the road, and we began to feel more and more ashamed of ourselves.
The people around us wore clothes clean enough for European nobility, and the road itself was without so much as a speck of dust, let alone filth. The comparison with Europe was almost painful.
"Truly…."
"Whew…."
People started to speak and thought better of it, but the place was simply wonderful to live in, plainly.
Most everyone along this road had to be a commoner, no?
They were all clean, and well-fed enough to show it, strolling about with smiles on their faces. If paradise existed anywhere on earth, I found myself thinking, surely it would look like this.
"There isn't a single beggar…."
"Good grief…."
"It wasn't only for show at Pyeong-an Naru, then…."
I had heard the stories myself — that in Pyeong-an Naru, Daehan's port city in Portugal, there was not one begging pauper or orphan to be found….
The more I saw of this place, the more I wanted to understand it.
And when we walked into the city proper, every soul we passed looked at us as though we were pitiful wretches….
"I should say we ought to sell the furs, buy new clothes, and go wash ourselves in the river or somewhere…."
"You read my mind."
"Heavens…."
Europe, which we had believed the most civilized and prosperous corner of the world, seemed unable to measure up to a single Daehan city.
The Europeans asked directions from passersby, disposed of their hides in the shopping district, bought fresh clothes, and made for a place called a bathhouse.
"Eh? Will this be all right?"
"To think the bathhouses of Rome still stood so proudly as this."
In Christian culture bathing was hardly encouraged, and the great public baths of the Roman age had all vanished centuries ago. These were people with a deep-seated aversion to washing at all.
"Well, if we mean to travel through this land, we've no choice. Everyone, let's go wash."
"Agreed. There's no way around it!"
Making the best of it, the party filed into the bathhouse, scrubbed off layers of accumulated grime, and emerged dressed in their newly purchased clothes.
So much filth came off them that the other bathers shifted to sit as far away as possible.
"How long has it been since I bathed in warm water…."
"Forget that — did you see where the water comes from?"
"Right! How does it do that?"
The faucets they had seen in the bathhouse had startled them badly.
"Could it be made by some magic?"
"Magic? You mean demon craft?"
"The black smoke too, and all…."
These Europeans were astonishingly ignorant — the moment anything puzzled them, they rushed to pin a label of magic or demonry on it.
"Anyway, where is this 'capital'? We ought to find out how to get there."
"We'll just have to ask someone again, won't we…."
And so they began waylaying pedestrians with questions about this and that.
"You must have come from somewhere in the mountains, hm? Just go to the train station over there and take a train."
"Ah! A train! Of course there'd be one! Thank you!"
One man who had glimpsed a train from afar during his time in Mudo put on a knowing air. He seemed delighted to finally know something.
"Everyone, let's go. We simply must ride one!"
"Let's!"
Signposts stood here and there along the streets, so finding the station was no great trouble.
Hope began to settle over the faces of the party as they went — in the scholars, a hunger for knowledge; in the sailors and soldiers, dreams of prize money.
Screeeeeech!
"Gah…."
"What is that thing?"
As they drew near the station and saw a train just pulling in, the whole company froze in astonishment.
By their reckoning, houses were gliding in one after another in a long line. Iron houses, at that.
Passenger cars and freight cars enough that a middling kingdom would have had to hammer iron night and day for a year to build the like.
And at the head of them all, a colossal gray beast dragging the lot.
"Madness…."
"It's that big?"
The ones who had only ever seen a train from a distance — who had known it was large compared to a man, and nothing more — were stunned all over again.
And the whole party surged forward, eager to climb aboard at once.
"Just a moment! Tickets, please."
"I beg your pardon?"
"You must have a ticket to board!"
"What's that, then?"
"Ah — first time traveling, is it? You'll need to go to the ticket office over there and buy one first."
"I see…."
Turned away at the doors after trying to barge straight on, the party shuffled off toward the ticket office.
A long line of people stood waiting before the windows — and this, too, was a cultural shock.
"Everyone just… queues up like this?"
"Look closely! Not a single soul is cutting in!"
"How?"
In Europe, a queue was merely a suggestion — you shoved your way in by whatever means and grabbed what you could first. That was simply how things were.
It was in trifles like this that one could see how far Daehan had advanced beyond Europe.
And so the Europeans quietly joined the line. They had the money from selling their hides, plus what they had carried from home, and they waited their turn and bought their tickets in good order.
"Did I hear that wrong?"
"I heard three days…."
Since the journey to the capital would take three days, they had to buy tickets that included meals and a sleeping berth.
"Of course it's slow — it's made of iron, so it must crawl along."
"Ah! So that's why it takes so long!"
They boarded the train without the faintest idea how wrong they were. They were even to be given meals — what a stroke of luck, they thought.
And it had been cheaper than expected. Plenty of coin still remained in their purses.
"Incidentally, one can also buy tickets to Mudo."
"Oh? Then on the way home, we shall go by way of Mudo and arrange our passage back to Europe there."
"My thinking exactly."
With their route home now settled, the party grew giddy at the prospect of seeing this famed capital and turning back for Europe.
Screeeeeech!
"Oh! I believe we're departing!"
"That sound seems to come when it stops or starts!"
Full of anticipation, they settled in and began willing the three days to pass quickly.
Clatter-clatter. Clatter-clatter.
"Oh? It's faster than I expected!"
"Isn't it? Faster than a wagon, at least."
It did not take long for that casual admiration to curdle into open horror.
"What in the—!"
"How can anything go this fast!"
"And this is supposed to take three days?!"
The moment the train reached its top speed, the screams began.
For the locomotive was now running faster than even the finest warhorse at a full gallop — so fast that even the hardened soldiers among them were swallowing hard.
"Surely it doesn't mean three days of running night and day?"
"Oh, come now…. surely not…."
And after a sleepless night of wide-eyed staring, they gave up trying to understand entirely. For though the train paused briefly at station after station, it never once stopped to rest.