Robinson's Diary (4)
After two days on the train, I gave up trying to make sense of Daehan altogether.
I just watched. That was all I could do.
"…."
"…."
The scholars had stayed up without sleeping, watching everything, and now they'd been walking around with bloodshot eyes without saying a single word for ages.
Knock knock knock.
"Your meal is here."
And then there was the food, delivered every time without fail. Three full meals a day — breakfast, lunch, and dinner.
I'm no noble, and this was the first time in my life I'd eaten three square meals a day. Rich, savory soup with actual meat served alongside it.
If I'm honest, I wanted to live in Daehan…. Between the money we'd saved selling the hides we'd collected on the way down, if I could just find work here, I could eat and live comfortably for as long as I pleased.
"Everyone, please get some sleep…. You'll make yourselves sick at this rate."
"…."
Are these people…. going to be all right?
When I woke from my sleep and looked out the window, I imagine I wore exactly the same face as those wretched scholars.
"What is that?"
"Is something like that even possible?"
"A tree?"
Though it was far in the distance, a tree that seemed to touch the very sky filled the horizon.
Once, I'd overheard a sailor from the northern provinces spinning drunken tales — about a Tree of Life that cradled the whole world in its branches. What did he call it? The World Tree, or something of the sort.
"This is maddening…."
"If we go back and tell this story, will anyone believe a word of it?"
"I was thinking the very same."
Um…. my dear friends…. I'm afraid that's not the problem here?
They were all so busy talking among themselves that none of them were looking out the window, and — dear God —
"Bloody hell…. now what is that?"
"What is it?"
"Um…. good Lord."
The moment I cursed, the scholars who'd been peering out at the thing let their own curses fly.
I don't believe I'd ever heard a single one of them swear before.
I knew the plains were vast — all we'd seen for days was an unbroken horizon. But what on earth was I to call this? A city devouring the horizon itself.
"Is that the capital?"
"More than that — how many people could possibly live there?"
"More relevant still — you do realize that town we passed through on this plain was larger than any city back in Europe?"
I was losing my mind. Would my diary actually survive being published as a book back home?
Anyone who read it would take it for a work of fiction.
Does that matter, though? As long as it sells….
At any rate, I no longer know what to think….
The band of Europeans who had stolen their way in began to tour Sinsi.
"Even the back alleys are spotless…."
"And did you see it at night? Every main street glowed bright as day…."
The city was cleaner than any village or town they'd passed through on the way, and the faces of the people brimmed with smiles.
"So this is the face of Daehan…."
Best of all, apparently, came daytime — when musicians played on the street corners and crowds of people merrily whiled away the hours.
And above all, everyone was tall.
The men stood a full head or two above them, and the women were nearly as tall as their menfolk.
"You don't suppose the women here are stronger than I am?"
"It's possible. Look at them…."
"But why is everyone so impossibly handsome and beautiful?"
Perhaps it was their easy abundance — the smiles on their faces softened every expression into something gentle.
Aside from a few exceptions, hardly anyone was grossly fat; being trim was simply the baseline here.
And yet not one of them lacked for muscle.
"Good heavens…. and why is the city so impossibly vast…."
They had been touring it for days already, and still they could not find where it ended.
"I suppose it's time we started back…."
"If only we had the money for it."
"They did tell us we couldn't stay long — something about needing identification papers…."
Robinson had originally wanted to find work here and settle in, but his inquiries were flatly refused — no papers, no employment.
Unable to find a job, staying long became impossible, and the time had come to head home.
It was a disappointment for them all, but in truth it was a blessing that the city sprawled so widely — otherwise they might have laid eyes on the industrial districts to Sinsi's south and north as well.
"What a pity…."
"Do you think we could ever come back?"
Packing their regrets away, the party boarded the train.
Three days and nights of running westward brought them to Mudo.
"Good grief…. just three days west, at this speed?"
"Insane, isn't it? On foot it would take a year at least."
Did they know? That everything they had toured amounted to less than half of Daehan?
"Let's find our way home."
Mudo, the great trade city, was packed with merchants — mostly Persians and Eastern Europeans.
Daehan maintained no port in their waters, after all.
"We'll pass through Poland-Lithuania first, then cross into the Holy Roman Empire."
"Agreed. I asked around — that's the best route by far."
And so the survivors set out with the Polish merchants.
But then — why on earth were these men dragging them over mountains and through forests, along nothing but remote, empty wilderness?
"Hm? Why are we taking such a difficult route?"
"Eh? You didn't know? Russia and Poland-Lithuania are at war."
"WHAT?!"
They had no choice but to be startled — at that very moment they were crossing straight through Russia in the company of Polish merchants.
If they were caught, they were as good as dead.
"What?! Why are you only telling us this now!"
"Hm? It never occurred to you to ask?"
Of everyone who had set out in search of Daehan, only the Western Europeans remained.
And a crew of sailors plus a handful of men who'd done nothing but research at universities — how much attention had they ever paid to the outside world?
Trembling with fear, they followed the merchants as cautiously as they could.
"Don't worry. The south, at least, stays quiet."
"That's the reassurance you offer?!"
Wealth and glory awaited them the moment they made it home — they couldn't very well die here.
And so they walked with their eyes even wider open than the merchants'.
"I've made this trip any number of times and never once seen a soldier. It's not so bad."
"You're sure?"
Don't they say that speaking of the devil summons him?
"Who goes there! Who are you men?!"
Deep in a forest of dense, tangled trees, they ran straight into Russian soldiers.
"No!"
"Run!"
"AAAGH!"
The party scattered in every direction. Even the merchants could do nothing but save themselves, snatching up only their most valuable goods and bolting.
"Catch them! No — kill them! Shoot them all down!"
Bang! Bang! Bang!
It was pure luck that they'd been in a forest. After a desperate chase through the trees, it looked as though a few of them had been caught — but most managed to escape unharmed.
The scholars, of course. The sailors and the soldiers — and the merchants with all their practice at fleeing — ran like the wind, but the scholars simply could not.
No doubt, once the captured scholars had been interrogated long enough, they would kindly deliver all the news of Daehan to Russia.
"Damn it all…."
"What are you doing?! Keep running! There could be pursuers behind us!"
"I know!"
They had never been a band bound by any brotherly love to begin with. With one or two more of their number caught along the road home, a mere nine of them finally reached Lithuania.
And even here, the atmosphere was strange.
"Where have you come from?"
"We've just returned from Daehan."
"You mean Mudo?"
"No! The capital!"
"Oh ho? Seize them!"
Far too many nations were starving for news of Daehan.
If they were captured here, wouldn't the reward money slip right through their fingers?
The fool who had been bragging about their journey like a proud little bird was carted off, and the rest slipped quietly into hiding and made for Western Europe.
One way or another, they had to reach France or England.
"Let's dress ourselves as beggars."
"Ugh…. not one soul here to be trusted."
When the band of seven beggars finally crossed the breadth of Europe and arrived in the west, it was exactly two years to the day since they had departed London.
"Whew…. whew. This is nerve-wracking…."
Back in England, Robinson proved that he had truly made the journey to Daehan, collected his reward money with his head held high, and settled into a life without want.
His diary, above all, had proven invaluable.
And when he bound it into a book, the copies flew off the shelves as fast as they could be printed.
And today, he was granted an audience with Queen Elizabeth I.
"Enter."
"Yes, Your Majesty."
Today's audience was a semi-private affair, held alongside a handful of nobles.
Since the conversation was sure to run long, Elizabeth had apparently arranged comfortable seating for the occasion.
"Your Majesty the Queen! It is an honor to greet you."
"You are Robinson Crusoe?"
"I am. The honor of this meeting is entirely mine."
"This is an informal gathering — be at ease."
"Yes, Your Majesty! Thank you."
And so, over tea, the conversation began to wander this way and that.
On the table, naturally, sat Daehan-made teacups and tea — and chocolate as well.
"Now then. One of your books left quite an impression on me. The empire, I believe you called it, where the sun never sets?"
"Yes, Your Majesty. It was truly a land of staggering size…."
It was, admittedly, a rough patchwork of the white nights he'd witnessed at sea — but nothing he had written was false.
Measured from Sinsi, in the present day:
The westernmost territory of Daehan lay at 63 degrees west longitude, and the easternmost at 177 degrees west.
"Good heavens…. then the wheat that grows even in winter, and the farmland stretching endlessly to the horizon — all of it is true as well?"
"It is. It was a truly wondrous sight. The land where we set foot was buried in snow and ice — and yet the wheat was growing green and lush upon it."
Even now, the scene of that day remained vivid before Robinson's eyes.
"You're not lying to me?"
"To be honest, I wrestled with it myself. If I poured out everything I saw, who would believe me? But I swear on God's name — it is the truth. I ask you to believe it."
"Hmm…."
Elizabeth harbored a flicker of doubt.
But a man living comfortably in the heart of England on prize money hardly seemed the type to sell even the name of God for a lie.
"With such a land, surely no man need ever starve again…."
"Your Majesty?"
He had written it plainly in his book. About the endless crowds of people — and about the carriages that ran through the night, faster than any horse.
An army could arrive within three days flat. Would she truly contemplate war?
"You must not, Your Majesty! I beg you — no war, ever!"
"Did you not say the land is vast? We would merely be taking a small share of it?"
The air around Elizabeth was drifting somewhere very wrong.
Robinson tried desperately, thanklessly, to talk her down.
"W-what if you simply purchased grain from them instead?"
"Why bother? Once we have the land, we may take as much as we please."
She had her own worries about food, it was true. Every nation of Europe in this Little Ice Age was suffering through the food crisis.
But was a mere commoner — not even a noble, just some sailor living off prize money — really someone whose counsel she was bound to heed?
So it was that Robinson left the castle answering her questions with hollow replies, his face clouded to the very depths.
"This won't do…. I'd sooner move to one of Daehan's ports, or to Mudo itself."
Housing there would surely be appallingly expensive — but land a job, he thought, and life would be rather comfortable.
For as he walked out of the castle, some unbidden image of London in flames overlapped itself before his eyes.
From that day on, Robinson quietly settled his affairs and set out to find a home in Pyeong-an Naru.
"Huh?"
"You too?"
There, waiting for him, were the very companions who had returned with him and shared in the prize money.
"What if we pool our money and buy land and houses together? This place looks far better to live in."
"I was thinking the exact same thing!"
The port city they had toured might not have matched Daehan proper, but life there was wonderful all the same.
And there were plentiful jobs — and Daehan's goods, cheap for the taking.
"Ha! We should have come here ages ago!"
"This is a far better life!"
"BWahaha!"
And once they had settled in, the others gathered to them one by one.
Every one of them had collected his prize and been living high on the hog back home — until, like Robinson, an uneasy feeling had taken root, and they had liquidated everything and come here with their families.
"Even if the whole world burns, this place would be safe — don't you think?"
"And if this place ever burns, well — wouldn't that mean the whole world is already aflame?"
So they chatted, gazing out at Daehan's impregnable fortresses.
And at the colossal ships trailing smoke like trains, gliding in and out of the harbor.
"If Daehan is paradise — then this place must be somewhere along the road leading to it."