Spirit Education Is My Original Idea!
"Ah! That one's my original idea too!"
The news that the populations of the other major cities were barely creeping past a few thousand came as a shock. Sinsi's people were multiplying exponentially — could the sewers really make that much of a difference?
Then again, water transport was still in its crawling stages, so food probably wasn't reaching the outlying cities properly either.
"Cheol. I'm going to travel around and fix up the sewers."
Proper wastewater treatment facilities were beyond hope. Overhauling the sewers was the only option left.
"That will take quite a while, won't it?"
"Who knows. Only one way to find out."
"This may be the last time I see you."
What is with this man today? And what's with those wistful eyes?
"Well, it's true. Your lives are so short."
"All the more reason we burn hard and shine bright, is it not?"
"So I don't shine, then?"
"You do. You're simply too radiant to look at directly. Hahaha."
Ugh. So it isn't just Woori, then. It runs in the bloodline.
"Wait for me. Make sure I get to say goodbye."
"Yes."
It took a full five years. For one thing, these so-called cities had so few people that there was hardly any manpower to be found.
Pyeonghwa, Ryeonhwa, Danhwa, and Haseo sat near the coast, so those went quickly enough, but Sangju, Samsu, Samgang, and Daeho were inland, which left me no choice but to carve out broad fields and let the wastewater filter through man-made wetlands.
Whether that would actually work, who knew.
As for Moda and Seonju, they sat upstream of Sinsi, so I boldly extended the capital's sewer network all the way out to them. At least there was plenty of labor available from Sinsi for that one, so it was manageable.
"Cough, cough. You really did come."
"I said I would, didn't I?"
Another little while and I would have missed him. His muscles had wasted away, and he could no longer rise from his sickbed.
"Are you in pain?"
Did he still have regrets left?
"No. I feel light."
"That's what a relieved face looks like?"
"Just old age, I suppose?"
Oh. Uh. What do I even say to that?
"Bwahahaha! Whatever you're thinking is written all over your face."
"I'm not. I'm not thinking anything at all."
"Haneul-nim."
"What?"
"Let the people handle the people's work from now on. Go and do things you enjoy."
What kind of nonsense is that? Are you telling me to retire into the back room like some useless old fogey?
"Ahaha, don't make that face. Just watch over them as they accomplish things with their own hands. Everyone is working so hard."
"Ha! I have never once done that."
All I ever do is drop a few hints and give them a shove...
But a last request, hm. Garungda was the same way — these people do nothing but surprise me. And I thought I'd nagged plenty over the years?
"Did I do well?"
More than well. More than the job ever deserved.
"Has this country not yet crumbled to dust in my hands?"
"Pwahahaha! That's right! Exactly! That was the whole arrangement, wasn't it!"
What was so funny about that? We passed the time trading old stories for a long while.
I never knew he was a child with so much laughter in him...
It makes me so happy to see you laugh. Cheol, son of Garungda, my very first friend.
Cheol's funeral as the First Grand Chancellor of Daehan was a grand affair indeed. People gathered from every corner of the realm, and he was laid to rest before the World Tree, which had burned away and become sacred ground.
Watch over the country you built from up there, won't you.
"Ahh~ ahh~ ahh~"
"No, please don't do that — just take a look at this."
"No! Figure things out yourselves from now on!"
Seriously, I'm just joking around, and yet they keep trudging all the way here to ask! My reserves are tapped dry too, you know!
At this point I barely know more than you lot do!
"It's difficult to lay roads through the mountains."
Look at this idiot.
"Hey! That's exactly why we built ships — travel by sea already!"
"Ah..."
What this was, apparently, was a delegation coming to ask about the difficulty of building roads toward the Korean peninsula.
Getting as far as Ryeonhwa was no problem — Sinsi's people could simply push the coastal road along the shore. The trouble was that Danhwa and Pyeonghwa were short on people.
He used to be so sharp. What on earth has gotten into him?
"How about you try not thinking for a change?"
"I-I'm sorry."
"Want to end up like your father, eating dust on a rainy day?"
"Aw, come on, Haneul-nim? You're weaker than me, aren't you?"
Oh? Ohh! Ohooh!
So the pup is begging to die? Hah. So you never heard the legend of the chuunibyou twins who made paper, did you?
I was worse than Cheol, if anything — never less.
"You wanna get smacked around?"
"Pffhaha. You're cute, Haneul-nim~"
Thwack! Bam! Rattle-rattle-rattle!
"Waaahk!"
A few blows and a good shake by the collar, and he's already losing his mind?
This is only the beginning. Spirit education is my original invention, you brat.
Whoosh—
"Waaaaaaaargh!"
There he goes, soaring clear up into the sky. I can barely even see him. He'd better fall somewhere I can see if he expects me to catch him.
Fall somewhere weird, and that's your fate, understood?
Whuumm. Thud.
"Khh... khaaah."
I caught him a hair's breadth above the ground and he's practically over the moon. Kid, this is what you call a gyro drop.
Fun, right? I'm letting you experience early what nobody else will get to ride for a few thousand years.
Whiiiish—
"Ughh."
Oh? This one's got some strength behind it? He's going really high. Well, he's still in my line of sight, so at least he can breathe up there, right?
Whuumm. Thud.
"..."
Huh? He's quiet? Is he dead? No, he's breathing...
Splash!
Times like these call for a splash of cold water to wake them up.
"Khaak!"
"Hey! Sleeping, were you?"
"Ack! I-I'm sorry!"
"What was that?"
"Nothing!"
"This is outside, not inside! Get your head on straight!"
"Yes?"
Hm? Was it not?
After a good long session of spirit education, we went back inside to drink tea together.
"I apologize for getting cheeky."
"This here is the tame version. You know the story of the paper twins from the old days? ... And that's how it went."
"Hiiiik!"
What is this, an exhibition match? How mortifying.
He'll do his job properly from now on, won't he?
"Forgive the comparison, but this is a post that demands you worry and ponder day and night, the way Cheol did. You rose young — don't you dare treat the chancellorship lightly."
"Yes. Sniff."
"What are you crying for? Come on, dry it up."
"Okay."
Habits are a terrifying thing, whether in childhood or in adulthood.
"Bwahahaha."
"Huk."
"Still a baby, are you?"
"A... no!"
Hm? Did his voice just climb a register? Did I not hit him hard enough?
"What was that?"
"I'm sorry!"
"Anyway, back to what we were saying. The mountains are still too harsh for people to live in. Settle along the coasts and the rivers, and make active use of ships. They should be building large vessels at Ryeonhwa already."
"Ahh~"
"But don't neglect the mountain country either. Resources like iron are plentiful up there."
To think this dimwit is our chancellor. An absolute mess.
"And keep Haseo fully supplied at all times. The western barbarians demand constant vigilance."
"Yes, ma'am!"
"Do well. And build up your strength. Your head works itself to the bone because your body is weak."
"Yes?"
Dense as a stump. Carve this into your chest, kid. In all my years of living, I've never once found anything strength couldn't solve.
Apparently the spirit education had worked — the results of council meetings were improving by leaps and bounds.
Beating some sense into people really is the finest method there is. So that's why Cheol went around smacking everyone.
The only trouble now was that the capital's population had swollen far too much.
Was there anything enticing enough to lure people into settling in the distant provinces?
"What are you agonizing over this time?"
"Anything that might tempt Sinsi's people into settling in one of the other cities?"
"Hmm..."
Even Marayang, the power behind the throne, seemed fresh out of clever ideas.
"Oh! You've got plenty of hair, don't you? Why not turn it into amulets, strand by strand?"
"Huh? With that?"
"With your influence, Haneul-nim, it would be more than enough."
"Think it'll work?"
And wow — it did. What even is this. Applicants were queuing up out the door and around the block.
"Wait, hold on — what are they even doing with it?"
"From what I hear, some people weave a single strand into their cloth, and since one strand yields quite a bit of ink, others write with it."
Ha... Unbelievable...
"So where did you put yours, Mara?"
The people around me just hand the stuff out freely whenever it's needed — where on earth is everyone using it?
"Ta-da! I braided mine into a hair tie!"
"That... You can't even tell it's there. What's the point?"
"That's not the point at all. It's a hair tie with Haneul-nim's hair woven into it."
Ah... I give up. I understand nothing. Just what level are you people operating on?
Well, nothing else on me is harvestable, I suppose?
My nails don't grow, and surely nobody would ask me to pluck my eyebrows for them?
"Just braid whole cords out of the hair and tie with those. I'll give you plenty more."
"No. A single strand is precisely what gives it meaning."
What — you refuse even when it's offered? Right. She was never normal to begin with. A pervert from the very start.
Knock knock.
"It's us."
"Yeah, come in."
Time truly does fly. Before we knew it, we were middle-aged ourselves.
"Hey. You're going gray too."
"What! Really?"
This one never changes. Forever flighty.
"What's so shocking? You're plenty old enough for it."
"Ah. I envy you, Haneul-nim. At times like this."
"You have grandchildren, don't you? Are the little ones growing well?"
Everyone here married absurdly early. The moment they came of age, they all rushed headlong into marriage, and by twenty or twenty-one at the latest, every last one of them was wed.
Since more children meant more good, I'd left well enough alone — and now some households were producing as many as eight...
They'd grow old and drop dead doing nothing but bearing children.
"Of course. Quite handsome — takes after somebody, wouldn't you say?"
"If he takes after you, doesn't the boy lose his mind over every pretty girl he sees?"
"Hk."
A critical hit. This is exactly why I told him time and again to behave himself when he was young.
"More importantly, how are the children out west? Did you look into it?"
"We send scouts west on a month-long rotation, but they've found nothing at all."
A month round trip means two weeks one way. So a sweep of roughly three to four hundred kilometers, then.
"Can't it be done by ship?"
"The warships you spoke of are apparently still a long way off."
Even small boats are risky in open coastal waters. Overland is simply too far. One single ship would do — go give them another push to hurry things along.
"Understood."
They'd somehow managed the cargo ships, but building warships from thicker, tougher timber was apparently giving them trouble.
That part was beyond my expertise too, so I was of no help — and the utter silence from those westerners was suspicious.
They're not the type to sit still and take a beating, after all.
Do I really have to go out there again?
"What are you brooding over so hard?"
"Ah. I was remembering the time I went west for a bit of fun, ages ago. You see, I got kidnapped."
"WHAT?! You absolute madman!"
Whoa... why are you redlining all of a sudden? That's scary.
Well, this story is genuinely entertaining. Time to spin a proper yarn.
"So... you made the son of some high-and-mighty-looking man into a eunuch, smashed the village to pieces, and ran off?"
"Huh?"
Is that how it sounds when you say it like that? Somehow I'm the one who did something terrible here?
"And on the way back, while you were staying at Haseo, they came looking for you — and you threw the first stone and cracked his skull wide open?"
"That's right, isn't it?"
Oh? The chancellor earns his keep after all — he summarizes beautifully.
Then why do I keep coming off as the villain of the piece? Is it just my imagination?
"I thought you only used words at first?"
"I did, didn't I?"
"Then why did you crack his skull open?"
"We could barely understand a word each other said, and they claimed they'd come for their bride. Why on earth would I be their bride?"
I hadn't married anyone. Wasn't that hilarious? You close your eyes for a nap and wake up in someone else's household, apparently.
"I figured a cracked skull would keep them from ever coming back."
"And then came the Battle of Haseo."
"No, that was a war. They came swarming outside the fortress walls like a pack of feral dogs — it was enormous, I tell you."
"You enjoyed yourself, I take it."
Huh? Well, now that he mentions it... I suppose I did have a good time? I met Daka back then, after all.
"K-kinda?"
Crunch, crunch, crunch.
Ow? Are your teeth going to be all right?
"N-no, I suppose not?"
"So every war with the western natives was, in the end, something you started, Haneul-nim?"
"I... suppose you could put it that way?"
But wasn't I the victim here? We took our lumps, sure, but not all that many of us died...
Whereas they lost an awful lot, didn't they? So am I the perpetrator?
"Um... excuse me? Are we the bad guys?"
"They did strike first, but from their side of things, you're probably their mortal enemy."
"What? Why? They're the ones who attacked!"
"That's not how the ones taking the beating see it."
Huh? Really? You'd know, I suppose, having absorbed your fair share of beatings?