Running Away? No, Just an Outing! (3)
It's been three days since the slaves ran off in search of freedom.
Thanks to these raggedy wretches, my own clothes were turning into rags — though, ironically enough, my body stayed spotless while only the clothes got filthy.
They claimed they'd escaped for freedom, and something about it tugged at my heartstrings, so I'd been watching over them. What a disaster it's been.
One of them ate the wrong mushroom and is lying there in a cold sweat even as I speak.
"Uuugh... s-so... cold..."
Ah, that one's actually cold. We're up in the mountains, and the weather here is pretty chilly.
At this rate he's going to turn into a corpse. I should at least feed him some of my holy spit.
"Hey. Drink some water."
"Th... thank you."
Heh. I really don't know what to make of these guys.
The other three who'd gone out foraging worried me too, since tigers and bears still roamed these parts...
Hm? Wait — could they have run into hunters out catching wild beasts and gotten dragged right back?
Rustle, rustle.
Something was making noise. Looks like they made it back alive.
Tap tap, crinkle crinkle.
What they'd gathered was acorns. They busily shelled them and ground them into powder to dry — wait, were they planning to eat that?
It's incredibly bitter if you eat it as-is, you know.
Huh, so they do know a thing or two. They'd even scooped up water and were soaking the flour in it. But the problem was...
Grrrumble.
Growwwwl.
No food for today. Honestly, it reminded me of when I first met Garungda. So romantic. Just lovely.
"Hey."
"What is it?"
Not a single spark of life left in them. At this rate, I could probably run away and they couldn't even chase me.
"Why are you living like this? Why not just go back?"
"F... freedom..."
"Freedom, my foot. Aren't you going to starve to death?"
"..."
You have to stay alive first before you can go chasing freedom or whatever else, no? Maybe I should try talking some sense into them.
"Think about how you lived before you got captured! Wasn't life actually easier after you were brought here?"
They'd probably been scraping by on the knife's edge of death before, barely surviving day to day.
"Is the work too hard?"
"N... no, it's not that."
"Then what's the problem?"
"..."
Suddenly he clamps his mouth shut. Why can't he say it? Do you even know yourself, pal?
"Th... there are no women!"
Oh... right? They only ever capture men, don't they? Then what does that make me?
"Is that why they grabbed me?"
"You're not much to look at."
Ah, this little...? Are you trying to die?
"You look weak. Probably can't do much work either."
Should I just kill him?
"What? Your eyes look scary? Why, what did I say?"
"Hoo..."
Right, right. It's not like these guys did anything wrong. Their taste in women is just... different, that's all.
But even if I brought them women, there'd be a problem — life here is so much easier than where they came from that their numbers would explode. It'd become a social issue down the line.
Should I accept them as citizens of our nation? No, can't do that — I've already bound everyone together under the word "one people."
What do I do about this? This is genuinely tricky.
"So you're just going to keep living like this here?"
"I'm going back home."
Oh! There's a hint of real resolve there.
"Where's home?"
"Uh... no idea..."
Oh, come on. What a letdown. Well, of course — they were captured and carried across the sea by ship. There's no way they could find their way back.
"You're troubled too, aren't you?"
"..."
"Why not just give up and live comfortably here?"
"I know. This place is definitely better to live in. But my heart won't allow it."
So he's got principles of his own. If they hadn't been captured, this friend would have been someone destined for great things. Surely I haven't accidentally grabbed some legendary founding king of another country, have I?
"Whew... do whatever you want. Besides, I can barely feed myself, let alone you."
"We weren't starved back there either. Don't worry about us."
Oh, so because the slave owners didn't starve them, they're returning the favor? What kind of lunatic logic is that? This isn't living, you idiots!
Do whatever you want. Ugh. Starve, see if I care.
The next day they gathered acorns again and prepared them, and one of them brought back a handful of mushrooms.
"Whose turn is it this time?"
"Mine."
So they were taking turns testing whether things were safe to eat on the way back. How diligent. Good luck with that.
"Hey! Still, don't just eat mushrooms like that! You'll end up in real trouble."
Mushrooms are far more dangerous than other plants. An upset stomach or hallucinations would be the lucky outcome — plenty of them carry deadly toxins.
I clearly warned them. I told them not to.
"We'll just eat a little at a time. We'll handle it."
Then another one of them came down with a massive fever.
"No — we have to go back now, or we can't get him medicine!"
"You want to become slaves again?"
"Are you saying we should just leave our comrade to die?"
They started squabbling among themselves, chaos breaking out. Maybe all the commotion was the problem? They'd been lighting smoke fires for days — anyone passing by would have spotted them.
And sure enough, the hunters who'd tracked them finally caught up.
"Pathetic lot. But what's with this one, then?"
Even from an old man's perspective, this is ridiculous, right?
"Well... I was caught on the road."
"Getting nabbed by these weaklings. You ought to get some exercise."
Excuse me, old man, but exercise wouldn't give you strength like ours anyway...
"What's going to happen to them?"
"Eh. Back to the farms or construction sites, most likely."
"They were chasing freedom, but is the work really that hard?"
"Plenty of people say it's better than wherever they came from. By their standards, these ones are exceptionally peculiar."
I'd heard that labor was so scarce that slaves weren't treated outright brutally — but had freedom really mattered more to them than survival? I'd have to rethink the whole slavery question.
* * *
After my tumultuous little runaway, I came back to find the whole town in an uproar.
"Oh, Haneul-nim! What on earth happened to you!"
Ah. Maybe I should have changed clothes before walking in. My bad.
"You always say a child who wanders from home suffers for it — and look how well that went for you!"
"What? Only my clothes are dirty!"
My body's perfectly clean, isn't it? The dim-witted runaways never even noticed.
"First things first — throw those clothes away and get to the bathhouse."
"Do we have to? Let's just change clothes."
"..."
Seriously, are the secretaries so desperate to wash people that they'd demolish a bathhouse over it?
These friends of mine are devoted to a fault, too. Every single time, they insist on washing me with their own hands. Come to think of it, I don't think I've ever once bathed myself?
"Isn't it tiring, washing me every single time?"
"Why would it be tiring?"
"You know I don't really need to bathe."
Outsiders might not understand, but at least everyone who comes and goes from the Temple knows I'm no ordinary person.
"I simply enjoy it, that's all."
"Washing other people?"
"Washing you, Haneul-nim. It's not as if anyone could."
Huh? Something's off about this one. Her eyes are smiling in a distinctly suggestive way.
"Besides, your body is just so small and adorable, isn't it? Hahh... hahh..."
Right — that's why all the head secretaries throughout history loved bath time so much.
.
.
.
"Where in the world did Haneul-nim wander off to this time?"
"Ran away from home."
"Heh heh. You didn't leave because you didn't want to work, did you?"
Sharp as a tack, aren't you? That one stung a little.
"Why? Did something happen?"
"The slave issue you mentioned right when you returned. We've decided to abolish it and send them back."
Oh, right. We did talk about it the moment I got back... before I got dragged off to the bathhouse, that is.
"Hm? That easily?"
Now that's surprising. Didn't you need slaves pretty badly?
"Honestly, there's been a lot of complaints for a while. They're so frail they botch the work — honestly, it'd be faster to just have the people supervising them do the job themselves."
Exactly! You all have plenty of spare strength with nowhere to use it, don't you?
"That's right. Those kids really are limp as wet noodles. Especially the ones brought from that island down south — I'd bet they're weaker than me."
"Hm? How far exactly did you travel?"
"Oh! Me? Well—"
Caught up in the excitement, I chattered on and on about everything — from sailing with the slave traders to getting kidnapped on a mountain path on the way back.
"Have you ever seen such cursed fools in your life?"
"Huh?"
Hm? Did I get this wrong? Why is she swearing like that?
"We fed those slaves well and let them sleep warm, and this is how they repay us? I'll have them sent back home at once. Grgrgrk."
"Uh... easy there? Those kids are pretty fragile."
"Sending them back" — that does mean sending them back alive, right? Though if we send them home now, will they actually thrive?
They probably won't be able to adjust. It worries me.
"Oh! And the Silk Road!"
"Yes? The what road?"
"No, no! The Silk Road!"
"What's that?"
Ahhh! There's a very important and magnificent road out there! From now on, we'll be able to get pepper too!
"It's a route that crosses the desert westward!"
"..."
"What?"
"Why would you put yourself through that kind of hardship?"
Huh? That's not right, is it?
"Couldn't you just follow the routes the nomads already travel?"
What? What's she talking about? How far do those nomads roam, exactly?
"Do they travel far normally?"
"By their own accounts, they've even been to the western edge of the land over there. Though I suspect there's some boasting mixed in."
So there was something besides the historical Silk Road? Come to think of it... why did people back then insist on crossing deserts and towering mountain ranges anyway?
If there's a better route, all the better.
"Then let's actively encourage our nomad friends to trade between the West and us."
"Is there something specific you need?"
"Yeah — anything we don't have, which is basically everything. And bringing back technology would be nice too, wouldn't it?"
But wait, what's going on over in that region? I don't recall there being anything you could really call a state in China at this point...
Is it earlier than I thought?
"Oh, right — we'll need to find out what the people there even do first, won't we?"
"Exactly. Even just looking around here, everyone's scraping by eating dirt, aren't they?"
Huh. Fair point — people here do live off the land. But then again, so did all of you, not that long ago? Is this what they call the passage of time?
"First things first — do we have surplus food? How about we actively support the nomad friends and have them scout things out for us?"
"There are plenty of Bukju settlers, so we should have more than enough."
Bukju was a city built for farming on the plains directly north of Sinsi. Maybe because it was so close to Sinsi, people flocked there without a second thought.
We designate land and collect taxes — but Bukju doesn't pay any at all right now.
"Give them some silk to hold too. Tell them to try selling it."
"Let's just hope there's anyone out there to buy it."
"Ah... yeah, that's my worry too."
I could just fly over there myself and check, sure, but nobody speaks the language, so it'd be pointless. Our nomad friends wouldn't go straight to pillaging the moment they arrived... right?
I'm nervous. I'm anxious.
"By the way, how much surplus food are we talking?"
"For potatoes? Barely a tenth of what we grow gets eaten."
"Huh?"
Then why on earth are you farming them so hard?
"Shouldn't we cut back on farmers, then?"
"There aren't many to begin with?"
Huh? So they're planting around the clock, all year long? Can't we put people on something other than farming?
"What about all the leftover potatoes?"
"We share them with the animals, and, oh, what was it again... there's an uproar about making some kind of drink out of them?"
"A drink made from potatoes?"
Don't you need sweetness to make a drink?
"Lots of people say it puts them in a good mood when they drink it."
"Oh! It's alcohol, isn't it?"
Well, alcohol in moderation is fine, isn't it? It adds a little vitality to life.
"Is that what it's called?"
"Yeah. Bitter-sweet with a warm kick, right?"
"Ah! Yes, exactly!"
Looks like she's had a taste herself? Just look at her — eyes going wide, smacking her lips.
"Too much of that will make people sick. Tell everyone to drink in moderation."
"Sickness? We have Holy Water for that, don't we?"
"Sickness of the mind can't always be cured by Holy Water, so be careful."
Alcoholism is hard to fix even in my day. Though with bodies as sturdy as theirs, surely they'd be fine no matter how much they drank?
"If someone drinks that stuff and starts staggering around or blacking out, THAT is when you really need to worry."
"Eh? You're telling me people lose their minds from drinking that? I've downed a whole jar and never once did."
Ah... figures. My apologies. I underestimated all of you. At that level, I suppose it's fine.
"Although there are some who are so weak they distill it and drink the concentrate?"
So they've got distilled liquor too? What champion drinkers have we bred here? This isn't even a cold region — why hard liquor?
If they were Russians or those Siberian friends of ours, I'd at least understand. I don't know. I just don't know.