Snow in Midsummer
Snow? In the middle of summer?
Whooeeeing—
The wind was howling. A cold wind.
Pat, pat, pat.
No sound reached her, but snow was falling too.
"Are you kidding me? It's late July!"
Yes, the Daehan Plain was a cold region, but even so, summers were supposed to be hot!
The weather had lost its mind. The Earth was clearly broken. Had an ice age arrived? Wait, were ice ages even colder than this? What do you even call this, then?
"What on earth is going on here...."
Extreme weather had struck. Snow in summer? Wasn't this serious enough to be a genuine crisis?
And what were people doing about it?
"Wahaha! It's snowing~"
"Aw, it's not piling up."
"Can't it snow a little more?"
They weren't even cold. They just threw on an extra jacket over their short sleeves and went about their work.
Apparently nobody's the least bit fazed? Normally wouldn't you read omens in the sky, or feel something ominous?
She decided she needed to see the Grand Priest.
"Daesinjāng!"
"Haneul-nim! You've come!"
Hm? This old man is suspiciously calm too.
"The weather's gone strange!"
"So it has. Snow in summer—what a rare marvel."
He's just standing there admiring the snow like it's a sideshow? Am I being paranoid?
"Don't you think people will panic?"
Societal unrest! Soaring crime rates! Cities collapsing in chaos!
"Is Haneul-nim displeased with us?"
Do I have anything to be angry about? Only things to worry about. Well, that Chancellor does occasionally make my blood boil with his nonsense.
"No?"
"Then what troubles you? Ho ho ho."
Huh? Is he really okay?
"With Haneul-nim still watching over us so lovingly, what has the people to fear? Hahaha."
What the— has this man achieved enlightenment? He talks like he's lived longer than I have... Was I worried over nothing?
We might be fine, but other countries must be in an uproar. Especially that neighbor of ours—they must be slaughtering people left and right as sacrifices, no?
"Right. Carry on, then. I'm going to look around some more."
"Yes. Please don't worry yourself. Ho! Ho! Ho!"
Now he's laughing like some mountain spirit? Is this guy even human?
"Ahh~ how refreshing this summer is!"
"I hope it stays cool all season. Hahaha."
"Come on, we still have to farm."
"We can just farm near the World Tree. No problem, hahaha."
No sense of crisis at all with these people?
THUD!
"...Ow."
"Who's there?"
"It's Haneul-nim, obviously!"
The meeting room, after so long. Why is this door so solid? Did they replace it recently? My ankle...
"You've arrived. Please, have a seat here."
"It's snowing in summer, you know."
"Yes. It's cool and pleasant."
Nothing's wrong? Cool and pleasant, he says...
"Snow falling in summer—isn't that a problem?"
"Is it one?"
"The crops will freeze and the grass won't grow!"
Then the horses and cattle can't graze and they'll starve! Then no meat! And! Riots!
"Hm? Why are you angry?"
"The meat will—!"
"The meat?"
...Ah. Was I thinking only about meat?
"Ahem. I mean, won't the animals up north run short of feed?"
"They can just come down to Samgang and eat potatoes, can't they?"
How many animals are we talking about, and you'd farm potatoes to feed them? That's nonsense on its face.
"That actually works? And it's not just one or two animals?"
"It works. We've been doing it for hundreds of years. When winter comes, the ones that come down to Samgang are—"
Huh? We've been doing this for hundreds of years? Er... sorry? I didn't know.
"Ahem. And they come down early this year—is that okay?"
"We just turn them loose in the fully grown fields to dig up and eat as they please. Potatoes grow year-round, after all."
Ah. So they just plow up some fields haphazardly, bury potatoes, and call it a day? What about animal feed? Well then, that's less work. Convenient.
These kids run a clever operation.
"Hm-hm. And the other crops?"
"Right now everything is so abundant it's become a problem, frankly. If anything, the cold slowing growth is a blessing."
Well, true. Cold weather does make the grass grow more slowly. So it's actually a good thing?
"There's that much surplus produce?"
"Yes. If the Temple didn't buy it at fixed prices, the farmers would all have gone under."
So that's what became of all that money flowing into the Temple—they poured it into subsidizing agriculture?
"Hm? Then what does the Temple do with all of it?"
"Mostly they brew liquor, I hear? And it is absolutely divine! You really must sample every variety."
Weren't priests supposed to practice restraint and discipline? The Grand Priest seemed fine, though? I should visit him again.
"Ahem. Any other problems?"
"Hmm. None of ours, exactly, but we're worried about the displaced peoples pouring in from other countries."
"Displaced peoples?"
Refugees from fallen nations, that kind of thing?
"From Hara, perhaps?"
"Yes, exactly. It seems the Shang don't regard people as people at all."
So they're being taken en masse for human sacrifice. I bear some guilt for that, and my conscience does prick a little.
"Hmm. They're a very different people, though..."
"Yes. That's why we haven't accepted them. But it's pitiable."
What to do...
"Um—"
Hm? The Minister of Transport, raising a hand, of all people?
"Yes. Go ahead."
"Don't we have that stretch of land between the lower Yellow River and the Shang's city walls? Where we're building Gunpo Port. What if we settled them there?"
Oh? The Shandong Peninsula? True, we started a port there and left it half-done—no people to populate it. That could work.
"Oh? Not bad? Look at you."
The World Tree's influence would make crops flourish there too. We could make it a kind of autonomous district.
"Ehehe."
It's good. Ha ha.
"Gather the people there and let them build their own city. Give them some support, too. We can put them to work on the construction there as well."
"Yes. An excellent plan."
These Chinese blockheads, finding city walls too much trouble, just chopped off the mountain slopes and built their walls at the bottom of them. In a few thousand years, don't come crying to me! There's oil under there. Ehehehe.
"You look rather pleased with yourself?"
"Mm. Because in a few thousand years, that land will be a treasure."
"Prophecy!"
No. It's just that you lot lack the technology to use it—hardly prophecy. Though I suppose I can't explain that.
"So look after them well. And if any of them gathered there get restless and defect to the Shang, that would be a problem."
"We! Shall! Guard! Against! It!"
What was that? Somehow that made me more nervous? Did I really need to add that? We do still have the treaty we signed with Hara, so... it should be fine.
"Actually, let's gather all the strange ones who come over and settle them there too. A sort of refugee village."
Mix them all together and they'll fight amongst themselves, if anything. Whatever.
This bizarre weather had already persisted for several years.
"I have no memory of an ice age happening. So what is this?"
The real problem was the staggering numbers of people apparently starving to death. Not in Daehan—in that China, and on the peninsula beyond it.
They were no longer mere migrants but outright refugees, clustering together in dense settlements across the displaced-peoples region. Thankfully, the farming there seemed to be going well.
"It can't be a true ice age. If it were, it would definitely have left a mark on my memory—so it must be something brief that passes quickly, right?"
Thanks to the climate chaos, life up north had grown even harsher, and the influx of minority peoples was accelerating. Outside the World Tree's reach, survival was apparently truly difficult now.
"Haneul-nim! Have some yeot!"
"Pfft. What the—?"
No, these kids clearly have no idea what that means. Every single time, I can't get used to it...
"Ah. Thank you."
"You always eat it and then make a sour face, though?"
It's delicious, but the feeling is... let's just say there's a story behind it I could never bring myself to tell.
"Anyway, why did you bring so much?"
"The cook gave it to me. She said she made a lot."
You expect me to believe that? You wanted it yourself and you're deflecting.
"Be honest."
"Wh-what do you mean?"
Oho. They say the thief's own feet go numb, don't they?
"You took it because you wanted to eat it, didn't you?"
"No, I didn't!"
"Then I suppose I'll have to eat it all myself."
"You barely eat any, Haneul-nim! Eep!"
Exactly—I barely eat any, and yet you brought this whole pile? Confession and all. You're caught red-handed.
"Too much sugar is bad for you, you know?"
There aren't even any dentists yet—what is she planning to do about it? Maybe we unlocked syrup and sugar too early...
All I wanted was for her to enjoy something tasty, and now look, I'm worried.
"Ah! Why not?!"
"Because if you eat too many sweets, little bugs will burrow into your teeth and gnaw them! I'm not saying don't eat it at all!"
I can't exactly show her a cavity, and she truly knows nothing whatsoever about toothpaste! It's agonizing.
"Ahh—look! No bugs!"
They're not the kind you can see, child...
"Ugh. Fine, eat as you like. Just don't come blaming me later. I warned you, clearly."
"Yeth ma'am."
Is she a squirrel? How many did she stuff in her mouth at once? Is it really that good? Drooling everywhere, honestly...
Munch, munch.
Hm. It is pretty good, actually?
Ever since the men of the sea had brought back sugarcane, people had taken to grinding raw sugar into a primitive sweetener. Nearly the color of dirt, really.
It had its own grassy note, and it wasn't bad. The sweetness was milder, but people ate it happily all the same.
The grain syrup she was eating now, by contrast, was so tedious to make that it had become a food for people like her alone.
"By the way—if you eat that much, why don't you gain any weight?"
"What! Why?!"
Poke, poke.
She prodded the girl's belly. Not soft and yielding—firm. No fat? No, that wasn't right. Then what was that mass sitting on her chest?
"The mysteries of the human body."
"I wish I were soft like you, Haneul-nim..."
And there goes Inyeon twisting again.
"That's just how it is—you have what I don't. You're the one who should be envied. I envy you."
"Really? Truly?"
Hm? She didn't believe me until now? I'm sure I've said it plenty of times...
"Yes. I just wish I had a bit more muscle. Honestly."
"But you're strong, aren't you?"
"That's a superpower."
"A superpower?"
Hm. How do I explain a superpower?
Float, float.
"Eek!"
She simply let the girl experience levitation. That "Eek!" was decidedly unbecoming of her.
This is what a superpower is. It's not strength that comes from the body."
"Isn't this the better one, then?"
Well, yes—it's convenient. There's just one drawback.
"It makes it hard to play with the rest of you, doesn't it?"
"Ohh~ so you need friends, is that it?"
"Hm?"
Was that it? Maybe I really just needed friends to play with? Come to think of it, I must have been drunk on happiness.
Since coming here, how many good friends had I found.
When you get down to it, every citizen in the nation is my friend, isn't it? Not a single person doesn't welcome me.
"I'd like to try exercising together with someone, but it's impossible like this."
"Can't you just do it anyway?"
"Where's the competition in that?"
"That's my point! Just do it for the sake of doing it!"
"Huh?"
Really? Exercise doesn't always have to be about winning, does it?
"Ah! You almost got me there. Hey! Still, winning is what makes it fun!"
I'd tried it with her many times, and never won even once, come to think of it. She did gloat endlessly every time she beat me.
"Ehehe. Caught you."
"Inyeon!"
GRAB.
"Nngh—you're hugging me?! I can't get away!"
"It's all right, you know. People aren't afraid of you because you can flip mountains, or because you never age."
That's not it? That's not what this is about?
"Everyone knows how lovable and adorable you are. So stop fretting."
And what would you know about it!
"Oh my? Could these be tears of being moved?"
"Sniff. What of it, Inyeon?"
"Ahaha. You're even eating your snot? Just like a little baby. Here, let me get that tear."
Excuse me? How old am I, exactly? Don't treat me like a child!
"Now, let's wipe your nose too."
"Hnk."
"Ah..."
"Oh..."
Why is there SO much snot? My body carries no waste, after all. It wasn't really snot so much as—mucus? A clear, transparent fluid came pouring out in floods.
"I'll need to change clothes, won't I?"
"Looks like it?"
"Go on, hurry."
"Perfect timing, then. Let's bathe together and change."
"No thanks. You can manage on your own."
Drag, drag, drag.
Hm. So I never had a choice in the matter to begin with? She's just hauling me off by sheer force.