What Lies to the West? (3)
Helene kept darting curious glances at me, over and over. Was there something she wanted to ask?
"Then, may I take a closer look at your clothes?"
"Of course. As much as you like."
"Hmmmm."
She examined them this way and that, thoroughly, even touching the fabric.
"And what is this one called? It's so soft."
"We call it silk."
"Softer than our linen."
Swish. Rustle.
This lady—seriously? She was loosening her own dresspins and hoisting up her skirt to compare, entirely at her leisure?
"Oh? You're wearing something underneath as well?"
"Yes. We wear undergarments."
"Ah—then the cloth wrapped around your chest, is that an undergarment too?"
It was a square of fabric fastened with cords, so it gave off something of a halter-bikini vibe. Honestly, this alone could pass as clothing, judging by what people wore around here.
"Yes, that's right."
"You could get by wearing just this. It's lovely."
"We sometimes wear only this when we go swimming."
"You can swim?"
We lived by the sea—surely they swam, no?
"Yes. It's so much fun."
"We can't do it during the day, only at night, and even then it's terribly dangerous..."
"It really is fun, though..."
Night swimming genuinely was dangerous. If you slipped under or got swept out to sea, nobody would ever know.
What kind of life was that to live...
"But do most people wear undergarments like this?"
"Yes. For us, going without one is considered a little embarrassing."
"For us, it's going without one that looks good..."
That had caught me off guard when I first arrived. The people who looked like servants wore their undergarments on the outside, while the ones who looked wealthy paraded around without them at all.
"It differs from country to country, I suppose."
"Yes. It does."
"Could I possibly try one on?"
"Sure, go ahead."
Pretending to rummage through my bag, I pulled out a spare set I'd tucked away in the subspace. What would I ever have done without it?
"Your bag isn't even that big, and yet it holds so much!"
"You just have to fold things well. Haha."
Rustle, crinkle.
Apparently unable to wait to try the garment on, she flung off the clothes she was wearing without ceremony. A bit of a shame, really—she didn't exercise, so while her stomach wasn't soft, her skin had lost all its firmness.
No point dwelling on that.
Hm? Why is she looking there?
"Helene?"
"Yes?"
"Why isn't there any hair here?"
"Er...?"
She'd clearly misunderstood, so I had no choice but to point at my lower belly with a finger.
"People usually shave it regularly."
"Oh..."
"You don't in Daehan?"
"Ah. No, we do..."
"Why, we have something in common, then!"
Uh? Well... for us it's just a fashion thing, and plenty of people don't bother—
No, wait. Our kids copy every strange little trend that comes along, every last one of them!
"Then what about you, Hae-un?"
"Mine never grows in the first place..."
"Truly? How I envy you... every time I do it, the skin breaks and it hurts so..."
That one. Yeah, I had nothing to say to that.
Helene didn't know how to tie the garment's cords and was about to cinch it into a hopeless knot, so I had to step in and help. Leave it be and it'll never come undone later...
Once she had it on, though? It suited her rather well. Well-made clothing, apparently.
"Helene! It looks wonderful on you!"
"Really?"
A mirror would have been nice, but it seemed there wasn't anything of the sort around.
"Helene, I'll give you these as a gift. Please wear them well."
"Truly? Are you certain?"
"Yes. I have a few more."
"Thank you!"
By "a few," I meant a few dozen, of course.
"It's not just soft on the outside—the inside is soft too. This is wonderful. Daehan must be an astonishingly advanced country."
"You can tell all that from a piece of clothing? Hehe."
Everyone! Our country just got complimented!
"I simply must wear this to tonight's feast of hospitality!"
"Our clothes are comfortable, aren't they?"
"Yes! I love them."
"That's why everyone wears them!"
Plenty of it was cotton, sure, but silk wasn't hard to come by either! Do you have any idea how thoroughly we exploit silkworms? There's more silk around than you'd think.
"Oh? Even commoners, too?"
"There are no commoners in Daehan. Everyone is called a citizen."
"Then what about nobles?"
"Rather than nobility, you might call them civil administrators. They draw salaries and tend to the affairs of state."
We did have old families, of course, but unlike the aristocracy here, "distinguished lineage" was probably the better way to put it.
"There are indeed families of great repute."
"Then is there no king, either?"
How was I supposed to explain this one? It's not like I could say there's a grandmother who's lived over a thousand years, could I?
Something reasonable... should I just say a king?
"There is one person at the very top, but she only decides the most important matters. The rest is handled by the officials."
"Then don't rebellions ever break out?"
Well, you see—nobody wants the job. That's the problem...
Frankly, I wish someone would stage a coup and usurp the throne. Truly, I do...
"In over a thousand years, nothing of the sort has ever happened."
"Goodness! It's been a thousand years?"
"Yes, about 1,300."
At this rate we'll make it ten thousand! Long live Daehan! And I'd mean it literally—cheering for it to live ten thousand years!
"Wow... I've never heard of such a thing. A city that lasts a thousand years?"
"A city, you say?"
This place seemed to be a league of city-states too—did they not call it a country?
"It's not a city?"
"We do have cities. But ours is a nation."
"A nation?"
"Dozens of cities gathered together form one country."
"Ah! How similar to ours!"
Hm... well, "similar" would do. If you ignored the wildly different populations.
"There must be so many people!"
"Yes. Over two million live in the capital alone."
That's not even counting the city center—plenty of people lived outside it as well. Not a lie, at any rate.
"!!!!"
"Hm? What's wrong?"
Was that really so shocking? Even in the ancient world there were cities of a few hundred thousand, a million, weren't there?
"But how do you count people? Every time they try, they can't even get our city's ten thousand right."
"We have household registries. When someone is born or dies, it must be reported—it's a formal system."
"Oh... what a remarkable institution."
And that's why we have mountains of civil servants! Aren't they like five percent of the population? Mostly older folks doing the work, mind you...
"No, more than that—if two million people live there, how large must the city be?"
"Let me think? It would take you about half a day to cross it on foot."
And to get anywhere beyond the city, walking simply wasn't an option...
"Are there many cities like that?"
"Some smaller, some larger, but there are twenty-four of them."
"Compared to ours, a colossal nation indeed!"
That was the puzzling part, though. In surroundings this pleasant, why were there so few people?
Oh! Right—pleasant living doesn't automatically mean good harvests. Of course. You need flourishing agriculture for a nation to truly grow. Well, can't be helped, then?
"Is that so important? Hehe."
"How I wish I could see it..."
I'm sorry. Never mind that she was a woman—no way she could ever survive the Steppe Road that men crossed at the risk of their very lives.
I'd have to tell her plenty of stories, at least, so she could dream a little.
Perhaps she'd never done anything of the sort out in the world before. She delighted in my tale of meeting the wolves on the road to Seolju, and while she frowned at the cruel customs of the Shang Dynasty, she marveled all the same.
Wasn't this turning into a proper adventure chronicle?
Helene and I unwound our endless bundle of stories and passed the time so pleasantly that the sun had begun to sink before I noticed. And then came the visitors looking for us.
"Lady Helene. The xenia is prepared. You are to come with your guest."
"Yes."
Xenia? What in the world was that? The hospitality she'd mentioned earlier?
"Helene, what is xenia?"
"It is how we welcome guests, in honor of Zeus Xenios, the god who protects wanderers and strangers. By doing so, we too may one day receive kindness in a strange land."
Ah, so it's something like a religious rite? Rather elegant, actually. I might need a gift.
"Would it be all right if I brought my bag? I imagine a gift would be appropriate."
"Oh, of course. Bringing a gift will delight them. Ho ho."
Called it. There was a gift-giving ceremony.
Following what looked like a maidservant, we wound our way ever upward, higher and higher along the twisting paths.
The maze-like layout would have a stranger hopelessly lost in no time.
Defensive architecture like this was usually built for a reason, so for all I'd assumed this place was peaceful, it seemed they'd known their share of war after all.
And at the summit we climbed to stood a magnificent temple—just one look and you could tell a king lived there. So tonight's host was the highest person of all.
"So this is the highest point of the city? Open on all sides—what a splendid view."
"Your own city must be wonderful too, Hae-un?"
"We live on a plain. Different from this, but quite beautiful in its own way."
"Haah..."
I wondered if I should stop. Was it cruel, after all, to speak of the outside world to a bird that could only ever live in a cage?
"I'm sorry. It must be hard for you to travel, Helene. Shall we change the subject?"
"I know. I'll never see it with my own eyes, will I? So please, go on. Your stories let me dream. Thank you."
What a relief. She took joy in it instead of despairing. If she'd been born in Daehan, she'd have gone far indeed...
"This is a first. A king personally receiving a female guest like this..."
"Then I must be grateful."
So women didn't even count as guests here? Docking a few points for that one.
The king's palace stood alone on the vast rooftop, and the space was wastefully used—spectacularly so.
We had walked quite a while just to reach it.
The hall was already full of people, and on low tables about knee-height, meat and vegetables and fruit had all been laid out together.
There seemed to be little in the way of elaborate cooking—mostly roasted and steamed dishes.
From the moment I entered, people had been staring at me. Because I was a foreigner they'd never seen before?
"Greetings. I am Hae-un, come from the East."
I gave the greeting just as Helene had coached me on the way up. It was another's house—this much courtesy was owed, no? All the more so as a guest.
"Hahaha. Welcome, traveler from afar. Please, rest and be at ease."
"I thank you for your hospitality."
"Now, eat."
Hmm...? They had knives and tongs of a sort, but the actual eating was done with the hands?
Well then. How filthy those hands must be—I suppose it falls to me to show these barbarians of the West the refinements of the East.
Clink, clink.
Brass cutlery and dishes!
While everyone else grabbed their food with their fingers, I alone daintily served myself onto a plate and ate, and once more the crowd stirred, all eyes drifting toward me.
"Hm? What is that? In the East, they use implements for dining?"
"Yes. We use separate tableware."
"Is that so?"
They rarely bothered with utensils here, since the food was made for tearing apart by hand.
And I had another reason for bringing these out. Heh heh heh!
"Yes. Speaking of which—this tableware, you see, kills the toxins in food, and if any poison is present, it changes color to warn you."
"!!!"
Hooked, aren't you? The closer to power, the more this kind of thing appeals! How else would you know who's slipping poison into your food?
Kings and nobles got poisoned all the time, didn't they?
"What is this? Gold?"
With that golden gleam it might pass for gold at a glance, but this wasn't gold...
Hm. Calling it gold would be fraud. What did I call it again? Just copper mixed with tin...
"It is called bronze."
"Remarkable. Where do you obtain such a thing?"
Heh heh. You sly one! Trying to quietly steal the technology, are we?
"I don't know the details myself. The artisans make it."
"Artisans!"
All it would take was knowing the guild dues and they could produce plenty of it right here, couldn't they? Which is exactly why I'm not telling...
Now, what gift to give? Maybe glass? Gold was apparently not that rare around here.
"I've brought a few things from the East. May I take them out?"
"By all means!"
How delighted they were! Did I look like I had all manner of wonders?
What should I pull out to sell well? A diplomat was basically a trader anyway, wasn't that the idea?
Everyone—watch me move some serious merchandise!