The Tiger Hunt and the Test of Kings
Hong-wi met the man's gaze in silence, studying him as he did so.
The man's attire was no different from any common hunter's, but there was a certain depth in his eyes, a glimmer of dignity, and a measured discipline in the way he carried himself.
He was no ordinary man.
Then the stranger broke the silence first.
"I wish you peace, Your Majesty. My name is Yeol Se-ho."
Your Majesty......
So this man, too, knew exactly who Hong-wi was.
Hong-wi was fairly tall himself, so the two men's eyes were nearly level, and neither of them showed the slightest hint of intimidation.
"I am called Lee Hong-wi."
At the open declaration of his true name, Ho-in beside him flinched in surprise.
But since they all already knew my identity, what is there to hide?
Yeol Se-ho bowed at the waist in greeting.
"I have heard all about you. It must have been a hard journey, coming all this way through such treacherous country."
Yeol Se-ho bowed again.
His manner was courteous, but it fell short of the full obeisance a subject owes a king.
Hong-wi returned the bow.
"I am forever grateful that you have provided this unworthy body a place to shelter."
"It is but a humble abode. Forgive its inadequacy."
Yeol Se-ho turned to Ho-in.
"And you must be Master Jeon Ho-in."
"I am."
Ho-in's reply was curt and gruff.
The bodies of the men guarding Yeol Se-ho stiffened at once.
Yeol Se-ho remained perfectly calm.
"Do you have some grievance with me?"
"I do."
Ho-in did not waver.
"You may have turned your back on your homeland for your own reasons, but he is still the King. I am deeply grateful that you have provided His Majesty lodging — but even so, when you stand in His Majesty's presence, should you not show him the courtesy that presence demands?"
Silence fell.
Yeol Se-ho's men stared at Jeon Ho-in without a flicker of expression.
At length, Yeol Se-ho burst into a hearty laugh.
"My apologies! Abrupt you may be, but you speak the truth."
Yeol Se-ho turned to Hong-wi.
"I beg your forgiveness for the discourtesy. Your Majesty is truly blessed with a loyal servant. Not even among the countless sovereigns of past and present were there many with men so devoted."
Yeol Se-ho's tone shifted.
"However, I must say this: the world Your Majesty belongs to and the one I belong to are not the same. In other words, my men and I are not Your Majesty's subjects. And so, though I cannot offer you the deference owed one's own lord, I shall receive you with the bearing due the king of a nation."
"That is quite all right. It is the truth — though I call myself a king, I have neither people nor country to rule, so even the title embarrasses me."
Hong-wi answered him.
"But wherever Your Majesty dwells may be called the territory Your Majesty rules. Here, then, I shall show you the courtesy proper to a king."
Yeol Se-ho turned to Ho-in with a small smile.
"I pray you will forgive my lapse in manners, Master Jeon Ho-in?"
"It is I who was discourteous to you, my lord. I beg your forgiveness."
Ho-in bowed.
Yeol Se-ho laughed again, heartily this time.
"You are not only loyal but thoughtful as well! Master Jeon Ho-in — though you would do well to keep that loyalty of yours a little better hidden from now on. The ones hunting your lord have not yet given up."
Yeol Se-ho's last words were spoken quietly.
Jeon Ho-in nodded.
"If that is the path that protects His Majesty, then so be it...... Though in truth, His Majesty himself has given such orders. Still, for those who would insult him — that is harder to swallow."
"Truly loyal, as I thought you would be. As for me, I have no intention of insulting His Majesty. I hope you will believe that."
"Very well."
Cha Gyeong-yeon let out a silent breath of relief.
Yeol Se-ho glanced back at the men who had come with him and continued.
"On another note — ah, I should have mentioned this first, but it slipped my mind. Of those who came with me, I believe there is someone you will be glad to see."
"Someone I will be glad to see?"
Hong-wi asked again.
He glanced at Cha Gyeong-yeon, but from his expression it seemed even he had known nothing of this.
"Who might......"
"Come out now, Jeong Ho-chan! Pay your respects."
Jeong Ho-chan!
Hong-wi's eyes went wide with astonishment.
Cha Gyeong-yeon, too, could not hide his surprise.
At Yeol Se-ho's call, a man in a scholar's cap stepped forward and bowed long and low.
"I wish you peace, Your Majesty. To behold your radiant countenance once more fills me with boundless emotion."
"Jeong Ho-chan!"
Hong-wi clasped both of Jeong Ho-chan's hands in his own.
"How long has it been? I never dreamed I would see you again — and here of all places."
"Haha, it is thanks to Your Majesty heeding my counsel — the plan of the Chief State Councillor and the campaign to the northern border."
Jeong Ho-chan smiled warmly.
"I had hoped to seek you out the moment you arrived here, but events did not cooperate, and so today I have come alongside Master Yeol Se-ho. I had asked a favor of him, you see."
"So that was it — so that was it!"
Hong-wi nodded.
Jeong Ho-chan turned to the company and spoke.
"We can speak of the details after today's hunt is done."
"Very well."
Jeong Ho-chan bowed once more and was about to withdraw when his eyes met Cha Gyeong-yeon's.
They gave each other the briefest of nods, and in that short exchange of glances it was clear that no words were needed between them.
Ho-in said quietly,
"So he is the man you saw at the residence of Grand Prince Geumseong."
"That is right, Master Jeon Ho-in. You have labored long, guarding His Majesty all the way here. Your merit shall shine forever in the annals of history."
With that, Jeong Ho-chan went and stood beside Yeol Se-ho.
Yeol Se-ho, who had been watching the reunion with a pleased expression, spoke up.
"Well then — save your long-awaited catching-up for later. First, let us deal with that tiger. The cold is settling in and game is scarce, which puts him in an ill temper. We cannot simply leave him be."
Yeol Se-ho turned to Cha Gyeong-yeon and asked,
"So — have you seen the tiger?"
"Not with my own eyes, but he's been howling something dreadful for three nights running. He seemed to be drawing closer and closer — but last night, for once, there was silence."
"That is good news. Very good news indeed."
"What is good about it?"
Hong-wi asked.
"In winter, the mountains offer nothing to eat, and the bitter cold sets in. The animals grow hungry for want of prey. The tiger is no exception — that is what drove him to approach the dwellings of men. He hesitated quite a long while, it seems, but had he failed to find prey in the end, he would have hurled himself at the houses."
"So last night, he found something to eat."
"Precisely so."
Yeol Se-ho nodded.
A chill ran down their spines.
The log house was built of timber two hands thick — no tiger, however powerful, could easily smash his way in. And yet, one could never be sure.
"But worry no more. We are here now. And we have brought all the hounds as well."
Yeol Se-ho ran a hand over his dogs.
Hong-wi, watching, could not help but marvel.
There were three of them, and not a single one barked; they sat with composed dignity, utterly at ease. Their hazel eyes gleamed brilliantly, and though their shoulders were narrower than most dogs', their broad, muscular haunches and hind legs looked powerful even at a glance.
"Pungsan dogs. A fine breed handed down from our ancestors through the generations."
Yeol Se-ho's voice was thick with pride and affection.
And he had every right to it.
If dogs too had a lineage of kings, these beasts would be it.
"Truly magnificent animals. You hunt with them, then."
"We do. They can bring down even a full-grown boar. A tiger, though — in the end, that falls to us men."
By Yeol Se-ho's account, several trained hounds together made taking down a tiger not entirely impossible — but doing so all too often meant losing good dogs in the process.
A master who loved his dogs and shared a bond with them would never risk such a thing.
The dogs' role was simply to hold the tiger at bay, keeping him pinned until the men arrived.
"Tiger hunting is best in winter, just like now. A starving beast may be vicious, but his strength is waned all the same — and above all, he has nowhere to hide."
In summer, and especially in autumn when the hills blaze with red and gold, a tiger could be crouched mere paces away and remain invisible — and by the time you realized it, it was already over.
The beast's tawny coat vanished amid the dry grasses, and its black stripes melted easily into the shadows of the trees — nature's own mastery of camouflage, granted to the tiger alone.
Even in winter, a tiger could launch a sudden ambush from between the rocks, but at least then his pawprints in the snow could be tracked.
"Then how do you take the tiger? With bow and spear?"
Hong-wi asked, studying Yeol Se-ho's men closely.
They too were armed with bows and spears like any hunters.
Yeol Se-ho answered.
"We use those, of course — but our aim is to take him alive."
"Alive?"
Hong-wi's eyes went wide with astonishment.
Ho-in could hardly believe his ears.
Not even to kill the beast, but to capture it? Were these men in their right minds?
Even theProfessional tiger-catchers — the armored beast-tamers who hunted tigers for a living — would never dare make such a boast.
Tiger hunting was a fight to the death, kill or be killed.
Yet there was nothing in Yeol Se-ho's expression to suggest he was speaking in jest.
"Indeed. For that purpose, we use rather special weapons when we face him."
Yeol Se-ho handed Hong-wi a long pole that forked into three prongs at the end.
Hong-wi lifted it and tested its weight.
It was fairly heavy.
"Have you ever seen a tiger attack a man?"
"No."
Yeol Se-ho asked, and Hong-wi shook his head.
"His specialty is to lie in wait, still as stone, and strike without warning. And rather than bite, he leaps clear off the ground and delivers a blow with his forepaw. One strike, and a man's head bursts like an egg. It is lethal."
Yeol Se-ho raised the pole to show him.
"When that happens, you brace yourself with this pole — thrust it at his chest to stop him before his forepaw reaches you. You could try to knock him over, I suppose, but there are few men alive strong enough to shove down a beast that weighs five hundred, or even a thousand, guan."
"I see. Simple enough, from the sound of it."
Yeol Se-ho shook his head.
"But in most cases, a man is finished before he even realizes he has been attacked. This is truly a last resort, for the direst of moments. The real weapons are these."
Yeol Se-ho took a snare rope and a net from one of his men and held them up.
Hong-wi examined them carefully.
They were woven tight and firm from kudzu-vine cord, hardened and made all the tougher by being worked through with pine resin. And at the end of the snare and around the rim of the net hung anchors of iron, shaped like grappling hooks.
"When the tiger entangles himself in the net, these weights catch on tree roots or the base of rocks, and thus his movements are constrained. But only constrained — no more than that."
"I understand well enough."
Hong-wi answered thus, then stole a glance at Jeong Ho-chan.
He was a scholar, after all — had he ever actually hunted a tiger?
There was no trace of unease in his cool, composed face.
Cha Gyeong-yeon, on the other hand, looked distinctly troubled.
Yeol Se-ho approached him.
"What's the matter, Gyeong-yeon? Not like you to be so tense."
"I'll admit it's true."
Cha Gyeong-yeon answered in a low voice, stealing a glance at Hong-wi and Ho-in.
"It worries me, bringing him along on the hunt."
"Is that so?"
Yeol Se-ho followed Cha Gyeong-yeon's gaze toward them.
"You trained him yourself, didn't you? Then he knows the fundamentals at least."
"That's true enough. But tiger hunting is dangerous all the same. Even seasoned hunters can come to grief — isn't that so?"
"Well, it may give us a chance to see what kind of man he really is."
Jeong Ho-chan had drawn near without any of them noticing, and he answered in Cha Gyeong-yeon's place.
Cha Gyeong-yeon could only stare, dumbfounded.
He looked from Jeong Ho-chan to Yeol Se-ho and back again.
"Don't tell me — this is a test?"
"Not an intended one. How could we have known a tiger would come? But I suppose it may serve as one all the same."
"Sending him to face a tiger near-empty-handed counts as a test, does it?"
"He won't be empty-handed — we'll be there. In any case."
Yeol Se-ho went on.
"The elders still do not trust him. Elder Eun Pa-seok most of all. Daehyeong On Dal-hyeong is content to wait and see, but the others are demanding proof — proof that Master Lee Hong-wi is truly extraordinary."
"I understand the reasoning, but still...... I see. To prove a man's worth by setting him on a tiger?"
"Aye, honestly, I feel the same way."
When Cha Gyeong-yeon jabbed back at him with an air of incredulity, Yeol Se-ho let out a small sigh.
He glanced briefly at Jeong Ho-chan.
"Have you nothing to say?"
"Hmm, I wonder."
Jeong Ho-chan wore an enigmatic expression.
He was remembering the day, years ago, when he had first glimpsed Hong-wi from afar.
The sight of a young boy standing serene and unflinching before an enormous tiger — a scene almost impossible to believe, even with his own two eyes.
"Don't worry yourself too much. We won't simply shove him out before the tiger and be done with it."
Cha Gyeong-yeon nodded, though the worry had not left his face.
Yeol Se-ho strode over to Hong-wi.
"What say you, Your Majesty? Will you join us on the tiger hunt?"
Hong-wi, who had been examining the weapons, turned to look at him.
For an instant, Yeol Se-ho thought the boy-king might refuse.
And why not? Wasn't that the only sane response?
The next moment, Hong-wi answered.
"I wish to come along."
He added,
"He tormented us for three nights running. I want to see with my own eyes what manner of beast he is."
Yeol Se-ho glanced at Jeong Ho-chan and Cha Gyeong-yeon.
Cha Gyeong-yeon nodded with a look of resigned acceptance.
Jeong Ho-chan smiled faintly and dipped his head.
Yeol Se-ho smiled in turn, then looked back at Hong-wi and nodded.
"Then let us go at once. With any luck, we'll pick up his trail before the sun goes down."
They set out without another word.