Chapter 146
Chapter 146
The Iron Emperor — Chapter 146
"The princess has slipped out of the palace!"
"What!"
At the knight's flustered report, Marquis Terican and Prince Alsein demanded back, their faces startled.
"And you did nothing but watch her leave?!"
"Well, the princess ordered me to clear the way, so I had no choice."
"My sister did?"
When Prince Alsein's eyes went round and he asked again, the reporting knight hastily bowed his head and answered.
"Yes. Princess Yunias sat on the back of the Gauri Yeolje's horse and..."
"She sat where!"
In an instant, every gaze in the room converged on him. Those gazes included those of the Eulji Brothers.
"Looks like he's gone and found himself a woman."
"Heh heh, looks like they hit it off."
They were cackling away, thoroughly enjoying whatever it was, while the South Roselin nobles sank deeper into sheer bewilderment at the sight of them. And Marquis Terican, too, could not help but be taken aback by the unexpectedly rapid progress of the relationship.
* * *
Clip-clop. Clip-clop.
Toward the place the lively hoofbeats were heading, flames were rising here and there, and a melody flowed.
"Play on, play on. Play on while we're young~."
"Oh, damn it all! We're gonna play ourselves to death!"
"Tee-hee-hee."
Those merrily tilting their cups and dancing were the Gauri soldiers. When the sound of hoofbeats reached their ears, their heads naturally turned.
"Someone's coming."
"Yeah. Who is it?"
Perhaps because of the dim light, they couldn't easily make him out. Only after a little more time passed were they able to snap their eyes wide open.
"Huh!"
"It's His Majesty the Yeolje!"
At the voice shouted out in an instant, the soldiers stopped their revelry and all knelt on one side, crying out.
"We pay our respects to Your Majesty, Supreme One of All Heavens, who embraces all people and all things!"
"Whoa."
Clip-clop. Clip-clop.
Though it happened in a flash, the sight of the soldiers rising as one to pay their respects was utterly unlike how they'd been dancing and singing just moments before. Still further back, soldiers continued to assume the posture, then kneel on one knee, their shouts toward Go Jin-cheon going on and on.
"Ah!"
Princess Yunias let out a breath of admiration, as if captivated by the scene.
Jin-cheon, who had dismounted first, lifted Princess Yunias down and shouted to the soldiers.
"Carry on celebrating."
"Aye!"
At his shout, the soldiers roared their response and then began to celebrate as if nothing had happened. Princess Yunias, who had been admiring the sight, changed her expression to one of bafflement.
"Even if he told them to celebrate..."
A bewildered tone escaped Princess Yunias's lips, and Jin-cheon answered curtly.
"Kings, marquises, and common soldiers are all equal when it comes to celebration."
Jin-cheon said that, but the soldiers acted this way because, to them, the perception of Jin-cheon as a comrade-in-arms sharing the battlefield was stronger than the perception of him as the Yeolje, whom they could not even have looked upon before crossing over to this other world.
And of course, Jin-cheon had led them that way all along. Only the soldiers of the Hawk Corps, sitting mixed in here and there, were left milling about awkwardly.
"Please sit here!"
Thud!
A soldier with a touch of white in his hair came running with a cask of liquor and set it before Princess Yunias, and she sat down with a smile.
"Drink!"
"Bring the drink, quickly!"
At Jin-cheon's short command, soldiers vied with one another to bring casks of liquor and food. Empty cups overflowed with drink and empty hands were filled with meat. There was no pretense in how the soldiers treated Jin-cheon.
One soldier shouted.
"For Gauri! For His Majesty the Yeolje!"
"Waaaah!"
One man's cry spread to tens, then hundreds, then thousands. At their cheers, Jin-cheon raised his cup and shouted.
"For life!"
"Let's drink!"
At Jin-cheon's shout, the soldiers roared and emptied their cups. And beside him, Princess Yunias, who had somehow gotten hold of a cup herself, smiled and emptied hers little by little.
"Let's see now!"
Shring.
Jin-cheon, who had emptied cup after cup, seemed to grow spirited. He rose from his seat and drew the Hwandudaedo.
The soldiers' eyes focused on the cold blade of the Hwandudaedo, where firelight and moonlight mingled.
Jin-cheon's body began to move with joy.
Jin-cheon's sword began to slash through the air with joy.
The soldiers began singing a joyful tune.
Born a man of valor,
I cast my body onto the battlefield,
I face death and thirst for life.
Ee-yaa-a, Heo-i-yaa-a.
Ee-yaa-a, Heo-i-yaa-a.
I step forth as a man of valor,
I lay my body down on the battlefield,
I make death my companion and sing of life.
Ee-yaa-a, Heo-i-yaa-a,
Ee-yaa-a, Heo-i-yaa-a.
In this harsh world,
Though I lay my body on the battlefield,
How could regret remain?
How could remorse remain?
I stepped forth with the comrade at my side,
I guarded my family, my country, my neighbors...
What joy that is!
What happiness that is!
Arm in arm with a companion to the grave,
I shout: I have no regrets!
Ee-yaa-a, Heo-i-yaa-a,
Ee-yaa-a, Heo-i-yaa-a.
Ee-yaa-a, Heo-i-yaa-a,
E-he-ra-yaa-a, Heo-i-ra-yaa-a!
The sound of thousands singing joyfully.
Jin-cheon's body soars.
Though the Hwandudaedo he swung was an instrument of slaughter, at this moment it was a beautiful instrument of life, an instrument of celebration. When the song and the sword dance that had gone on for one round came to an end, the soldiers clashed their cups together once more.
"Do you know what a king is?"
After finishing one round of the sword dance, Jin-cheon was facing his soldiers when a sudden question escaped his lips. The soldiers' laughter and singing shook the night air, but to Princess Yunias, Jin-cheon's voice rang as clear as if he were speaking right beside her.
She could not give an answer right away.
"Inheriting a noble bloodline, wrapped in golden swaddling, raised in a splendid palace, and then sitting on a high chair when your turn comes? That is not a king."
As Jin-cheon's voice grew more forceful, the soldiers' singing gradually died down.
"You must first know that a king is not an omnipotent being. You absolutely must."
Though it was ambiguous to whom he was speaking, Jin-cheon's philosophy was clearly embedded in his words.
Princess Yunias was falling deeper into the spell of his voice. And it wasn't only Princess Yunias.
His voice carried to the soldiers who had stepped into this new world alongside him, the slash-and-burn farmers clinging to each day's survival, the soldiers who had been tossed this way and that by the war before joining them, and even the soldiers of the Hawk Corps, who had fought a purposeless war from a powerless country.
Somehow having been slipped in among them, the Translation Item on his finger was even carrying his voice to the South Roselin soldiers standing guard nearby.
"A king... is not one who leads the people, but one who acts before the people!"
A powerful will spread outward.
The Hwandudaedo in his hand rose slowly toward the sky. Presently, the tip of the Hwandudaedo came down toward the soldiers who were watching him.
"Who are you?!"
Jin-cheon's question shot toward the soldiers.
Someone shouted.
"We are the spears and swords of Gauri!"
Jin-cheon knitted his brows and shouted.
"I cannot hear you well! Who are you?!"
"We are the spears and swords of Gauri!"
Someone's voice spread like contagion, becoming the voices of hundreds, then thousands. Only then did Jin-cheon smile with satisfaction and strike his own chest with one hand as he asked.
Thump!
"Who am I?!"
"You are the Yeolje of Gauri!"
"Wrong!"
When Jin-cheon glared and denied it, a shout came from another direction.
"You are the shield of Gauri!"
Only then did Jin-cheon smile with satisfaction and shout again.
"I am the shield of Gauri! Who are you?!"
"We are the spears and swords of Gauri!"
"Uwaaaaah!"
The cheers rose like a tidal wave.
Princess Yunias, who had been watching, looked at his massive back and felt a shudder run through her.
"If I had a head on my shoulders that could help with the people's livelihoods, I would personally become a farmer of Gauri, or a herder tending cattle. But as it is now, the most fitting thing I have is military force, so I became their spear and shield. The rest is an eye for judging people."
Jin-cheon slid the Hwandudaedo into its scabbard and approached Princess Yunias, who wore an expression of rapture, and began to speak.
"Do you understand, Prince Alsein?"
"Huh?"
She asked back, wondering what he suddenly meant, but Jin-cheon's eyes were directed behind her. Sensing something strange, she turned to look back, and there stood Prince Alsein, Marquis Baikal, and the knight order, staring blankly.
Prince Alsein's party, who had been approaching in the direction that Princess Pamilion Yunias Roselin and Go Jin-cheon had gone, had halted their steps at the sound of the song ringing out so hugely.
Jin-cheon dancing the sword dance at the center of the song, and Princess Yunias watching him.
Prince Alsein had forgotten even that he had come looking for his sister and was standing there staring blankly. He was not the only one; Marquis Baikal and Marquis Terican, too, were merely watching.
Then came the question about what a king was.
The question-and-answer with the soldiers shook Prince Alsein's heart.
'If it were me, could I ask that so boldly?'
He was envious.
'What can I even do?'
When he had first seen these people, he had merely seen them as just another one of those warbands. But once their strength was revealed, he had been unable to do anything but tremble with anxiety.
Alsein felt wretched at the sight of himself like this.
"If you've come, then sit."
"Ah!"
As if only just coming back to his senses, Prince Alsein let out a short groan.
Jin-cheon held out a large bowl to Prince Alsein, who had stepped forward.
"As the Yeolje of Gauri, I give this cup as a gift to you, Prince Alsein of South Roselin."
"Ah, thank you."
Though it was the harsh liquor normally given only to the soldiers, Prince Alsein received it carefully so as not to spill a single drop. Once the cup was filled, Jin-cheon spoke in a low voice.
"Become the king."
Prince Alsein raised his head and looked at Jin-cheon.
"That notion of yours: that you must reclaim the capital before ascending the throne."
Jin-cheon's gaze and Prince Alsein's gaze intertwined.
"It is nonsense. What South Roselin needs right now is a king. A center of gravity. Take responsibility for your country. Shirking your responsibility is wrong."
"You go too far!"
"Marquis Terican."
When Marquis Terican stepped forward from behind, Prince Alsein raised an arm to stop him. Under Prince Alsein's look, Marquis Terican could say nothing more and shut his mouth.
Prince Alsein slowly emptied the cup. Perhaps because it was stronger and more bitter than what he usually drank, he furrowed his brows slightly, yet he drained it to the end.
"It is bitter."
Prince Alsein smiled a lonely smile.
Each and every one of Jin-cheon's words had been a dagger. When the capital first fell and he barely escaped—the deaths of his father and brother, which he learned of afterward, were realities far too harsh for a young man to accept.
His whole family had been annihilated, and the only ones left were his sister and himself.
When he went to bed, the images of his dead parents and brother would linger in his dreams, and there were times he could not sleep for days. Whenever that happened, he could not shake the feeling of his blood drying up.
"Will you have another cup?"
"Please."
Jin-cheon silently poured the drink again. Having received the cup, Prince Alsein drained it more adeptly than before. Drink trickled down from the corner of his mouth.
His own position was bitter, like this drink.
The pressure that he must become king was indescribable. The war that followed went on and on, making the future of South Roselin impossible to foretell, and the image of his dead parents gradually transformed into dreams of a sword falling upon his own neck while he sat on the throne. That was why he had said he would ascend the throne only after reclaiming the capital.
"That feels refreshing."
He raised his head, and the sight of Jin-cheon came into view.
Moisture dripped around Jin-cheon's mouth, as if he had been drinking straight from the cask. Jin-cheon's gaze was directed at the soldiers.
"A king is a king, whether his country declines or prospers. Even if there is only a single subject, once he sits on the throne, taking responsibility is what makes him a king. Only when he fulfills that duty does he become worthy of respect and admiration."
"......."
"Become the king."
The words came out once more. This time, no one interjected. With Prince Alsein's head bowed and unable to be raised, no one could bring themselves to speak to him.
"As for me, the place I've lived has always been the battlefield, so the only thing I had to show them was strength. I foisted all the rest onto my subordinates because it was bothersome."
"......."
To Prince Alsein, who gave no answer, Jin-cheon continued speaking.
"Since Prince Alsein has Marquis Baikal's military power and Marquis Terican's wisdom, won't it be even easier for you? The way I see it, what Prince Alsein needs to do is simply to show his will."
Prince Alsein's shoulders were trembling slightly.
"......I will."
A small voice escaped him.
"I will become king."
It was Prince Alsein's small vow.