Chapter 156
Chapter 156
The Iron Emperor — Chapter 156
Four years had passed, and Gauri, having made it through a series of crises(?), was now settling into stability.
Four years could be considered a long time, or in another sense, time that had flown like an arrow. The person who felt this most keenly was Go Jin-cheon himself.
Feeling the passage of time anew, Jin-cheon walked over to a window and felt the breeze coming in. A faint smile on his face, Jin-cheon turned and began moving away from the window.
SWISH!
He heard the sound of something cutting through the air past his ear.
Thwok! Brrrrr.
An arrow, swift as the years that had passed, had flown past Jin-cheon and embedded itself in the floor at his feet, its shaft still quivering. Jin-cheon's eyes naturally came to rest on the quivering arrow.
"......."
Even as he looked at the arrow that had landed in his personal space, Jin-cheon showed no sign of agitation. He simply raised one hand and covered his forehead.
Tat-tat-tat-tat-tat.
Short, rapid footsteps began resounding through the great hall. A little girl appeared as the footfalls drew near.......
"Where'd my arrow go?"
A childish voice.
The owner of that voice was Eulji.
Eulji, who had come running with her short legs pattering loudly across the floor, stopped in her tracks when she spotted the arrow sticking out of the floor at Jin-cheon's feet. The court ladies who had been rushing after her could only bow their heads in silence.
"......."
"......."
Jin-cheon's eyes met Eulji's.
Awkward silence.
Eulji was holding a small wooden bow, and her clothes were smeared with dust and dirt, as if she'd been rolling around somewhere.
A deep furrow began to form on Jin-cheon's brow. At the exact same moment, the corners of Eulji's eyes crinkled. The nearly simultaneous chain of events concluded with Eulji bursting into tears.
"Waaaah! Waaaaaaah!"
Her thunderous wailing only deepened the furrow on Jin-cheon's brow. But that was it. Jin-cheon stepped forward slowly, pulled the arrow from the floor, and put it back into Eulji's quiver. Then he quietly turned and walked away. What followed was a scene of the court ladies earnestly trying to soothe Eulji.
The reunion with Eulji four years ago had been impossibly awkward, as if they were meeting for the first time. In a place where battlefield survivors and those welcoming them were mingling their cheers, Eulji clung to her nursemaid's hand and stared intently at Jin-cheon.
Jin-cheon, showing his own version of delight, lifted her up into his arms.
"You've grown a lot."
"Yes. With two years gone, she is now three years of age," the nursemaid replied.
"Hm."
Hearing the nursemaid's words, Jin-cheon nodded and looked at the child in his arms. The moment their eyes met, Jin-cheon softened his stern expression and smiled. And then, he saw Eulji respond to his smile.
Her eyes welled up and wobbled helplessly.
Her arms and legs flailed, kicking out like those of a young farm animal struggling for its life.
That was the response to the smile Jin-cheon had sent her.
At this bizarre situation, the nursemaid and the court ladies began to panic, and the generals lined up behind Jin-cheon were gripped by a foreboding feeling.
"Let me show you a fun game."
"Gasp!"
Jin-cheon had only one method for calming a crying child.
Moments later, they could all see Eulji flying through the air.
Eulji's position was truly something of an irony.
With Go Jin-cheon away on a campaign, the highest-ranking adult in Gauri was, amusingly enough, the youngest person there: Eulji herself.
But the problem was the utter inadequacy of her education. The court ladies and the nursemaid had no idea what curriculum a Yeolhu was supposed to learn, and none of them had the nerve to forcefully restrain Eulji, who outranked them all.
Nor could Dae Mu-deok take Eulji in and personally school her, and even if he took on that role, he had no clear method for childrearing.
In the end...... it simply meant she grew up without any discipline. She was completely unruly, slightly excessively hyperactive compared to other children her age.......
Crash!
"You've broken another one, haven't you?!"
She played slightly more boisterous pranks than other children her age.......
"Moooooo!"
"Kya-ha-ha-ha!"
"Your Highness, please, give me the minotaur's reins!"
And she had a personality that could never simply leave anything she was curious about alone — a curiosity which was slightly more excessive than that of other children her age.
"What are they doing right now?"
"Oink! Oiiiink!"
"W-well, that is......."
Of course, answering a question would normally solve the problem, but it really depended on the question.
When it was something difficult to explain to little Eulji, the person being asked would be left in an extraordinarily awkward position.
"Come on, tell me!"
"Well, it's just......."
That awkwardness was perfectly expressed on the face of the soldier guarding the orc pen.
The two orcs inside the pen were pouring intense passion into a productive activity, and Eulji was watching with pure curiosity. Her insistent questions kept coming, and the soldier's answers were increasingly dodging the main point.
At that moment, whether fortunately or unfortunately, Eulji Buru happened to pass by and witnessed the scene.
"Oh dear, what is it you're so curious about?"
"Ah! General Buru! Those two are stuck together like that. What are they doing?"
Receiving Eulji's innocent, wide-eyed look, Buru wisely gave her an answer to her question.
"Making babies."
"Babies?"
"......."
At Buru's cut-and-dried answer, Eulji tilted her head. Meanwhile, the soldiers nearby and the court ladies, who had been hovering anxiously behind Eulji, felt the world go dark and the strength drain from their legs.
Because they clearly recalled the fact that Buru's answers had always, without fail, caused severe side effects.
"......."
Go Jin-cheon remained silent.
And there stood Eulji, looking up at Jin-cheon with eyes that were round and bright, along with the horrified palace guards and court ladies.......
Finally, the sight of Buru standing before Jin-cheon like a mouse before a cat created an unmistakably precarious picture.
"Making...... babies." Jin-cheon's voice, sealed shut like a clam, came out trailing into a murmur. Eulji tilted her head and asked him,
"General Buru says I have to make them quickly. When must I make them?"
"......."
Eulji seemed determined to start making them immediately. The ferocious zeal burning in her(?) eyes was more than sufficiently conveyed.
The first thing Eulji had said when she came running into the great hall to Jin-cheon was: 'We must go to the pen and make babies!'
Setting aside the 'babies' part, what was this about a pen? After hearing the full story from Eulji, Jin-cheon had immediately summoned Buru, who was now just standing there whimpering like a puppy facing its death.
"A kid making a kid....... Buru, it's been a while. Let's spar."
Buru was dragged away by Jin-cheon's quiet invitation, and Eulji was left tilting her head at the scene.
Following that day's incident and recognizing the importance of education, Jin-cheon granted the nursemaid who had been raising Eulji a certain degree of authority to impose restrictions.
However, that restriction had its limits, and even with that authority, it was not an easy power for a nursemaid to wield.
At the very least, perhaps because his emphasis on sex education had hit home, Eulji's behavior of trying to drag Jin-cheon off to the pen or using the word 'babies' did cease.
But this time, the problem became that she had been taught too much about other things.
"Hoot. Your Majesty, please come to bed."
"......."
A childish voice.
The order to sleep was not the problem. The problem was Eulji, sitting demurely on Go Jin-cheon's bed.
Whatever she had learned, or wherever she had gotten it, she wore a thin, sheer garment, and with one hand lightly covering her mouth, she even let out a smile and an eye-smile. Without a word, Jin-cheon approached her.
"Do lie down, please. Ho-ho-ho."
"......."
A coquettish voice.
But there was no way a child acting that way would get any reaction from him — not unless he were a deviant.
"Huh?"
Witnessing the two deep furrows carved across Jin-cheon's brow, Eulji stopped her wriggling motions.
Creaaak.
The sound of grinding teeth leaked faintly from Jin-cheon's firmly shut mouth, and Eulji could tell that her attempt at seduction had gone very wrong.
"Uweeeehng!"
That day, for the first time in her life, Eulji was soundly spanked by Jin-cheon until she thought she might die.
As increasingly serious incidents kept happening, it was the court ladies who grew tense. In the first place, when they had come to this place, they had been nothing more than ordinary court ladies.
In all that chaos, they hadn't been able to select properly educated high-ranking court ladies to bring with them. They were just a nursemaid and hastily assembled women. So, for these women who had neither been educated themselves nor ever experienced a romantic relationship, the task of instructing Eulji was as good as a cruel punishment.
Completely stuck between a rock and a hard place, they had no choice but to fix things bit by bit through trial and error. The only saving grace was that the person Eulji feared most was Jin-cheon, and he wasn't the type to hold the court ladies responsible over Eulji's minor faults.
And one more thing: if it could be called a comfort, it was that, perhaps because she was loved by so many, she didn't grow up twisted.
Once she started running on her own two feet and came under Eulji Uru's loving care, Eulji began handling a bow. In response, Jin-cheon decided to teach her the sword as well, dragging her out for lessons so intense that Risel had to rush over and cast Healing on her constantly.
There was never a quiet day in the Yeolje Palace.
After brushing just past death's door thanks to Go Jin-cheon's swordsmanship instruction, Eulji was busy dodging him every chance she got thereafter. It made sense — everyone else was busy doting on her, whereas Jin-cheon was either smacking her rear or committing child abuse under the pretext of training.
"Mmm."
After coming to see Eulji, Jin-cheon learned she had absconded with her court lady retinue and let out a low sigh.
Would Jin-cheon have done any of that out of hatred? He was simply clumsy at expressing affection. He couldn't help it, being a man who had done nothing but eat and wage war his whole life, and the people positioned to give him advice on how to correct it were also men whose main job was war and whose hobby was combat.
At least he had Yeon Hwi-garam to gradually help him adjust.
Vexed, Jin-cheon left the palace, and familiar sounds reached his ears.
"Giyul!"
"Oh, Jennifer, what brings you here?"
"I tried making some bread for you!"
A girl came running toward Giyul brightly, holding bread. Around her, other girls who had already arrived were smiling.
"......."
In Jin-cheon's eyes, the images of those girls projected the image of Eulji, and Buyeo Gi-yul, as he stood there laughing and chatting with them, seemed to overlap with an image of Jin-cheon himself.
Jin-cheon saw hope.
"What?!"
Forgetting he was before the Yeolje, Buyeo Gi-yul cried out in astonishment. Go Jin-cheon, seated on the Throne of Yeolje, went on speaking quietly.
"The child who is to be my wife runs away from me on sight to avoid me! I cannot tolerate this. Tell me the solution at once."
"......."
Under the murderous intent wafting from Jin-cheon as he spoke, Giyul felt himself sinking endlessly into the floor.