Chapter 157
Chapter 157
Iron Emperor — Chapter 157
Swoosh.
Go Jin-cheon's footsteps, quietly shifting position, carried no sound at all. Neither presence nor hint could be felt.
On battlefields where he was encircled on all sides, even as the kingdom fell, Jin-cheon had always strode forward without hesitation. Anyone who saw this behavior now would have drawn a blade and tried to kill him, assuming he was an imposter wearing Jin-cheon's skin.
Acting in a manner so utterly unprecedented, Jin-cheon halted as if he had reached his destination. His upper body slowly emerged from the thicket, then stopped abruptly.
Shit!
Something whipped past the thicket and Jin-cheon's face like the wind.
An arrow.
The instant it flashed before his eyes, Jin-cheon snatched the passing arrow with one hand. A furrow deepened between his brows, then he let out a quiet breath. His expression was like a high monk in meditation.
"Ah, it missed!"
A young voice.
Eulji, diligently honing her archery. But Jin-cheon, who thanks to her utterly deadened presence had nearly taken an arrow to the head, stepped forward as if it were coincidence.
"Ah!"
Eulji, who had been trotting over to retrieve the stray arrow, stopped dead, her eyes wide as if she had met a tiger.
In Jin-cheon's hand as he emerged from the grass was the small arrow Eulji had loosed. But what jarred Eulji's senses was none other than Jin-cheon's bizarre expression.
'Your Majesty! To gain favor, a smile is crucial. Try it like this. Kimchi~.'
'Kimchi.......'
The expression that struck Eulji as strange was a smile. Buyeo Gi-yul's first assignment had been a smile for goodwill, but to Eulji it registered as an unfamiliar look.
Eyes glaring, mouth smiling.
It was only because she was Eulji that she didn't have a fit. As evidence, the court ladies' faces were draped in expressions beyond words.
'Kimchi~.'
When Eulji neither fled nor cried, Jin-cheon internally recited kimchi again and resumed walking. Naturally, Eulji's feet had simply frozen to the spot.
A smile(?) and a tear-streaked face met.
A grotesque standoff.
Still wearing the smile, Jin-cheon slowly extended the arrow in his hand toward Eulji. The uncharacteristic behavior plunged Eulji into confusion. Had the memory of her recently blazing backside resurfaced?
Flinch.
At Jin-cheon's goodwill(?), Eulji retreated a step instead. And Jin-cheon advanced. The smile deepened.
Under the eerie pressure, Eulji sensed that this standoff would end only if she took the arrow Jin-cheon was offering.
"Th-thank you."
With a trembling voice, she took the arrow Jin-cheon held out. Once Eulji had taken it, Jin-cheon concluded that his smile(?) had worked.
'Once you've approached, you must not make the child feel distance. To do that, striking up appropriate conversation is important. However! Your tone must be as gentle as possible.'
Giyul's teachings flickered through Jin-cheon's mind. Jin-cheon acted on them.
"Practicing your archery, I see."
"Yes."
Perhaps sensing that Jin-cheon's objective was not a spanking, Eulji answered his question in a somewhat steadier voice.
"Let us see how much our Eulji's archery has improved."
She was a prospective wife, but to Jin-cheon, Eulji was still a little kid, and he addressed her as one would a child. However, Eulji's complexion began to harden rapidly.
'The Yeolje always assessed our skill, and if the level displeased him, he would work us without mercy. It was absolute hell.'
Eulji Uru's testimony flickered through Eulji's mind. Naturally, her hands began to tremble.
"Go on, try."
A gentle voice.
To Eulji, this demeanor so unlike the usual was pressing in as an unknowable terror.
"Hmm. Shall I try?"
Jin-cheon smiled as he took the bow and arrow from Eulji's hand. Even though Jin-cheon had picked up the bow Eulji usually treasured, she could only stand frozen and watch.
The sole being in this land whose tantrums were not indulged.
The sole being in this land who spanked her backside.
How could she resist?
Jin-cheon, who could not possibly know Eulji's anguish, kept smiling as he nocked the arrow and drew the string. It was a child's small bow, ill-suited to Jin-cheon's frame.
The string drew taut.
The large target entered Jin-cheon's sight. At that moment, Giyul's voice surfaced.
'Another way to make a child like you is to play with them.'
Jin-cheon judged that with a single arrow he could earn Eulji's admiring gaze while simultaneously achieving the objective of playing with her.
Twang!
"Gah!"
Eulji's scream.
Under Jin-cheon's overconfident action, string and small bow shattered at the same moment. The child's bow, at best capable of withstanding a kid's strength, could never have resisted Jin-cheon's power.
Silence.
"......."
A sudden chill settled over the space. The court ladies knew well how much Eulji treasured that small bow, and they already guessed what phenomenon would now unfold.
Welling tears.
"......Why did it do that......."
Tears welling more.
"Ahem, well......."
Seeing Eulji's crumpled face, Jin-cheon belatedly tried to manage the situation, but it had already passed the management stage.
"Waaaaaah!"
"Urk!"
Eulji wailed as if the world were ending.
Jin-cheon stood before her, his expression utterly flummoxed. The situation was different from before. This was tantamount to breaking a child's toy. In short, Jin-cheon had become the offender.
"Hmm. Eulji, do not weep. I shall have a new one made for you......."
"Hwee-e-ehng!"
"Hut!"
Jin-cheon was flustered. At Eulji's resounding battle cry, soldiers came running one by one, and from the far side, even the armed guards were dashing over with swords drawn.
What in the world was this?
Jin-cheon's hands moved faster. He swiftly tore off a sleeve and quickly wrapped the broken bow staff. Then he rigged a spare bowstring he carried, applying emergency first aid. The speed matched a battlefield emergency repair.
"F-fixed!"
"Hic, hic."
At the sound of Jin-cheon's voice, Eulji's crying began to subside. Jin-cheon let out a relieved sigh and smiled as he handed the small bow back to her.
"Here."
"Sniffle."
Had Jin-cheon's efforts paid off?
Eulji stopped crying and accepted the small bow Jin-cheon offered. Though it looked painful wrapped in cloth, just the fact that it had regained its basic shape was enough to halt her tears.
"......."
Jin-cheon held his breath and watched Eulji take the small bow, sniffling, turning it over in her hands.
"Use this for now, and I shall have a new bow made immediately."
Eulji's gaze wavered at Jin-cheon's sweet temptation. Yet, still reluctant to part with the familiar small bow, she slowly drew the string.
Thok!
Smack!
"Your Highness!"
The court ladies' cries.
With a dull sound, the small bow snapped clean into two pieces, and at the same instant, the upper half of the broken bow sprang back and struck Eulji square on the forehead.
"......Cough."
Jin-cheon's cough echoed, and Eulji's wailing shook the world.
That afternoon.......
Seeing Buyeo Gi-yul walking out in unseasonable full battle gear, Mong Ryu-hwa cocked his head and asked,
"What's this? Heading off to fight a war by yourself?"
"Ugh......."
At Ryu-hwa's well-placed needle, Giyul's face crumpled mercilessly.
"How could you know my pain? If Lady Eulji were a married woman, my current state would be yours."
"What kind of bullshit is that?"
Leaving only an incomprehensible answer, Giyul receded into the distance. Ryu-hwa snorted a laugh, then headed for the great hall.
The moment he entered the great hall, the sight of Go Jin-cheon, seated on the Throne of Yeolje with his head deeply bowed, filled his eyes. Beside him, Yeon Hwi-garam was offering consolation with a laughing face.
"Which is why I asked, why did you do the Flying Maiden......."
Jin-cheon's modified Air Throw, devised to soothe the crying Eulji—the Flying Maiden—had been more than enough to earn pure loathing. If he had only cradled her and soothed her as if she were gently flying, who would have hated it?
"......."
Hwi-garam's words bored into Jin-cheon's heart.
The Flying Maiden game had worked at first. When he lifted her and moved her as though flying through the sky, Eulji had stopped crying. But seeing that, Jin-cheon had grown overconfident and broken into a sprint—that was the cause, if it could be called a cause.
"If only you hadn't sprinted......."
Having roughly grasped the situation from the back-and-forth, Ryu-hwa exercised the utmost caution. Around this time, Samdopyo, Giyul, and Ryu-hwa always got lumped together as one and the same and became the targets for vented frustration. It happened nine times out of ten.
"Your Majesty, Supreme One of All Heavens, your servant Daehyeong Mong Ryu-hwa offers his respects!"
"Speak."
Hwi-garam answered in Jin-cheon's stead as Ryu-hwa knelt on one knee and proclaimed in a clear voice. Ryu-hwa then carefully conveyed the message.
"Daedaero Dae Mu-deok has delivered this letter to His Majesty the Yeolje."
Because Dae Mu-deok was always out in the field, the busiest person was Ryu-hwa, his guard. Bowing low, Ryu-hwa approached and handed the letter to Hwi-garam, then prostrated himself and awaited a response.
"......."
Two furrows carved themselves between Jin-cheon's brows as he unfolded the letter. At the same moment, beads of sweat rolled down Ryu-hwa's back.
"Just when I'm already in disfavor......."
A voice as if fired with indignation.
"Marry?"
"......."
"......."
And here, who was the marriage between?
The union of Jin-cheon and Eulji.
In an instant, silence descended on the great hall. Dae Mu-deok had, in fact, been urging Jin-cheon for a year. Jin-cheon was not young. No, at the age of previous Yeoljes, their offspring would already be preparing for marriage of their own.
"Huuu~."
An uncharacteristic sigh escaped Jin-cheon's lips. He had dodged and declined several times, but he was not unaware of Mu-deok's concern. And even without Mu-deok, the other generals were quietly worried as well. Was not Jin-cheon the sole remaining bloodline of the Yeolje?
Contingencies existed.
Of course, Jin-cheon had retorted, what did that matter, but the other generals, even more than Mu-deok, had kicked up such a near-fatal fuss that he could no longer voice such words.
"Is this no longer avoidable......."
At Jin-cheon's half-resigned words, Hwi-garam gave a bitter smile and replied.
"It cannot be postponed any further."
"So it is."
As if he had anticipated Hwi-garam's answer, Jin-cheon slowly nodded. Then he addressed the prostrate Ryu-hwa in a measured tone.
"Tell him I understand."
At Jin-cheon's words, Ryu-hwa broke into a broad smile and exclaimed,
"Congratulations! This is cause for all the people of Gauri to hold a feast!"
"......Yes."
To Jin-cheon's flat reply, Ryu-hwa, unable to contain his delight, added one more word.
"You must marry soon and produce an heir!"
"Produce...... a what? Heir?"
"Ah......."
Ryu-hwa's innocent remark flew at Jin-cheon like a dagger. In his excessive joy, he had even forgotten that Jin-cheon's counterpart was Eulji.
Just...... that one thing.