Chapter 158
Chapter 158
Iron Emperor — Chapter 158
That night...
Samdopyo glanced at Mong Ryu-hwa, who was walking out fully armed in the dead of night, and spoke with a grimace.
"Heh. You heading off to fight a war all by yourself?"
"......Tch."
"Do some calisthenics under the moonlight. Heh heh heh!"
A line he'd heard somewhere had grown a new barb and was coming back around to Ryu-hwa. Taking Dupyo's mockery as company, Ryu-hwa walked slowly out in full gear, a forlorn figure. Just then, he saw someone ahead.
"......."
A man who looked utterly spent.
It was Buyeo Gi-yul.
The two fell silent when they met. And Dupyo watched them as if they were people from another world. Giyul's voice broke the silence.
"You too...?"
"Yeah."
"Hang in there."
Short exchange.
"A-hahahahaha!"
Dupyo burst into laughter right after. The two men felt the urge to kill rising at the sound of his laughter coming from behind them.
"Heh heh heh, taking turns in the hot seat, I see. That's what you get for not being careful. If you shared something in common with His Majesty the Yeolje like I do, you wouldn't even get struck by lightning!"
At Dupyo's gleeful crowing, Ryu-hwa grumbled sourly.
"What common ground..."
"Keh. Precisely the fact that you're miles away from women. Heh heh heh."
At Dupyo's laughter, Ryu-hwa and Giyul shook their heads in disbelief and walked on. Watching those two specimens of humanity, Dupyo smiled broadly and turned.
And then he saw him.
Jin-cheon, blazing in the darkness.
That dawn...
Mong Ryu-hwa, returning with an exhausted body, found himself face to face with Samdopyo, who was heading off to war with his horse practically slung over his own back.
Chapter 48 — The Child Bride
Dae Mu-deok, who had been out inspecting the fortification work in the mountains, was quietly seething after receiving the reply to the letter he had sent Go Jin-cheon. It hardly qualified as a reply.
Written on it was a single phrase...
[Next year.]
"Your Majesty, can you truly mean this!"
Dae Mu-deok's fury burst out of the field tent and reached the ears of Mong Ryu-hwa, who was waiting outside. Ryu-hwa, having roughly guessed the content of the reply, shook his head.
"Tch. He just likes taking it easy."
Pity lingered on Ryu-hwa's face as he voiced his concern. No matter how riled up Dae Mu-deok got, Ryu-hwa figured he'd tuck his tail the moment he stood before Jin-cheon.
Hadn't it always been that way? Barring the extreme case of Mu-deok chugging some strange drug and losing his mind, anyway.
Flap.
The tent flap was flung roughly aside and Dae Mu-deok charged out, his face flushed red.
"Salute!"
Instantly, Ryu-hwa dropped his pitying expression and saluted, but Mu-deok stormed right past him. Ryu-hwa, eyes wide at the unexpected sight, and the other commanders present shouted after Mu-deok.
"Daedaero! Where are you going!"
Despite the shouted calls, Mu-deok leaped onto a horse with an agility that belied his age and shouted back toward Ryu-hwa.
"Daehyeong Mong, you are in command here!"
"What? No, but where are you—!"
"The Yeolje Hall!"
Watching Mu-deok's back as he galloped toward the Yeolje Hall where the Yeolje resided, Ryu-hwa couldn't press further. Instead, only a hollow voice escaped him.
"And here I had a meeting set with Madam Helen at the watermill in three days...."
Of course, the other commanders who overheard this sank into a hollowness that ran even deeper than what Ryu-hwa felt.
The Central Lake, which was gradually taking on the shape of a capital, was now guarded by a stout fortress wall. And the eyes of the Gauri soldiers standing ironclad guard over it never dulled, still shining bright despite years of uninterrupted peace.
"Hm?"
A dust cloud rose into the view of a soldier keeping watch on the wall. Other soldiers had noticed it too, and they tilted their heads, trying to make out what it was.
"Who on earth, riding alone...?"
A single horse was racing toward them at full speed. Normally, even dispatch riders moved in groups of at least three. But the dust cloud billowing up behind it revealed that the figure galloping toward the fortress was not alone—and at the same time, it betrayed the rider's identity.
"It's the Daedaero's banner!"
At the head of the horsemen who appeared belatedly behind the lead rider flew the distinct banner of Dae Mu-deok, and the soldier commanding the gate could tell that the figure sprinting at the very front was the man himself.
"Open it at once!"
"Gasp!"
A bellowing voice rang out from the distance. The man's speed showed no sign of slowing—and what's more, showed no intention of slowing. The gate commander, realizing this, shouted urgently.
"Open the gate now!"
"At once!"
Feeling the hoofbeats shake the ground as they drew nearer, soldiers nearby scrambled to urge the orcs on and opened the gate. Though the gap was barely wide enough for a single rider, Mu-deok did not slow and charged straight in.
"Gah!"
The instant Mu-deok collided, everyone sucked in a startled breath. And the thunderous crash that followed stunned even the soldiers hauling the gate open.
CRASH!
The center of the iron-wall-like gate was smashed and blown away, yet Mu-deok did not slow and raced on through the capital. Among the soldiers who had lost all words, the Gauri soldiers shook their heads.
"He really is the former Captain of the Guard."
The sword of the Captain of the Guard who protects the Yeolje had not rusted. And for the soldiers, it was also the moment a new task—gate repair (?)—was born.
The horsemen who followed charged through the half-shattered wreckage and went in after Mu-deok. The soldiers did not even dare to ask and could only stare blankly.
Rumble rumble rumble!
A massive dust cloud approached the Yeolje Hall. Naturally, Gye Ung-sam, who was guarding the front, could not help but feel baffled.
"He's serious?"
Ung-sam had already been informed at the gate of Dae Mu-deok's arrival, and now, coming out to meet him, he could see Mu-deok charging toward him as if half-mad.
"Salute! Daesaja Gye greets the Daedaero!"
Gye Ung-sam shouted a military salute toward the approaching Mu-deok.
Neigh!
"Koff!"
The only reply to Ung-sam's salute was a thick cloud of dust kicked up by the sudden stop, and the culprit responsible for this outrage (?) had already flown off the saddle and dashed inside the great hall.
"Yourrrr Majestyyy!"
Dae Mu-deok's cry rang out as if it would shake the great hall.
Go Jin-cheon felt, for the first time in his life, an immense pressure from Mu-deok. Carrying the tail of his cry, Mu-deok threw himself flat before Jin-cheon, who sat on the Throne of Yeolje, and began to pour out a voice so heavy the ground seemed to sink.
"Next year—how can the one seated upon the throne of the Yeolje utter such words!"
"......."
"Three years ago you said the nation's defenses were still too lax to hold a wedding. The year before last you evaded it by claiming Lady Eulji's character was not yet fully formed!"
Jin-cheon let Mu-deok's torrent of words flow in one ear while trying to appreciate the scenery outside the window. But his cry did not end.
"And last year you arranged a political marriage for me to the chieftain of the refugees from the north, and evaded it by saying the nation was not yet ready to hold two great ceremonies at once!"
"Ahem. Dae Mu-deok, that was less a political marriage and more that it seemed a shame for you to be alone as well, and that the great chieftain on the other side was a woman and unattached—so I merely took an interest."
The voice that had been dammed up in Mu-deok's heart was pouring out like a flood.
When Mu-deok's words began going on about a political marriage with the great chieftain of the Northerners, Jin-cheon offered an excuse to manage the situation. But Mu-deok did not stop.
"At the time, did you not say that, at my advanced age, you wished to see a descendant to carry on the line! Under the will of Your Majesty, who wished me to produce an heir to assist the Descendants of Heaven yet to be born, despite all my duties I strove with my wife night after night until my aged back nearly snapped in two—and I have seen twin children! Yet Your Majesty will not even marry, let alone produce an heir, and instead dodges it at every turn—how am I to act!"
"......."
Dae Mu-deok, now speaking twice as much as he normally did, drove Jin-cheon to furrow his brow with two deep lines. But Jin-cheon's trump card no longer worked.
"Keu-heu-heuk!"
Mu-deok, still prostrate, suddenly began to choke up.
The tears of an old man.
After a woman's tears and a child's tears, the most troublesome are the tears of an old man. An old man's tears lead straight to deep regret.
"Keu-heu-heuk. Great Bojang Yeolje! In my foolishness I have failed to serve His Majesty properly, and have committed this sin! Why did you entrust such a weighty duty to this unworthy Dae Mu-deok!"
"......Mu-deok."
At Mu-deok's tears as he looked to the sky, Jin-cheon's furrowed brow relaxed.
He knew. He knew that the reason Mu-deok had been running himself ragged in every direction was the heart of a guilty man who had been unable to protect Bojang Yeolje to the end—and that he was determined never to leave such regret again in the newly rebuilt land of Gauri. Knowing this, Jin-cheon could not say a word.
After weeping for a long while, Mu-deok wiped his tears and slowly opened his mouth, his voice cracked.
"There is no guarantee Gauri will remain unknown to the continent forever. Moreover, in this continent we are not an acknowledged nation. Not that anyone would dare sit in judgment of us, but in the eyes of the continentals, a country called Gauri will not exist. It may be nothing more than a tempting piece of prey."
Listening to Mu-deok's voice, Jin-cheon quietly closed his eyes.
Wasn't that already obvious from the case of South Roselin alone? On top of that, this continent's law of power had stagnated with almost no change. He knew that better than anyone, so he gave no answer.
Mu-deok's cracked voice shook Jin-cheon's ears once more.
"To us commanders, Your Majesty's back was an iron wall. A glory. But we must not be the ones to look upon what lies behind that back. I think a wise ruler is one who shows his child the back of a father. You must produce an heir without delay. And please, Your Majesty, grant me this kindness so that this old man's heart may be at ease, even if I must ride to war this very day and lay my head upon the earth. Lady Eulji is still young, so please accept a secondary consort at once so that the Yeolje bloodline may continue to flow through this land. This is this old man's first and last plea."
Mu-deok's sincerity flowed quietly through the great hall.