Chapter 161
Chapter 161
The Iron Emperor — Chapter 161
Chukguk spread like wildfire.
At first, the local children made balls by winding straw together. But when Gauri soldiers saw this, they gave the children proper balls, and that sparked a new trend.
The finest gift for courting a widow with children is a leather ball. Of course, they weren't originally leather. It began when a soldier thought of a pig's bladder and used an orc bladder instead.
Tougher and more resilient than a pig's bladder, the orc bladder was perfect for making a good ball, and whether you had one became the deciding factor in who ruled the children's popularity.
The side effect, naturally, was that the sound of orcs having their throats ripped out didn't cease a single day.
In this way, Gauri culture was spreading wave by wave, with the Yeolje's national wedding as the fuse.
As for Eulji, there was no real change in her daily life after the marriage.
But that didn't mean nothing changed. For one thing, Go Jin-cheon's strict command had temporarily imposed a Prohibition Order, and for another, Eulji no longer avoided Jin-cheon.
Of course, the fact that she openly raised hell on their wedding night might be one reason, but now that she was the Yeolhu, Jin-cheon couldn't very well spank her or the like.
Eventually, Eulji began to develop a small hobby of hiking.
"Your Majesty, I am bored."
"......."
Eulji, with dewy eyes, was insisting he play with her. And Jin-cheon, rightly flummoxed. All under the gaze of the court ladies and the royal guards. What could he do?
"Hmph, are you already tired of this young maiden?"
A child's capacity to absorb knowledge is beyond compare.
Eulji's behavior made Jin-cheon consider still another sanction, right after the Prohibition Order: he'd have to keep her far away from plays and Chinese opera.
Chapter 49: Workers of the Earth
"......."
Go Jin-cheon's silence.
He was a man who always said exactly his piece and enjoyed silence, but this silence was profoundly awkward.
Likewise, the Gauri ministers and generals arrayed behind Jin-cheon kept their own silence, their eyes filled with dismay, stupefaction, and fascination. Breaking that silence, a youthful voice spoke up from beside Jin-cheon's waist.
"Are they General Uru's family?"
At the Yeolhu Eulji's fascinated question, Jin-cheon broke his long silence and spoke.
"......In this case, it should be clan, not family."
After correcting Eulji—who habitually clutched his little finger—from family to clan, Jin-cheon faced forward again. Hundreds... no, thousands of eyes flooded his vision at once.
Broad shoulders.
Solid legs that evoked thick pillars buttressing the earth. Arms thicker than a grown man's thigh, bringing a child's torso to mind.
The forms of Uru and Buru looked as though they hadn't grown upward, but sideways.
Their miniatures filled his sight at a glance. If Uru and Buru hadn't been a head taller than the rest, distinguishing them would've been like searching a sandy beach for a diamond smaller than a fingernail.
They were dwarves... a whole multitude of them.
Unlike Jin-cheon's musings, they were chattering away. Their awed stares were fixed upon Uru and Buru.
"The legend was true!"
"It can't be...."
"Sob, sob, a new sun has risen upon the oppressed Dwarf Tribe!"
The old dwarves wept with emotion....
"That fierce glint in his eyes and those muscles that make me think of bedrock... I feel like I'm going to melt."
"Oh my, he looked at me!"
The female dwarves were melting with budding infatuation....
"As expected, that's no ordinary skill."
"Yes. The spirit visible only to one who has completed the fire, and that artistic soul revealed in the ordinary!"
The young and middle-aged dwarves were exclaiming in admiration as they gazed at Elder Jang and the armor worn by the Gauri people. In short, none of them paid Jin-cheon the slightest mind.
"......Ahem."
An uncomfortable breath escaped Jin-cheon. The sound must've been loud, for the dwarves glanced at him once, then refocused entirely on their own interests.
Seeing that, Mawin Stone and the Stone Trio began to sweat down their backs.
It had been seven years since they'd settled in Gauri.
They knew precisely what kind of humans these were, and they knew that the one human who treated the Titan Clan—whom they so revered—like dogs was none other than Go Jin-cheon.
Moreover, what they'd gained here wasn't just skill; it was perceptiveness. The moment they saw the two deep furrows carved between Jin-cheon's brows, they began to sink into despair.
"Follow me."
Thud!
As they sank into despair, Jin-cheon's single word flew at them. On the battlefield, they'd have called it a finishing blow.
Even as the Stone Trio were dragged away, the rest of the dwarves remained focused entirely on their own interests. Unaware of the fate closing in upon them....
A strange, feverish heat filled the Yeolje's hall.
Of course, the source of that heat was Go Jin-cheon, and a closer look would reveal the simple reason the heat poured out: he was pissed off.
"Anything to say?"
"......!"
At Jin-cheon's terse question, Hwain Stone, Mawin Stone, and Galling Stone all felt their hearts plummet.
It was the kind of question reserved for a condemned man's final moments, and it came from the ruler of the Reganza Mountains.
"No?"
"W-Well...."
Pressed by the question that came as if confirming the answer, Hwain Stone raised his head, flustered, and opened his mouth. But Jin-cheon had already stepped right in front of them. And before any answer could come, punishment began.
"First, take a beating."
With those words, the three were beaten nearly to death—until boulders turned to grains of sand. Only after the deed was done and Risel rushed in and cast restoration magic did the furrow in Jin-cheon's brow relax a measure.
The reason this multitude of dwarves had swarmed here was, absurdly, a single word: legend. It was something Go Jin-cheon's party couldn't understand at all.
Of course, legend or no, the Dwarf Tribe were called the Earth's Artisans, and their lives were built upon creation. The substance of that creation was metal, so naturally dwarves wandered in search of metal as a way of life.
The problem was that dwarves weren't the only ones who needed metal.
Humans.
The race called humans also needed metal.
But the biggest reason they needed metal was as tools of war. For them, dwarven mines were a delectable prize, and furthermore, the dwarves' superior skills had become an essential element for raising military might.
The three empires began rounding up dwarves, and powerless kingdoms went so far as to pack dwarves in among their tribute. Such dwarves gradually withdrew deeper and deeper, and life in places beyond the reach of human hands was always a war against monsters and wild beasts.
Merely surviving is a hollow thing.
Beings with intelligence have a reason for living. For dwarves, that reason is when they smelt metal and create superior things.
When metals are exhausted, they risk their lives to move. To do that, a few dwarves first go out exploring. To find a new home....
Hwain Stone, Mawin Stone, and Galling Stone also had such a mission.
It wasn't that they didn't know the dangers of the Reganza Mountains, also called the Dragon Mountains. But there was no longer any place safe for them. So they staked their lives and explored until they reached the place where the Gauri forces were.
In a sense, they were no different from the slash-and-burn farmers living in this hazardous place. A free life, and metal that gave their existence value.
To the Stone Trio, the appearance of the Gauri forces was a shock.
To flee across the continent, you had to be that much more versed in its circumstances. Yet here, in the heart of the Reganza Mountains, stood a human fortress, and the legendary warrior Titan Clan had returned.
After being rescued, the Stone Trio could only be more astonished. The people they'd assumed were Northerners possessed an entirely new language, dress, and culture. And one thing more: they held no greed toward dwarves.
The existence of Elder Jang and the craftsmen under him rendered the dwarves' value meaningless. What use were dwarves when there were superior craftsmen already?
The dwarves knew.
They knew their own skills had been gradually stagnating. The advancement of skill, ironically, bloomed in war.
The dwarves' golden age was long ago, when the ancient people still existed. Back then, distinctions like "dwarf" were meaningless. The ancient people used their weapons in war, and the dwarves made even better weapons.
But after the ancient people vanished following the Season of Depravity, dwarven suffering began.
Dwarves captured as human slaves lost their souls and produced weapons mechanically, while those who weren't captured simply carried on inherited techniques, avoiding human eyes.
To such dwarves, the existence of Gauri was a shock.
The Stone Trio spread the word. The Dwarf Tribe might already be facing extinction. Not the race itself, perhaps, but its spirit would vanish. The soul of the free Earth's Artisan would vanish.
Having lived together for years, the Stone Trio knew that what they needed wasn't just Elder Jang's skills. So they grew sure, told their clan, and called them in.
Of course, this hadn't been kept secret from Go Jin-cheon. They'd asked for permission first.
"We wish to bring our family."
Permission was granted, naturally. A growing population was welcome, and distinctions like dwarf and whatnot were meaningless to the Gauri. But that permission was exactly the problem.
Once the Stone Trio came to their senses, Jin-cheon's question flew at them.
"That's a lot of family."
"......."
They were all silence—dumb as mutes with honey in their mouths.
Show up driving a horde of over two thousand and call that "family," and no one's going to answer, "My, that's a lot of family," and let it go.
"Why didn't you report the numbers?"
"W-Well, that's...."
Hwain Stone and the other two dwarves couldn't manage a word. Because they hadn't expected every last one of them to swarm here, either.
Even if these people didn't enslave dwarves, it was bizarre. But at Jin-cheon's next words, the three dwarves could only hang their heads.
"Did you underestimate me?"
At Jin-cheon's curt tone, Mawin Stone hastily spoke.
"That's not it."
"Interesting."
"Your Majesty."
Just as Jin-cheon chuckled at Mawin Stone's excuse, Yeon Hwi-garam strode into the hall. He quietly paid his respects, then addressed Jin-cheon with an awkward smile.
"The leader of the dwarves requests a private audience."
"He wants to negotiate, is that it?"
At Hwi-garam's words, Jin-cheon shot back as though the whole thing were absurd, and the shoulders of the three dwarves flinched.
"What shall we do?"
"Forget this private audience nonsense. If he's got something to say, tell him to come here and say it."
"Understood."
Hwi-garam smiled slightly at Jin-cheon's direct manner and turned to leave, while the Stone Trio dropped their heads.
They knew the Gauri forces well, but they did not know the dwarven lord. No—even putting the lord aside, the other great chieftains likely thought differently.
The name of a fledgling nation, and a small force of humans.
The dwarves had confidence in their own strength, and in their weapons. So they judged that if they negotiated, they could secure a dwelling in this vast place without having to bow their heads to the humans.
That was why countless dwarves had gathered over a long time, and why that number moved all at once.