Chapter 215
Chapter 215
Iron Emperor — Chapter 215
There were no more forces blocking the Gauri army's advance toward the capital. No nobles or domains possessed enough soldiers to stop the combined might of Gauri and South Roselin marching as one. Moreover, the two battles that had occurred along the way had cowed everyone.
The soldiers were all simply disarmed and released, but the nobles—they were dragged along even in death, their skin torn to shreds, their bodies reduced to rags.
The North Roselin royal family sent envoys condemning the Gauri and South Roselin actions as a violation of Continental Law, but the reply they received twisted their faces with rage.
[Was it not North Roselin who started it?]
That single line was all that was written in King Alsein's response.
It was the North Roselin royal house that had beheaded every member of the South Roselin royal family. In short, as King Alsein said, North Roselin had violated Continental Law first.
Amid growing unease, King Cadel once again requested reinforcements from the Holy Empire. But the reply that came back was merely that the Holy Empire considered this war a clear grudge between South Roselin, Gauri, and North Roselin, and therefore not a matter for foreign intervention.
They even reached out to the Federal Empire, but that answer was even more absurd.
[The North Roselin royal house, which has brought the bloody winds of war to the peaceful continent, deserves nothing but condemnation.]
In the end, every nation on the continent had turned its back on them.
Chapter 67 — Bera Han, Who Dreams of Reform
King Bera Han, who had forced Duke Perisman to retire from central politics, had been in contact with figures from the Federal Empire for a time, and then began meeting with figures from the comparatively weaker Maritime Empire as well.
In response to his actions, Marquis Iwaen, who had risen to the head of the Central Noble Council, began monitoring King Bera Han's movements.
"Lately, I cannot fathom what he is thinking at all."
A close noble associate who overheard Marquis Iwaen's muttering nodded as if in agreement and interjected.
"The mere fact that he ousted Duke Perisman is something one would never have expected from His Majesty before."
"Indeed."
Marquis Iwaen nodded.
"Be that as it may, it is essentially a favorable outcome for us."
"But we must discern his exact intentions. Wasn't Duke Perisman's withdrawal so neatly aligned with the current situation that it was practically as though he had stepped aside on his own? He still possesses power."
At Marquis Iwaen's words, the surrounding nobles nodded.
'For some reason, he's been brimming with confidence lately.'
King Bera Han was enjoying a midday rest, his whole body bathed in the midday sunlight.
"Your Majesty, have you had good tidings?"
A woman of elegant bearing approached quietly and sat beside him.
"My Queen. The sunlight is pleasant."
"More than that, Your Majesty's bright countenance pleases me far more."
King Bera Han smiled and drew his consort toward him.
"Oh my."
Queen Lian Su was momentarily startled by King Bera Han's sudden action, but soon yielded and nestled into his arms as he pulled her close.
The maids stood quietly to one side, careful not to disturb the royal couple's happy repose.
Bera Han murmured softly into Lian Su's ear.
'Su, have you heard of Gauri?'
'Yes, Your Majesty.'
Lian Su answered King Bera Han's question with downcast eyes, her manner composed. His question came to her again.
'Then you must have looked into the Divine Bird as well.'
'.......'
Lian Su maintained a brief silence before carefully answering with a trembling voice.
'I was able to investigate thoroughly.'
'Then that is sufficient.'
King Bera Han grasped his consort Lian Su's hand firmly. His touch was more forceful than ever before.
Bera Han.
Feeling the warmth of the sun, he recalled in his dreams the night that had burned even hotter.
The night he had felt a passion hotter than the sun itself.......
"Black hair."
Go Jin-cheon's voice rang out.
And slowly, he stood once more in that place, on that day.
As the bright light faded and King Bera Han appeared before Go Jin-cheon's party, those were Jin-cheon's first words.
"Your hair, your eyes too......."
His voice was blunt, but with each word, King Bera Han's chest trembled.
"Is there a reason you must hide them?"
At Jin-cheon's question, King Bera Han's heart sank. He could not meet his eyes.
"The Traitors..."
King Bera Han's lips parted with difficulty.
"...Because I am their descendant, I had no choice but to live this way."
"Why."
Jin-cheon asked curtly. King Bera Han poured his surging emotions directly into his reply.
"Because if I do not, we cannot receive the Ancients who will return to punish the sins of our forebears, and if that happens, there will be no one left to speak of the Traitors' traces and their despicable history."
"Is that all?"
King Bera Han raised his head at Jin-cheon's curt question: was that all?
Indifferent eyes.
Unable to avert his gaze, he continued speaking.
"Perhaps...... I suppose I wished to cling to filthy power even by such means."
That was likely the truth.
Although people with black hair and black eyes were branded Traitors, if the other empires discovered that one of them still remained on the throne of the Haian Kingdom—the last vestige of the Ancients—he would have been driven from it at once.
Fear of that must have driven him to hide it.
King Bera Han had been afraid to speak that truth. But at this very moment, for some reason, he felt he had to speak it.
"Tell me what you know. I am, in fact, curious."
At Jin-cheon's question, King Bera Han began slowly unfolding the tale of the Season of Depravity.
The fact that the Ancients, too, had not originally been a people of this continent was news to Jin-cheon as well. But what he heard next felt strangely similar to a story he already knew.
The continentals, it was said, had called the Ancients the Descendants of Heaven.
Heavenly Descendants who descended riding a chariot drawn by a golden dragon.
A bird-footed divine messenger who came to deliver heaven's tidings to those Heavenly Descendants.
That divine messenger was said to nest in the sun. And the tale that it devoured fallen dragons.......
Those who called themselves the Descendants of Heaven settled in the Reganza Mountains, named that region Han, and made it their home.
They taught the people of this continent how to handle fire and how to work iron.
Those who commanded rain and wind taught the savage humans how to farm, and taught them to live in harmony.
They taught that one should live for the benefit of all creation.
Time passed, human greed swelled, and after that—just as Jin-cheon knew—the Season of Depravity passed, and the Heavenly Descendants returned to the place from whence they came, leaving these words behind:
'When we return to this place, we shall teach you how to harvest the seed that was sown.'
The continentals trembled in fear as they watched them ride the clouds once more and vanish into the central lake of Reganza. In the end, it was the Ancients—fellow Heavenly Descendants blinded by the offerings—who were slaughtered first. Then those of mixed blood, carrying their seed, were massacred, losing their nation and fleeing north.
The Haian Kingdom rose upon the traces of Han left by the Ancients, and all truth was sealed away. Yet it was, in fact, the final bastion that the Heavenly Descendants—risking death at the hands of the traitorous Ancients—had built while shedding bloody tears of regret. And so that they would not forget, their descendants had carried the surname Han through the generations.
Jin-cheon listened to King Bera Han's story with his eyes closed.
The legend of the Ancients he had first heard from Risel upon arriving here, and the legends the Northern people had brought when they entered his shadow.......
The golden dragon vanishing before them, the enigmatic words it had uttered—all of it began to interlock with King Bera Han's tale and resolve into a single whole. And fitting into place alongside them came the names of Buyeo, Jusin, Baedal—those glorious states before Gauri—and from the distant past, the name Han.
Jin-cheon's closed eyes opened.
"I still do not know why I am in this place."
King Bera Han gazed at Jin-cheon, fighting back the tears streaming down his face.
"What is certain is this. I, and the soldiers of Gauri, are descendants who carry the blood of the nation once called Han, once called Baedal, once called Jusin, and the nation called Buyeo."
"Ahhh."
King Bera Han's heart raced madly.
He had believed it. He had been certain it must be so. Yet hearing the story from Jin-cheon's own lips stirred him beyond all restraint.
Jin-cheon's voice continued.
"What you call the Divine Bird Trakhan, we call the three-legged crow and the messenger of heaven. The Ancestral Emperors of Gauri called themselves the Descendants of Heaven."
The stories within King Bera Han's mind and Jin-cheon's tale wove themselves into one.
"And we came from a world entirely different from this one."
The legend was.......
"Straight through the lake of Reganza."
The legend was truth.
Silence fell.
Go Jin-cheon sat in silence. Yeon Hwi-garam stood quietly behind him, while Eulji Buru and Eulji Uru stood guard at either side without a word.
Within the silence, Go Jin-cheon rose to his feet.
Jin-cheon, who had been gazing at the night sky visible outside the barracks, broke the silence and spoke again.
"How to harvest the sown seed, they said......."
At Jin-cheon's quiet murmur, King Bera Han felt an inexplicable heat and, at the same time, a chill.
"Interesting. Don't you agree... all of you?"
Jin-cheon directed the question to Hwi-garam, Buru, and Uru, who were present.
"It is."
Hwi-garam smiled.
"Quite so. Depravity, was it......."
As Buru lifted the corner of his mouth and took up the words, Uru added a remark from the side.
"If it was Heaven's will that brought us here, then someday we might return and make those bastards pay the price for their depravity, wouldn't you say?"
They had come here, built a nation, and rebuked others, but Pyongyang Fortress in flames had always remained in their hearts.
"Heh."
A pleased chuckle slipped from Jin-cheon's lips.
"Kahahahahat!"
"Hahaha!"
"Khuh-huh-hut!"
Suddenly the inside of the barracks was filled with a mad tangle of laughter. It felt as though a boulder that had pressed heavily upon one corner of their hearts had vanished.
"So this is Heaven's will, is it!"
Jin-cheon's voice rang out loudly.
"That we came to this place by Heaven's will......."
Jin-cheon looked as though he were savoring the thought.
Jin-cheon felt that the Ancients, driven from this place by the Traitors long ago, must have felt much as they did now.