Chapter 25
Chapter 25
The Iron Emperor — Chapter 25
After the third scream faded, terror tightened its grip on the people. Yet, ironically, defiance was building on one side. And that defiance soon found its expression.
"If I go out, that makes six, then?"
"Heh."
A solidly built middle-aged man who had pushed through the crowd spoke. The bandages wrapped here and there across his body made it clear he had put up considerable resistance against the subjugation force. Facing Jin-cheon's icy laugh, the man stood tall and spoke.
"You won't harm my family just because I spoke informally, I trust?"
"Of course."
As Jin-cheon's voice carried a note of amusement, the middle-aged man asked another question.
"One more."
"What is it?"
"Even if the desired number isn't filled after me, my family will still be safe?"
"I guarantee it."
Once Jin-cheon's answer fell, the man walked on his own toward the place where others had been dragged away. After yet another scream rang out, two elderly men stepped forward. No one else came after them.
"We're four short."
"......."
Rising slowly from his seat, Jin-cheon called over Beron and Darun, who stood frozen off to one side.
"Beron, Darun."
"Yes."
"Provide houses for the families of the six who sacrificed themselves and secure them a means of living. They shall become my people."
Jin-cheon's calm voice passed through the air. But then, looking at the crowd breathing sighs of relief, he spoke with eyes gone cold.
"Lock the rest back up. Use them all as slaves. Worthless trash."
"......."
Behind Jin-cheon's turned back, the human-shaped scarecrows were simply being dragged this way and that by the soldiers.
"Is it over?"
"Yes."
From one side, Buru came running up, an axe gripped in one hand. But Jin-cheon looked at the axe with a frown.
"Did you use that axe?"
"Why're ya asking?"
"The smell is rather unpleasant. Keep your distance."
Leaving the grumbling Buru behind him, Jin-cheon shook his head and walked toward his own quarters.
"Kghk."
"You're awake!"
Hawk opened his eyes to the searing pain radiating from his anus. The first thing that entered his vision was Beron.
"Stay lying face down."
"Guuuhk. What in the world is this...? Did I survive?"
"It was a test."
Beron's quiet voice came forth. At the word test, Hawk, still lying on his stomach, sank into a sense of futility.
"A test, you say?"
"You and the other four residents, five in all, shall now live as his people, together with your families."
"What? What about the rest!"
The number Jin-cheon had demanded was clearly ten. Yet only six, including Hawk himself, had sacrificed themselves. At Hawk's question, Beron shook his head and answered bitterly.
"They will all live out their lives as slaves."
"Hmmmn."
A groan escaped Hawk.
Just then, people around them began to stir awake all at once across the cots.
"Ahghk."
"Kghk!"
"Ah—everyone, stay face down, please!"
As they let out miserable groans, Beron shouted urgently and laid the people flat on their stomachs. Struck by the strange sight, Hawk asked a question.
"But that deathlike agony... I was certain I was dying."
"......."
Beron froze for a moment as if caught off guard, then answered with a somewhat awkward smile.
"The intent from the beginning was only to test whether you possessed a bare minimum of will, so it seems he never meant to kill anyone. Except General Buru insisted it had to feel real, so he..."
"That tall dwarf with the axe!"
"Exactly. So he performed what is called ttongchim."
"......."
Ttong! Chim!
In other words, pricking the anus.
Overcome with a sense of futility, Hawk had no choice but to forget even the pain ringing from his backside.
Beside Buru, who was washing his great-axe handle with water, Gye Ung-sam asked a blunt question.
"Why did it have to be ttongchim? It's filthy."
"You want to know the reason?"
"Of course I do. With all the other options, why did it have to be ttongchim out of everything?"
At Ung-sam's grumbling, Buru smiled an eerie smile and spoke.
"You've gotten pretty bold, huh."
"That's not it, General."
"No reason I can't tell you. It's nothing secret."
"What is it?"
His curiosity suddenly piqued, Ung-sam edged closer so as not to miss the opportunity. Buru then gave him one calm word.
"Just try offering up your ass."
"......!"
In Ung-sam's eyes, the great-axe handle looked particularly cruel that day.
The afternoon after Jin-cheon's test ended, Go Jin-cheon led about a hundred cavalrymen charging out of the encampment, and about fifty archers spurred their horses to follow behind them.
It was time to go claim their reward.
Boom-boom-boom-boom-boom-boom.
At the head of the one hundred and fifty riders plunging through the valley woods without pause was Jin-cheon, driving his horse onward. They had pushed their mounts without resting once since leaving the encampment. Yet not one among them showed any sign of fatigue.
The horses themselves, despite bearing heavy horse armor, showed no sign of tiring either; instead, they seemed to be picking up speed as if gaining more strength. The ones actually tiring were the horses captured in this world that Risel and the archers were riding.
Eventually, once darkness had fallen and the frenzied charge came to an end, the mounts ridden by Risel and the archers were panting harshly, spent.
"Organize the watch rotation! Move quickly!"
At Uru's voice ringing out, the deputy commanders once more led the soldiers to their assigned tasks. Setting up the perimeter, preparing meals—everything proceeded swiftly in perfect order.
"Hwaaah."
Risel's weary voice spread through the air as if cracking the earth. Even as he sank down, his disbelief in these soldiers only deepened. Setting aside the iron-armored cavalry, he had never imagined that even the archers—who had marched on foot all this time—could handle horses so skillfully.
When he stopped a passing soldier to voice his deepening question, what astonished him even more was the answer: even the sailors could ride a horse proficiently as a matter of course.
"Master, the Daesaja summons you!"
"Yes."
Uru, with a respectful attitude, summoned Risel. Here, too, a question arose. The soldiers' attitude toward the man called Go Jin-cheon. It was not how one treated a mere general; it was as if they regarded him as a god, and to inspire such faith with a single word—Risel could not understand it at all.
Following behind Uru, Risel approached Jin-cheon and bowed his head in greeting. Whatever had been discussed beforehand, not a single person remained nearby.
"Let me ask you something."
"Yes? Ah, yes."
At Go Jin-cheon's question, delivered as he stood with his hands clasped behind his back, Risel was momentarily flustered but quickly bowed his head and answered. Jin-cheon released his hands from behind his back, slowly turned his body, and sat down before Risel.
"Do you know the geography?"
"Yes."
"This place is different from the land we know. No—you must understand at least that you and we are different, yes?"
"Yes."
The quiet exchange of voices passed between them. Poking at the fire burning off to one side, Jin-cheon spoke again.
"Do you know how to read the heavens?"
"Pardon?"
"The shape of the stars is different. Even the moon is different. The language, too, is different."
Jin-cheon's words came out distinctly, one by one. Risel felt his mouth go dry. Setting down the branch he had been using to stir the embers, Jin-cheon slowly looked into Risel's eyes.
"I heard from Uru. He told me you asked how we came to be here. Have you reached a conclusion?"
"......."
Risel could not readily answer Jin-cheon's question. To the hesitating Risel, the question fell once more.
"Tell me what you know."
Risel slowly closed his eyes and drew a deep breath. Feeling his heart settle, he exhaled and spoke toward Jin-cheon.
"Some wizards possess near-complete knowledge of this world."
"Is that so?"
"I, too, though I lack ability, take pride in my knowledge. Indeed, I take pride in having accumulated more than anyone else."
Jin-cheon could easily tell that Risel's words held no lie. Risel opened his mouth and continued.
"In this world as I know it, there is no empire bearing the name Gauri."
"Is there a realm called Tang?"
"There is not."
"Have you ever heard of Baekje?"
"I have not heard of it."
"Do you know of Silla?"
"No such country exists."
"Do you know of Baedal or Hwan?"
"I have neither seen nor heard of them."
"......."
Jin-cheon's expressionless face pressed the air down upon the space. Gazing at the firelight, Jin-cheon lifted his head and looked up into the sky.
"The place I came from has one moon."
"......."
"Where, then... are we now? Where have we come?"
Jin-cheon posed the question, but what Risel saw in his eyes was a gaze that only awaited confirmation of a conclusion he had already reached. Risel had no choice but to give Jin-cheon's question a definitive answer.
"This place is the Haien Continent, and it appears... that you, my lord, have crossed the Dimensional Wall."
"...What do you mean by the Dimensional Wall?"
Jin-cheon was neither particularly surprised nor shaken. It was Risel who grew agitated in the face of his utterly composed demeanor.
"To put it simply, you have crossed over into a completely different world. You have passed beyond a wall that cannot be crossed, in either direction, by human power."
"......."
Jin-cheon's silence continued on. Nevertheless, starting from the reason he himself had first come to this place, Risel began to unpack the theories he had once formulated about the central region where this world's coordinates converge, explaining one step at a time.
Listening silently to the story, Jin-cheon showed no change at all. To Risel, it felt as though he were speaking to empty air.
"Are you confident that what you have just told me is without error?"
"Yes."
"How can you be so certain that you know every country in this world without having traveled it yourself?"
Jin-cheon's question was sharp. Yet from Risel came an unhindered answer.
"Among the branches of magic, there is one called Warp. To execute it, something known as coordinates is required. Over ten thousand years ago, the Ancient Dragon Berseseareu personally flew across the world and established these coordinates, and that knowledge was passed down to humanity. We may not know every small island, but the empires my lord speaks of cannot fall outside these coordinates."
"What is an Ancient Dragon? Why do you trust it so blindly just because it flew around and confirmed things for itself?"
What came from Jin-cheon's lips were still questions delivered in a flat tone, without rise or fall. Risel nearly had a heart attack at the phrase 'What is it?', but he quickly answered.
"We call them the Great Race. We call that race the Dragons."
"Are they gods?"
"They are not, but they are beings whom no nation or force upon this earth can approach, and..."
Risel gave a concise description of their form and such. After listening to the story thoughtfully for a moment, Jin-cheon spoke with a furrowed brow.
"From the sound of it, are they not simply overgrown lizards?"
"Hk!"
Letting out a sound as if his breath had stopped, Risel hastily blurted out his words.
"They are not such beings. Dragons are..."
As the explanation resumed, Jin-cheon nodded as though something had come to mind, then spoke again.
"So they're called yong."
"Pardon?"
"If they're what you describe, then even if they look a little different, yes, they're yong."
"Yes."
Now apparently persuaded, Jin-cheon nodded and did not repeat such irreverent remarks as before. But that thought was Risel's delusion alone.
"Ridiculous. A world where mere dragons hold dominion..."
"Keuhk!"
To the breathless Risel, Jin-cheon pointed to the left side of his own white breastplate.
"Do you know what this is?"
"Th-that is..."
Risel, looking at the shape of the black bird engraved on the left side of the white breastplate, could not readily answer. A bird it was, but what did one call a bird with three legs? To the uncertain Risel, Jin-cheon delivered the answer.
"This emblem, which lives within our hearts, is a divine beast called the Three-Legged Crow, and it is said to prey upon dragons as its staple food. There is no need to fear some absurdly shaped lizard-like thing of that sort. Bear that well in mind."
"Pardon?"
But Risel was not given a chance to ask.
Jin-cheon rose and walked away before Risel could ask, tracing an S in the air with one hand.
"Are they piglets or something, with bellies all bloated like that? What kind of dragon looks like that? They should be sleek. The dragons in this neighborhood, tch."
Leaving the dazed Risel behind him, Jin-cheon observed the soldiers preparing their meal as he walked, then gazed slowly up at the three moons hanging in the sky and spoke.
"A place I can no longer go back to. So this is where I must live from now on..."
Jin-cheon's unspoken thoughts drifted toward the moons.