Chapter 255
Chapter 255
The Iron Emperor — Chapter 255
Mu-deok listened to her answer without letting his smile fade.
But inwardly, his frustration only grew. Since their wedding, how much time had the two of them actually spent together?
Yet Eulji never once showed the slightest hint of resentment—instead, she did everything she could to assist Jin-cheon's training, in any way possible.
Young as she was, she already bore herself with the dignity befitting a Yeolhu of Gauri. And Mu-deok, knowing that she had lately been intensifying her own training in tandem, could find no words to say at all.
Chatting quietly with Eulji as they approached Jin-cheon's training grounds, Mu-deok halted mid-step at the sound of Jin-cheon's battle shout ringing out from afar.
"What is it?"
Eulji, puzzled by Mu-deok's sudden stop, voiced her curiosity.
"It is nothing. Something simply came to mind. I shall just—"
"No, you've come all this way—where are you going...?"
Without answering Eulji's question, Mu-deok turned and ran, not once looking back. She could only tilt her head at the sight.
"Were you not going to see His Majesty?"
She murmured, watching Mu-deok's back grow distant.
* * *
The faces of Samdopyo and Buyeo Giyul, who normally bickered or traded jokes whenever they met, were deeply clouded, unlike their usual selves.
"They keep up with the training, more or less..."
Giyul's voice trailed off.
"Heh. Your men too?"
At Dupyo's incredulous question, Giyul gave a faint nod.
"What difference would there be? Yesterday a few of the deputy commanders came by saying they were going out of their minds. Said if it were up to them, they'd take a few as an example and send their heads flying."
"Hmph. If even the deputy commanders are talking like that..."
The vast majority of Gauri's commanders were former soldiers from the unit Jin-cheon had once led. Their exceptional combat prowess and experience had been a tremendous help in establishing the foundations of the nation here.
Those contributions had been rewarded with promotion from common soldier to the rank of commander. Of course, it was not purely a matter of reward—the shortage of capable men was just as much a reason.
Having started as soldiers themselves, they understood the hearts of the current rank-and-file intimately. And that understanding had played a major role in binding the troops together as one. Yet now, from those very men, talk had emerged of taking a soldier's head as an example to the rest.
"From what I can see, it seems to be spreading mainly among the former Roselin troops..."
"Hmph. Those from North Roselin, we might as well consider them dead already. Makes me want to pick the lot of them out and bash their skulls in."
They were speaking of the rumors about the Holy Empire, and the wellspring of that fear.
Among them, it was worse with the North Roselin soldiers, the vast majority of whom had never even experienced Gauri's way of war.
Doesn't terror spread and infect, after all?
"At least the veteran slash-and-burn farmers who've been with us from the start are keeping things barely held together."
"Mm."
The slash-and-burn farmers, by contrast, were burning with fury.
They were people who had gotten a taste of freedom.
They had felt the shelter of a nation—solid as a fortress wall. They could not help but differ from the South Roselins, who were little more than war refugees, and the North Roselins, who had been practically dragged here by force.
"Hmph. Should I really pick out a couple and cut their heads off?"
A grim light flickered across Dupyo's face.
If persuasion wouldn't work, Dupyo was thinking, perhaps it would be better to rule through fear before things got worse.
"No. That'll only make it worse."
"What do you mean no! We lop off a few heads and say it was enemy spies who infiltrated and spread nonsense—done!"
At Giyul's objection, Dupyo flared up in anger. With his fiery temperament, it was only natural that he detested men who cowered before a fight had even begun more than he did vermin.
"Damn it, you think that's going to fix this?"
Giyul spoke quietly but firmly. Dupyo, who had been staring at him in silence, turned his gaze toward the empty air and spat out a single word.
"Hell."
Dupyo knew it too—the words had come out of sheer frustration. And Giyul, understanding that sentiment, had likely chosen not to raise his voice.
"Hoo, anyway, the break's almost over. Let's head to the training ground."
"...Yeah, let's go."
Giyul slung an arm over Dupyo's shoulder and nudged his reluctant steps forward.
"Break's over!"
"On your feet, you slugs!"
All across the field, deputy commanders and training instructors were shouting, rousing the soldiers who had been sprawled out on the ground.
The men getting up after the break moved quickly at a glance, but their expressions were dead. They looked like nothing so much as livestock being herded.
"Fucking bastards. Anyway, once the war starts, all the big shots are just gonna run for it."
"Avilrun! Keep your voice down!"
When one soldier grumbled, mixing curses into his muttering, a fellow soldier stole a hasty glance toward the training instructor and warned him.
The soldier called Avilrun, realizing his voice had been a little loud, glanced sidelong at the instructor and sneered in a slightly lowered tone.
"Bullshit. Best thing is just to move around a little, wait for an opening, then flop down and play dead."
"Still..."
"You crazy bastard! Still, my ass. You got two lives?"
Seeing his comrade hesitate, Avilrun glared at him as if he wanted to tear him apart and cursed again.
"You! What did you just say!"
"Hik!"
A voice dripping with killing intent rang out from behind Avilrun. Startled, Avilrun's comrade sucked in a sharp breath and whipped his head around—but his eyes quickly relaxed. Fortunately, it was not a commander or instructor.
"Damn, you scared me."
Avilrun breathed a sigh of relief as well.
"Nel, it's not—"
The man glaring at them from behind was Nel.
The boy who had once followed the Gauri army out of the slash-and-burn village, his heart full of admiration, had now grown into a sturdy man.
Having already been through multiple wars, Nel had become a veteran soldier who radiated seasoned composure.
As his comrade stammered, trying to make excuses, Avilrun stopped him and looked at Nel with open disdain as he spoke.
"What, did I say something wrong?"
"What?"
"Hey, Avilrun, knock it off."
He wasn't reckless enough to be outright insolent to a veteran like Nel, but Avilrun, who seemed to have lived rough himself, ignored his comrade's restraint and glared right back with a sneer.
"It's shitheads like you that ruin a country."
Fire seemed to kindle in Nel's eyes.
"Fuck, let it get ruined, then! I got dragged here once—you think getting dragged off somewhere else is gonna change anything?"
"I don't know how you lived before, but at least here, people live like human beings. Don't you get that?"
When Nel shot back, even Avilrun, who had been glaring, and the comrade who had been nervously eyeing both sides could only shut their mouths. Hard as it was, at least there was no exploitation by nobles.
In truth, the only people in Gauri who could be called nobles were the original soldiers who had crossed over at the beginning and those who had distinguished themselves in the early wars. Yet it was rare for them to exploit others for their own gain. It was not entirely absent, but those who tried it had vanished after a few were beheaded as an example.
When the upstream waters run clean, the downstream waters run clear.
"And is that gonna save us now? You really think we can beat the Holy Empire? Even a moron like me knows they've got more than ten times our troops."
Though he couldn't directly refute Nel's words, he shifted tack and fired back as if unwilling to lose. By then, even the last trace of deference had vanished from his speech.
"That's why we're doing all this shit. And have you forgotten? We've always been outnumbered in every war."
"Fuck—it's an empire, I said! We're not just fighting some kingdom here!"
At last, as if unable to hold his emotions in anymore, Avilrun's voice burst out. The soldiers nearby, already aware of the standoff, were watching with worry, but they hadn't expected things to escalate to the point of drawing the instructors' attention—and their eyes were wide with alarm.
"What's going on over there!"
Instructors, having noticed the commotion, were running over and shouting—but Nel, unable to restrain himself any longer, seized Avilrun by the collar and yelled.
"Kingdom or empire—you won't know until you fight!"
"Fight, my ass! Royals and nobles, all they ever think about from the start is saving their own skins! Don't you get it? Under Continental Law, commoners like us aren't even covered!"
"Both of you, separate!"
The instructors who had rushed in pulled Nel and Avilrun apart. But as if the line had already been crossed, Avilrun shouted again.
"We're the only ones who end up dead and broken!"
"In the last war, His Majesty was always at the vanguard! You don’t know a damn thing about that!"
"Hell, you really believe that?! The talk of bastards who hang back during the fighting and only charge in once the winning's done!"
At Avilrun's retort, refusing to give an inch, the soldiers split into two camps. The veterans who had witnessed Go Jin-cheon's divine martial prowess with their own eyes, and the soldiers who had come as refugees from the Roselin region...
Rage and anxiety tangled together in chaos.
Just then, a deep voice rang out from the distance.
"Hmph. You've lost your mind."
"Hurk! G-General!"
With a fierce gleam in his eyes, Samdopyo strode forward slowly, and the soldiers parted before him like waters splitting. Those near his path were trembling as if gripped by sheer terror.
The suffocating killing intent pouring from his body was beyond anything common soldiers could endure.
Clank. Clank.
The training ground was filled with countless soldiers, yet the only sound that rang out was the clashing of Dupyo's and Giyul's iron armor as they advanced.
And between those steps, nothing but the occasional sound of swallowing filled the silence.
"G-General."
A young officer tried to approach Dupyo, who was radiating the kind of killing intent normally seen only on the battlefield—but Giyul silently raised a hand, and the officer stopped in his tracks.
Avilrun, who until Dupyo appeared had been struggling and spewing every word he could think of, was in an even worse state than the other soldiers. Never mind his trembling legs—his eyes were locked onto Dupyo's as if nailed there, unable to move his gaze elsewhere.
Step.
"Ugh..."
Dupyo stood before Avilrun.
His heart wanted to flee, but his body was betraying its master. His legs quaked uncontrollably, and his teeth clattered violently.
In Avilrun's eyes, Dupyo's every movement now seemed to stretch out agonizingly slow, as if time had been multiplied ten-thousandfold.
'It... it's unbearable.'
In that slow-motion sight, Avilrun felt his breath seize in his throat. Without anyone laying a finger on him, his face was turning crimson, like a man whose throat was being wrung and death closing in.
Dupyo, who had not spoken a word since his first utterance upon appearing, slowly moved his hand toward Avilrun's head.
Snatch!
"Gu-urghk!"
Dupyo's hand grabbed a fistful of Avilrun's hair, yanking hard. At the same moment, his strangled breath burst out of him. But Dupyo did not stop there.
Crrrack!
"Gyaaagh!"
A sound like bones grinding out of joint came from Avilrun. Dupyo had dragged him forward by the hair and pulled him right up to his own face.
"What you said earlier. Repeat it. Word for word, without leaving a single one out."
"P-please spare me!"
"Heh. I won't let you die that easily."
"Hi-hiik!"
Ssssss.
At Dupyo's words, the front of Avilrun's trousers rapidly darkened. The stench of urine spread in an instant, but Dupyo did not so much as flinch—he just kept his grip on the man's hair, glaring, and asked.
"Did you see it?"
"P-pl-please, spare..."
Far from questioning Dupyo's utterly cryptic words, Avilrun was merely pissing himself, tears and snot streaming down his face, begging for his life.
"I’m asking if you ever saw—with your own eyes—His Majesty standing back with his hands behind his back, just watching the war!"