Chapter 268
Chapter 268
Iron Emperor - Chapter 268
The reasons each of them fights are surely different. Giyul's reason for fighting might, in a way, be for his own satisfaction. But one common thread was that they fought to protect. The children before Jin-cheon were the shields and spears of tomorrow that would protect Gauri.
He had to impress Gauri's strength upon those children.
And he must show it proudly to the continent. The fact that they are strong.......
If he fails, wars will continue to beget more wars, and in the end, destruction will be inevitable.
Whether the growing children take up the sword or take up the brush is the responsibility of the adults, starting with Jin-cheon.
Until now, he had always marched to war, pushed himself relentlessly, and instilled terror in the enemy, but that degree alone was no longer enough.
He must make the entire enemy tremble in fear. Jin-cheon's anguish deepened with each passing day. Preparations were being made one by one, but it was clear that this alone would provide a pretext for a renewed invasion someday.
"Hoo."
The more he had to protect, the heavier the burden on his shoulders became.
That was the Way of the King.
That was the path Jin-cheon was walking.
* * *
The Black Armored Ghost Cavalry's sparring, which was so fierce it resembled actual war, was enjoying a brief respite due to Risel's absence.
Conducting endless sparring as before without him was impossible because the remaining wizards simply could not keep up with the healing. As a result, the Black Armored Ghost Cavalry were restoring their weary minds through long-overdue meditation and individual training, honing their non-physical aspects.
However, there is always an exception to every rule.
Swish!
"Blurgh!"
Only when a maidservant doused him with water did he jerk his upper body upright, as if he had just come to his senses. Though the way he shook his head from side to side suggested he was still somewhat dizzy.
"Rest period's over."
A thin voice.
The man who had pulled himself together was none other than Avilrun.
'R-rest period over? I was unconscious!'
Though he could not shout it aloud, he was saying it inwardly. But his body was moving swiftly in obedience to Eulji's orders. Naturally, since this was the Yeolhu's command, how could he possibly slack off?
"Back to sparring. Until one of you collapses."
Eulji's voice inevitably turned Avilrun's face pale. His current duty was to handle the Black Armored Ghost Cavalry's dirty work and to serve as Eulji's sparring partner.
It had been Eulji who first brought him here.
Of course, the one who had initially welcomed him when he arrived was Eulji Buru. Naturally, his memories of that day came in choppy, broken fragments. One thing he could state with certainty was that it was the first time in his life he had ever received a wizard's Healing, and another was that while receiving treatment, he had been beaten like a dog.
Even if he remembered nothing else, the fact that he had been beaten to the point of losing consciousness intermittently was definite.
After that, he had been thrown in with the Black Armored Ghost Cavalry and had barely clung to life, surviving by a thread.
Of course, even that he considered a stroke of luck. Compared to what the Black Armored Ghost Cavalry themselves did during training, his own ordeal was a world apart. Yet even that had been an easy life.
Several days later, Eulji had appeared wearing the same white Chalgap armor she had worn when he first met her. The white Chalgap the Yeolhu wore was not decorative but combat-ready. With slender fingers, she gripped a weapon and swung it at one side of the Black Armored Ghost Cavalry.
Two days after that, Avilrun, assigned as the Yeolhu's direct sparring partner, had dashed over feeling a sense of liberation, only to experience death indirectly.
He had realized on the very first day of sparring that the Black Armored Ghost Cavalry, or even Buru, had been far, far better.
The street rumors had been true.
Tales that the Yeolhu had started wielding a bow at the age of three or four and caused all manner of havoc roaming the town, or that starting from age six, she'd learned the sword and broken the arms and legs of the neighborhood kids so frequently that Risel was forever being summoned....
When Avilrun first came to Gauri and overheard such things, he could only laugh. He couldn't even believe the Yeolhu was under ten years old—how could it possibly be that the noble Yeolhu behaved like some local ruffian?
That was what he had thought before the sparring, but after his first day of sparring against Eulji, he revised his opinion. The rumors must have been understatements....
"Hap!"
Avilrun swung a live blade at Eulji without hesitation.
Normally, if you handed a slave soldier a weapon and ordered him to spar with the Yeolhu, nine times out of ten he would merely go through the motions, fearing the repercussions. But Avilrun's sword strikes now carried all his strength.
Not out of bravery.
It was because this was the only way to avoid death.
In truth, Eulji was not stronger than the Black Armored Ghost Cavalry. That much was obvious. The problem was her utter inability to control her power.
The reason Buru or the Black Armored Ghost Cavalry were far better was that, at the very least, when sparring with them, he could believe he wouldn't die. But in sparring against Eulji, his carotid artery had been sliced once; a Hwandudaedo had pierced through the side of his Chalgap and punctured a lung twice...; his right arm or some other limb had been severely cut so many times he had lost count.
"Kiyaat!"
Eulji's sharp voice burst out as she deflected Avilrun's Hwandudaedo to one side. The flustered Avilrun steadied his center as he blocked Eulji's Hwandudaedo chopping down toward his head.
Clang!
From that sharpness and heavy blow, he felt his hands go numb.
'I-I nearly died.'
The reason Avilrun had to give his absolute best in order to survive.
The fact that Eulji—who lacked control and was inferior in practical combat ability—still possessed skill superior to Avilrun's was what drove him into despair. It hadn't been for nothing that he'd given his whole body over to this.
"You've improved a lot!"
"I-I am honored."
His words said he was honored, but his heart cried out, 'I had to improve to stay alive.'
"Here I come again!"
Fwoosh!
Eulji's Hwandudaedo swept up from below, parting the wind up between Avilrun's legs.
"Urghk!"
Startled, Avilrun brought his own Hwandudaedo down to meet it as he leaped backward. He didn't know how great a magic Healing was, but he had no desire to experiment risking his own reproductive future.
Ssshhk!
Fortunately, although his block with the Hwandudaedo failed, his backward retreat proved effective, and the blade only grazed up across the Chalgap covering his lower body.
Crack!
"Kuek!"
Of course, against Eulji's follow-up back-kick and headbutt, he was utterly powerless.
That was how Avilrun lost consciousness for the second time that day.
Thud.
"Oh dear, just when it was getting good...."
Eulji wrinkled the bridge of her nose and looked down at the collapsed Avilrun with regretful eyes.
"Mm."
It was not long before he awoke from his second loss of consciousness. As Avilrun clutched his stomach and sat up, he saw Eulji trading attacks and defenses with a Black Armored Ghost Cavalry trooper.
'I-is it over? Am I free?'
Regardless of the pain radiating from his stomach and the bridge of his nose, Avilrun felt nothing but joy.
"Look here, Gandengi."
"......."
Feeling as if he had plummeted from heaven back into hell, Avilrun slowly turned his head toward the source of the voice.
Out of the frying pan, into the fire.
There was no threat of death, strictly speaking, but a man who drove him past his limits was calling him. Standing before Eulji Buru, Avilrun now raised his weapon and prepared for sparring without even being ordered.
"Come at me, Gandengi!"
A full hour.
For that long, long hour, he was beaten without rest. The reason Eulji Buru's technique was undeniably superior was that he could perfectly balance him on the razor's edge of his limit without letting him fall, never even allowing him to pass out.
Thwack!
"Kehk!"
Crash-bang!
"Sparring's over!"
Struck in the torso with the flat of the greatsword, Avilrun was sent flying, collapsing a pile of training equipment stacked to one side.
"Th-thank you."
Floundering from the weight of the Chalgap he wore and barely managing to rise, Avilrun was satisfied simply that it was a rest period and not unconsciousness as he removed his helmet.
"Gandengi, you've gotten a lot better."
"I-I am honored."
"Spare me the bullshit. Enough with the 'honored' song...."
At Buru's curt words, Avilrun flinched and dropped his head low. Perhaps finding the sight a bit pitiful, Buru handed him the water bottle he had been drinking from.
"Have some water."
"Thank you."
Carefully reading Buru's mood, he accepted the water bottle with both hands and brought it to his lips. The cool stream of water flowing down his throat seemed to prove he was alive, spreading all the way into his chest.
"Look here. How is it, sparring with Her Highness the Yeolhu?"
"......Well, about that."
Glancing timidly at Buru, Avilrun fidgeted as he opened his mouth.
"I didn't know someone so young could be that strong."
"That's all?"
"I don't really know. I don't even understand why she trains to such an extreme."
At Buru's counter-question, Avilrun again bowed his head deeply and voiced a question he had been pondering for some time.
Clap.
Avilrun's body flinched. Buru's thick arm had draped around his shoulder.
"When war comes, it's His Majesty the Yeolje who marches out, not Her Highness the Yeolhu."
"That is true."
"Even so, the reason Her Highness the Yeolhu drives herself so relentlessly is...."
Avilrun's head lifted slightly.
"She's thinking of the time when His Majesty the Yeolje might be injured or suffer a great calamity in the chaos of war."
Avilrun's head snapped up. That was a statement that, depending on how it was heard, could carry an enormous implication of treason. But Buru's voice was not at all lowered. It was the same conversational tone as always.
Uncaring of Avilrun's shock, Buru's calm voice continued.
"War, y'see, who lives and who dies ain't set in stone. To speak bluntly, you could be walking along with rotten luck, catch an arrow, tumble over, and die. Or you could die by a blind stray blade. That's war."
Gulp.
Avilrun swallowed, then flinched, startled by the sound of his own gulp. That was how tense he was.
"To put it harshly, us dying ain't the problem. The problem is if we lose. The reason His Majesty the Yeolje and Her Highness the Yeolhu go to such extremes is because there's too much to protect. I ain't just talking about riches. I mean everything from the people of this nation down to every last blade of grass."
"......."
Avilrun's eyes shook violently.
Hadn't he been dragged here precisely because he had expressed distrust of the nobles' conduct?
But the more he saw, the more he learned, the more this place was utterly unlike the nobles he had imagined. That was what kept Avilrun from raising his head.
"To His Majesty the Yeolje and Her Highness the Yeolhu, what matters now is Gauri—not their own safety or anything like that."
"Gandengi."
Buru gazed steadily at Avilrun.
"What are you here for?"
At Buru's question, Avilrun sank into thought for a moment. He couldn't easily answer. Suddenly, his family's faces came to mind. His wife, who said she would rather die here than live out there without any worth.
"Truthfully, I think my wife just likes living here too much. She says she'd die here if it came to that...."
"She's got the makings of a general, then."
When Buru cracked a joke, Avilrun let out a small, relaxed laugh as if some tension had eased, and he sorted his thoughts.
"Just, I'm content as long as my wife and family are happy. Honestly, the reason I'm here is nothing special—it was for my wife and children...."
Avilrun spoke openly, without hiding anything. He had blurted it out because he somehow felt it would be all right to be honest, and for some reason, no chastisement came from Buru.
Crack!
"Kek!"