Chapter 269
Chapter 269
Iron Emperor — Chapter 269
Avilrun screamed at the pain radiating across his back. Buru had smacked him with that pot-lid-sized hand of his.
"That's how it is. That's how it's supposed to be, ain't it?"
"I-I'm not really..."
Buru beamed brightly at the flustered Avilrun.
"'Course it's only natural! A man protectin' his own young and his own woman—that's what's natural. The rest—His Majesty the Yeolje and the lot of us'll take care o' that. If everyone just grits their teeth and guards the one thing that's theirs, won't we end up guardin' it all?"
"I-is that so?"
Avilrun, who'd made his statement assuming he'd be lectured that country must come before family and had braced himself for it, let out a relieved sigh at Buru's words. Yet even as he did, he turned Buru's words over in his mind.
'Nobody needs to protect everything. Just think of it as each person guarding the one thing that matters most to them.'
He couldn't quite say why, but his heart felt lighter. All he had to do was stand for his family—that was all he needed to think.
Chapter 87 — On the Threshold of the Season of War
Autumn's abundance fell away, and winter approached, ruled by cold winds. Not yet a full winter, perhaps—the crimson-dyed fallen leaves still testified to autumn's final grip.
The soldiers who had been mobilized for the harvest had all returned and were once more throwing themselves into rigorous training. The cold posed no real obstacle to their drills.
If anything, most of the instructors tasked with training welcomed the sudden onset of cold with open arms. Every last one of them said the same thing.
'Cold? Let's go till you're warm.'
Warm was the word, but from a distance, the steam rising off the sweat produced by their exertions could easily have been mistaken for vapor billowing off a hot spring.
So it was that the soldiers' bodies and minds grew ever more hardened by training more intense than summer's, even as winter closed in.
Unlike in other nations, Gauri depended heavily on its soldiers to prepare for winter.
That was because a substantial portion of Gauri's young able-bodied men were training as soldiers. If their families shivered in the cold or went hungry through the winter, the soldiers could not possibly train properly. No—their very attitude toward war would change, let alone their training.
Thus, felling trees and hunting doubled as both training and an essential measure for surviving the winter.
The trees they cut became firewood their families absolutely needed to make it through the winter. The beasts they hunted provided hides and meat to endure the cold.
All of this was distributed evenly to the soldiers' families. Beyond that, the harvest yielded by farming households was collected as taxes and then channeled back into the soldiers' households.
Naturally, households without a soldier had no choice but to pay a greater amount in taxes. In a sense, households with a soldier seemed comparatively free of winter worries. This was an unavoidable policy favoring soldiers' households under Gauri's current circumstances.
"Drive 'em!"
Clang-clang-clang-clang-clang!
"Squeal! Humans!"
A band of orcs, seething with rage, fled in every direction to escape the soldiers' drive. The orc horde was nothing like it used to be.
In their own way, the orcs had once been a pillar of terror in the Reganza Mountains, but Gauri's sustained policies had massively weakened their fighting strength.
When orcs were even reduced to taking to the sea to pillage in order to make up shortfalls, Gauri wasn't about to simply leave them in possession of iron weapons and the like—rusty though they might be.
Of course, large-scale anti-orc extermination campaigns were conducted under the pretext of live-combat training. For the soldiers' safety, extermination operations were always carried out in force, and minotaurs with nose rings followed at their rear.
People talked about taking even a child's pennies, but Go Jin-cheon went so far as to strip the orcs of every last rusty scrap of iron. Weapons, armor—their condition didn't matter. He swept it all up.
Orcs captured in the process were a bonus.
Yet even if the orcs' armaments had been amassed over thousands of years of plundering humans, there was only so much of it. Their iron weapons had long since been replaced by stone axes and clubs.
And as the exterminations continued, orcs that had been left alone for a time since there was nothing left to take were suddenly being hunted again—taken alive, no less.
"They're not turning these into jerky too, are they?"
"Come on, who'd eat that."
"I heard a rumor the Great Generals Uru and Buru ate them back in the day."
The soldiers traded jokes as they drove the orcs forward.
"Who's chattering over there! If your luck's bad, even a stone axe can take you out—keep your heads on straight!"
"Don't you worry!"
The squad leaders under the deputies cautioned the bantering soldiers. Even so, the soldiers grinned and kept at capturing orcs. They'd gotten used to it. The armor they'd been issued guaranteed their lives to such a degree that orc stone axes were laughable.
This was a far cry from the past, when they'd been conscripted as little more than peasant levies and handed a single spear.
There were orcs inside the fortress as well.
A significant number were being reared—both the orcs needed to operate the Yudonno and those captured for the soldiers' live-combat training.
At first, everyone assumed they were simply replenishing numbers, but as more and more were brought in, all sorts of talk circulated that they were meant for some other purpose. Still, that was conjecture and talk. No one knew the true use.
Fweeeeee!
"Everyone stay sharp! Mid-sized monster!"
A Whistling Arrow soared and embroidered the sky with a long flute note. The soldiers who'd been swapping jokes until a moment ago turned grim-faced. An orc was an orc. But from trolls upward, they had to be on edge. One wrong hit and they could die in a single blow.
Not that they were objects of terror.
If you asked the soldiers, 'You want to spar with Sam Dupyo, or fight an ogre?' eight or nine out of ten would say they'd rather go hunt the ogre. A lot of psychology went into that, of course—but they still had to be careful.
Fweeee, fweeee.
"Got it, huh."
"Tsk, thought I might finally become an Ogre Slayer."
"Quit the chatter and advance!"
When two more flute notes sounded from where the Whistling Arrow had risen moments ago, the soldiers' tension eased once more. And once again, they moved their steps deeper into the forest.
"You catch many?"
"Greetings, Commander-in-Chief."
"Yeah. Take a good look."
"......"
Gerard, who'd returned Chunsam's salute with casual indifference, hunkered down and began counting the giant crab shells piled beside him. Ever since Go Jin-cheon had come and gone, Gerard had grown markedly more insolent.
Though truth be told, this side was closer to his nature.
"At this rate they'll be fished out. Since the Sirens compete to tell us where the giant crabs are, it's not a problem yet, but..."
"We're to capture some alive."
"Sir?"
Chunsam's face went rigid at Gerard's words. Gerard, who'd been chewing on something with his mouth, finished tallying the shells and straightened up. At Chunsam's puzzled expression, Gerard let out a deep sigh.
"Hoo... what can you do. It's an order from His august Majesty the Yeolje. He says to catch some King Crabs and try raising 'em."
"King Crabs...?"
"Says the name's too long—too annoying."
"......"
"You know better than I do. His Majesty the Yeolje's temperament."
Chunsam felt he could sort of understand why Gerard was becoming more and more rebellious.
"Anyway, what's he planning to use these for..."
"Shields, wouldn't you say?"
"True, the defensive power alone is incredible. And they're light too."
At Chunsam's words, Gerard nodded as if in agreement. Even so, Gerard kept tilting his head, muttering that there might be something else to it.
Go Jin-cheon stood with his hands clasped behind his back at the teleport formation's location, a look of expectancy on his face.
WHIRRR!
"They're coming."
The moment a brilliant light seemed to hammer down from the sky, the radiance scattered, and Risel's figure emerged.
"Hoo..."
"You've worked hard."
Fatigue from traveling a great distance round-trip was plain on him. The instant Risel appeared, soldiers rushed into the formation and began unloading the items he had transported with him.
"This is all we have for now. The navy also uses a great deal of giant crab shell, so there was no helping it."
"We can secure enough before this winter is out."
A slightly regretful look flickered across Jin-cheon's face as well, but it soon gave way to a satisfied expression as he watched the giant crab shells being unloaded.
'What's he planning to do now?'
Risel, seeing his expression, couldn't shake a feeling of unease.
What awaited Go Jin-cheon upon his return to the Imperial Hall was Mong Ryu-hwa.
"Mong Ryu-hwa, reporting back after carrying out Your Majesty's orders."
"Report."
"Five hundred eighty orcs, three ogres, seven trolls, one minotaur, and eight hundred twenty-five kobolds for use as feed have been captured."
Jin-cheon nodded at Ryu-hwa's report, then leafed through several sheets of paper, examining something before speaking.
"The catch count keeps declining."
"There were earlier extermination campaigns to secure iron, and with winter drawing near, they're rarely sighted. It seems they've begun digging shelters."
"Secure as many as you can."
At Jin-cheon's instruction, Ryu-hwa rendered a military salute and dashed outside.
Eulji Uru and Buru were in the workshop where the dwarves gathered, examining design blueprints.
"Can it really be built like this?"
"It's possible. If the materials are sufficient, trust us and leave it in our hands."
Buru clapped the shoulder of the dwarf who'd taken the blueprint. The dwarf tucked it into his chest and gave his assurance. Then, as he surveyed the workshop, Buru tilted his head and asked,
"Right then, we'll trust you. But where've those three stone-heads gone off to?"
"If you mean the Hwain Stone party, they'll be with the Master."
"You mean Elder Jang?"
"That's correct."
"Right. Keep up the hard work."
Uru and Buru exited the dwarves' work site and looked around.
Row upon row of wagons came into view. For the people of Gauri, wagons carried freight and served as transportation, and they were indispensable in war as well.
The swift movement of supplies could decide a battle.
The wagons here were unlike ordinary ones. These were war wagons, boasting exceptional sturdiness. Yet distinct from these, a considerable number of wagons slightly broader than standard ones caught the eye. They were built like square boxes, with countless blades protruding forward from their fronts.
Uru and Buru gazed at them with proud expressions, then set their feet moving and hurried to Elder Jang's workshop. There, sword chariots and the armaments needed for the coming war would be under nonstop production.
There was nothing ornate about the place, but the cleanly soaring pillars gave anyone who beheld them a sense of grandeur. Within, the young King Alsein stood with a grave expression, a map spread before him alongside Duke Baikal.
"As things stand, the best course is to evacuate the populace to the rear and wage a defensive battle."
"Hoo..."
The fact that the Holy Empire's Duke Schung had come to Gauri as an envoy was already known far and wide. Not just Roselin—there wasn't a place that didn't know, from the Federal Empire and the Maritime Empire to, of course, the Malin Kingdom.
Roselin had already learned of it through a communication from Gauri when Duke Schung first arrived, but the rumor that Duke Schung had come and gone from Gauri spreading through channels outside the normal intelligence system was something that had to be seen as deliberate.
Even that much, Yeon Hwi-garam in Gauri had already anticipated as a possibility, which was the only reason they could remain relatively calm.