Chapter 27
Chapter 27
The Iron Emperor — Chapter 27
"Huh?"
"What?"
A soldier taking stock of the grain tilted his head in puzzlement. Seeing this, another soldier asked "What?" but the first one quickly shook it off.
"Nah. The number of sacks adds up, but the height's kind of dropped."
"Just got compressed, I guess."
"Must've. Let's get out."
Dismissing it as a simple mistake, the two soldiers left the warehouse as if nothing was the matter.
Flump.
After the door shut, a sack of barley toppled over and spilled its contents. But what poured out wasn't barley—it was sand and dry grass.
"Ku-huh! This is good!"
"Elder, have another cup."
"Oh, yes. But to think raw fish could taste so amazing. Heh-heh."
"That's what we call raw fish."
The three humans and three dwarves were building a friendship that transcended race. Their meeting place had long since moved from the dangerous outdoors to the safety of Elder Jang's workshop.
"So when do we get to drink that beer stuff?"
One soldier who'd just downed a cup of grain liquor slyly asked, and Galling Stone answered with a hint of a smile.
"It's aging right now. Hoo-hoo-hoo."
"Ooooooh! As expected, you're worthy of respect."
"Poo-hah-hah-hah!"
"Ha-ha-ha-ha!"
At the soldier's cross-race flattery, Galling Stone's laughter poured out louder than ever before. Swept up, the rest of them laughed along heartily with their drinks.
"Ha-ha-ha, so what's the ingredient for beer, anyway?"
"Ingredient? Barley, of course."
"Huh?"
In that instant, the soldiers' laughter subtly twisted. And a cautious question followed.
"Uh... could I ask where you got the barley?"
"Heh-heh-heh, the warehouse, of— urp!"
"Heh-heh, Galling Stone here's drunk. Come on, let's just drink. Oh whoops, your cup's empty."
"......."
But Hwain Stone's hasty attempt to cover Galling Stone's mouth and change the subject had already failed. The soldiers were staring at the dwarves, mouths agape. It had been four days since barley last appeared on their menu....
The culprits were right in front of them, and the image of Buru's volcanic rage flashed through the soldiers' minds.
'Get caught by those sons of bitches and you're all fucking dead!'
Shivering all over, a soldier spoke up urgently.
"If we get caught, we're all dead!"
"We absolutely cannot get caught."
"He's right. This is on a whole 'nother level from skimming dinner rations to make grain liquor."
One voice quickly became three. But unlike the soldiers' alarm—maybe it was the liquor—Galling Stone puffed out his chest and declared proudly.
"Don't you worry! We of the Earth Tribe are proud no matter what anyone says! Poo-hah-hah-hah, I'll take care of everything, so come on, come on, just drink!"
"But General Buru...."
Clink.
The instant Buru's name came up, Galling Stone's cup fell from his hand to the floor. Humans—except for Elder Jang—never intimidated them, but Buru was different. To these dwarves, Buru was a great legendary dwarf, a hero.
This time, a silence fell over the dwarves.
"This can't get out!"
Hwain Stone's cool-headed voice broke through the quiet. Facing reality, the other two dwarves also fired off words as if demanding the soldiers swear an oath.
"You and us are already accomplices!"
"Huhk!"
"Why the hell!"
"Th-that's!"
Mawin Stone's intimidation.
The soldiers were too shocked to close their mouths.
"It's fine. Everything's fine as long as you don't get caught. There's a saying in the dwarf world. 'Getting caught is a foul; not getting caught is skill!' Got it?"
"Ah... yes."
Galling Stone's coaxing.
The soldiers nodded in reluctant acceptance.
But at that very moment!!
Craaack!
Boom.
"Caught you!!"
Finally, Buru's fury, splitting the door as he stormed in.
The workshop door split cleanly and fell away, revealing Buru. His axe gleamed in the moonlight in one hand, and his face was a vision of hell itself.
As the three humans and three dwarves froze solid, Buru spoke in a low voice.
"Stone means 'stone,' does it? Get out here, you three pebbles! I'll grind every last one of you into sand!"
"......."
"......."
"......."
Rattle.
The bottle that fell from Galling Stone's hand soaked the floor, consoling them at their end.
* * *
"Well now."
Elder Hans let out a voice of wonder as he looked out over the wide farmland. Beron stood beside him, his eyes glistening the same way.
"Say, Beron."
"Yes."
Elder Hans's gaze stayed fixed on the fields, and Beron, answering, couldn't tear his eyes away either.
"In all my life, I ain't never seen a farming dwarf."
"I've never even heard of one myself."
Right before their eyes were Hwain Stone, a bandage wrapped around his head, hoeing the field; Galling Stone, his arm bandaged, pulling a plow in place of an ox; and lastly, Mawin Stone, limping as he diligently scattered fertilizer.
Chapter 9 — Gerard of Lightning
Night had passed, giving way to dim dawn. Though dawn had broken, the forest was so thick with trees that the surroundings still lay buried in darkness.
"Time to wake up."
Risel, deep in sleep, had to open his eyes when someone's hand shook him awake.
"Mmnn."
"Get ready to move out."
In the gloom he couldn't make out the figure clearly, but from the voice he knew it was Eulji Uru. Rubbing his eyes, Risel spoke in a baffled tone.
"No, at this hour...."
"Gotta move early to stay on schedule."
Calling it dawn was generous; he hadn't even lain down for five full hours. Looking around in confusion, Risel realized he was actually the last one up. The soldiers were already mounted, each holding a strip of jerky—presumably in place of breakfast. Clicking his tongue, Risel asked Uru.
"Is it really fine to ride this hard... no, is there a reason we have to?"
"You can speak casually with me, Master. This is actually an easy pace by our standards. We're riding like this because time is the key to this whole thing."
"Time?"
"That's right."
Uru rechecked his saddle while explaining to the questioning Risel.
"We gotta figure the enemy we trounced a while back was all of Alvin's troops. Means the place we're headin' is an empty house. Problem is, though— didn't you say that city's crawlin' with merchants?"
"That's... yes."
"Merchants can turn into trouble."
After Risel's answer, Uru explained the mercenary situation. With war looming and security lacking, merchants would soon start hiring mercenaries too. But right now, there was a temporary mercenary vacuum because of the slash-and-burn farmer subjugation.
In the end, no matter how the subjugation turned out, once enough time passed for the merchants to fill the city with hired mercenaries, taking it without losses would be difficult. And Baron Alvin, while leading the subjugation force, would attempt to communicate with his domain one way or another—if contact broke off for too long, that would cause yet more problems.
The conclusion was that the communication blackout could prompt the formation of a scouting party and another force to continue the subjugation.
"Then I'll go on ahead. Deputy Commander! Stay with Master Risel and escort him after us."
Hiiihiiiing!
Finishing his explanation, Uru vaulted onto his horse, loudly ordered Risel's protection, and galloped off to take the lead.
"Heh-heh."
Risel had believed their actions were mostly spontaneous, but they'd all stemmed from calculated forethought. His wonderment was packed into his chuckle. He just watched the soldiers mount up and smiled.
In the end, Risel once again began to ride like death itself.
"Focus it all in one point and bring it down, damn it!"
"Hyaaah!"
"Yaap."
"What, haven't you even had a bowl of gruel?!"
"That's not true!"
With Go Jin-cheon and Eulji Uru gone to the battlefield, a grim intensity hung over the encampment. Eulji Buru, left out of the fight, vented his heat through training, and the soldiers absorbed his fire with their whole bodies, staring hell right in the face.
Even so, Buru's curses only grew worse, and the reason was the trembling new recruits before his eyes.
"Ten thousand overhead strikes! No food if you can't."
"Hyeeek!"
"Huk!"
"One!"
Under Buru's hopeless orders, the soldiers wilted endlessly. In Buru's eyes, the thirty-odd recruits and six newly recruited men didn't even have the basics. Consequently, they were pelted with brutal training, and the regular soldiers got dragged into it too. With Buru's cadence, axes crashed down from the air into the earth.
While the soldiers rested for a meal, the women brought the food. And before Buru stood the one person who could make his mouth curl into a smile.
"Sara~."
"Mister Buru."
"Don't say mister, call me oppa. Got it?"
"Okaaay."
Buru's one refuge, Sara, welcomed him warmly. It called to mind beauty and the beast, but Sara followed Buru, and Buru cherished Sara.
Sara had found stability after coming here. Not just Sara—everyone here, unlike in the slash-and-burn village, had found peace of mind.
Different appearances and a different language had grown familiar, and from the moment they could mostly communicate, they unexpectedly discovered a warmth hidden within the people's rough actions. And the biggest reason for their reassurance was these people's formidable martial strength.
One of the most shocking things while adapting to this place was that they'd caught orcs to use in place of oxen. For Sara's villagers, orcs were a matter of kill or be killed, but to these people they were nothing more than livestock. From the start, their mindset was different.
The monsters they occasionally went out to catch also terrified the people. Orcs were mostly dragged in alive; ogres had their bones and flesh dismantled on the spot and brought back. And the second most frequent victims after orcs were the rare minotaurs.
Every one of those survival-threatening creatures was nothing but game to these people. Once, the villagers panicked watching a soldier strip down and walk right into the orc pen. An orc's strength far exceeded that of a grown man—how could they not panic seeing him walk in there alone?
But it was needless worry.
The sound of pigs squealing rang through the air, and the orcs, like mice facing a cat, frantically dodged the soldier's fists and scrambled around the cramped pen in flight.
Such incidents occurred often, and before long the people understood the reason. The official purpose was livestock-taming, but the real purpose was to vent the curses they'd eaten from Buru or Uru during training.
Strong martial power brought peace of mind in the dangerous mountains. Their bizarre behavior made it feel like they'd arrived in a different world. And their simple sincerity brought warmth.
But Sara still had something she couldn't understand.
"Buru oppa."
"Huh?"
"Why are those people slaves?"
"......Mm."
In the direction Sara pointed stood the people from the other slash-and-burn village, the ones who'd been rescued not long ago. Seeing the pity in Sara's eyes, Buru smacked his lips and gave her an answer.
This wasn't just Sara's question. Before they knew it, the women had set down their work for a moment and were listening closely, and even the recruits were shoveling food into their mouths while waiting for Buru's reply.
"Example."
"What?"
At Buru's short answer, Sara's eyes rounded as she questioned him.
"Look. If you can't sacrifice just yourself, soon as an enemy raids, it'll go the same way."
"I don't really get it."
"When we first agreed to take you in, the general said so. He said they'd only be accepted if they took up the sword. Are the village lads still hacking away with those half-baked blade swings even right now?"
"Yes."
Buru nodded at Sara's answer, while the recruits hung their heads deep at the phrase 'half-baked blade swings.' Looking into Sara's bright, sparkling eyes, Buru smiled contentedly and went on.
"For a human to pick up a sword is the most basic thing. And it's the most important. Once, I asked the Daesaja a similar question. At the time, the Daesaja was fifteen."
"......."
As if reminiscing, Buru lifted his chin slightly. In Buru's memory, Go Jin-cheon's voice from that day resounded.
'Buru! Those who seek freedom must be ready to stake their lives tomorrow to defend it. Anyone can survive, but not everyone can live in freedom.'
'That's a hard thing, young lord.'
'The same goes for beasts. Look at pigs. The pigs in that pen don't know freedom. They're fed, fattened up, and repeat the same behavior until the day a blade enters their throats. But what about the wild boars living in the forest? When you try to catch them, they might resist to survive. But it isn't only for survival. What do they do when you catch them and lock them in a pen?'
'They ram the pen with their heads.'
'Exactly. Why? Because they know freedom. Even beasts do their utmost for freedom. The humans of old lived freely, without borders or nations, following the Hanin's teaching to broadly benefit humanity—but that was brief. When the Traitors began to indulge their greed, the history of blood began. All to enrich themselves, suppressing and capturing others' freedom....'
Back then, Jin-cheon didn't seem like a child at all.
'Buru, that's why we must take up the sword. And we must always keep in mind why we take it up. One without a reason can't become strong. Now is an age of power; to defend freedom you must take up the sword, and to take up the sword you must have a thirst for freedom and know what freedom is. That is the difference in weight between a sword raised by one who knows freedom and one raised by someone who doesn't. One who has something to protect, and one who doesn't....'
As they gazed at the burning crimson sunset, Go Jin-cheon's voice reached Buru and Uru.
'Come, raise the sword with me for Gauri's Free Will.'
As if he could feel that day's emotion once more, dew gathered at the corners of Buru's eyes while he explained. Then, growing suddenly self-conscious, he turned to Sara and spoke again.
"Free Will here is the basic thing, and in that, the family inside our walls like Sara and the other womenfolk and all are included too, see. We gotta take up the sword to protect them, and if we're weak, we can't even protect them, y'know."
"Hmm, I think I kind of understand."
"That's it. To protect, you gotta be strong. Sara, I'll protect you."
"Heh. That's my favorite part."
"That's right, that's right."
Buru's cheeks reddened for some reason as Sara clung smiling to his arm. And that day, Buru's story about freedom spread by word of mouth through the villagers, and the young men returning from training and the women all grew more and more mature as they contemplated this concept of 'Free Will.'