Chapter 30
Chapter 30
The Iron Emperor — Chapter 30
"Bring all the wagons! Bring every horse from the stables out into the yard!"
"Hurry it up!"
Clatter clatter.
Soldiers were hauling out wagons and other things for the main objective. Off to one side, the soldiers who had surrendered, along with some mercenaries, were tied up together with the manor's servants.
"Keep moving, all of you!"
"Deputy Commander, what shall we do with the prisoners?"
Shhhk.
"We'll have to kill them all or take them with us. We can't leave them here."
Gulp.
The deputy drew his sword partway and fixed his eyes on the prisoners, and somewhere among them, someone audibly swallowed. The words didn't get through, but the deputy's menacing air was plain to see.
'I'd better be careful.'
That was the thought flashing through every prisoner's mind.
"By the way, are those weird things worth any money?"
"I'm not sure."
Where the deputy was pointing, strange experimental apparatuses were being carried out, along with old books, odd-looking boxes, herbs, and transparent glass tubes.
In a room that looked exactly like some sort of laboratory, with rows of countless books, flasks, and specimens, soldiers were carefully loading one thing after another. Amid all that, Risel was urging the soldiers on, looking terrified that something might break.
"Th-there! That has to be loaded too!"
"Yes."
"Master, what is this stuff?"
Even at Eulji Uru's question, Risel didn't spare a single word of reply, too busy gathering up the things that had to be taken out. Risel, who had been utterly indifferent when they first entered the manor, had suddenly transformed into a man with fire blazing in his eyes, not even hearing Uru's words. It couldn't help but seem strange.
"Ah!"
Slip.
Crash!
"Gaaaaagh! My mandrake extract—aaaaagh!"
When a soldier let out a short yelp and dropped something, shattering it, Risel's eyes shot blood-red and a scream that sounded like it was tearing his throat apart rang out.
"Mandragora-gora?"
"Uwaaaah!"
The owner of the voice that had popped out from behind Uru was Go Jin-cheon. He had been inspecting the interior when he heard something shatter and, simultaneously, Risel's shriek echoing through the space.
"Risel."
"Keu-heu-heuk."
"......."
This was the first time Risel had ignored Jin-cheon's words. Even so, Risel sank down where he was and kept muttering, "My mandrake, my mandrake." Unable to watch any longer, Jin-cheon grabbed him by the scruff of the neck. Yet Risel thrashed as if resisting, tears streaming down his face toward the green liquid smashed across the floor.
"Th-that's expensive...."
"Risel, are you properly seeing to things?"
"Hih-hik!"
Only then, held up in midair and met with Jin-cheon's gaze, did Risel's wits return. He answered Jin-cheon's question in a trembling voice.
"Yes... This—this is quite valuable."
"Hmm. I will take care of this room myself. Go on outside."
At the indifferent voice that reached him, Risel's pupils dilated and a shriek burst out.
"Hut!"
"Hmmm. Shall I just burn it all?"
"Hihk! I'm going!"
The glass bottle caught in Jin-cheon's grip looked ready to drop to the floor at any second, and Risel, his face gone pale as death, bolted out.
This room had been the laboratory of the wizard who'd been killed by Uru's arrow while attempting communication magic. Probably because he'd been backed by the lord, the room was packed with all kinds of expensive experimental materials, and there was a plentiful supply of spellbooks too. How could Risel, who'd been living practically like a beggar, possibly keep his eyes from spinning in his head?
With Risel cooperating once more, the work picked up pace again. And just when it seemed that practically everything of value had been brought out, a soldier came running to report.
"Hmmm."
"General, we've hauled out all the valuables."
But at the soldier's report, Eulji Uru paused to look around, then stopped his gaze on one particular spot.
"That plate armor standing there—haul all of it out, too."
"You mean that stuff?"
"Yup."
In the direction the soldier hesitantly pointed, suits of full plate armor stood lined up in a long row.
"What are you gonna use that for...."
At Uru's order, the soldier rolled his eyes. Uru gave him a look of pure disbelief and opened his mouth.
"Melt it down and make arrows or somethin', ain't we? We're short on iron as it is, don'cha know."
"Understood. Hey! General Uru says to haul out this scrap iron!"
"Any and all iron, every bit you find—haul it out, too."
"Yes."
In a single moment, the full plate armor that had stood there in solemn, antique splendor, elegantly arrayed, was reduced to scrap metal.
"Uru, hurry it up."
"Got it."
"He says get a move on!"
The moment Jin-cheon gave the order and stepped outside, the soldiers' hands moved even faster.
As the wagons lined up in the yard grew fuller and fuller, a soldier approached with a troubled look.
"Looks like we're short on wagons. For the grain, about half is still left...."
"Load the horses too, as much as they can carry."
The soldier answered the deputy's command and ran off. Jin-cheon, watching this, seemed to think for a moment, then gestured to summon the deputy.
"Deputy."
"Yes, Daesaja!"
"Take forty men and distribute the remaining grain to the townspeople here."
"Understood."
"And take one of the prisoners with you. Ask where the poor live, then concentrate the distribution there."
The deputy, about to answer Jin-cheon's next command, briefly wore an awkward expression.
"Uh...."
"What is it?"
At the deputy's trailing off, Jin-cheon demanded the reason in a flat voice.
"We can't communicate...."
"Gurajaengi!"
"Uh... Deputy Gye is currently watching the rear gate."
"Hm."
With Ung-sam absent, Jin-cheon furrowed his brow. Without Ung-sam around, inconveniences kept cropping up.
"We're about finished now."
Risel's voice reached Jin-cheon's ear. There was no need to worry any longer.
"Risel!"
"Yes!"
Jin-cheon called Risel over and repeated the order he'd given the deputy, and Risel climbed onto a horse. Then Jin-cheon's hand was thrust before Risel's eyes.
"The item."
"......Yes."
Risel, having removed the Interpretation Ring with a mournful look, prodded the deputy in clumsy tones.
"Deputy, let's get movin', quick-like."
"Yes, sir."
"......."
Jin-cheon shook his head as if Risel's manner of speech was the one thing he simply couldn't adjust to. But even after a mounted detachment departed to distribute aid, space was still a little tight. Then Jin-cheon, eyeing the roughly thirty suits of plate armor stacked neatly on the wagons, called over a soldier.
"Those. Crush them all flat, tear them apart, or smash them, and then pack them. Quickly."
"Yes, sir!"
At Jin-cheon's command, the full plate armor—each suit worth more than a decade of an ordinary family's living expenses—was being fully transformed into scrap metal at the soldiers' hands.
Crunch! Clang!
Around the time the sound of crumpling armor was swirling through the air, a noise came from one corner of the manor—something was opening.
Screeeech. Clack-rattle.
"Phew!"
"Hm?"
From a place with no visible entrance at all, the manor's outer wall pulled apart with a grinding noise, and a man in a dirt-caked cloak crawled out. The soldiers' attention naturally converged.
"Huh?"
"......."
Jin-cheon was standing right where the man emerged, directing operations, and the man who'd crawled out of what looked like a doghole let out a stupid noise, clearly startled. With Jin-cheon staring without a word of response, the man flashed an awkward smile, then swiftly raised his sword, aimed it, and shouted.
"Keu-ha-ha! I am Gerard of Lightning!"
"......."
No one answered his cry. Only Jin-cheon's brow was severely furrowing.
It was only natural—Jin-cheon was wearing Risel's Interpretation Ring, and the soldiers couldn't understand his words at all. Sensing the strange atmosphere, Gerard swung his sword once more with a flourish and shouted again.
SWISH!
"I am Gerard, the greatest treasure hunter of this age! Who will face me first!"
"......."
"What the...."
When his provocation drew no reaction at all, and everyone just looked at him with pitying eyes, the way you'd stare at a madman, Gerard's eyes darted in every direction in bewilderment. Seeing this, Jin-cheon let out a deep sigh and spat a single word at the soldiers.
"Seize him."
"What?"
Seeing a man who didn't so much as flinch at his name and instead gave an order to capture him, Gerard's face filled with utter disbelief. Anyone—even mercenaries—when they heard the name Gerard of Lightning, always gave a nod of acknowledgment.
Fury settled over Gerard's face at this unprecedented slight.
"You wretched bastards...."
Thunk-thunk. Thunk. Shoo-thunk-thunk.
"......."
Squeak.
Before Gerard could even finish his words, arrows flew in from all sides and embedded themselves densely around him, and before he knew it, a second volley was nocked and aimed at him. Gerard made the wise call.
"I surrender."
At those simple words, Jin-cheon jerked his chin toward Gerard.
"Take him and load him up."
Gerard of Lightning.
The continent's greatest treasure hunter and one of the Ten Great Swordsmen—on that day, for digging in the wrong place, he ended up being dragged off by Jin-cheon.
Claaang~!
A clear, beautiful sound that seemed to ring through the whole world.
As Gerard was slowly being bound, he was taking a gradual look around him. The unfamiliar clothing and appearances stirred Gerard's curiosity. Amid this, the sound of metal reached him, and he slowly turned his head.
"Huk!"
Crash!
"You insane bastards!"
Claaang!
Gerard's short burst of profanity cut in between the metallic sounds. The scene unfolding before his eyes was high-grade full plate mail—worth ten years of a commoner's livelihood—being reduced to lumps of scrap metal.
They weren't his, sure, but if someone next to you were enthusiastically smashing expensive pottery, could you just stand there? Gerard was one of those people who couldn't.
Claaang!
"Hey! You lunatics! Do you have any idea how much that's worth, that you're smashing it all up?! Just give it to me instead!"
Clang!
"......?"
Gerard was wailing, completely forgetting he was a prisoner. And that wailing reached Go Jin-cheon's ears just as it was.
"You there. Grave robber."
"Treasure hunter!"
"Right. Grave robber."
"......."
Even an Interpretation Magic ring was not perfect. The function of Interpretation Magic is to convey the meaning held inside a person's head. But among the words Jin-cheon knew, there was no concept for "treasure hunter." In a sense they weren't entirely dissimilar, but the only thing Jin-cheon knew was a grave robber—someone who looted other people's tombs and royal mausoleums.
In this world, on the other hand, as distinct from a grave robber, there existed the legitimate profession of treasure hunter—a specialist who explored dungeons. And the grave robber Jin-cheon was talking about also clearly existed as a separate thing.
So Gerard could understand the grave robber Jin-cheon meant, but the treasure hunter Gerard insisted on simply wasn't entering Jin-cheon's ears.
Crash!
"That plate armor—is it expensive?"
"Expensive, he asks! One of those, a commoner family could live on for more than ten years! And on top of that, it has decorative functionality, with exquisite patterns—you can't even compare it to ordinary plate mail! If only I could just—gyaaaah! Stop it!"
Claaang!
"If only you could just...?"
Anyone watching would have thought that plate mail belonged to Gerard. But whether Gerard's heartfelt sincerity moved Jin-cheon's mind or not, Jin-cheon raised one hand and halted the soldiers.
"Enough. Stop for now."
"General, ain't no need to worry. The soldiers was takin' too long, so I went and did it all myself."
"......."
It was Uru's voice, carving two fresh furrows into Jin-cheon's brow.
Though pressed for time as far as the soldiers were concerned, Uru had gone and done the job himself. And before Jin-cheon's eyes, the high-quality iron, now considerably reduced in bulk, was being moved by the soldiers. Watching them being carried off one by one, Gerard was still casting longing looks.
