Chapter 317
Chapter 317
Iron Emperor — Chapter 317
"This will suffice."
"......."
The rims of her eyes reddened and the bridge of her nose flushed crimson. She nodded and unstrapped her own Hwandudaedo, passing it to him.
Mu-deok accepted it carefully, let go of the reins, and slowly drew her Hwandudaedo.
Shrrring.
A clear, crystalline ring resounded.
"A truly fine sword."
The straight, thick blade glittered, reflecting the sunlight.
Mu-deok smiled as he spoke, and Eulji nodded, her lips pressed firmly together. Mu-deok lifted Eulji's drawn Hwandudaedo slowly into the air — as if for all who followed behind to see.
Then he drew a deep breath and shouted.
"Behold!"
A cry that shook the very world.
"The Yeolhu marches with us on this path!"
"Waaaah!"
At Mu-deok's shout, a roar erupted.
"We shall never retreat!"
"We obey!"
The soldiers' cries answered Mu-deok's every word.
"We shall never fear!"
"We obey!"
While the vows between Mu-deok and the soldiers rang back and forth, a single dewdrop slid down Eulji's cheek. The tears she had held back streamed without pause down her clear cheeks.
"Where in this war could greater glory be found!"
"Uwaaaah!"
The long roar shook her heart and shook the mountains, the trees, the sky, and the earth. Mu-deok faced Eulji, his face flushed, and spoke in a booming voice.
"This is enough. With this, the Yeolhu wages this war with us."
"...As Yeolhu, I have one request. I trust you will grant it."
Eulji forced her lips open, and her voice came out thick with tears.
"Command me."
Mu-deok answered with a nod, as though making a vow. Eulji spoke again, as if seeking confirmation.
"Without fail."
"Yes."
"You must win. Without fail."
"Yes."
"I will prepare wine and wait to welcome you."
With those words, Eulji wheeled her horse and moved to the roadside. Then, holding the Samjoko Flag aloft in one hand, she looked upon the faces of every passing Gauri soldier as if determined to engrave every last one of them into memory.
The soldiers answered her with smiles, imprinting their faces upon her as they passed into the distance. She stood with the flag raised until their column had faded far away.
* * *
"What moved you to make such a decision?"
King Alsein's voice reached Go Jin-cheon's ears as he gazed at the earth dyed red beneath the sunset horizon. Jin-cheon turned his head slowly to look at him.
"You came."
"Why did you say you would remain!"
"Did you not already hear the reason."
Alsein had clearly been present for that day’s conversation. So when the Gauri army stayed, part of him had felt tremendous relief. Yet whenever he closed his eyes, he saw Gauri’s people dying and resenting him. In his dreams, he saw Gauri soldiers cursing their absent king.
"Have you dreamed?"
Jin-cheon's voice was calm.
Instead of the answer he wanted, an unexpected question emerged.
"I dreamed every night."
Without waiting for Alsein's reply, he said that he dreamed. Alsein looked at Jin-cheon, bathed in the crimson glow of the sunset, and silently listened.
"Whenever I closed my eyes, I saw my people dying and resenting me."
Alsein's eyes flew wide.
"Whenever I dreamed, I saw soldiers crying out for me when I never came."
It was the same as his own dreams. Alsein cried out.
"If that is how you felt, then why did you not turn the army around!"
Alsein's voice burst forth — though he was King of Roselin, his words were a rebuke that the Gauri army had remained. Passing soldiers stopped at his shout, and Duke Ken and Duke Baikal, who had been approaching, halted in their tracks.
"Because I dreamed again."
"What do you mean!"
A cry of incomprehension.
"They tell me to advance."
"......."
At Jin-cheon's answer, Alsein's face twisted slowly. Jin-cheon's voice continued.
"The corpses of the Gauri army formed a mountain, their blood formed a river, and with their bodies torn to pieces they were shouting!"
Jin-cheon's voice was rising as he spoke. He who normally spoke in low tones was raising his voice.
"Believe in this place and advance, they told me! Do you understand! They fought and cried out, using their comrades' corpses as ramparts and the blood flowing from their comrades' flesh as sweet dew!"
Jin-cheon was shouting. His heart must have wished to turn back dozens of times over. No matter what the end might hold, he must have wished to turn back. He must have agonized, stroking Gangsoe's mane dozens of times a day.
"Guh."
Alsein's knees buckled.
As though he had committed a sin, he dropped to his knees and hung his head. His shoulders heaved. Tears streamed unceasingly down his bowed face. Jin-cheon shifted his gaze to the soldiers who had gathered without him noticing and to Duke Baikal and the others.
"I will swear it upon this place!"
A roar from Jin-cheon that burst out as though he were spitting blood.
"The blood of one shall be repaid with the blood of a hundred!"
His hands rose slowly toward the sky as though seizing the heavens.
"I will deliver hell on earth straight to the Holy Empire — if by the slimmest chance Gauri should fall!"
The red light of the sunset dyed Jin-cheon's entire body crimson. When Jin-cheon spoke, he sounded like hell's own judge.
"I myself will set the Holy Empire's capital ablaze and plant the Samjoko there!"
He proclaimed the destruction of the Holy Empire.
Jin-cheon's head was raised toward the red sunset, and his hands clutched at the sky.
As though he would even fight the fate the heavens had assigned him.......
* * *
Though he was the very man who had started the war, an air of ease surrounded him.
Shau Hwan Millior, Emperor of the Henesia Holy Empire, looked at Duke Schung standing before him and spoke in a languid drawl.
"What news, Schung?"
"It is......."
Duke Schung's face was stiff as he answered Emperor Millior's question.
"They report no agitation, no movement at all."
"......."
At Duke Schung's reply, Emperor Millior's face, which had flaunted its leisure, hardened rigidly.
"Did they ascertain this properly?"
Emperor Millior's voice turned flat and dry. Facing the expressionless emperor, Duke Schung bowed his waist and spoke again.
"There was no sign at all of a withdrawal. On the contrary, they report they were reinforcing their defenses."
"......."
A flicker of displeasure crossed Emperor Millior's face.
"None at all?"
"That is so."
As if unable to believe Duke Schung's words, he posed the question a second time, and the answer was the same as the first.
A faint flash of consternation crossed the face of Emperor Millior, who always showed only an unreadable ease. Yet compared to the other nobles present, it could hardly be called consternation at all.
The nobles were plainly displaying their bewilderment at Duke Schung's words. They had learned that the empire's grand army was moving to strike them from behind — and yet, far from any sign of withdrawal, there was not even any agitation?
As though the nobles' murmuring grated on his ears, Emperor Millior's eyes narrowed. A moment's unrest changed nothing, did it?
"You're noisy."
That single bitten-out word seized control of the nobles' agitation in a breath. But the question remained.
"Did they think the empire's military might was so trivial?"
A question that did not seem directed at anyone in particular emerged.
"Before the army of the Great Holy Empire, how could they say such a thing!"
One of the nobles stepped forward and proclaimed, and Emperor Millior asked dryly in return.
"Then how would you explain the Gauri army's current actions, Count Chauen?"
"W-well, could it not be a deception tactic?"
"In that case, Duke Schung over there would be a fool who cannot even recognize the enemy's deception. Keh-keh-keh!"
At Count Chauen's answer, Emperor Millior pointed a finger at Duke Schung and laughed.
Duke Schung accepted this with an impassive air and spoke.
"On the contrary, the Gauri army is advancing openly to the front, almost defiantly. It is already being confirmed by both magic and the naked eye."
His explanation was directed at Emperor Millior, but his gaze, sharp with displeasure, was fixed on Count Chauen.
"Hmm, then how should we interpret their actions? Does anyone have an idea?"
Emperor Millior stroked his smooth chin and spoke as though genuinely curious. The situation was unfolding entirely differently from what they had expected. Perhaps because of that, no one readily offered an answer to his question.
"Is there no one?"
As if he had wanted someone to volunteer any answer at all, Emperor Millior wore a dissatisfied expression at the nobles' silence.
"Many thoughts are possible, but this is a situation where it is difficult to state anything with certainty."
"I suppose."
When Duke Schung excused the nobles' silence, as though speaking for them all, Emperor Millior pressed no further. He himself, who had devised the plan, was in this state — how much more so the nobles?
Emperor Millior sank deep into thought.
"Could they perhaps be thinking of how they stopped the seventy thousand troops of North Roselin? And have therefore judged that this time will be manageable as well......."
A noble trailed off without confidence. Duke Schung shook his head and replied.
"That cannot be. Back then Gauri had not dispatched an expeditionary force, whereas now they have."
"Then either they have hidden troops, or the forces they prepared for defense are considerable — is it not one of those two?"
To the follow-up rebuttal, Duke Schung immediately countered.
"No. These are the ones who united to face the Empire. In a situation where they are sending forces to make Roselin the battlefield, not dispatching their elites is implausible. Moreover, did their king not personally lead the forces out?"
At Duke Schung's rebuttal, the noble who had spoken withdrew, unable to add anything further.
"Duke Schung is right. Furthermore, it is even more implausible that Gauri, encircled by Haian and Malin and Roselin, would not commit its maximum strength when marching out. In truth, in the recent war that had broken out, it was Gauri that boasted the greatest strength. Is that not so, Schung?"
"It is."
"That is why I issued orders for a flanking maneuver. Were you asleep when that was being discussed?"
At Emperor Millior's jesting words, the noble who had spoken earlier turned ashen.
How many nobles had met their deaths beneath that smiling face?
Fortunately, Emperor Millior's attention was wholly consumed by Gauri's intentions.
"And besides, there was clearly no flaw in the intelligence gathered on Gauri over several years."
"That is so. Even the judgment that taking Gaemun Mountain Fortress alone would leave no obstacle up to the capital was based on reports sent over a long period by agents operating as merchants and the like. Unlike Gaemun Mountain Fortress, the other fortresses still showed traces of ongoing construction, and there were many restricted zones, which posed difficulties."
At Duke Schung's words, Emperor Millior nodded quietly. Even so, the reason they had no choice but to strike Gaemun Mountain Fortress rather than the capital was that the country called Gauri was itself blanketed by mountain ranges, making approach difficult. And if they were to cross the mountains, there was no guaranteeing the preservation of their forces.
A report had already come in that troop losses so far exceeded twenty thousand, leaving only some sixty-five thousand troops. On top of that, no map of the Reganza Mountains existed at all. They had judged that further gambles were neither possible nor necessary. Leaving aside the fall of Gauri, the assessment was that simply removing the current Gauri forces from the Roselin front would allow them to crush Roselin before the Empire Coalition's forces could descend upon them.
"Is it confidence, then — that whether they have elites or not, they can hold?"
The corners of Emperor Millior's lips curled upward. He found Gauri's challenge laughable.
His pride was wounded too.
"Inform Marquis Luchia. Tell him it matters not if no human being survives in the Reganza Mountains."
"Your Majesty!"
Startled, Duke Schung raised his voice. But Emperor Millior, as though utterly unconcerned, spoke on.