Chapter 343
Chapter 343
Iron Emperor — Chapter 343
"Sa...."
Suddenly, he longed to see Sara—her golden hair, her face as lovely as a flower.
"Sara, are you there?"
Sara was smiling, just as she had when they first met.
"Heh."
He was happy that he could protect her.
He will protect her.
Always.
Forever.
* * *
"Hyul! Don't cry!"
"Hnng."
Little Eulji Hyul, caked in dirt from playing somewhere, was on the verge of tears. Though the child was crying, Sara did not simply soothe him.
"Hyul, don't cry. If Father sees you, he'll have something to say!"
Eulji Suho stood before his little brother, doing a fair impression of the head of the family. At that, young Hyul swallowed his tears and looked at Sara and Suho.
"Father?"
"That's right. Father."
"Hng."
Still whimpering even as the word father made him stop crying, Hyul was led inside by Suho. Watching them go, Sara gazed at the sight with pride and murmured sadly.
"Suho’s father... You’re proud of him, aren’t you?"
"Course. Whose son d’ya think he is?"
"......!"
Sara spun around as if burned. The voice had come from right beside her, but there was no one there.
Only the star-filled night sky and the passing wind.
* * *
"Ahem, so the answer is to hit them head-on from here."
Samdopyo crossed his arms and spoke with confidence, and Buyeo Gi-yul clicked his tongue and shot back.
"What, are we fighting a full-scale battle now? Head-on, my ass—all we'd do is shake things up a little!"
As Giyul put him down, Mong Ryu-hwa, who had been snickering off to one side, tilted his head and murmured.
"So what should we do, then?"
Gye Ung-sam, who had been watching, offered his own opinion in a cautious voice.
"We feed false information into the enemy camp."
"......Ahem."
"......."
"......Let's try living honestly, why don't we."
At the trio's frosty response, Gye Ung-sam found himself debating whether or not to draw his longsword.
"Ain’t no use gatherin’ these bastards together."
When Eulji Uru let out a sigh and threw out a remark, Go Jin-cheon, who had been silent, lifted his head.
"Let's just ride in and shoot arrows, I said."
"......."
"Arrows don't spring from the ground."
"......."
At Jin-cheon's one line, Uru could not lift his head. As for Gye Ung-sam and the trio, they were too busy choking back the laughter that was threatening to burst out.
"Heh heh. Just puttin’ Uru, Gurajaengi, and those three together won’t get ya anywhere. All you’ll get is rock dust."
"You shit! Who're you calling a rock!"
Uru shot to his feet with a roar.
"......."
"......."
Where Go Jin-cheon and the others looked, there was only an empty chair with no owner.
* * *
Yeon Hwi-garam, who had been walking along the top of the fortress wall, turned his head toward the sky. In the darkness, the brightest stars were rising one by one.
"The stars...."
Among them, the brightest star of all.
* * *
As if shattered by raging waves, the Holy Empire army scattered.
The one watching that sight.
Using the spear shaft embedded in his body as a prop, a man stood tall, a satisfied smile on his face.
And the one wailing before him.
"Uaaaaagh!"
Avilrun clutched three letters in his blood-soaked hands and howled.
The black, dark night.
Countless stars lit that night.
Among those numberless stars, the brightest star....
The star that shone brighter than ever before....
Sets.
Eulji Buru Falls at Gaemun Mountain Fortress
Chapter 118 — Cutting Sorrow with a Blade That Sprouts in the Heart
By the time the night passed and even the stars that had risen were returning whence they came, the screams that had filled the battlefield could no longer be heard.
With their commander-in-chief, Marquis Luchia, gravely wounded and their deputy commander fallen in battle, the Holy Empire forces began their retreat.
The expedition had ended in failure.
The absence of the command structure brought chaos, and chaos drove the retreating soldiers to their deaths.
In the end, by dawn not a single Holy Empire soldier remained resisting at Gaemun Mountain Fortress. Even so, no one sang of victory. They were merely relieved that they had held.
When the morning sun had fully risen, Dae Mu-deok wrote down the news of this place in the three letters he had received from Avilrun and sent them off.
To Go Jin-cheon, to Eulji Uru, and to Sara....
* * *
Sara, read this.
Our third one is growing well in your belly, right? This time, I hope it’s a daughter who takes after you. You can probably guess, but by the time you read this letter, I likely won’t be here anymore....
Sara was sobbing, unable to hold back the sorrow that was bursting out. The letter, stained red along one edge, was filled with words he would never have spoken in ordinary times.
That he was sorry. And that he was grateful she had been with him.
I have no regrets.
You are not crying right now, are you?
Smile. What this Eulji Buru loves most is the sight of my wife's face bright with a smile. Do not cry. Smile.
That smile.
That smile is what I fought to protect, after all.
You will smile, won't you?
The letter ended that way. It was written almost like a child pleading. And so Sara smiled.
"I, too, loved nothing more than the sight of my husband smiling brightly at me."
Sara's tears traced her smiling cheeks and lingered at the corners of her lips.
* * *
Younger brother, read this.
"You son of a bitch!"
The moment Eulji Uru read the first line of the letter, he nearly tore it to shreds.
The way things go, a man goes when it is his time. So it is that I am going first. You understand?
"Yeah, real damn good for you!"
A wry laugh escaped Uru's lips as he read the second line. It was a letter worthy of Buru. The letter went on with this and that old story. Stories of being born, growing up, and being together....
As he read on, the rims of Uru's eyes were reddening. Then at last even his face flushed red.
Bright red....
...That business when you were twelve, when your arrows smashed every single jar in the soy sauce platform. You nearly died then, remember?
"......!"
He had really been beaten so badly then that, for the first time in his life, he thought he might die—all because, even though the arrows were his, he denied it to the bitter end.
Hadn't he been beaten for three days and nights straight?
Back then, the one who desperately talked them down was Buru. And yet....
Truth is, that was me. A childish prank, you know?
"Bastard, I'd kill you one more time if I could!"
From that point on, Uru read the letter with a face full of fury.
When the jar Father treasured was broken, Uru took the beating, and Buru talked them down.
When the chicken the family raised was stolen, Uru's arrows were found nearby and he was beaten half to death, and Buru talked them down.
And the retrospective (?) confessions went on—every single one of those had been Buru's doing.
"You shit! Come out right now! You knew you'd get beaten by me, so you're hiding and rubbing salt in the wound! Come out this instant!"
He shot to his feet and bellowed at the top of his lungs.
"If you come out now, I'll forgive you. Hurry up and come out!"
He shouted in a torn voice.
I'll leave you one inheritance.
"Buru!"
He cried out at the top of his voice. For his own flesh and blood—for the one who had been at his side.
Gauri. Now you protect it. That is the inheritance I am leaving you.
"ROOOAR!"
He wept like a beast.
P.S.: Bastard, put some strength into it. When are you going to make me a nephew?
He wept until the barracks seemed ready to collapse, until the world seemed ready to collapse.
"Ahem, damn it all."
Gye Ung-sam and the trio, huddled together around Eulji Uru's barracks, could say nothing and only struck at the innocent ground. Samdopyo muttered damn it all over and over, and Buyeo Gi-yul stared blankly at the stars. Mong Ryu-hwa simply kept his eyes closed.
Gye Ung-sam was wordlessly tending to his longsword.
They remained that way, listening to Uru's howls.
* * *
This is Buru.
If this letter has arrived safely, then I have kept my promise, have I not?
"......."
Those words—that he would protect it.
Go Jin-cheon read the next line in silence.
All I have is strength, so I had no choice but to fight alongside the soldiers. I do not know whether I could save even a single one of them.
Jin-cheon lifted his eyes from the letter and looked at Avilrun, kneeling before him. His eyes were deeply sunken, both hands wrapped in bandages, and on his back he carried a familiar great axe.
'Avilrun, sole survivor of Gaemun Mountain Fortress.'
There were no lightly wounded. No wounded at all.
"He saved at least one."
Jin-cheon murmured.
If that bastard Avilrun happens to survive, work him even harder. He’s strong, so I meant to keep him around and train him myself, but it doesn’t look like I’ll get the chance.
The words of request continued one after another. At the passage confessing that the rice cake Jin-cheon had saved as a child was eaten not by Uru but in fact by himself, and asking him not to hate Uru too much, Jin-cheon smiled bitterly and murmured.
"Truth is, that one was spoiled."
This is my final wish. Burn this body and lay it beneath the cornerstone of Gaemun Mountain Fortress. What I could not protect in life, I’ll protect even in death.
And then he reached the last line.
In the next life, I want to ride alongside you again.
Having read the letter to the end, Jin-cheon slowly set it down on the table and turned his gaze to Avilrun, kneeling before him like a boulder.
"Avilrun."
"Your Majesty."
A voice that scraped out raw, as if dragged over iron.
"The great axe on your back—is it heavy, or light?"
"......."
Avilrun kept silent for a time at Jin-cheon's question. How long did it last?
"Right now, it is so heavy I feel I could fall flat to the ground at any moment."
"Why?"
He asked again. This time, the answer sprang out at once.