Chapter 351
Chapter 351
The Iron Emperor — Chapter 351
Chapter 122 — How to Advance, Fight, and Protect
No one opened their eyes to the morning sunlight waking the world, nor to the beautiful birdsong that had been ringing out since early dawn.
"What sound sleepers they are."
"Your Highness......"
When Eulji arrived at the ruined Gaemun Mountain Fortress, the very first thing she did was visit the place where the fallen had been gathered. The soldiers lay there with peaceful smiles on their lips, as though the killing and dying of war had never happened.
Among them lay Eulji Buru, dressed in a clean set of armor. Eulji moved her steps carefully, as though afraid that these sleeping men might wake.
Behind her, Dae Mu-deok and the royal guard warriors followed with their heads bowed like convicted criminals. The stench of decay was already thick and suffocating—many of the bodies had begun to rot—but Eulji stepped forward with perfect composure.
Where Eulji stopped, Buru lay with a smile as if greeting her.
"You have endured great hardship."
With a low voice, Eulji bowed her head.
A moment later, when she raised her head, a quiet smile rested on her lips. She stretched a hand back behind her, and a royal guard approached, placing a bottle of liquor and a large bowl in her hand.
Gurgle.
The stream of liquor poured from the neck of the bottle into the large bowl, and with it rose a rich fragrance of alcohol.
"I will drink first."
Eulji spoke to Buru, who still remained silent, then downed the bowl brimming with liquor in a single breath. The enormous bowl, large enough to cover a face, was empty in an instant.
"Haah."
She held the empty bowl upside down over her head and shook it. A drop or two of liquor fell onto her hair.
"Since His Excellency the Great General cannot drink right now, I will drink one more on his behalf."
So saying, she poured what remained of the half-empty bottle and drank that as well. Wiping the liquor from the corner of her mouth with one hand, she set the bowl down and gave a small laugh.
"Do you remember? Your Excellency came to me when I was four, carrying liquor and saying you would teach me drinking etiquette. That night I got completely drunk and made a drunken scene before His Majesty, and you and I... barely made it out alive. I honestly thought my backside was going to disappear that day."
Watching Eulji's back as she shared memories with Buru, a sorrowful smile appeared on Dae Mu-deok's lips.
Every warrior of Gauri had cherished Eulji, but Buru and Uru in particular had poured even more affection upon her. She had been their student—Buru and Uru had been her teachers.
Eulji took Buru's hand.
"It's cold."
Eulji's voice began to grow faintly tearful. As if trying to warm the cold hand even slightly, she gently stroked it with both hands.
"But I know."
Holding Buru's hand in one hand, she caressed his face with the other and continued.
"I know that though your hand is this cold now, the blood that once flowed inside you burned hotter than anyone's. I know that on the battlefield, no one lived with hotter blood than you, Great General..."
As she spoke, a warm stream of water ran down her cheeks. From behind her came the voice of a royal guard.
"Lady Sara and Eldest Young Master Eulji Suho have arrived."
At the guard's words, Eulji nodded, and Sara and Suho approached. Settling herself beside Eulji, Sara stroked her heavily pregnant belly and parted her lips.
"Little one, this is your father."
With a voice close to breaking, Sara introduced the child within her to its father. Suho, seated beside her, stared at Buru with bloodshot eyes, his fists clenched tightly.
"Father......"
His voice was thick with disbelief. He could not believe that the man stronger than anyone else was lying so still. Next to him, Sara at last broke into sobs.
She wept more bitterly than anyone, with a grief deeper than anything.
After a time, when Sara's weeping had subsided, Eulji parted her lips.
"His Excellency the Great General said that he would become the cornerstone of this place."
"......Yes."
Sara received Eulji's quiet words in a trembling voice.
At that, Suho, who had been silently gazing at his father's form, opened his mouth.
"Father is a greedy man."
At the unexpected remark, Eulji and Mu-deok both turned to look at Suho. Suho was smiling brightly.
"The great fortress that will rise anew on this spot—won't the whole thing be our father's tomb? What a magnificent extravagance this is."
His broad shoulders and solid arms, the very image of Buru's, spread wide as if to embrace everything around him.
As though it delighted him.
"Mother, isn't it just perfect as Father's tomb?"
"Yes. It truly suits him perfectly."
Sara wiped away her tears and looked at Suho with proud eyes. Meeting that gaze, Suho spoke again, like a vow.
"I'll grow up fast and guard my father's tomb."
"Suho......"
Suho was speaking.
Saying that he himself would walk the path his father Buru had walked to the very end. Faced with Suho like that, Sara could no longer continue her words.
"That's why my name is Suho, isn't it!"
An echo of Buru lingered in Suho's proud bearing.
"Yes. Thank you."
In the end, Sara could only smile.
Mu-deok, who had been silently listening to the conversation between mother and son, looked down at where Buru lay and smiled.
'He truly raised a fine son before he left.'
For a fleeting moment, it almost seemed as though a smile flickered across Buru's face, turned toward them.
* * *
Though night had fallen, countless figures still moved through Gaemun Mountain Fortress, having forgotten sleep.
The work continued even into the night: pulling out shattered foundation stones, carrying away the crushed bodies of soldiers, and searching for scattered, ownerless limbs. Though they had labored without rest for long hours and must have been on the verge of exhaustion, not a single one of them complained.
No—on the contrary, the way they worked with resolute expressions was close to sublime.
"The night has grown deep."
Amidst the soldiers busily coming and going, Dae Mu-deok approached Eulji, who had been keeping her place quietly, and spoke in a voice tinged with concern.
"For me, only this moment is night. But for them, an eternal night has come."
"......."
At Eulji's reply, Mu-deok could only give a bitter smile. The little girl who had once run around with a runny nose had now blossomed into a figure who stood dignified as the mother of a nation. Pride, like a grandfather looking upon his granddaughter, colored Mu-deok's face as he looked at her.
In the silence that lasted for a little while, Eulji appeared to sink into thought. When her expression took on a rather serious cast, Mu-deok could not hold back his curiosity and asked.
"What weighs so heavily on your mind?"
At Mu-deok's question, Eulji lifted her head with the expression of someone who had reached a decision and looked directly at him.
When Mu-deok's face showed puzzlement at the way she was suddenly staring intently at him, she parted her lips.
"I will take charge of putting this place in order."
"Ho-ho, do not worry. This old man will handle it."
Mu-deok answered with a smile at her words.
But Eulji's expression was not one of youthful bravado—it was deeply serious.
"I will handle it. So......"
Faced with the resoluteness that now shone from Eulji, Mu-deok could only erase the smile from his face.
"Please go."
"What do you mean by this?"
Mu-deok received her words with a troubled expression. But an even more resolute voice rang out.
"I will now defend this place. So leave here—take the troops and go."
"......."
Mu-deok could not manage to say anything.
Eulji was now telling him to go to the battlefield, taking even the remaining troops with him. After a war had already been fought in this precarious situation, she was telling them to push forward instead.
Mu-deok quietly met Eulji's eyes.
Even under his gaze, her large, dark eyes showed no hint of hesitation or wavering whatsoever.
"Please do this. You must go forward and add your strength. That is how we fight to protect what is ours. It will be difficult, but I ask you to lend your strength, however little."
"But......"
Just as Mu-deok began to open his mouth to raise some objection, she cut him off and continued speaking.
"Now that even Gaemun Mountain Fortress has fallen, if the Holy Empire invades again it will surely be arduous. However, with a war between empires now fully broken out, the likelihood of that is practically none. No—rather, the Empire likely never even imagined that it could lose in this war. Therefore, you must go."
Every single word of hers struck Mu-deok's heart. This young mother of the nation was wishing for it.
There was no need for further words.
In truth, this was what he had wanted. Feeling a burning heat rise from deep within, Mu-deok quietly rose from his place, knelt on one knee, and raised a military salute.
"This servant, Dae Mu-deok, shall obey the command."
"Advance, fight, and protect us."
"Yes, I shall do so."
At Eulji's earnest voice, Mu-deok answered without any further hesitation.
Then Eulji's tearful voice reached him again.
"Please, Grandfather Mu-deok."
"......."
Eulji was looking at Mu-deok with eyes brimming with tears. After promising her that he would do so, Mu-deok withdrew and looked out at the soldiers rushing back and forth.
"Please."
"Ho-ho."
For a brief moment, Mu-deok allowed himself to be lost in happiness at hearing the word "Grandfather" again after so long.
* * *
"Word has arrived that additional forces are being sent from the homeland!"
The report from Mong Ryu-hwa, who rode up beside Go Jin-cheon as he led the troops at the vanguard, made him pull briefly on his reins.
"Additional forces, you say?"
When Yeon Hwi-garam repeated the question in Jin-cheon's stead, Ryu-hwa nodded his head rapidly in answer.
"That is certainly the case. Restoration of Gaemun Mountain Fortress has begun with the common people from the rear areas as the main workforce, and the troops that had been assembled for this battle are reportedly now advancing together with forces gathered from Haian and Malin."
"The additional troops themselves are not the important point. I am asking who in the world is leading them here."
When Hwi-garam spoke in a slightly reproving tone, Ryu-hwa hastily bowed his head and replied.
"Great General Dae Mu-deok, in person..."
"What?"
At Ryu-hwa's answer, Hwi-garam's eyes flew wide open in disbelief.
One of the very reasons they had been able to march out with nearly the entire army like this was the existence of Mu-deok. The news that he was personally leading forces here was essentially the same as saying the defense of the homeland was being ignored.
"This will be a great help."
"Hrmm."
At Jin-cheon's calm nod, Ryu-hwa's expression turned awkward, and Hwi-garam pressed his hand to his forehead and shook his head. Ryu-hwa went on with his report.
"Her Highness Eulji has personally taken charge of restoring Gaemun Mountain Fortress, while the defense of the homeland has provisionally been entrusted to Elder Jang Moo... but this is simply..."
At the mention that Elder Jang Moo, who had been passing his days teaching the dwarves, would now command soldiers, Ryu-hwa's expression showed he could not understand it at all. At that, Hwi-garam finally nodded.
"I had briefly forgotten about that man. Given the present situation, he is not the sort to sit still."
"Pardon?"
"He once commanded an army in the war against Sui. There is no need to worry too much about his ability to command troops."
"Even so......"
When Ryu-hwa tilted his head at Hwi-garam's words, Jin-cheon furrowed his brow slightly and muttered.
"When I was young, I once picked a fight with Elder Jang without knowing any better and got beaten up like a dog."
"......."
At Jin-cheon's words, Ryu-hwa simply stared blankly at his back as he spurred his horse onward, his mouth agape as if it were utterly unimaginable to her.