Chapter 4
Chapter 4
The Iron Emperor — Chapter 4
"Sure would be nice if we had just one wild boar......."
"Long as we're out here, what say we bag a few beasts?"
Eulji Buru smacked his lips as he spoke, and Eulji Uru chimed right in, picking up the thread. But Buru didn't much care for the way Uru was acting, and his face showed it.
"What's wrong with you?"
Seeing Buru's displeased expression, Uru snapped at him. Buru's face twisted even harder, and he spat out a rough-edged reply.
"That's what's wrong with you, bastard—talking to your older brother like you got no manners!"
"Here you go again. How much older do you figure you are, anyway."
They were twins. Technically, Buru had come out first, and he always used that to claim the elder brother role—but there was never any chance of that actually sticking.
Rustle.
"Quiet. Look."
"Huh?"
At a sound from somewhere nearby, Uru raised a hand toward Buru, signaling him. Buru wasn't so deaf he'd miss that kind of noise, so he turned toward where Uru was looking. The men on patrol all held their breath and fixed their eyes the same way—watching, in case it was an enemy attack.
"Oink-oink."
"Sniff-sniff! Oiiink."
All at once, Buru's mouth began to water. The sound was drawing closer. It was unmistakably the sound of pigs. A grin stole across Buru's face.
"Uru, tonight we eat pork!"
"You bet! And you lot, catch 'em good. Sounds like there's a fair few out there. Got it?"
"Yes, General."
Rustle, rustle.
As the pigs drew closer, Uru began drawing his bowstring toward the sound. A moment later, the pigs they'd been longing for appeared. But Uru's hand did not release the drawn string.
"......."
"......Look at that."
Buru stared at the herd of pigs before them, then spoke, his voice oddly fascinated, to Uru, who still had his bowstring drawn with no intention of letting it go.
"Pigs in this part of the world walk on two legs, do they?"
"More to the point...... ever seen a blue pig before?"
"Oiiiiink!"
"Oink."
"Looks to me like they're all bruised up, General."
"......."
A soldier beside them carefully inserted himself into the conversation, and for a moment, Uru had to suppress the urge to aim his bowstring at the man instead.
"Will someone explain to me what has happened here!"
Go Jin-cheon fixed his eyes on the nurse and the court ladies, who had gone pale as death. The two small round things that ought to have been inside the baby's diaper—and the elongated object between them—were absent. In a word, the child was a girl.
Scrrrng.
"Answer me. Why?"
"G-General!"
Though he had drawn his sword, not a trace of killing intent bled from him. But the nurse and the court ladies knew perfectly well: if no answer came, he really would cut them down.
"Daesaja, the present troop count— Hhk! General!"
Dae Mu-deok, who had been reporting as he entered the tent, cried out urgently when he saw the blue-white gleam radiating from Jin-cheon's blade. Jin-cheon gave a cold and shockingly blunt reply.
"Dae Mu-deok. The baby has been swapped."
"......."
Jin-cheon did not so much as turn the blade or his eyes away from the court ladies. He merely delivered his fury in a low voice to Mu-deok, who had just come in. But Mu-deok showed neither horror nor surprise. He simply produced another letter from within his robes and handed it to Jin-cheon. This one, too, bore the Yeolje's seal.
"What is this?"
"His Majesty instructed me to give this to you once we reached land safely."
"There were two letters from the Yeolje from the start?"
"Yes."
Srnng. Click.
Jin-cheon sheathed his blade and opened the letter.
[By now, I trust you have heeded my words. Eulji is not the Son of Heaven. She is a child born within the Inner Court.
A girl, at that.
I thought her life too brief to end in this place, which will soon be consumed by fire. So I sent her away. In a sense, is not the birth of new life in this dying land the will of Heaven? As for the court ladies and the nurse, they merely followed my orders and bear no guilt.
I knew all too well that even if you listened and fled by ship, you would try to rebuild the kingdom...... and so I deceived you.
Now I wish to rest. I envy you. Though I sat upon the Yeolje's throne, I had no freedom. I always felt like a scarecrow dressed in power. I ask of you: do not live as I did. Go forth and do all things as your own will directs you.
Heh-heh, and while we are at it—what would you say to taking this child as your partner, I wonder.]
At the very last line, Jin-cheon's brow furrowed slightly. Yet he could almost see Bojangje before him, letting out a hollow laugh.
Placed on the Yeolje's throne by a coup, Bojangje had always been easygoing. Even as factions tore at each other on all sides and treated him as a figurehead, he had always smiled.
Like a clown.
Though Bojangje had never actually called Jin-cheon his younger brother, his eyes had always been deep and lonely. When Jin-cheon went to war, others tried to exploit him because he was the son of a concubine, but Bojangje trusted him.
Thoughts of Bojangje seemed to stab at Jin-cheon's chest.
"Change her diaper."
"Ah— yes."
Jin-cheon folded the letter quietly and spoke in a gentle tone. Only then did the nurse and court ladies hurry into motion, their faces finally registering that they were going to live. The Captain of the Guard looked as though his own duty was now complete.
"Whose child is she?"
Jin-cheon, who had been walking slowly toward the tent exit, paused.
"She is the child of Guard Captain Eul Ryuhwan, who entered the fortress for the defense."
"And Eul Ryuhwan and the child's mother?"
"......Ryuhwan remained to hold the fortress. The child's mother could not move easily and said she wished to remain with Ryuhwan."
The grief of failing to protect the Yeolje bled from Mu-deok's voice. Hearing him, Jin-cheon spoke quietly.
"Dae Mu-deok, that child—she will be beautiful when she grows up, won't she?"
"Sir?"
At Jin-cheon's utterly unexpected words, Mu-deok's eyes went round.
"Heh. It's nothing. I simply remembered the final request of my brother, who was also the Yeolje. Let us go."
"Ah— yes......."
Leaving behind a still-puzzled Mu-deok, Jin-cheon walked outside, a faint, unreadable smile on his face.
"SqueeeEEEEAL!"
"Hm?"
As Go Jin-cheon and Mu-deok emerged from the temporary tent, a familiar pig's shriek rang out from somewhere.
"Catch the little bastard! You can't even catch one properly!"
"But can we eat this thing, though?"
"Let's just skin the hide off first. Got to do the gosa ritual too, ain't we?"
"Yeah, good idea."
"......."
Buru and Uru, knives in hand, were chasing a blue pig around inside a hastily thrown-together pen. The pig was running for its life.
On two legs.......
"Do pigs in this village walk on two legs?"
"......."
"Or perhaps they are men wearing pig skins?"
Jin-cheon repeated the words someone else had spoken, wearing a thoroughly dumbfounded expression. Mu-deok could find no answer that would resolve Jin-cheon's question.
Whack-whack! Thwack!
"Pound 'em good! Pigs taste best when you beat 'em first."
"SqueeeeEEEEAL! Oink! Oink!"
From one direction came the shrieks of a pig that had been stuffed into a burlap sack and was getting bludgeoned. From the other direction, the rest of the pigs, penned up in the enclosure, wailed along with it.
"Oink, you humans, oink— just kill us and be done with it! Oink-oink!"
"Oiiink....... Let's talk, oink, let's talk, human. Oiink!"
A soldier snorted as he watched the pigs squealing desperately, then spoke to another soldier who had been beating them and was taking a break.
"Well I'll be. Always figured pigs just oinked, but I've never seen 'em jabber like they're talking."
"What, you ever seen a pig talk?"
"Guess not."
The soldier chuckled to himself, then looked at the pig that was being beaten and clicked his tongue.
"Anyway, they're so damned blue the beating doesn't even leave a mark."
"Yeah, tell me about it."
The soldiers guarding the pen listened to the pigs' wailing and traded idle chatter, their minds drifting to the pork they'd be eating that evening.
"Oink! Humans, oink—just use a blade, oink, and kill us clean, oink!"
"Shut your hole, piglet!"
Thwack!
"Squueee— oink-oink!"
One of the soldiers guarding the pen finally lost patience with the noise and clubbed the loudest-squealing pig across the back of the head with the butt of his spear. The pig's shriek rang out again.
"Hollering and carrying on like a damned fool."
"Oiiii....... Never seen, oink, humans who don't even, oink, understand words, oink......."
The pig spoke in a hollow, forlorn voice.
"Oink-oink-oink-oink-oink!"
"Cut its throat, quick!"
"What are you doing?"
Go Jin-cheon walked toward Eulji Uru, who had a pig pinned down and was tickling its belly, and Eulji Buru, who had raised his axe to cut its throat.
"We're holding a rite."
"A rite?"
Hwi-garam, who had been clutching his head off to one side, sighed and explained to Jin-cheon. Since they'd caught pigs anyway, they were offering one up as a sacrifice to Heaven.
"That's right."
"But why are you tickling the pig?"
"Well, ain't it better if the offering's smiling? A pretty rice cake tastes better, as they say. Uru, what're you doing? Tickle it, hurry! Got to cut when it laughs— now it's crying on me!"
Buru had seen the pig laughing itself silly while being tickled, but when they stopped, it had started crying. He hollered irritably, and Uru moved his hand back in.
"Yeah, I got it. Cut it, quick."
"Oink-oink-oink-oink— oink!"
"Enough......."
Jin-cheon let out a small sigh and ordered the soldiers to put the pigs back in the pen. Naturally, Buru and Uru stood grumbling right beside him.
"The rite can wait. And the pigs being blue—they might be diseased."
"So we just kill 'em?"
"We bring them along for now. Supplies are what matters. We'll slaughter them when the time comes......."
"Got it. So emergency rations, then."
Jin-cheon nodded at Buru, whose face had brightened, then let out another sigh and left with Hwi-garam. Back in the pen, the pig that had just been laughing—along with the other ten pigs—were weeping and clinging to one another, rejoicing that they were still alive.
"Never seen pigs hug each other and cry before."
"Leave 'em be. Let's just go rotate the watch."
"Oink, oink, oink, oink~."
The pigs' wailing—half joy, half sorrow—echoed across the land as the sun set.
After the evening meal, as darkness fell, the command staff gathered in one place for a council on the present situation.
"Captain of the Guard Dae Mu-deok. What is the current state of the troops?"
Jin-cheon, now just a little past twenty, spoke informally to Dae Mu-deok, who looked well over forty, yet it felt perfectly natural. Though he was born of a concubine, he was of the Yeolje bloodline and one of the Great Generals who ranged the battlefields. If anything, it was perfectly fitting. Standing over 180 centimeters tall, with a solid frame, bold features that gave a rugged but steady impression, and deep-set eyes, he more than fully conveyed the sense of a true man.
"Fortunately, ten ships made it through safely, so we suffered no major losses. However, we lost eighty-two men—oarsmen and a number of soldiers—swept away in the storm. Your direct command, the Black Armored Ghost Cavalry, numbers 382 men. The Axemen are 225 strong, the Swordsmen 122, Spearmen 230, Archers 212, Shieldbearers 286. Then there are 294 oarsmen and 192 sailors. In addition, there are about sixty cooks and workshop personnel. The greatest problem is our warhorses: aside from 213 head, the rest died or were injured in the storm. They cannot be used."
At the Captain of the Guard's report, Jin-cheon's eyes tightened.
"Too many dead."
"Aye. The storm......."
Mu-deok's answer trailed off. Jin-cheon nodded slightly, then spoke again.
"What was done with the dead warhorses?"
"We butchered them and set the meat to dry. Supplies are the immediate problem, you see."
The answer about the horses came from Yeon Hwi-garam. He was of an age with Jin-cheon, but rather than the image of a rough warrior, he gave off the impression of a handsome, composed youth. He stood about 175 centimeters tall, but his slender build made him look taller. Hwi-garam was Jin-cheon's shadow—and his most capable advisor.
When Hwi-garam finished, the brothers Buru and Uru picked up the discussion. Both stood just over 165 centimeters tall, but their bodies were built entirely of rocklike muscle. Their arms and legs were thicker than most women's waists.
"We done had a look around the area. Feels like the forest here's different from Tang or even Silla, somehow. Some of the trees we've spotted don't look quite the same, neither. But there ain't no enemies nearby. We're aimin' to range farther out tomorrow."
"Very well. Everyone get plenty of rest tonight, but stay vigilant. We don't know what's out there. And Hwi—it's dark now. Study the sky and try to work out our approximate position."
"Yes, General."
True to the Gauri people, who were well versed in astronomy, he intended to read their position from the heavens. Exhausted as they all were, no one uttered a single idle word; all were wholly absorbed in analyzing the situation.
"General!"
"We are in council! What is it— has an enemy appeared?"
Mu-deok barked at the soldier who had burst in unannounced. But the man's face was deathly pale, utterly heedless of the reprimand. Sensing something amiss, Jin-cheon motioned Mu-deok to stand down and addressed the soldier.
"Speak."
"The heavens—the heavens seem to be angry!"
"What?"
"What on earth?"
Jin-cheon and his party followed the frantic soldier out into the deepening dusk. Outside, the troops had stopped eating and were all staring up at the sky. At the moon, to be precise.
Naturally, Jin-cheon and his people also raised their heads toward the sky. A moment later, Buru and Uru's hollow voices slipped out.
"The moon...... done had a baby, ain't it?"
"And it's twins, no less."
"......."
In the sky, beside the bright, round moon, two smaller moons hung like offspring.
"The stars are different as well. It is as though we are in an entirely separate world."
"Is that so......."
Hwi-garam's voice, full of despair, came as he looked up at the sky. No matter how he tried to fix the stars' positions, nothing matched. In the end, it meant they had fallen to a place whose very stars were unrecognizable. At Hwi-garam's hopeless reply, Jin-cheon merely gave a soft, wry laugh.
"Heh. At least we don't have to worry as much about the Tang army."
"Well, yes, but......."
"Well, then."
With an expression that said further worry would accomplish nothing, Jin-cheon turned and went back into his tent. Jin-cheon was, by nature, not a man who troubled himself over anything but battle. In a way, he was a person whose simplicity rivaled Buru's and Uru's. The worrying was always Hwi-garam's share anyway—and as a case in point, Hwi-garam was the only one now standing alone beneath the sky, still studying the heavens.