Chapter 62
Chapter 62
Iron Emperor — Chapter 62
Thwack!
"Guack!"
An abrupt yelp accompanied by the sound of impact burst from Go Jin-cheon's private training ground, located behind the Yeolje Hall. At the source of the noise lay a blond man clutching the back of his head, facedown in the dirt.
That man was Gerard.
"Loosen up, dammit!"
"Use your words! Do I look like a beginner to you!"
"You little shit, you ain't a beginner and that's exactly why you're gettin' smacked around! And you, you loudmouthed bastard—are you pullin' insubordination on me right now?"
Glaring with his long sword in hand, Gerard caught Buru's last words and saw the great axe gleaming in his other grip. His eyes, which had been flaring, could do nothing but drop submissively.
"Hyaaah!"
Fwoooosh!
Gritting his teeth, Gerard's long sword tip crackled with sparks, and a white Aura Blade burst forth, flaring as if to flaunt itself.
Thwack!
"Guhuck!"
"Quit tensin' up!"
The sound of a beating tolled mercilessly from the back of his skull... Even so, Gerard couldn't puff out his characteristic pride and had to swallow his indignation.
Why?
Because he'd crossed blades with him and knew his strength...
When Gerard had faced Buru before, in the first three or four exchanges, he'd thought it was manageable. When it went past five exchanges, he'd figured it would be a little tough. Then, on the tenth exchange, when Buru cleanly sheared through his entire Aura Blade, he'd been horrified—and when he came back to his senses, he could see his own two arms and legs floating in midair.
Why midair?
Because his limbs were broken...
The problem was that Buru, because of that, had unilaterally concluded Gerard's joints were weak—and after his limbs healed, the days he'd spent running him alongside horses—oh, how many they had been!
The reason that same Gerard was here again, getting smacked around and cursed out, was precisely "in case he went out and took a beating somewhere else." No matter how much Gerard explained his own skill, to these people their martial standard was the baseline—and Gerard, who'd been adjudged to fall short of that baseline, had no avenue for appeal. Risel, of course, had chimed in from the side, but owing to the wall of the 2nd Circle, it had done no good.
Sword Master.
One hailed as having reached the pinnacle of the sword's realm.
But that status was utterly useless here. Rather, these people didn't even hand out such titles. The only distinction they drew was between the strong and the weak, the victor and the vanquished—nothing more. This was after Gerard had recovered from his sparring match with Buru.
"Fall in!"
"Yes!"
Buyeo Gi-yul was acting as overall training instructor for the recruits. Thanks to Haidia's healing magic, Gerard had received considerable help in his physical recovery. Having spent much time in thought since his clash with Gye Ung-sam and Buru, Gerard couldn't help but be drawn to their training.
In the middle of some light rehabilitative exercise, he saw soldiers gathering around Giyul. He halted his run and slowly walked over.
"Your weapon proficiency is still lacking!"
"Yes!"
Giyul's eyes, watching the panting trainees, held a glint of dissatisfaction.
"You there."
"Yes! I'm Nel."
Nel, drenched in sweat, shot to his feet and answered as if flaunting his snap-to discipline at being singled out by Giyul.
"Alright. Here are various weapons. Which one do you think is the strongest?"
"Ah... that's..."
In that moment, Nel looked at the weapons laid before him and plunged into confusion. Asked which among the spear, sword, bow, saber, and the rest was the strongest, he hesitated, then started repeating something he'd picked up from Million, who'd been a mercenary.
"The sword!"
"Your reasoning?"
When Giyul shot the question back brusquely, Nel squeezed his eyes shut and shouted at the top of his lungs.
"Because it's the king!"
"......."
"Pfft."
"Heh heh heh."
Alongside Giyul's flabbergasted expression, snickers started bursting out here and there.
Giyul could more or less grasp what Nel meant.
He had heard martial artists on this side declare that the sword was the King of All Weapons. Here too, perhaps because all Sword Masters were swordsmen, the sword was held to be the sovereign of all armaments. Ultimately, though unrefined, Nel's answer could be seen as somewhat correct.
"Hmm."
But from Giyul's mouth came neither agreement nor disagreement. He only looked as though he were deep in thought. Nel grew tenser still at Giyul's behavior.
A moment later, Giyul turned his head slightly toward Nel and abruptly gestured.
"Come out here."
"Pardon?"
Giyul, who'd motioned Nel forward, flared up when he saw him standing there answering like an idiot.
"Look lively!"
"Yes!"
The moment Giyul's bellow rang out, it was Nel's body, not his answer, that reacted. It had launched forward before the response came. Seeming pleased by Nel's fast movement, Giyul gave a slight nod, then picked up a sword from the ground and handed it to him. But even as he accepted the proffered sword, Nel still looked steeped in anxiety.
"Let's see now..."
"......."
With Nel before him, clutching the sword and rolling his uneasy eyes, Giyul paced back and forth among the weapons with the expression of a man browsing a market stall.
"This one ought to do."
"......."
What Giyul picked up was a staff as tall as a person. Swinging it this way and that, as if testing how it fit his hands, Giyul cracked his neck left and right and then stood before Nel.
"Ready."
"Pardon?"
At Giyul's word, Nel's eyes flew wide and he echoed him. At that, Giyul let out a short laugh and spoke.
"You're a king now, so come at me."
"Ack!"
Watching the aghast Nel, Giyul began speaking curtly.
"You've got a sword, so you're the king, and I've got a staff, so I'd be beneath a king, wouldn't I? Hurry up and come at me."
"Even so, there's no way I could be a match for you!"
"Exactly."
"So... what?"
Nel, who'd been hemming and hawing as if making excuses, looked at Giyul before him in disbelief. Giyul, smiling as though amused by Nel's reaction, twirled the staff, set it aside, and turned once more to face the soldiers.
"People often call the sword the king of ten thousand weapons."
"......."
"Cast off that foolish notion!"
Giyul's voice spread out toward the soldiers watching him. The soldiers were staring intently at him like children, but Giyul, as if accustomed to such a situation, continued his explanation with an entirely unruffled expression.
"Then why do you think I asked which weapon is the strongest?"
"......."
"No one has an answer? Very well, I'll change the question. Then why, knowing full well that Nel couldn't possibly match me, did I hand him a sword and tell him to come at me?"
Giyul's question washed over them again. At that, Million's hand went up.
"General! Perhaps since the sword is difficult to master, you were guiding the lesson to illustrate the spear's utility, were you not?"
"The spear, you say..."
At Million's question, Giyul trailed off and looked at the staff he held. Since it was for training, it had no blade, but it was clearly being employed as a substitute for a spear. Giyul shifted his gaze from the staff to Million and countered.
"Why do you think so?"
At Giyul's counter, Million sank briefly into thought, then opened his mouth again.
"In practical terms, it's the knights who insist the sword is supreme. Yet even they, when conducting war, initially advance bearing lances. And when peasant levies or city militias are formed, the spear is what is issued. Because the spear is faster to gain proficiency in."
"Mm, it is fast. But my point here is different."
Perhaps due to his long experience as a mercenary, Million's explanation came without hesitation, but it wasn't the answer Giyul wanted. By now, Gerard, who had been watching, also had a glint of interest in his eye.
"What was the first weapon ever used by humans?"
"A rock or a club, probably."
"Indeed."
Million's answer latched on as if adding supplementary explanation to Giyul's statement. Owing to his relative depth of experience among the recruits, Million held a deputy's position.
"What's the purpose of those two?"
"To suppress the enemy, wouldn't it?"
"To be precise, killing."
Giyul picked up Million's remark and drove it home as if confirming it.
Bang!
Giyul swung the staff and drove it hard into the ground, his eyes flashing.
"You die from being hit with a rock. You die from being clubbed. You die from being skewered by a spear. You die from being stabbed by a sword. You die from being cleaved by an axe. You die from being split by a saber..."
"......."
"In the end, death is the same regardless. Whether you're shot with an arrow or stabbed with a sword, the weapons you hold were developed from the start with the purpose of delivering death. There's nothing more foolish than ranking them by which is best."
The soldiers' heads bobbed up and down in time with Giyul's explanation. After all, weapons were about killing and dying.
"If one weapon were truly supreme, then only that one would have survived. But because that isn't the case, we have separate branches and various armaments."
"Buyeo Daehyeong."
From one side, Gerard, who'd been listening, finally spoke up. Giyul bowed his head slightly and offered a salute toward Gerard.
"Daesaja Gerard, you've come."
"Mm. Forgive me for interrupting your instruction, but I have something I'm curious about."
"Yes."
Gerard approached with his eyes cracked half open. In one hand, naturally, was his long sword—which had been snapped and later repaired—drawn from its scabbard and gleaming.
"What Daehyeong says has merit, but only up to a point, isn't it? One mustn't overlook the difficulty of mastery. Although the process of mastery is arduous, to reach the level of Master, the sword is supreme."
In practical terms, it's easier to project ki through a sword than through a spear. Of course, the road up to that point is painful. That was part of why knights esteemed the sword above all. But Giyul, as though not conceding Gerard's point, shook his head.
"It's the same as I was explaining earlier."
"What is?"
"Whether you die cut by a sword or die cut by Sword Aura, isn't it all the same?"
"......?"
At Gerard's questioning look, Giyul briefly glanced at the soldiers and then continued. Perhaps because he was mid-lesson, he appeared to be proceeding with a careful explanation.
"Since I don't know your side's tactical system in detail, it's difficult for me to say much, but there was something similar in the world we come from."
"......."
Gerard quietly lent his ear.
"In the aspect of ancient warfare, the strength of a single valiant commander was given priority. A commander who would project ki at the vanguard, slaughter soldiers, and crush formations by himself. That is, cases where one hero dominated the aspect of war."
"That is so."
This place wasn't different. The presence of a single Sword Master greatly altered the aspect of a war. Giyul was acknowledging that point as well.
"However, the Gauri unit reorganized by our Emperor Gukgangsang Gwanggaeto Pyeongan Hotaeyeolje broke away from that mold. In other words—war is waged by well-structured formations and troop types, not by the valor of one or two men. No matter how valiant, a single commander cannot wage every war. No matter how much Sword Aura he projects, there can be no commander who conducts a war alone. Projecting Sword Aura is a consumption of ki! Why must you do that to kill something you could kill with a simple sword stroke? A display of power? With that same strength you could kill far greater numbers. What we are engaged in is war. Not a duel between martial artists. What we have been given is this: 'If you are stabbed, you die.' Conversely, 'If you stab, they die.'"
"......."
For a moment, Gerard found himself at a loss for words.
There was some sense in what Giyul said. That was why he nodded along, but he still couldn't approve of their training methodology.
"However, there are unequivocally strengths and weaknesses to weapons. Although in the end, since the result is the same..."
"Gerard!"
"......."
Mid-rebuttal to Giyul, Gerard grimaced and turned his head. The moment Buru came into view—great axe slung across his back as he approached—that grimace deepened, his expression twisting completely.
"What's all this about the result bein' the same?"
"Salute! Taedaesaja."