Chapter 60
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Translator: 8uhl
Chapter: 60
Chapter Title: A Cruel Experiment
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Whenever I was on the battlefield, I'd wonder. What in the world were the nation's rulers doing?
What were they doing to provide such shoddy equipment and weapons, forcing us to go out and fight?
If they were going to suck the people dry, wasn't it only natural that they should produce equipment and weapons of corresponding quality to protect them?
Whenever I expressed my fury at the ridiculously crude equipment and weapons, Hwang Cheonho, my master in my past life, would say the following.
Ban, didn't you say that in the Central Plains where you used to live, they always talk about the survival of the fittest? How is this place any different? This is the world we live in nowthe strong fill their bellies with whatever suits their tastes, while the weak and the hungry are given the scraps. It's a world built on the logic of power.
I couldn't accept his words. No, I didn't want to accept them. But when Hwang Cheonho spoke again, I nodded my head.
So, become strong. Become so overwhelmingly strong that you can do whatever you wish. Instead of a single complaint, take a single leap forward. Instead of voicing your discontent with the world, let the beads of sweat from your hard work speak for you. That is how you become strong. Once you do, you can make the world flow in the direction you desire.
That's why, to shape the world according to my own logic, I had to build my strength.
But I...
Master, anyone can act after they've become strong, but if I don't act now, nothing will ever change.
Still not fully mature,
Still not fully ripe.
Even in that state, I intended to jump in. Because that was the sense of responsibility and duty I believed the name Namgung should carry.
Chunsik and his father, Gangseok, moved the cart to one side, covered it with the burlap sack they had brought, and piled snow on top to erase any trace of it.
The swirling blizzard quickly erased the footprints they had made.
As he turned his head, he saw the people from the Central Plains and recalled a conversation from a few days ago.
...Is it true?
You need to get treatment as soon as possible. It's just my guess, but it's highly likely they've taken all the foragers and herbalists from not just this village, but the others as well.
A sense of disbelief washed over him. To think that what they believed was food was actually poisonous herbs.
You don't have to believe me if you don't want to, but the timing of when they handed these over as 'food' is suspicious. It seems to coincide with when everyone's health started to decline.
The group from the Central Plains, and among them the youngest-looking man, stepped forward and looked at them with a worried expression.
At his words, Gangseok couldn't bring himself to refute them. They were people of the North Sea. They were people who could stand unflinching before the biting cold, and they prided themselves on having built up considerable resistance from adapting and enduring for so long.
But such pride felt hollow now, as the villagers had recently been falling ill much more frequently, with many developing dry coughs. Some even coughed up blood, a sight that made one grimace.
I heard they took the herbalists and foragers around the same time they handed out these poisonous herbs. Is that correct?
...At first, I thought they were just taking one or two, but now they've taken every last one left in the village.
It seems so.
Gangseok lifted his head. I stopped my deep contemplation and voiced my thoughts.
It seems they're conducting some kind of experiment on the people of the North Sea.
At those words, Gangseok and the other North Sea people began to clamor, saying their rulers would never do such a thing. But I didn't argue with them about who was right or wrong.
If they were curious and suspicious, they just needed to confirm it for themselves.
We just have to see for ourselves.
...See for ourselves?
Looking at the bewildered Gangseok and the other North Sea people, I spoke softly.
What sort of tyranny your so-called rulers are committing. We just need to check if the same thing is happening in every village.
If the other villages were in the same situation, I wouldn't have to waste my breath explaining it.
At that, Gangseok bit his lower lip.
Why are you showing us such kindness?
...It's just that.
...
I just don't want you to fall victim to senseless malice. I am enough of an abandoned soul.
Namgung Byeok of my past life may have been abandoned, but Namgung Ban of this life is not.
At that, Gangseok, Chunsik, and a few other villagers nodded. They had nothing to lose.
Have you heard? They say Old Man Jo, who was taken away, still hasn't returned.
Old Man Jo? Isn't he the foremost expert in this field?
The fact that even Old Man Jo, highly regarded and recognized as an outstanding talent among the foragers, hadn't returned meant that something had gone terribly wrong.
The foragers' worries deepened with each passing day.
What in the world is going on that they brought us here? Nothing like this has ever happened in my entire life!
It's the rulers, isn't it? They must have their reasons.
True, they're the only ones who provide us with food every month and look out for us.
Bullshit.
A curse cut through the foragers' praise for the North Sea Ice Palace.
Have you still not come to your senses? With such weak minds, none of you will make it out of here.
Gwansaek! What's gotten into you?
The forager called Gwansaek ground his teeth and spoke to the others as if spitting out the words.
They're not rulers, they're bastards. Why are you using honorifics for scum who are only interested in lining their own pockets? Food? Don't make me laugh! Are you all really foragers? It was obvious at a glance that it wasn't food, but something closer to poisonous herbs. You could tell just from the smell!
Before being dragged here, Gwansaek had already seen the 'food' they had given out. When he raised a fuss, asking if they had made a mistake, the people from the Ice Palace immediately seized him and brought him here.
At Gwansaek's words, the foragers all clamped their mouths shut. Someone was about to retort that it wasn't certain, but the sound of approaching footsteps made them fall silent and bow their heads.
Why is it so noisy in here!
...Our apologies.
Enough. You, you, you, and you. The four I just pointed to, come with me.
Among the four foragers the man pointed to was Gwansaek.
Gwansaek followed the man. He sensed they were being led down a different path than usual, but there was nothing he could do. What power did he have?
Crunch, crunch.
After passing through an icy path, Gwansaek was shocked by the environment he arrived in, which was completely different from what he was used to. Normally, he was only tasked with sorting poisonous herbs.
...They're insane.
In the bitter, unforgiving cold, a towering iceberg came into Gwansaek's view. And scattered all over it were quite a few familiar faces.
There were numerous foragers and herbalists. And watching over them, the people of the Ice Palace were ruthlessly cracking their whips.
Gwansaek was shocked twice.
First was the scale of the iceberg. He had merely followed a passage inside the Ice Palace, only to find himself in a vast cavern containing such a massive iceberg.
Second was the plight of the foragers and herbalists.
Crack! Crack!
The whipping and harsh treatment of the foragers was nothing short of a tragedy.
You lot, sort through this pile of poisonous herbs. Separate them into high, medium, and low quality!
While one group was sorting and classifying the harvested poisonous herbs,
You useless fools! You've made a living at this your whole lives, and you're telling me you can't even find a simple ginseng like that?!
Oh, my lord! P-please, spare me!
I'm not talking about one with three or four roots! I told you to find the one with twelve roots on a single stalk!
Ah, my lord... even I, who have made a living from this my whole life, have never seen such a thing...
You worthless bastard!
Those being whipped and kicked were shivering in the cold, forced to search for what their captors wanted with tattered clothes and broken hoes.
As the two groups were being worked to death, something else caught Gwansaek's eye.
Gather up all the low-quality or inedible ones and give them to those people as food.
Those people.
Hearing that expression, he turned his head and saw
Check on them periodically!
Don't worry, my lord! We are monitoring their condition after feeding them low-quality Ice-Vein Grass. We've been observing them for nearly a year, and the results show that with periodic consumption, the toxins overcome their natural resistance and immunity, spreading throughout the body. They mistake their loss of appetite for a feeling of fullness, and their internal organs will begin to fail.
...It was Old Man Jo.
Gwansaek grit his teeth. The man he had considered an expert among foragers was now in league with the nation's bastards, actively looking out for his own interests.
Well now! You are quite useful.
Oh! Thanks to the lump sum and food you've provided, my lord, my family is living warmly. How can I ever thank you enough!
If you keep this up, the share meant for the others will all go to you.
I pledge my utmost loyalty!
To see him sell out and harm others for his own safety was like witnessing another kind of hell. Watching Old Man Jo cackle, Gwansaek clenched his fists.
Swish!
Just then, a whip cracked across Gwansaek's back, setting it on fire.
The whip was so sharp that the searing pain made him gasp, but Gwansaek held it in. The words he was hearing were more painful than the lash.
From now on, you will ignore everything you see, hear, and feel. If you don't, all the people of the North Sea will die.
Gwansaek fell into despair.
And he felt resentment. How had he come to witness such a side of the North Sea?
If there is a heaven, please.
Help us.
As if they had been waiting, Donghwi and Gang Umun swapped clothes with the two unconscious guards.
Pulling the hats down low, the two were instantly transformed into guards of the North Sea Ice Palace.
I'm counting on you.
At my words, the two young men nodded without complaint.
Don't worry, just go.
The next shift will probably be coming to relieve them.
We'll handle it and secure an escape route in time.
Even an escape must be made safely. Otherwise, I could meet my end here before I even find the hundred-year-old ginseng.
I moved out with my maternal uncle, Black Tiger, and also Chunsik and Gangseok.
To proceed as planned, we decided to split up.
Black Tiger, you'll go with these two. Pretend to be a forager and approach from the inside.
Understood. What are you two planning to do?
Who's worrying about whom now?
He had a point.
Those two could survive being thrown anywhere.
I gave Black Tiger, who was giving me that sort of look, a faint smile before turning to Gangseok and Chunsik.
I wanted the two of them to face the reality of their nation's bastards, not their revered rulers.
That's why I had brought them along, despite the danger.
Trust Black Tiger and move. If you find yourselves in danger, I will definitely come for you, so don't worry.
...We will.
Gangseok and Chunsik had already followed me through more than ten villages, witnessing the same phenomenon, and had come along as representatives. Their eyes were filled with the determination to uncover what was happening in the North Sea.
I was prepared to honor their will and see it fulfilled.
If they have fallen to corruption, then condemnation.
If there is room for it, then mercy.
I shall carve the path of Namgung even here, in this distant, foreign land.