When Giving Your Name, Always Bait the First Strike
Grrrrrumble.
My stomach let out another indignant wail.
Read the room, will you, belly? Your master possesses nothing in this world right now except a mountain of debt.
Sure, he had taken pity on me and returned that paper note from before, but that was strictly emergency money.
...Nope. I couldn't bear it any longer.
"Hey... so when are we going to eat?"
Grumble.
My gut chimed in with a tiny, protesting rumble of its own. What, you think you and I are on the same side here?
Naturally, Gawol turned to me with an expression of sheer, unadulterated disbelief.
"......You do realize that honestly, even if I starved you half to death, you wouldn't have a leg to stand on?"
"Well, I mean... technically, yes. But let's try to be humane here! Don't people have a little thing called warmth? Compassion?"
Cut me a little slack, won't you?
"Haaah... Fine. I suppose feeding you is better than having you collapse from hunger."
Ooh... okay, now that stung my pride.
"...Hey, who do you think you're talking to? As if I'd collapse that easily! Believe it or not, I've lived by the blade for quite a while."
Gawol looked as though he was suffering a severe bout of cognitive dissonance.
"'Lived by the blade'? Seriously, judging strictly by how you talk, you sound like you belong to some rowdy street gang... Anyway, if that's the case, I'll take it to mean you're fine without food. No meal for you."
Ah, damn it. Walked right into that one.
"Come on! Even so, you have to feed me! You promised!"
"Well... I suppose I did. But you do know we never agreed on when, or how much, right?"
"Urgh..."
He wasn't wrong. It had been a verbal agreement to begin with, and if he flat-out refused, there wasn't much I could do about it.
"This isn't a fraudulent contract, is it...?"
"Strictly speaking, it is."
"What?!"
What the hell was that supposed to mean? Did I get swindled?
"I'm the one holding your leash here... What are you going to do about it?"
...He wasn't wrong there either.
"S-Still, though..."
Now that we were outside Jungno, I wouldn't be dragged off to the magistrate's office, but drawing a sword to threaten my employer didn't suit my temperament, lacked any shred of decency, and went against my personal warrior's code...
Baring my modest fangs, I gave him my fiercest glare.
"If—if you starve me, I might just eat you up, got it?!"
"......If your goal was to be funny, congratulations. You succeeded."
"Hey!"
Did this look like a joke to him? Hunger was dead serious!
"Daeseong, let's take a break."
Gawol pulled on the reins with a gentle flick. The trotting mare gradually slowed her pace, pulling up beside a nearby brook.
Neighhh!
"Good girl. Go ahead and graze for a bit."
Ugh...
The moment her harness was loosened, she immediately went to town on the lush grass by the bank. Watching her munch made my own stomach hollow out even further.
"And whaaaat about meeee...? Huh?"
"......Do you have even a shred of conscience? In the first place, the wagon you demolished contained the funds for my hiring fee and food expenses. Not to mention the cost of the wagon itself..."
"Ah."
The cost of the wagon. I hadn't even factored that in. Not handing me over to the government really had been an act of immense mercy...
"Urgh..."
Why did I have to go and lose my temper back then?
Rustle.
"Still, I can't very well let you starve." Gawol rummaged through a bundle he pulled from somewhere, producing a grilling grate and a slab of dried meat.
"...Huh?"
"Do you know how to cook rice?"
"N-No."
"Good grief... Then just roast some jerky while you wait."
Fwip.
"......"
Dumbfounded, I stared down at the wire rack and dried meat shoved into my hands. Wait, was he actually going to feed me?
"And here you were, acting like you wouldn't give me a single bite..."
"My personal philosophy is that growing youths need their sustenance."
There he went teasing me again.
"Hm? Not angry this time?"
"Not if you're feeding me."
If enduring a little banter could earn me a square meal, it was an absolute steal. I'd put up with far worse back in the day.
"Well, if you say so." Gawol pulled out a jar filled with a dark liquid resembling soy sauce from his pack. "This is seasoning sauce. It'll taste much better if you brush it on before grilling."
"Mmm... true enough."
I remembered swiping a piece of dried meat that my adoptive father had been having with his liquor once; it had tasted literally like sun-dried raw beef without a hint of seasoning.
"People around here usually just eat it plain, after all..."
Having expected the savory, seasoned jerky I used to buy whenever I went on military leave in my past life, I hadn't been particularly fond of the slightly gamey, unseasoned stuff here. To think I'd never considered basting it with sauce until now—what a waste.
"Uh, but how am I supposed to light a fire?"
"Figure that out yourself. I have to cook too."
"Cook...? Out here?"
"Yes. Technically porridge, but still..." He hauled out a small sack of rice, scooped out a handful, and dropped it into a metal pot. "If you're traveling alone, shouldn't you at least be able to feed yourself?"
"Whoa..."
Color me impressed. Whenever I wasn't passing through a town, I'd just forage wild greens or hunt an animal and roast it on a stick.
Still, making fire with my bare hands was a bit out of reach, so I had to wheedle some tools out of him.
"At least lend me a flint, then." I bet he has one.
The moment I asked, Gawol's face twisted into an expression of sheer pity.
"Wait... you don't even carry flint? When you claim to have traveled alone for months?"
"Usually, I'd strike river stones with my blade until a spark caught by sheer luck. Or, well..."
"Or what?"
"I just tore into it raw."
Turns out it went down fine. The digestion of a Rangin was truly something magnificent.
"......"
He flinched, taking an involuntary step back.
"What? Why that face? I'm not going to eat you. Humans don't even taste good, you know." That was what some documentary I watched in my past life had said.
"No... I was thinking about parasites."
Ah. That wasn't the issue, huh.
"I-It's fine! As long as we don't share an outhouse—"
"Haaah... I don't even know where to begin correcting you..."
"Whoa!"
Snatch!
I barely managed to catch the flint he tossed my way.
"Just go build a fire. Before it gets any later."
"Ah, right..."
"Seriously, listening to you talk, you're not a rogue... you're an outright wild beast. Parasites... Should I brew some chinaberry bark for you or something?"
Muttering under his breath, Gawol headed off to draw water for the porridge.
"Puff... fuuuh..."
It—it caught!
"Aaargh... finally..."
After wrestling with it for nearly twenty minutes, I finally managed to coax a flame from the dry tinder. I looked over at Gawol with a puff of pride.
"Well? Pretty handy, aren't I?"
Look at that, a personal best!
In response to my boast, Gawol only gave me a lukewarm stare.
"My rice is already boiling."
"Huh? Where?"
No way. Without even a flint? That was impossible—
Where Gawol's index finger pointed, steam was indeed puffing from the pot suspended over a neat little hearth. How was he that fast...?!
"...Wow. Talk about hitting a wall."
"A wall? What wall?"
Slip of the tongue again.
"I mean, you're really good at making fires."
"Is that a compliment, or an insult?"
"A compliment! Pure praise."
Why did I feel like I was losing here...?
Sniff, sniff.
Just then, a sharp burning smell tickled my nose.
"Hey, does something smell like it's burning to you... WAAAH!"
Plumes of dark smoke were billowing from the wire rack. I scrambled over in a panic to rescue the jerky.
"Aaaah! It—it's not burned, right?!"
Fortunately, only the sauce glazed over the surface had blackened; the meat itself seemed mostly unscathed.
"Phew..."
Gawol strolled over at a leisurely pace.
"Ah, what a shame. If you'd burned it to a crisp, I wouldn't have had to give you any porridge."
"Hey! If I burned it, basic decency dictates you should console me with some food!"
"......According to whose rules?"
"Well, I mean..."
I had no comeback for that. For the very first time, I actually felt a pang of nostalgia for my clan's estate, where almost any problem could be solved with a single word.
"This debt... I swear I'll repay it."
"I'm certainly hoping you do."
"Not that debt!"
"......"
"Hey! Don't ignore me!"
"Just make sure you don't burn the meat again."
"Urgh—"
I was thoroughly bested. Still, just wait. One day when he was in grave danger, I'd swoop in heroically to save his neck, forcing a gasp of admiration right out of him.
Until then—!
"Ah, the porridge is done. For the record, it's not pure white rice."
"Heheh, brown rice is great too!"
Forget dignity. Time to eat. I was starving.
Burrrp— Pwah!
"Man, that hit the spot."
The grilled jerky turned out surprisingly decent. The sweet and savory soy glaze caressed the tongue with a deeply satisfying tang. If only the portion had been twice as big...
"Did you make the sauce yourself?"
"Yes. But did you really have to burp like an ill-mannered slob...?"
"Ahem..."
I wanted to snap back with a So what?, but that would hardly be polite to the cook.
"A-Anyway, it was delicious."
"I can tell, considering you expressed your appreciation with your whole body."
"Can we... maybe stop pointing that out?" At this point, even my thick skin was starting to heat up.
"Well, fine. As for the sauce, it's my mother's recipe."
"Your mother must be a wonderful cook."
"......Yes. She was."
Past tense...? Wait, did I just step on an emotional landmine?
It felt like I'd stuck my foot in my mouth yet again.
"Ah, um... did something... happen to her...?"
"Haaah..." Gawol took on a distant, wistful expression.
"......"
Gulp. My throat tightened with nervous apprehension.
Squeeze.
"She decided cooking was too much of a chore and dumped all the chores onto me... That was seven years ago already." Gawol's fists clenched tight in simmering resentment. "A deadbeat father, and a mother who abandoned all domestic duties..."
"Aha... ha. W-Well, at least she's still hale and healthy!"
"Far too healthy, if you ask me."
His brow furrowed deeply, weighted by years of accumulated grudges.
Yikes. Opened my big mouth. When a conversation turned sour like this, making a tactical retreat was always the best course of action.
"I'll do the dishes—"
"No, I'll handle it. You should save your strength."
"Haha, r-right."
"Yes. Go fetch Daeseong over there and wait in the wagon."
"Got it..."
Trudge, trudge.
Man, he actually looks pretty scary when he's genuinely pissed off...
After a few strides, Daeseong, who had been peacefully grazing, ambled over toward me.
Neighhh.
"Yeah... he told us to rest."
Snort.
"Attagirl. Let's go."
With a shake of her mane and a snort, she trotted faithfully behind me.
"...Oh, right." I called out to Gawol, who was scrubbing the wire rack by the stream. "By the way, is she a mare or a stallion?"
"She's a mare. Why? Isn't it an obviously lovely name?"
"Mmm..."
Setting aside whether 'Daeseong' was an appropriate name for a mare...
"Then what about your name?" What kind of name was Gawol for a strapping young man anyway?
"Haaah..."
A grinding sound echoed from between Gawol's teeth.
"My father named me. Apparently, my kicks in the womb were so feeble he assumed I was going to be a girl."
Oops. Did I push another button?
"But you came out a boy."
"He said it was too bothersome to pick a new one. Claimed my late grandmother liked it, too."
"Aha... So what does it mean?"
"Hmm... Why don't you tell me yours first? If anything, Siun sounds far more like a man's name."
"Ah... well, that's..."
Hmm... Let's think.
It was a memory from over thirty years ago now. Back in elementary school, our teacher had given us homework to look up the Hanja characters of our names.
Back then, I didn't even know my name was based on Chinese characters. Bracing myself for a beating, I had asked my mother, and on that rare day, she happened to be in high spirits and gladly told me. If I recalled correctly...
"Wild dog, and cloud, I think."
"'Si' as in dhole, and 'Un' as in cloud... Well, that certainly suits a wandering vagabond."
"Does it...?"
Of course, there was no way she could have predicted I'd turn out like this. Nor had I. For all I knew, she might have just pulled that meaning out of thin air while drunk, but it hardly mattered now.
"Well, as they say, interpretation is better than the dream."
"If you say so. Right, let's get moving."
Having finished scrubbing the cookware in the meantime, Gawol securely hitched Daeseong to the wagon and climbed aboard. I hopped up onto the seat beside him.
"Hey, wait. What does your name mean?"
"That is... Oh dear, look at the time. Not long until noon. We must hurry."
"Hey!"
I can see you dodging the question in broad daylight!
"I'll tell you what my name means next time."
"Urgh. Only I spilled my guts..."
And just like that, with a smooth brush-off, I was left completely in the dark regarding the meaning behind Gawol's name.