The Camel Contest Grand War (2)
Jin Yigang drove his camel over to where Poi Rap stood with Oh Gwang.
"That fellow back there kept saying Talca. What's that supposed to mean?" he asked Poi Rap.
"A Talca is a racing camel with the finest bloodline there is."
"Finest bloodline — meaning it runs the best?"
"That too, but it's called the finest mainly because it serves only one master in its whole life."
"So has this one accepted me as its master?"
"I'd say it's still sizing you up."
"So it's all up to me from here on, then?"
"That's right."
"And if I do become its master, can it actually perform?"
"That would be difficult."
"Why?"
"Its leg has been broken before."
"So it's useless as a racer?"
"Right. Instead, it's exceedingly valuable as a stud."
"So that's why it suits him so well," Oh Gwang murmured under his breath.
"What's that supposed to mean?" Poi Rap asked.
"I'm saying that rascal's a stud too."
Oh Gwang thrust his clenched right fist forward and gripped his own right elbow with his left hand.
"……?"
"Meaning that boy's a stallion himself, if you catch my drift."
"Pfft!"
Poi Rap snorted with laughter.
"You figured out who that fellow is that quickly?" Oh Gwang asked, glancing at Jin Yigang.
"How would I know a thing like that?"
"He's a child of a god."
"A child of a god?"
"A First Grade."
"Which people count as First Grade?"
"Most of the sons of the founding meritorious families are First Grade."
"Are all the ones riding camels right now First Grade?" This time he asked Poi Rap.
"No. First, Second, and Third Grades are all mixed in together."
"If it's not even a race, why are they riding those camels so hard?"
"It is a race."
"……A camel race, you say?"
"That's right. They hold one every year."
"Are there prizes too?"
"Prizes beyond imagination."
"Elixirs? The kind that cure anything?"
"There have been every year."
"Can I enter too?"
"Have you ever ridden a camel?"
"Today's the first time I've even seen one."
"……Fall off a camel at full gallop and you could break your neck or your back and die."
"Are Grade Fives allowed to enter or not?"
"I've heard nothing of any restriction on eligibility."
"Then that's all I need to know."
Jin Yigang broke into a wide grin.
Camel racing had begun with Jamilwon, the former master of Geumcheon Manor. They had built a massive camel arena on the estate's outskirts and raced there.
What began as a race held once every few years became, at some point, an annual event — and then a festival for the entire imperial capital. From then on it was called the Camel Contest Grand War. Every year, hundreds of camels came in from the desert to compete, and when the empire fell, they remained at Jamilwon untouched. The people changed, but the Grand War carried on.
The Emperor kept holding the Grand War despite it being a relic of the old empire for one simple reason: it was superbly effective at smothering the common folk's gripes and grumbling.
With the Grand War showing no sign of dying, each of the great families began sending people to the Parasa Bureau to purchase fine camels, and the Geumwi Guard went so far as to make camel riding part of its official curriculum — holding its own internal races and even awarding prizes to the winners.
It was no different once the realm became a martial empire. The Camel Contest Grand War endured.
The punitive expedition's training program had originally included no camel race at all. The race had been added because most of the expedition force had never set foot in a desert and harbored a vague dread of it — the reasoning went that if they drove camels in competition, they might grow accustomed to the beasts sooner.
"This has gotten big," Oh Gwang said.
"What's gotten big?" Jin Yigang asked.
"This isn't just a simple camel race."
"Then what is it?"
"The race being held this time is the Camel Contest Grand War."
"Seriously?"
"It's really turned into the actual Grand War?"
Amira and Padun asked with astonished faces.
"Would somebody kindly explain to me what the 'Camel Contest Grand War' is?" Jin Yigang said, looking around at his companions.
"You don't know?" Amira asked.
"I've never had the slightest interest in that sort of thing……"
"Then this big sis will explain it properly, so listen up. The Grand War is a colossal gambling table that draws in most of the families in Cheondo, the leading families of the provinces, and every gambler and freebie-chaser in the land."
"Colossal how, exactly?"
"There was a saying that all the money wagered on the Grand War, added together, could buy the Central Plains five times over."
"The prizes must be staggering too?"
Jin Yigang looked at Oh Gwang.
"Beyond words."
"Staggering how?"
"First, second, and third place get to enter the Heavenly Treasury and walk out with a volume of a secret martial manual."
"They give away secret martial manuals?"
"They do."
"That's it?"
"If that were all, there'd be no reason to call it staggering."
"What's the second prize?"
"The second prize is elixirs. First place receives the Yin-Yang Life-Death Fruit, a natural divine elixir, along with the Nine Dragon Divine Pill, which grants a full Jia cycle of inner power; second and third place receive one Nine Dragon Divine Pill apiece."
"What kind of fruit is this Yin-Yang Life-Death Fruit?"
"It looks like a peach. A single fruit carries both the yin and the yang energies within it — it grants over two Jia cycles of power, and on top of that, it's the elixir of elixirs, said to pull back even someone whose breath stopped moments ago."
"The elixir of elixirs?"
"And that's not all."
"What else is there?"
"Not a medicine this time — they also award the Ice White Fire Spirit Bead and the Ink Staff. First place only, naturally."
"What are those?"
"The Ice White Fire Spirit Bead is a treasure untouched by both water and fire, and it's said that carrying it cures even incurable diseases. The Ink Staff is rumored to be a relic of the Heavenly Demon. If you unravel the secrets of both of them……"
"You can obtain the supreme martial art under heaven, right?"
"Right."
Oh Gwang nodded.
"When is it?"
"A fortnight from now."
"A fortnight, hmm……"
Jin Yigang fished three pills out of the box tucked in among his robe and his books.
"Where are you going?"
"I've got to get on that camel's good side if I want it to let me ride it, don't I?"
"You're going to the camel pen?"
"You said a fortnight, didn't you?"
"You're going to practice for a fortnight and enter the race?"
"You don't leave good equipment sitting idle. I'm off."
Jin Yigang headed outside.
The camel pen was quite a distance away.
When he arrived, he took out a night lamp and shone his way inside.
"You don't much care for the others, do you?" he said, seeing the camel standing alone in its stall. The camel stared straight at him.
"Scoot over a little."
He stepped into the stall, leaned against the camel's belly, and lay down.
Kuek!
The camel rumbled a low grunt.
"Here. Eat this."
Jin Yigang took out the three Strong Sinew Pills he'd been holding in his mouth and offered them up. The camel stared at him, and its look plainly said, what's wrong with you, you madman?
"They're Strong Sinew Pills — they reinforce your muscles, you brute. Take them every day for the next fortnight and you'll be no mere stud — you'll be a true Talca. Eat up."
Whether it understood him or not, the camel chewed the pills down, slow and thoughtful.
"Now, let's sleep."
Jin Yigang said it softly and closed his eyes. Before long, an even, easy breathing drifted from his nose.
When Jin Yigang showed no sign of stirring, the camel seemed to give up and drifted off as well.
Having slept in the camel pen, Jin Yigang sought out Poi Rap the next day.
"What brings you?" Poi Rap asked.
"There's that camel I fought."
"Chunja, you mean?"
"Its name is Chunja?"
"That's right."
"Why Chunja?"
"Because it arrived in spring."
"I want to enter the Grand War with that one. Think it's possible?"
"You do know the Grand War is a fortnight away?"
"I've got Chunja, don't I?"
"Properly learning to ride the beast in a fortnight won't be easy either."
"You just give the permission, old man. I'll handle the rest myself."
"All right. I'll have Chunja excused from training."
"And introduce me to one more person."
"What sort of person?"
"Someone to train me as a rider."
"Hmm…… I'll look around."
"Thanks."
Jin Yigang returned to the pen.
The keepers happened to be feeding the camels — most of them were people of Bianhuang.
"Until the race is over, I'll be looking after this one. I'll do the feeding myself."
Jin Yigang carried hay into the camel's stall.
Chunja was up on its feet.
He came in with the feed and filled the trough, and Chunja began chewing the grass slowly.
"You eat well, don't you?"
Jin Yigang sat down to one side and opened a book. These days, the book in his hands was a Bianhuang language primer.
"A little more of this and I'll be able to manage greetings, at least."
Only a few pages remained.
"Chunja-ya."
He called the camel in the Bianhuang tongue, but it didn't turn its head. He tried another language. By the time he had worked through ten languages, Chunja whipped its head around.
"Oh—! So you're from the Qamir tribe!"
At once, the Qamir tongue came flowing out of Jin Yigang's mouth.
Kueok!
Having finished the hay, the camel cried out low.
"Good. Let's go."
Jin Yigang rose with his book in hand, led the beast outside, and swung himself up onto its back.
"Ride bareback like that and your backside and thighs will be flayed raw!" one of the instructors shouted.
"Bareback suits me fine for now. By the way — is that over there the racecourse?" Jin Yigang asked, pointing at the training ground.
"The racecourse is separate. This is the training ground."
"Thanks."
Jin Yigang drove the camel toward the training ground.
As if in deference to the coming Grand War, a fence had been strung around the training ground's edge.
"This way, then."
He urged Chunja along outside the fence.
Dududududu! Dududududu!
Other camels went thundering past the two of them at terrifying speed as they walked.
Chunja flinched, as if its competitive spirit had just ignited. They'd called it the finest bloodline among racing camels, and sure enough, the mere sight of another camel running had its whole body itching to bolt.
"Not yet. You've got to learn by watching the others run first. You need to feel what the ground is like, too."
Jin Yigang tapped the camel's hump lightly with his foot.
Kuek!
The camel shook its head side to side and kept walking. Jin Yigang read his book from atop its back.
"This is surprisingly comfortable, actually."
The camel's gait — the left pair of legs striking first, then the right — carried far less jarring than riding a horse ever did.
"So that's why they call you the ship of the desert — you glide along like you're rowing a boat."
It wasn't the crossing of deserts that had earned camels the name, after all. It was the way they moved, like vessels over water.
Dududududu! Dududududu!
Several camels raced past in a clamor of hoofbeats.
"I told you — watch and learn first."
The language Jin Yigang used when speaking to Chunja was Qamir. Even after completing a full circuit, he didn't stop, but kept circling.
"Getting anywhere?"
A few Twin-Ten Squad members wandered over.
"Getting by."
"Here's your food."
"You even brought me food?"
Jin Yigang looked at them with startled eyes.
"Wherever there's water, food follows — of course we brought some."
"My water-lords, are you?"
"We're practically betting our lives on you at this point."
"You do know I've never ridden a camel in my life, right?"
"We know."
"And you're still betting on me?"
"We're betting on the camel, not you."
"Chunja?"
"One of the instructors says that camel is the finest bloodline there is."
"But it's never raced. It's had a broken leg, and on top of that, I'm a rank beginner."
"We believe in the camel regardless. Worst case, we'll just pin you down and lash you to the saddle so you can't fall off, that's all. Anyway — practice hard. We've got other training to get to, so we're off. We'll see to it that you're excused without any trouble."
With that, the Twin-Ten Squad dispersed.
"Let's go."
Jin Yigang nudged the camel with his foot.
Chunja began to move again. Jin Yigang spent the entire day in the saddle. He ate his meals atop the camel, drank atop it, and even dozed sprawled across its back. When Chunja rested, he rested too.
Before he knew it, dusk had settled over the ground like spreading mist.
Dudududududu!
Kueoeok!
A camel soon planted itself in front of Jin Yigang. It was Irab Dahan, whom he'd crossed paths with just the day before.
"I believe I told you I'd kill you if you rode that camel?"
Irab Dahan radiated killing intent.
Jin Yigang stared at him for a long moment. Then he spoke.
"Say…… have you ever actually killed a person?"
"Killed?"
"You don't say you kill cows or pigs — you say you slaughter them, don't you?"
"So what I'm saying is……"
"I'm not talking about the practice kills you do to build up experience. I mean the real thing."
"……"
Irab Dahan could only glare at him in silence.
"Don't go tossing around words like killing someone so lightly, kid. Let's go."
Jin Yigang nudged Chunja's flank.
"Halt!"
Irab Dahan bellowed in fury.
Dududududu! Dududududu!
At that very moment, nine camels came racing up and blocked Jin Yigang's path.