I Never Joke About My Medicine (3)
"Give it your best shot."
Yuna unfolded the Faceless Illusion Art again, and her face began to shift, one form after another.
"Thank you for everything, by the way. Doesn't that tire you out?"
"Unfolding the Faceless Illusion Art?"
"Yeah."
"This is actually the easier way for me."
"……?"
"This happens on its own. Wearing my original face is what takes effort—I have to draw up my inner energy for that."
"You're the opposite of everyone else."
"That's right. Anyway, good luck out there."
Yuna turned her camel around and rode back.
Jin Yigang ate his meal while driving Chunja forward. Before he knew it, the sky had gone completely dark. Everyone who had been out practicing their riding had left, and Jin Yigang was the only one remaining.
"Shall we see what you can really do now?"
He set down the tray.
Then he gripped the reins and settled into position.
"Run!"
Khueok!
The moment Jin Yigang struck its neck, Chunja shot forward like an arrow off the string.
Dududududu!
It tore down the track like a beast exhaling all the breath it had been holding.
"You've got to master the turns!"
There had been no need to shout. Chunja was already following the racing course. It clearly wasn't used to the layout yet—he could feel it slow down noticeably through every curve.
"The turns are where this race will be won or lost."
He had no idea what the actual racecourse looked like, but this one consisted of two straightaways and two turning sections. Everyone ran fast on the straights, so even a burst of speed there would barely make a difference. Which meant the turning sections were bound to decide everything.
Jin Yigang poured a great deal of time into running the turns. But something still felt lacking.
"I'd better go get some advice."
He rode Chunja to the camel pens—it was time for a rest and a feeding. He set a pile of hay down in front of Chunja and headed for the handlers' quarters.
The handlers' quarters were impressively large as well. They looked even bigger than the punitive expedition's barracks.
He opened the door and stepped inside.
Everyone within turned to look at him at once—and every one of them was from the Western frontier.
"I had no idea there were this many of you…"
"That's because we're spread out working at each of the pens. What brings you here, sir?"
The man near the door asked—a white-haired elder with bronze skin.
"I have a request in with Instructor Poi Rap. I'm Gu-chil."
"The Murka."
The old man said quietly.
"What was that?"
"Oh—nothing. I'm Areukta. Have a seat."
"Thanks."
Jin Yigang sat down.
"Will you have some tea?"
"Tea can wait. Give me something to eat first."
"Food, you say?"
"I've been starving all day."
"……"
"I've been riding the camel this whole time."
"Chunja?"
"Yeah. I'll ride again after I eat, too."
"And your backside and thighs? Holding up?"
"A little sore, but nothing serious."
"Your stamina is remarkable."
Areukta nodded to his companions, and before long food arrived—mutton and thin, griddle-baked flatbread, the staples of the frontier people's diet.
Jin Yigang wrapped the mutton in the bread and ate.
"You know how to eat it properly, too."
Areukta said, watching him with evident interest. He had already heard about Jin Yigang from Poi Rap, and had even been asked to teach him how to ride.
He'd planned to visit the training grounds tomorrow—yet here the young man was, showing up at his door in the dead of night.
"I did a bit of studying."
"Studying?"
"I studied the frontier tribes."
"I'm of the Gaigeukja tribe."
"Kyrgyz?"
"Eh?"
Areukta blinked in surprise. Kyrgyz was the word for his tribe in their own tongue.
"I studied that too. And that beast Chunja—she's Qamir blood, isn't she?"
This time he spoke in the Kyrgyz language. It wasn't fluent, but the meaning came through well enough.
"What the—?"
Areukta's eyes went wide as they could go. And it wasn't just him. Everyone else in the room froze mid-motion and stared at Jin Yigang. A man of the Central Plains who spoke the frontier tongue was not something you saw every day.
"You learned the Kyrgyz tongue from books as well?"
Areukta asked in his own language.
"Not just Kyrgyz—I've picked up most of the desert tribes' languages."
Jin Yigang nodded.
"And why would you learn all that?"
"If I ever get stranded out there, I need to be able to talk my way into a meal, don't I?"
"Impressive. Truly impressive."
Areukta looked at him with open admiration.
"Anyway—this person Instructor Po was going to introduce me to. Who is it?"
"I was on my way to find you tomorrow, as it happens."
Areukta said.
"You, elder?"
"That's right."
"Then I came to exactly the right place. Do you have a camel saddle?"
"No."
"Then I'll get you one."
"Actually, could we skip the saddle and just fit stirrups?"
"Why would you…"
"No matter how light you make a saddle, it's still going to weigh something. I'm heavy enough as it is—with a saddle added on top, I doubt I'd get any real speed out of her."
"You've already figured that much out. Chidal!"
Areukta chuckled and called toward the back room.
"Yes?"
A man in his mid-thirties answered and turned toward them.
"Go make a stirrup-saddle. It's for Chunja."
"Understood."
The man called Chidal went inside.
"While the stirrup-saddle is being made, I'll walk you through the art of riding."
Areukta gave him a detailed lesson in handling a camel. About an hour later, the stirrup-saddle was finished.
A stirrup-saddle was the camel equivalent of a waist belt on a person.
The leather was about half a span wide—a double layer on top, single where it wrapped around the belly.
Jin Yigang and Areukta went out to the pens, fitted the stirrup-saddle onto Chunja, and headed outside. Areukta rode out on a camel of his own, mounting up the moment they reached the training grounds.
"In a race, you don't ride with your seat planted."
"Feel free to speak casually with me."
"Very well."
"So how do you ride?"
"You lift your hips up and press both knees tight against the camel's body. You bend your upper body forward until your chest nearly touches the hump, and you control the beast with the reins as you run. Here—use this."
Areukta held out a whip about a forearm and a half in length.
"How do I use it?"
"Hold it reversed and snap your wrist—strike the neck, or the hindquarters. You control the running speed with the number of strikes and how hard you lay them on."
"Is this the right position?"
Jin Yigang pressed his knees against the camel's body exactly as he'd just been told and raised his hips. Then he leaned his chest flush against the hump and fixed his gaze straight ahead.
"That's it. Now run."
"Hyah!"
With a sharp cry, he flicked the whip lightly across Chunja's neck.
Khueoeeok!
Chunja let out a bellow and tore off.
Beside them, Areukta galloped along on his own camel.
Before long, they entered the turning section.
"Lean your body to the inside!"
Areukta shouted.
Jin Yigang tensed his legs and tilted his body to the right—and Chunja's speed picked up, faster than before.
"You and the camel must become one completely! You have to feel her every movement! You must think that it's not the camel running—it's you!"
Areukta kept shouting as he ran alongside.
After completing a full lap, the two men drew up facing each other.
"You seemed faster than me, even so…"
Jin Yigang looked at Areukta's mount.
It was smaller than Chunja, with shorter legs. And yet it had outrun her. On the outside lane, no less.
"I was a racing camel jockey in my youth. And I wasn't even running at full effort just now."
"Shall we give it an honest try, then?"
"I was about to suggest exactly that."
The two men lined their camels up side by side.
"You give the start signal."
"Got it."
Jin Yigang gathered his breath.
"Go! Hyah!"
He roared and cracked his whip.
Khueoeee!
Chunja exploded forward. When walking, she moved both legs on the same side together—but at a run, her gait was much like a horse's.
On the straightaway, Chunja didn't lose ground to Areukta's camel. But the moment they hit the curve, she fell behind at once. Once the gap opened, it never closed. By the second turn, it had widened further. When they crossed the finish line, two hundred paces separated them.
"…What is it I'm lacking most, right now?"
"It's not just you—Chunja is lacking in every respect. I don't know if it's possible, but in the time remaining, you must train as hard as you can. Chunja has to become a true racing camel, and you have to become a jockey."
"Understood. Let's call it a day."
Jin Yigang nodded.
He led Chunja back toward the pens.
After putting her away, he followed Areukta to the handlers' quarters.
"Just give me a saddle."
"You're putting one on after all?"
"Seems better to use one for training."
"Very well."
"Give me the biggest one you've got."
After a moment, Areukta brought back a saddle.
"Is there a smithy around here, by any chance?"
"Of course—someone has to shoe the horses. Go out and follow the path to the right; you'll find it."
"Thanks."
Jin Yigang laid the saddle across Chunja's back and headed for the mess hall. There he bought a bottle of rice liquor and made his way to the smithy.
An old man about Areukta's age was working there.
"What brings you here?"
The blacksmith asked.
"Instructor Poi Rap sent me. He said if I mentioned his name, you'd give me whatever I wanted."
"And what is it you want?"
"First, take this."
"What is it?"
"A modest bribe."
"A bribe, you say?"
The old man looked back and forth between the bottle and Jin Yigang.
"Can't very well come asking favors empty-handed, now can I."
"Ha! What do you need?"
The old man snorted with laughter.
"I'm going to race on that beast over there."
"Chunja, is it."
"Yeah. First off, I want to load something heavy on her back and make her legs stronger than they are now."
"So you want iron worked into the saddle."
"Right."
"As it happens, I have an iron saddle on hand."
"What would something around a hundred fifty geun run me?"
"This one's a hundred seventy."
"Let's have a look."
"Follow me."
Jin Yigang followed the blacksmith. Before long, an iron saddle sat before him.
He lifted it to test the weight.
"Perfect."
He broke into a wide grin. The saddle was nearly identical in size to the one he'd brought, so it needed no adjustment at all. Better still, it was sheathed in leather on the outside—it didn't even look like iron.
"I take it someone's used this before?"
"It dates back to the old Yuan dynasty."
"Ah—! Do you know how it was used?"
"From what I hear, they kept it on the beast all day long."
"Thanks. I'll buy you a drink sometime."
Jin Yigang hoisted the saddle up and dropped it onto Chunja's back.
Khuok!
Startled by the sudden weight, Chunja shrieked.
"This is training, so none of that noise. When I finally take this off, you'll feel like you're flying."
Jin Yigang said, looking straight into her eyes.
"And that's a fine show of strength, sir, I must say."
The blacksmith said, eyeing him in astonishment.
"Strength?"
"That thing weighs a hundred seventy geun."
"Huh? So it does? Looks like the medicine's finally kicking in."
"You take medicine?"
"Yeah. Anything that's supposed to be good for the body, I swallow it—don't care what comes out of me or what went in. The only reason I'm entering this race at all is the medicine, truth be told. Anyway—thanks."
Jin Yigang grabbed Chunja's hump and vaulted up in a single bound. The saddle was on, but he still didn't sit down.
Khuok!
Chunja cried out again.
"Of course it's heavy, you stubborn beast. If it weren't heavy, why would I bother putting it on? Never mind—in no time you'll be all hard muscle, and the mares will be drooling and trailing after you everywhere you go. I'd bet money on it. Let's go."
Jin Yigang gave the reins a light flick.
Chunja started walking.
At the training grounds, they ran for about an hour—to get her accustomed to the weight of the saddle.
Once she seemed reasonably used to it, he rode her back to the barracks.
"Things going well?"
Padun asked as Jin Yigang came in.
"From tomorrow, bring me meat only—once a day."
"You're cutting down to one meal?"
"Yeah."
"Why?"
"They say the lighter the jockey, the better the odds."
"Trying to lose weight?"
"I need to slim down, and Chunja needs to get healthier."
He said, lifting up his bedding box.
"You're sleeping at the pens?"
"Yeah."
"You're dead serious about this, aren't you."
"I never joke about my medicine."