A Tale Of A Scribe Who Retires To The Countryside [EN]: Chapter 398

398. The Heart of the Empire

The procession of Son Bin and his party heading to the imperial capital was quite grand.

First, there were two large elephants, along with wagons carrying luggage, wagons carrying maids, and horses ridden by escort warriors.

No one would dare to bother a procession with armed escorts and elephants. Thanks to this, their journey was uneventful, and they received good treatment in towns and cities.

Occasionally, they were invited by local lords or influential figures, but the eloquent Hwang Merchant, using various excuses—mainly stating that they had to reach the imperial capital urgently, or citing religious and customary reasons—declined.

However, there were also disadvantages. The size of the group had increased, and the elephants weren’t as fast as expected, so the procession had to proceed slowly.

“Leisurely, isn’t it?”

Old Gun, sitting on the elephant and swaying, muttered to himself. Son Bin, who was sitting behind him, responded to his words.

“Yes. Elephants aren’t as fast as I thought. They were very fast during the battle.”

“No, not that…….”

Old Gun glanced back at the procession.

Seo-rin and Sword Dame were the only ones riding the white elephant. Originally, Old Gun drove the white elephant, but he switched with Seo-rin for a while.

Only Son Bin is on the elephant that Old Gun is driving now. Everyone else rode in the wagons. Actually, considering the shaking, wagons are better. The road to the imperial capital is quite well-paved.

“It’s much more relaxed than before.”

Indeed, as Old Gun said. When they had no money, it was hard, hot, and tiring, but now, swaying leisurely like this, even the hot weather is quite bearable.

Thump, thump, thump.

“By the way, weren’t you going to use a divine skill?”

Old Gun suddenly asked. Son Bin looked at him, wondering what he was talking about, and Old Gun spoke again.

“Before catching the Water Demon God. You asked me to teach you about divine skills.”

Son Bin realized what Old Gun was talking about.

“Ah, that?”

“Yes, that.”

Looking leisurely ahead, Old Gun continued.

“What was the result? If you’ve been thinking about it, you must have come up with something. You didn’t seem to do anything during the Water Demon God incident…….”

“I did?”

“What?”

Old Gun immediately frowned and looked at Son Bin.

“You did? You used a divine skill?”

As far as he knew, Son Bin had never used a divine skill, not during the Water Demon God incident, nor at any time until now. So it was natural for him to ask back.

“Ah, not a divine skill…….”

Son Bin said with an awkward smile.

“I just realized that cutting is faster.”

Old Gun looked at Son Bin with a blank expression. His expression was so clear that he didn’t understand what he was saying, so Son Bin calmly added an explanation.

“So, didn’t I throw the Water Demon God at the castle walls back then? Coincidentally, General Vikram Singh was standing right above where the Water Demon God was going to land. I thought, ‘Oops,’ but my gaze was already directed at General Vikram. The Water Demon God probably realized that too.”

“Did he?”

Frowning, Old Gun tilted his head. He didn’t particularly feel that way at the time.

“So?”

“So, at that time, I tried to ride the flow to stop the Water Demon God. To be precise, it felt like stepping into a flowing river…….”

“You didn’t do it anyway. Leave that out.”

Old Gun said, urging him. Son Bin paused for a moment with a sullen expression, then immediately continued. He didn’t want to irritate Old Gun.

“At that time, I thought, ‘Isn’t it faster to just cut than for me to go?'”

Old Gun frowned. Of course, that was a natural thing to say. But wasn’t there a problem? A very important and big problem.

“But how? It wasn’t within sword’s reach.”

“Um, so if you ask how…….”

Son Bin thought for a moment and said.

“The moon is far away, but it illuminates the whole world, doesn’t it? Trees, grass, and people too.”

“That’s right.”

“And you also said that teaching a bird how to walk is useless.”

“Yes.”

Son Bin said to Old Gun, who was nodding.

“It’s like that?”

Old Gun’s expression changed bizarrely. Then it quickly turned red and blue. It was clear that a burst of shouting was about to erupt, so Son Bin quickly continued.

“To be specific, it’s like an application of Breaking the Moon and Swallowing the Sun [a powerful sword technique]. It’s similar in that it loads the sword onto the flow of cause and effect, where there is a cause and a result, but it boldly skips unnecessary processes. The goal isn’t Breaking the Moon and Swallowing the Sun, so there’s no need to do all of that, right?”

Old Gun blinked. Son Bin carefully watched Old Gun’s expression and said cautiously.

“So, that’s how it is…….”

After a moment of silence, Old Gun said.

“So that was Breaking the Moon and Swallowing the Sun?”

“No, it wasn’t?”

Son Bin shook his head with a serious expression.

“There’s no way that’s Breaking the Moon and Swallowing the Sun, is there? It’s just an application, a simple application, right? Uh, so what should I call this…….”

“No need to say it.”

Old Gun said in a firm voice.

“So you’re saying you can cut unconditionally regardless of distance?”

“Not unconditionally…….”

“How can there be anything so absurd? How can you stop that?”

Son Bin’s explanation was tantamount to saying that no one could escape his sword strike. It was natural for Old Gun to get angry.

“You can avoid it?”

“What?”

Son Bin explained seriously to Old Gun.

“I told you this isn’t Breaking the Moon and Swallowing the Sun, right? If you avoid it, you can’t cut it. It just skips the distance. And the power is also very limited. It’s not like Breaking the Moon and Swallowing the Sun…….”

Son Bin smiled awkwardly, as if embarrassed.

“It can’t even be compared. Didn’t you see it back then?”

Old Gun couldn’t help but smile at Son Bin’s words, who casually said ‘skips the distance’.

But now is not the time to argue about that. Certainly, as Son Bin said, that strike that ignored the distance only managed to leave a scar on the Water Demon God’s skin.

Instead of splitting the Water Demon God in half.

“It can’t even be compared.”

Old Gun chuckled.

“That sword you swung down, that was it back then. That sword strike you did during the Immovable Bright King fight.”

“You recognized it.”

Son Bin smiled shyly. What he swung down at the Water Demon God was not an ordinary sword strike. It was the very sword he had swung once while fighting the Immovable Bright King, trying to cut off his momentum.

“I thought the Immovable Bright King avoided it, so the Water Demon God would avoid it too. From the beginning, I was trying to make him move away from that spot.”

“Hmph.”

That was a snort of disbelief. So Son Bin unleashed that great sword strike merely as a feint, to make the Water Demon God move away from that spot.

Even Old Gun couldn’t help but let out a hollow laugh.

“You, are you actually a similar type to Wol-ah?”

“Saying that people have types is a bit…… And I’m not a genius like Young Lady Wol-ah.”

Son Bin tried to resist slightly. But he didn’t have the courage to keep pushing it against Old Gun.

Still, it’s true that he’s not a genius. There’s no way a genius would have struggled so much for years preparing for the civil service exam, right? And there’s even less of a chance they’d fail the provincial exam.

“Name?”

Old Gun, who had been staring intently at Son Bin, suddenly asked.

“Name for what?”

“The name of that sword strike.”

At those words, Son Bin smiled embarrassedly.

“What kind of name would you give to such a simple sword strike…….”

Old Gun also chuckled.

“It’s better to think about it now. Later on, you’ll be too lazy and just give it a half-hearted name. Or it’ll become a bizarre name full of hot air.”

With those words, Old Gun turned his head.

Stroking the elephant, Old Gun looked silently at the road and sighed deeply. Then, this time, he chuckled to himself.

‘Are you okay?’

Son Bin carefully watched Old Gun’s expression. He wondered if he had caught something in the hot weather.

But Old Gun didn’t say anything more. Anyway, it seemed like he had gotten over it for now, so Son Bin rode the monotonous swaying of the elephant and continued his journey towards the imperial capital.

It was a leisurely and relaxed road, just like Old Gun said.

***

The imperial capital, Delhi, could be easily recognized even from afar. This was partly because the surrounding area was a wide plain, but more than anything, it was because the scale of the city was so vast that it made one’s jaw drop.

“……It’s unbelievably big.”

“It’s really big.”

Hwang Merchant exclaimed with his mouth open, and Son Bin nodded in agreement. The maids in the wagon were also leaning out to look at the largest city in the empire.

“Wow! It’s really big!”

Seo-rin, riding on the white elephant, shouted. Old Gun, who was driving the white elephant, was also inwardly impressed by the bustling scene of Delhi.

Dang Wol-ah, who was wearing a black veil, and Sa Su-yeon, who had prepared herself with fancy clothes and a sparkling veil, also shone with curiosity. Only Sword Dame, sitting silently behind Sa Su-yeon, showed no change. Or, at least, didn’t seem to.

“Look, there are other elephants too!”

Seo-rin shouted, pointing to the elephants in the distance.

On the road leading to the imperial capital Delhi, there were people riding elephants besides Son Bin’s party. On the elephants, which were decorated in somewhat gaudy colors according to Son Bin’s standards, sat people who appeared to be nobles, leisurely.

It wasn’t just elephants. People coming and going, as well as wagons carrying all sorts of goods, were constantly entering and leaving the imperial capital.

Thump, thump, thump.

The closer they got to Delhi, the more wagons, horses, and people there were. Eventually, when Son Bin’s party entered the imperial capital, they had to move slowly even though the road was very wide.

“Ugh, it’s crowded and noisy here.”

Seo-rin frowned and grumbled.

Seo-rin’s first impression of Delhi, the capital of the empire, was not very good. The fact that there were many people meant that it was a prosperous city, but the loud noise and complexity were unavoidable.

“As expected of the capital of the empire, everyone is fancy? Oh, look at that. What is that?”

Hwang Merchant, on the other hand, was shining his eyes and engrossed in sightseeing. He couldn’t take his eyes off when he discovered unusual objects.

Son Bin was also surprised.

The buildings next to the wide main street were mostly two stories or more, and long awnings were attached to the second-floor railings to provide shade. People leaned against them, chatting or watching Son Bin’s party pass by with interest.

“These guys are funny too. They show off their bellies and bare feet, but they think they’re all covered up just by covering their faces?”

Old Gun grumbled, looking at the women chatting on the second-floor railing. Leaning casually, they were freely exposing their bare feet.

“They are from the Land of the Sky. Among the families of the lords, there are many who actually reside in the imperial capital. The Muslims are over there. They all covered their hair with thin scarves, didn’t they?”

As Hwang Merchant said, most of the women passing by on the street were covering their hair with a thin cloth, called a hijab [a head covering worn by Muslim women]. The patterns and colors were bright, and they matched the clothing quite well, making them look rather stylish.

“What’s that thing that’s completely covered up? Isn’t it hot?”

On the street, there were also very few women wearing black clothes called chadors [a full-body cloak worn by some Muslim women], which completely covered them from head to toe. All that was visible was their slender face.

“Ah, yes. That is also a traditional Muslim costume. Usually, only very devout people wear it because it’s hot. They say it’s very stifling.”

Old Gun clicked his tongue at Hwang Merchant’s words. It looked hot just looking at it, so it must be a hardship for the person wearing it.

“I see why everyone thought Wol-ah was a Muslim.”

Dang Wol-ah completely covered her face. Considering that even very devout Muslims leave their faces exposed, it’s easy to see what the people here thought of Dang Wol-ah.

“But the reaction is more lukewarm than I thought. Hasn’t the rumor spread yet?”

Hwang Merchant said with a sullen expression. There were many curious glances towards Son Bin’s party, but no one cheered like in Lahore.

The white elephant did attract some attention, but this kind of procession was not uncommon for the people here.

“If it becomes a bit of a topic and rumors spread, it will be easier to enter the imperial palace later…….”

In fact, it wasn’t really fair to say that the reaction was lukewarm. The street was so crowded that it was hard to tell, but the wealthy people sitting on the second floor were definitely paying attention to the mysterious Sa Su-yeon riding the white elephant.

“It won’t matter. After all, the imperial family wouldn’t be swayed by rumors.”

Hwang Merchant nodded at Son Bin’s words.

“I guess so. In the end, we’ll have to go through the formal procedures. According to what the lord of Lahore told me, we should first contact the one in charge of diplomacy…….”

Hwang Merchant’s words suddenly stopped. The sight unfolding far away on the wide main street in front of the group caught his attention.

Son Bin also naturally turned his head.

“What is that?”

Listening to Hwang Merchant’s voice, Son Bin also blinked. It was something unknown, as Hwang Merchant said, but quite a rare sight.

Across the crowded main street, a large green flag with a golden lion and sun emblazoned on it could be seen. The flag was slowly approaching this way along the road from afar. It was still far away, so it wasn’t certain, but dozens of cavalrymen followed behind it.

The really amazing sight was that the waves of people and wagons were parting like the sea before the cavalrymen holding the golden lion and sun flag.

The people, horses, and wagons that filled this wide road were all opening the way for that flag.

“Oh, do we have to move aside too?”

It was natural for Hwang Merchant to say that. But before Son Bin could answer, the escort warriors began to move to the edge of the main road.

The Celestial escort who was driving Son Bin’s elephant also steered the elephant to the side, and Old Gun also finally grasped the situation and moved the white elephant.

“Tsk. It’s already crowded, who the hell is coming that’s causing this?”

Old Gun’s grumbling could be heard by Son Bin as the elephants stuck close together. Son Bin couldn’t help but sympathize with the complaint.

That ostentatiously flashy flag clearly indicated that a high-ranking official or influential person of the empire was passing by. The cavalrymen following behind were probably the escorts accompanying those influential figures.

That’s why people were opening the way for that flag. Stopping their busy steps and enduring being crowded into one side of the bustling main street like this.

“Hey, ask someone who it is. Even if we have to move aside, we should at least know who it is so we can curse them later…….”

Old Gun’s voice, which had been speaking to Hwang Merchant, trailed off.

The first reason was because he saw the people paying their respects to the flag, and the second was because he realized that the green flag with the golden lion and sun was approaching this way.

“What? Why are they coming this way?”

Old Gun frowned. Hwang Merchant made a somewhat ambiguous expression and suddenly slapped his knee.

“I know! That flag is…….”

Clatter, clatter, clatter.

Hwang Merchant’s words could no longer continue. The cavalry unit with the ornate flag appeared in front of Son Bin’s party.

Pushing the other people, horses, and wagons that were already crowded to one side even further.

Clatter.

The cavalry unit holding the flag stopped in front of Son Bin’s party. The people around, as well as the escorts of Son Bin’s party, were paying their utmost respects to them.

At first glance, it looked like a fully armed cavalry unit, but judging from the excessively shiny decorations and impractical weapons, it was clear that it was a unit for ceremonies or ceremonial events.

“Are you the delegation from ‘Rani’ from the Northern Sea?”

A young man, probably a high-ranking officer, who decorated his turban with particularly flamboyant feathers, asked in an overbearing manner.

His appearance, with one hand on his hip, was quite arrogant and full of pride.

“That flag is…….”

Hwang Merchant said quickly, as if whispering. No matter how urgent it was, he had to inform the group of this fact.

“It is a flag symbolizing the imperial family.”

Flutter.

The green flag symbolizing the imperial family, embroidered with a golden lion and sun, fluttered proudly behind the young high-ranking officer.

(Author’s Note)

Old Gun: More than that, what about the divine skill?

Son Bin: Uh, it seems like my heart doesn’t want it?

Old Gun: (Sigh) It’s not your heart, it’s just you.