Magnificent Romance of the Three Kingdoms - Chapter 10

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“He got away?”
“Yes, Your Majesty. We lost him.”
This exchange took place between Great King Nammu and his Messenger, Anryu (晏留), in the Jeongdeok Jeon (Hall of Conquest and Virtue) inside the Goguryeo Royal Palace.
“He is not to escape! Pursue him to the ends of the earth and kill him, whatever the cost! Do you grasp the weight of my command? I will not be a puppet king, tossed about by his subjects like my predecessor. I must eliminate him; it is the only way to tear the elders’ loyalty away from the Chief Minister’s family and secure it for myself! And whilst you are at it, devise more rigorous plans for stamping out the other powerful clans. There can be no more failures like this one!”
“By your word, Your Majesty!”
Anryu bowed low, receiving the furious command.
“Now, leave. Go see your duty!”
“Yes!”
Nammu’s piercing eyes, set in his sharp jaw, burned with a greater, fiercer intensity than ever before.
“Ugh, ugh…!”
“My Lord! Can you hear me?”
Jong Chanmu’s cry was choked with relief and tears.
“Where… where is this place?”
Myeonglim Ryeohan’s gaze was slow, swimming as he tried to focus on his surroundings.
“My Lord!”
“Master!”
Cheers and sobs erupted from the retainers as Ryeohan struggled back to consciousness.
Yet, Ryeohan’s eyes drifted away, lost in the empty air.
Has it really been seventeen years?
The day my body was ripped to shreds?
Even then, the ending was agony, just like this.
Ever since I gained my memory, I was perpetually alone.
My father’s business went under, shattering our family, and I was dumped on my uncle’s doorstep. I was five years old, abandoned, and even there, I remained utterly alone, an outsider. My name was Jang Seryeong (張 世領). That name carried the bitter residue of loneliness everywhere I went. I was aimless. Having run away from my uncle’s house at ten, I grew up as a tramp and a pariah on the streets. That lasted until I decided to pursue an education at the age of sixteen.
After that, I studied like a maniac.
I was thrown out of job after job simply for trying to read a textbook during my shift. I practically bled from the nose trying to cram every spare moment, but the desperate effort paid off. At twenty-one, I passed the qualification exam equivalent to high school graduation, only to be immediately drafted into the military.
Later, at the late age of twenty-six, I was able to enter one of the most prestigious universities in Korea. I held onto my scholarship for dear life. It was there I found my sole comfort, Kim Eunhye (金恩惠). We were classmates, we fell deeply in love, and we were soon engaged. Hwang Mikyeong, who had always hovered around me, eventually spat a bitter ‘live well and prosper’ curse at me before leaving, but I didn’t care.
I was thirty and she was twenty-five.
Even then, my academic passion refused to cool.
Armed with nothing but a passport and an acceptance letter from a top US university, I set off for America.
Eunhye and her parents argued against it, but they couldn’t break my resolve—my thirst for knowledge in Resource Management, a more specialized branch of Business Administration.
Five years of gruelling struggle finally bore the fruit of a doctorate. Scouts and job offers flooded in. But all I wanted was to see Eunhye. I returned to the Republic of Korea, where she was supposedly waiting. Yet, the welcome I received was a dagger-thrust of betrayal. I found out she had married her boss and even had a child by the time I returned.
There had been warning signs from my third year in America, but I had rationalised them away. She called less and less, and eventually even changed her mobile number, which was deeply unsettling. But being so consumed by my studies, I dismissed it with the vague comfort that ‘she must be busy’—a grave mistake.
Shaking with rage and betrayal, I tracked down Mikyeong, Eunhye’s best friend and the one who had always orbited me during university. The result: she was working and still unmarried. I proposed to her on a whim, fueled by a cheap, petty desire for revenge. She said yes on the spot. We were quickly married, and because of Eunhye, I turned my back on the homeland I had grown disillusioned with. I accepted the best-paying offer from the places that had scouted me, and my wife and I boarded a plane bound for the US.
Despite the hurdles, our two-year marriage was a happy one. Then came the news that her father was critically ill, followed by the news of his death. To attend the funeral, we boarded a flight heading back to Korea.
Tragedy!
It was here, heartbroken and furious, that my wife and I were forced to abandon the lives that had not even truly begun to unfold.
All our dreams and hopes.
Even my lingering feelings and resentment towards Eunhye.
The return flight was unexpectedly engulfed in savage turbulence, and my body scattered into pieces in the air.
Taking all my dreams and ambition with it.
I regained consciousness inside the body of an infant.
It was the vacated shell of a pure soul who had barely survived a hundred days.
The name given to me was Myeonglim Ryeohan (明臨麗漢).
“My Lord, can you hear me?”
My soul returned to reality only after Chanmu’s repeated, passionate, and gentle inquiry.
“Where… where are we?”
“I don’t know the name, My Lord. The whole world is nothing but ice and snow.”
“Hngh…!”
As I groaned, touching the throbbing wound on my side, I saw another familiar face: the Strategist, Eulji Jimun.
“This is all my fault! Had I been wiser, My Lord wouldn’t be in this wretched state!”
I stopped his self-reproach with a shake of my head and spoke.
“Enough. Not another word. You are my revered mentor and my most valuable servant. Let’s focus on what’s next, or… ugh…!”
The wounds on my side and back had not fully healed. As I tried to move my torso to emphasise a point, a sharp pain forced me to stop. The faces of U Deukmu and Yeon Mussang drew closer, and I also saw the tearful faces of Danyeo.
“Buro?”
I asked about Buro, who was nowhere to be seen.
“The Strategist Eulji ordered him to evacuate with the retainers from Sillyeoseong (New Ryeo Fortress), as it was too dangerous to keep them here.”
Following U Deukmu’s reply, the Strategist Eulji Jimun spoke with a look of deep resignation.
“They say even monkeys fall from trees. The Master and I agreed to head north, away from Sillyeoseong, our base, but we never expected their main force to intercept us here! It seems they had a fairly competent strategist who managed to see through our plan of feigned emptiness.”
Ryeohan made no comment on the strategy, instead demanding to know their current reality.
“How many people do we have left?”
It was a question from Myeonglim Ryeohan, who was still too weak to fully sit up and survey his surroundings.
“After that relentless pursuit by those absolute curses, it seems we barely managed to save sixty souls.”
Yeon Mussang replied, his fists clenching tight.
“And our location?”
“We’re far north, past the Suksin (肅愼) region now. I think we’re somewhere in the tributaries of the Heunganyeong (Khingan Range).”
U Deukmu answered.
“Are they still hunting us?”
“They will be. I’ve seen their resolve; they will never give up.”
At the Strategist Eulji’s words, Ryeohan nodded internally and spoke.
“We must keep heading north, as far as we can. North, north, until we have enough distance and time to recover the strength needed to fight back. Eventually, we’ll reach the Tundra… (Blast!)… the Frozen Lands, where nothing but reindeer and mosses survive. We need to reach that area as soon as possible.”
Despite Ryeohan’s slip of the tongue—referencing the ‘Tundra’—they did not question it.
Since he was a man who read a great deal, they supposed he knew all sorts of obscure things, and as he was fluent in Han (Chinese) and even the Suksin language (later Malgal/Jurchen), they thought he had understood them in their own tongue. They focused only on his health.
“Can you endure the journey, My Lord?”
The Strategist Eulji asked, his eyes full of worry.
“Believe it or not, this body has been forged with Seon (Immortal/Divine) Power. Now that my mind is clear, stop worrying and let us go!”
“But you awoke and drifted off several times before, My Lord?”
Danyeo voiced her fear that he might lose consciousness again.
“I am fine now. Let us hurry!”
“Yes, sir!”
Yeon Mussang replied with vigour and took the lead.
They had to pull the horses along, as their feet kept sinking deep into the snow. The baggage was pulled on crude human-powered sleds—a desperate procession. Furthermore, all of them were struggling with wounds both large and small and were exhausted, often dozing off even whilst walking. However, now that their hope had awakened, they were overflowing with the confidence to overcome any hardship that might befall them.
Yet, the snowy fields of the Frozen Lands stretched endlessly, nothing but ice and snow.
They kept walking, but there was no end in sight.
<Author’s Note>
Their magnificent flight to the Frozen Lands is about to begin.
Please continue to cherish the story…!