It was Hwee-Seo who first felt that the warmth in the tent was fading, but Hwee-Seo just endured the cold air.
The fire was dying.
Lakrak looked at the dying fire. He broke a few of the dry branches next to him and crushed them in his palms before throwing them into the fire, thus reviving it. The fire began to spread and burn the thicker branches that weren’t burning before.
Lakrak then said, “Diplomacy and reputation aside, everything about this is simple, isn’t it?”
Hwee-Seo’s silence implied disagreement.
“You just have to choose between one or the other. Salkait, or me. Gnolls, or Lizardmen. The Angry Teeth God, I think they called it, or the Blue Insect God.”
“No. It’s not that simple.” 𝑖𝘦.𝑐ℴ𝘮
Hwee-Seo put both of his hands on his knees and fixed his posture.
“It’s not just simply choosing between the two. Others would think you’re asking me to choose between two precious gifts. I think it’s rather a question of which would hurt less if a sabertooth tiger and Cockatoo appeared and I had to put my head into one of their mouths.”
“Hm. It’s a pity you think that way, but wouldn’t it be better to put your head into the Cockatoo’s mouth?”
“Salkait also said that the sabertooth tiger would be better.”
Lakrak decided to think from Hwee-Seo’s perspective. Hwee-Seo wouldn’t believe any of the sweet words that Salkait and Lakrak said anyways. And his doubt was likely the reason why Automation had been protected until now.
“So what are you going to do?” asked Lakrak.
“Well, I’ll take a step back for now.”
Hwee-Seo scratched his beard with his left hand and continued to say, “Then wouldn’t both sabertooth tiger and Cockatoo fight each other to eat me?”
“Probably. Then what?”
“There’s going to be a winner in the end. But the winner will likely be exhausted or hurt. I wish they would rather be half dead, but… At the end of the day, that would give me more options. The true colors of the winner will be shown. I’m sure that as long as they’re exhausted, there will still be more ways to fight.”
Lakrak easily understood Hwee-Seo’s analogy.
‘He’s saying that he’ll decide what to do once the successor is selected. Because the distance between us and the successor is greater than the distance between the successor and Automation, so he’s thinking that he can use a hostage to do what he wants. However, a successor must be chosen no matter what. And the time to choose is almost here.’
“What do you think?” asked Hwee-Seo.
“That doesn’t seem too bad. It would be fine if you don’t care who wins between Salkait and I, the Gnolls and Lizardmen, and the Angry Teeth God and Blue Insect God.”
“I think you are the same.”
“You might think that way. But ‘you are the same’ to me sounds like ‘there’s nothing much I can do.’ And that you’ve just accepted your fate as a stone on the board. You think it’s too late now, but there were other ways you could have gone about this matter. Wouldn’t it have been better to look more into both tribes and see which one was better? If only you realized sooner that you wouldn’t be able to avoid both of us.”
Lakrak’s words stung Hwee-Seo’s heart.
Lakrak shook his head and continued to say, “No, you’re right. Doing nothing depending on the situation is also a good choice. You’re wise.”
“…Thanks for the compliment.”
Wind blew into the tent, and the fire danced. The shadows of the two men facing each other also swayed greatly along with the fire. This marked the end of the conversation.
“…I think it’s good to end things here. I have something to ask before I leave.”
“Of course.”
Hwee-Seo leaned over.
“In the end, it’s not only me who’s a stone. You are too. Only the board you’re on is bigger. Aren’t you scared by that? Don’t you feel pain or helplessness?”
Hwee-Seo was saying that Lakrak was also just a plaything of the gods.
The corners of Lakrak’s lips slightly went up, and with that, Hwee-Seo knew Lakrak didn’t think that way. However, he couldn’t guess Lakrak’s answer to his question.
“I’ll answer that question once this is all over.”
“…Okay. Personally, I hope this is the last time I see you or Salkait.”
“Do you want me to see you off?”
“It’s fine. I came as an errand boy, Hwee, so I’ll also leave as Hwee.”
Hwee-Seo got up from his seat, put the leather hood back over his head, and walked out of the tent. No one stopped or looked at Hwee-Seo strangely, as if Lakrak had already said something to them. Hwee-Seo suddenly had the thought that this was his chance to spy on the Lizardmen, but he abandoned it.
‘It’s not important anymore. This also might be a trap. No…no…’
His heart was filled with complicated feelings. It might have been due to his loss of morales, just like Lakrak said. Hwee-Seo had experienced this kind of situation in the past, and he knew that he had to set things straight one by one rather than doing what his heart told him to.
Hwee-Seo passed through the tents and walked out into the wilderness. He looked at the stars. He at least knew how to tell directions from the stars. After he walked two hours in the direction he chose to go in, a small, low hill appeared. He knew he had come to the right place after he smelled horse dung.
His nephew, Hwee-Woo, who was an aide-de-camp, was waiting for him along with four subordinates and six horses.
Woo said to Hwee-Seo, “It’s good you’ve made it back safe, lord.”
“It’s not a relief that I made it back safely.”
“But there is nothing more precious than the life of the lord of the castle.”
“No more jokes.”
.
Hwee-Seo took off his leather hood and began to take off the old clothes that he wore on this trip. A subordinate brought him a jar of water, and Hwee-Seo gulped it down.
Then Woo asked from beside him, “How did it go?”
“Nothing has changed. We’ll do as planned.”
The plan was doing nothing and waiting until the fight between the two tribes came to an end so that he wouldn’t get dragged into the fight as well.
Woo nodded without any expression. That was the reason Hwee-Seo liked Woo.
“What about you?”
“I’m sorry. I have no excuses. The Black-Scaled Lizardmen are too wary, just like the Ears Cut Tribe was.”
Hwee-Seo ordered his subordinates to scout the Black-Scaled Tribe while he entered to talk with Lakrak. His orders weren’t simply to find out how many of them there were, how many among them were warriors, or how many livestock they had. There were Lizardmen within Automation who were long-time residents, merchants, or vagrants. There must have been an insider of the Black-Scale Tribe out of them, and they would have supported the successor fight.
‘There’s definitely a connection to them within us.’
Finding the connection and cutting it off was the only way Automation could escape the game between Salkait and Lakrak.
‘We can’t just execute all Gnolls and Lizardmen within Automation. There would be resentment within the castle if we did. However, I can’t just let it be, either. I need to find the connection and cut it.’
Hwee-Seo poured the remaining water onto his face.
Then he gave the empty jug to one of the subordinates and said, “Start the fire. And bring a mirror.”
While his subordinates replied and carried out his orders, Woo said, “For the past few days, we looked for Lizardmen, but we didn’t see anyone else other than the Lizardmen warriors we’re familiar with.”
“There should have been some passing by, right?”
“Not in the past few days.”
“…Alright. There’s no way that Lizardmen wouldn’t have noticed. There must be Lizardmen who were ordered to come to Automation and gather information about us. We need to expand our range of reconnaissance.”
“If we add more soldiers to the scouting party, there won’t be enough to protect the castle.”
“It doesn’t matter. The walls of Automation will be safe for the time being. The only issue is the invisible wall.”
Woo nodded.
As long as the two large tribes were holding out on both sides of the castle, there was nothing else to worry about the physical defense. Even if Automation and the tall ramparts collapsed, they would get fixed on their own, which would prevent invasion from the outside. The real problem was the invisible wall—the non-physical defense. Even Hwee-Seo couldn’t fully understand the modern concepts of information and psychological warfare, but he was vaguely aware of it.
In the meantime, a fire was started, and a bronze mirror was placed in front of Hwee-Seo. Hwee-Seo took out an obsidian blade from his pocket. The blade was long and sharp, and he held it to his neck. Slowly, he moved the blade along his skin and shaved his dampened beard. It didn’t take too long. It was far from Hwee-Seo’s first time shaving, and he was proficient at it.
Beards had a great influence on the impressions a person gave off, and it was a good thing to have when going under disguise.
Hwee-Seo shaved off his whole beard without leaving any cuts on his skin. Then he looked at the mirror and checked both sides of his face before standing up. He put on the layers of silk clothes his subordinate held up for him. Hwee-Seo, with his beard shaved and dressed in proper clothes, now appeared as the Lord of Automation he had presented to the residents of the castle from afar.
“Let’s go back now. We have lots to do.”
“Okay.”
“…There must be lots to be done.”
Hwee-Seo got on his horse and continued to say, “I need some time to think by myself, so I’ll ride ahead. Follow me at a good enough distance.”
“Alright.”
Woo did as Hwee-Seo said. Hwee-Seo took the lead with Woo riding after him, and the subordinates rode after Woo. Woo suddenly got hit with a drop of water on his face, but when he looked up, the sky was clear. Woo looked straight ahead again. Then another drop of water landed on his cheek.
Hwee-Seo was the only one riding ahead of him. Unlike Lakrak, Owen, and the other Lizardmen, Woo knew reputation well. And reputation wasn’t as easy and simple as the Lizardmen thought.
Woo said to the subordinates, “Aren’t you all too close? Slow down a little.”
The distance between Hwee-Seo and his subordinates grew further. And Woo no longer got hit with drops of water.
***
Three weeks ago, when the two prophecies of the gods began to spread…
***
A woman was climbing a bedrock with her bare hands.
“Those damn children.”
Her palms were already cut open, and blood was trickling down her arms. By the looks of how good at climbing she was, she seemed to be talented at it, but at the moment, she seemed to be in a pickle in many ways other than her injured hands. Her left ankle was very swollen. The woman wiped the blood on her hands with her face and reached for a ledge. However, that was a mistake. The ledge was a cleverly hidden rock, and the rock tilted as the woman hung from it and applied her weight. Fortunately, the woman had a good sense of balance.
She shifted her center of gravity onto her left ankle, which was barely on a ledge, and was able to properly grab the real ledge that was hidden under the rock. But as she put her weight onto her swollen ankle, the pain she had forgotten about shot up her spine. She didn’t cry in pain though. She calmly rested her forehead against the bedrock and mumbled while frowning.
“Damn. Fuck. Son of a…”
The woman was Hwee-Kyung, Hwee-Seo’s fourth child.
Hwee-Kyung thought everything was going well at first.
She was used to being alienated by everyone else, as she grew up hearing things like ‘cursed child’ and ‘she ate her own mother’. Hwee-Kyung grew up without the support of the four families nor her own father, and she couldn’t live proudly as a child of the lord, but none of that was a big deal to her. She knew that there were far more people who lived in worse conditions.
The wilderness was out there, and countless tribes fought for their own interests. On the other hand, there was order within Automation. It was an order maintained by the four families. Although the inside of Automation couldn’t be called a paradise, being able to freely go in and out of the castle walls as a resident was great in itself. In order to stay as a resident of the castle, people had to do great service, or devote a large amount of wealth to Automation. And that was harder for species other than Humans.
Therefore, Hwee-Kyung decided to live using the last advantage she had. And that was business. Going in and out of the castle walls meant that one could sell goods that were sold outside of Automation for nothing and sell them at high prices within the castle walls, and vice versa. In order to do business, a certain amount of the wealth had to be given to the lord, but Hwee-Kyung was okay with that.
‘Father had also contributed when making me, so I can give him back that much. There’s no need to be so upset about it.’
However, things didn’t work out, again.
‘I can’t believe the wheelbarrow wheel was broken. You damn schoolboy, you dare lend me something like this? Maybe I won’t repay you with salt…’
Hwee-Kyung, who continued to climb the bedrock, looked down for a moment. Several meters below was what was left of a smashed one-wheeled wheelbarrow. It was a miracle that Hwee-Kyung only had a sprained ankle and bruises all over her body after falling down with the wheelbarrow. It wouldn’t have been weird for her to lose her life, but Hwee-Kyung’s thoughts were focused on something else.
‘What a relief. Borrowing a wheelbarrow from a schoolboy was a mistake, but it was a good choice selecting silk for business.’
Hwee-Kyung thought about how she would collect the silk that was in the wheelbarrow while climbing up the bedrock. And because of this, she didn’t notice there was someone with a tail standing on top of the bedrock she was climbing.
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