Conversation

First impressions matter above all else. The hunters had pointed swords and spears at us from the moment we first met. In that sense, things were already as good as ruined, but fortunately, there was still a chance to meet again.

I was a modern person, so although I had treated them like barbarians in the heat of the moment, I could understand their actions. Bunhui, who had been attacked alongside me, probably wasn't thinking much of it.

But the other subordinates were different.

"……."

"……."

"……*gulp*."

A barbarian, daring to enter land touched by the Celestial Emperor's grace. The only time they would boldly walk in on two feet was when the government had collapsed.

At my command, the four men and women were escorted to the audience chamber, but their eyes were filled with murderous intent. They looked ready to cut off someone's head the instant anyone so much as moved a finger the wrong way.

They seemed to sense it as well and could not easily bring themselves to speak.

It was a long wait. To be honest, I was a little uneasy.

From the Empire's perspective, these people were one hundred percent barbarians from head to toe, no matter how one looked at them. They had no king, they had come from far away, and even if they said so much as a word about themselves, getting a favorable response seemed unlikely.

They themselves were not very aware of that fact. How we fastened the first button was more important than anything.

"Ahem, my name is Park Ingyu, and I have come from the Korean Hunter Association."

When Park Ingyu opened his mouth with a dry cough, what I had feared came to pass. Several of my subordinates began reining in their killing intent.

Because for a barbarian, he seemed exceedingly rude.

He had certainly bowed at the waist before speaking to me. I knew very well that the angle was about as deep as that of a new employee bowing after causing a major accident at work—nearly tantamount to an apology.

But for a barbarian to merely bow at the waist before a Great General, and even raise his head again, was no different from standing with one leg cocked while lighting a cigarette.

It was roughly the level of rudeness that said, 'I acknowledge that you're the Celestial Emperor's lackey, but I don't know who you are, and you don't look like someone capable of controlling my movements.'

"……!"

"That man……!"

Clearly, this wouldn't do. At this rate, instead of furnishing the newly built audience chamber, I would be cleaning a bloodstained floor first.

I wanted to have a conversation, not start a meaningless war.

Just as I gestured for my subordinates to stop, at the very moment I was about to bark at the hunters until I got them down on one knee.

"Hm?"

"M-Miss Shin Yuyu!?"

An utterly unexpected person suddenly offered a proper obeisance.

"W-what exactly are you doing……!?"

"You do it too, you idiots……!"

"Huh?"

"Just shut up and do it! Jeez, do you think I'm doing this because I enjoy it!?"

One of Korea's top S-rank hunters—a woman who might never have bowed her head to anyone in her entire life—was now pressing her forehead to the floor. The hunters could not keep their mouths shut.

After a brief silence.

"W-we pay our respects to the Great General!!!"

Then Moon Seoyeong, as if she had realized something, abruptly prostrated herself, and the other two hurriedly followed suit.

"We pay our respects to the Great General!!"

"We pay our respects to the Great General……!!"

'Oh?'

'There are barbarians who know their place.'

My subordinates muttered quietly. As they withdrew their killing intent, the oppressive atmosphere began to ease, if only slightly.

Thank heavens. I settled into a more comfortable position and spoke to the four of them.

"That's enough. Raise your heads."

Now we could finally have a proper conversation.

*

Intercivilizational exchange was more difficult than it appeared. It was especially so when dealing with outsiders from a distant time and space, rather than people from across a great sea or another continent.

Most of the nations in the Hidden Stage took quite a long time to accept or understand the very existence of the Earthlings and hunters who had come to them. But the Yoo Hyun whom Park Ingyu had seen was different.

"I have heard all about whose people you are and what route you took from those being held in prison."

"I-I see."

"Then you may treat the unnecessary details lightly. Otherwise, we would only be wasting each other's time."

"I-I understand."

Their relief at learning that Ahn Junhyun and the other members of the Biran Party were alive was short-lived. At first, they could not help wondering whether he truly knew the facts about them accurately.

Those in power were the sort who hid their ignorance, while soldiers considered ignorance a disgrace and tried not to reveal it. Yet Yoo Hyun, who seemed to be both, neither missed nor distorted a single detail of Park Ingyu's explanation.

"So you're inside the enormous pillar we call a tower, and you have a way to come and go?"

"Y-yes, that's right! It may be unpleasant to hear, but this is the undeniable truth……"

"It makes little difference."

"Pardon?"

"In any case, we are the center of the heavens, and this is the land established by the First Celestial Emperor."

What surprised the investigation team was his calm attitude. They had heard that he was a Great General, but only when they learned that the title was one of just two such offices in the Empire's history—granted only to the supreme commander guarding the borders from barbarians—did they realize what an immense figure Yoo Hyun was.

"S-so you're saying you lasted fifteen years in the ravine we crossed?"

"Lasted, you bastard!"

"Enough. There is no need to cling to a trivial word."

Yoo Hyun calmed the subordinates who had been angered by Shin Yuyu's sharp remark. Park Ingyu and the others had lowered themselves far beneath him, so there was no longer any grounds to nitpick them as barbarians.

Of course, Yoo Hyun was unmistakably a man of the Empire.

That was why there were occasional crises even the director of the Strategic Countermeasures Headquarters could not simply overlook.

"General—no, Great General. That girl over there."

"Hm? What's wrong with that girl?"

"She keeps speaking without honorifics whenever she talks. Shall I pull out her tongue?"

"Leave her be."

"But……"

"How could her failure to use honorifics be that child's fault? Seeing how she had her hair bluntly cut short, despite the saying that one's body, hair, and skin are received from one's parents, she must have lost her parents early and never received a proper education."

"I see. I was shortsighted."

"Grrrk……!"

The ticking time bomb called Shin Yuyu endured it with superhuman patience, and no major incident occurred. Park Ingyu also wondered what had gotten into an S-rank hunter said to be capable of bringing down airplanes that she was showing such restraint.

Some time passed. Just as Lee Jihye tried to stretch her numb thigh, she caught Moon Seoyeong's fierce glare and endured the pain through gritted teeth, tears in her eyes.

Yoo Hyun brought up the most important matter.

"So why did you come here?"

"Well, we……"

"Did you come to fight, or to make a request?"

It was the exact same question he had thrown at the Biran Party. Park Ingyu already knew that, having been briefed beforehand.

"What did you want so badly that you yearned to set foot on this land? I'll give you a chance, so speak."

"It is……"

Park Ingyu pondered. He could confidently say that he had never been this nervous in his fifty years of life.

Every nation in the world had maintained so-called horizontal relationships with the civilizations they encountered in the Hidden Stage, helping one another for mutual benefit. There had been conflicts in which one side went down the road to ruin, but never once had either side become subordinate to the other.

The official position of the South Korean government that they had confirmed before coming here was not much different. A constructive alliance in which both sides could pursue their own interests. Building such a system was Park Ingyu's mission as director of the Strategic Countermeasures Headquarters.

But in Park Ingyu's eyes, the Cheonyu Empire—or rather, Great General Yoo Hyun—was not a man who would accept such a paltry relationship. If they provoked him one more time, it seemed obvious that he would not show mercy twice.

They knew the reality of their situation better than anyone. Korea and the Hunter Association desperately needed his help. Thus, after agonizing over Yoo Hyun's question, Park Ingyu answered.

"We came to serve Great General Yoo Hyun…… and the Cheonyu Empire."

And, just as expected.

Unlike before, Yoo Hyun simply nodded.

"Do as you please."

"A-are you serious?"

"You were moved by His Majesty's grace and chose to serve us of your own accord. Why would I, a man who lives on the Empire's stipend, think to stop you?"

"Thank you!!"

He said he would release the members of the Biran Party from prison and let them leave with the others, without asking anything in return. He said that was what a true great power was supposed to be.

"His Majesty's grace is truly boundless……"

"Don't say that."

"Director, no, you can't! That's something you say only to the Emperor!"

Thanks to Moon Seoyeong, we managed to avert another mistake. I had work to do: when I got home, I would watch every historical drama that had come out so far.

A little later, just as Park Ingyu, having taken custody of the released prisoners, was cautiously gauging the right moment to request another audience.

A woman standing behind Yoo Hyun suddenly approached him and whispered in his ear. They were close enough that their conversation could be heard clearly.

'Six Oga have fallen.'

'Whose doing is it?'

'It's the Togwol. Fortunately, they aren't nearby.'

'I see.'

At the same time, Shin Yuyu turned toward the group and spoke.

"Something came toward my barrier."

"What do you mean, something?"

"I don't know. The people we left behind are under attack, so I have to go right now."

The audience seemed to be ending. When Yoo Hyun rose, the soldiers who had been kneeling on one knee stood and lined up on either side.

"Park Gyu."

"Yes."

"Put the soldiers on the walls. They may reach this place, so prepare for that possibility."

"Underst……"

"Great General, I have one request!!"

There did not seem to be another chance once they went outside. Ignoring the displeased look Park Gyu gave him for interrupting, Park Ingyu prostrated himself before Yoo Hyun again. Moon Seoyeong did the same.

"It seems our comrades are in danger at the hands of the barbarians."

"P-please, show mercy just one more time!!"

They needed to return to the barrier even one second faster.

While Park Ingyu waited with his insides burning, Yoo Hyun finally opened his mouth.

"Barbarians."

Not to the hunters, but to his own subordinates.

"There are surely some among you who find my actions today bewildering, or who do not understand the reasons behind them. Why admit barbarians into the court, listen to their story, and show them mercy? Some of you must find it incomprehensible."

"……."

"Yet if all the outsiders who received grace and repented were inherently lowly, and their fate and immutable law of nature was to be swept away by the storms no matter how hard they worked to atone for their sins……"

"……."

"Then by that same law, how could you be standing here now?"

None of the hunters could understand Yoo Hyun's words, but the soldiers filling the military tent could.

The every action you, who built this place with your own hands and had so desperately longed for it, would henceforth take as the Great General's soldiers.

As he walked toward the subordinates lined up on either side, unwavering loyalty began to kindle in their eyes.

"If it is essentially no different from the way I tore apart my golden uniform immediately after taking the post of Commander of the Capital Guard fifteen years ago!"

"Loyalty!"

"How could you refuse that glory!?"

"Loyalty!!!!"

The sound of military boots stamping against the floor reverberated all the way to the crown of his head.

A lava-hot, murderous fervor boiled up and heated their earlobes and the bridges of their noses.

"Park Gyu."

"Yes!!!"

"Take the warhorses out of the stable and open the gate."

"At your command!!!"

Finally, when the soldiers who had begun following Yoo Hyun one by one passed by them like ghosts.

"We are going to subjugate the barbarians."

None of the Earth's hunters present regretted the decision they had made today.