As Prophet - Chapter 27



Only Krnovel

Episode 27. Moving Day

The backyard, in full bloom during spring, was filled with all sorts of flowers in full bloom, and even the breeze that passed by was fragrant. When I was introduced to the inside of the house, I couldn’t see it because it was connected to the woman’s old quarters.

The backyard of the place Dalcheon used was not so beautiful, although it was a solid yellow dirt. It was just a quiet place where no one came and went, but her backyard was a beautiful garden where you could play all day without getting tired. The water brought in from outside flowed through the pipe and fell into a pond the size of a palm, and the moss grew widely on the waterside, softening the view.

“Did you call?”

She, who had been turning her back, put her hands together and turned her body. Her long ponytail behind her whipped around like a horse’s tail.

“You called me. How dare I… …. I asked you to bring me a message when you come.”

“Why didn’t you go with me?”

“I can’t load all my luggage onto the cart, so I’ll have to go one more time. I was able to get another cart nearby. I’m going to go that way.”

“I couldn’t help you move.”

“The servants are all doing it, so what?”

I felt like I was just talking nonsense. Since I wasn’t saying what I really wanted to say, the person waiting or the person who needed to talk had nothing to say except gossip.

“How was your stay here?”

“It was much better than being inside the town walls. The countryside scenery was beautiful, and I was captivated by the changing mood of the countryside every day. I wandered around outside all day and came back. Haha.”

“Was it like that today too?”

“There’s a place with a good view on top of the mountain over there. I go there often these days.”

When she hesitated and couldn’t speak, Dalcheon asked first.

“Are you curious as to why I don’t go to Hanyang?”

“Yes. Actually, that’s why I stayed and waited. I thought it would be strange to ask again since the adults had already decided.”

Dalcheon was about to give the same explanation for refusing to go to Hanyang, but he changed his method.

“Hanyang is a distance that I can run to in one go. If anything happens, I will run there at any time. Don’t worry at all.

“I am still studying, so I am looking for a quiet place with no people. I said I will stay here because I don’t think I can do that if I go to Hanyang. Don’t worry at all, if you have any trouble, please contact me and I will come running right away.”

“Oh, yes.”

She hesitated even though the answer would have been sufficient.

“As you know, my father’s position in Hanyang politics is insignificant. No one knows about it. In addition, my father tries to distance himself from those who are cliques. Asking for and cooperating on matters necessary for work is the basics of politics, but he is very lacking in that area. So I am very worried about whether he will adapt well.”

“It’s not something we can do about it.”

“Yes, but… … .”

Since he didn’t specifically say no but didn’t accept Dalcheon’s answer, he pretended to think about it and then asked.

“Is there anything that concerns you right now?”

“Actually, what happened to Grand Prince Ma the other day is on my mind.”

“It’s definitely settled. There won’t be anything else.”

“Is that so?”

He answers, but doesn’t seem to believe it. It seems that the prince is not just the son of a king.

“I promised that if anything else happened, I would pay with my life.”

“No way. How could you make such a promise so carelessly?”

“Because it’s unmanned.”

It’s not easy to admit what others take for granted.

“If you don’t mind, how about stopping by once every ten days?”

Dalcheon closed his eyes. He was the one who was making persistent demands.

“Whew. It’ll be fine.”

Dalcheon bowed his head as if greeting. It was a sign that he had nothing more to say. Baek I-jeong, who realized that he had gone too far, belatedly took care of it.

“I’m sorry. I asked too much even though I knew it wasn’t proper.”

He apologized for asking without permission. Dalcheon turned away indifferently. Baek Ijeong bit her lips as she tried to say something more. Although she felt a weak wave of energy, Dalcheon went out to the yard and returned to his quarters.

From a third party’s perspective, they are just people who come and go without doing anything. I thought that they might think that they owe them something. They might think that they have to do the daily labor that a slave does, like feeding them and giving them a place to stay.

The coming of one being is accompanied by the whole of his life, and if it is converted into the equivalent of the value of labor or into the value of consent that can be replaced by it, there is no place for a person like himself to stand. The invisible value that is formed while living in one place is easily forgotten.

I refused Baek Yi-jeong’s request to go to Hanyang with her as if it were a natural request, but I felt uneasy on the other hand. I had to tell Baek Sa-ban and Baek Ui-hyeong again what I had already told them and received their approval for. I could think that I had a stake in making a request. At least, I was the eldest daughter of this household…

Dalcheon thought he was learning about the world again. He thought that the world was a place where he had to provide an appropriate equivalent in a place where such calculations were made. Just because there was merit in the past, it does not allow him to eat and play in the future. Moreover, the invisible blessings that come from a single immortal living there are not even worthy of being mentioned.

Feeling lonely, he went into his room and did not come out. He did not leave even when he heard her say from a distance that she was leaving in front of the guest house.

* * *

With the migration to Hanyang, almost all the guests who had stayed there also disappeared. Some moved with them and started living in Hanyang, and some moved to other places because they didn’t want to be alone in an ownerless house. Every room in the L-shaped house was completely empty.

After everyone was gone, each room was checked one by one. There were traces of people living there, but no personal belongings. Some rooms even had bedding taken away. They were probably the guests who had decided to move to Hanyang together.

Even the elders of the family who had said they wouldn’t go and who had strongly opposed me, asking where I was going, went. It’s unrelated.

In the empty house where everyone had left, there was the doorman, the old servant who managed the corridors, and the kitchen maid and her young daughter. The stable manager, Bulmokhani, did not follow, and Marum, who managed the farm in front of the house, remained. There were also a few Solgeo slaves and their families who cultivated the land themselves.

Marum, who was looking through the field documents, asked.

“Didn’t you go together?”

“Yes. I didn’t go because I thought it would be a good place for a country bumpkin to go to Hanyang and do stupid things. What about you, sir?”

“I really want to go, but I have to take care of the farms and the farmers here, so how can I go?”

“Aha, I see.”

“We have to work hard and get to Hanyang.”

“In Hanyang, um… … that salary will be paid.”

“It doesn’t seem to be enough. You should provide food and vegetables once every ten days.”

“okay.”

“What about you, sir?”

“I said I would just stay. I thought it was shameless to say I would just stay and do nothing, but I told them to contact me if anything happened.”

Marum pretended to cut his throat with his hand.

“Then you’re going to go up and cut them all down?”

“Oh my, how.”

“I heard. You said that during the Imjin War, you stood in the vanguard and cut down all the bastards.”

“That’s a big rumor. And people don’t cut it that well.”

“After all, it’s hard for people like us to even hit a chicken’s neck.”

“… … .”

“For now, let’s do the work inside as we have been doing. We are now entering the busy farming season. I think I will be out of my mind until the rice planting season.”

“Yes! Yes.”

You explain things to me that you don’t necessarily have to explain to me. I guess you can tell.

“I plan to go out during the day and come back late in the afternoon and stay at the sponsorship. You don’t have to worry about it at all.”

“Oh, I told the kitchen maid. You have to eat your meals on time.”

“thank you.”

“The elders strongly advised me to make sure that you are not inconvenienced.”

“He is a good person.”

Dalcheon dutifully took care of each and every one of those who remained in Yangju. There were less than twenty of them, including the slaves, their families, and children.

* * *

I took a day off, but I couldn’t finish moving in one day. On the day itself, I was barely able to find a space to lie down and sleep. I was only able to cook dinner that night late at night.

“Whew, you’ve worked hard.”

Baek Sa-ban praised Jang, a certain person. He took charge of all the major and minor affairs of the household, and also accompanied Baek Sa-ban to assist him when he was doing external administrative work.

“What are you talking about? It was something I had to do.”

“What would be a good idea for your living quarters? I thought about it on the way here, but no good idea came to mind.”

“I found a temporary place outside Seodaemun. It’s a little far, but if I’m late, I can just sleep there like I’m on duty. I’ll ask my family to come up later.”

“I’ll get you a donkey. You can use it exclusively.”

“You don’t have to go that far, your majesty.”

“I need you to provide me with a house nearby right away, but my circumstances are not good, so please accept that.”

“If a humble person rides a donkey, won’t people look down on him?”

“What shame would it be to give a donkey to a hard-working and humble man?”

“… … .”

“When do people get to know each other these days?”

“There isn’t much time left.”

In the alleys of the residential area, where people were closely packed, evening came quickly. Baek Sa-ban hurriedly sent out those who had to leave before the gates closed. Those who had not finished their work hesitated, but they quickly sent them out because they thought it would be a big problem if the gates closed.

“There are so many things to pack!”

“Yes. Thank you for your hard work today.”

“What would I have done? Those who worked hard suffered.”

Baek Sa-ban ordered that a pig be boiled and a large portion of food be brought out, but someone came to the door. The slave, who lived in the countryside and was not used to people visiting, hesitated.

“You go out and see.”

At Baek Sa-ban’s direction, Baek Ui-hyeong went to the door. Behind the gate that seemed to have collapsed flat on the ground, a man wearing a red iron robe was waiting. Armed with a sword, bow, and arrows, he was wearing a somewhat strange outfit within Hanyang Castle.

An official, no, a soldier. Baek Ui-hyeong felt his whole body shrink. It was because he thought that he might be an uninvited guest of the Grand Prince. Then someone would die. It was because of the promise he made to protect with his life.

I went down to the gate with a hopeful heart. It is called Soteuldaemun, but it is not that high because it is a building in Hanseong. The only boundary between the inside and the outside is a tree the size of an arm.

“My name is Baek Ui-hyeong. I am the elder brother of this house. How did you come here?”

“I heard you moved, so I stopped by to say hello. We are the people who serve the Grand Prince.”

“Oh! Are you by any chance the great general who writes in this book?”

“No. You use a whim.”

I thought it was fortunate. No one had to die. But I couldn’t figure out who it was. I was too blinded by Hanyang’s information.

“But what is it?”

“This is the house of the Grand Prince. I heard that he was moving into the neighborhood, so I stopped by. After looking into it, I heard that he was a key figure in the Imjin War, and he told me to go and see if there was anything I could do to help.”

“Thank you for your consideration. The house is small, so there is not much to do. The luggage that was moved in the afternoon has been put into each room, and I am now organizing the interior. I would like to thank you again for your consideration, and I will visit you once the house is organized.”

“All right.”

Hong Yi’s iron men stopped for a moment as they were about to leave, and had the moving rice cakes they had prepared in advance brought to them.

“It’s weak. It’s a moving rice cake.”

When I handed over a small basket filled with rice cakes, the scary-looking men forcibly accepted them with troubled expressions. After seeing them off and turning around to report, Baek Sa-ban told me that he was the fourth prince who had been defeated.

“Whew. What the heck, finding a house next to the Grand Prince’s house? I’m crazy.”

“That’s right.”

“I said it was not close.”

“It was also called ‘bulgawon (不可遠)’.”

“That’s what it means. Just take it to mean don’t get involved. Phew.”

“I was really nervous because I thought the Second Prince was here again.”

“Anyone living within Hanyang cannot avoid having some kind of relationship with the palace. Even if they are not relatives, they may have relationships with people who work there, or they may be doing business with them… … . We need to be even more careful.”

“yes.”