As Prophet - Chapter 161



Only Noblemtl

Episode 161. Namdaemun Anga

Dalcheon did not try to stop Mukhyeong from following him. Instead, he called Jo Dong-gil, who was giving a long speech to the soldiers gathered in a courtyard of Daejeon, and urged them to strengthen their defenses.

“The war has been won, so what are you worried about?”

“The leader is still alive. I’m worried that he might attack us at night.”

“I wouldn’t do it. It’s not easy to raise the morale of soldiers who have been beaten up.”

This is why I hate people who talk too much. So I can’t be sure whether he’s saying he’ll do it or not. Dalcheon took a step back and looked at him intently. Jo Dong-gil covered his mouth with his hand.

“No, what I meant was, I’m not saying we won’t do it, I’m just saying, is it necessary? We need to put more effort into post-war recovery and get back to normal life as soon as possible.”

“Don’t let even a single mouse or bird enter the area centered around the power outage and the sedimentation.”

“Loyalty!”

“There will be punishment for the officials who participated in the rebellion. Tell the Royal Secretariat to stand by.”

“Loyalty! I will convey that message.”

Dalcheon left the palace, looking around in a daze. He passed the government office street, which was still busy with post-war recovery, and then went to the men’s house on the hill near Namdaemun.

It was a spacious house with a large pavilion that had turned yellow in the late sunlight on both sides. It was clearly visible beyond the tightly closed door and high wall because it was built on a slope. There are quite a few houses that are built on a slope to make their houses look bigger. It looks tall, big, and three-dimensional. Another tiled roof is visible beyond the roof line of the house in front, so it seems like there is a larger building inside.

“Here it is.”

“Do you do the same?”

Dalcheon snickered at Mukhyeong’s words. He recalled the scene from above, where he had been looking down at me, saying, “Come here!”

“If there is one, I really want to catch it. It’s a shame I couldn’t catch it during the day. I wasn’t careful. I didn’t expect it to run away underground like that. Now let’s sneak up carefully and catch it before it uses another method.”

“You speak as if you were here.”

“No matter where it is, we must approach the situation with the hope that it will become reality.”

When Jin-in mixed the letters, Mok-hyung kept his mouth shut. This is often the case when he cannot be persuaded, especially when he raises another possibility in the form of a question. Otherwise, he speaks as if it were an imperative that something big will happen, so there is no room for objection.

“Okay, I’ll try another way.”

Mukhyeong took the lead and went around to the back of the house. The houses next to it were crowded together, but that house was unusually large. He went around the alleys lined with thatched-roof houses. Similar to Jeon Ga near Dongdaemun, he had purchased the houses next to it and hidden his soldiers there. It seems that the order is maintained even after the defeat.

“This way.”

The place that Mukhyeong approached cautiously was a small house with a high wall like a castle. The roof was made of woven grass from the waterside, but only that house was empty. He went around to the back of the house and stood against the wall that resembled a castle wall.

“I will move on.”

“Okay, then.”

Mukhyeong climbed the wall. It was a kind of wall-crawler. He spread his limbs wide like a frog, and moved his hands and feet alternately as he climbed over the wall. The evening sunlight stretched out. Dalcheon stood blankly beside him, quietly dropping from the wall and lowering his body. It felt like he had just passed through the wall after standing next to him.

‘What is this? How did you do it?’

I had a question, but I couldn’t ask. It was a matter of the mind that there was nothing to worry about, but it seemed like there was no place in the world that this person couldn’t go. He was standing still with his luggage on his back, looking around, and he was quite serious.

“What do you have?”

Dalcheon nodded slowly.

“Are you here?”

“I feel like he’s here. He seems to be here. But there are quite a few experts. He’s surrounding the person as if he’s encircling them.”

“Scream east, strike west! I will strike this way.”

“It’s over there.”

“Then, I will… … .”

Dalcheon, whose face was flushed red, pulled up his sleeve and slipped inside the building complex. There were quite a few guards, but he was slipping in like fog, or rather, like a shadow.

* * *

Ilsung-gun was making a strong claim.

“We were defeated, but we were defeated by the government troops. It was our mistake to fight openly. Who knew that we had such a terrifying weapon hidden away? Our talent is not in all-out warfare.”

“so.”

“I propose that a small number of unmanned personnel infiltrate the palace. Three or four people will form a group and infiltrate the quarters. The court ladies who have already come over to us will open the way. If the unmanned personnel who have infiltrated the quarters’ roof, walls, and floors charge fiercely, it is quite possible.”

“What do you think about the failed assassination attempts so far?”

Ilseonggun hesitated at Yeo-ui’s objection.

“They were not the main force’s unarmed men. They were the unarmed men of Geomgye Lee Gijeong, so their martial arts skills were not very high, which is the reason for their failure.”

“Do you think martial arts have become less advanced today?”

“No. An all-out war in a wide open space would be disadvantageous to us.”

“I wanted to crush them in a wide open space, in a bright place. Who would follow me if I secretly attacked them from behind and won? I had to show overwhelming power to easily manage the political situation afterwards.”

Ilseong-gun bowed his head.

“Your words are absolutely right. However, night is coming now. If you order a full charge to the North Palace, we can turn around the defeat we suffered in the afternoon.”

“That makes sense. But he is by the new king’s side. True man Dalcheon!”

“That’s why everything went wrong. If he hadn’t been there, things wouldn’t have happened like this. There was a lack of information. His presence and his power.”

“It was a good move to provoke the king and pressure him. What he said was true, that if the king felt the need and called him, he would return to his hometown.”

“No one would have thought that the new king would come all the way there to make a request.”

“Do you think it’s possible to conquer the Bukgung Palace even with him?”

“We can’t stop them all alone. What we need is the new king’s head. If we can catch him, we can turn everything upside down.”

The silver-faced Yeoui seemed to think for a moment. She turned her head and looked into the distance, as if she could not escape the defeat of the afternoon. She had lost a battle she could not lose.

No, he still couldn’t forget the tense moment of danger when Dalcheon rushed in. Falling into the underground passage prepared in advance was effective. No one would have thought there would be such a device on the floor. However, he couldn’t forget the blow he received when he fell into the closed iron lid.

“It’s difficult to attack them with a straight line. We had more soldiers, but we were defeated. It wasn’t a decisive victory, but we lost by a landslide. Tactically, we couldn’t beat them. They were very good at using a mix of different types of troops. And the Jincheon-roe, which exploded after falling to the ground, was an unimaginable weapon. The King had made such a weapon and was hiding it.”

“What are those hundreds of arrows flying and exploding?”

“It’s an improved version of the Shinkijeon. Originally, it was just a weapon that flew arrows, but it was improved so that it would fall to the ground and explode again. It was annihilated. They poured money into the weapon system. It’s unimaginable that a weapon uses so much gunpowder.”

“I guess that means that even the King didn’t just play around. I guess I wasn’t afraid of the threat that was approaching secretly. It’s really incomprehensible. How could something like this come to an end when there was nothing?”

“My lord, you must take the lead.”

“That’s right. With the rice already cooked… … .”

There were dozens of people, but no one spoke, and only Ilseong answered point by point.

“Order all forces to attack the North Palace. We can turn the situation around. My lord!”

“… … .”

The silver side of Yeo-ui turned toward the sky. The main beam that crossed the large hall came into view. I had prepared for a long time, but it had become tangled like this. If I do as he says, I might succeed.

It is leaving things to chance. It is a matter of whether or not it can be done after calculating accurately. But now there is no other alternative. We have no choice but to trust the power of the trained unmanned forces that we have. That is right. Eun-myeon stood up from his seat.

“Tonight, at midnight, we will attack the Bukgung Palace.”

“debriefing!”

“debriefing!”

“debriefing!”

“debriefing!”

The warriors gathered in the main hall bowed their heads and reported.

“Have the palace personnel open the doors!”

“Loyalty!”

“Deploy all troops within Hanyang Castle near the Bukgung Palace!”

“Loyalty!”

The evening sunlight was casting long shadows into the veranda. I found hope again in those who were bowing in unison.

“I’ll finish it tonight.”

“Loyalty!”

Dozens bowed their heads and then left the room. The shadows drawn by the sunlight swayed dizzily on the floor. Politics is the business of making all sorts of schemes. In the end, a military battle is about who wins. You have to win.

After everyone left, Eun-myeon sighed and looked up at the ceiling, and a familiar face appeared in his gaze. It shouldn’t be there, but it was Dal-cheon smiling on the beam that crossed the empty space.

“It’s him! Stop him!”

Eun-myeon shouted while pointing at Dal-cheon. In the short time that the dozen or so guards surrounding Eun-myeon looked up, two raindrops flew away. Dal-cheon, as if annoyed, sprayed them. A silver ray of light stretched out in a straight line from the tip of his finger. It created the illusion that Dal-cheon’s hand and Eun-myeon’s face were connected by a white line.

In an instant, several shields rose around Eun-myeon. They were raised by the guards sitting in front. The guards jumped in front of him, blocking him with their shields. One of the bullets hit the chest of the guard who jumped in, and the other struck Eun-myeon in the lower abdomen.

“Ahhhh!”

A tearing scream arose. There was no chance after that. Dozens of people blocked the front and jumped up. He threw his body to block the attack. The silver-faced man covered in a curtain of people slipped back.

Dalcheon threw himself and drew his sword vertically in the air. A powerful wave of energy surged forward, splitting the floor in two. Those in the center of the wave were blown out in all directions. Eunmyeon and his party, who were running towards the end, were blown away backwards as if they had been blown away. Several swords flew towards Dalcheon, who landed on the floor.

“Phew.”

Dalcheon’s sword drew a semicircle at his waist. The silver light curved into a crescent shape. As pure white light spread out from the sword, those rushing in from the surroundings fell down, holding their waists. A round fountain of blood poured out from the bodies of those in the space where the circle was drawn. There was not a single person standing soundly within a dozen or so squares of Bangwon. After that, he dashed to the back of the main hall, striking down those who rushed in without fear of death.

But they came again. It was a will. It was a terrifying will to save one person even at the cost of their lives. Even though you and I knew that we were no match for each other when we crossed swords, you rushed forward. In normal cases, if you could kill a dozen people with one blow, the others would be surprised and run away, but these guys rushed forward even though they knew they would die. To advance one step further, you had to kill a dozen people. It was not that killing them was difficult, but the countless deaths piling up in front of me that weighed heavily on me.

They are deeply loyal. It must not be easy to gain such loyalty… … In a world where most people change their faces just by changing seats, this kind of loyalty! It wasn’t the people who were dying that were getting tired. It was Dalcheon who was getting tired of cutting down those bastards so easily.