290. East, Yue Kingdom (17)
What if you could read the diary written by your past life?
In normal circumstances, nine out of ten people would choose to read it without hesitation. That’s because you’ll be curious about what you were doing in your past life.
But instead of reading it alone, what if someone else reads the diary aloud to you?
Will you still want to read it?
“Do not be afraid, Yue Guk. I, Baek Cheon-gyeol, will return to this land. It may take years, hundreds of years… I will return riding a shiny black horse and stepping on a gold-lacquered road, or as a white skeleton. “I can’t guarantee whether he will come back with a worn-out cane, but he will definitely return to this land someday. So don’t be too afraid.”
After finishing reading, Seo Yi-san smiled with satisfaction, but unfortunately, he was not in a position to applaud.
“……”
All I could do was move my stiff facial muscles and raise the corners of my mouth as much as possible.
Ever since Seo Yi-san took out Baek Cheon-gyeol’s diary, ‘Baek Wol-rok’, he had been having a headache.
[ The King of Conqueror’s unique item ‘Baekwolrok’ discovered. Progress increases! ]
Judging by the pain that felt like someone was poking my brain with a needle and the notification on the status window that was blocking my vision, it was clear that the book was genuine.
Baekwolrok must have been treated as a very valuable piece, and it seemed to be in such good condition that the letters were legible compared to the passage of time.
Perhaps that was why it was difficult to even look at the book.
It felt like all the emotions I felt while writing that were trying to break open my skull and get into my head.
“What a touching piece of writing this is. The sentence I just read is the last sentence of Baekwolrok.”
“…I see.”
“So what do you think?”
Seo Yi-san asked me with eyes full of admiration.
‘Do you think that sentence means reincarnation?’
It was certain.
Baek Cheon-gyeol at the time wrote that sentence with his own end in mind.
“…I’m not sure. It seems like it was written as propaganda to prevent the people from falling into confusion. But…”
“…That’s because it’s his extremely personal diary.”
“Yes.”
“Then what on earth did Baek Cheon-gyeol write this article for?”
That’s right.
Why did Baek Cheon-gyeol write something like that?
“Would you like to hear Jim’s reasoning?”
“…Yes.”
I didn’t really want to pay attention, but considering the progress, I reluctantly agreed.
“The first time Jim encountered this book was when he was a young child. In fact, this ‘Baekwolrok’ was a truly ‘banned book’ that was said to be read only by the king of the Yue Kingdom.”
“Why was it treated as a banned book?”
“It’s an old story, so it’s not accurate, but at the time, the country of Yue was in great trouble due to the failure of the King Conqueror’s expedition. The various countries that had gathered under one name, Baekcheongyeol, began to divide… It wasn’t long after the dynasty changed. “The state of Yue, which was not established, did not have the power to cope with that huge trend. As soon as it reached its peak, it experienced a downfall… Because of that, the people’s passion for Baekcheongyeol did not die out easily.”
Not long after the unification of the East, it all came to nothing, so the people might have been very disappointed.
“This was the same for the royal family, and they began to gradually erase the achievements of the conquering king.”
“But Baekwolrok remains.”
“I had no choice but to stay. In other words, I couldn’t burn this one book.”
“Hoo…”
It seems that it was not an ordinary diary.
“When I was young, I thought it was an unremarkable diary containing personal stories. In fact, the first half contained his ordinary daily life. Afterwards, my head grew bigger and I began to have one question. Why was this book written by a royal family? “I wondered if it had been passed down from generation to generation. I soon read through ‘Hundred Wolok’ and realized that, as far as the Yue Kingdom is concerned, even if you collected all the books written by the monarchs that existed in this world, it would not be as valuable as this book.”
While listening to Seo Yi-san, I scratched my cheek for no reason. It was such high praise that it made me blush.
“It is no exaggeration to say that this book contains the laws governing the Yue Kingdom. Therefore, from the royal family’s perspective, the existence of the Baekyolok should not be leaked, but since they cannot recognize the conquering king, they call it a ‘banned book’. “It has been passed down. This is the history of Baekwolrok.”
We cannot acknowledge the brilliant moon of the Baek Dynasty, but we cannot deny it for the development of the Moon Kingdom, so it was passed down in that form.
I think I finally understand.
Baekwolrok was not just a diary.
If the person who wrote that was really me, at least I felt like that.
Soon, Seo Yi-san takes a sip of tea, puts down his book, and continues his conversation.
“I, who have read Baekwolrok several times, think so. I wonder if Baek Cheon-gyeol had his own end in mind from the beginning.”
It was the correct answer.
I think it was the same for me.
Let’s put ourselves in Baek Cheon-gyeol’s position and look back.
A saint who swore revenge after his colleague was killed by the devil has been reincarnated.
Baek Cheon-gyeol, whose vengeance did not subside even after his reincarnation, thought of the ‘Wolguk’ held in his hands as a means and tool to defeat the Demon King.
So Baek Cheon-gyeol sharpened his sword.
The Yue Kingdom grew rapidly.
The blade to be inserted into the devil’s heart was sharpened sharper.
However, he was unable to let go of his memories of his past life as a saint and his mindset from his previous life.
Wolguk kept coming into my sight.
If the expedition fails, what happens to the ‘those left behind’?
Once, he was a ‘leftover’ and could not easily get over this.
He probably wrote ‘Baekwolrok’ at the same time as planning the expedition.
The reason that ordinary daily life was written at first was probably because the intention of writing changed in the middle.
Soon, Baek Cheon-gyeol succeeds in unifying the East.
At this point, he must have decided that it was not impossible to defeat the Demon King at this rate.
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And it failed miserably.
I think about it now, but at the time, Baek Cheon-gyeol made a hasty judgment.
That’s because Baek Cheon-gyeol was his first reincarnation.
Things must have worked out well.
You probably thought anything would work out.
He would not have wanted to sacrifice his warrior or his comrades again.
In the end, Baek Cheon-gyeol proceeded with his expedition plan without any warriors. And that arrogance consumed him.
However, it seems that the ‘Baekwolrok’ that he left behind as a fortress has continued to this day as he intended and is providing strength to the Wolguk.
‘Well, it’s like repairing a barn after losing a cow… But it’s a hundred or a thousand times better than nothing.’
In the end, the conclusion is that Baekwolrok’s last sentence was written with reincarnation in mind.
Even Seo Yi-san did not know what the method would be or when it would happen.
“It seems likely that he has already come and gone.”
“Reincarnated… King of Conqueror…?”
“If his personality is as described in Baekwolrok, that should be enough. Currently, the state of Yue has only been restored to the level before he expanded its territory in earnest. It is possible that he who happened to visit the state of Yue returned satisfied.”
Seo Yi-san nodded his head slightly and answered.
It was an amazing insight.
Even if I had Baek Cheon-gyeol’s memories, I don’t think I would have been involved in the current Yue Guk.
There was just one thing I didn’t understand.
So, I decided to ask him, who probably knows Baekcheon-gyeol better than anyone else.
“Then why did he use the expression that he would return?”
“I guess he loved this country, Wolguk, that much. Even if he died and came back to life, I would still want to see it with the naked eye.”
Seo Yi-san sighs and laughs.
He loved Wolguk and this land.
It was a plausible expression.
That may actually have been the case.
Among the many countries I stayed in while traveling in the East, there was no place that made me feel more at ease than Wolguk.
I wonder if it felt like my home.
Speaking of home, I miss the academy’s dormitory.
“Do you often keep that book nearby?”
“No, I usually keep it in a separate place. Anyway, it’s still treated as a ‘banned book’. But recently, there was something I was curious about, so I was reading it again.”
Is it because I felt like I was understood in my past life? The conversation with Seo Yi-san, an avid follower of Baek Cheon-gyeol, was not that bad.
The understanding seemed to be similar to that of Seoisan.
He seemed to be in quite a good mood, perhaps because he was able to talk about Baek Cheon-gyeol without worrying about what I, an outsider, might think.
I, who still had questions, opened my mouth again to his ambiguous answer.
“What part might that be?”
“…Why don’t you ask that question after defeating Hwasu? I’m looking at Hwasu’s board, so the person from before can’t go away.”
Seo Yi-san, looking at the fire board with deep traces of defeat, asked that question.
“Good.”
There was no reason to refuse.
It’s just a little bit cumbersome.
***
“…Six archers on the left.”
“……From horseback to horseback riding.”
What exactly is the identity of this blind man?
It was my first time dealing with a blind man and Hwa-su, but it was also my first time losing to Hwa-su.
As the king of the Yue Kingdom, I also had hobbies.
It was such a nasty hobby, like going to a game board and getting angry while wearing a mask.
I have enjoyed Hwasu since I was young, and I did not want to be treated to an easy victory by my subordinates, so I would secretly crawl into the game board and enjoy Hwasu.
I am the one who survived even in a game where life is overflowing.
I never thought I would be so helpless.
Even though I was the one who attacked first, I wasn’t even given a chance to attack.
“Geomsoo is in Uppal. This… Red flowers have bloomed.”
Zeto slowly smiled.
Red flowers blooming on a flower board.
He was a foreign leader.
There was no longer any place to escape.
All the numbers were read by him.
It felt as if there were five masters giving advice behind him… No, there were ten more.
I wondered if I could read the numbers better if I closed my eyes, so I tried closing my eyes, but after moving the pieces twice, I gave up right away.
Even for a person with normal eyesight, this is a considerable skill, but it was surprising that he was showing such skill even though he was blind.
“…I’m burdened.”
It was my defeat.
“……”
Soon, a girl with short hair on the other side glances at me disapprovingly.
I was asked a favor from her, who was her informant, and I don’t know if I can ask her this question within today.