EP.123 There is a Reason for Epithets
When there is an esteemed guest, it is only natural to hold at least a modest feast. Relaxing the traveler's tension and welcoming news from afar is an ancient etiquette of humanity.
Having invited Jiseon to the dining room, I brought out all the remaining food. Not knowing what she might like, I set everything on the table to welcome her.
I joyfully called for a toast.
"Everyone, please pay attention! An esteemed guest has arrived at the Bottomless Chasm! The goddess of the Engineering Corps, the Guardian of Shoveling, the Reverse Undertaker, Gongollae, Buldoja! This is Jiseon, the owner of all these titles!"
Jiseon nodded in affirmation, but her face was less than pleased during her introduction. Especially when hearing the last two epithets.
'…I wish she had left out the last two. Still, this introduction should be the end of it.'
However, there is a very curious 12th-century girl in this room. Tir asked with pure curiosity.
"You have many epithets. How did you acquire them all?"
"Haha. They are not that impressive."
Jiseon politely declined to answer. However, even if Jiseon didn't answer, there was someone who would.
That was me!
"Not impressive? Every single one of them comes from an impressive deed!"
I couldn't treat a famous and great existence like Jiseon as just some passing traveler 1.
Others might be able to tolerate it, but I couldn't. I immediately kicked off my seat and stood up.
"It's absurd that there are people who haven't realized Jiseon's greatness! For those who don't know, let me explain briefly!"
"No, there's no need."
"You don't need to be modest! Tir is unfamiliar with outside news. If I don't tell her in advance, she won't be able to follow the conversation and will get pouty!"
'…Pouty at seeing the Progenitor, a primordial being? This person is no ordinary fellow.'
Jiseon reluctantly agreed. Once permission fell, I introduced her like a host welcoming a VIP.
"Jiseon participated in most of the national civil engineering projects spearheaded by the Military Nation. However, nothing the country does ever goes right! For the Engineering Corps back then, whose only tasks were digging trenches and setting up wooden palisades, such large-scale civil engineering projects would have been a massive massacre, burying alive as many people as the personnel put in! It was enough to make one worry about the second coming of the Overlord! And the one who appeared like a comet at that time was!"
With a flourish, I respectfully raised my hand and pointed at Jiseon.
"It is Jiseon! Thanks to Jiseon leading her subordinate Geomancers and participating, the Military Nation built sturdy roads, dams, and buildings!
Not only that! How to make concrete several times stronger, how to handle it, how to lay the foundation, finding water veins, and selecting soil! Jiseon and her Geomancers, who taught all of that, were no different from the Earth Mother Goddess to the Engineering Corps! Hence, the Goddess of the Engineering Corps!"
"Oho. An apostle of the Earth Mother Goddess becoming a carpenter. How interesting."
As Tir's eyes sparkled and she listened with interest, Jiseon could no longer refuse my introduction. Riding the momentum, I continued the explanation.
"The Guardian of Shoveling and the Reverse Undertaker also have anecdotes related to that! One day, an engineer was buried in the ground while digging. It was a common occurrence on construction sites, but some citizens feared it, saying the Earth Mother Goddess was angry at her flesh being dug up. At that time! Jiseon exerted her Earth Arts! Like a volcano erupting, like a well springing forth! His body was pulled out from deep within the ground!"
Exclamations of admiration flowed from here and there. Especially Tir's reaction satisfied me.
"Ooh. I've seen Daoists do something similar. And so?"
"After that day, the Engineering Corps no longer feared shoveling! Hence, the Guardian of Shoveling. In addition, unlike an undertaker who buries the dead, she was given the title of a reversed undertaker for pulling a living person out of the ground! That is the Reverse Undertaker!"
"Splendid!"
Tir let out an exclamation of admiration and looked at Jiseon again. Jiseon opened and closed her mouth for a moment, then smiled and replied.
"They are merely rumors blown out of proportion."
'…Earth Mother Goddess. Please give this poor daughter the strength to endure the shame.'
No matter how famous Jiseon was in the world, she was a toddler compared to Tir, who boasted a 12th-century history. Since Tir, who was of a similar age to the Bottomless Chasm, showed interest, she couldn't bear to cut off my words.
Using a cheat key, I continued the explanation.
"Gongollae (滾坤崍) was named so because when Jiseon exerts her power, the earth (坤) flows (滾) like a river!"
"The earth flows like a river?"
"That's right. There's this thing called cement! With Jiseon's expertise, the Military Nation mass-produced high-quality cement. However, while they were worrying about how to transport it, Jiseon appeared again! She utilized the authority of her Earth Arts to send the cement flowing! It is said that the cement she sent forth did not stop for a week!"
I heard there was even a time when the amount moved by Jiseon and a platoon of Magic Officers was greater than all the cement the Military Nation transported.
Also, with the knowledge learned at that time, the Meta-Conveyor Belt, one of the Military Nation's Seven Great Inventions, was created.
"To think such a thing is possible, I can't understand it with common sense…"
"Because it is possible, because it surpasses common sense, she is truly Jiseon! Fame is not easily earned!"
One who casually accomplishes things impossible by the world's common sense. That was why people revered her.
The Earth Mother Goddess faith, which had been steadily walking the path of decline since the emergence of the City God Hall. It was no exaggeration to say that the old faith, which had barely maintained a lifeline, was able to revive and bloom in the modern era all thanks to Jiseon.
Seeing the signs that the introduction was coming to an end, Jiseon felt relieved.
Not so fast. There's still one left.
"Then what is Buldoja (不倒者)?"
Jiseon flinched briefly at Bulsaja's question.
I grinned and explained as if I had been waiting for it.
"It means 'The One Who Does Not Fall'."
"Does not fall?"
"No one in the Engineering Corps has ever seen Jiseon fall. Whether it was a slope, a rocky mountain, or muddy ground from the rain. Jiseon always walked on her own two legs."
The engineers and laborers who participated in the construction. None of them had ever seen Jiseon put her knees to the ground.
When humans who walk on two legs go through all sorts of hardships and end up walking on all fours like other beasts.
She always stood on two legs, and walked on two legs. She accomplished everything with both legs planted like an ancient tree.
"One day, the dam collapsed during construction. The weakened cracks broke, and water leaked out like crazy through the gaps. If it continued like that, the dam would burst and an enormous amount of river water would clearly sweep over everyone downstream. A terrible disaster. At that time."
By this point, everyone expected the words to follow.
At the same time, they half-doubted the fact they expected.
It was possible in words, but too grand of a feat to say it was achieved with a human body.
"If Jiseon, who appeared at that time, hadn't firmly planted her two legs and blocked the levee with her whole body. It surely would have been so."
"Good heavens."
Tir covered her mouth with her hand, and Bulsaja also let out an exclamation.
Something expected, yet hard to believe. The catharsis that occurs when a human invades the realm of the impossible.
I read everyone's emotions and shouted as if I had done it myself.
"Even in the midst of that, she did not fall! Blocking the flowing water with her body, she gave a strict order to repair it while she held out. It was such a dangerous situation that if she fell, the people repairing it would all be swept away!"
However, whenever there was a drinking session, the people who participated in the construction back then would speak of that anecdote bitterly.
That none of the people who were there could even imagine her falling.
"But the Engineering Corps and the laborers came down without a single inch of doubt and repaired the dam. During the single day she became the dam, everyone completed the construction without eating or sleeping."
As I shouted that, my eyes became moist with tears of emotion.
Ah, even Jiseon's feat, which seemed like it could be explained forever, must eventually come to an end as I speak. Why is human history so short and regrettable?
I concluded the story with a fading voice.
"After that day, they became an elite unit against the earth. The legendary Engineering Corps. The Unfalling Battalion, the Buldoja Engineering Corps."
Immediately after my words ended.
Deeply impressed, Bulsaja jumped up from his seat and cheered.
"Buldoja Engineering Corps! What a magnificent name!"
"Right? The Military Nation also highly honors that meaning, and they say they will name newly created equipment Buldoja."
"Keuh. As a human, one often seeks a place to leave their name. Even if it's an epithet! Jiseon has achieved an immense feat!"
Thus, the person who heard the story of the Engineering Corps that remained as a legend once again.
'Even after 20 years… I couldn't shake it off.'
Drained her glass with a bitter expression. Thinking thoughts that would make anyone who read them sad.
'If I had known this would happen, I should have fallen at least once.'
For Buldoja, no, Jiseon, who wanted to deny her own legend, I raised my glass high.
"Fight! Win! Buldoja!"
"Buldoja, how cool…"
"Buldoja! Buldoja!"
Deeply impressed, Tir and Bulsaja cheered repeatedly. In the noisy atmosphere, even Aji fidgeted and barked, "Woof! Doja!"
Receiving respect and support pouring in from all directions.
'I guess… I should have fallen at least five times.'
The Unfalling One thought so.
Anyway, the banquet continued. Except for when the epithet Buldoja came up, Jiseon gladly answered the questions directed at her.
What she did after leaving the Engineering Corps, how hard she worked to train her successors. What the doctrines of the Earth Mother Goddess were.
As if adjusting to the zero point, starting with subtly unrelated questions and gradually approaching the main topic.
I took the lead and opened the floodgates.
"But why would a noble person like you, Jiseon, come to such a shabby place?"
It was a topic everyone had been waiting for. Since Tir listened to all the stories with interest, that was one thing, but Bulsaja and Kalis were also extremely curious.
…And also for the Regressor, who wasn't joining in here and was just listening from outside.
Clack.
As they reached the main point, Jiseon set down her glass with a loud sound and opened her mouth heavily.
"I have come to fulfill the long-cherished wish of all the Earth Mother Goddess's followers."
"The long-cherished wish of all the Earth Mother Goddess's followers?"
"That is right. The Bottomless Chasm, a trace of the Earth Mother Goddess's anger in the past, and the shameful self-portrait of all Her followers. The ugly side of those buried by the Overlord's karma."
Saying so, Jiseon briefly stomped her foot.
Boom.
Kun, brought to its extreme. The pinnacle of Qigong that sent the given power entirely into the ground spread throughout all of Tantalus.
The epicenter of the artificial earthquake spoke with firm resolve.
"The Earth Mother Goddess's hell that turned this land into a wasteland, the Bottomless Chasm. To eliminate it, I have come to this place."
"Eliminate the Bottomless Chasm?"
Yes. It was certain.
The person the Regressor said would come to eliminate the Bottomless Chasm was none other than Jiseon.
I don't know why they called such a famous person an earth snake dreaming of defying the heavens, or a nightmare of the City God Hall.
Anyway, she had arrived in Tantalus a few months earlier!
"It sounds like an absurd story… but since the one who created the legend of Buldoja says so, I feel like it will somehow be achieved!"
"…Could you please stop mentioning the epithet now?"
Oops. Did I push it too much? Okay.