"Why go through such troublesome measures? Wouldn't it suffice to simply gather troops and attack?"
"Unlike Gunguk or other nations, Yeolguk lacks such a clear command structure. In Yeolguk, everything revolves around the Golden Palace. Thanks to that, news spreads quickly, but power cannot. Everyone is scattered in all directions, making it impossible to force the jackals."
'In other words, there's no center to rally around. A strange nation indeed, to feel no attachment to land.'
Tir catches on quickly. Or perhaps I should say she accepts things readily.
She doesn't question why Yeolguk wanders or why they're unattached to land, simply taking what I say as fact. That makes it easier to explain. This is something best explained gradually anyway.
"So the Golden Palace uses interests to move the wanderers. They encourage plundering of Gunguk, and guarantee they'll purchase all the spoils in bulk. Then the wanderers move toward it like beasts drawn to a delicious scent. Whether they plunder, plunder the plunderers, or protect against that plundering."
"Oh-ho. They're not gathering troops, but achieving a similar effect."
"Exactly. You understand well."
Hilde, who had been pouring water created with magic, grumbled in dissatisfaction.
"Thanks to that, the ones dying are the signal corps and Gunguk's citizens~. Ah, how annoying. Should I just assassinate them all in the middle of the night?"
She's saying something terrifying... but the person before me was Gunguk's terror, the Yukjangseong Yeonggwae. Assassination is something she could do at any time, and has actually done before.
I restrained Hilde half-heartedly.
"That's not something an envoy proposing a truce should do."
"What does it matter! If no one knows, it never happened!"
"But we already know."
At my pointing out, Hilde smiled sourly and put her finger to her lips. A cheerful voice came from within that terrifying smile.
"Hehe, you'll keep your mouth shut, right?"
"I get the feeling that if I don't, you'll make it so I can never open it again...."
Well, as long as she doesn't kill me, it's fine. She can do as she pleases.
Wiping my hands and feet with a damp cloth, I exhaled a deep breath in a relatively clean state. My limbs ache a bit, but my body is fine. This should be enough.
Having finished preparations, I took out the spiritual medicine from the wooden box. Spiritual medicine. I'm not expecting much... Let's treat it like eating a tonic dish.
"Alright, I'm eating it now."
"Dugu-dugu-dugu-dugu! I look forward to Father being reborn after taking the spiritual medicine!"
"If I regain my strength, I won't forget the efforts of everyone who believed in and followed me. You know what to do when taking spiritual medicine, right? Please don't touch me or speak to me unless it's urgent."
Walking isn't a big deal, but just in case. That spiritual medicine might agree with my body.
Tir asked curiously.
"Must you not be touched, nor spoken to?"
"There's no need to go that far. If there's an emergency, for example if the tent catches fire, you should just run. But to avoid wasting ki, it's best to leave me be."
"Hmm. How peculiar. Understood."
Tir moved the coffin and set it down beside me. Seated atop it, she began watching me silently. It seemed she planned to watch until digestion was complete.
It's a bit daunting, but if it's just watching, fine.
"Alright. Here I go."
I lifted the spiritual medicine. A pungent fragrance wafted up. It doesn't look appetizing, but I squeezed my eyes shut and poured the spiritual medicine into my mouth.
Large, long-lived creatures inevitably possess ki. Not only humans. Any beast that exists and brings change to the world gains ki. They also instinctively learn to utilize the accumulated ki.
Of course, among them, only humans use ki technically.
Humans use wood, rocks, iron, and even magic technically. It wouldn't be surprising if they technically used the ki within their own bodies.
However, when humans who live barely sixty-some years use a complex technique called qigong, they suffer from chronic ki deficiency. At such times, humans always sought something outside their bodies to fill the deficiency.
That was the ki of other beasts. The essence of creatures now called spiritual medicine. Humans filled their bellies by hunting beasts while also replenishing their lacking ki....
But do humans know? That beast ki and human ki are actually no different.
And that in the era when humans were still beasts, the easiest beast to find was humans themselves.
Class 1 Forbidden Act, Gluttony. The taboo of humans devouring other humans to obtain magical power and ki....
All humans consider it forbidden and regard even thinking of it as a sin, but that forbidden act is actually occurring right now.
Inside my belly.
Haa. As expected, it's no good. No matter what I do, there's no efficiency. The spiritual medicine is definitely inside my stomach, but there's no sign of any interaction taking place.
Honestly, I'm not sure of the reason. There's no rule saying the King of Beasts can't transform, but my body feels somehow fixed... no, defined. If this is the case, whether I eat several spiritual medicines or devour hundreds through Gluttony, there won't be much difference.
The ki obtainable from this precious spiritual medicine is a mere speck of dust. Even that feels like it will disappear someday. But to become Mount Tai, one must gather even such specks of dust.
While I was desperately scraping together even the tiniest bit of ki, a voice reached my ears.
"...I heard spiritual medicines are dangerous. Are there no side effects?"
"There's almost no chance of it becoming dangerous~. Many people think spiritual medicines are dangerous because of side effects, but actually side effects occur when the ki inside the body runs wild after being stimulated by external ki! Like an allergy!"
"That is what makes it dangerous!"
"But, Father's ki is truly just a rat's tail! No matter how hard a rat's tail flails, it's only at the level of tickling! Therefore, if Father experiences side effects, it'll only be a full-body tickle! Rest assured! 'I' already considered that much!"
A rat's tail? Even if true, that metaphor is too much.
Just you wait. If I ever get stronger, the first thing I'll do is smack you on the head.
Despite Hilde's assurances, Tir still expressed concern.
"But Shei said you must stay still to absorb the spiritual medicine. If it's not because of side effects, why did she say that?"
"That's for after taking it. If you absorb ki but it doesn't settle properly in the body, that's a bigger problem. Ki that wanders inside the body without being fully digested has a higher chance of causing side effects later!"
"Aha. Then the meaning of not touching the body and not disturbing concentration is..."
"It's said that moving the body while taking in ki causes difficulties with the meridian qi, and disturbing the mind causes difficulties with the meridian li! Well, 'I' haven't experienced it myself, so it's knowledge I only heard, so I can't be certain!"
So she says. Since I haven't digested it, it was useless advice for me. If there's no ki, there's no difficulty in handling ki either.
"For reference, to avoid harming the meridian gan, you should minimize anything touching the body!"
"Things touching the body, you say..."
Tir, who had been examining me absentmindedly, suddenly asked back.
"Wait! Isn't Hyu wearing clothes? Cloth touching the body all over!"
...Well. Clothes are fine. I wear them every day anyway, and without them, the wind and dust touching me would cause problems instead.
Well, Hilde will correct it herself.
'Hmmm? There are cases where people strip depending on the person, but clothes don't really matter~. But, this looks fun, should I egg her on!'
Don't egg her on.
"Oh my, what should we do! I forgot since I wear them every day! I must take them off right away!"
Don't take them off.
"Wait! Hold on! How can you strip a man's clothes...!"
"Oh? Is that the issue?"
"Of course! Such a thing can only be done between those who have pledged to be together for life!"
"But he's 'my' Father? I'm trying to serve him with utmost filial devotion, is it still not allowed?"
"Urk, that's... No! You're not actually father and daughter! You can't! Actually, you absolutely can't!"
"Then what should we do? If we leave it like this and the ki sticks with the clothes stuck to the body, you'll become a body that can never take off clothes for the rest of your life!"
That's impossible.
"Wh-what a horrific thing... It's a dilemma. Then what should we do..."
"You have no choice but to strip them!"
"But..."
"The answer is decided, and all that's needed is resolve! Tirkanjak. In a dilemma, you must have resolve! The resolve to overcome difficulties and move forward!"
'R-Resolve? That means... for a lifetime...'
Tir swallowed nonexistent saliva and looked at me. Toward me, sitting still with my eyes closed, Tir carefully reached out her hand. Pale white fingers headed toward my clothes.
However, Tir soon realized something and spoke.
"...I don't see any seams on the clothes. Where are the buttons or strings?"
"Oops. That's a clothing pack, so you need to inject magic power into the bio-terminal."
"I cannot wield magic power!"
"Then you have to tear it. Will you tear it?"
"How could such an indecent... No! Tearing it with force would be putting the cart before the horse! The clothes would pull and the body would move!"
"Ehehe. That's true!"
"This is terrible...! What should we do about this!"
'Urarara. I said it as a joke, but she's taking it more seriously than I expected~. What should I do? If I say it was a joke now, she might hate me?'
Just take a little hatred. If you lied, have the courage to be hated for it.
It was then. The regressor pushed open the tent flap and came in looking quite refreshed. Perhaps she was proud of having gathered information. Without being asked, she blurtted out what information she'd obtained.
"I got all the information. There's a large camp a day's distance from here. The next target is there..."
"Shei! You came at the right time. Come here and help strip Hyu's clothes!"
"Why?!"
Now even if I eat anything else, it'll probably give me indigestion. I scowled and stood up.
"That's enough nonsense. Everyone stop."
"Hyu! You mustn't stand!"
The regressor, who had almost stripped a man's clothes out of nowhere, still didn't understand the situation.
"Huh? Why? Why can't she stand?"
"She took a spiritual medicine! Moving will be dangerous!"
"Huh? She already took the spiritual medicine? Without saying anything... wait a minute!"
The regressor opened her seven-colored eyes and looked at me. Among the seven colors of the seven-colored eyes, the seventh color, the mystic eye that sees power. With the purple eyes that faintly sense the total amount of power, the regressor examined my body and grew puzzled.
"...Your ki hasn't increased at all? What. Did you pretend to take it and hide it somewhere?"
"It's already frustrating enough that my ki didn't increase, but now I'm being treated like a thief?"
"No, you said you took a spiritual medicine! Then who stole your ki?"
"If you find them, please let me know. I'll chop off their neck."
The regressor examined me in turn with her seven-colored eyes. Her purpose was more to confirm whether I had hidden the spiritual medicine, but having checked with every kind of vision, she realized my words were true.
"Wait a minute. This is... that can't be explained by anything else."
The regressor, who recalled something, fell silent in thought. Tir, who would normally wait for her to speak, was impatient this time and urged for an answer.
"What is it?"