Chapter 70

Chapter 70. Truth (2)

"The speech of our nation, being different from that of China...... right?"

King Sejong the Great—Yi Do was astounded.

How could this man know of something not yet revealed to the world?

"Wh-who...... who in the world are you?"

Yi Do, well-versed in Neo-Confucianism and the Book of Changes.

He scrutinized the man called "Patriot" standing before him.

Bizarre garments covered in highly unusual patterns.

'Wrapped head to toe in the taegeuk and the four trigrams—geon, gon, gam, ri......'

The taegeuk—yin and yang interlocking in ceaseless motion, embodying the principles of the cosmos.

Geon, gon, gam, ri ☰☷☵☲—heaven and earth, water and fire, four principles that encompass the universe.

'Truly, a being that embodies the ultimate truth of heaven, earth, nature, and the world.'

The pure white background surely signified the untainted Way.

'A celestial being!'

What could be the reason such an existence had sought him out?

And why was this being.......

"I-it's really K-King Sejong the Great! AAARGH!!!"

Rolling his eyes back and prostrating himself in worship—why?

How could a being radiating divine energy, god-like in nature, show such reverence toward him?

"F-finally...... the Constellation and guardian deity of the Republic of Korea, who rules the world through the Dominion of Words!!!"

BOOOM——.

The instant the taegeuk-clad being finished speaking.

'What is this power?'

Yi Do felt a mysterious force taking root within him.

Clearly, the divine spirit before him spoke a language similar to his own, yet in a strangely evolved form.

Yet somehow, that "language" now rang crystal clear in his ears.

"L-let me ask again. Who are you?"

"AAARGH! King Sejong the Great is really here!!!"

A man shouting irreverently while prostrating himself in worship.

And yet, a being impossible to dismiss—one whose very body embodied the cosmic principles of taegeuk and the four trigrams.

He spoke—.

"You are...... a descendant of the Republic of Korea—of Joseon? And one who has risen to the rank of Transcendent, no less."

"Of course! The Republic of Korea's about to get wiped out as we speak, and we need King Sejong the Great's power right now!"

"My power?"

"The great King Sejong must become my Constellation!"

Yi Do listened to the Patriot's explanation.

Himself—King Sejong—revered as a "god" in Joseon's far future.

'The script I created is used by all the people...... and they worship me as a god—.'

Yi Do's lips slowly curled upward.

But he made an effort to maintain his royal composure as he asked.

"Then, what is that attire of yours?"

"This is the Taegukgi! The national flag of the Republic of Korea! Our symbol!!!"

"National flag? You mean the nation's symbol is rendered upon a banner?"

"Wait, how does King Sejong the Great not know what a national flag is?"

From just one national flag.

Yi Do understood the man before him with perfect clarity.

'A descendant from the very distant future.'

A being separated from him by a cultural gulf he could never hope to bridge.

'A national flag—.'

Not only speech and language, but their very way of life must be enormously different.

Yet Yi Do did not ask.

He simply listened.

"An absolute great figure who commands the world with a single word!!!"

The being who'd introduced himself as "the Patriot" defined what manner of god King Sejong was.

The Dominion of Words.

King Sejong was undoubtedly a being who expressed omnipotence through language itself!

The Patriot defined King Sejong as such.

'Ha!'

Yi Do was an intellect who ranked among the finest the world had ever seen.

A being who had created a writing system on the foundation of language.

His brilliant mind assessed the Patriot in an instant.

'Shallow.'

The history he'd described was haphazard, riddled with gaps.

His understanding of Hangul was abysmal, and he couldn't even grasp the distinction between creating a language and creating a writing system.

Even so—.

"You are a genius. To think you know the language I created so well."

Yi Do praised the Patriot.

Because throughout their conversation, he'd felt a strange, rising exaltation.

With a mystical power encompassing all of creation and the cosmos taking root within him, how could he possibly refuse?

Amid that dizzying exaltation, Yi Do asked.

"Tell me—what is Hangul as you know it?"

The Patriot grinned and spoke of the great, world-supreme language that was Hangul.

To the Patriot, Hangul was.

"The Devouring Language."

Words that devour other words.

"How so?"

The Patriot tilted his head.

"I'm seeing a pattern here. King Sejong, your memories aren't intact either? How can the person who made Hangul not know this?"

"I am ashamed to say...... my mind has been in disarray since meeting you."

"Don't worry! I know Hangul really fucking well."

"Really fucking?"

"It's an intensifier meaning 'very.' Oh wait, am I talking down to you? Since I'm supposed to be equals with my Constellations."

Yi Do, an absolute adherent of Neo-Confucianism and Confucian values.

His eyebrows twitched.

'A mere rootless commoner......'

A being meant to be taught and governed.

One whose station was clearly, unmistakably beneath his own.

But Yi Do was among the world's foremost intellects.

'No, wait. He is worth treating as an equal.'

Was this not the very moment omnipotent power was taking root within him?

Yi Do chose silence.

The Patriot's explanation began.

"King Sejong, Hangul is the supreme language. The words themselves carry power!"

The Patriot's understanding of "Hangul" was this:

"Take the word 'real'—that's English. But write it in Hangul as 리얼, and it becomes Hangul. The meaning carries through perfectly."

[리얼반박불가.]

—Say that, and everyone understands it as "truly irrefutable."

"Hangul straight-up devoured a foreign word and made it its own!"

"It devoured...... another nation's language?"

"That word's originally English. American? British? Doesn't matter—it belongs to those Yankees."

"S-so you're saying a Western language can be written in Hangul?"

"Every language in the world can be written in Hangul!"

Yi Do's eyes went wide.

He'd never imagined Hangul would reach such heights.

An era where every language on Earth could be transcribed in Hangul!!!

"Then what became of Chinese characters?"

"Those are gone."

"G-gone?"

When the Patriot was young—a very, very long time ago—Chinese characters had been used alongside Hangul.

Not anymore.

"I got rid of them."

"G-got rid of?"

"I mean, the great King Sejong made Hangul, so why would we also use Chinese characters? That's blasphemy."

After all, you didn't need to know the Chinese character origins embedded in Hangul—the meanings all came through anyway.

Because Hangul was great.

"Hangul is the omnipotent language!"

Hangul.

A writing system that could transcribe every language in the world.

No—every sound in existence, exactly as it was.

And furthermore—.

[읽럵겕썱돍읽힑짉.]

A script whose meaning could still be understood even when its forms were distorted.

And that was why—.

"It was created by the God of the Dominion of Words—King Sejong the Great."

***

Immediately after the Patriot entered the Tower.

The President assembled experts to predict whom the Patriot would encounter in his trial.

"The prophecy was to choose 2 no matter what. Since it's already been carried out, there should be no issue with us discussing it."

I'd threatened the Patriot while holding two Ego Swords.

The actual content of the threat had simply been to choose 2.

But.......

"The Patriot Affairs Team's opinion is that King Sejong the Great is the most likely candidate. Apparently the option itself would have appeared as 'Yi Do.'"

The Republic of Korea's government was tremendously competent.

"What's the basis?"

Two swords could also be expressed as "ido" (二刀), and according to the Saintess of Fate Im Ji-a's prophecy patterns, that was the interpretation that made sense, but.......

Honestly, more than any of that.

"The Patriot doesn't actually know that many historical figures, so......"

The experts' consensus was that it was about time for King Sejong to appear.

"The fact that he mentioned President Syngman Rhee to you was apparently a very significant clue."

At the government's request, I'd shared my conversation with the Patriot.

As a result, the previously unmentioned historical figure "Syngman Rhee" was identified.

"Constellation options come in pairs. The heroes of the Japanese Colonial Period are too close in era to President Syngman Rhee, so the probability is low. That means we have to go further back, and the Patriot doesn't know many heroes from that far back."

"So it's either Grandfather Dangun or King Sejong the Great."

"Exactly."

It made sense, but one question nagged at me.

"You have an entire Patriot Affairs Team—how did you not know this already?"

Judging by the carrier's radar, it could detect just about everything.

I'd taken a casual look, and the specs really were outstanding.

"Ahem."

The answer came from an unexpected source.

"We Constellations are able to lie to the Patriot."

"Shameful as it is...... under the premise that it benefits him, we are able to deceive him."

Yi Sun-sin and Yulgok Yi I said as much.

Cheok Jun-gyeong, who kept fidgeting with his lightsaber without saying a word, seemed to be in on it too.

I couldn't say I didn't understand.

'Enough to make anyone lose it.'

What had the Constellations' lives been like?

Yi Sun-sin, who'd once fought grueling naval battles aboard a panokseon, now flew around in an aircraft carrier.

I couldn't even begin to imagine what the Patriot's secret Transcendent-class weapon—the turtle ship—might look like.

Yulgok Yi I, who'd merely advocated for an army of a hundred thousand, was now the master of a hundred-thousand-strong special forces unit.

Cheok Jun-gyeong, the war hero turned rebel turned exile, was now swinging a lightsaber and mowing through enemies like a one-man army.......

"You must now join our cause as well."

"Gladly."

The stronger the Patriot grew, the more options I had.

I even offered suggestions.

"Shouldn't we be making more diverse, direct and indirect references to history and great figures?"

"For instance, that Jang Yeong-sil developed a Transcendent-class nuclear bomb alongside King Sejong? Or that Gwanggaeto the Great unified the continent and discovered the New World?"

Had these people already tried this?

I'd only asked, and examples came pouring out from every direction.

"We certainly wished to, but......"

"Under no circumstances must we intervene in the Patriot's trials."

The Constellations unanimously maintained that interference would simply reset everything to nothing.

'There's no way the trials are that easy to game.'

I understood as much.

"Well, as long as King Sejong appears, Korea's golden, wouldn't you say?"

It seemed like things were more or less settled.

I looked around and laid out the upcoming agenda.

I had my own tasks to attend to.

"I'll be reshaping my territory, so I'd appreciate it if the President could prepare a plan for cultivating Awakened."

"Hah...... so it's come to this."

The President squeezed his eyes shut and declared he would begin concrete preparations for the Awakened cultivation program using the coffins.

"What selection criteria...... are you thinking? Conscription was abolished long ago, so forced participation would be difficult."

Even I had no intention of shoving just anyone into a coffin.

That was where the compromise came in.

"Strictly volunteers."

If the world grew more precarious, forced participation might become necessary, but.......

Not yet.

"I'm a bit worried whether anyone will actually volunteer, but—."

Contrary to everyone's concerns, I believed the number of volunteers would be staggering.

Hadn't we already seen the precedent in Jeonju?

Tens of thousands of new Hunters had emerged.

"Volunteers will be pouring in. Don't worry about that."

And even if there were none, I had a plan to ensure there would be.

"If you share your plan, the government will provide maximum support."

My plan wasn't limited to just the coffins.

It was about reshaping my territory of Pyongyang and creating an entirely new ecosystem.

"I'll absolutely need government support."

It was true that massive administrative resources would be required, and I'd need to bring in plenty of experts.

"Pyongyang is going to transform into something like another world."

"When you say another world......"

Everyone seemed to be picturing North Korea's Polluted Beasts, but the world I intended to create was nothing like that.

"A world saturated with mana, where even non-Awakened will have the possibility of harboring mystical power."

People who could naturally wield aura or mana would begin to emerge.

And it would start with the World Tree.

"The Earth Mother—the World Tree. I'm going to plant the pillar that upholds the world in this land."

But unexpected resistance came.

"Th-the World Tree. Isn't that...... a man-eating plant?"

Having seen one in a Black Gate, the Patriot's Constellations balked.

Admittedly, the World Tree was something like a man-eating plant.

But I was fully confident I could control the World Tree perfectly.

"My demons handle the World Tree very well."

***

The carrier and the government officials returned to Seoul.

The President declared in a national address that our Republic of Korea had reclaimed the complete Korean Peninsula.

Currently, the only fully reclaimed land in North Korea was Pyongyang.

'I'll let the military clean up the rest.'

I considered the Great Wall an opportunity.

It was a wall of severance erected by China, but from our perspective, it wasn't necessarily bad.

Just as they'd bought time, so had we.

As long as I had my swords, this time was absolutely in our favor.

[S-Sword Master! Are you really going to plant that thing?]

I stood alone atop the Inviolable Fortress.

More precisely, Pyongyang—my territory, which would probably be renamed in the fashion of Raise a Sword.

From this moment, I would reshape this land.

'I'm planting the World Tree.'

The World Tree would absorb the lingering contamination throughout North Korea as nourishment, scattering vitality as it grew.

That was how I'd revive this dead land.

"I'm not sure what kind of temperament this World Tree will have, so I'd like you all to keep an eye on it."

Willful and impossibly stubborn.

If the World Tree had simply cooperated, clearing Raise a Sword would have been far easier.

But the World Tree had never once been cooperative, leading its fanatical Elf followers to obstruct my swords endlessly.

But now was different.

'No Elves, and not even any nature to speak of.'

The World Tree's current form was a seed.

Whether it even possessed a self was uncertain.

'This is my first time with a seed form—it might have an entirely different personality from those World Trees.'

My goal was to plant this seed and cultivate a World Tree that obeyed only my will.

To that end, I expended the swords' time, which had each increased by five seconds.

"Muratan."

First, I used Muratan's power to restructure the Inviolable Fortress.

BOOOM——.

The fortress, which had maintained a thoroughly isolated structure to protect me, transformed into something resembling a medieval city divided into outer and inner walls.

Next, I leveled the terrain.

Groundwork for planting the World Tree.

A circular clearing appeared at the center of Pyongyang, ringed by Inviolable Walls.

[Sword Master, I shall send the demons.]

Now it was time to deploy the demons.

Just as I'd gifted some to Seol-a, demons that had been reshaped through Transcendence to exist in reality appeared through the Baby Sword.

The swords must have been cooperating to mass-produce them in the meantime.

——World Tree. Disobey. We eat.

The demons I'd gifted to Seol-a had definitely been "Good Demons."

Round, obedient, cute little things. But the demons appearing this time had far more grotesque and vicious forms.

Monsters with single bloodshot eyes rolling wildly.

FLASH!

[Ferocious Demons]

Demons prepared solely to intimidate the World Tree.

I nodded in satisfaction.

'I'll plant the World Tree on soil surrounded by a hundred demons.'

Preparations were complete.

I calmly stepped onto the circular clearing and produced the seed.

Then I planted it in the earth.

FLASH!

[World Tree—Seed of the Earth Mother.]

The moment it was planted, the ground swelled upward.

Then—POP!—a tiny sprout emerged.

And that sprout.......

—Th-th-these horrible swords. The monsters that killed me hundreds of millions of times have come again!!!