I Became the Crown Prince of a Ruined Country

62 – In Qi

Me and the members of the upper tier watched blankly as the strange gimyunggi was unfolding in front of our eyes.

Pod! Munching! Tak, mumble….

Am I chewing properly?

The presumed castaway was literally inhaling food. Whether it was because he was too hungry or he hadn’t learned proper dining etiquette, the castaway grabbed the food with both hands without using chopsticks properly.

After devouring almost 5 servings of food, the castaway finally stopped eating, which could hardly be called a meal, and showed interest in this side.

“hahahaha! This is a great blessing! I thought I was starving to death!”

The castaway shouted loudly with a loud and strong voice comparable to that of a salt wave.

However, if the voice of a salt wave resonates as if it were shouting in a cave, it was the voice of the castaway that gave off a harsh feeling and was a crackling voice.

By the way, the castaway was a woman.

“Keuheum, the woman is immodest…”

Ignoring her rep for her muttering in her low voice, I asked her.

“But why did you do that in a place like this?”

“Ah~ my circumstances? I heard that Mt. Taesan has such great energy, so I came to climb it, but I got lost and came down blindly, and there was nothing there! I was hungry and lay still!”

So, according to her words, she was a tourist who came all the way to Qi to see Mount Tai, which is said to be the best mountain in the world. She climbed Mt. Tai, but got lost and wandered, and managed to descend. But she couldn’t find a village where people lived, and she couldn’t stand the hunger and sat down on the road.

‘If it’s a mountain, isn’t it enough to eat?’

Even excluding mushrooms that experts avoid, edible plants and various animals form an ecosystem in the mountains.

In this era, food is scarce, so the people are equipped with common sense knowledge about the grass that can be eaten in the mountains and fields.

‘Then aren’t they ordinary people?’

I watched her carefully, narrowing her eyes slightly. She hadn’t been able to check it properly because she was so preoccupied with the mukbang show that she heard of her.

At first glance, he doesn’t seem to come from a noble family. His clothes were almost rags, and his face was sloppy.

However, those things are likely to have a big impact on the distress, and if you look more closely, you can see clues to speculate that they may not have been of a low status.

First of all, his physique was unusual. A large physique was regarded as a characteristic of a high social class in those days when it was difficult to consume enough nutrients evenly. On average, the aristocratic class was much larger than the commoners or the lowly, although in many cases it was not.

Among the women I met in this world, the tallest was by far Shin Leung-gun. She seemed to be slightly over 170cm tall, even in modern times, but the woman in front of her right now was half a span taller than that, so she seemed to be over 180cm tall.

Not only that, but the body that came out through the torn clothes was tightly held by strong muscles. She wasn’t asking for an enormous meal for nothing.

Not only his appearance, but his way of speaking was slightly different, which was quite old-fashioned, unlike ordinary people. The way he spoke was very easy-going, but the vocabulary he used was closer to that used by nobles, so it was difficult to determine his status.

‘Maybe he’s from a fallen aristocracy.’

The core class of the Warring States period, the Sa(士), is a complex class composed of people with various identities and purposes, such as lower-level aristocrats, learned thinkers, and reformers who want to replace the aristocracy.

Although they were from aristocratic families, many of them wandered the world in search of an opportunity to rise as a lower class.

Maybe that person is like that too.

‘The level of training is amazing, and is that a mace worn around the waist? It looks like he came from a samurai family.’

A rough estimate came out. If you look at the face properly, you’ll be sure, but it was a little disappointing that it was difficult to distinguish from the dust and dirt.

“Keuheum, keum. The boy over there seems to be in charge of the group. Is that correct?”

While I was deducing her identity, she also pointed me out to see if she was observing us.

The person in charge jumped out of the way, as if her remarks were offensive.

“Oh, no! I’m the head of our guild.”

“Hmm? Yeah? But wasn’t it the boy over there who asked me to serve food? Hmm… I don’t see him as a rich man.”

“That, that’s…”

You heard that? It seems that my ears are bright, almost like me. It was a conversation from a distance.

To the person in charge who couldn’t refute anything, I took out Nogucheon’s Shinpae (信牌), which I hadn’t used in a while, and showed it.

“From now on, I’ll take care of this trip on behalf of Noh Haengsu.”

“This…why didn’t you show it from the beginning, no, didn’t you?”

The person in charge took the shinpae I handed over and shivered, looking alternately between the shinpae and me.

“I didn’t hide it on purpose. Don’t worry, I have no intention of confessing this to the old rowman.”

After receiving the new card and keeping it in my arms, I pushed back the person in charge and stepped forward.

“With this, I am officially in charge. Is there anything you want to say to me?”

“It’s not that big of a deal, and since you’ve received the favor, wouldn’t it be the right thing to do? Accept me into your company. At least I’ll be able to pay for the meal I ate.”

And then she tapped the mace on her side. It was she who showed confidence in her own strength.

“Do you know where we are going?”

“It doesn’t matter where you are. I can’t put my circumstances first in repaying the favor. Just say it. I will protect you to your destination no matter where you are.”

It doesn’t matter who the opponent is or how many they are. Her attitude said so. It was a great feat.

I mean, it feels warm. The feeling that this woman is not a chaff that is shiny on the outside, but a real exhaust full of substance.

Since I felt that, I took out the Shinpae that I had been hiding until now.

“Okay. Let’s take it as a party. I’ll provide lodging, so would it be all right if I acted as an escort there?”

“Oh! I would be very grateful if you could even provide lodging and meals!

“Then, how about counting it as telling the story of how you came to Mount Tai? This is my first time touring the world.”

“Good! Let’s do it!”

As if she liked her very much, she showed her satisfaction by slapping her knee.

‘The sound is very thick and loud, but doesn’t it hurt?’

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Judging by the fact that he doesn’t blush at all, he seems to be very good at it.

“By the way, can you tell me what your name is? We’ll be together from now on, but it would be strange to keep calling you that way like now.”

“Ah! Come to think of it, you didn’t even say your name. Hmmm, excuse me. First of all, I should have heard the benefactor’s name.”

She jumped up and greeted me in a unique manner I had never seen before. Her manner of greeting, which was similar to the etiquette of the midfielders I knew, but was somewhat different, made me guess that she was from a border quite far from her midfield.

“It’s called Yeo Hong-seong from the end of the river! What’s Eun-gong’s name?”

“My name is Hyuk Choi from Jo Nara.”

I quickly checked to see if the name Yeo Hong-seong was in my memory, not by the name of my current life, Heidan, but by the name of my previous life, which I was using as a pseudonym.

Again, nothing came to mind.

If I had to say the people I knew in this era from my previous life, only the Gijeonpamok and the Four Gracious Plants that I learned while learning the Thousand Character Text. In my present life, I have come to know many people, but I have never heard of the name Yeo Hong-seong.

But I trusted my intuition.

This person must be a great hero.

§

Even after Yeo Hong-seong joined the group, we diligently continued our journey toward Lim-chi.

Because I revealed that I had a very close relationship with Nogucheon, my seat was moved from an ox cart that many people rode together to a carriage used by the person in charge of going up. I didn’t ask for Vicky, the person in charge handed it over on his own, saying he apologized for the rudeness in the past.

I sat Yeo Hong-seong next to my seat and talked about it.

“Then the girl is from Chu.”

The river Lu Hongseong mentioned when he introduced himself meant the Yangtze River.

Originally, he and river were not common nouns meaning rivers or rivers, but proper nouns referring to the Yellow River and the Yangtze River. What would later be called rivers or rivers was called water at the time. Like reverse water, recovery.

If she came from the end of the Yangtze River, her place of origin was automatically confirmed as the country of Chu, which dominated the Gangnam area.

When the story of her hometown comes out in a foreign country, it’s a lot of fun, but Hongseong’s reaction was lukewarm.

“Well, that’s true, but it can be more accurately said that it came from the land of Yue. Now that it is part of the state of Chu, it is not wrong to say that it is from the state of Chu, but Yue is a more correct answer.”