The Procession on the Road**
They were working when it happened.
"Everyone, stop!"
Someone shouted.
Word spread that an important envoy was passing through.
Those digging halted, tools were set down.
The noise scattered along the riverbank fell silent at once.
Seongjin brushed the dirt from his hands and stood.
He was about to turn away, thinking it no more than another procession,
when a single name seized his ear.
"Lord Nahaču is arriving!"
Seongjin's hand stopped.
The name was not unfamiliar.
He had heard it many times on distant battlefields.
Turning to the elder beside him, he asked,
"Nahaču?
Why would he come here?"
The elder wiped his dirt-stained hands and replied,
"They say he's come to pledge cooperation.
That he intends, together with the western tribes,
to rebuild peace in the world."
Seongjin let out a low laugh.
A man who was nothing like that lived with such words on his tongue.
A man utterly unpeaceful spoke of peace.
The world was full of such paradoxes.
"World peace."
The phrase felt strangely familiar.
He, too, had once heard the same promise.
Still speaking those words, even now.
The world had changed many times,
yet promises of that sort always remained only on paper.
In reality, tens of thousands of cavalry charged through blizzards.
He had thought those words belonged to a past already gone.
Then murmurs rose from another side.
"Jiangnan has been overturned."
Heads lifted all at once.
"They say Zhang Shicheng was defeated.
Crushed badly by Yang Wanzi of the Yuan."
"And Zhu Yuanzhang seized Zhangxing and Jiangyin."
Seongjin's eyes narrowed.
"Who is Zhu Yuanzhang?"
"Guo Zixing's son-in-law.
When Guo died, he inherited his forces."
Memory linked like lightning.
"Then during the Jiangnan campaign,
the Guo Zixing army we fought alongside—"
"Yes.
One of his commanders was Zhu Yuanzhang."
Seongjin fell silent.
"Then Zhang Shicheng—"
"He surrendered to the Yuan.
They say he was granted the title of Grand Commandant."
* Grand Commandant: roughly equivalent to a modern Minister of Defense
At those words, a chill spread through Seongjin's chest.
Before anything else, an inexplicable relief passed through him—
that Zhang Shicheng was still alive.
Names of cooperation and betrayal drifted through the air.
In a world like this,
what were we even meant to learn?
Battlefields reversed, the world shifted direction.
Some became traitors, others heroes.
History always flowed in such mixtures.
Then dust rose in the distance.
The envoy's procession approached.
People lined the roadside,
and Seongjin stood among them.
And there, he saw an unexpected face.
Yi In-jung, mounted on horseback,
was riding at the very front of the envoy party, clearing the way.
Was he guiding them?
Strange officials rode beside him.
Seongjin instinctively bent forward and murmured,
"Senior brother…"
At that moment, Yi In-jung halted his horse.
He lifted his head and offered a formal bow toward the crowd.
The envoy asked, puzzled,
"General, what is the matter?"
Yi In-jung smiled and replied,
"I am greeting my seniors.
They are elders of the Way."
His gaze shifted to Song Isul and Zhao Yi's group.
"Their leader is named Zhao Yi."
The envoy's eyes widened.
Only then did the faces among the laborers come into focus.
Narrow white ramie garments,
waists bound with black silk.
Hair tied roughly, beards trimmed short,
men working in the dirt.
They stood upon the earth,
yet were not bound by the secular world.
Before them,
General Yi In-jung of the Signal Guard bowed deeply.
The envoy's brow creased slightly.
But Seongjin understood in that moment.
That bow was not respect toward stronger power.
Nor deference to higher rank.
It was reverence for a form of practice heavier than the sword—
for the haeng (行) of those who studied the world itself.
It was a salute from a warrior to senior warriors,
fighters, protectors of Goryeo.
They placed themselves low,
yet their work was for the people.
They did not demand position as reward for ability or achievement,
because they knew they would one day return.
**Reunion with a Senior Brother —
The Path of Power, the Path of the Way**
The road was filled with noise.
Wherever the envoy passed, dust rose,
stones scattered by hooves sparkled in the sunlight.
Once the high officials had gone by,
people picked up their shovels and resumed work.
Old memories surfaced,
and Seongjin stood frozen for a long while.
"Seongjin."
He turned at the voice behind him.
Yi In-jung had dismounted, stepping away briefly from the procession.
His attire was light, yet the sword at his waist seemed larger than before.
Perhaps from the added weight of armor,
the man himself appeared thicker, heavier.
"Senior brother…"
"It's been a long time."
Seongjin bowed deeply.
Yi In-jung nodded.
"So.
We meet like this, on the road."
"I've been working here."
"I thought you were in the mountains."
"My master told me to come back down and study."
Yi In-jung's gaze softened with memory.
"That sounds like him."
He smiled, though it did not linger.
The two walked silently beneath the shade of roadside willows.
When the onlookers faded, Yi In-jung's expression settled.
"The world has changed greatly."
His voice was lower, more careful than when issuing commands on horseback.
"Jiangnan is burning.
The Yuan is shaking.
In Goryeo, Empress Ki's faction and the imperial house are in conflict.
Between them, the state wavers dangerously."
"Is that why you've taken on this role?"
"Yes.
Guiding the envoys—because we fought together in the Jiangnan campaign."
Yi In-jung paused and looked toward the distant sky.
Sunlight brushed his brows.
In his eyes lived both the light of battle and the light of study.
"How is Master?"
"He was well until I came down."
"When did you leave the mountains?"
"Two months ago… or was it closer to half a year?
My sense of time has grown vague.
I forgot time, forgot age."
"That happens when one studies earnestly."
Yi In-jung laughed softly.
"You must be seventeen now.
Studying so deeply you forget your own age—impressive."
"These days, I focus on learning through work."
The gap in years was wide,
yet shared study under one master and shared battle bound them close.
"You study in the mountains," Yi In-jung said.
"I study in the world."
"Is it the same study?"
"It is."
He nodded.
"The Way does not dwell only in mountains.
It seeps into human society and the flow of power as well.
Power, too, is its shadow—
bright or dark depending on where it shines."
Seongjin slowly lifted his head.
He recalled the eyes of the senior brother who once ran beside him on the battlefield.
They were still firm, their reach even farther now.
"What is your study for?"
"To save the people and protect the state."
Yi In-jung answered without hesitation.
"That is the Way I can reach."
"Why call work 'study'?"
"Because work becomes study.
Think deeply on why Master told you to go out into the world and learn."
Silence settled briefly.
Wind passed between them.
"Then where should I go?"
Seongjin's voice lowered.
"The mountains tell me to come down,
and the world seems misaligned."
Yi In-jung stopped walking.
"Both."
He looked at Seongjin.
"The Way is on the road.
Whether you go to the mountains or into the world,
study continues as long as you walk.
That is why the Way is also called a path."
Seongjin gave a faint smile.
"That sounds like what one says when nothing is going well.
When things fail, everything becomes 'study' and 'the Way.'"
Yi In-jung laughed.
"You've grown sharp."
"Forgive me.
When things don't go well, it feels like I'm wasting precious time in the world."
"That's how it is.
Easy times are rare; difficult stretches last longer."
He placed a hand briefly on Seongjin's shoulder.
"You have a sword, and you have a heart.
With the sword, block the world.
With the heart, hold it.
That is your path of study."
At that moment, a call came from the envoy party.
They seemed to have been waiting.
Yi In-jung hurried.
"I'm going.
We'll meet again before long."
"War?"
"Most likely."
He spoke calmly.
"The next ten years will be heavy with the scent of war.
Even if we stand still, the Central Plains move."
"Another campaign?"
"We will not stand with the Yuan.
But no one can say what waves will rise."
Mounting his horse, he added,
"Prepare yourself.
When the time comes, come help."
"Yes, senior brother."
"Come by soon.
You disappeared for a while—I thought you'd gone back to the mountains.
When you're down here, you should visit."
"I will."
Seongjin gestured to the others behind him.
"You're welcome to bring everyone.
Anytime."
Yi In-jung smiled.
"Come to the Signal Guard."
* Signal Guard (Sinhogwi): one of the Six Guards of Goryeo's capital army, the second corps
He turned his horse and rode back toward the envoys.
Seongjin watched his back for a long time.
The path of his senior brother, standing amid power,
and his own path, studying upon the earth, overlapped before his eyes.
Their textures differed,
yet their direction ran parallel.
The sound of hooves faded.
Seongjin stood there, quietly breathing in the dust and wind left upon the road.
The Way does not dwell only in mountains.
Power, people—everything is part of study.
It sounded like being told to live within the world.
Climbing high might be good,
but then study would be lost.
Calling even that "study" felt like an excuse.
Fourteen seok was enough to feed a family.
Not abundant—but not lacking.