Chapter 181 — Back to Gaegyeong
After stopping by his house, Youngwoo went to find Park Geunsu.
In the meantime, Park Geunsu had risen another rank.
At some point, one had to seize the current and climb aboard, and it seemed the events after Seonchullyeong had left a strong impression on those with appointment authority.
After that, he had risen without pause.
The Jungbang was a place Youngwoo did not want to enter.
As soon as he stepped inside, the eyes of everyone there gathered on the two fully armed men.
Their gazes fixed on them, and every sound and movement briefly stopped.
Park Geunsu hurried out from inside.
"Ohh, Lee Youngwoo. You have finally come."
"I resigned."
"Yes. I received that and waited for you to come."
"I did not mean to come."
Park Geunsu waved his hand broadly.
"Ah, you cannot do that."
"If I come, the resignation will not be processed. You will say this and that and tell me to keep doing the work."
"In any case, come inside."
Youngwoo shook his head.
"I do not want to go in."
The great hall of the Jungbang was the place where Youngwoo had reached the edge of death.
The memory remained in his body and held his steps.
His breathing grew shallow first.
"Ahaha. There?"
"Yes."
"I suppose that is natural. Then let us go over there."
The place Park Geunsu led him to was the hall on the second floor.
Two sides were open, and the wind passed straight through.
The view was not blocked and opened far into the distance.
The memory of being attacked while trapped in a narrow space came back to him.
That time, when no matter how hard he struggled, there had been no method, felt distant and terrible.
His body reacted first and avoided such spaces.
He had developed the habit of leaving doors open even when he entered a room.
"You were badly shaken then."
"It was more than being shaken. That is why I avoid closed spaces now."
Park Geunsu glanced sideways at him.
"You said seeing things startled you, and now you are exactly like that. What wrong did the hall commit?"
"In any case, I hate it."
They took seats in the open space on the second floor.
The wind came and went, and a cool current flowed lightly through the place.
Youngwoo briefly explained what had happened.
He made the reason for his resignation clear.
Park Geunsu nodded.
"Those fellows are originally rather cruel."
"You know?"
"Of course I know. But if that is the case, you should have asked to be transferred. Why resign?"
"I gathered people by saying we had to help the Jurchens, and it would look wrong if I alone slipped away. I thought it better to resign for personal reasons. I am leaving because I hate their filthy acts."
"So you chose resignation?"
"There are also the words I said to the Jurchens."
Park Geunsu tossed out a light answer.
"Then you alone simply do not do it. Why resign over that?"
"Then I would still be standing on the same side as them."
Park Geunsu's solutions were always simple.
His judgments came quickly.
Rather than complete solutions, he was good at grasping the practical choice before him.
"Ah, where in this world is there a place without such things? You simply do not do it yourself."
"Is that so?"
Since Youngwoo asked as though uncertain, Park Geunsu answered firmly, putting force into his words.
"Of course. How can a person live while examining every single thing?"
Quick and easy choices were his strength.
That was why he was weak when it came to fundamental matters.
Youngwoo drew in a long breath.
"In any case, I cannot do it. I asked them to stop that cruelty and argued with them."
"I see."
"Then I told them to choose for themselves: accept my request, or keep pushing forward in the way the tribes have always done. I told them to choose one of the two."
Park Geunsu answered immediately.
"Can they abandon the tribes? If they abandon the tribes, the ground they stand on disappears."
"If they do not change those tribes, they cannot escape the framework of a tribal state."
"That is true. And that much is enough. We avenged old wrongs and helped them found a state. Goryeo has done enough."
"That was why I thought I could resign."
"I reported it to His Majesty as well."
"Ah, yes. I am only a single jungnangjang. You can send another jungnangjang."
"If it were that simple… Ah, in any case, you have suffered. Rest a little."
Youngwoo's eyes widened.
"I said I resigned."
"It has not yet been accepted."
"If I stop working for several days after submitting it, it is practically accepted."
"Now that you have enough to eat, you write resignation letters so easily."
"What are you talking about?"
"They say your house is overflowing with bribes."
At the word bribes, Youngwoo was horrified.
"Those are not bribes. I only learned about them when I was leaving. Lord Ogemai said he had shown this and that consideration and pleaded with me not to leave."
"That man is not the sort to plead."
"But it is true that you received them."
"They showed their sincerity. I never begged them to give me anything. And I did not even know they had sent gifts."
Park Geunsu sighed.
"Then why do you think what Yi Huisong received was called a bribe?"
"Men like Kwon Hyeokse and Kim Baeksu rushed to offer things to him. They siphoned off what was not theirs and reported it as the soldiers' sincerity…"
Park Geunsu propped his chin in his hand and stared at him.
He looked as though he was waiting for the end rather than listening closely to each word.
"How is that different from Yi Huisong!"
When Park Geunsu shouted, Youngwoo could say nothing more.
He only smacked his lips.
It was clearly different, but Park Geunsu said it was not.
"Tsk. Will that become a problem too?"
"There is too much. So it may look as though you used every trick to receive bribes."
Youngwoo sighed.
"You know me, Brother. Would I have done that? Those people were showing courtesy."
Park Geunsu sighed again.
"That is the thing. I know you. But will the men who were ruined because of you think the same?"
"Who?"
"How would I know? Would there be only one or two men who went home because of you?"
"Why would that be because of me? They did wrong themselves."