“The God’s Foremost Flower” was said to be liquor bestowed at the great ritual upon a new Eumnan, someone who had earned the qualification of “foremost warrior.” Eumnan was an honorable title held by only about ten people among all the Jandana. An Eumnan drank it, fell asleep, and woke, but occasionally someone did not wake, in which case a decree was made that the person had not possessed the qualification of Eumnan. The same process was followed when a successor to the sovereign was chosen. When Gene suddenly asked whether the Jandana too had a sovereign, Dalsad told him that they had only a queen. She was responsible for communicating with the god and never came out of Jandanizi.
“They say that liquor is a channel through which the god speaks to humans. The sleeper dreams, and that is the message the god has sent. The Eumnan remember the dreams vividly and have them preserved as murals. There are many such murals in Jandanizi.”
“I had a dream too. Do you mean that dream was a story the Jandana’s god sent me? Then it isn’t a real place?”
“One moment. A place? What did you see?”
“There was a door. Around it stood a wall covered in plants…”
As Gene described the scenery in his dream, Dalsad’s eyes widened, and her lips parted a little. When Gene said he had believed paradise lay beyond that door, Dalsad shook her head.
“I’ve never heard a story like that. What Eumnan see is usually their own past or future. Even when it’s the future, it concerns things they have done. I have never heard of one going to a strange place they have never seen before. Besides, that place… Where on earth could it be? From your account alone, it does not sound like a place that would exist in this world.”
“I thought so too, but…”
Gene was inwardly disappointed. He had been intensely curious about where that place was. If it was merely a paradise in the Jandana’s imagination, nothing could have been more pathetic. Since Gene had little faith, and did not even particularly believe in Epherium’s gods, he had never expected the Jandana’s god to do anything remarkable for him.
“All right. Let us stop talking about this. But why did you give me such liquor?”
“Shall I call it a kind of test… Oh dear, do not look at me like that. I had few choices myself. It had been arranged that you would have to drink something before I could obtain the money to repair the castle walls, and…”
“What do you mean by that?”
Dalsad took a silk pouch from inside the breast of her dress. She loosened the cord and poured it onto her palm, and seven rubies the size of a thumbnail rolled out. Picking up one, Dalsad held it out.
“Isn’t it too cheap a price for the life of someone like you?”
The ruby passed into Gene’s hand. Gene looked at it without a word. It was not that he had never expected such a day to come someday, but seeing it with his own eyes left a taste more bitter than he had imagined. The queen would not have wanted to miss a rare opportunity for Gene to go somewhere beyond the king’s and Erektina’s sight. The first stage of the plan had been Belkun. He had been ordered to deliberately insult Gene, provoke him to violence, and as a result have him left alone in a castle. Once he had escaped the general’s and the soldiers’ watchful eyes, Dalsad was secretly to give him poison and lure him to the wall. When the general and army returned, they only needed to be told that Gene had been unable to bear being left behind and had gone alone in pursuit of the army, and that no one had been able to break the prince’s stubbornness. With Jandana everywhere, there would be nothing awkward about his then going missing.
“I said I would prepare a medicine that killed slowly rather than stopping your breath at once. That way I could show them you leaving the castle. It was not difficult to get you to leave, either. I had obtained a Jandana messenger bird and told you that the general’s army had fallen into a trap. I thought that if it was you, even if you were only half convinced, you would set off first. How about it? Don’t you think you would have? You are also the army’s finest rider.”
He probably would have. He might have sent a subordinate, but he would have thought going himself the fastest way. Hearing about a trap he felt he would only have fallen into made his stomach turn. The first thing to go wrong in such a perfect plan had been Belkun’s being injured too badly and moved to another castle. With Belkun gone, Dalsad, freed from his surveillance, gained the opportunity to act as she pleased. She had accepted the queen’s secret order, but considered when and how she acted to be her own decision. Before killing Gene, she wanted to test him. Then a second variable intervened.
“Among the Jandana, rumors that you were someone who had received an oracle had spread far and wide. The Jandana warriors, who had been hoping for a fight, learned that you were remaining in the castle and changed their target, riding there. I found myself in a position where I could not defend the castle without you. So the plan was postponed until after the fighting.”
“Then are you saying the battle in the castle happened because of me?”
“Do you feel responsible? If it hadn’t, the army with the general would have suffered instead. At the time, the Jandana had brought less than half their army for the surprise attack on the castle. If the Epherium army had tried to cross the Jand River while the Jandana were properly encamped, it would surely have faced terrible difficulty.”
Hearing it made him feel a little strange. Having finished washing his feet, Dalsad moved the basin away. When she came up onto the bed, Gene asked,
“But how did the Jandana know I was with the expeditionary force, or that I had remained alone behind it? Can they see into distant places with magic?”
“I will explain that in a little while. In any case, the Jandana challenged you and lost. Watching all of that, the thought that I could not simply kill someone like you kept growing. Above all, a curious thing was that though I had said nothing, my father knew what I intended to do. If only my father had been able to speak properly, you might have cut off my head on the spot. I don’t know if I should call that fortunate.”
So instead of giving Gene poison, Dalsad gave him “The God’s Foremost Flower.” It was liquor that breathed sacred dreams only into those qualified for it. Those not qualified to drink it died. Dalsad said she had wondered whether Gene had a promised future, whether there were things he would accomplish if he lived. So if Gene survived, she had intended to come to him like this and tell him everything.
“A true Eumnan is certain to accomplish something great in life. Though sometimes, like Giros, they die after passing a task on to another Eumnan. I wonder what future is promised to you. I don’t know whether I will have a chance to learn it.”
“I am not a Jandana Eumnan. Whatever an Eumnan is destined to do, I have no interest in it. Above all, I do not think so highly of the Jandana. In fact, I was a little disappointed. To accept help from magic in what had been declared a one-against-one fight.”
“Did you perhaps smile during the duel? They think an evil spirit has entered anyone who smiles during a fight. Unless the evil spirit is driven out at once, it will ruin a fair contest.”
Hearing it, he thought that might have been true. Gene shrugged, then asked,
“But how did you receive payment when I did not die?”
“Of course I received an advance, and I certainly gave you a liquor that could have killed you. You merely survived. I wrote to the queen saying that poisoning did not seem to work on you, so she should not attempt it again. That though you had drunk poison and slept three days, you had come back to life.”
As Dalsad laughed cheerfully, the sound seemed to ring through the room. By then, the two were sitting close enough to touch if they reached out, but Gene had not yet touched her body. Dalsad reached behind her head and pulled out a hairpin. Hair as black as charcoal spilled down. As it covered her ears, the beautiful woman he had seen in Saemgeuneul Castle came alive again.
“But Your Highness, no, Adjutant. When I came to you with the liquor then, did you not perhaps hope a little for a night like tonight?”
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