I Became a Fallen Noble of Goguryeo

Chapter 29: Recruitment Exam (3)

The injured from the horse matches were transported to the carts in the rear.

As expected of a country where war was common, Goguryeo also had its own medical corps system.

They stored medicinal herbs inside the carts, using them for transporting the wounded.

“Centipede powder! Willow branches!”

“Is there no more yew?”

“Lettuce, bring lettuce!”

Of course, this lettuce wasn’t for wrapping food.

Lettuce had a certain calming effect, so in this era, it was treated half like a medicinal herb.

In particular, Goguryeo lettuce was so effective that in the Western Lands it was called the Thousand-Gold Vegetable.

Whenever envoys came from the Western Lands, no matter what else they took, they always made sure to carry away lettuce seedlings.

It was like how Koreans returning from Japan brought back medicated coin plasters.

‘Still, lettuce as a painkiller? No wonder surgery didn’t develop here.’

I once heard that civilizations such as Egypt, India, and the Maya had practiced surgery since ancient times.

Now that I was here, I thought I understood the reason.

Egypt and India had opium poppies, and the Maya had coca trees growing naturally.

Even in the 21st century, those were still used as the raw materials for painkillers.

But in East Asia, pain relief was limited to things like lettuce, willow, hemp, and alcohol.

Naturally, it was an environment where surgical medicine struggled to develop.

‘Still, better than nothing.’

In the distance, I spotted some people chewing lettuce noisily.

They, in turn, were looking at me.

“How’s your wrist? Can you still draw a bow?”

“Who the hell is that… Was there ever such a guy in the Pyeongyang Faction?”

“Wait… isn’t he Yeon Taejo, son of Yeon Jayu?”

“But that guy already went into the Taehak with a recommendation from the Scholarly Academy. Why would he be here for the recruitment exam?”

“Tch, I’m done. Can’t join the next match. Damn it, I came all this way.”

They rubbed their wrists while staring at me.

I didn’t particularly feel sorry.

After all, weren’t they the same ones who were eager to beat up commoners?

Competition was always like this.

As the revered Master Do once said, the victor was justice itself.

Besides, the ones who fought me were all noble sons, and their response to falling from horses was excellent.

Even in that chaos, none of them died.

But not everyone was so fortunate.

“He’s dead.”

“Damn, unlucky…”

In other groups’ horse matches, there were many deaths.

At least ten.

If there were that many dead already, the number of those carried away injured would be even higher.

‘I heard in Joseon, even in ball games on horseback like gyeokgu, people often died.

So how could anyone not die in a game where you struck your opponent’s skull while riding?’

After the arena was cleaned up and the bodies removed, the third trial began.

“Hand-to-hand contest!”

As expected of Goguryeo, there were hardly any rules.

If there were any, they would be the “demon rules.”

Mix subak, taekkyeon, and ssireum all together, and just beat your opponent down.

This was another subject I was confident in.

Why was I so confident after barely a year of training?

“Why the hell did I get this guy as my opponent…?”

Because in this era’s martial contests, there were no weight classes.

As for my stats.

I was 190 cm tall, with a body trained hard through weightlifting and balanced protein-carb-fat intake.

My physique was outstanding, to say the least.

And who was my teacher Yeombu?

Before joining the Royal Army, he had traveled from place to place competing in wrestling pits, earning his living by wrestling bulls.

That caught the eyes of nobles, and that was how he entered the Royal Army.

Yeombu once said, “The greatest swordsman in Pyeongyang is Yeon Jayu, the greatest archer is Wang Jun, but the greatest wrestler is undoubtedly me.”

He wasn’t a man who exaggerated, nor one who sold himself short.

In other words, I had both a great teacher and an even greater physique.

“Ohh, what’s that?”

“That’s the hoe throw!”

In an instant, I flipped my opponent.

If it were ssireum rules, that would already count as a victory.

But Goguryeo’s contests assumed real war, especially against enemies in heavy armor.

So I immediately secured a mount position.

In a real battle, this would be the moment I stabbed a dagger through a helmet or armor gap and ended things.

However, while this contest resembled reality, it wasn’t reality.

Aside from “physicality” and “martial technique,” there was something else that decided victory.

“Do you know who I am?”

That was power—not just physical power, but authority.

“I am a descendant of the Gwanno Department! If you yield to me now, I’ll even take you in as one of my private guards!”

The guy had unfolded his Anti-Commoner field.

Normally, a commoner would find it hard to throw punches here.

But he picked the wrong opponent.

Unfortunately for him, I was a royal son-in-law, so Anti-Commoner fields didn’t work on me.

“I don’t need to be your private guard.”

I shoved the loudmouth down, climbed onto his chest, and pinned both his arms with my knees.

Thud! Thud!

With just two punches, I tore apart his Anti-Commoner field.

That Gwanno something-or-other turned into a beaten pulp.

When I glanced at his shoulder, sure enough, it was calloused.

‘Archer cut, successful.’

The fourth trial that followed was sword fighting.

I also earned good results here.

It wasn’t because I was particularly skilled at swordsmanship. I hadn’t trained for long.

So, what I targeted was a different point. The fact that what we held wasn’t a real sword, but a wooden one.

The opponent who lost to me shouted at the top of his lungs.

“If this were a real sword, you’d be dead right now! Is this fair? I stabbed at the neck! That means I won!”

The content of the fight was simple.

He aimed his wooden sword at my neck, I withstood it with toughness, then shifted into wrestling and won. As he said, if it had been real swords, I would have died.

But the overseer was firm.

“The Gaema Cavalry of Goguryeo wear armor even on their necks. Besides, that man is large and strong, isn’t he? A big frame doesn’t mean he must wield a large weapon, but armor is a different story. If this were the battlefield, he would surely have worn thicker and heavier armor than the rest. If your strike had been strong enough, you would have brought him down, but since you couldn’t, your loss is correct.”

Right, if you struck the neck, he should have fallen.

If he didn’t, it was your fault. In macho Goguryeo, this was the correct judgment. Even the spectators thought the same.

“Did you see that just now? Even after being struck in the neck, he charged forward like it was only a mosquito bite and cut his opponent down!”

“What a bold display! Truly a hero among men!”

The crowd’s evaluation was positive.

Charging through a strike and felling the opponent in one blow—it must have looked like a scene from an old tale.

In other words, it was impactful… and in the recruitment exam, impact directly translated into points.

This too was one of Ex-Examiner Yeombu’s golden tips.

The Domestic Fortress Faction was accustomed to real swords, so they would handle wooden swords as if they were real.

‘Good thing I took the exam this year.’

The Domestic Fortress Faction was sitting for the exam for the first time in twenty years, so they didn’t know such things well.

They might excel in martial arts, but exams were another matter entirely.

That was also why I forced myself to take the exam this year.

To properly exploit the imbalance of information, I had no choice but to sit this year.

Had I taken the exam next year, the Domestic Fortress Faction would have already learned this information and prepared for it.

“First place, Number 100!”

Thus I kept my first-place ranking, and proportionately, more and more eyes turned toward me.

“That man is truly remarkable. What’s that on his belly? A tattoo?”

“Looks like muscles…”

“How can his abdominal muscles be that well-defined? I’d like to try washing laundry on them.”

“Silence! You wench, how dare you say such things with your husband beside you? From now on, no more silly talk about muscles!”

“And who are you, Grand King or Supreme Chancellor? Can’t I say what I want with my own mouth? By the way, who is that man anyway? Why haven’t I ever heard of him?”

They still hadn’t realized I was Ondal. In fact, it would have been stranger if they did.

But not everyone was clueless.

On the highest hill of the exam ground, beside the Grand King, stood an elderly man with graying hair whose gaze never left me.

‘Supreme Chancellor Wang Godeok.’

Yeon Jayu had said there was a high chance Wang Godeok didn’t know my face. And since I had spent the whole exam beating up only the Domestic Fortress Faction, maybe he wouldn’t think I was one of them.

‘Doesn’t matter—he’s staring straight at me.’

Seeing Wang Godeok’s gaze fixed on me made Yeon Jayu’s effort to avoid drawing attention look pointless.

And finally.

“Everyone, gather for the hunt!”

The final trial.

The flower of the recruitment exam, the hunt, began.

Now that I think of it, the recruitment exam was like a training camp meta.

When camp instructors handled students, didn’t they start off with ten or twenty points, then suddenly throw out missions worth a thousand or ten thousand?

This hunt was that ten-thousand-point mission.

Then was it meaningless to earn points in the earlier trials? There was no need to ask.

After going through horseback performance, wrestling, and sword fighting—the three kinds of combat contests—the number of participants had already been cut down to a quarter.

In truth, those brutal trials were nothing more than a process to select who would participate in the final hunt. Even among the remaining ones, about half seemed badly injured, gritting their teeth and forcing themselves forward.

In contrast, I hadn’t exerted much strength in the contests. Instead, I had carefully weeded out those who looked like they could shoot well.

Besides, if the number of beasts caught turned out about the same, the earlier performances would still serve as tiebreakers. So the earlier points weren’t completely meaningless.

‘Still… Wang Godeok is the problem.’

Even now, Wang Godeok’s gaze was fixed on me. Never before had an old man’s eyes felt so frightening.

Until now, he hadn’t intervened in the trials. But this hunt was different.

‘If I were to sabotage someone in this event… the hunt would be the place.’

All it would take was bribing someone to loose a stray arrow. Even without killing me, it would be enough to ruin my chances of passing.

If this were the 21st century, I would simply have declared forfeiture.

‘As long as I don’t die, it’s fine.’

In Goguryeo, after all, staking your life on everything was just ‘common sense.’

According to the , this hunt was called the Royally Supervised Hunt.

Hunt meant many people hunted together.

Royal meant the Grand King.

Supervised meant he was watching in person.

In other words, it meant a hunt was held under the Grand King’s own eyes.

Naturally, they wouldn’t have chosen an ordinary forest.

With the Grand King watching, if the forest were empty and everyone came back empty-handed, it would be a disaster.

So, a year in advance, the royal gamekeepers filled the woods with boars and deer.

They even ensured there were no tigers or wolves.

After all, what a disgrace it would be if the beasts they had stocked up were eaten by predators.

Thus, the hunt was a contest in which the one who brought back the most game from such a forest overflowing with animals became the victor.

Sound easy?

Not at all—dangerous, in my view.

Even in the horse matches with cloth-wrapped clubs, there had been quite a few casualties.

Now we were going in with real weapons.

Of course, they adjusted the routes to minimize clashes and made preparations in advance… but it wasn’t hard to imagine someone pretending to aim for game and striking down a rival instead.

‘The said Ondal always went ahead, and no one could keep up with him.’

I understood what that really meant.

It didn’t just mean he ran fast.

Charging ahead meant that if an arrow came flying from behind, you’d fall with no excuse.

The shooter would be disqualified too, but the one struck wouldn’t just fail—they’d die.

So the line ‘Ondal always went ahead’ didn’t mean simply that Ondal’s horse was fast, but that he risked his life rampaging in the hunt. It showed courage more than martial skill.

That was my dilemma.

To hunt successfully, I had to go forward. No—since my mounted archery was weak and I mainly used throwing spears, I was almost forced to.

But if one of Wang Godeok’s lackeys loosed an arrow at the back of my head, there’d be no answer to that.

The alternative was to stay at the very rear. But then I’d miss all the game.

At this point, I could only marvel at Goguryeo’s hunting culture.

This wasn’t a test to pick out the best archer, but to find the madman willing to charge ahead even at the risk of an arrow in the back of the head.

What was I supposed to do?

The more I thought about it, the less I could see a way forward.

Suddenly, I recalled my father’s words: “Most decisions are only made in the very moment they come.”

He had been right.

“A deer!”

The moment my dilemma ended was the very moment I had to decide. My legs moved before my head did.

My legs nudged Bucephalus’s flank lightly.

“Neighhh!”

In response to my signal, Bucephalus, true to his pedigree as a fine steed, closed the distance to the deer in just a few strides.

As soon as the gap narrowed to fifteen paces, I flicked my shoulder and hurled a throwing spear.

“Please…!”

I wasn’t praying for the spear to hit. Nobody prays for their spoon to reach their mouth.

Screeeech—!

The flying spear pierced the deer as if it were only natural.

It was clean.

But then.

Twang—!

A sharp bowstring snapped from behind me.

After the tumult, the hunt ended.

“I did not expect the Supreme Chancellor to act this way.”

Yeon Jayu spoke as he approached Wang Godeok. At his words, Wang Godeok clicked his tongue.

“Jayu.”

“It has been a long time since you called me that.”

“Yes, you damn brat. Not since we parted ways over the Turks, has it?”

Using the old name, his speech also turned to the old days.

“Did you think you were the only loyal subject?”

“…You are loyal as well, elder.”

“Indeed. I have quarreled with the Grand King countless times. But I have always believed it was for the sake of Goguryeo.”

“…There is no doubt about that.”

Even Yeon Jayu acknowledged this.

The matter of the Domestic Fortress Faction was proof enough.

Yeon Jayu believed that only by accepting the Domestic Fortress Faction could Goguryeo prosper again as in the past.

But Wang Godeok believed that accepting them would plunge Goguryeo back into civil war.

They believed different things and pursued different paths, yet both had their reasons.

“I do not think your path is right. But I cannot take up the oar again. So what else can I do but hope you are right and I am wrong?”

“So you did nothing at all?”

“Well, yes.”

Yeon Jayu had thought Wang Godeok would try something against Ondal this time. After all, he had dropped plenty of hints.

Honestly, when he saw that commoner draw his bowstring as Ondal charged forward, Yeon Jayu’s heart also skipped a beat.

But that man hadn’t aimed at Ondal’s head—he had aimed at the game, and even missed.

Afterward, Ondal, perhaps gaining confidence, no longer shrank back but ran ahead of everyone, hurling spears with vigor and seizing more prey than anyone else.

So… Wang Godeok had played no trick in this exam.

“Then why did you speak so ominously? Even within the Pyeongyang Faction, there were those who thought you were plotting something.”

“If not me, someone else would have. Better that I speak of scheming and then do nothing—that way it’s a little safer, isn’t it?”

It was an oddly Buddhist-like reasoning, and Yeon Jayu found himself without reply. Wang Godek clicked his tongue again.

“If you fail, history will say I was right. If you succeed, people will say I helped you at the end.

Either way, neither I nor the Lelang Wang Clan will suffer loss… So struggle with all you’ve got.”

“I will make certain to prove you wrong, elder.”

“By all means, I hope so.”

With those words, Wang Godeok ascended back onto the platform.

Yeon Jayu, too, bowed silently to his distant senior, then followed after him.

And not long after.

“Number One Hundred, step forward!”

The winner of the recruitment exam was called.