MTLNOVEL Chapter 1 - Prologue: Zhuge Hyeonmong
Chapter 1 – Prologue: Zhuge Hyeonmong
“My name is Zhuge Hyeonmong. Starting today, I’ll be working at the Sichuan’s Great Dragon Escort Agency. I look forward to working with all of you.”
When Zhuge Hyeonmong introduced himself, there was a slight stir among the crowd.
“Zhuge?”
“Could it be the Zhuge we know?”
It was a familiar reaction.
The surname Zhuge was famous for various reasons.
Everyone knew of Zhuge Kongming, a brilliant military strategist who made his mark in ancient Sichuan and in the Jianghu, the surname Zhuge carried another significant meaning.
The Zhuge Family.
It was the name of a prestigious family based in Hubei.
“Haha, while I am a Zhuge, I’m just a distant relative with no connection to the Zhuge Family. I don’t know any martial arts, and I’m not particularly intelligent either.”
When Zhuge Hyeonmong laughed good-naturedly, the commotion finally settled down.
After all, there was no law stating that only the Zhuge Family of Central Plains could use the Zhuge surname.
Just then, the chief of the escort agency clapped his hands.
“Hey now, this fellow is being too modest. How can a descendant of the great Marquis of Wu not be intelligent? Perhaps by your own standards, but you must be far above the rest of us.”
Zhuge Hyeonmong just responded with a slight smile.
This was typically how people reacted.
One might expect him to feel burdened by such undue expectations, but Zhuge Hyeonmong didn’t mind. The name ‘Zhuge’ often brought many advantages.
This sort of thing had been happening since he was young.
Although he had no particular interest in fighting, the neighborhood gang leader would always call on him when going to a brawl with kids from other neighborhoods. Sweetening the deal with all sorts of treats was a bonus.
He thought of himself as merely resourceful and lucky, but others seemed to think differently.
[Sleeping Dragon! No, our military advisor! You must come. We can’t win against those martial arts school kids from the next neighborhood without you!]
He remembered hearing such words.
‘How did that turn out again?’
It was such an old memory that he couldn’t quite recall.
Anyway, from that day forward, Zhuge Hyeonmong began working as a clerk and occasionaly, as an escort at the Great Dragon Escort Agency. Located in Chengdu, Sichuan, the Great Dragon Escort Agency wasn’t as grand as its name suggested. It was a mid-sized agency with around thirty employees.
While working there, Zhuge Hyeonmong handled various paperwork when there were no escort missions, and occasionally joined as an escort when they needed extra hands.
Then one day.
The agency chief suddenly approached Zhuge Hyeonmong as he was passing by, he abruptly spoke, “I met with the heads of the Hwang Family and Geum Family Merchant Guilds today.”
“And?”
“To put it bluntly, I need to choose between the two for a contract. They’re rivals, and choosing just one would be problematic. What should I do?”
From Zhuge Hyeonmong’s perspective, the agency chief wasn’t particularly seeking a genuine solution. He just seemed to want to ask anyone out of frustration, and perhaps was a bit more inclined to ask him because of his Zhuge surname.
Zhuge Hyeonmong thought for a moment, but he didn’t have any particular advice.
However, something did occur to him, so he spoke up.
“Have you considered the Yang Family Merchant Guild?”
“The Yang Family? No, not really. Unlike the two major merchant groups, they’re small and insignificant, so I haven’t given them much thought.”
“While I don’t know much about merchant group affairs, I do know that the Hwang and Geum Family Merchant Guilds are engaged in a fierce price war, each trying to undercut the other to become the top guild. They’re so busy slashing at each other that they’re bound to be wounded. Do you think their goods will remain intact in the process?”
“You have a point. But why the Yang Family?”
“I’ve heard that the Yang Family’s textiles have a good reputation. Earlier, when I delivered an escorted item, I noticed that although their scale is small, the people’s faces were bright, and their tools were well-maintained. We might not see huge profits from a contract with them, but we can expect consistent gains. Moreover, the Yang Family has a reputation for prioritizing trust, so our agency might benefit from some of that reputation. And above all…”
“Above all?”
“Wouldn’t it be wise not to make unnecessary enemies?”
“What do you mean by not making enemies?”
“By choosing one of the two larger guilds, we inevitably side with them and become enemies of the other.”
Upon hearing this, the agency chief signed a contract with the Yang Family’s merchant guild the very next day. His son was not pleased with this decision, saying that they had lost an opportunity for the agency to grow further.
But that following spring those two merchant guilds locked in a cutthroat competition, even resorted to hiring bandits to sabotage each other, ultimately leading to their mutual destruction. After this, the chief’s gaze towards Zhuge Xian Meng became peculiar.
From then on, Zhuge Hyeonmong’s life became more comfortable.
Not only did they try to avoid giving him difficult tasks, but whenever they went out to negotiate new contracts, the chief insisted to bring him along. He even went so far as to clear space in the delivery carts for Zhuge Hyeonmong to ride in comfort.
When things got to this point, Zhuge Hyeonmong felt burdened and tried to decline several times, but…
Zhuge Hyeonmong felt awkward about the special treatment and tried to decline several times. However, the chief of the escort agency was a First-rate martial artist. When he throwed Zhuge Hyeonmong up and placed him in the cart as easily as he picked a dry leave, there was nothing Zhuge Hyeonmong could do.
‘While it’s nice that things are comfortable…’
Zhuge Hyeonmong felt a sharp glare at his back.
Of course, not everyone welcomed Zhuge Hyeonmong’s treatment.
Look at the chief’s son, Im Jun-gyu. Zhuge Hyeonmong could feel how sharp his glares was that they seemed to sting his skin.
Zhuge Xian Meng scratched his head for a moment but then stopped thinking about it.
It was a small price to pay for the luxury of traveling comfortably while others walked or rode on horseback.
Embracing his newfound ease, he lay down in the cart. He could see an eagle soaring across the clear blue sky. As he gazed at it, his eyelids grew heavy.
* * *
Zhuge Hyeonmong was flying.
‘Is this a dream?’
It was a dream.
He had become the eagle he was watching earlier.
Moreover, he was an eagle that could fly freely, however it pleased.
‘This is fun!’
Zhuge Hyeonmong gleefully soared through the sky.
Since it was a dream, though it felt like he had only flown for a moment, he had covered a vast distance.
Flying aimlessly and looking around, it seemed he was flying in a world different from the Central Plains.
There were humans with strange appearances, packs of wolves the size of houses, giants whose heads poked through the forest canopy, lizards with wings large enough to blot out the sun.
There were also small people with bodies as hard as rock, and slender, long-eared people with extraordinary appearances. Moreover, their cultures were vastly different from what he knew, which piqued his interest.
Suddenly, Zhuge Hyeonmong’s gaze fell upon a young boy.
He was a handsome young boy, the leader of a small rural village. He didn’t seem to have learned any martial arts or special sword techniques, but every time he swung his wooden stick, he knocked down opponents larger than himself.
‘That’s impressive.’
Though untrained in martial arts, Zhuge Hyeonmong could tell that the boy possessed extraordinary martial talent. If he grew up well, he could become an excellent warrior.
But such a future never came to be.
Bandits raided the village.
The villagers were dying at the hands of the bandits.
The boy didn’t run away.
He fought valiantly with a sword longer than his torso, and amazingly, succeeded in killing two bandits.
Zhuge Hyeonmong watched the scene in a daze.
He wanted to help. He swoop down and peck at the bandits with his beak or scratch them with his talons to help the boy escape.
But unlike before, he couldn’t move, as if his body was trapped under a swamp.
Just as a bandit raised his axe to deliver the killing blow, a barrage of fireballs engulfed the bandits.
“….!”
Countless spheres of flame engulfed the bandits.
What appeared was an old man with a staff.
Zhuge Xian Meng didn’t understand the principle, but simply by muttering and waving his staff slightly, the old man unleashed more fireballs that swept over the bandits. Thus, the boy survived.
“My name is Laurent. What is your name?”
Somehow Zhuge Hyeonmong was close enough to hear their voices now, and the boy answered.
“Allen…”
“Allen. You are blessed with mana and could become a great mage. Will you come with me?”
Allen nodded.
A year passed in an instant. The scene shifted to a place where countless towers floated in the air. Despite the abrupt transition, Zhuge Hyeonmong understood everything that had transpired during that year.
Allen had desperately tried to learn and understand magic while being taught by Laurent.
Laurent was a benevolent teacher, and Allen was a diligent and good disciple.
Allen never took Laurent’s teachings for granted and strived to learn.
However…
Laurent sighed.
“You…are not suited for the path of a mage.”
Laurent’s gentle nature prevented him from being blunt, but Zhuge Hyeonmong shared his sentiment.
‘He’s a bit slow, isn’t he?’
For the past year, though it felt like a fleeting moment in the dream, Zhuge Hyeonmong had been by Allen’s side, seeing what he saw, hearing what he heard. Naturally, he had also absorbed Laurent’s teachings.
Thus, he couldn’t understand.
‘Why can’t he grasp it?’