"Get out."
It was brief and forceful.
The voice of Choi Woo-jin, head of the Choi Clan of Cheorwon, rang through the great hall.
"A wretch who cannot even properly swing a wooden sword, let alone wield sword aura. It shames me that you are my son. At fifteen, you should be old enough to undergo your coming-of-age ceremony and go to war..."
I was kneeling with my forehead pressed to the floor, biting my lip hard.
Because I felt like bursting out laughing.
'Finally... Finally, I'm being thrown out!'
It had been a full ten years.
Ten years since I had died in a tractor accident after living as a farmer in South Korea, then entered the body of this five-year-old brat named Choi San.
This was the brutal era of military rule. To survive in the Choi Clan, where even meeting someone's eyes could cost you your head, I had thoroughly played the fool.
My brothers had held blades and chopped off chickens' heads since they were five, but whenever someone put a sword in my hand, I pretended I was about to chop off my own foot. Whenever they told me to read a military treatise, I held the book upside down and drooled.
Whenever Father clicked his tongue, whenever my brothers sneered, "That fucking idiot is our brother?" I cheered inwardly.
Power struggles? Purges? They could go to hell.
I knew what would happen to those stuck-up brothers of mine a few years from now.
They were destined to get swept up in the fight for power, kill one another, and meet miserable ends.
I wanted to live. And live very well, at that. With a full belly and a warm back.
So I pretended to be insane and fled to the fields.
An abandoned vegetable patch tucked away in a corner of the estate. That was my laboratory.
'Farming is the best.'
"This is your share."
Thud.
Father tossed an old scroll and a pouch before me.
I glanced up and checked them.
"It's the deed to a stretch of marshland on the outskirts of Gold Province in the south—present-day Gimhae. And twenty taels of silver. That's all."
"Master... this is too cruel!"
Chilbok, the slave watching from beside me, interrupted tearfully.
He was fourteen, with a still-boyish face covered in freckles.
He had attended to me since childhood and suffered all kinds of hardships because of me.
"Isn't that marshland abandoned because ghosts appear there? I've heard people cannot live there, let alone farm it! Are you telling the Young Master to go there and die?!"
"Silence! How dare a lowly slave wag his tongue here?!"
At Father's roar, Chilbok flinched and threw himself flat on the floor.
Manseok, the large slave standing beside him, also hunched his shoulders.
Manseok was the same age as Chilbok, but he was built like a mountain.
He was strong as an ox, but a little slow in the head, so Chilbok was always scolding him.
Both of them were like younger brothers to me, one year my junior.
They were the only ones who had stayed by my side while I played the fool.
Slowly, I raised my head.
Then I made my eyes redden slightly and let my lips tremble, wearing the most grief-stricken expression I could manage. I was a shoo-in for an acting award.
"Father... is this truly... the end?"
"I have nothing more to give you, nor any reason to see you. Just looking at you makes my insides boil with fury."
Father turned away coldly.
"Do not appear before me from tomorrow onward. Do not disgrace the family's name. Live quietly, then die."
Die, huh.
What a heartwarming thing to hear from Father.
But it did not matter. I carefully gathered up the land deed and money pouch.
"Thank you. Simply allowing a disgrace to the family like me to live... your mercy is as vast as the sea."
"Hmph. At least you have a conscience. Be gone."
I rose to my feet. My knees ached, but my steps felt light as feathers.
I grabbed Chilbok, who was weeping facedown, and Manseok, who stood there blankly, by the backs of their necks and pulled them up.
"Let's go."
"Y-Young Master... Sob..."
We left through the main gate as though we had been chased out.
The household servants whispered as they watched us.
"Tsk. He really got thrown out."
"How many days will that foolish young master last outside?"
"He'll be lucky if he doesn't starve to death."
Leaving the noisy chatter behind, we passed through the towering gate.
THUD.
The heavy gate shut behind us.
It sounded like a prison door closing—or rather, like the sound of being released from prison.
Only then did I let out the breath I had been holding.
"Hahh—!"
I raised my head and looked at the sky. Blue. Damnably clear.
"Sob... Young Master... what are we going to do now? We're all going to die."
Chilbok struck the ground and wailed.
"If we go to that ghost land, we'll either become tiger food or get bewitched to death by ghosts. How long can the three of us survive on twenty taels of silver?"
Chilbok was clever. He calculated quickly.
That was why he was even more despairing.
Manseok, meanwhile, rubbed his belly with a vacant expression.
"Young Master, I'm hungry. What's for dinner today?"
"You crazy bastard! Is food going down your throat right now?! We've been thrown out! To a swamp full of ghosts, at that! Soon we'll be digging up grass roots to eat instead of having meals!"
Chilbok smacked Manseok across the back. A satisfying SMACK rang out.
"Ouch! Why'd you hit me?! What am I supposed to do if I'm hungry?!"
Manseok pushed out his lips in grievance.
I snickered and wrapped an arm around each of their shoulders.
"Hey, you two."
"Yes?"
"Yes... sniff."
"Don't call me Young Master anymore."
The two of them stared at me with round eyes.
"Then what should we call you?"
"Call me Big Brother."
"B-Big Brother?!"
Chilbok nearly jumped out of his skin.
"You can't! That would be utterly improper! We're lowly slaves, while you are a noble aristocrat. How could we possibly..."
"A noble aristocrat, my ass. What kind of aristocrat gets thrown out?"
My expression turned serious as I gripped Chilbok's shoulder firmly.
I was a modern man. I came from twenty-first-century South Korea. A caste system? They could go to hell. People were all the same.
I had merely hidden it until now because I had no power in this era. But now that I had been cast out, there was no one left whose mood I needed to watch.
"No one's watching here. Between us, we're brothers. And..."
I looked both of them straight in the eyes.
"You two were prepared to suffer by following me, right?"
"Well... if you went alone, you'd obviously starve to death, Young Master."
"Right. Thank you. That's why I'm saying this."
I grinned.
"When I make a lot of money, I'll make sure both of you become free commoners."
"F-Free commoners? You'll make us free people?"
Chilbok's mouth fell open. Manseok blinked as well.
For a slave, emancipation was a dream. It was harder than plucking stars from the sky.
"That's right. I swear on my name. I'll make both of you free commoners, find you wives, and let you live in tiled-roof houses."
"Big Brother...!"
Tears welled up in Chilbok's eyes.
Chilbok knew I was not lying.
He remembered the look in my eyes whenever I secretly made something in the vegetable patch, even while pretending to be a fool for ten years.
Manseok just grinned.
"Big Brother, if I become a free commoner, can I eat lots of meat?"
"I'll let you eat your fill. I'll make sure there's meat with every meal."
"Wow! Big Brother is the best! Loyalty! Loyalty!"
Manseok danced around with joy.
Laughing, I started walking.
"All right, let's go. To Gold Province!"
***
It took a full fifteen days to travel from Gaegyeong to Gold Province.
To save on travel expenses, we stayed in cheap inns and made do with rice balls for meals.
Chilbok whined that his feet were blistered, while Manseok whined that he was hungry.
But the farther south we went, the more the air changed. The wind grew warmer.
"Big Brother, is that Gold Province?"
Manseok pointed ahead.
In the distance stretched a broad plain. The Nakdong River wound through fertile land. It was the Gimhae Plain.
"That's right. That's our new home."
Gold Province was larger than I expected. There were many people, and the place was lively.
But the land we had been given...
"Big Brother... is it here?"
Chilbok asked, covering his nose.
It was an outlying place that even the villagers rarely visited, thick with reeds and blanketed in fog.
Boggy mud sank beneath every step.
"Ugh... the smell. It reeks of rot."
Rotting reeds and puddles stretched endlessly before us.
Fog rose here and there, making the place feel desolate.
Villagers passing by saw us and whispered among themselves.
"Hey, look there. Three kids are heading into Ghost Marsh?"
"Tsk. They must've been thrown out by their family. What a pity. Once they go in there, they won't come back out."
"I heard ghostly cries can be heard every night..."
Ignoring them, I crouched down and grabbed a handful of marsh soil.
It was damp and black. Dark water seeped out between my fingers.
I brought it to my nose. It smelled sour, yet rich and earthy.
'Bingo.'
Leaf mold.
It was a mass of natural fertilizer made from reeds and fallen leaves that had accumulated and decayed over hundreds—no, thousands—of years.
People avoided it as rotten soil, but to a farmer's eyes, it all looked like money.
If I spread this soil over a field, it would be more effective than any fertilizer.
"Manseok."
"Yes, Big Brother!"
"Plant a flag here."
"Yes!"
Manseok gathered a branch from nearby, tore up my jacket, tied it to the branch, and planted the flag.
'Great Peace.'
The world I wanted to live in. A world where one could eat their fill without worries.
I patted my waist.
Hidden there were my treasures, secretly improved over ten years with Chilbok and Manseok's help, away from the family's eyes.
[Early-Ripening Rice — Great Peace No. 1]
Growth Speed: 2.5 times that of ordinary rice
Characteristics: Short in stature, making it resistant to wind and rain, with high resistance to pests and disease. Tastes good.
[Super Radish — Great Peace No. 3]
Size: Three times that of an ordinary radish
Growth Period: 40 days (ordinary radishes take three months)
Characteristics: High moisture and sugar content. Its leaves are soft and good to eat as well.
Since I was five, I had selected rice seeds from the vegetable patch, keeping only the fastest-growing plants and crossbreeding them.
The radishes were the same. I collected seeds only from the largest and tastiest ones.
It would have been impossible without my knowledge of modern agricultural technology. Long live Mendel's laws of inheritance.
"We'll sleep here tonight, and once day breaks tomorrow, we'll head down to the village."
"Why are we going to the village?"
"To lease land."
"Will they lease us land when we don't have any money?"
"We'll make them lease it to us."
I grinned.
At fifteen, I was considered an adult in Goryeo.
There were no more adults to watch out for, no family to nag me.
This was my world.
"All right, tonight we're having jerky. Eat sparingly. Starting tomorrow, I'll make sure we eat real meals."
"Thank you for the meal, Big Brother!"
Chilbok and Manseok happily chewed on their jerky.
Under Gold Province's night sky, where stars poured down like rain, I rolled the seeds in my pocket between my fingers.
These tiny seeds would change the world. No, they would certainly change my life, at the very least.