Ch.1Jesus Gay (1)

“Father…sob…sob.”

“Please open your eyes. Father…”

Sounds of wailing coming from here and there.

Hearing those sounds, I slowly opened my eyes, wondering who had died.

Then I saw an unfamiliar ceiling…

Huh.

An unfamiliar ceiling?

“Fa…Father has opened his eyes!”

“Fa…Father! Father has opened his eyes! Mother! Mother! Father has opened his eyes!”

Soon I heard voices.

I tried my best to roll my eyes around to understand the situation, but nothing came to mind.

While I was thinking, I heard footsteps coming from somewhere.

The hurried footsteps stopped right beside me.

A woman with an ornate headdress.

Two women—one with fair skin and red lips who looked exotic, and another with strong Korean features—looked at me and began to cry.

“Sob…sob…you’re alive.”

“I thought I was going to lose my husband. Sob sob.”

Shocking words from two beautiful women looking at me.

Since “husband” typically refers to a married man, I couldn’t help but blink in surprise.

So the children who just said their father had opened his eyes were referring to me, and these two women were my wives.

“…What is this…”

“You…you’re even sp…speaking.”

“Tengri be praised! Thank you. Thank you…”

“Pl…please calm down. First…could someone explain what’s happening…”

“…”

“…”

The faces of both women turned pale at my words.

As the atmosphere suddenly grew cold, a cute little child beside me asked the pale-faced women a question.

“Is Daddy still sick?”

“Those vile Tatars…”

“Please calm yourself, Sister. We should be grateful that your husband has opened his eyes.”

“Sigh…you’re right, Sister. Your words are true. We should thank Tengri that my poisoned husband has regained consciousness.”

The exotic-looking woman rose to her feet.

The woman, who clearly appeared to be of high status, spoke to the woman she called sister.

“I will go inform everyone of this news. Please look after your husband.”

“I will, Sister.”

After saying this, the exotic-looking woman left the tent.

Now only I, the woman who called herself my wife, and a little girl who had just learned to walk remained in the tent.

In the silence of the tent,

I carefully spoke to the woman who was tending to me.

“Um…where am I right now?”

At my words, the woman looked like she might cry at any moment.

Seeing her expression, I quickly continued speaking to calm her.

“Pl…please calm down. Don’t…don’t cry.”

“Sob sob…to see my husband, known as Batur for his bravery, reduced to this state…my heart is breaking as your wife…”

“Ba…Batur? What is that…?”

An unfamiliar term.

I had no choice but to ask the woman.

“It means warrior…have you forgotten even words…?”

The woman began crying again after saying this.

As the infant beside her grabbed her hand with an expression that seemed to say “don’t cry,” I felt as if I had committed some terrible mistake.

A continuous state of confusion.

Suddenly, the tent opened and a boy who looked about 13 years old with a youthful face approached me.

“Second Mother! I heard the news. They said Father has opened his eyes…”

“Your grandfather Dei-Sechen Khan…”

“Please don’t worry too much about that. I spoke well with the Khan.”

A demeanor too mature for what would typically be expected of a sixth-grader.

Aside from his youthful face, his body was quite sturdy, making me wonder if he really was an elementary school student.

“Father. Your son Temujin has come. Do you recognize me?”

…What?

Father…? And Te…Temujin…? Then…

Various pieces of knowledge flashed through my mind.

With 2,000 hours of CK gameplay, the name Temujin was absolutely unforgettable to me.

The insane ability that generated 70,000 doom stacks as soon as you selected the Steppe Khan trait.

On top of that, his exceptional skills made him worthy of being called the conqueror of the world.

His other name was well-known even in our country, which was far away from here and called Solongos, the land where rainbows appear.

Genghis Khan.

And he was calling me father…

Just then, the tent opened again.

A man with eagle feathers in his hair entered along with the woman who had left the tent earlier.

The man, seeing me looking at Temujin,

raised both hands toward the sky and exclaimed.

“Oh! Great Tengri! Thank you for saving Yesugei, the leader of the Kiyat!”

Yesugei.

Temujin’s father and a figure posthumously honored as an ancestor of the Yuan Dynasty.

That was my identity.

But hearing this name, I felt despair rather than shock.

“How can someone’s name be Jesus Gay…”

Having lived as a Korean for decades,

I, who just turned on my computer to play CK and shoot burgers at people writing in Khitan script, suddenly had to live as Yesugei.

* * *

SWOOOSH!

A spear cutting through the air.

When it hit its target, it made a strange sound and broke into two pieces.

“…Is this really human strength…”

I remembered photos of Mongolian wrestlers I’d seen in community posts.

Later, when I searched on the wiki, I learned it wasn’t Mongolian wrestling but a type of wrestling called Bokh.

Anyway, Yesugei had a body like the wrestlers in those photos.

Despite the odd name, his body looked really sturdy.

“It’s hard to believe someone like this was poisoned, which caused Temujin to suffer so much.”

At this time, the Tatars were pressuring Mongol tribes under the influence of the Jin Dynasty,

because they were wary of the Mongols gaining power.

So they used the Tatars to suppress the Mongols, commonly known as “using barbarians to control barbarians.”

Yesugei, who led the Borjigin Obokh Kiyat and built up his power.

The Tatars, who were instigated by the Jin Dynasty and lived between Manchuria and the Mongolian steppe in the eastern part of modern Mongolia, were his adversaries as he built his reputation.

The downfall of the Obokh Kiyat, which had been growing under such a talented leader, was caused by none other than Yesugei’s poisoning.

When Temujin was 13 years old, Yesugei went to the Khongirad tribe to arrange his son’s marriage.

He left Temujin with the Khongirad tribe as a son-in-law and was returning to the Obokh Kiyat.

On his way back, he stayed at a Tatar tent,

and the Tatar tribe, which had suffered greatly at Yesugei’s hands, pretended to treat him as a steppe guest but committed the atrocity of assassinating him by poisoning his food.

Yesugei died as a result.

Temujin, who lost his father at a young age, was abandoned by his relatives and ended up wandering the steppe.

“But since I…no…since Yesugei wasn’t poisoned…”

It felt like something big was going to change.

When that thought occurred to me, I wondered if this was right.

Reincarnation? Possession? I could understand somehow entering someone else’s body, but…

“To think it’s the father of Genghis Khan, the conqueror of the world…sigh…”

I was a third-year office worker who graduated from university and hadn’t even dated.

It was hard to get my bearings when suddenly I had two beautiful wives and four sons.

While I was thinking about myself, or rather Yesugei,

Hoelun, who claimed to be my wife, approached me.

“My husband. So this is where you were.”

“Ah…yes.”

When I used honorifics, Hoelun immediately gave me a sad look.

Seeing her pitiful gaze, I quickly waved my hands and tried to comfort her.

“Pl…please calm down. Calm down.”

“How can I be at ease when my husband hasn’t fully regained his senses? As your wife, I should punish those dirty Jin dogs, the Tatars, according to steppe law and tear the mouths of those who poisoned my husband.”

Violent words that didn’t match the beautiful woman who looked like she would fit right in at Dongtan.

To calm her anger after her threatening words about ripping mouths, I had to change the subject.

“Calm dow…I mean, calm yourself. I want to focus on recovery first.”

“Ah…I apologize for not understanding my husband’s heart.”

At Hoelun’s words,

I sighed in relief and asked her a question.

“By the way…how did I survi…I mean, how did I survive?”

“Well…”

And so began Hoelun’s explanation.

It started when Bandak, a Nestorian monk and Sogdian merchant, found Yesugei collapsed on the Shira Steppe after being poisoned.

* * *

Two people sitting in a ger.

The man in merchant’s clothing sitting in front of me was maintaining a humble posture while checking my complexion.

“You saved my life?”

“I couldn’t just pass by someone collapsed on the steppe, so I helped.”

Bandak replied calmly.

Though his appearance was completely different from the Mongols due to his Persian Sogdian heritage, the Mongolian language from his mouth was close to that of a native, so there was no problem with communication.

“Thanks to your quick action, I was able to overcome the poison. I sincerely thank you for this.”

Bandak looked surprised when I bowed my head in gratitude.

I thought to myself, “Oh no.”

I worried that my modern way of expressing gratitude seemed out of place.

As I looked at him with this concern, contrary to my worry, he made the sign of the cross with a moved expression.

“I only saved you in the name of God. I’m glad that the life I saved belongs to someone who understands righteousness. As one who follows the Lord’s will, I am humbled by your sincere gratitude.”

“You saved not only my life. I truly thank you.”

He had essentially saved the entire Borjigin Obokh Kiyat tribe that followed a leader with the rather unique name of Yesugei.

“I wish to treat you as our tribe’s benefactor, so please stay with us.”

“If you insist…”

Bandak made the sign of the cross and expressed his gratitude at my words.

I nodded as I looked at him.