The Iemoto silently and patiently observed the rising sun. The dawn was breaking.0

To him, a sunrise was nothing special. Martial artists like him didn't need to sleep as long as regular people, so they had ample opportunities to watch the sun rise from the East.0

Despite being intimately familiar with the sight of the morning sun rising up to chase the darkness of the night away, this particular sunrise still instilled a special feeling in the Iemoto.0

'It must be time.'0

According to the expedition's schedule, the ship should be reaching Korea about now.0

"Hmm. The peninsula, is it…?"0

The Iemoto felt his heart flutter a little when he mulled that word.0

The Korean peninsula held such a strange significance to Japan. Despite having exceeded the Koreans in various aspects, the Japanese still couldn't acquire that land for one reason or the other.0

Japan was an archipelago, a chain of islands. These islands probably offered everything a Japanese person would ever want. Being satisfied with Japan's current territory could be a… "happier" way to live out the rest of one's life.0

However! Those who called Japan their home always suffered from a thirst. A thirst that varied in scope and intensity depending on people!0

This thirst was all about the limitations imposed by an archipelago. For the longest time, Japan's rulers had been tortured by the knowledge of living inside a geographical trap, an archipelago, no matter how much stronger or influential the country...0