~Suprising Potential~

The frost of the walls woke the captive.

Whisperings and rattling of chains were heard, every clink of the metal can send a shiver. A set of footsteps were coming towards him faintly, they're heavy, definitely belongs to a soldier. He did commit a crime, but is it so bad that he deserved to be locked up in a dungeon with suffocating bandages?

Seong kept his head down, fear and anxiety was coursing through him. A voice later ruined the coldness, it contained an authorial tone that can make even the devil quiver to his knees. Two rough fingers lifted up Seong's chin, the his eyes widened and shrunk at the sight of the man.

A strong facial structure, faint facial hairs around the bottom of his face, eyebrows larger than The Great Wall, lips chapped and pale along skin being tanned from the constant burning battles. He is built like a machine for the military, he looks like he takes no prisoners alive, and somehow he was the exception. The man smirked before letting go of him. He stood up with a scoff and a sabre replaced his fingers, Seong winced on the coldness of the blade. Then he finally spoke to the prisoner.

"I would've already killed you when my men found you, but something told me to leave you to live. Consider yourself lucky." He sheathed his sabre with a loud click. "You see before we take proper prisoners we need to put them to a test if we feel like they might be able to join our military as we're facing a shortage, what a laughter that is, a criminal fighting for the country, isn't that ironic?"

He crouched behind him, Seong felt his binds loosening. "But you... You look like you have some passion in you, after all you don't commit crime without a reason. You have hatred in your heart, and your body can handle anything..."

A sword was dropped in front of him, the rocky ground given it a frightful sound. The man spoke again as the sabre was yielding at his direction, now with more killing intent than ever. "Duel me and I'll let you into the squadrons…If you lose, well, guess we just have to say there was an incident."

Seong held the sword gently as his legs shakingly lifted him up, it was heavy but definitely felt sharp and power, a single blow could destroy armour. "I-I'm just a village boy, I never held this in my life, I don't even do the farming!" He spoke innocently as he looked up to see the man laugh for a solid second before his eyes tightened.

"Stop your bullshit and fight me." The man sneered.

Seong winced as gripped the sword cowardly, his limbs were closed in, looking a scared deer. However, the Imperial man had a contrast position as he was brave, opened chest and legs jumping at his prey.

Seong squinted his eyes as he lifted the sword to block the attack that came from above. Then on left, on the right, he kept on dodging the attacks even though the man swung it like hundreds of arrows came at him. Then as the little boy gain a little bit more confidence he tried to strike at a random opening, the soldier moved his sabre away and use his other hand to make an open palm that fling him back into a wall, which resulted coughing from the forceful impact.

"You might hear this somewhere, but this is called Cultivation, we use our spirit and mentality to converse it into energy that can make it seem like magic to people like you. We use it to our advantage in battle, the other reigns did not know how to master it like us." The soldier said as he looked at his hand that is now red from the friction. He looked back at his victim who is struggling to get up.

"W-why are you telling me this?" he asked as he held his chest with an arm as if it were to soothe the pain.

"Why? Because I want you to already learn. A swordsman could be powerful and effective, but if he went into battle without having a few tricks up his sleeves he'll die just like the rest of them. And we don't want that, we want our men to at least have an advantage and prove Silla is far greater than people interpret us."

The leather handle was gripped harder as then the boy runs towards the soldier again and skidded under that led to him swinging at his legs as he went under them leaving a large cut from ankle up to the knees. He jumped up to point his sword again this time with a stronger stance, copying the soldier's previous stance before they fought.

The soldier smirked a little. Whispering "fast learner, interesting".

"I see you have already calculated a technique down and even made me bleed a little, well done, no one really got this far. My name is Jeon BeomSeok, I am General for the borders of our Kingdom. My little brother Jeon UJin reported me about your efforts. Although I shouldn't allow rebels to ruin our nation, I believe you can further our cause." This man extended his hand for a handshake.

Seong hesitated, his once murderous expression calmed down to a confused smile, his hands slowly gripped the other and shook it. Then replied, "I'm Min JaeSeong, but you can call me Seong, I'm guessing you already know a lot about me now." Beomseok nodded while half grinning. "But what do you mean by cause?"

"You should ask my brother, he is a lieutenant but the main operator of our cause." The General fixed his robes and sheathed his sword back.

"B-but why all this? Why me?"

"As I said before, you have the potential. I spared the boy you protect so dearly." Beomseok glared back as he left the dungeon.

"And why did you torture him?"

"I avenged Mr Kim, you can rest easy knowing that you are now under my protection." He's quickly becoming impatient.

"How can I know if I should trust you?"

"Oh, this is surprising thing to hear from a village boy that used to say he never held a sword before. Normally by now you would be thanking and bowing. Or was that an act?" He spat as he turned around fully, stress lines clearly visible from this whole ordeal. He then sighed, rubbing his temples and apologised.

Seong stayed silent, Beomseok then motioned Seong to follow him. He was right it was an act, he did practice sword in his free time, but only with a stick or knife from his parent's kitchen, he never truly held an actual weapon though. He always heard rumours and stories from the local residents about the General also, he believed the man to be as unapologetic as the King, but to his surprise it was opposite. He actually wanted the same goal as him.

To make the King perish.