| Trouble In Times of War (Part II)

She wanted to reply. Everything was clear in her head about how this was supposed to go along. She was going to tell them to stop and put the pommel of her sheathed sword on display. They were comrades in arms after all. Her words should have carried meaning. If not, she would mention her grandfather's name and if that was not enough, she would have shown them his ancestral sword, a sacred symbol for the troops, now clutched painfully in her arms.

But her eyes remained glued on the woman's frightened expression and suddenly it was her who was being raped. Droplets of sweat formed on her forehead, and her spline leapt to her throat, making her gasp for air. Terror came crashing at the forefront of her mind, taking her words and her reason. Her half-parted mouth remained frozen as the small world inside the tent began to spin out of control around her.

Don't show you are afraid. Don't give them power. That was her grandfather's advice that resonated in her ears, but she was already powerless.

Getting no reaction, the vocative soldier approached even more. She had to run away from him, but she could not move until it was too late. He grabbed her by the collar. Their eyes met and all she wanted to do was go back on her rash decision to intervene and risk exposing herself. Why did the drunkard grab her by the shirt? Did he figure out she was also a girl? Her hands dropped like dead fish, letting go of the wrapped sword. The soldier did not take long with what he had to do.

He cursed brutally and shoved her outside the tent. "Are you an idiot in the head? We faced death today, boy. Let us have our fun." With his last word also came one precise rough push on Soo-Ah's shoulder, that sent her a couple of steps back, making her stumble and fall to the ground. "Get out of here, dumb ass!" he roared before covering the tent entrance.

She was still safe. Checking her breasts were still in place inside their bonding, she could not believe her disguise was not revealed. But that girl was still inside, still in trouble. Laying on the ground, Soo-Ah recovered a little from her state of shock. She looked in the direction of her grandfather, more than a dozen tents away. She could sprint towards him, but she feared she might not have enough time to save the girl.

Her expression lit up when along the dirt path she recognized Duri, approaching. The man was clearly in a relaxed disposition, probably heading to make up for lost sleep while munching on some nuts.

"Duri, come quick!" Soo-Ah got up in a hurry and came to grab his arm.

The man stopped chewing and opened his eyes wide. "What? Now you talk to me? I have no more fingers to count the times I saluted you and you brushed me aside." He amusingly teased her but allowed himself to be yanked from his spot.

"Please. There's a girl in there. We have to help her!" begged Soo-Ah as they stopped in front of the tent.

Duri listened intently to the distinct noises. His relaxed expression changed when he realised what was going on inside. Annoyingly he threw aside his fistful of nuts and entered the tent with Soo-Ah trailing him. "Alright lads, the fun is over. Let the nice girl go."

"No, we paid." shouted the one who was so drunk he was still struggling with the girl's many layers of clothing.

The kisaeng, in a shaking voice, tried to shed some light on her predicament for Duri to hear. "They sent me here for just one man. And these three jumped me. Please..." she added before being smacked in the face and cautioned to shut up.

"You heard the girl. No deal if you play these tricks. Now let her go." Duri moved forward and peeled them away from the desperate young woman, one by one.

The men could not resist Duri's vigorous pull. But they could get annoyed. One of the troublemakers jumped at him and broke a cup on his head. If Duri was calm up to this point now his anger came bubbling up to the surface. Tensions were high and a fistfight ensued. The berserk soldiers were not in their sound minds due to alcohol and a whole lot of unleashed emotions, so they kept coming for Duri even if they were staggering and missing their punches.

Duri had no problem landing his while dodging like a skilful acrobat. Their entire ruckus seemed to die out soon, but while struggling to get up from near the coat where Duri sent him, one of them remembered he had a sword at his disposal.

Soo-Ah understood the danger in time. She eyed her grandfather's blade lying partially unwrapped by her feet.

"Duri, catch!" Soo-Ah shouted and threw at him the hwandudaedo with a rehearsed move. Long ago, when Duri helped her practice, this was their favourite exercise.

Led by instinct, Duri turned and caught the blade. From the corner of his eye, he spotted the angry soldier mounting an armed assault. All it took was a second for him to turn to defend himself.

It was too late for both of them. General's Min-Jun sword pierced a countryman's flesh.

The drunk soldier slid from the blade and dropped to the floor with a look of dismay on his face as he began to spit blood. His eyes rolled to the back of his head, and he was gone from this world.

Duri remained staring at the bloodied blade in disbelief. The kisaeng who sat whimpering on the cot up to this point screamed louder and ran away while the other two soldiers started howling and went searching for their lieutenant.

"Murder!" was heard screaming from outside the tent and an increasing amount of other manly voices came closer, attracted by the commotion.

In the tent Soo-Ah looked with incredulous eyes at the soldier lying dead, then at the other one, still living but adorning dead eyes.

It did not take long for the lieutenant of the platoon, accompanied by the garrison soldiers to come to find them inside the tent. The other two drunkards came behind, accusing and spatting cussing until the lieutenant ordered them to hold their tongues.

"What happened here?" The officer walked forward, unwilling to listen to his drunk soldiers. He abruptly came to a halt when he noticed the blood on the blade and his dead soldier on the floor, fallen between the cots.

Duri seemed lost and could barely answer while still tightening the grip on the general's sword. "A girl… I told them to let her go… He... died."

By the time General Min-Jun entered the tent, Soo-Ah had finally gathered herself to explain in clear detail what had happened. He eyed her for a second. In one swift sweep, he assessed the situation and recognized his sword still held in Duri's tight grasp. He gently took it away and remained to stare at the dead body.

"Give me your name, soldier?"

"Duri, of the Dragon Platoon, under old Lieutenant Hyun." The man's reply came as a flat line.

Min-Jun patted the man's shoulder. "You did this?"

"Yes, it was me." Duri offered without inflexion.

Min-Jun sighed. "Soldier Duri," and he searched for the man's gaze that could not be peeled away from the dead body, "you spilt the blood of your blood. As your supreme commanding officer, I order you to submit to capital punishment. You are to be executed tomorrow, at noon."