Chapter 12 – Release
Early in the morning, Yeong-woo and his companions were released.
He had thought there were ten of them.
But five more prisoners emerged from the opposite side.
So Cheol-ryong stretched his arms wide.
"Ahhh! The wind of freedom!"
Even after that brutal battle, he did not have a single wound.
Some men were injured doing the simplest task.
Others walked through the worst fighting without a scratch.
It was a gift of birth.
A fortune he had been born with.
That was why his nickname was Invincible So Cheol-ryong.
Almost nothing ever shook him.
"So, Yeong-woo. Now that we're free, shall we go kill that bastard?"
"If I get the chance, I will."
"A man only wakes up after he's taken an arrow in the back."
"They say he's been stripped of rank."
"What? No way."
"They say he's opening and closing the South Gate now."
Where Cheol-ryong heard such things, no one knew.
But his information always arrived faster than anyone else's.
He must have two extra ears somewhere.
One of the squad leaders from the South Gate ran toward them.
"So you've been released."
"Yes, sir. Thanks to you."
"The wounded may rest."
"We'll report first."
"The South Gate is busy. The enemy has chosen us as their target."
Cheol-ryong answered,
"They see a weak point."
"It's different now. Park Geun-su commands the South Gate."
So Cheol-un shouted,
"Ohhh, Park Geun-su!"
A squad leader who commanded twenty-five men had suddenly risen to command the gate defense.
Cheol-un muttered,
"That's not good."
"They've promoted him. Now he'll work himself to death."
"And we'll be the ones dying."
Yeong-woo spoke quietly.
"He defended us."
"Yes," Cheol-ryong replied.
"But think carefully."
"Did he do that for us… or for himself?"
Yeong-woo smiled faintly.
"Is that how things always are?"
"Yes."
"Everyone acts for their own benefit."
"And somehow that ends up serving the whole."
"That's the strange world we live in."
Yeong-woo laughed softly.
"That is remarkable insight."
"So don't bow your head too deeply to someone's kindness."
Still, Yeong-woo sighed.
"Even so… without that man, we might all be dead."
"Let's repay him by fighting well."
Cheol-un glanced at Yeong-woo's leg.
"You're going to fight like that?"
"With that limp?"
"We bow archers fight with our hands, not our legs."
"Give me one firing slit and I'll drop ten of them."
Cheol-ryong shook his head.
"You'll rot that leg."
"You should rest."
"They told you to rest."
"If I rest just because they said so, they won't like it."
"Commanders are never satisfied."
"Even when you do everything."
"So at least pretend to work."
The released men marched toward the South Gate.
Park Geun-su stood there with a stern face.
"So Cheol-ryong and fourteen others report their release, sir."
Park Geun-su chuckled.
"You should say you were released by order."
"Yes, sir."
"The army runs on obedience."
"Yesterday there were circumstances."
"But disturbance and defiance cannot be tolerated."
Cheol-ryong bowed.
"I understand completely."
Park Geun-su nodded.
"The wounded should rest."
"The enemy will focus their attack on the South Gate again today."
Cheol-ryong glanced outside the gate.
"There seems to be much work."
"We've raised more barricades and dug additional spike pits."
"We're setting spear obstacles in front now."
"We lack hands."
"We'll help."
"I don't want to carry away more corpses."
"Rest."
Fortunately Park Geun-su said nothing further about the previous defiance.
The group returned toward their original positions.
The severely wounded settled into the tents behind the South Gate courtyard.
They were told to rest.
But leaving the battlefield entirely was dangerous.
If you were marked as absent from duty,
you might become absent from everything.
Food.
Equipment.
Everything.
Yeong-woo climbed up onto the gate wall.
A massive ballista had been installed on the protruding tower.
"So they placed that here," Gyeong-taek said.
"The new commander ordered it."
"He intends to kill at least one enemy."
"It takes up a lot of space."
"I said he intends to kill one."
"Then may he succeed."
"Why come up here? You should be resting."
"If the gate breaks, we all die anyway."
"Better to fight."
"Your spirit is admirable," the man said.
"But I hear you were badly wounded."
His eyes drifted toward Yeong-woo's leg.
"I can still shoot."
At that moment dust rose in the distance.
Nearly ten miles away.
"Enemy."
Boom.
Boom.
Boom-boom-boom.
War drums thundered.
Shouts erupted across the walls.
The soldiers working outside scrambled back toward the gate like frightened squirrels.
Park Geun-su left the gate open.
He sent archers out and stationed them behind the barricades.
The open gate would lure the enemy forward.
More archers climbed onto the walls.
A messenger sprinted toward headquarters.
A formation of shield infantry advanced to the gate front.
And a group of Immortalsclimbed onto the gate tower.
Park Geun-su bowed slightly.
"I have been placed in command of the South Gate."
"I ask for your assistance."
"What is your plan?" one asked.
"I have deployed the archers forward."
"They are arranged in depth."
"Behind the barricades, on the walls, and on the towers."
"When the enemy charges, the front ranks will collapse under fire."
"If they still advance, they will fall into the traps we dug."
"During that time, the archers will withdraw."
Baek In-gyeom spoke.
"And our role?"
"If the front collapses… hold the enemy."
"Give the archers time to retreat."
Baek In-gyeom nodded.
"Understood."
"Thank you."
Baek In-gyeom slowly looked around.
It was impossible to guess his age.
He could have been in his twenties.
Or his forties.
Yet his detached composure felt like that of a man past sixty.
No.
More precisely—
those three different ages seemed to exist within a single person.