~A Visitor~

Seong's body ached and never rested, his mornings was as early as dawn and his sleep started when the moon was high. He has many bruises and scratches that dirtied his once street ready body that is shaped slowly into battle ready, the pain started to numb, his senses more focused, his stamina more longer and his breathing more stable than it used to be. He kept on trying to fight and swing at training dummies that smiled teasingly at him, they used to barely get scratched, now they have ditches for wounds. Ujin from time to time checked up on him, but Seong refused most of his advice and help, Beomseok on other hand constantly paced around the buildings, never speaking to someone publicly.

"Bring it on man, I can fight forever!" Seong said enthusiastically as his opponent tried to swing to him first, he dodged it and thrown his elbow into the side of the man causing him to topple slightly. "No use..."

"Young man, your name is Min Seong, yes?" An unfamiliar voice said from outside the training ground, his accent strong and body gifted with multiple expensive clothing pieces. He is watching the whole fight with smug expression, the City's citizen.

Seong startled by sudden calling, he nervously answered, "y-yes!"

"Good! I heard lots about you from your general! You're even going to be with them in the battle! Very optimistic you guys are, to be honest." The man laughed, then his face grew serious and cold. "You seem like you need to try out a new enemy." Without even a blink of an eye he removed the heavy city clothing and handed it to Beomseok who was just introducing the other general to everyone, Beomseok first was confused at the expensive garments then sighed quietly as he watched the whole ordeal.

Seong froze for a minute as he watched the other guy take his stance, he worn tight clothing that looked like leather ribbons wrapped around his body giving off an accent to his muscles, he was slightly disturbed by the shameless outfit. Then they both positioned themselves to fight comfortably, Seong lacked the strength for hand to hand comeback and as a way to make up for it he previously began training to try to come up with techniques and tricks to throw the other person off.

"Let's see if Beomseok has a good eye." The city man said before he quickly thrown in a swing, Seong dodged it swiftly, but wasn't expecting his legs to then get kicked in causing him to bent over. "I have this trick I made up, it's a nasty trick, but it'll help you, make it look like you're weak and pathetic, but actually use your sense to feel how the air moves around you."

"What!?" Seong asked as he tried to get up, then received another quick kick that he barely able to react to.

"Do it!" He has a hot tempter, much like Beomseok, no wonder they seemed so close to each other and didn't mind a unannounced visitor here.

But he obliged, Seong closed his eyes and felt the atmosphere. He could sense Beomseok, Ujin as well as Jihu and multiple other people watching them, it's a hot day in spring, he sensed a bee flying to a few flowers that randomly grew within the training ground. And the strongest presence was the man in front of him, his fist cutting through the puffy air leaving cold trails. Seong immediately caught the fist with his two hands and turned his back on him to then throw him over his back and onto the ground.

The man wasn't harmed in any way, Seong however felt a sense of pride of being a quick learner. "Well done, I see you're always quick on your feet about things." He then stood up and brushed himself, many voices around them whispering and throwing judging stares at both of them. "Now I see why my best friend picked you."

"We're just colleagues." Beomseok said, monotoned, his arms are crossed, his face is plain and flat but still holding onto the garments of his friend's protectively.

The man laughed as he came up to him and grabbed back his jacket with a teasing smile, "are you sure? You come to me more often than the rest of the city."

"It's because you're the closest." Still keeping the 'I hold no emotion for you' dilemma towards the other man.

"I haven't caught your name by the way." Seong interrupted their quarrel as they were leaving the training area already.

"Apologies, it is quite rude to not introduce yourself right? I'm Commander ChulMoo, I'm from the city and I am the kingdoms main commanders." He bowed gorgeously, he is well mannered in contrast to Beomseok. Not that Seong was complaining, he is from a village after all and only people he trusted were those who had sluggish backgrounds, he always despised the ones who come from rich backgrounds as they have many secrets and some coins can easily remove their dirty past or those that had any relations to the city or royals. But if it's through someone he knows then it doesn't hurt to have a little faith in a friend right?

"I'm Min Seong. But I'm guessing you already knew it." Yoongi bowed back, obviously it was a bit rigid compared to ChulMoo's.

ChulMoo smiled, it wasn't teasing like he does towards Beomseok, it was a formal but friendly sort, the "You can trust me, I'm with Beomseok's plan."

"Everyone to main quarters!" Beomseok said suddenly. Afterall the commander wasn't here for a first fight with their new recruit, it was for plans of action.

The quarters were built of maple wood, they didn't go for traditional architecture just in case of an unexpected attack and to blend with in the environment of the forests around them, it was basically a cabin that seemed out of the kingdom's usual design. Plus Beomseok said that the traditional houses are mainly for lounge and luxurious people, he personally believes having main buildings look like one would make everyone feel lazy and fatigued. There was a large round table in centre that had a map and multiple sheets of paper scattered about. They all crowded around a large table that held many papers and plans, some ink splatters all over the place as well as a large map of Han River along with smaller papers drawing of a route.

Another man from the city, Han Gyeong was the strategist of the whole deal. "I sent out a spy one night and they told me their battle plan. Apparently they also have cultivators underneath their sleeves, but I don't know what they'll do, according to some info they might try to make one of their soldiers either stronger or bigger. Because there's this one man they're trying to protect immensely and I suspect that he'll be a killer weapon." He said.

ChulMoo nodded in understanding, "I already came up with battle plan for it, we must always be prepared for these situations as we shouldn't fall into traps, no matter how much they want to surprise us we'll always be one step ahead." And he explained to the rest of the troops their plan.

It consisted of a eclipse shape, there'll be defence, cultivators, archers and final blowers. The defence will use their shields to protect around the formation, the cultivators will set up traps and attack anyone trying to approach them, archers will attack the main enemy and final people will strike where it hurts most to him take down.

"Gahh I now understand why general likes hanging out with that commander." It was already next day after the explanation, they were going to train their strategy out in an open field, very little trees, large amount of land and vast mountains in the background, a perfect training ground for large attacks.

"Talk about a briefing, we stayed up all night listening to them ramble I forgot half the stuff." Another soldier said as he yawned and stretched, walking towards the positioning, his role was defence meaning he carried a heavy shield.

"Alright, I understand that half of you aren't aware of the situation we might be up against. They revealed that they have trying to take our techniques, as you all aware we were previously only kingdom to use this method as it was classified, but they used their brains now and trying to attack us with fire." ChulMoo announced as he trotted his horse around.

"I suggest you all listen to your general, I explained to him in even bigger detail, if you fail to do so you'll be looking at never coming home and dying in the battlefield. Got that?"

They all yelled 'yeah' in understanding, some nodded.

"Good, Beomseok you lead, I'll be right beside you. Don't you worry about your brother, I trust this recruit to be careful." ChulMoo said softly as he turned to look at the general.

It's new to Seong, but Ujin explained that they have this bond as they both were childhood friends, always saying how they'll grow up to be strong men and Ujin was always protected by the two as he was the youngest of the three. ChulMoo was the oldest of the bunch, he was a teenager before Ujin even hit puberty and always cared for Beomseok's brother as if he were another brother. They don't even need to speak longer than a sentence to have an understanding of each other. Some suspected they would die protecting each other than even think of marriage or another person.

"Ah so that's why he told me to have faith in him." Seong said as he looked off into the crowd.

"I'm glad you're so trusting! I was afraid you'll attack him actually." Ujin jokingly said as he wiped a fake sweat off his brow.

"Now why would I do that?" Seong looked at him confusingly, honestly he doesn't know why he would do that.

"You don't remember that day you attacked our guards that day?" A raised eyebrow was at him, almost saying to him 'did you really forgot?'

"Oh...I hope he's doing fine." Seong now joked as he looked away with a fake laugh, what an embarrassing past already, he felt he already matured now and don't deserve to call himself a farmer's child anymore.

Seong looked to distance to see birds chasing each other in a mating dance, they flew high and cheered a song that screamed like a battle cry. I have high hopes about this.