TALES OF THE GOLDEN CITY
Seungman entered the house and at that moment she found Alcheon standing right next to his bed.
"What are you doing standing out of your bed?" Seungman asked as she walked over to him.
"I must return to Seoraebeol." Alcheon Rang replied.
"Are you out of your mind?" Seungman asked.
"What?" Alcheon asked.
"You aren't fully recovered, straining yourself could just worsen your situation." Seungman said. "and besides it doesn't matter, you can always leave any other day but you haven't fully recuperated, you lost so much and your cheeks are bony." she added.
"What would you know, I am a warrior, I can survive a couple of days without food and it's natural that I get malnourished." Alcheon said.
"Is Your life really that worthless, if a giant like you was looking so fat at healthy at the time that we saved your life then how can you say you know what it means to be malnourished?" Seungman asked.
"Step aside." Alcheon said. "I must get to Seoraebeol." He added.
"No." Seungman replied.
"If you don't then I shall move you from my way by force." Alcheon said.
"Go ahead." Seungman said, "Is that how you repay someone that just saved your life?" She asked.
"I don't want to hurt you." Alcheon said.
"I also don't want you to hurt yourself." Seungman said.
Alcheon ceased her by her right hand and pulled her closer to himself to try and put her down but Seungman striking his pressure points totally weakened him.
Collapsing, Alcheon Rang descended on Seungman who trying to support him was overwhelmed by his heaviness and the two landed on the bed together.
His cheeks were all puffed up and his eyes looked swollen as their faces were only inches apart.
"No, No, No." Seungman screamed lightly as she tried to move from underneath but Alcheon was very heavy even without his suit of armor.
At that moment, her heart started beating faster and faster as she realized how close to him she was.
There bodies being in such contact had fired up a series of reactions within her system that even her breathing was intense and she was sweating profusely.
"What to do?" She thought to herself. "What's happening to me?" She asked herself.
At that point she struggled and pulled her arm from underneath and then trying to raise it she called out lightly.
"Damhyeong." She said and a while later, he strode through the doors of the cottage having seemed to hear her.
The first thing that he saw in the room blew his mind.
He could see the small hand of Seungman shaking and asking for his help.
"This imbecile." He whispered to himself as he angrily made his way towards the two of them and at that point he noticed that the man's hand was hanging.
"Help me." Seungman said as she realized that Damhyeong had already made an entrance.
"What are you doing?" He asked as he helped lift Alcheon off her that she slid from underneath and stood right beside him.
"Nothing." Seungman replied.
"Did you kill him as he tried to rape you?" Damhyeong asked immediately.
Seungman looked at him surprised.
"What?" Damhyeong asked. "Or did he do anything more than that?" He asked.
"No." Seungman replied. "None of that happened." She added.
"No one would believe that." Damhyeong said.
"I only struck his pressure point and he fainted, I didn't kill him." Seungman replied.
"What was he even doing in the first place?" Damhyeong asked.
"I don't know, all he kept on saying was that he needed to return to Seoraebeol and I would not let him go when he is not fully recovered.
I insisted and he refused that's why I had to resort to the other way." Seungman replied.
"You should have actually just left him to go his way, he's been quite a burden lately." Damhyeong said.
"That'd mean that our efforts to save him shall have been in vain because we risked our lives and time and if he gets killed because of his carelessness then we'd feel guilty." Seungman said.
"You have such a big heart." Damhyeong said.
"In deed, I'm just worried about him, that's all." Seungman replied.
"You, worried?" Damhyeong asked.
"Yes." Seungman replied. "Can't I be?" She asked.
"He is a stranger and you know nothing about him, you do not even know his name or his family.
You do not know him at all except the fact that you and I just saved him and that he is a Shilla soldier." Damhyeong said.
"I can tell that he is a good person nevertheless and he has a very good heart." Seungman replied.
"Since when did you know people to tell that they have good hearts or not?" Damhyeong asked.
"I just feel it." Seungman said.
"Do I have a good heart?" Damhyeong asked.
Seungman turned and looked at him.
"No." She replied teasingly. "I don't feel it." She added as she laughed.
"Hahahaha, very funny." Damhyeong said as he put Alcheon on the bed very well.
"For a small and malnourished soldier, he is quite heavy." Damhyeong said as he stood upright and the both of them looked at him.
"I know." Seungman said. "Having him on top of me felt like I was carrying the whole world." She added.
"That's so mean of you." Damhyeong said.
"But it's a fact." Seungman said.
"Your father shouldn't find out what happened in here." Damhyeong said.
"Of course, I can't let him in on such an awful story that he nearly took me out." Seungman replied.
"He'd not hesitate a single bit to kill him." Damhyeong said.
"He wouldn't spare you either for not being there to watch over me." Seungman added as the two of them walked out of the room and closed the door behind themselves.
Seungman stretched and then she began swinging her arms around.
"What's the problem?" Damhyeong asked.
"My bones feel exhausted trying to handle that big baby." Seungman replied as she walked over to the table and poured herself some water.
"So what are we going to do about him when he wakes up, we certainly won't knock him out on his pressure points every time and again?" Damhyeong asked.
"There is more than one way to get him to stay here, I can't believe he is more obsessed with returning to Seoraebeol than saving his own life." Seungman replied.
"But didn't you hear the news?" Damhyeong asked.
"Which one?" Seungman asked.
"The Shilla troops vanquished those men from Gorguryeo and they took Nangbi Fortress and the land around it." Damhyeong replied.
"It's good to know." Seungman said.
"When the troops are returning back to the Capital can't we at least give him to them?" Damhyeong asked.
"You seem to be in a hurry to get rid of him." Seungman said.
"It's not like that." Damhyeong replied. "But just think about it, he wants to return to Seoraebeol, isn't it better that way?" He added.
"My father would greatly oppose that, he doesn't want us to associate with strangers." Seungman said.
"But we saved one." Damhyeong said.
"That's a totally different case, what we did was doing a dying man a favour, on top of it, we do not know even whether all those soldiers and friends of his are trustworthy.
We also don't know if he was pushed into a trap because I can't help but wonder and ask myself what he was doing all that way and not at the Fortress." Seungman replied.
"You're right." Damhyeong said.
"If he recovered and returned to Seoraebeol, he knows his friends and enemies better than we do, he'll die without his blood having to be on our hands." Seungman said.
"Alright." Damhyeong replied.
"We'd better go and practice." Seungman said.
"Who'll watch the patient to make sure that we don't lose him when he wakes up?" Damhyeong asked.
"We're going to be in the courtyard and besides, you have a very acute sense of hearing he won't simply sneak past you.
We are surrounded by dry grass it'd be very difficult for him to make a move without us hearing." Seungman replied as she walked up to the door and she opened it.
"Are you coming or not?" Seungman asked.
"Damhyeong seemed to be having second thoughts but he nonetheless accepted reluctantly when he found the sight in Seungman's eyes to be pleading to him.
He wouldn't say no to his childhood best friend and accomplice.
"Alright." He replied as he followed her outside.
After a while, Alcheon got up and the first thing that he saw was the ceiling that was hanging up over his head.
He sat up in his bed as he tried to recall everything that had happened earlier on.
Massaging his forehead, he strained himself a little and the scenes returned from the back of his mind and he remembered how he had blacked out.
"That little witch." Alcheon cursed as he turned around to stand up and at that point he looked out through the window that was stationed on his right.
He was amazed as he saw how Seungman and Damhyeong were practicing in close proximity to one another.
He stepped closer and he watched them again as Seungman made her attack and using all the energy that she could find, she launched herself in the sky with a summersault and landed on Damhyeong's stick a d broke it with her kick yet the force she t her staggering backwards.
"I win." He heard Seungman saying.
For some reason he actually found a smile on his face that he couldn't help himself.
He watched as Seungman stretched out her right hand in front of Damhyeong and there she helped him up onto his feet that he pushed himself towards her a little bit too close.
Seungman didn't take it as anything special while Alcheon clenched his fist.
"They even have the guts to flirt in my sight." He said angrily as he picked up his sword and wore his suit of armor.
He strode out of the cottage with his sword at hand and Damhyeong and Seungman turned around to see who it was.
"You." Seungman said as she came closer.
"Keep your distance, you won't knock me out again." Alcheon said.
"You are not going anywhere, you are not fully healed." Seungman said.
"You can not get to dictate when I should and I shouldn't be going." Alcheon said.
"For heaven's sake she is trying to help you."Damhyeong said angrily.
"I am going to Seoraebeol and none of you is going to stop me." Alcheon said.
"I will." Seungman said as she grabbed her father's sword which she'd carried with her and then came face to face with Alcheon.
"You don't want me to do this." Alcheon said.
"I want to dare you." Seungman replied.
"You're a young woman." Alcheon said.
"The Young woman who saved your life." Seungman replied.
"Don't misuse my gratitude." Alcheon said.
"You're a soldier and every soldier is a man of their honour." Seungman said. "If you wish to go to Seoraebeol then spar with me first and prevail." She said.
"Hahahaha." Alcheon Rang laughed. "You're even challenging me." He added.
"I don't care how much of your life you are willing to put on the line but a lot of people put themselves on the line to procure you to safety and even acquire the best herbs for you.
A lot of people invested in so much more to see to it that you could live and if you are going to recklessly disobey our orders and go to get yourself killed then before that happens I'll discipline you as you'll have to first go through me." Seungman replied.
"Yes I am a soldier and I am a man of my word." Alcheon said.
"You wouldn't possibly be afraid of fighting a mere young woman." Seungman said.
"Me, afraid?" Alcheon asked. "No." He added as he ceased his sword with both his arms while Seungman ceased hers with her right and pushed it backwards while her left was right in front of her.
Damhyeong extended behind and left the two in close proximity to one another and Seungman made the immediate attack and her sword clashed with Alcheon's.
He swung his around in his own defence as Seungman showed her persistence much as she was light she was still weighing a heavy weight on Alcheon and she rushed part of her sword over his armour.
"You are not as agile, it makes a quicker for for you most difficult." Seungman lectured as she turned around and faced Alcheon again while the two walked around in circles while looking at each other and at that point, Alcheon launched himself towards Seungman.
She guarded with her sword while he stared at her eyes that seemed to be burning with a rage deep down inside and in the process unable to do anything, Seungman pushed and kicked him as he staggered away and fell onto the ground.
"You are too weak to call yourself a soldier, how can you even defend this Shilla when your mind is not focused.
You only think too much for yourself a d leg yourself get distracted, you are a weak and a pathetic imbecile." Seungman lectured him again.
Alcheon looked up at her and he planted his sword right in front of himself and supporting himself on it, he stood up and faced Seungman again while she made her attack on him.
He brought it down but she quickly span and moved to his right side and punched him in the abdomen at once She shifted right behind him and gripped his armor while she struck it.
He raised his hand trying to grab her from behind but she ceased it and at that moment, his wound was starting to open once again he screamed in pain.
She made him numb at the joints and let his arm go while he turned around and picked his fallen sword with his left hand but he was shaking rapidly.
He looked at her and angrily, still he launched himself towards Seungman who did the same and with her inner might she tightened her grip on the sword that she was wielding.
The wind following her and her eyes keenly watching him, the two collided her blade simply shattered Alcheon's sword and she took it through the various joints of his armor and she halted behind him.
Damhyeong watched and he was surprised and Alcheon himself could feel that he wasn't the same either his eyes opened widely.
He looked at the last fragment of his sword in his left hand and turned around when at that moment, Seungman turned around and faced him as well.
At once, the armour that was hanging over his body fell and the last thing that he had on himself was his inner uniform that belonged to his team.
"He fell down to his knees and he bowed his head to Seungman who looked at him seriously.
"I concede my defeat, my skills compared to yours are far outmatched." He said.
"You lost the fight so stay here until you recover and when you are done you can feel free to leave and return to whatever place that you came from." Seungman said.
"Yes." Alcheon said and at once Seungman planted the sword that she had in her possession into the ground and turned around to go into the room.
"Let's go." Damhyeong said to him as he helped him up with his left hand and the two walked behind her towards the cottage.
Alcheon who was passing by Seungman's sword decided to study it.
"Don't even think about touching it." Damhyeong said.
"I just want to see." Alcheon said.
"It's the blade of a true warrior." Damhyeong said as Alcheon's eyes persisted until he was able to see the words that had been engraved on it.
"PROTECT YOUR HONOUR FIGHT WITH ALL YOUR LIFE, KIM." He read as the two continued.
They arrived inside and out Alcheon back on the bed as they undressed him slowly.
"What is she doing in here?" Alcheon asked.
"You are the one who asked for it." Seungman said. "I have to see to your wound again before it worsens." She added.
"You're a woman." Alcheon said.
"I thought that a very brave soldier of Shilla is not afraid of women." Seungman said intimidatingly and at that time Alcheon looked the other side.
"Alright." he said as Damhyeong continued to undress him and at last his wound was revealed.
"The wound wasn't even fully trying to heal while here you are straining yourself, you are lucky that the stitches are still in place." Seungman said.
Alcheon sighed.
"I didn't say that you are alright."Seungman said as she got a piece of cloth and then pressed the wound and Alcheon wanting to scream wore an awkward smile on his face which provoked Seungman the more.
"Feel the pain." She thought inwardly as she persisted for a while until she was satisfied.
Damhyeong who was standing nearby and watching everything covered his mouth and looked the other side.
"Rest." Seungman dictated as she stood up and put away the bowl of water that she had had in her possession before she turned to Damhyeong.
"Let's go." She said so coldly and the two walked outside and closed the door behind them but before they would go any further, they put their ears on the door and tried to eavesdrop what was going on inside.
They would hear Alcheon's small and mild cries from excessive pain and the two so excited jumped up at each other and laughed.
"I can't believe that he is that foolish." Damhyeong said.
"It serves him right." Seungman said.
"Even I could see that there was nothing much that was wrong with his wound." Damhyeong said.
"He is a soldier and we grew up next to a doctor, what more did you expect?" Seungman asked as the two of them walked away and then they sat at the stairs of the cottage.
Moo Mak was coming from behind and finding both of them talking he halted in his footsteps and listened to what they were saying.
"It serves him right though, he is ungrateful, we saved his life a d he is trying e everything that he possibly can to put it in danger once again." Damhyeong said.
"How foolish of him." Seungman said. "Even if I was in his place I wouldn't act up that way." She added.
"But how did you do it?" Damhyeong asked.
"How did I do what?" Seungman asked.
"How did you break his sword with yours?" Damhyeong asked and at once, Moo Mak's mind drifted away to nearly twenty seven years back when his master Galmunwang Gukban used to fight in war.
He'd remember very well that breaking the swords of his enemies was a habit of his that had later popularised him as the "SWORD BREAKER." but now those days were long gone and he couldn't believe what he was hearing.
"Could Seungman have inherited the skill of her father?" Moo Mak asked himself. "No." He revoked.
"I don't know." Seungman replied.
"You seem to be the weak one during practice but I've noticed on the last two occasions that every time that you possess the sword you become someone totally different." Damhyeong said.
"Do I?" Seungman asked.
"Take it from me." Damhyeong replied.
"At times I am even so worried and I don't know how you could become so bloody." He added.
"Perhaps it's an instinct." Seungman replied and Moo Mak recalled his old Master.
"How is it easy for you to slay all those men on the battlefield?" Moo Mak had asked.
"I don't know, every time that I am face to face with the enemy I can feel a new me that is being awakened, when I swing my sword there's so much freedom that comes with it it feels so natural and unrestrained.
Perhaps it's an instinct." Gukban had replied
Moo Mak was all the more surprised to hear this that she staggered backwards a little and leaned against the wall as he remained to just hear the conversation.
"I felt immense strength surging through me and when I made an attack, all of it broke free I realized myself at a later time that the only thing it took was some simple strength on my side and his sword was shattered into pieces." Seungman replied.
"Every time I guess I see a very great warrior in you." Damhyeong said.
"I no longer have that dream." Seungman said.
"You can not lie to me, the more that you try to convince yourself that you are not the more and more that I am convinced your heart still longs for it every time you swing your sword against a real life opponent." Damhyeong said.
"No." Seungman said.
"It must have been a natural instinct when you were too busy slaying all those men of Gorguryeo and a natural instinct when you were fighting with him back then.
You've always been afraid to put your heart into it while practicing that in the end, you are but just average, but because in those situations you feel threatened to lose something, you work harder." Damhyeong said.
"I don't know." Seungman said.
"You still remember your dream, I bet that it has never departed from your head." Damhyeong said.
"It never has." Seungman replied and at that moment, Moo Mak's mind drifted back to the time that he had fled from Chopalhye with Seungman as a baby.
He remembered his master's words of caution and the thought of what he could have done wrong traumatized him.
"I try to keep her from Seoraebeol and I try to keep her from the army and war, I fear that Everytime she only proves to still be the same and as always she keeps reminding me of you.
Her eyes are just as fiery as yours and she like yourself is compassionate and kind, yet even in the peace of it all her soul is not settled for turbulence and war are her calmest manners." Moo Mak whispered to himself.
"Mother how are you, Lady Wolmyeong, my family, my master, she has in deed grown." He said as he wiped some of his tears and then walked out from where he was hidden pretending to be normal.
"Seungman, Damhyeong." He called.
"Father, Uncle Moo." The two replied respectively as they walked up to him.
"Did anything happen to the patient when I was away?" Moo Mak asked.
"No father." Seungman replied. "There is nothing for you to worry yourself about as you work very hard you need to go inside and rest." Seungman said.
"Alright." Moo Mak said as he patted her on the head.
"You have really grown so tall and smart that you are only a couple of feet shorter than I am." he added.
"I take after you Father." Seungman replied.
"Of course, who else would you take after if not your father." Moo Mak added as he walked up to the house while Damhyeong and Seungman looking at each other side.
"I am glad that he didn't figure a thing out." Seungman said.
"The sword and the armour?" Damhyeong said reminding her.
"Goodness." She said as they both rushed over to the place where they had been fighting and they picked the two things up forgetting the fragments of Alcheon's sword behind.
"Did You find anything?" Yushin asked Gopheung and the rest of his team.
They looked at each other before they could gather enough courage to reply to his question.
"No." Gopheung replied.
"It's been two days." Yushin said.
"Our men searched all the valleys, they searched in the mountains, through the forests and even the former camping sites of the Gorguryeo soldiers and they did not find any sign of his corpse nearby." Gopheung said.
Yushin looked frustrated.
"So you are saying that there is a possibility that his body was disassembled?" He asked.
"There could also be a possibility that he could have survived the attack." Gopheung said.
"I certainly hope so." Yushin said, it's been three days since he vanished and if he was alive his safest refuge would have been the Fortress." Yushin said.
"You know him as well as I do Yushin Rang, Alcheon would have done anything for this Shilla of ours and at the same time, if he did survive then there could be a very good reason that he hasn't yet returned to us." Gopheung said.
"They are waiting for us in Seoraebeol." One of the men added.
"There isn't even a single token that at least I can return to his parents to show that at least he was alive to me, them , Princess Deokman and to Shilla.
I do not even possess his sword or his head band and now I do not have him alive or his corpse to march with me to Seoraebeol from the conquest of Nangbi and the defence against Gorguryeo in the North." Yushin said.
"All in all wherever he is in this life or the next he must be at peace knowing that the enemy is vanquished." Gopheung said.
"Prepare the soldiers but regular searches shall be done here and in the surrounding areas leaving no stone unturned." Yushin said.
"The rest of us shall leave it to them and we shall return to Seoraebeol at the first break dawn and give an account of the war to the King." He added.
"Yes Yushin Rang." Gopheung replied as he withdrew with the others from the room and they left Yushin seated there all alone.
"Are you still alive Alcheon?" He asked himself as he looked at the battle plan that was stationed right in front of him.
"I certainly hope so." He encouraged himself.
The sun was starting to set and Seungman was seated on the hilltop as she gazed at the hills within a distance as she admired the radiance of the setting sun.
The firmament above her head overwhelmed by a saffron shade and the sound of birds singing as they retired to their nests was music to her ears.
As she waited in the solitude Alcheon approached her and sat right next to her while she was closing her eyes.
"Damhyeong, is that you?" Seungman asked.
"No." Alcheon replied and she was forced to open her eyes and look at him.
"What are you doing outside?" Seungman asked.
He raised his right finger and placed it on her lips.
"Sshhh." He muttered to her. "Don't say a word." He added.
Seungman complied.
"As someone who is sick it doesn't stop me from appreciating the sunset which has always been a usual habit of mine." Alcheon said.
"It is but the most beautiful star...." Seungman said.
".....that graces the day sky." Alcheon completed at that very moment they were both surprised.
"Who taught you that?" Alcheon asked.
"My father." Seungman replied and Alcheon was seemingly surprised that he looked away back up to the sky.
"Who taught you that?" She asked him.
"Every Hwarang knows, in the time of King Jinheung of Shilla, the sun was like a personal emblem of his own.
When the Hwarang were still very young in Shilla, it became part of a song to this day that we call our own.
The sun was to represent Shilla forever amongst all the three Kingdoms of Samhan and in King Jinheung's day, he'd fervently hoped that at one time, Shilla the weakest of all three Kingdoms would prevail so strong and Shine to the world like the sun." Alcheon replied.
"I don't know your name." Seungman said.
"Kim Alcheon." He replied.
"Kim Seungman." She said.
"I know that." Alcheon replied. "Damhyeong your friend and your father call you that name frequently." he added.
"Alcheon." She said.
"What?" he asked.
"What is so special about Seoraebeol?" Seungman asked.
"You've never been to Seoraebeol?" Alcheon asked.
"Yes." Seungman replied and he smiled as he looked at the sunset.
"Seoraebeol is the most beautiful City in the world with the setting sun casting it's light on it and the rising sun meeting it's grace from a distance it's like the city of gold and at night like the garden of a thousand stars." Alcheon asked.
"It must be exceedingly beautiful." Seungman said.
"It is to us the holiest of cities, home to the King and the most privileged social caste of the Seonggols, home to the noble and the virtuous warriors of peace and Shilla the Hwarang." Alcheon replied.
"The Hwarang?" Seungman asked.
"Hmm." Alcheon muttered.
"Who are those?" Seungman asked.
"Noble knights from the privileged families that are well equipped with knowledge on the five cardinal Confucian virtues, the six arts, the three Scholarly occupations and the six ways of Government service.
They are an elite class of warriors in Shilla with exquisite and outstanding martial arts, they are very brave and many of which like I myself swear the oath to fight for Shilla and see to it that the three Kingdoms of Samhan one day become united to form one." Alcheon replied.
"Seoraebeol really is full of surprises." Seungman said.
"You've seen nothing." Alcheon said.
"So you too are from a privileged family?" Seungman asked.
"Yes." Alcheon replied.
"I can tell it's why you are gigantic, you must have eaten too much in your early years." Seungman said.
"Not really." Alcheon said as the two laughed.
"The City of gold." Seungman said as she turned around and looked at Alcheon while he did the same unable to blink.
All of a sudden her heart was at peace and even he himself, he'd never felt more comfortable in his entire life.
"How I wish that one day I would take you with me to Seoraebeol." Alcheon said so softly with a smile on his face.