Dawn was farther away than he had imagined. No, it felt as though it would never come. Was it because he was waiting? Did what one waited for never come? Could there be a day without dawn? Could a new day come by skipping over dawn?
All manner of strange questions wandered through his head, dizzy with exhaustion. Perhaps there were no answers, but in truth there was no time for them to arise. It was already the twelfth hour, and he had not rested even for a moment. His chain mail and wrist guards had lost their sheen, and his trousers and boots had changed color and stiffened with layer upon layer of blood. Had it not been night, Gene’s appearance would have been terrible enough to make anyone who saw him start. Thea, perhaps, might have fainted.
The instant he thought of Thea, one cheek twitched. His wedding ring was not on his hand. If things went well, it would come back, but perhaps it would be exchanged for some shabby horse and glitter on a merchant’s finger. If he insisted on recovering it, it would not be impossible, but Gene realized he did not feel such a strong desire to. Even so, that did not mean he felt nothing. Joining this expedition, he had removed all the valuables that showed his status, yet he alone had not taken off his wedding ring. Because he had known something like this would happen?
“Adjutant! Captain Giroham has been killed! We’ve been pushed back two more steps! What should we do?”
The joke in which Gene was the adjutant and his soldiers were captains was still continuing. Even the Saemgeuneul soldiers had quietly returned to the original address, since everyone had noticed that Gene looked uncomfortable when they called him a prince. Having just killed an enemy, Gene answered without turning.
“Have Gaiar replace him. His fingers should have grown back by now.”
Until a little earlier, Gaiar had been fighting alongside Gene, but after cutting two fingers on his left hand, he was wrapping them in a bandage in a room on the second floor. Barely ten minutes had passed since he went there. A messenger ran off, and soon Gaiar came running and took his position. Gaiar’s group of ten had all died already, and he had inherited Giroham’s group, but there would probably not be many men left. Even so, merely having Gaiar there with his right hand sound would be a great help. In the course of fighting through the day and night without rest, Gene had learned that Gaiar was the best fighter among his men.
They had already lost the first floor. They had lost the third floor, the top of the keep, too. Only the second floor remained. The surviving soldiers numbered fewer than a hundred. The Jandana were five times that many. Giros had apparently not been the Jandana king either. It was difficult to imagine a tribe behaving so calmly after their king died. Moreover, perhaps even the savages were feeling fatigue, for the force of their attacks did not seem to be diminishing at all.
Gene had divided his troops in two to block the stairway coming up from the first floor and the stairway coming down from the third. Zamallik and six captains of ten were on the first-floor side, while Gene and two captains were on the third-floor side. Since Gaiar had moved over, only two of them now had to block the third-floor side with a few Saemgeuneul soldiers. Of course, the enemy’s attack from the first floor was fiercer. Had the stairs not been narrow, by around the previous evening everyone, including Gene, would already have become corpses hanging from the walls. Even after filling the first floor and taking the top of the keep, the Jandana were still so numerous that some had to remain in the square. Beyond the windows, he could still hear them throwing stones and shouting words he could not understand.
The two stairways were not directly connected, but stood separately at opposite ends of the corridor. It seemed they had been arranged that way to prevent anyone going to the top of the keep without the castle lord’s permission. With this structure, one had to pass in front of the castle lord’s room on the second floor to reach the first. Gene thought this odd arrangement fortunate, at least. He had already chosen the place where they would make their final resistance.
Only two of the five boy messengers remained. Because they had been beside Gene, they had made easy targets. Of those two, Asabel was perceptive, quick, and good at summing up a situation. Gene thought he might take the boy to the royal castle and employ him as an errand boy. If he survived, of course. Both Gene and Asabel.
“Adjutant! Be careful!”
While he was lost in thought for a moment, an enemy axe flew out of the darkness. He turned his head sharply, and the axe struck the wall. On this side of the stairs, he had to face enemies coming down, putting them at a disadvantage in many ways. Gene withdrew a step and waited for the enemy to descend. Though warlike, the Jandana were cunning and easily drawn by lures. But this time, the enemy waited too. As the fighting continued, Gene felt the Jandana facing him becoming more cautious. They were afraid of him.
Gene signaled the captain of ten beside him. When the man stepped forward and thrust, the enemy immediately met him. Gene quickly cut the enemy’s arm and caught his knee. Avoiding the falling man, he stepped on his head and drove his sword into his neck. Then he turned, and another enemy had just killed a Saemgeuneul soldier. Only a little over ten soldiers remained on this side now. There would be about three times as many on the other. How many minutes more could they hold?
Then he heard Asabel running down the corridor. The boy shouted,
“Adjutant! They’ve broken through the first-floor stairs! We’re retreating now!”
It was faster than he had expected. Biting his lip, Gene shouted,
“Everyone move to the next position! Run now!”
While the soldiers ran down the corridor, Gene protected their rear. Perhaps because the corridor was dark, the enemy did not pursue them headlong. This too might have been thanks to their caution. Gene turned and ran as well. His destination was the room at the very center of the second floor, the one with the strongest door. The door, shut only a moment earlier, now stood wide open. Dalsad’s voice rang out.
“Come in quickly!”
The soldiers retreating from the first-floor stairway were in close combat. Coming into the broad corridor seemed to have made them pay heavily for the hours they had held out on stairs where only a few could stand. The Jandana slaughtered them without hesitation. Gene threw himself into the fighting there. At a glance, Zamallik was beside him, his face a mess with blood. Gene shouted,
“Get inside!”
“You go first, Adjutant!”
“They aren’t going because you aren’t going!”
“All right! Everyone turn and run at the same time! One, two!”
At the signal, everyone turned and ran toward the door. Some who fell behind were cut down, and one or two collapsed after being hit by thrown weapons, but most slipped through the doorway. The soldiers who had gone inside first and waited shut the door, barred it with planks, then piled up the furnishings they had gathered from other rooms. Zamallik looked around at the soldiers and grinned.
“For a little while now, we won’t have to look at heads painted white.”
It was their first rest in twelve hours. Most of the soldiers sank down where they stood. Gene too took deep breaths with a cough, feeling as though his chest might burst. When he put down his sword, his grip was numb. With an incredulous feeling, Gene laughed. Until only a month earlier, he had been a novice who had fought only in mounted contests and, rarely, in back alleys. Today, he could not even count how many men he had killed. Most of the Saemgeuneul soldiers would be the same. Those who had survived to this moment had performed feats they could never have imagined in all their lives. He only hoped the day would come when they could boast of today’s valor.
The door began to shake. Thud, thud, thud.
Dalsad approached and knelt beside the seated Gene. Gene took off the ring and held it out.
“Give it to the castle lord.”
Since it was the castle lord’s ring, it would be right for him to wear it when he died. The room with the strongest door was none other than the castle lord’s. The lord lay motionless on a bed visible in the distance, looking already dead. Instead of taking the ring, Dalsad spoke.
“My father wishes to see you, Adjutant.”
What use could meeting him now be? Gene had fought to protect the castle until now, yet had never even met the castle lord. He started to shake his head, then suddenly changed his mind. Faced with death, the castle lord too would surely be full of mixed feelings. Though he might have spent the last year or two lying there like a corpse, a person was a person to the very end. With such an enormous event taking place in his own castle, he would not wish to remain a spectator until the end. Since they were all going to die anyway, what good would it do to ignore such a wish?
When Gene approached, Castle Lord Adriham moved his fingertips. Gene spoke.
“I am Gene, adjutant to General Beraxus.”
Gene slipped the ring onto the castle lord’s hand. The lord still did not open his eyes, but when Gene let go, he spoke.
“Gomseuninde.”
Gene blinked several times. He had not known that the castle lord could not even speak properly. Suddenly he thought that even paralyzed, if he had been able to speak, there would have been no need to relinquish his authority. He could simply have been carried about in a palanquin or chair. When Dalsad said, “He says thank you,” Gene nodded.
“Thank you.”
“Yeoseusiyo. Shi mui ireuneumeu irineori eoseudende.”
“He says he is sorry. That if my father had not been in such a state, this would not have happened.”
“Not at all.”
There was no need to go on exchanging modest words when they would soon die together. The castle lord drew a deep breath for a while. After a time, he opened his mouth again, and the expression of Dalsad standing beside him was somehow unusual.
“Wijeondeo beoiside, eodue taejyaeoseuneunde. Geureum eoneu baeseudeum. Beoeuseu beojeure yeosshi joeujiyo.”
Gene looked at Dalsad. Without an interpretation, he could not possibly understand it, but Dalsad avoided his eyes. The castle lord continued.
“Shi mui ireuhu joeujinaji geururi hojeureu hojeupseuneunde.”
Suddenly tears gathered in Dalsad’s eyes. Not knowing why, Gene was bewildered.
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