Gene flared and almost stood, but barely restrained himself. Fighting a fellow soldier during an expedition was as serious a crime as desertion. Then Hanbun suddenly spoke.
“Adjutant, you are speaking too harshly of a young lady from an honorable family.”
Belkun looked at Hanbun in disbelief.
“Are you defying an old superior now because you trust in the prince? Do you think the prince can look after you even after the expedition ends?”
Hanbun had a firm character, but perhaps he had grown bolder because he intended to leave the army the next year. Gene could remain still no longer and sprang up.
“Belkun. If you say one more word like that, I will not let it pass.”
“Oh, of course. When the prince gives an order, I must shut my mouth.”
“Have you forgotten that we agreed not to discuss our status here?”
“Yes, yes, Adjutant.”
Belkun seemed to shut his mouth obediently, then gulped his liquor. After emptying an entire bottle in one go, he began smiling and babbling again.
“I said it all out of consideration for the prince, no, the adjutant, so I’m disappointed. I thought, what was it, you would surely need it. A man, after all… Well, you are a man too, Adjutant. I’m married myself, but however pretty a wife may be, after a while one grows tired of her, and if she isn’t even very pretty, what would one do? No, no, that’s not right. Since you haven’t even established a bridal chamber yet, there’s nothing more to say. I thought how frustrated you must be, and that at least when you came somewhere like this, you ought to have a chance to relieve yourself…”
The stars were close enough to come pouring down. A moment earlier, he had thought his surroundings were swaying, but now it felt as though the sky and earth were coming together. Standing between them, he felt crushed, unable to breathe. It was strange for mere drunkenness. No, it was not because of the liquor. It was because of anger.
Even then, Belkun did not stop speaking. More and more astonishing things poured out. Long ago, one of the servants’ wives who had gone in and out of the mansion of Ekenos, Belkun’s wealthy grandfather, had been Nimea. Nimea had been desperate to give her daughter to one of Ekenos’s grandsons. If it was difficult to take her as a principal wife, she had begged, a concubine would do. One day, Nimea had brought Thea, introducing her as her daughter, and Belkun had been startled at how shabby she looked. If only she had at least been pretty. How could someone from a family like that be so unattractive? When they had been told to take such a Thea away to the palace, everyone had thought it a joke, but imagine, she had really become the prince’s consort…
The soldiers were frozen. However much Belkun might be the son of a wealthy man and the queen’s nephew, the person before him was a prince, and the subject of conversation was the prince’s consort. How could he ramble on like this unless he had gone mad? The Belkun they knew was certainly ambitious, but not mad. It was an utterly incomprehensible situation.
Gene rose slowly. Belkun was grinning.
“Belkun. You have insulted my wife.”
His voice was cold. Belkun made a show of widening his eyes.
“So I must kill you.”
Gene drew his sword. He had not known that the first sword he drew on his first campaign would be against an opponent like this, but he no longer hesitated. Belkun sprang up and drew his own sword as he shouted,
“You drew first, so I have only drawn as well. Do not forget that!”
Hearing his voice, Belkun did not seem drunk at all. If either was drunk, it was Gene. When the two faced each other, the soldiers rose too. Gene waved a hand to signal them not to interfere. Gaiar looked at Zamallik.
“Sh-shouldn’t we call someone to stop them?”
“Are you mad? If the general finds out…”
Regardless of the reason, drawing a sword against a fellow soldier was punished under the strictest military discipline. While the soldiers could not decide what to do, Belkun’s sword came in, aiming at Gene’s right side. The next instant, Belkun was on his knees. The time it took Gene to deflect Belkun’s attack, turn, and cut the muscles at the back of his thigh was shorter than swallowing his saliva several times. They had never seen such a swift attack, or such a defeat. Moreover, the movement that struck at a weak point without any grand preliminary motion did not resemble the swordsmanship princes were taught. It was an attack like an assassin’s.
Coming around in front of Belkun, Gene lifted his sword. Then Hanbun shouted,
“Your Highness!”
The address of prince rather than adjutant suddenly called Gene back to reality. The sword that had been about to take his head faltered and stopped in midair, then moved again, cutting Belkun’s face. Twice, diagonally. Blood spread from the wounds crossing in the center of his face. Only then coming to his senses, Belkun touched his face and, seeing the blood covering his hand, looked stunned. One side of Gene’s mouth rose.
“Now you have a face unfit for discussing other people’s looks.”
With an X drawn in the middle of his face, he would find it difficult to hold his head up anywhere. Gene withdrew his sword, sheathed it, and spoke as he left.
“Know that your head is still attached because you are Pallasos’s cousin.”
Gene accepted his punishment. He was not angry. A little bitterness remained.
The next day, the army departed. The only ones unable to leave were Gene and his unit of just over twenty men. After enduring the grueling march to come here, he was fated never to see even a single Jandana spearhead.
The price of fighting a fellow soldier was confinement. Compared with what he had done, it was a light punishment, and in one sense seemed like a privilege, but Gene did not see it that way. He had come as a prince to experience battle and render service, not to come sightseeing in the rear. Remembering the people who had cheered him at the departure ceremony made his face burn. If the war ended in a single battle, all that remained would be a long, humiliating return. Yet wishing the war would drag on was absurd too. Could he bear the praise of having returned victorious when the sword he brought back had tasted blood only once, the blood of a fellow soldier?
Belkun could not walk because the muscle in his thigh had been cut, so he too could not go into battle, but rather than being left in Saemgeuneul Castle, he was moved to a neighboring fortress. The general seemed to have decided that leaving the two in the same castle might start a second fight. He was right. The cuts left on Belkun’s face were so deep that they were unlikely to fade easily. Killing him would have caused a greater problem, but in leaving him alive, Gene had gained an enemy who would hate him until death.
All the soldiers under Belkun went into battle. Leaving soldiers with Gene was, in a sense, an act of consideration. If he had remained alone, it would truly have looked like punishment, so he had nominally been given the duty of protecting Saemgeuneul Castle. There was no strategic need to defend it, and above all, it was in no condition to be defended by a little over twenty men, but no one pointed that out.
After the army left, Saemgeuneul Castle suddenly seemed empty. So when he encountered Dalsad, it felt like some extraordinary coincidence.
“I hear you have agreed to stay and protect us.”
When Dalsad bowed politely, Gene wanted to leave the spot at once. Dalsad, on the other hand, seemed to want to take a walk with him.
“You looked around the castle on the first day you arrived, didn’t you? What did you think? Did it look sturdy enough to hold even if the Jandana invaded?”
He had no way of knowing how much this woman knew when she said such things. Gene merely answered honestly.
“No. If someone invades, it would be better to abandon the castle and run.”
“The inner keep too?”
“The keep is a little better, but even if you hold out for a month or two, that will be all. After facing the enemy once, retreat becomes difficult, so run far away from the outset.”
Before they knew it, the two were walking side by side toward the gate. Dalsad inclined her head.
“Thank you for the advice.”
“It is hardly a great opinion. I am someone who learned war only from books. Do not rule out the possibility that I have been talking nonsense.”
“It is all right. We could not run away in any case.”
Thinking this woman might be teasing him, Gene turned his head sharply and looked at her face. Dalsad smiled.
“My father has difficulty riding even in a cart, let alone on a horse.”
Gene felt ashamed again. There was no such thing as a tactic that was right everywhere. Everything depended on the conditions at the time. He had not even understood the other person’s circumstances, yet had babbled about doing this or that.
“I spoke rashly. I apologize.”
When Gene spoke at once, an expression came over Dalsad’s face as though, for some reason, she was suppressing laughter.
Discover more from Lilly Translations
Subscribe to get the latest posts sent to your email.