The night was quiet. The summer breeze was moving the trees’ leafs, covering the sounds of swords hitting our metal armours.

The fortress was defended from the top, where the Chinese soldiers where patrolling from one end to another of the tall walls and there were some guarding the gates as well. But who knows how many of them were waiting inside, ready to trap us in and kills us all.

My hand gave the signal as my eyes remained focused on the Chinese guards. And my soldiers began moving around in the bushes, holding branches filled with tiny bells. We were going to scare them off…or better said, make them grow tired as the night was no longer the proper time to sleep because of the infernal noise. It was the fourth night and I could already see that the guards were lacking in their attention, dozing against their spears…

“Tomorrow we’ll attack,”I said as I watched the soldiers moving around with their bells tied to the branches.

♃~✵~♃

“Kyuhyun! You’ll come from the other side of the fortress. Take the best climbers and the Dragons and come over the walls from the north,”I placed one small, red flag on the walls he was going to climb.

“Understood!”he smirked.

“Donghae! You’ll be the last one to attack after I lead a troupe inside the fortress,”I placed the index stick on the map.

“But…”

“What?”

“You can’t go in there alone!”

“Don’t worry about me, Donghae! We need to take this fortress back from them and move the border back at the river side! They made a huge mistake when they first step inside this country!”

The commanders that were inside the tent all nodded, clenching their fingers around the swords that couldn’t wait to drink some Chinese blood.

“A letter for the General!”

We all turned towards the entrance where a soldier had knelt, handing out a dark scroll. Donghae passed it to me and I ripped off the seal with steady fingers. I could practically feel everyone's eyes on me as I read the lines written with red ink on the white paper. And I knew that they were going to be disappointed by those words, just like I was. I sighed as I placed the scroll on the table.

“What did it say?”Donghae asked, giving voice to everyone’s thoughts.

I smiled. “The king wished the best to us. They even held a national pray at the temple for us to succeed. So, we can’t screw things up! Everyone is relying on us. So go and take a good rest as for this night will be the night we win back Dongham fortress!”

I sat on my chair as they all left the tent, leaving me all alone with my thoughts. I unrolled the scroll and read the royal letter once again, trying to understand the real meaning behind those cold words.

“To General Yesung and all his Commanders!

This is a royal order! We are to retreat from Dongham forest and return to the palace at once! Dongham fortress is no longer in our strategic plans, so we’ll give up on it now before we start another war with the Tang Empire.

You are to return to the capital in not more than two days and bring to the palace the seal that you were given with your rank two years ago!”

My fingers clenched around the round seal that was hanging on the right side of my chest, right over the armour. Why was he ordering us to go back when we were so close to winning Dongham fortress back? When we were so close to get back the land that the Empire had snatched from us? What was he thinking?!

“The king’s up to something, isn’t he?”Kyuhyun’s voice brought me back to reality.

“What are you talking about there?”

“What he wanted to say was that the king’s order is to retreat. Am I not right?”Donghae sat across the table, next to Kyuhyun.

“Yeah, whatever he said,”the later nodded in agreement.

“We’ll proceed according to our plans,”I placed the tight belt around my waist.

“How about the king’s orders?”Donghae’s eyes followed me around the tent as I planned to escape from that place.

“I’ll handle it, don’t worry! YAH! Where’s the Dragon team?!”

From out of nowhere, ten men dressed in black from head to toe, wearing masks that covered their faces came running to me and knelt in front of me.

“Order, General!”

“I want you to use your latest bombs when attacking the fortress. You’ll be going with Kyuhyun and attack it from the northern part. Understand?”