"Otosan." Sora bowed.
 
She could feel all eyes on her, her foster brothers, her father's prized ministers and of course, even her father himself. She vaguely wondered how many times she had dreamt about a day like this, where she could get public recognition from her father like this.
 
Too many times.
 
She was surprised to find that when this day finally came, she wasn't even happy. In fact? She wasn't even listening to the General while he was yakking away in front of her.
 
Sora snapped her attention back to her father and bowed her head, pretend to be listening.
 
"...the impending battle and I have confidence that we will win this." The General sounded very pleased. "All these years of training you their stupid Korean language and chute doesn't seem to have gone to waste."
 
Sora lowered her gaze. Well yeah she was technically equipped with everything she needed, but he never once told her that she must guard her heart while she was on her mission.
 
Now look, she had fallen in love with her enemy and even as they were winning, she was suffering.
 
It really didn't help that she didn't feel any attachment to her "family".
 
"I have decided to let you lead the next troop of soldiers, Aimi." The General was almost smiling. His face looked really odd like that, when it didn't carry a scowl. Sora was vaguely surprised at the fact that he could smile. She always thought his face only had one expression.
 
"The good news is that the stupid korean prince, who is using most of his men power to evacuate the commoners from our path, isn't able to lead the people away from our next destination village." The General smirked.
 
Sora stilled, knowing where this was going.
 
Fighting the soldiers and advancing towards their final destination was a hell lot different from killing their way through the peasants.
 
Sora knew she had gone pale and she felt a little dizzy. No, she didn't want to do something like this even if it was considered honorable.
 
"You will have to glory of enjoying the fear on those peasants faces while you ride in there and terrify them, Aimi." The General looked ecstatic at the thought. "You will set off in an hour. This is your reward for your good spy work in the Palace."
 
Sora bowed, shivering. "T-thank you father."
 
She rose and saw the envious gazes her foster brothers were throwing her way and she wanted to laugh. Why were they envious of her? She would gladly let them take over this task any day.
 
Sora excused herself with the reason of getting ready for battle and thought about the village they were about to raid.
 
"I'm sorry." She whispered, clutching her shirt. "I'm really sorry."
 

"Hurry!" Baekhyun barked at the soldiers. "The Japanese troops have already reached the village and the peasants haven't even been evacuated! We must reach there before they advance any further!"
 
The soldiers were in a hurry while wearing their battle gears, grabbing their swords and armors. They were in a mad hurry to get the preparation work done, but looked flustered and not at all orderly.
 
Their disorganization was costing the country precious time.
 
Baekhyun let out an anguished growl and raked his fingers through his hair so hard that it burned his scalp. Damn it, at this rate he was seriously going to lose the battle.
 
"Relax." Suho whispered beside him. "You can't afford to lose your cool before it hasn't even started."
 
"But look at them!" Baekhyun hissed, pointing. "They're taking their own sweet time on everything! Don't they realize that families and children are in the danger of being hurt right now?"
 
Kai jogged over to them and sent a tight smile at Baekhyun. "The maids and female attendants have also been evacuated from the palace grounds. For now, everything is going well."
 
"Not so with the main troops." Baekhyun muttered.
 
Kai turned and did a double take at the restless men. Wait, they aren't ready to attack yet?"
 
"Exactly." Baekhyun snapped, irritated. He went forward and glared at his men. "Will all of you hurry your asses up? WE DON'T HAVE TIME!"
 
To his utter disbelief, he even got a few eye rolls back. Baekhyun couldn't take it anymore and decided not to pretend remaining ignorant of the root problem causing such unwillingness in the first place.
 
"You!" Baekhyun pointed to one of the men who had rolled his eyes at him. "You seem unwilling, why?"
 
The guy looked startled to be called out to the front and glanced around uncertainly.
 
"I won't behead you for whatever you're about to say." Baekhyun assured. "You look like you have a lot of things to spill. Tell me."
 
The guy took a deep breath. "What I think is...what I think is that this war, it serves you right." He muttered. "You so obviously look down on us peasants and that's the reason why you played with Han Eunbyul agashi. You didn't even bother giving an official statement on why your marriage was called off, which just shows us how much you value us. I'm not willing to slog my guts off for a leader like that."
 
There was silence after he spoke. There, it was finally laid out in the open.
 
Baekhyun let out a shaky breath and swallowed hard. "Just because my marriage with Byul didn't turn out well doesn't mean I don't care about the people. I care, alright?"
 
"If that's the case, tell me. Why was the marriage called off?" The brave soldier asked again. "If our leader cannot even treat his girl right, how do you expect him to treat the country right? We're bound to lose the war."
 
Suho let out a desperate ragged sigh and shook his head. How could they think that?
 
"Regarding my marriage with Byul, I don't think I have to tell anything about it." Baekhyun insisted. He would appear as the bad guy if he had to. He couldn't let Byul be the bad woman who left him. "If you boys decide to think this way, then yes we're bound to lose. Because you already think so!" He barked.
 
The soldiers grew quiet. "I assure you that I will put my heart and soul into governing this country. So please, put your heart and soul into this battle as well." Baekhyun pleaded. "Tens and thousands of lives are depending on your guys and we can't afford to lose. It's about protecting our homeland, do you understand me?"
 
There came a few nods but most were still looking at him doubtfully.
 
Baekhyun closed his eyes momentarily, allowing himself the pleasure of a mere thought of Byul. He wondered if that Eunhyuk would be able to send her away to some place safe.
 
He opened his eyes.
 
"Prepare for battle. We're setting out in five." Baekhyun ordered, whirling around to go.
 
He hoped things weren't as bad as he thought they were.
 

Sora closed her eyes momentarily in hurt as her fingers clenched. The shrieks and terrified screams were echoing everywhere around her and she felt haunted by it all.
 
She opened her eyes and saw her army laughing merrily as they marched down the entire length of the village, picking out small kids that were in hiding. The peasants were fleeing when they saw the troops and Sora never forgot the pure fear that was reflected in their eyes when they saw her.
 
She didn't want to be someone like that for goodness sake.
 
"Too brutal for you, sister?" Sora's older foster brother Natsume smirked. "You should prepare yourself, the fight hasn't even started."
 
Sora gave her brother a look and looked away, heaving. She felt sick, sick of this mess.
 
Her eyes fell on a Middle aged frail woman that was trying to run away from one of the Japanese soldiers, but was too slow. The strong and fit soldier caught up with the woman in no time and pulled her to the ground, flinging her like she was a bean bag.
 
"Stop!" Sora found herself shouting out before she knew what she was doing. She rushed to help the woman up, her heart aching for her.
 
The soldier immediately backed away at Sora's command but seemed confused. Natsume shook his head in disappointment and snickered. "You can't even stand a sight like this? Otosan must be blind to let you lead the troops."
 
"Shut up." Sora snapped. She turned to the woman and smiled softly. "Please run away as quickly as you can. I will make sure no one goes after you."
 
The woman looked exceptionally surprised, her frail pretty features softening. "You're a good person, agashi." She whispered. But then she glanced back at the Natsume and a few Japanese soldiers behind Sora and looked really confused.
 
"You're wondering why I'm sticking with people like them." Sora murmured. The woman let out a small amused laugh. "Yes. You remind me of my daughter, you know." She whispered as she let Sora lead her to safety. "She was straightforward and blunt like you."
 
Sora smiled lightly. "I was once straightforward and blunt too, till I was forced to hide my own feelings." She admitted. She sent the woman down the road and stopped. "This is as far as I can go. Please be safe."
 
The woman nodded and took Sora's hand. Sora felt a jerk of warmth through her entire body at the woman's actions and she froze. "You be safe too."
 
-----
 
Sora swallowed as she watched the korean soldiers advance upon them. They had finally caught up with the Japanese soldiers and it signaled the start of the official battle.
 
With a high power shriek of "CHARGE!" that came from her own throat, chaos ensued. Sora was aware of a certain prince fighting along with his soldiers, always keeping her tabs on him from the corner of her eye.
 
She made she to fight where Chanyeol was absent at, to avoid we contact with him no matter what. She could fight a million men but she didn't know if she could fight seriously with Chanyeol.
 
Baekhyun was shouting orders from his horse as he kept a bird's eye view of the entire battle situation. His soldiers were doing nothing similar to what he had barked out, just doing their own fancy swordplay, playing no attention to their positions in the battle field.
 
Sora knew at once that this current battle was theirs, definitely. If the soldiers didn't work amongst themselves, the best fights would lose as well.
 
She did her best to defend her fellow soldiers, but when she met any korean soldiers, she only aimed to wound and not kill. It slowed her down tremendously, but she didn't care.
 
She didn't want to be a murderer as far as she could help it.
 
And then as she was fighting, she bumped into someone. She turned around the same time as he did, their swords pointing towards each other.
 
Sora's heart gave a skip even when she was bloodied and tired. Chanyeol looked equally surprised to see that his opponent was her and he just stared his fill, as if the battle around them wasn't important at all.
 
Sora swallowed. When did he end up next to her without her knowing?
 
She kept her sword firmly pointed at him even though she had no intention of fighting him. Chanyeol's sword wavered visibly and he finally let it down, taking a step back.
 
"I'm not fighting you."
 
It was a wonder how his whisper could be heard above the angry roars and screams.
 
His eyes were pleading and filled with pure longing. Sora choked and felt her eyes water, much to her humiliation. A gush of affection rose within her, and Sora took a deep breath to calm herself down.
 
Was he dumb? Was he still in love with her after what she did to his entire country?
 
"It's not too late to turn back, Sora." Chanyeol blocked a falling man from behind Sora and whirled her to a safer spot. "You can change sides now."
 
Sora shook her head, though touched at his insistence. "It's too late, Chanyeol."
 
"It's never too late. NEVER." Chanyeol whispered.
 
Their eyes connected once more before their attention was caught by more opponents coming their way.
 
Like they had a mutual understanding, they turned away from each other and fought.
 
It was easier when the other wasn't in their line of sight.
 
Chanyeol did his best to fend of his enemies after that, trying to get his mind off Sora even though the worry that she might get killed on the battlefield was nagging at him constantly.
 
There was a fact that comforting and depressing at the same time.
 
Sora was most likely not going to get killed...
 
...because even Chanyeol knew that they were most probably going to lose.