CHAPTER #2

THE EXPOSURE

“Victory is sweet when you’ve known defeat.”

Bora has heard that saying from her father’s mouth so many times that after all these years it was still fresh in her mind like she has read it just yesterday. Now, you guys might be wondering that why this particular saying was swimming through her mind at this moment- what the occasion was. I would let you in on it. Bora at this very moment was panting heavily to reduce the strain on her lungs as the weight of the heavy sword in her hand wore her down. What was she doing with the sword? Duh, fighting- what else?

Sweet, sweet victory.

The masked girl thought to herself smugly, as she jabbed her opponent’s stomach with the metallic pommel and with a final sweep of her sword sent his sword flying out of his hand towards the dirty ground. A smirk slowly formed on her pink, soft lips when she heard the wild cheering of the town’s crowd; which was concealed by the black flimsy material of the mask she was wearing.  

“Victory!” It was her fifth straight victory against the King’s man and she was very much proud of it. She can’t say the same for the people of the King’s Army. From what she has observed so far- their King was not present at the venue himself. Instead, he has sent three of his higher ranked Generals to conduct the fight; at least, that’s what she thinks. It’s not like she has ever seen the King before, but won’t he be wearing something fancy if he was here. Plus, why would he come to their town? It may sting her pride to acknowledge it, but their town was not exactly known for its talent in a warship. From the look on the Generals’ faces, she was sure that they were well aware of the fact. Before she forced her way into this fighting two of them even had the audacity to look bored out of their wits; the third one was the only person who seemed to be interested in the fight, but still, the unimpressed look on his face spoke volumes. The other two weren’t even paying attention to the fight and were quite confident in the victory of the mass that they have trained, but the third one was watching everyone critically; the people from her town and the fighters from his army- everyone was being assessed. The confident ones were indeed not wrong in their doing. Their confidence was legitimate since their town didn’t manage to score even a single win in the span of two hours, but still, the third one didn’t seem to be in the same boat as them. His gaze was so intimidating and commanding that it sent unpleasant shivers down her spine. The weird air of authority around him was scary; it almost seemed like he owned the whole damn Kingdom and no one was above him. The way he stood there with slanted eyes and expressionless face seemed like he was looking down on everyone- which unsettled her because who was this guy to act that way. He didn’t remove his eyes from the fighting pair for even a second; she was sure that not even a single move made by the fighters was missed by his sharp eyes. He wasn’t the tallest of the trio, but he wasn’t the shortest either; he was in the middle just like his position between the other two. He was taller than the tanned male standing on his left but was shorter than the guy with weirdly big ears (no she didn’t think they were adorable) standing on his right. Something told her that his rank was the highest.

Aren’t all General the same?

She can’t really be sure since she has never been interested in the topic of the castle which was quite far from their town and has never bothered to educate herself with its dynamics. All she knew was the fact that they had a royal family ruling over them; the highest rank being the King and Queen- who were probably old and wrinkly.

He is quite pleasant to look at.

Bora wanted to slap her face as soon as that thought crossed her mind, but whatever she does won’t change the truth. The guy in the middle was quite frankly the most handsome man that she has ever laid her eyes on, but then again maybe that is influenced by the people of her town- they all were ugly inside out. Besides that what’s the use of the looks when they treat a human worst than an animal? The General had thin soft looking lips, high, pointy nose, sharp, slanted eyes and silky jet black hairs that were falling in his eyes. He had a long, slim and firm stature that consisted of broad shoulders and chest. The navy blue cotton shirt that he was wearing seemed to do a tardy job at hiding his built chest and sharp collarbones. Bora was sure that the women from her town would have salivated over the sight, but fortunately, there was no female present at the place; well except for her.

Guess I got lucky for just this once.

It seemed like the guy was listening to her thoughts all this time – which was impossible – because as soon as she was done with her thoughts he shifted his attention away from the fighters for the first time and fixed it on her now rigid figure. The masked girl watched with wide eyes and bated breath as he gracefully tilted his head in wonder and roamed his narrowed eyes up and down her figure. She wasn’t surprised that he was accessing her; the mask on her face made her standout quite a bit.

Who might that be?

Sehun wondered to himself in contempt and craned his neck a little bit to take a better look at the masked man who was standing at the very corner of the crowd as if he was avoiding getting noticed by anyone at all. He was doing quite a good job at it if the young King was to say so himself. The black color of his clothes was blending him rather well with the forest trees that were surrounding the fighting ground from all four directions.

“Sehun,” The said man immediately snapped his head to face his General when he heard his name and raised a brow in inquiry as if to gesture the other to continue speaking. Normally, no one dared call him by his name, but Jongin being his friend since childhood seems to be a little bit advantageous in the matter.

“I’m afraid that I will fall asleep while standing. Can we please just leave? I think we have tried our luck with this town enough.” Jongin put forward his request and watched his friend with a pleading expression on his face.

“I think Jongin is right. There is nothing this town could give us.” Chanyeol, another friend of his supported Jongin with a nonchalant claim.

“We’re not leaving this place just yet. There is no way that this town doesn’t have a single person who at least knows how to lift a sword properly.” The King replied curtly and didn’t wait for the other two to respond before facing the front once again. His slowly trailed his gaze towards the masked man again but stopped with a frown when he noticed that the man was not at his previous place.

Where did he go?

Sehun gave his friends a brief glance before running his eyes around the area to locate the suspicious man from before.

Stop looking around!

God! What’s wrong with him?

Can’t he just focus on the stupid fight?

Bora quickly ducked behind a bulky man when she noticed the General’s eyes scanning the crowd; probably for her figure. Now you guys might be wondering that if she was so adamant on hiding and not fight then what the hell was she doing now. Well, it isn’t exactly her fault that some prideful men are stupid as hell- Jinwoo’s father to be exact. The man didn’t even know how to properly lift a sword properly, but still for some messed up reason he has decided that he wanted to fight too. The masked girl has a feeling that it has to do something with his manly pride because she has heard some men urging him to do the stupid deed. Bora has been reluctant to jump in the middle of the fight, but in the end, she has given into Jinwoo’s pleas when she noticed the bloodlust in the other man’s eyes. Fights like these had no rules. If a person died during them there was no law stating that the opponent would be punished. Everyone knew what they were getting themselves into when they joined this fight- so no one was going to be held responsible. It was a stupid act from Jinwoo’s father and she really wouldn’t have stepped in if it was someone else, but knowing that the life of an orphan was extremely miserable she couldn’t help herself. She didn’t need Jinwoo to suffer through all the things that she has gone through.

…………………

There is something really weird about this man.

“This man is really weird.” Sehun shifted his attention away from the fight happening on the ground towards Chanyeol; who just voiced his thoughts out- literally. He might not have been able to see the face of the man, but from the mirth in his eyes, the King could easily tell that he was quite proud of his fifth win. He has to admit that it was really brave of him to step in when the man before was going to get killed. Their stay here was after all not really a fail- this mysterious man made it worthwhile. He was right. It was not possible to find even a single swordsman here. Contrary to that, this man was more talented than half of the people that he has fought throughout all these years. The way that he moved was fluent and precise; it was almost as if he has been training for years. It’s hard to admit, but Sehun acknowledged to himself that this type of flow with the sword was quite hard to achieve even for himself and he was on the top of the hierarchy if he was to say for himself.

“What is so weird about him?” Jongin asked while assessing the fight with an excited grin on his face; there was finally some action that was interesting enough for him.

“Don’t you think the way he moves is a little bit too feminine? I mean look at his body language- the way he carries himself is so soft. Men are rough usually. Looking at him makes me feel like I’m seeing an experienced concubine performing a dance.” Chanyeol explained himself with a confused frown on his face. Sehun gets him. These are the thoughts that have been going through his mind all this time, but the problem was- they made no sense. There was no way in hell that women would take part in this fight- this world won’t let her live it down. He didn’t exactly have anything against men and women being equal, but he didn’t do anything against the discrimination too. It was too dangerous; people will go against him with full force. The process has to be slow. He has to do it step by step and his mother has been extremely helpful in giving suggestions. They have recently issued the law that girls can’t be married before the age of eighteen. He felt like it was just so unfair with them. There have been some object