- The Ambush — And After
Having secured a safe position, Soun’s group kept careful watch in all directions.
They intended to remain there until another unit came down.
Such a good hiding place was rare.
Soun, still unwell, leaned back and rested.
He tried to steady himself, to shake off the fear of killing.
He inhaled deeply, exhaled slowly, then drew another long breath.
The cold air filled his lungs and cleared his head.
“You would have died, or someone else would have killed them anyway,” Jeongjin said quietly.
“Even if you refused. That’s how life works. In the end, it’s the will of Heaven.
On a board with no reason, we’re nothing but pawns.
Are you burdened because you were the one who shot?”
Soun nodded silently.
The first man had been struck in the back and finished by a spear.
But the second—
Soun’s arrow had pierced his heart.
Even without the blade taking his head, he would have died.
“You shoot well,” Jeongjin added.
“All that staggering around and barely holding formation—who would’ve thought?”
“I’ve always shot well.
The bow was just too large before.”
“Is that so?
Well, you made things easier for us.
When a weak link joins the squad, the others carry the burden.
People pitied our unit.
But if the weak one turns out to be useful—
that’s a windfall. A divine archer.”
Bak Cheongyun clapped him lightly on the shoulder.
Little by little, Soun steadied.
He still avoided looking toward the brush where the bodies lay,
but his breathing grew calmer.
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Something passed through his chest—
not pain, not grief, not fear.
Something unfamiliar.
The world shifted.
Things he once believed important faded into gray.
If life could end so meaninglessly,
perhaps what he had called the highest values were empty.
He opened his eyes to a gray world drained of significance.
“What do we do now?” he asked.
“We wait.
Catch whoever comes.
Watch their movements.”
“Can we really learn anything like this?”
“First, kill their scouts.
That way our presence doesn’t reach them.
The General values that above all.
Second, observe and report.
We can’t engage their main force anyway.
Not in a situation like this.”
“I see.
Other squads must be clearing their scouts too.”
“‘Clearing them,’ huh?”
Bak Cheongyun chuckled.
“Good. Think of it that way, Scholar.”
He, too, called Soun Scholar.
“You really passed the provincial exam?”
“Yes.”
“Then you should sit for the metropolitan exam.”
“No.
The war ruined that.
I studied to become a magistrate.
That’s no longer possible.”
He lowered his head.
And I’ve killed a man now,
the words nearly escaped,
but he swallowed them.
What would that mean to men who had done the same?
“Still,” Bak Cheongyun continued,
“if you pass, that’s two thousand seok in stipend, isn’t it?”
“Two thousand?
Only at higher rank.”
“I heard the salary alone was two thousand.
Why are you here then?”
Soun shook his head.
“Study is over for me.
The barbarians swept everything away.”
“Even so.
You could study at a monastery somewhere.”
A small pebble rolled between them.
Silence.
A signal.
They leaned forward carefully.
Ten enemy riders were approaching through the low ground below.
Sosam hesitated.
Too many to strike.
Too valuable to ignore.
He studied them closely.
One officer rode among them—
a gleaming scale cuirass beneath a wide cloak.
He glanced toward the other friendly ambush sites.
No sign.
Five against ten, with an officer among them, was suicide.
“Let them pass,” Sosam whispered.
“Let them pass.”
The five men did not breathe.
If the riders continued, they would encounter Yi Hui’s unit.
Better to hand them over.
They pressed themselves down.
Their hearts pounded so loudly it felt as if the enemy might hear.
The wind rattled dry brush.
Even that sound felt like betrayal.
Please. Just pass.
They passed.
Sosam sent Bak Cheongyun to relay the signal.
He crawled up the ridge with a signal arrow.
For a moment, Soun was alone.
His heart hammered like a thief hiding in a barn.
Dusk fell.
They ate dried rations.
No fire.
“Good position,” Sosam muttered.
“Too good. No fire, though.”
“Move?”
“No.
We saw them.
No fire. No relocation.
We’ll receive word.
One sleeps. Others rotate.
Understood?”
They nodded.
“What happened to them?”
“The ten?”
“General Yi must’ve handled them.
They didn’t return this way.”
“Maybe we should’ve shot.”
“No.
No allied unit nearby.
We couldn’t attack alone.”
“Fourth squad should be over there.
What if they were hit?”
“Maybe.”
“When it’s dark, we go.
Two on watch, two resting.
One shift each.
No sleeping.”
Sosam memorized where Fourth Squad should be.
Behind the boulder was ideal—
shielded from wind, hidden from sight,
safe from arrows.
Low ground, yes—
but perfect concealment.
“Tough as hell,” someone muttered, chewing.
The dried meat was hard to identify.
Probably horse.
Poorly managed horses died often;
their meat became jerky.
Hard as stone.
Soun looked beyond the unseen ridge.
The moon rose in pale evening light.
The silence felt unreal.
War, here.
He opened his senses,
listened even for wind-carried sound.
Only harsh wind.
No firelight.
He could not meditate fully in ambush posture.
Sitting upright, he tried to circulate his breath.
It failed.
His hands and feet were numb with cold.
Fear of the unknown unsettled him.
Still, he forced himself to breathe evenly.
Because he must.