Chapter 245 — The Shadow of Betrayal 4
"Were you resting here?"
"Yes. There is nothing in particular for me to do. That is rather nice."
"It feels like leave."
"Exactly. A man on leave is resting, so why have you come?"
"I came after you to see whether you were going well."
Yeongu answered as if it were nothing.
"Prepare for the war properly."
"I thought I might do a little scouting as well."
At the word scouting, Yeongu began nagging again.
"The quality of intelligence is proportional to distance. Get as close as possible, see with your own eyes, and capture one or two of them."
"That is what I intend to do. Ahaha."
Zonghan came to the point.
"Are you very angry?"
Yeongu nodded.
"The thought itself, and the agreement with it, made me think that in the end we were nothing more than something to be used. I worked hard in my own way, with all sincerity and effort…."
"I do not understand why you would think that."
"I have been betrayed several times. It was exactly like this. No one says, 'I am going to betray you.' Afterward they say, 'I did not know it would turn out that way.'"
"Good heavens. Was that what you feared?"
"If I go now, and someone sends one messenger to Changchun saying, 'This man is a spy,' they can send a man they dislike straight to his death. Is that not so?"
Zonghan denied it.
"Who would do such a thing?"
"Anyone dissatisfied with my conduct could do it. They could say, 'That man is hiding his identity and going in secretly, so crush the men who come as Balhae soldiers.'"
"Surely not."
Yeongu believed, no matter how he thought about it, that he had to go alone.
If he took the Balhae soldiers, the road would be easier.
There were many Balhae soldiers in the Liao camp, and slipping among them to open conversation would be far more natural.
But if even one person wanted to break him, that road would turn straight into death.
If someone leaked a single sentence, "There is a Jin man among them," then not only he but the Balhae soldiers would die with him.
He had done many things.
He believed they were right and necessary, but to someone else they had caused harm.
There were men who had lost spoils, men whose face had been damaged before their subordinates, and men who had been told that the old ways of their tribes were wrong.
That resentment remained after laughter, remained after drinking, hid behind commands, and burst out at the most dangerous moment.
Zonghan looked at Yeongu's face and spoke.
"Your thoughts are being driven too far into harsh places. Considering what you have suffered until now, it is natural that you would think so. Even so, you need not see things quite that way now. No one is treating you as an enemy."
Yeongu immediately turned his head.
"Then they order this? The work of a spy, something I have never done even once?"
"There was no one else to send. Most of our commanders' faces are known. Many have gone back and forth to the Liao camp whenever the spring na-bal was held near the Yalu River, and in many cases envoys and commanders know one another's faces. I am the same. There is no way the Liao side would not know me."
Yeongu laughed coldly.
"The claim that I was chosen because there was no one else is a reason thought up later. That could not have been the calculation from the start."
Zonghan paused for a moment, then asked.
"Then why did you not refuse?"
"I did refuse. You were there."
"Then why are you taking it on?"
Yeongu pressed his lips together.
His anger remained bitterly, and the injustice he could not speak of was even greater.
But beneath it lay something long embedded in his body.
"I am a soldier. Orders are solemn. Even with complaints, one must obey. Even when it seems impossible, one must carry it out. Because such people exist, a country is maintained."
Zonghan immediately said,
"You may refuse even now. The Great Khan sent me. He told me to withdraw the order and bring you back because you hated it so much."
Yeongu's face hardened further.
"It is a task that was given. It is an order. One cannot say yes and then no because one's feelings are bad. I will do it even if only out of spite. And later, I will certainly repay this debt. If Lord Xiyin happens to die on the road one day, know that this is why."
Zonghan swallowed a hollow breath.
"Why do you speak like that?"
"He was the one who first pushed a man into a place of death.
If I return alive, I will make him pay the price for so easily putting such a thing into words."
Zonghan knew now that he could no longer soothe him lightly.
Yeongu's anger had not come from mere sulking.
He truly felt that someone was pushing him into death.
Yeongu narrowed his eyes and looked down the distant road.
"It was during the Battle of Seonchunryeong. A small number of armored infantry were sent outside the fortress to face the enemy. We were pushed back to the gate, but they did not open it. They meant to have us killed."
Zonghan's face stiffened.
"Another time, they told me to support the cavalry unit at the west gate. They said they needed a skilled archer. So I went outside the fortress alone with the west gate unit. Then they left me in the middle of the enemy and fled. I fought with everything I had, but I was captured. You know the rest."
Yeongu looked at Zonghan.
"The words are different. The pretext is different. But the feeling that someone is pushing me into a place of death is the same."
Only then did Zonghan reach out and grasp Yeongu's wrist.
He held it firmly, but he did not try to drag him by force.
"I understand. Let us return. I will scold the one who ordered such a thing."
At the words that he could go back, Yeongu's eyes softened slightly.
He looked down at Zonghan's hand.
At least this man did not see him only as a tool.
When that thought occurred to him, his stubbornness became even clearer.
"No. We must fight a great army. It was my plan and my request that we split the enemy into two or three parts. I spoke easily because I had not thought I would do the work myself, and only now that I must do it do I feel the burden. I will succeed first, and we can weigh merit and fault afterward."
Zonghan said with a frustrated face,
"I am telling you to return."
"No. It is a duty. And I will show you what happens when such games are played from now on."
"What sort of threat is that?"
"It is a threat. Since it is an order, I will do it. Since I am a soldier, I will do it. I am also guilty of saying with a straight face that someone must do what others dislike doing. So this time I will do it."
When Zonghan tried to hold him again, Yeongu took one step back.
"Return. By tomorrow, I will be inside the Liao camp. It would not be strange for anything to happen."
"Why do you keep saying such things?"
"Take the Balhae soldiers back. They have done nothing wrong. If any of them die or are wounded because of me, I will not be able to endure it."
"It is safer to go together."
"No. Going together is more dangerous. If one word aimed at me leaks out, these men will die with me. I will go alone."
Yeongu rose without saying more.
His horse lifted its head from the grass.
When Yeongu gestured, the horse came closer, and he lightly mounted.
Without armor, his body looked strangely smaller and lighter.
At Yeongu's gesture, Hosokro and Agolsan approached.
Both men already seemed to know what he would say.
Yeongu said,
"You will return. Take the Balhae soldiers back."
Hosokro asked with a hardened face,
"Jungnangjang, are you going alone?"
"It is an order."
Agolsan opened his mouth, then closed it.
The words they had just been reciting together still hung in the air.
All those words would now be carried by Yeongu alone.
Zonghan called him one last time.
"Jungnangjang."
Yeongu did not turn back.
"Return."
He turned his horse northwest.
At first he moved slowly, then the horse's hooves began cutting through the grass.
On his back there was neither the banner of the Goryeo army nor the armor of a Jungnangjang.
One warrior in worn military clothes disappeared along the distant road.
Hosokro and Agolsan stood there, staring at his back.
Zonghan did not move either.