Prologue
Winter of 1895
The night arrived in a black cloth
Unfluring slowly across the heavens ,stiched with threads of dying light as the moon hid behind the clouds,faint and trembling-waiting.Like mourning silk , it descended and spread over the face of a corpse ,wrapping itself around the valley of yonghwa ,wallowing the rice fields ,plum trees ,and the distant hums of cricets.Only the echo of steel and cries distrubed the stillness.
Soliders scattered everywhere – armor lacqured in black,Helmets gleaming like obsidian under torchlight. Among them stood Commander Kang Damho, the youngest to ever bear the royal seal of command . He tightened his grip on the blood-slick hilt of his sword, the final echo of steel ringing through the ruined courtyard. The noble residence — once filled with lantern light and music now writhed in flame.
A man collapsed to the ground before him, clutching the torn sleeve where his family crest once shone.
Outside , Yoo jeongwon knelt before damho – eyes halllow , voice trembling.
“Damho ...you know me .You know i would never bettay josean ,” The man infront of him crawled forward under Kangs feet “Please, if you have any honor left –spare my family”
“Please,” the father gasped, fingers staining Sua’s boots red.
“My wife… my daughter… they are innocent. I beg you—”
Kang Damho stood frozen.
He had executed countless traitors without a flicker of doubt. Yet this man’s voice held something that scraped at the iron walls around his heart.
But orders were orders.
Damho lowered his sword.
In hes eyes he saw black
A wet, final sound cut through the night.
The man fell still. Hes last words “My daughter” escaped towards the howling winds
---
Shouts erupted behind the flames.
“Commander! We found a girl!”
Damhos head snapped toward the voice.
There — through the choking fog a small figure struggled against a soldier’s grasp. Her dark hair clung to her face, smeared with soot and tears. Her arm—Unconscious. Blood pouring down one sleeve cut away by merciless steel.
Their eyes met for a single heartbeat.
She saw everything in him: The executioner.
The coward.
The man too late.
TRAITOR
His lips parted
A step forward
“Commander Kang!”
He turned, jaw tight.
A courier knelt, breathless.
“Urgent orders from the palace. Immediate retreat. You are to attend the King at once, leave no witness alive.”
Alive.
Damho gaze softened , then almost lazily the corners of his lips curled upwards — The corners of hes mouth settling . The lines of hes jaw hardened as the calm in hes eyes turn into something else competely.
“Stand down.”
The word slipped out before he could stop it.
He caught himself. Steeled his voice.
But the order-”
“I said Stand down!”
He knelt beside her. Her pulse was weak, the blood spilling too fast to stop . She looked at him weakily , Her body somehow fighting its way away from him before she finally gave into the exhaustion and collpasted onto the stained floor.
Damho looked at her one more time
“Leave her .” He stood , hes shadow looming over her as he looked at her ghostly face “She wont live in here , with the state shes in there'll be no wind left to feed her flames”
“ Commander.”
He didn’t wait for an answer.
Wether she lives— it was a choice her body would make on its own
---
The palace corridors felt colder than the winter outside. The flames of the Yoo estate still clung to Kang Damho’s eyes when he entered the royal court
The King sat upon his throne, face unreadable beneath golden shadows. Ministers and scholars lined the hall, their robes fluttering like dark wings in the cold air.
“Commander Kang,” the King said, his voice calm, distant. “You carried out your orders.”
Damho bowed low.
“I did, Your Majesty.”
The King’s gaze lingered. “And there were… no survivors?”
A pause. The question sliced sharper than any blade.
Damho hesitated, remembering the girl in the fire, her face pale against the burning light.
“…None,” he lied.
The King’s eyes softened — a tint of pity flickered “You served your crown well,” he said quietly. “But you must want know why ive called for you in such a state .”
“Commander kang. You have been dutiful.”
But then the King’s voice sharpened.
“The claims of treason… were false. Fabricated by Minister choi.”
Damho’s heart dropped.
The words struck him like an arrow through armor almost breaking hes his composure.
“What do you mean, Your Majesty?”
the King replied, voice low. “ Minister Choi fabricated such lies ,taking adavantage of the situation up in the north he sought to destroy Lord Yoo’s influence at court.”
“M—my lord…?”
A ripple of gasps filled the chamber.
Damho’s hands trembled at his sides. His throat closed, his voice turning to stone.
“Then… we killed innocents.”
The King’s silence was answer enough.
He felt the floor tilt beneath him — the memory of fire, of screams, of the girl’s wide, uncomprehending eyes — all crashing back like waves.
The King turned to the guards.
“Bring forth Minister Choi.”
Two soldiers dragged a man through the hall — disheveled, his silken robes torn, the jade ring of office missing from his finger.
He collapsed to his knees, forehead striking the floor in panic.
“Your Majesty, I beg forgiveness!” he cried. “I did it only for the kingdom’s stability! The Yoo family had grown—”
“Silence.” The King’s voice thundered. “You and your followers destroyed a house loyal to the throne for your own ambition.”
Damho’s gaze darkened. His hand twitched toward his sword, but he caught himself — a soldier could not draw steel in the presence of the throne.
Minister Choi’s pleas became shrill. “Please, Your Majesty! Spare my life! I will resign, I will—”
The King’s hand rose.
“Strip him of his title. His lands, seized. At dawn… he will be executed.”
The hall fell silent. The only sound was the faint clatter of Damho’s sword as his grip faltered.
When the court was dismissed, he did not bow. He only whispered, half to himself:
“I killed them.”
No one met his eyes.
Not even the King.
He walked from the throne room like a ghost — armor gleaming, heart rotting. He was only left with an order to await further instruction.
Instead , the following day Damho muttered a curse under he's breath .Throwing every bit of dignity he had left ,he ran allong with hes most trusted aide min- jun towards the very way he had destroyed .
---
The road back to Yonghwa was a graveyard of silence. When he reached what was left of the Yoo estate, the world seemed suspended between death and forgetting.
The once-grand courtyard was a skeleton — pillars charred black, tiles shattered, air thick with the stench of smoke and flesh.
He dismounted and walked through the ruins, boots sinking into soot.
Min-jun called out, though his voice barely carried. “Is anyone here?”
Only the crackle of dying embers answered him.
And then a sound. Faint. A breath made its way through to them
Beneath a collapsed beam, half-buried in ash, layed yoo jua.Her small body, half-buried beneath blackened debris.
Her breath — faint, fragile — still existed.
Her face was pale as porcelain streaked with soot. Her right arm was gone, the sleeve of her white hanbok soaked dark with blood.Her chest rose — weakly, unevenly .
Damho froze. His heart thrashed.
Min-jun countuied to move the ruins away as Damho knelt beside her, trembling hands hovering just above her broken body.Damho’s hands shook as he lifted her, her head falling against his chest. Blood soaked his uniform. Her severed arms brushed his neck like cold silk.
Her lashes flickered. For a moment, he thought she saw him.
But her gaze drifted, unfocused — not seeing a man, only the blur of the monster who had taken everything.
“No,” he whispered, voice breaking.
“Stay with me,” he whispered, though even he didn’t know if it was a plea for her or for himself.
When Min-jun saw her, his expression hardened.
“She’s dying, Commander, The wound’s too deep. There’s nothing left to—”
He didnt listen, he carried her to his horse and rode through the forest until he reached the remote quarters of his personal physician, Doctor Min, an old man loyal enough to obey without question.
The doctor stared, horrified.
“She’s losing too much blood. Even if she survives, she—”
“She will survive,” Damho snapped.
“With what blood, Commander? We have none prepared—”
“Use mine.”
Damho gently carried jua's little frame into min –jun's arm as he stepped forwards at the physician.
Shock flashed in the doctor’s eyes.
“Thats impossible— Your rank— your health—!”
Damho gripped the man’s collar, desperation feral.
“Use my blood.” His tone cut like steel. “Im commanding you not asking ...If she lives, she lives. If she dies so be it.”
The doctor swallowed hard.
“…As you command.”
---
Hours blurred into agony. Under the flicker of lamplight, the doctor obeyed , transfusing blood as best as the crude tools would allow, using heated metal, cloth, and trembling hands.
Damho’s vision dimmed as blood drained from his body into hers. His chest tightened , his breath was thinning but he never looked away from her face.
She was so still.
When it was done, he stood on shaking legs. pale and silent, his breath shallow.
The doctor wiped his hands. “She might not last the night.”
Damho’s gaze fell to the floor. “Thats for the heavens to decide.”
The physician tried to speak, but damho cut him off.
He looked at her one more time “Tell no one. Not even her. I will not return.”
“Commander—”
He turned to Doctor Min. “Take her somewhere safe. Anywhere the crown or I cannot reach. Tell no one about this”
The old man frowned. “You’re leaving her?”
Min-jun looked at damho with silence while still maintaing he's stance.
Damho’s voice broke, quiet but steady.
“I have no right to save her. What I did tonight—” He looked at his bloodstained hands. “—was not mercy. It was selfishness” the last line came almost like a whisper
He turned toward the door, his figure a silhouette against the rising dawn.
“If she lives,” he said, almost to himself, “then it’s because she chose to fight.”
And as he mounted his horse once more, the first light of morning fell upon the ruins of his sins.
Whether Yoo Jua would live or die was no longer his to know.He had given her only a chance — and abandoned it to fate.
If she lives
That is punishment enough
Comments (0)
See all