"Open the gates! In the name of the heaven, feed us or let us out!"
Thousands of skeletal hands slammed frantically against the reinforced timber and bronze studs of Kark City's inner gate, the violent vibration rattling through the very stone of the walls. Nib and a dozen of his finest men stood in a sweating, desperate line, their shields locked together not to keep an invading enemy out, but to keep their own starving people in.
"Back! Step back!" Nib roared, his voice cracking with pure exhaustion as freezing rain and sweat poured down his face. He threw his entire weight against his shield, but the sheer volume of the desperate crowd was an absolute ocean. They weren't listening anymore. The sight of Hye across the bridge, sitting peacefully under his silk canopy by that steaming barrel of porridge, had broken the last remaining threads of their sanity.
"Let us through! The Hmagol have food! They have food!" a man shrieked, clawing wildly at a soldier's armored forearm. The soldier didn't strike back; his own jaw was trembling, his eyes staring blankly into the mass of his own suffering people. Nib felt the line buckling. A few more seconds, and the crowd would crush them, throw open the iron bars, and flood across the bridge.
Then, a voice cut through the chaos like winter ice.
"Draw your steel."
The crowd froze. The frantic pushing stopped instantly as a heavy, deliberate bootstep echoed from the stone stairs behind the garrison. Leej strode out into the downpour. He wore no cloak against the storm, and his face appeared carved from the same unforgiving granite as the fortress walls.
With a sickening, metallic shriek, Leej drew his broadsword. The polished blade hissed through the rain, reflecting the blue lightning crackling above.
"The next person to lay a hand on these gates dies where they stand," Leej commanded. His voice wasn't loud, but it carried a terrifying, absolute weight that forced the frontline of civilians back a step.
Nib breathed a ragged sigh of relief, though his heart sank at the cold, unyielding fury in his commander's eyes.
A desperate elder from the crowd stepped forward, his body trembling as he raised his thin hands in a plea. "General... look at them. We are starving. The soldiers are starving. The Magoli man is offering food right across the bridge! He has a barrel of rice! If we just surrender—"
"You think that is a savior sitting across that bridge?" Leej snarled, pointing the gleaming tip of his sword toward the distant silhouette of Hye's silk canopy. "Look closely at the chessboard, old man! The Hmagol Eastern General spares civilians. She herds you like cattle to drain our grain, yes—but she spares you."
Leej stepped closer, his piercing gaze sweeping over his drenched, hollow-eyed soldiers.
"But do not mistake her mercy for weakness, and do not think for a single second that her treatment of us will be the same. If these gates open, you civilians will get your bowl of porridge. But my soldiers and I? We are the defenders of Payapasa. To them, we are the dogs that bit their vanguard. The moment our weapons hit the dirt, our blood will grease the wheels of their war wagons. They will butcher every man in armor to ensure this city never rises against them again."
Leej lowered his blade, though his grip remained white-knuckled around the hilt. He looked out over the silenced, weeping crowd.
"We do not open the gates," the General whispered into the rain, his voice final. "We starve before we give them the satisfaction of a bloodless massacre. Stand down."
Leej let out a heavy sigh, turning on his heel to walk back to his quarters—a small, repurposed room within the keep that currently housed his family. Sitting around a modest wooden table were his wife and five children. In the center of the table sat a single, heartbreakingly small bowl of white rice.
"Children," Leej's wife said softly, her voice strained. "This will be our last meal of solid rice. Tomorrow, we will begin drinking watered-down porridge." She gently picked up the bowl containing the largest portion and handed it to her husband.
Leej reached forward, pushing her hand back, and grabbed her smaller bowl instead. "You eat that portion, dear."
He sat down slowly, his heart aching as he watched his children eat around the table. He couldn't help but wonder... if his King's ambitions had not been so grand, and if he hadn't insisted on invading Pojin, would his children still be safe at home right now, attending school and eating the finest lunches? He sighed heavily, quietly scooping a portion of the rice from his own bowl and dividing it between the two smallest children flanking his sides.
Standing up, he placed his empty bowl back onto the table. Without another word, he ran back out into the torrential rain, heading straight toward the south gate of the inner city.
Though a massive crowd of civilians still lingered in the downpour, they no longer dared to press close to the barricade after his earlier threat. Leej marched directly up to the guard captain.
"Open the side door for me, Captain," Leej commanded.
"General?" Nib looked at him, his eyes widening in surprise.
Two soldiers stepped forward and slowly unbarred the small side door. One of them hastily offered Leej a paper umbrella, but the General refused it with a sharp wave of his hand. He stepped out alone into the freezing downpour, walking directly toward the center of the stone bridge.
Seeing the enemy commander approach, Hye stood up from his wooden chair. He grabbed his own paper umbrella, opened it against the storm, and walked out to meet Leej halfway.
"General," Hye said, a smooth smile playing on his lips. "So, have you finally decided to surrender?"
Leej scoffed, his posture rigid. "I do not surrender," he stated indifferently.
"Then why stand before me?" Hye asked, tilting his umbrella.
"Your purpose with this food is to lure the hungry people inside into a violent riot, is it not?" Leej demanded.
"No," Hye replied simply.
"Then what are your terms if they throw down their weapons?" Leej asked, his eyes narrowing.
"We have just finished collecting all the dead bodies scattered throughout the city," Hye said, his voice carrying over the rushing sound of the rain. "The heaven have shown mercy by sending such a heavy downpour to wash away all the blood and dirt your kingdom has brought here over the years. Because of this, Chinua has decided there has already been enough death. She no longer wishes to spill blood needlessly. Our terms are simple: any civilian who steps out and surrenders to Hmagol may become a Hmagol citizen and remain peacefully in their own home. Or, they are free to leave, heading directly toward Ngabo City."
"Starving to death inside these walls would be a far better mercy than surrendering only to be tortured by Magoli soldiers," Leej countered, a bitter, defensive curve touching the corner of his lips. "The horrific stories of what your people did at Nue-Li are well known throughout the land."
"The stories of Nue-Li are indeed true, General," Hye said, his smile vanishing. His dark eyes locked onto the commander, and the fierce, defiant expression on Leej's face began to slowly fade under the weight of Hye's gaze. "The rapes, the torture, the skinning alive of captured civilians and soldiers, the looting, the burning... even the stories of boiling children and forcing their terrified parents to eat the flesh—all of it is true. As a Ginmiao, I lived through it. I saw it with my own eyes."
"Then you prove my point," Leej said, his jaw tightening. "Surrendering to your general is entirely out of the question. Especially since it was my vanguard that spearheaded the assault on Pojin."
Hye let out a soft, mocking scoff. "Your assault on Pojin was never a surprise to us, General. We knew you would strike there long before your troops ever marched. Because of that, Chief Behrouz—your longtime adversary—willingly chose to stay behind and hold that border canyon for as long as humanly possible. He bought the essential time Chinua needed to completely crush the Hmagol civil war." Hye stepped a fraction closer, his eyes boring holes into Leej's resolve. "To be perfectly honest with you, General... we wanted you to attack Pojin."
Leej's heart suddenly sank into his stomach, a cold dread washing over him. The horrific realization hit him like a physical blow: the invasion of Pojin had not been a clever, opportunistic strike by his King—it was a beautifully orchestrated trap laid by the Magoli command.
Hye stepped into the empty space between them, coming close enough that the wide canvas of his paper umbrella sheltered both men from the downpour.
"If your kingdom had not attacked Pojin, how else could we have manufactured the perfect excuse to ensure your nation never shares a land border with us again?" Hye whispered with a terrifying smile, before stepping backward out of the shared shade. "Be a wise man, General. Let your desperate people out. Or, choose to execute the very citizens you swore an oath to protect. Bear that crushing guilt for the rest of your days, and live as a devil in the eyes of their children. The choice is entirely yours."
Hye offered a final, polite smile, turned around, and walked back toward his dry canopy. He left General Leej standing entirely alone in the center of the bridge, soaked to the bone, drowning beneath the suffocating weight of his own tactical blindness and the agonizing burden of his command.