The general was sitting in his room in front of the table, cleaning his sword after he had finished taking his bath, looking at the sword, the general got reminded of the battles he had fought, how he emerged victorious everytime . Thinking about it all made his blood rush throughout his body, making a wave of happiness go through every nerve of his body.
"Ahh, Killing is really what makes me happy", The general was still in his thoughts, when he heard a knock on his door, he looked up, putting his sword on the table.
"Come In", the general ordered in a strong voice.
The door opened with a creak, the soft smell made it's way inside the chamber, revealing a soft figure which peaked into the room, she quietly stepped into the room and walked to the General, slowly, it was the woman from earlier today.
She bowed to the General and sat in front of him, her cheeks were red and her eyes hazy, she kept bowing down, with her heart racing like crazy.
"Rise", the general ordered, looking straight at her.
The woman raised her head, she took a glance at the General and slowly put her hand on the knot of her Hanbok, trying to open it, she was still in the process of taking off her robe.
The General looked out of the window, amused, he kept looking at her in an astonished and then when she, was about to open the last lapel of her Hanbok, he sighed.
"Get out of here, i don't want to see you, i want to be alone", The General said lazily.
"What?", The woman asked, as she looked up at him.
"I said get out, I don't want to look at you or your children", the General said in an uninterested tone.
Hearing the General's words made the woman clench her fists, she looked up with teary eyes.
"Even if you don't like me, please don't treat our children this way, they need a father not a General".
"When I am not interested in you, what makes you think I will be interested in your children?", the General asked with a mocking grin on his face.
"Why did you forcefully propose a marriage to me, and married me if you didn't like me?". The woman asked in a raging voice at the general's mocking tone.
"Did you think I proposed a marriage to you because I liked you, no, I married you to make our families allies, to strengthen our power in the court, I never liked you in the past, nor am i going to like you in the future. Now Get Out", the General yelled making the whole chamber echo his voice everywhere.
The woman bit down her lower lip to control her tears, from falling down, and got up to leave from there, but as she reached the door,she looked at the General and said.
"You are the most cruel man on earth", she said, but the General didn't say anything like he didn't hear his wife say those words and continued to clean his sword.
You are the most cruel man on the earth, will you ever love me in this life, his wife thought while sobbing.
In the morning, after having his breakfast alone in his room, the General got ready and went out to go to the training hall for a sparring session, he was in the yard when his wife came up to him and bowed, before saying,
"I have bought a few servants a few days back, I was waiting for your permission to assign them the work, so".. The woman was still in the middle of the sentence when the General said.
"Do whatever you want", he said and left from there , like everytime she asked about his permission about anything.
"Bring them here", the woman said to the head maid.
"Yes madam", the woman bowed and in a few moments all the servants were in front of her.
"Assign them their works as you see fit", the General's wife ordered without taking a look at any of them and was about to leave, when the head maid, slowly whispered to her.
"Madam , who among them should we appoint as the General's meal server". The woman asked hesitantly.
The General's wife took a deep breath, as this was the 25th server she was appointing.
She took a brief look at all of them and pointed towards one of them.
"Appoint him", she said sighing and went away from there.
The head maid looked at the boy and told him he was appointed as the General's meal server, it was a simple task, he just had to take his breakfast, lunch and dinner to him in his room.
After assigning each one of them with their work, and quarters, she asked the boy to follow her and led him to the General's servant quarters, these quarters were located near the General's chamber unlike other servant quarters which were far away from the main building.
The head maid signed another girl and told her to make the boy learn all the rules and left from there immediately.
"What's wrong with the head maid, she is always nagging us, why did she leave like that today?", the girl asked the boy.
"I don't know, she must have some important work", the boy answered completely unaware of the danger, the head maid had just threw him into.
"It's okay, so what work did she assign you, are you a cleaner or helper in the kitchen?", the girl asked.
"I am the General's new meal server", The boy said with a smile on his face.
"Wh.. What, oh my poor boy, how pitiful, did you offend the head maid somehow?". The girl asked completely shocked.
"Why, what happened, is there a problem with the work appointed to me?". The boy asked back frightened.
"Oh my poor boy, just run away at night okay, just run away I will tell people you died by some accident", the maid said in a desperate voice.
"Noona, what's wrong, please tell me?", the boy asked, now horrified.
"Do you know you are the 15th server appointed this year, the General.. Umm please don't tell anyone I told you.. The General eats humans, after every battle he wins to gain, strength and health, even the ghosts and spirits are afraid of him because he drinks human blood and they say he ate 10 servers this year and other 5 ran away when he tried to drink their blood, aww , look at this, you are still young ,your meat is so tender and unfortunately the General likes eating tender meat , he will surely eat you" . The maid said in a sad voice as she looked at the boy pitifully.
"Noona , what should I do then , I don't want to be eaten by the general" , the boy asked putting his hands on his cheeks.
"Listen to me okay , once the night falls ,run away ,i will tell people you were killed by the evil spirits", the girl said trying her best to help the boy.
"Okay noona ,i think I should do that , i will wait till the night falls", the boy said in a horrified voice with the tears in his eyes that were ready to fall down at any moment.
The whole day, the boy and girl remained together , the girl did her work and showed the boy around, while telling him all the horrifying things that the General has done , like eating a young lady to stay handsome and drinking the blood of a man to stay strong and win battles, and marrying various concubines in different parts of the nation during the war, and throwing them away to be eaten by lions and vultures. and lots of other things.
As the evening approached the kitchen started preparations for the General's dinner, everyone was busy when the order came that General wanted to eat oranges. Everyone in the kitchen panicked as the chef himself chose the best of the best oranges , they were peeled and set on a plate and then on a tray but the question now was, who will serve these oranges to the General.
Everyone looked towards the new server and smiled.
"Here , take these and go" , the head chef said with a smile.
"N...no , i...i can't" .. the boy said stuttering as he imagined how monstrous, the General must look, he could easily imagine the hideous face of the General, he felt like his heart was going to burst with fear.
"You can't say no , this is your job ,go", the chef forcefully handed the tray to the boy and pushed him towards the General's chamber.
"But".. the boy said with tears in his eyes.
"Sorry , but you have to do this" , the head chef said apologetically.
"I don't want to die , i am still young" , the boy said and with shivering hands took the tray to the General's chamber and knocked.
"Come In" , the General's voice, terrified the boy even more but he slowly opened the door and went in , as he got closer to the General's table he saw him looking at his sword...sword which was coloured with b....b...blood .
On seeing the sight the boys hands trembled uncontrollably , making the sound of the plate hitting the tray sound painfully loud in the room, the General looked at the boy with his one eye and went back to admiring his sword , the boy immediately sat the tray on the table and rushed out when he twisted his foot on the door and fell down , the boy immediately got up again and ran away but the General didn't even look at the boy, and continued admiring his sword.
"What happened?" , the girl asked as soon as the boy came out.
"He had a sword in his hand ,he was smiling at it , he will kill me, he will cut my tender meat", the boy cried hugging himself.
"It's okay , don't worry ,he will not eat dinner tonight so just run away as I said" , the girl said in a worried voice.
"Yes ,i will run away as soon as the moon rises , thankyou for your help Noona". The boy said and hugged the older girl.
"It's okay ,you are like my little brother" , the girl said as she hugged the younger back and patted his back.
Once it was midnight, the boy silently took his belongings from his room, and covered himself with a sheet and walked towards the main gate slowly ,as the girl before had said, no one was at the gate at this moment ,the boy was about to leap out of the gate ,when the guard came from behind.
"Who are you , stop there" ,the guard shouted , at the shout the boy ran throwing his belongings away , all the guards were alerted and the General came out of his chamber with his sword in his hand.
"What happened" , he yelled at the guards as he saw them standing in a circle infront of his room.
"General ,a theif had snuck in , we have caught him already" , the guard said as he put his sword on the boy's neck .
"Someone dared to come here to steal things" , the General said in an angry voice and went towards the boy unsheathing his sword from the scabbard he put his sword on the boy's neck .
"Take off the sheet and show me your face". The general said with an expressionless face.
The boy slowly took the sheet off his face as the tears welled up in his eyes,he was scared for his life and wanted to say something but his words got stuck in his throat.
"You are a thief?" , the General asked when he looked at the boy's round fluffy cheeked face, his eyes glistening with tears, he looked like a little dumpling that had fell on the ground.
"Hyuk ,what are you doing here?" , the head maid screamed in horror as she saw the General's sword on the boy's neck.
"Who is he?" , the General now asked the head maid as she came closer to them.
The head maid fell on her knees and in a horrified voice said.
"I am sorry General ,he is your new server , he is new here ,he must have forgotten the way back ,please let him go ", the head maid pleaded.
"Come to my chamber" , the general said putting his sword back in his scabbard
"General , please"... The head maid requested in a small voice.
"I Said ,Send him inside", The General said in a horrifying voice and went inside his chamber, the boy got up from the ground and wiped his tears from his cheeks, before going inside and kneeling in front of the general.
"Why were you running away?" , the General asked but the boy didn't say anything ,the tears kept falling from his eyes as he waited to be eaten alive now .
"I asked, Why Were You Running Away?", the general asked again but this time he slapped the table making the boy more terrified.
"I ... I don't want to be eaten alive" . the boy said crying.
"What do you mean?"..
"I know that the General likes to eat people, to keep his strength and drink the blood of humans ,i also know you like tender meat and unfortunately, I have tender meat too, because I am still young so you might like to eat me that's why I wanted to run away ,i am still young, i haven't fallen in love yet , i don't have a wife yet, and there's so much in life I haven't done yet, and I don't want to be eaten alive and I also know I am cute, so you might want to eat my cheeks" . Hyuk went on without stopping as to why he was running away .
There was silence in the room for a moment, and then the general took a deep breath and asked.
"Who told you these things?" ..
"I.. the whole city says so .. i heard it from the city people" , Hyuk said in a low voice.
"Okay, i believe you, now come here", The general said after a bit of time.
"Wh .what?" .. ,Hyuk asked terrified as he staggered back .
The General raised his eyebrow , expressing his anger.
"O.okay" .. Hyuk said and slowly sat in front of the General.
The General put his hand on Hyuk's cheek and pinched him roughly.
"Aww", Hyuk grunted in pain.
"You are right , your meat is quiet tender ,must be really tasty ", the General said in a serious voice, pretending like he was thinking something.
"Please, spare me, please".. Hyuk pleaded as he bowed down in front of the General.
"Let me tell you a secret" , the General said raising Hyuk's head with his two fingers.
"I only eat people who are disloyal to me , those who are loyal to me are protected by me ,and I never eat those people ,so the choice is upto you now , do you want to run away or stay here and be loyal to me" , the General stated looking at his sword and then at Hyuk.
"I promise ,i will never try to run away again, i will be with The General, for the rest of my life and be loyal".
"I will always be your faithful servant".
"Good" , the General said in an amused voice.