The day was a little warmer then others, the birds in the nest were lazily sitting without singing, like they were exhausted and lifeless, just like Byung-Ho in the General's manor, who was standing in the main hall, outside his bedroom, with a monk in front of him.
"I told you before, no physician is going to able to heal him, but you did not listen to me, see now what happened, it's all because of you, you may be the General of the country but you are not God", The monk said in a detesting tone and left, but the General did not say anything, he didn't know what to do, he slowly let his sight fall to the ground and looked towards the door of his bedroom.
2 weeks ago :-
The General took Hyuk back to his resting chamber and put him on the soft bed, changed his clothes and wiped his body with a cloth dipped in warm water to get rid of any speck of diet on his body, his hands felt heavy, his heart was still feeling like it had something stabbed into it.
"Hyuk, my Gongju, wake up, are you too tired, please eat something first", the General said in a voice that was laced with love and care, his hands softly caressing Hyuk's face.
He said that but Hyuk did not open his eyes, the General waited by his side until dawn, he didn't move, did not blink, in case Hyuk woke up and wanted something, he dared not walk somewhere he could not see him lover.
After the break of dawn, Hyuk slowly opened his eyes and the General held his hand tightly in happiness.
"My Gongju,, are you okay, are you hurt somewhere, are you feeling unwell, do you want to eat, are you hungry?" The General asked impatiently but Hyuk kept looking at him with an unreadable expression on his face, the look was that of longing, desperation, love, affection and Guilt, it was nothing like the look Hyuk gave him usually whenever he woke up in the middle of the night, frightened by a nightmare, but the look was like he had seen him again after a thousand years, Hyuk's eyes filled with tears and fell without any warning.
"Are you okay, why are you crying, Gongju" The General asked worried but Hyuk did not reply and quietly lifted his hand to touch the General's cheek, he was close, very close, but then his hand felt heavy and it fell limply on the bed and he closed his eyes again, he opened his mouth and then closed it again, trying to say something but no voice came out, only tears, flowed down his face.
"Hyuk" the General called, " Call the royal physician now", The General yelled from inside and a servant ran straight to the healing hall to get the royal physician who was sleeping.
"Gongju, Gongju, why are you like this, please wake up", the General pleaded but Hyuk did not open his eyes again, the only sign of his being alive was the the slow breathing that was receding minute by minute and would soon stop altogether, his body seemed to go cold no matter how much warm the room was made, his lips turning blue.
And two weeks just went by like this, every famous physician was called and every medicine in the Joseon was given to him but he still did not show any signs of waking up, in this time the monk also came there two times but The General did not pay attention to him and tried everything to get Hyuk back, but everything seemed futile at the end.
.....
The General was still standing in the hall thinking of the past days when the physicians came out of his resting chamber and fell on their knees, their heads touching the floor.
"Please spare our lives, our Great General, we can't help the young master, we apologise, but we have tried everything, not even the best of the medicine has any effect on him, please have mercy on us", the best physician of Joseon kowtowed for his life.
"You useless trash,who made you a physician if you can't treat a person, get out of here, if you let me see you again,i will behead you all and hang your headless bodies in the market", the General spat angrily and the Physicians bowed further down to show their gratefulness and scattered away like a bunch of headless chickens.
"Master, if you allow, may I say something", the Eunuch said in a low voice as he came in.
"What is it?", The General asked in an distressed tone.
"My lord, i think we should really listen to the monk and take his help, the physicians have already said they can't do anything and the monk is saying he can help so it's in our best interests if we give it a try and the monk also said that Hyuk is suffering because of an evil spirit and if it's true then only the people in the temple can help us", the eunuch suggested, even though he knew his master didn't believe in temples,neither monks nor Gods.
The General stood there in a daze for a few moments before he waved his hand.
"Okay, if that's going to heal Hyuk, then be it, i will be going to the temple tomorrow morning", the General said and went to see Hyuk again, who was lying on the bed, lifeless, the plump cheeks on his face were gone and they were replaced by the sharp bones, the rosey colour of his lips was gone, replaced by the blue colour, making him look like a corpse and there was only skin on his whole body without any meat, making him look like a cold corpse that was not cremated several days after his death.
"Gongju, wake up, look you have become so thin, get up and eat something" ,the General pleaded, stroking Hyuk's coarse hair, as a feeling teared his heart apart.
"Okay, i actually want to say I have already made up my mind to visit the old monk at the temple, i don't actually believe in all these things but he says he can heal you and make you live again so I am going to do it", the General explained in a low voice, and kissed his forehead before laying down besides him to take a rest.
In the morning, the General woke up a little later then usual, the preparations of going to the temple were finished and an announcement was also made in the city and temple.
" The Great General of Lee, Is going to make a visit to the temple so the temple will be closed off for four days and in these days no one outside the temple will be able to go in, nor can anyone come outside from insides of the temple, refrain from going to the place as much as possible", the announcement was made and after two hours the General reached the temple.
He looked at the building from outside with an unamused face, he was not a believer of God so he never understood these things, If god is really that great then why do people suffer, why does the God need such a big place for worship if he is everywhere, he shook his head with a frown on his face and started climbing the stairs.
"lie, God, huh, does he really need to be worshipped in a temple, would he not listen to the people who did not bring him any offerings, was it a transaction, people would give him offerings and he would help them in return,if God is really so selfish in loving, then the General was rather good being a human, he could love, love and love and did not need anything in return, he would just love.
Once he was at the door, the young monks bowed to him and welcomed him in, he was not really interested in these miscleneous things and was about to walk in when a serious voice came from inside.
"You are the General of the country, but this is the home of the god, you cannot enter like that, please take off your shoes and keep your sword out of the temple", the voice said, the General stopped for a moment and then looked at the eunuch who nodded his head in agreement, The General frowned even more then before and took off his shoes and gave his sword away and entered.
He walked into one of the inner rooms and saw an old monk sitting their with his eyes closed, chanting something. The General looked at him and walked to him, he looked familiar, a temple, a monk, he had felt like he had witnessed it before but he did not know where,he brushed the thoughts off his mind and sat down in front of the monk.
"Can you wake up Hyuk?", The General asked even before he sat properly.
"He came to me a few days ago, such an innocent boy, I told him I will pray for him but he fell prey to that evil thing even before I could do anything, it's a pity, the spirit is evil we have get rid of it before it eats out the boy inside completely", the monk answered, thinking of something.
"How can we do that, no what do I need to do", The General asked, determined to save Hyuk at any cost.
"There is a way, you have to fight with the evil spirit and defeat it to take the boy out of it's clutches, but it's not that easy", the monk explained, looking at the General's changing expression and sighed a breath of relief in his heart.
"What's hard about it, i am a General I have fought and won countless battles" the General answered.
"You are a human and you have fought with humans,but this thing Is a spirit, an evil spirit that we don't know the origin of, it may be thousands of years old, no one knows, you have to use spritual power to defeat it", the monk explained.
"How do I do that?", The General asked again.
"It's not within a humans reach to do something like that, so before the battle I will have to perform a ritual on you, on the full moon night, with your willingness", the monk said as an eerie expression made it's way to his face.
"Okay, if that's what It is, then do it, tomorrow is the full moon night so I will do it", the General said in a calm tone.
"Okay then, please take a bath, clean yourself properly and put on the white clothes but remember they must
be made with a shroud", the monk adviced.
"Okay", the General replied.