Chapter 248 — Persuasion III: Coincidence
He had thought things had gone smoothly.
Of course they had not.
He gave up quickly too.
There was no use saying much to that fellow.
The only thing inside that man's head was how to look good before his direct superior.
Yeongu decided he had to somehow meet the upper command of this camp in person.
He turned his back toward the side where the junior officer could not see him.
Then he began loosening the rope around his wrists.
The knot was tight, but because he had been moving his fingers little by little from earlier, it was not a dead knot.
With the tips of his fingers, he found the flow of the cord, twisted the skin to make a little space, pulled his wrists in slightly, then pushed again.
At last, the binding around his wrists loosened.
He slipped free.
Yeongu crossed his legs as if nothing had happened.
He left the loosened rope resting over his wrists.
From a distance, he still looked like a man bound.
He closed his eyes and circulated his qi.
His breathing slowly sank.
The anger and pain remaining in his chest settled below his belly.
When his breath reached all the way down, warm energy rose along his spine.
His beaten stomach and swollen cheek throbbed, and the muscles in his shoulders were stiff, but once the energy made a full circuit, the noise inside his body quieted a little.
After completing the small heavenly circulation, Yeongu opened his eyes.
The junior officer was still staring at him from outside the cell door.
"Why are you staring at me like that?"
"I was told to watch you."
"By whom? The general?"
"Mm."
"I wish even he would come."
"He is busy with this and that."
Yeongu said dryly,
"When I see him, I will tell him you called him that fellow."
The junior officer snorted.
"Do whatever you want."
It was exactly the lax discipline of an idle army.
The superior said he was busy, and the subordinate had been told to watch, so he simply watched.
He did not know how to report, did not know how to judge, and merely sat where he had been told to sit with his eyes open.
Yeongu asked,
"What exactly were you people doing here?"
"What do you mean, doing? We are gathering troops."
"Not many seem to be coming."
"Do they send word to you every time they arrive? Plenty are coming."
Yeongu asked slyly,
"How many have arrived now?"
"Several tens of thousands."
"That is a lot."
The junior officer lifted his chin.
"You would not like it if I said this is only the beginning, would you?"
Yeongu shook his head briefly.
"No. I would not dislike it. You people have numbers. That is your advantage, your specialty, and your ultimate weapon."
"What are you talking about?"
"I mean numbers are the only thing you are good at."
The junior officer gave a faint laugh.
"Who cares what a slave says?"
Yeongu narrowed his eyes.
"Who is a slave?"
"You are the slave. Who else would be?"
"Well, now."
"A prisoner of war is a slave."
"This fellow."
There was nothing to do.
The imprisoned man and the man guarding him faced one another, trading nonsense across the door.
The junior officer looked down on Yeongu but did not open the door, and Yeongu looked down on the junior officer but still did not move.
With one cell door between them, both held their ground.
By afternoon, no food had been given.
He had not even eaten properly that morning.
Just as hunger began to rise, the junior officer disappeared somewhere by himself.
A good while later, he returned with the face of a man who had eaten his fill.
Grease remained at the corner of his mouth, and as soon as he drew near, the smell of meat mixed with alcohol rolled from his breath.
He even belched as if he wanted Yeongu to see.
Yeongu asked,
"You are not giving me food?"
The junior officer scratched his chin.
"Mm. Prisoners are not usually fed well."
"Why?"
"It is a waste."
"This fellow. You feed horses, do you not?"
The junior officer nodded seriously.
"Do you want horse feed? We mix grass and beans. We carry the beans with us, and cut grass as needed."
Yeongu laughed in disbelief.
"I am cold."
"That is why you should not commit crimes."
"No, what crime did I commit? What crime did I commit?"
Perhaps because the two had similar mental ages, their conversation kept flowing in useless directions.
Through the cell door, they mocked one another, answered back, and wasted time with meaningless words.
Then the general the junior officer had mentioned arrived.
More precisely, the junior general arrived.