Inside the Prison -1
1665 Words
Emperor City Prison
The sound of footsteps breaks the silence of the night, it was the footsteps of 10 persons guarding a man who was accused as a thief in Emperor City. It has been a long time since the last thief dared to take any action in this city, not many thieves in the last 5 years were captured. Every thief will think twice to steal in this city because all the thieves who caught up and proven in the court will get severe punishment, the executor will cut their hands or will hang them if they also kill their victims.
“Deok Cul reporting sir, we’ve brought a thief that we caught him this night.” Deok Cul the guard who arrest Hyung Jae reported to Eung Sa the Emperor Prison Commander.
“Insolent, who the one who dares to steal something in this city?" Eung Sa the bearded commander asked.
“He’s in the front yard, sir.” Deok Cul answered.
Eung Sa directly walks to the front yard followed by Deok Cul behind him.
“That’s him, commander.” Deok Cul pointed at Hyung Jae.
Hyung Jae sees a big man with a thick mustache walking towards him while he was kneeling on the ground guarded by 2 men.
“What did you steal?” Eung Sa asked Hyung Jae.
“I didn’t steal anything, Sir. I’ve told this million times before that it was only a miss understanding.” Hyung Jae explained.
“Don’t believe any words from him, commander, he’s the only one who we saw in the explosion area.” Deok Cull sounds provoking his commander.
“You are the one who was slow and late, you just came when the thief has gone,” Hyung Jae answered to Deok Cull's provocation, “Not only you had lost the thief’s trace, but, you also accused a wrong guy without any evidence.”
“What did you say?!” Deok Cul said and tries to punch Hyung Jae.
“Hold it!” Eung Sa stopping Deok Cul act, “Silence both of you, tomorrow we will find and examine all the evidence, if you are innocent you’ll free man, but if we found you’re guilty then your arm is mine,” Eung Sa said it firmly. “Bring him to the prison.” Eung Sa asked his men.
Two guards drag Hyung Jae to the prison with his hand-tied, they walk through a small hallway with the torch as its light source. There are many cells in this prison, most of them are empty. They now arrived at one cell in the corner of the building.
“Go inside!” The guard said while he pushed Hyung Jae inside the cell.
"Hey... Calm down, I won’t run anyway.” Hyung Jae responded.
The guards close the cell door and leaves.
“Well, at least I get a free shelter to sleep tonight, and it’s not bad either.” Hyung Jae tried to cheer his situation up.
The cell is not too big but it is comfortable enough for sleeping even without any bed, at least Hyung Jae doesn’t have to feel the cold of the night wind outside. He lay down on the floor as he’s very tired now and it doesn’t take a long time for him to fall asleep.
***
The sunlight going through the small window on top of the cell wall and shine on Hyung Jae’s face, this sunlight makes Hyung Jae open his eyes up, it’s already noon. He’s lucky that his cell has a small window that directly facing outside and he can get the direct sunlight that warm his body up. Last night he didn’t notice this window because he’s too tired and the cell was too dark. He then waking himself up and sit on the floor, he looks around and sees 2 persons inside the other cell in front of him, he also sees an old man with a long white beard sitting in the corner inside the cell next to him, he guessed if that man already in his cell for many years.
“Hey, new guy, who are you? what have you done?” One of the prisoners in front of him asked.
“Are you talking to me?” Hyung Jae asked back.
“Yes, of course, no one else there. My name is Bok.” Bok introduced himself.
“I did nothing, they have wrongly accused me as a thief, those incompetent guards just randomly accuse anyone in the crime area without any proof.” Hyung Jae answered.
“So, it is happening again, That's ironic. The guards these days easily accusing the wrong person, they only able to throw accusation without any proof, just like Sang Du case.” Bok said.
Hyung Jae actually doesn’t interest in Bok’s story, but he wants to socialize in this prison, just to kill the time before his trial begins.
“Sang Du? Who’s he?” Hyung Jae asked.
“He’s one of the prisoners like us, around 1 month ago he was inside your cell but he’s already a dead man now after the executor hung him,” Bok started to tell a story, “He also same like you, he said if he was wrongly accused.”
“I never heard of his execution, this is my 2nd day in this city, could you tell me more?” Hyung Jae's curiosity has increased.
“Do you know about The Flying Cloud Valley tragedy? He’s one of the Devil's Wolf members who had been accused as the horde who was responsible for the s*******r of a merchant group in the Flying Cloud Valley.” Bok continued.
Hyung Jae little bit shocked to hear the story, “Wasn’t this is the news that Princess Imma wanted to know?” As he wants to know more from Bok, he keeps silent and carefully listening to Bok’s words.
“Sang Du said if they weren’t the real slaughterer, they only become a scapegoat. He also said that they got information about a group of wealthy merchants that going to travel through Cloud Valley from someone who he didn't know and they wanted to rob them but not kill them. When they had arrived at the Cloud Valley all the merchants had been slaughtered, no one survived. The mysterious thing was because all their goods were still there nothing was taken as the s*******r didn't aim their goods.” Bok continued. “Then Sang Du and all Devil's Wolfmen took all the merchant goods and left their dead body. They didn’t know if that was their last action before they were terminated by the Emperor Special Guards. Sang Du was captured inside a brothel in Cinca town a few days after the Devil’s Wolf eradication, and they brought him to this prison before he was executed 3 days after.” Bok's story ended.
Hyung Jae thinking about the story seriously, apparently what Princess Imma had suspected was true, someone else was responsible for the slaughtering. He wants to inform this information to Princess Imma but he doesn’t know where she is right now, and his movement is also limited inside this prison.
Actually, it is easy for him to break the prison wall and escape if he wants to, but he doesn’t want to become the gungjeon gyeongbi’s enemy.
“Hey, why are you so quiet?” Bok asked.
“What? Umm, no, I just thinking about Sang Du's bad fate and I don’t want to be like him.” Hyung Jae answered.
“Yeah, his life was full of miserable things, but it was not only his, all of us live’s full of s**t, right?” Bok grunted about their pitiful fate and Hyung Jae doesn’t answer it.
“What about that old man right there? He looks like an eternal prisoner.” Hyung Jae asked.
“Who? That old man? I believe so. I was in here since 1 year ago and that old man was in here longer than most of the guards themselves. One guard ever told me a story from his father that also an ex-guard in this prison about that man, his father said if that old man was a direct prisoner of the previous Emperor, Geommuk. That's all I know, he looks crazy, he has oftenly been seen talking to himself about monsters, about the end of the world, even sometimes he asked the guards to save a child and other crazy kinds of stuff, nobody knows whats he means. At first, he’ll annoy you with his voice, but later you’ll get used to it. Just ignore him.” Bok answered.
“Indeed he looks crazy,” Hyung Jae stared at the old prisoner, “Anyway, when is the food time? I’m hungry now.” Hyung Jae asked.
“We will get food twice a day, not long again, just wait.” Bok said.
“Well, thanks for your story, Bok, I’ll need to meditate now.” Hyung Jae wanted to meditate himself.
Meditation was a daily thing that Hyung Jae regularly need to do, with meditation he can clean up his bloodstream and his energy will flow smoothly, this is essential for a martial artist so they can use their inner energy easily to perform any techniques that they have.
Bok sees what Hyung Jae does and he is guessing that Hyung Jae must be a martial artist, and he was correct.
- Writer
