by Cpt._Funkotron » Mon Feb 05, 2018 10:32 pm
Junyou sits in bed, smirking down at a love letter from his mistress back in Bingzhou. He contemplates making use of the campaign's forestallment to ride back, duel her husband and his former superior, and claim her all for his own in the only way he has yet to already, but he decides against it. He has three hundred troops now, one third of whom are scarcely better than herdsmen now then when he had conscripted them, and half who are barely off their mother's breasts. He's needed here. He holds the letter up to his bed-side lamp and lets it fall to ashes. The pair of serving maids in bed beside him exchange puzzled looks. He shoots each of them a smile, gives the closest one a parting pat on the rump, climbs up, dresses, dons his swordbelt and his signature green sash and cloak, and takes a step out of the door when he runs face to face into Kongzhi.
"Oh...Morning" he says, startled.
"Dewang met with the governor this morning, he's agreed to take the children. Are you going to thank him or should I?"
He looks up and down the corridor and avoids the question. "How long have you been standing here?"
"Well?"
"The governor you mean?"
"Dewang, you idiot. You've got bad habit of alienating lovers and THAT has a habit of bounding back to bite me."
"I don't know what you're talking about."
"Oh really? Don't remember the blacksmith's wife, the tax collector's daughter, the tax collector's son, the BULL, the-" at that moment the two serving maids brush past from behind Junyou adjusting their clothes as they go. Kongzhi folds her arms and inclines her head, nonverbally resting her case.
Junyou averts the dissection of his character and opts for another dodge. "Dewang and I were hardly lovers, we frittered some time together, nothing more. Just because you spend all your time pining after men you can't have doesn't mean I have to."
He has her on the back foot now, her pale Silla skin just barely blushing. "What do you mean?"
He laughs. "Captain Wei of course, don't think I haven't noticed. He pisses down on us, and you give thanks for the rain."
She grabs the collar of his shirt in a flash of anger and her hand goes down to her knife. "Breathe one more word of that filth and it will be your last!"
His smirk fades, and he knows he's gone too far. His eyes pivot over to the four young children sat in a line along the wall, his new pages since Bei Yei, and Kongzhi follows his gaze. She is reminded of their shared childhood, their days picking pockets for scraps, their hungry nights, and softens. Most importantly, she realizes she can't very well gut him like a pig in front of witnesses. She lets go of him, and sheathes her knife.
Junyou adopts the voice of an officer. "If that's quite enough, II do need you to stop in on Dewang, and put in for the recquisitions we'll need. Thank him from me while you're there. Then you will find a suitable field nearby, and get the men assembled. We're going to make the best of these two months, I'll make gentlemen out of these lillypluckers and litle girls, or they'll die trying."
"Aye, Captain." She bows, and leaves him. comes
Junyou exhales, and resolves that he needs to clear his head. He laments the departure of his bedfellows. He wanders the palace until he comes to the courtyard, there he sees the Governor's secretary, Boazi, drilling by himself. For some reason he cannot explain, it catches his particular attention and he finds himself watching and judging the quiet man's strokes. He certainly seems to have the fundamentals down, good form, solid posture, flexible motion, and Junyou's hand begins to itch. In the idleness of marching, and the total incineration of Bei Yei, Junyou has had little call to practice his swordwork of late. He silently walks up behind Boazi, unslings his cloak to cast it aside, and as the secretary's sword swings around, he draws his own to cross it with a metallic clang, guiding it away in a curve downward, no doubt startling the man.
"The air flees before you. Perhaps you would care to spar with a heavier opponent."
Last edited by
Cpt._Funkotron on Tue Feb 06, 2018 12:46 am, edited 1 time in total.