The Jeon of Jeonseol

25. The Great War of Jeonseol

Jeongguk pushed Jeonghyun away and poked his tongue through his cheek in his burning rage. 

"You want a battle? I shall battle you, brother. I don't know how long you've been preparing for this. Just to be fair, give me ten days to collect my own resources. On the dawn of the coming full moon day, I shall meet you on the battlefield. You try anything on me until then and the crown automatically belongs to me. Deal?" 

Jeonghyun took his own sweet time thinking Jeongguk's words over. He looked over at his father, who looked almost scarily calm over his only two sons talking about a battle right in front of him. His mother, however, was a crying mess in her husband's warm arms. 

"Alright," he said and looked back at Jeongguk with a smirk. "See you there on the full moon day, little brother. Don't you dare run away." 

Jeongguk scoffed but didn't bother to say anything back. He just got up and left after throwing his still-calm father a poker-faced glance.

It was surprising just how many people he had thought he could trust actually turned out to be supporting his brother. 

He wasn't a fool. He didn't foolishly believe he would win the battle with almost little to no resources and support with him. 

Still, he didn't want to back away. He would rather die a warrior than live as a coward. 

Two days before the battle, when he was setting up his tent on the outskirts of the battlefield along with the very few people that were on his side, his father visited him. 

"Jeongguk-ah. I don't know what to say to you. You still keep proving to me why you would make a better leader than your brother. A kingdom needs a calm and wise king. You might be too young to be wise, but you are definitely calm in the face of such betrayal. Your brother is neither," he said. 

It made Jeongguk tear up. "Thank you, Father." 

At least, he would die knowing his father considered him a better leader than his brother. 

"I shall extend my military support to you, my son."

Jeongguk's eyes widened to the size of the almost-full moon outside his tent. "What?!" his voice came out as a shocked whisper.

Jaewan gave him a small smile. "The officials have extended their support to Jeonghyun under the confidence that I wouldn't bring my soldiers into a fight between my children. They should have known that I stand on the side of righteousness. No matter who is on that side - my son or my enemy."

Jeongguk didn't care about the action of crying being a sign of weakness. He just let those heavy couple of tears clinging desperately to his eyelashes roll down his cheeks. 

"Thank you, Father."

"There's more you need to know, son. Your brother has been meticulous at collecting his support. I must give him that credit. He has also contacted the neighbouring kings for their support. It was only the day after he tried to kill you that I found out about it. 

I immediately sent messengers to a few other kings that are close to me. You shall receive their support as well, but it won't happen soon. It will take time for them to send their army over. As all of this is very sudden, you must battle hard with the limited resources you have until the rest arrives. The officials can't take their support back now, it is too late for that, but trust me. You have my entire support."

"Thank you, F-Father," Jeongguk's voice broke. He felt like a parrot at this point, repeating the same three words over and over again, but he didn't know what else he could say. He had gone to every single officer on his brother's side to talk them out of their support for Jeonghyun, but except for two officers, the rest of them had stayed stubborn. 

Leaving everything to his fate, now that he had his father's support and was waiting for more support which was on the way, he let one of the bloodiest battles ever commence. 

The battle went on for almost a fortnight. There were bodies lying everywhere and the ones that were alive and were in a condition to fight were jumping all over them without a care, just to kill more people.

By the time the battle ended, there were only a handful of gravely injured men left alive. Jeongguk was the most injured of them all. Still, he slowly stumbled his way to his brother and collapsed onto his knees next to him.

He was almost about to pass out, but he still shoved at his brother's dead chest weakly.

"Are you happy now?" he whispered and took his brother's hand into both of his hands. 

"Do you see this? All of this blood," he gestured weakly to all the lifeless bodies lying around, letting the blood in his own hands smear all over his brother's hand before letting it fall limply against his chest, "right on your hands, brother. May you rot in hell," he said and closed his brother's open dead eyes before closing his own and falling right on top of him.