(WANG DAO)
Master Rei took me to a place a few minutes away from the training ground. The huge two storey U-shaped building was presented to me.
"This is the barracks. Or one of the four huge barracks in the base. It can hold seven hundred or more soldiers inside. This place will be your home here," Master Rei said.
I frowned, "I see. Question," I raised my hand.
"Go on," Master Rei nodded at me. I look at him. Master Rei is an average height and size man. What's extraordinary about him is his exotic face. He is part Mongol, part Japanese and part Chinese. Master Rei always boast that his Japanese blood gave him his slanted eyes, his Mongol blood gave him his caramel comflexion and his local blood gave him his grace.
Many look at Master Rei and saw a beautiful man, almost effiminate. His refined movements and graceful way of speaking also doesn't help the "soft" impression he presents to people.
But I know that Master Rei is a fierce soldier. Rumors has it that he served as a spy to a foreign land for four long years before his cover was discovered and Baba had to assemble a troop to rescue him. What Master Rei learned from that nation is too valuable for the Imperial military force to abandon him in that place.
Now, Master Rei serves as an aide for my Baba but I doubt that my sire pushed him to help me.
"Who ordered you to help me?" I asked him.
Master Rei snorted, "Is this help to you? Dao ah, you should aim your standard higher. Help to you should be when I save your life from a blade wound or helped you escape from a prison. This is not helping you. I am just merely ordered here to give a message to your training officer. I happened to see you and I decided to deliver you as well. Aren't I nice?"
I continued to frown at him. "Then if you will save me from a blade wound or help me escape from prison, the order will come from whom?" I amended my question.
Master Rei laughed. A melodious sound like a symphony sounds from wind chimes swayed by a gentle breeze of wind.
"You are learning, kid." Master Rei patted my cheek before giving me a sharp look, "Follow me." He gave that crisp order sharply as he went inside the barracks entrance.
I sighed and went in. Along the corridors and open rooms, people stared at me as I walk behind the aide of General Wang.
We stopped at the seventh room. Master Rei sighed, "Why will he pick you such unlucky number for a room?" he mumbled darkly before sliding open the double doors and walking inside of the room.
"Rei," Captain Ching, standing in the middle of the room with men kneeling on the elevated wooden floors around him. "What are you doing here? This is a man's room. We don't allow pansies here," Captain Ching smirked at Master Rei as he insulted the aide.
"Then what are you all doing here? Delicate flowers, all of you." Master Rei snorted. "I escorted one of your pup," my Baba's aide pushed me in front of him and made me kneel. "And a message from the Master General himself."
"What is the message?" Captain Ching asked impatiently.
"Go easy on the boy," I felt Master Rei's hand caressing my hair. "Go very very easy on him,"
Damn! Did Baba really said that?
Captain Ching laughed. "Did General Wang truly gave me the signal to beat his boy?"
Master Rei laughed back, "Wang Dao can take it. So go gentle with him. General's order."
Captain Ching laughed some more. A booming sound that filled the room. Then I felt someone crouched in front of my kneeling form and a hand grabbed my chin to lift my face up in a jarring fast move. "But he looks so pretty. What should I do about that, Rei?"
"Master General said to avoid leaving a mark that clothes cannot hide. He said someone in the Wang Estate will take offense." Master Rei laughed. "Like we all don't know that it's that pretty estate manager the general is fucking..."
I produced my dagger fast and swung it on Captain Ching's hand holding my face. Captain Ching let me go fast. I stood up to throw that dagger on Master Rei's face. He moved a little to avoid it but my aim was true. The sharp blade of my dagger swished near his mouth and nick the upper corner of it. A cut formed there and little blood bloosomed from the small wound.
My dagger embedded itself to a post near the double doors.
"Fucking hell," Captain Ching cursed loudly as he scrambled to his feet as well. "What..."
I squinted my eyes on Master Rei, "I will remember this day. This moment that you insulted the man who raised me. Live looking behind your shoulder from now on, Master Rei. One day, I will snuck from the shadows and slit your throat...ack..." a blunt heavy object struck the side of my head and my vision blurred as I fell sideways to the wooden floor.
"Are you okay, cousin?" In my blurring mind, I saw Captain Ching, the one who bludgeoned me, coming to Master Rei's side.
"I am fine. It is just a nick." Master Rei dismissed the concern on Captain Ching's tone. "Why did you struck the boy hard like that?"
Captain Ching crouched down to look at me. "Not hard enough, apparently. He is still alive. And concious. He got a hard head then."
"And he is fast with a knowledge on curved dagger. Plus he took great offense if you insulted the Wang's estate manager. You're welcome by the way, I did that job for you. Now you learn two or three things about Wang Dao." Master Rei sneered. "I shouldn't have listened to General Wang when he said that the best way to annoy his son is to insult Master Dayu." He grumbled annoyedly.
"I...will...kill...you," I said brokenly. My mind going heavy as I felt something sticky flowed from my temple.
"He is still threatening you," Captain Ching held out a wooden bowl on Master Rei. "You want to do the pleasure?"
Master Rei took the bowl, "Sleep tight, kid." He said before smacking that bowl down to my head.
I finally lost conciousness.
.........................
I regained my wits again when someone poured a whole bucket of ice cold water in my face.
I drew up gasping for breath. That almost drowned me. Water went inside my nose.
I looked up and saw Captain Ching passing the wooden bucket to a soldier in uniform. Aside from me, Captain Ching and this soldier are the only remaining people inside the room. I remember this room being filled with soldiers when they struck me with that hard wooden bowl.
"Rise and shine, sugar." Captain Ching clapped his hands as he smiled at me.
"How long was I gone?" I asked as I wiped water from my face.
"Fuck I care about the hours. Only neophytes like you should take good note about the time." Captain Ching sat, cross-legged, in front of me. "Listen here, boy. This here is no Wang Estate. You are not the young lord here. You," he poked the center of my forehead with his finger hard enough that my head was drew back. "Are a trainee here. You need to adhere to the rules. MY rules. And rule number one, no throwing daggers to your superiors, do you understand?"
I stared at him. Not giving any answer to what he said.
Captain Ching glared at me, "I said...do you understand?" he leaned his broad, rough looking face towards me. How is he a cousin to Master Rei? They don't look that much alike. It's like saying that raspberry and potato are cousins. Master Rei looks smooth and graceful, this one is a bull. And a smelly one too.
I frowned at him in confusion. Captain Ching sighed, "Does the hit on your head made you forget who you are and where you're at? Boy!" He shouted at me again. "Can you hear me?" He knocked a fisted hand on my head like it's a door. "Is something still remains inside your head?"
"You are noisy," I told him.
"What?" Captain Ching frowned at me. "What did you said?"
"I hate your kind. Noisy but saying nothing at all. Without substance." I sighed. "You talk more than my sister and she is a nagger. At least she is intelligent like me. You...I have to tone down my thinking level just to understand you. I hate your kind, really."
Captain Ching looked at the other soldier there that listens to our conversation.
"Can you believe his kid?" Captain Ching asked the other soldier. Then he turned back to me. "You...hate my kind? What kind?"
"Noisy but nonsensical." I said. "In another terms, annoying and stupid."
"Soldier Wang," the other soldier gave me a grimace and a wince, while Captain Ching stared at me like I am someone he had never seen before.
Most probably, he had never seen someone like me before. I am not a sniveling fool who will follow him just because he shouts the loudest. Or a coward who will not speak out to him.
"Do you have a problem with my tone, Soldier Wang?!" Captain Ching went back to shouting.
"No, Sir." I said with a sigh. "You can shout at me all you want, until your voice grew hoarse and your throat go raw and sore. But if you will shout at me, please put some sense on it. Please..."
Pak.
Captain Ching slapped me. So hard that I toppled on my side again. I almost kissed the wooden floor beneath me. Then not content in slapping me, Captain Ching stood up to kick me. My hips, thighs and middle. I curled up on the floor to protect myself.
After kicking me hard for four times, Captain Ching spat on my head. "Maybe the problem is not on me but on you, boy!" He is back to shouting. "Maybe I am not the one talking nonsense, maybe you are the stupid one who cannot understand what I am talking about. How is that for being intelligent? But you can thank your insolence because that is the reason why you will starve today. No food for you, Wang Dao. Until you learn to lower your thinking down to my level." After delivering those words Captain Ching turned away and walked out of the room.
The other soldier sat down beside me as I stayed curled up, my body starting to ache.
Damn this day. When will this be over.
"He is deaf." The soldier who stayed with me said. I looked up at him. "What?"
"Captain Ching, he is deaf. Or close to being one. His head was severely injured while serving in a mission to rescue someone. He is shouting more because he needs to hear his own voice and what he is saying than to shout at you. And if you won't shout back at him, he won't hear you. That is why he learned to lip read people. You have to speak in front of him so he can see your lips formed the words so he might understand what you are saying..." the soldier explained.
That silenced me. "I...didn't know." I said.
"Of course you didn't know. How will you know, you only met him today. Captain Ching, is an extraordinary soldier and trainor. The best in this field. You are lucky you are in his team. You have to endure his shouting but in a war or battle, people are also shouting so just think that everyday, you are in a battlefield when you are with the Captain." The soldier helped me to sit down and patted my back. "You are amazing. Not making any sounds while the Captain was kicking you. You are made of tough stuff, Wang Dao. Well, at least what we all expect from General Wang's blood."
"Thank you..."
"Soldier Hao. You can call me Senior Hao. I am Captain Ching's second in command." The soldier finally gave me his name. "Wang Dao, a piece of advice, if you want to survive this place, you have to remember just two things. One...trust the system. It will never fail you." Senior Hao said.
"And the second one?"
"Never trust anyone," Senior Hao said. "Everyone in this place has an ambition that is why they are here. Trust only yourself and your instincts. Don't trust anyone."
"Even you?" I asked Senior Hao.
"Especially me." Senior Hao laughed, "It is my idea for Captain Ching to struck your head with the wooden bowl to stop you from attacking Master Rei. It is also my idea to pour cold water to wake you up." He patted my shoulder again. "Starve today. You earn it. Those blatant disrespect had no place here in the military base. Welcome to the club."
"The club?" I frowned.
"Me, Captain Ching, Captain Tzu, we all starved in our first day here too. So are hundreds of soldiers and officials in this place. You are part of that club now. Welcome to the Palace Military Base, Master Wang Dao. If you will keep resisting the system, this place will be your personal hell here on Earth." Senior Hao stood up and walk away, laughing.
I stayed sitting on the elevated floor of the room. My muscles started protesting from the abuse we are experiencing in just one day.