Chapter Text
The Joseon dynasty was the longest, most glorious and last to reign on the Korean peninsula, right until 1910, when Korea was annexed by Japan, who removed the last empreror.
Many years have passed since the moment of greatest splendor of the dynasty and the country called South Korea today, but undoubtedly the foundations of Korean society were established during the Joseon dynasty: Hangeul, the korean writing system, was created after stop using the Chinese alphabet, and Confucianism was stablished as the doctrine that will rein in the rein instead of budism. Confucian values put the alpha as the head of the hierarchical system that is a family, and it was up to them to rule the family. The strong traditions and values of the Confucian society of one of the most technologically developed countries in the world meant that there was still a long way to go to achieve omega equality.
But this isn't a story about the current situation in South Korea.
It's a love story, from a distant time, when the emperor reigned from Seoul and Japanese pirates ravaged the coasts of the continent's territories to survive.
At that time there was a fierce warrior, a powerful and proud alpha named Jung Hoseok. He was a general of the imperial army, and he had under his command a large squad of warriors conformed over the years and with whom he had established stronger ties than those that unite you to people of your blood, because Hoseok put his live in the hands of his warriors when they went to battle, just as they put their lives in the hands of their general to lead them wisely to victory. All the members of his unit were capable and loyal men and women, mostly alphas but there were also some betas among them, because Hoseok believed that they could become as good as their peers through hard work. And no one valued hard work and sacrifice like Jung Hoseok.
Orphan from a very young age, he was left in the care of his uncle, a greedy farmer who sold his nephew when he was eleven years old to the first battalion that crossed the small town where they lived in exchange for a few coins. From that moment on, Hoseok had to take care of himself, and work to earn a living, as the general with whom his uncle made the deal made clear to him on the very first day. He started out as a simple pack mule, carrying heavy bundles during the long days of trekking until they reached the border of the kingdom, where the emperor's enemies crowded, waiting for a sign of weakness. When they reached their destination, he became a messenger, carrying things from one side to the other of the large camp in which the warriors had settled and fulfilling the orders he was given. Little by little he demonstrated his value, and they gave him orders of greater importance, which allowed him to know the ins and outs of the war machine that is an army.
When he turned sixteen he enlisted as a soldier, and soon became the first of his battalion, because although he hadn't received training, he had been living day by day with sabers and pistols for many years. From there his career in the army was meteoric, reaching General shortly after his thirtieth birthday. No one had given him anything, Hoseok worked hard every day to keep improving, to do better every day and become the best version of himself. There were many battles in which he had participated, and in almost all of them he had emerged victorious. There are many losses on the battlefield, but Hoseok was proud that his battalion was one with the fewest casualties. His expertise as a strategist and combatant had been recognized by the emperor himself, with whom he had met on an occasion to receive a recognition from his hands, a pride with which the little eleven-year-old Hoseok who had just arrived at his first military camp couldn't even dream about.
There were many problems that the descendants of the first emperor who established the Joseon dynasty had to face over the centuries, but we are only interested in the events that took place at the end of the 16th century. The Korean peninsula was invaded by the Japanese because they refused to serve as a way for the islanders to China. The war raged on that piece of land for seven years, a fierce fight between the fighters of the land of the rising sun who came riding the waves and the proud Koreans who were willing to give everything to defend their land and the land of their ancestors. However, the fierceness of the defenders wasn't enough against the force of the powerful weapons of the Japanese fighters, as well as the pirates who ravaged the Korean coasts with the support of the Japanese emperor, who saw in the corsairs a powerful ally in the war.
Corsairs were a figure far from habitual piracy. Pirates were poor vermins, from the worst social classes, who stole on the high seas or coastal cities for profit, without distinction of any kind. Corsairs were sailors hired and financed by a state at war to inflict losses on the enemy and cause as much damage as possible respecting the orders of the monarch who hired them. The Japanese emperor hired a large number of corsairs, to whom he indicated the objectives they wanted to conquer, and the corsairs did the dirty workfor them, with complete freedom to unleash the cruelty that characterized these attacks. They robbed, raped and murdered wherever they passed, leaving entire cities reduced to ashes, so when the japanese army arrived they didn't meet any resistance.
Preventing one of these attacks was the new mission entrusted to General Jung. The high command had received the information that a formation of galleons was heading towards Busan, a large coastal city in the southeast of the peninsula, so Hoseok's squad quickly set off.
All the members of his squad were very capable, and Hoseok trusted them with his life, because he knew they would cover his back until their last breath. But there was a select group within his squad that he trusted more than himself: his right hand, alpha Kim Seokjin, who was incharge of trrop control, the one after Hoseok who knew the most about his team, controlling at all times what each member of the team was doing; alpha Kim Namjoon, an expert strategist whose power resided in the books, since in them he found information that used at the proper time could mean the difference between victory and defeat; his beta, Min Yoongi , who he could always count on to find solutions to any problem that arose; and finally the beta pair formed by Kim Taehyung and Jeon Jungkook, Jungkook was an expert swordsman who was just as skilled in hand-to-hand fighting and Taehyung an expert with gunpowder, who handled pistols that Hoseok had not even heard of and could make an explosion with almost anything. These men had spent more battles with Hoseok than anyone else, and the bond that had been created between them was unbreakable. All of them were an indispensable part of his team, and Hoseok didn't know what he would do without just one of them, because they did their job impeccably, and he had not a single complaint about any of them, tireless workers who like Hoseok sought maximum efficiency in what they did.
As soon as they received the mission, they began to prepare, and the next day, at dawn, they left for the coastal city. Hoseok had heard that it was a beautiful and prosperous city, and he hoped that they could protect it so that it would continue to be so. But when they finally spotted the coast, after three days of forced marches to reach their objective as soon as possible, the general realized that the war had taken its toll on that place as well. Built forts stood on both sides of the city, along with numerous guarded towers where the arrival of pirates was watched day and night. The atmosphere was gloomy, there were no people on the streets of that once lively city. Hoseok was going to do his best so that the people of Busan wouldn't have to face the fury of the pirates, so they could go back to what they were once war was over.
It was dead night, the second day since they arrived in Busan, when the thunderous bells over the watchtowers gave notice that the enemy ships had been sighted, so Hoseok's team immediately set off. They were divided into different places around the city, a platoon commanded by each of his trusted men except Namjoon and Yoongi, who fought alongside him because they were essential to control the course of the battle, and to change strategies as necessary, according to the messages that courageous young messengers were in charge of transmitting to the general in the heat of battle. They were prepared to face the fierce corsairs, but they had underestimated the number of enemies they would have to face.
Soon the clash of swords filled the night, along with the screams of the wounded and the smell of blood and death. They held the attack as best they could, but they were outnumbered five men to one. The corsairs began to make their way towards the center of the city, destroying everything they found and skewing the lives that were put before them. The flames rose strongly in the night, the crackle of the fire that was consuming the wooden buildings was deafening. The pirates were disorganized but fast, they looted as much as they could and destroyed what they couldn't take, and soon they left the city. It was a carnage, the fierce pirates murdered in cold blood everyone who got in front of them, and they left a huge trail of bodies throughout the streets of the city. The warriors fought with the pirates until the last moment, taking the life of many of those scoundrels, but they also had to dedicate themselves to saving the citizens they could from the fire consuming the city. Once again the screams filled the night, soldiers struggling to get people out of the burning houses. There were just a few they could save from the virulent flames engulfing everything in their path. There was nothing they could do to fight the fire, they could only observe how the city was consumed until there was only ashes left moved by the wind. The survivors of all the horrors of the night took refuge on a nearby hill as they watched their city burn to the ground, the place where they had lived, laughed, loved, and now lost their loved ones in a war they didn't understand. The first rays of sunlight crossed the sky, while the flames painted dark shadows on the faces of those who were still breathing the air stale by the smell of death
It was then, in the first light of day, as he looked among the people milling around him for his warrior that he saw him for the first time.