Love In A Sinking Realm ⊰BTS⊱ Steampunk

CHAPTER 7 ➣ The WRA

"Hands above your head!" barked the WRA soldier.

Her heart whipped in her chest, breathing heavily, she raised her hands. Taehyung mimicked her.

They were escorted in the middle of the plaza. The destruction was now visible from all angles, some of it recent, judging by the black smoke still coming from the bombarded sights. A morbid graveyard of demolished buildings, wounded and healthy soldiers, barricades, and anti-bombing cannons.

"McRayan! We found these two kids, look!" he called out to his comrade.

The man named McRayan sat up from a chair. He had his hair cut to the bone, his chiseled face painted with a diagonal stroke of purple paint, which was the dominant color of the Western Realm's flag. He approached, resting one bandaged hand on his rifle and with the other held his cigarette next to his mouth.

He drew a puff and before answering he blew out the smoke from his nostrils, "What are two kids doing so far Southeast, eh?"

A dozen soldiers gathered around them.

Y/N swallowed hard. McRayan looked at them back and forth, expecting a reply which was stuck in their dry throats.

"You, boy! What are you doing here?"

Taehyung felt his conscience frozen with fear, unable to join his thoughts in a coherent order. What was their purpose again? What were they doing? Why were they doing it?

McRayan wiggled his finger at his men, who obey instantly and loaded their weapons.

"If you don't give me an answer, I'm going to have to give it to you! And you're not gonna like what I'm thinking right now. Spies roam these lands like cockroaches around a junkyard, eh!" he said harshly.

The caw outcry of crows resonated from the grey sky.

The soldier, having lost his patience, narrowed his eyes, raised the stock of his rifle, and slammed it against Taehyung's face. With a painful groan, he was knocked on his knees, holding his cheekbone with his palms.

"Did you swallow your tongue, eh boy?!"

The blood in Y/N's vessels froze once more, but this time she felt the vicious urge to punch McRayan back. The same urge she's been having ever since they left Balus Island. She was slowly getting sick and tired of receiving abuse without expressing retaliation. Nevertheless, her common sense and rationality overruled her impulses and stepped in front of the soldier, maintaining her arms in the air. Besides, they were outnumbered, and the last thing they wanted was to attract any attention to them.

"We're researchers from the Capital, sent by the OAP*!" she explained frantically before he could hit him again, "We're looking for plague victims to collect data! Please! We're doctors!"

(* OAP = Order of Alchemists and Physicians)

"Aren't you a wee bit too young to be doctors?" said the man, his rifle, currently used as a melee weapon, raised to the ready.

"We're Apprentices, aye! We volunteered because all of our Scholars have fallen at war! Please don't hurt us! If you have any wounded, we can be of help!"

"And why would you wanna help soldiers of the WRA, eh?"

"Because that's what we do! We don't look anyone in eye!" she antagonized.

"Even the bloody easterners?"

"Yes!"

He scoffed and glanced at his comrades mockingly, "You'd betray your country to heal those bloody savages?---"

"If you put it this way, then I'd be betraying my country AND the new Empire to heal the WRA. But fortunately for you, the OAP does not deal in politics, and nor does my conscience! Now if you have any wounded that need tending, point us in their direction. If you want to call us traitors or spies, then point that gun in my face and pull the damned trigger! But I hope you have a good excuse to give to your superiors for killing the only medics around here that could've saved the lives of so many of your soldiers!" she affirmed with aggressive authority and confidence, which left everyone speechless.

"Wha---" McRayan tried to backfire, clearly intimidated by her demeanor.

"Hurry up and make up your mind, people are dying as we speak!"

Taehyung and the other soldiers moved their heads back and forth as if watching a badminton match. Instead, the girl pressed her lips and stared at McRayan, her head tilted with disapproval, awaiting his response.

Finally, after weighing his options and left with little choice, seeing that his men needed immediate medical attention, he nodded and signaled his comrades to lower their weapons. Y/N helped Taehyung to stand and handed him a piece of cloth to press against his bloody cheekbone.

"Are you alright?" she whispered.

"Yeah, thanks," he reassured her with his typical warming smile, often used to conceal pain or distress to the mental benefit of others, "You were amazing."

Y/N's lips curled into a shy smile, "Come on, stop it...I feel like I will vomit any time now..."

"I mean it. You saved us!"

"Thank you...I suppose..."

For some mysterious reason, Taehyung felt a lump growing in his throat. The way she demonstrated resolve and authority, even under such dire circumstances, told more about her than she showed. A strange, wistful, and woeful sentiment flooded his heart.

But why?

His state of mind did not go unnoticed by Y/N, who knitted her eyebrows, wondering the provenance of this sensation. It was similar to the one they had while dining with the Royal family in Balus.

"If either of you ever so boldly tries to run, we'll---" McRayan started his threats unsuccessfully.

"Let me guess. You'll shoot us," the girl finished his sentence unbothered, "There wouldn't be much sense in running when the whole purpose is to stay and find plague victims among soldiers and villagers in the south."

The captain of the WRA instructed them to follow him. Y/N, Taehyung, McRayan, and three of his men, took a hike towards the hospital.

"Is it permitted to ask questions, captain McRayan?" Taehyung started as respectfully as he could while walking through the crumbled buildings.

"Depends on the questions."

"Can I ask you what's going on around here?"

The man waved his arm in an arc, showing the dreary scenery, "Take a look at it yourself, it's hard to miss."

"He means: Who are you and why are you still here?" Y/N intervened.

"We're the bloody WRA and we're gonna save the world from the usurper, Emperor Yujin, whether you like it or not!" he responded with slight sarcasm in his tone.

"Simple enough," remarked Y/N, unimpressed.

"You don't sound very convinced," said Taehyung.

"Well, but if you had spent nights and days in the cold, bombarded by Easterners and watching your men die like flies, you would've been as confused as I am," McRayan turned right at the end of the street and pointed in front of them, "There's the hospital. If you can call it that. There you'll find my wounded men and your precious plague patients."

Taehyung halted and so did all the rest of the company, "Wait! You keep your wounded alongside plague patients?"

"Err, yes...Why? We shouldn't?"

"Absolutely not! Separate them immediately, if they're not infected already!" he exclaimed in distress.

Y/N gasped.

McRayan scowled worriedly, strode forth, and opened his mouth, but he was brutally interrupted by a roaring siren that cracked the air with its ear-piercing scream.

Roars of Eastern military aircraft ripped the sky with their velocity.

"BOMBERS!" yelled McRayan and dispersed in the chaos.

Y/N ogled the sky. Despite the terror engulfing her like the wildfire that was about to rain on them, she couldn't help to admire the advanced technology of eastern engineering.

"HEY, KIDS, GET AWAY FROM THERE! FOLLOW ME!"

McRayan was already on the run. Taehyung grabbed the girl's hand, snapping her out of her thoughts, hearing the whistle of bombs dropping rapidly. They scampered desperately alongside WRA soldiers, chased down by the precipitation of flaming projectiles.

The afternoon sunshine waned, compared to the explosions clashing, blowing a potent heatwave that lunged everyone to hell.