The Thousand Mask Warrior

Yulgok

Jayaseta was not in the mood for what he had done. This was the biggest mistake of his life as far as he could remember.

How could he betray Almira, his wife, and fall into the charm of Dara Cempaka that night. He could not lie that the beauty of the girl made him look at Almira. Either because of the influence of the spells that Punyan cast, and the supernatural power of the Temenggung Bear, or really his own misery.

Jayaseta was forced to accept the latter.

The longing for the wife and the relationship between the husband and wife were not long stirred, and the beauty of Dara Cempaka who he had just realized. Maybe all this time Jayaseta had put his heart on Dara Cempaka, but he himself refused to believe himself and even denied it.

Whatever it is, it's all over. As a warrior of choice, traveling to various regions and fighting various powerful and dangerous enemies, Jayaseta never felt as wrong and cowardly as this.

He did not dare to look at the face of Dara Cempaka who was flushed in this blind morning. His body was wrapped in cloth in a makeshift manner.

***

Dara Cempaka is confused about what to feel and how. He was sad because he had given up his holiness in the wrong circumstances and completely unplanned. This great sin has happened, he did it consciously even full of pleasure.

It is impossible to resist the charm of Jayaseta, the person she loves since the first meeting. If questioned, then he will say that this is his overall fault. It is not that as a woman, she is to blame, like all the other women in the world. However, he could have resisted Jayaseta's temptation that night. He could have assumed that Jayaseta was brash, obscene and harassing him.

Only, what if he himself is waiting for moments like this? What if it was actually someone who consciously or unconsciously tried to tempt Jayaseta to touch her, touch her?

Dara Cempaka lowered his head, watching the sweat running down his arm, reflecting the incoming morning sunlight through the wooden walls.

He is ready for whatever happens. Badly, he will get shame, customary and religious punishment, as well as his extended family. Dara Cempaka can not imagine how the feelings and attitudes of his beloved grandfather with this behavior and actions of his unholy, not to mention his parents.

However, on the other hand, maybe he can be with Jayaseta. Maybe they'll marry soon. Whatever it is, wasn't overnight action done on the basis of liking? Doesn't this mean that his beloved brother has the same interest as him?

Realizing this, Dara Cempaka held a half-dead smile.

***

The Kingdom or the Great Joseon State has been established since centuries ago, precisely in 1392 AD after the collapse of the kingdom of the Goryeo dynasty. The Joseon Dynasty was founded by Yi Seong-gye who moved the royal capital from Kaesong to Hanseong, while the boundaries were expanded in the northern part of the kingdom to Yalu and the Tumen River through the conquest of the Jurchens.

Yi Seong-gye was the previous warlord of the kingdom, Goryeo, who overthrew the Wangs. When he became king, he even wanted to finish off all the families of this house.

The Joseon kingdom or also called Choson of the Yi dynasty, or Li in Chinese, was heavily influenced by the Confucian religion and philosophy of China. In fact, it can be said that every joint of the Joseon nation's life is influenced by China, from clothing, food and even writing. This is because the kingdom fully supports Confucian ideals and beliefs. Support for the religion that was born in China is often also a problem for the religion that was first present there, namely Buddha, where the adherents often get persecuted and debased.

So strong is the influence of China on this kingdom that makes Joseon also a prosperous country.

The Daya youth who was sharp-edged but narrow-eyed like the Chinese or Japanese was actually a person from Joseon. Originally a slave, he was sold to the Ming Chinese kingdom by his master in Joseon but later the ship where he worked was attacked by the Japanese. It was in this Japanese captivity that he was forced to become a soldier and later to help the Ronin or the Samurai no man, working for the Walandas of Betawi.

A few years ago, when Walanda sent ambassadors to the kingdom of Sukadana, the young Joseon man joined as bodyguard and part of the Walanda army with the ronin.

During the Joseon kingdom, the number of slaves reached more than half the population, the rest were servants and farmers, as well as people who had positions in the kingdom such as soldiers or soldiers, courtiers, and peasants, blue blooded family or people in royal circle.

This is why only the blue-blooded, priyayi, have surnames. While the slaves were basically nameless, making half of the Joseon nation also nameless.

But there was a change when there was an attack from the Japanese and Manchus, as well as the Qing Chinese dynasty of the Manchus who would replace the Ming China.

These invading nations demanded taxes and tributes from Joseon because they demanded to be considered a larger nation. Therefore, Joseon allowed slaves to pay to buy names and increase their dignity so that they would no longer be mere nameless slaves. On the other hand, the Joseon kingdom then had a fee to pay taxes and tributes on the invading countries.

Most slaves chose influential, powerful and most famous family names in Joseon, while some chose their master's surnames so it was memorable that the number of their families grew rapidly and greatly.

The young man took the name Yulgok which means 'Castanya Peanut Tree Valley', referring to the pseudonym of Yi I, a 16th-century Confucian scholar and scholar in Joseon there.

When he was a child and became a slave, he did not think at all to be able to increase his degree to become a soldier or swordsman. He always dreamed of becoming a scholar and thinker.

Even as a child, in Joseon there, martial arts, silat and the art of war had declined due to the royal penchant and his officials for Confucian religion and philosophy. Warriors and martial activities were also banned on a large scale, except for soldiers or the royal army.

But after that, his real life hits him hard, he has to wake up and accept this life path, where violence and blood adorn his future.

Yulgok took his long sword, a jingum, which was very similar to the Japanese katana but with a slightly thicker and wider blade. This can be understood because jingum is very influenced by the original sword.

When the Japanese attacked Joseon, katana swords and the like, most were damaged or brought back to Japan after the war. The Joseon warriors tried to imitate the Japanese sword form and developed their own swords using jingums that distinguished them from Japanese swords.

Yulgok remembered when three ronin who came with him to Tanjung Pura island had to die, killed by the soldiers of Daya. He himself, thanks to his Joseon swordsmanship, was able to fight and kill three others.

Three lives were lost to three lives.

Yulgok's sword playing ability is praised and admired by the Biaju Power warlord. Therefore, instead of killing Yulgok, the commander appointed him as part of the Biaju tribe and accepted him as part of their warlord.

Thus, Yulgok, with the similar clothing of other Daya Biaju warriors is only different from long silk pants covering his legs and a special belt to hang the jingum, he had prepared with dozens of other soldiers to attack the ulin wooden fortress of the Daya tribe which had been a bitter enemy of the Biaju for a long time.