Antifragile

“Is everyone ready to go?”

Chaewon, Sakura, Kazuha and Yunjin had decided to meet up with Eunchae at Yeonhee’s place to work out a way to free Eunbi before the soldiers interrogated her. Kazuha had finally recovered from her injury and insisted on tagging along, while Wonyoung and Yujin had volunteered to stay behind with Yuri and Yena instead. Chaewon didn’t really trust them not to blow up the house, but she had to make do with what she had. And so, the four of them set off for Yeonhee’s house.

They arrived in a fairly short amount of time, to a neat and simple looking house. It was decently big and had a pretty, well maintained garden, but it failed to stand out among the other houses along the road. It was the perfect disguise for a band of bandits.

“Hey! Eunchae’s waiting inside with Yeonhee unnie.” Suyun said as she greeted them brightly.

Suyun looked much better than when Sakura had last seen her. Now that Suyun was up and about, Sakura noticed how ridiculously tall the girl was. Suyun was like a giant. And unlike last time they had met, Suyun now donned a white eyepatch that covered up her injured eye.

Eunchae was waiting for them inside as they settled into a circle on the floor. Sakura recognised Juri a few places down from her, as well as Dahyun who sat directly opposite her. There was one more girl who looked slightly familiar sitting next to Yeonhee, who must have been Sohee. Sohee looked much better than the last time Sakura had seen her. She was laughing and conversing cheerfully with Yunjin, flashing Sakura a warm smile when she noticed her staring.

“Now that we’re all here, we need to brainstorm. Obviously we don’t have much time, and so we must act quickly.” Yeonhee declared as she clapped her hands to get everyone’s attention.

“We have exactly five days before the emperor leaves. I heard my parents talking about the visit when I still lived in the palace. The emperor leaves in about 4 days, and interrogations always begin at precisely 6am the day after an important guest leaves. I’m guessing this time will be no exception.” Sakura supplied.

“And we know that the guards rotate shifts at 2am and 1pm, but we only have a thirty second interval at each timing to get into the prison, retrieve Eunbi and get her out without getting caught. It’s nearly impossible to pull off.” Chaewon added.

“Why can’t we just intercept them during the day instead? If they only rotate shifts twice, then isn’t it easier for us to knock them out in the middle of the shift so we have more time?” Wonyoung asked.

“The king’s assistant patrols that area every 2 minutes to make sure the guards are there, except for ten minutes before and after the guards rotate shifts. And during those 2 minutes, he reports to the king using some secret system nobody has decided yet. If he doesn’t report to the king, the king himself and the entire army will report to the dungeon to kill the intruders. It’s easier to attack during the rotating of the shifts so that we can buy ourselves more time.” Sakura explained.

“It is possible to delay the interval, but by my estimate the most we can extend it by is up to 5 minutes. You see, when the guards rotate shifts, they must return to a special room and handover the keys to the guard waiting to replace them. The guards waiting in the room are not allowed to leave the room until they are handed the key, unless 5 minutes have passed and nobody has shown up. If we can somehow delay the guards from handing over the keys to the prison, we can extend the time we have to break Eunbi out.” Kazuha suggested.

“How do we know that the guards in the room won’t simply disobey orders and leave beforehand? We can’t risk getting caught.” Sohee reasoned.

“The king himself is present in the waiting room to ensure that the guards follow protocol. Failure to comply results in immediate execution. Although they may not respect the king, the guards are smart enough to follow his orders in order to keep their lives.” Kazuha explained.

“It sounds like a good idea, but how exactly do you plan on delaying the guards?” Yeonhee piped up.

“We could…slip laxatives into some food and leave it for them to find at the right time? If they’re stuck in the toilet, they can’t handover the keys right?” Eunchae said.

“Isn’t it a bit suspicious if food just randomly shows up outside the prison though? Like imagine guarding the dungeon and suddenly a cupcake just appears in the hand of a statue nearby or something.” Yunjin countered.

“Then what’s your idea genius?” Eunchae spat back.

“We use brute force of course. There’s more of us than them. Surely we can overpower them.”

“The guards are armed with weapons, but they’re easy to disable. And Yunjin is right, there’s only two guards on duty at each time. We may just be able to overpower them if we combine our strength.” Sakura agreed.

“The thing is…I don’t think we can help you rescue Eunbi. I’m sorry. There’s been an emergency at one of our locations outside of Hanyang*, and all six of us are needed there. I really wish we could help since we owe Eunbi so much.” Yunkyoung said apologetically.

“Don’t apologise, you don’t owe us anything. Please just focus on settling your business. We’ll find a way, don’t worry.” Chaewon reassured them.

“Let’s say the four of us, plus Yujin and Wonyoung manage to get in, would it be enough to overwhelm the guards?” Yunjin mused.

“I’m trained in martial arts, so I can probably handle both of them alone if I have to.” Sakura answered shyly.

“I still think we should find backup, just in case something goes wrong.” Chaewon replied.

“What’s the plan after we knock the guards out?” Kazuha asked.

“We’ll steal their keys and enter the prison, locate Eunbi unnie and rescue her before they come too. After that, we run for our lives. We need to act fast so that we have time to put some distance between ourselves and the guards so that when they come to and report the attack, we’ll be far enough that they can’t chase us. Ideally, we’ll be out of the palace by the time they come to.” Chaewon instructed.

“Another question, won’t we stand out with our clothes?” Eunchae asked.

“I can get us handmaiden uniforms through Chaeyeon by tomorrow, it’s not a problem. That way we’ll be able to blend it a lot better. Besides, handmaidens sometime go down in large groups to the prison since they have to go through the same hallway as the guards to reach their resting quarters so nobody would even question us being there.”

“Guys! I think I know someone who will act as our backup in rescuing Eunbi! They recently had one of their members get arrested and were looking for help in freeing her. If we join forces, we could save both of them!” Yunjin suddenly exclaimed.

“Really? Who?”

“…”

Eunbi sat in her cell quietly, trying to look for a way out. She didn’t know how long she had been locked in the cell, but she knew that at least a few days had past. She tried to remain strong, but the fear of death kept haunting her. She was grateful that at least she wasn’t dead, yet. She also wasn’t severely injured, which had shocked her since the soldiers were infamous for their brutality. In fact, it only made her even more suspicious of them. Why were they taking such special care of her?

“There’s no way out. Believe me, I tried. I got beaten half to death just for getting caught while trying to move a brick in the wall.” A solemn voice called to her from the darkness.

Eunbi squinted in the direction the voice had come from, but she couldn’t make out anything beyond the bar of her cell. The prison was sorely lacking in lighting, making it almost impossible to see anything beyond the cell the person was trapped in.

“Who’s there?” Eunbi demanded, putting up a brave front.

She heard a chuckle, followed by the sound of movement.

“An ally, I guess. Or a companion if you’d prefer. I’ve been here for about a month or so, and I’ve already experienced almost every kind of torture known to man. Your arrival saved me from being executed since the guards turned all their attention to you, so now I’m trying to return the favour by making your stay here as painless as possible. Trust me, getting electrocuted is not fun. And neither is being drowned repeatedly in a sink or having them rip your nails out. The last one doesn’t sound so bad when you first hear it but it’s excruciating.”

Eunbi moved closer to the voice, until she was sitting right at the oddly padded bars that divided their cells. Still, she couldn’t see who the voice belonged to.

“Who…who are you exactly? What did you do to make the soldiers hurt you so badly?”

“Me? I’m just a bandit like you. I guess since they killed everyone else so quickly, I was the only one the soldiers could take their anger out on. They want me alive since they’re holding me hostage. So they torture me, but not to the point of death. I could breathe wrongly and they’d take offence to it. I remember I got electrocuted because I coughed when one of them walked by me since I contracted a disease, and they yanked out all of my fingernails for speaking in Korean since I don’t know Japanese. Like I said, you could breathe the wrong way and they’d torture you for it.”

“Why are they holding you hostage? Does your family owe them money? I can help.” Eunbi offered.

“No, no, it’s nothing like that. It’s because one of the bandits in our group hails from a wealthy family who are very influential. They’re using me to exploit money out of her. I can’t believe that idiot girl actually complied. All they’re going to do is bleed her dry then kill me, but of course she couldn’t listen to instructions when I told her to never listen to their demands. I did try to…you know…not burden her anymore by removing myself…but I failed and now I’m stuck in a padded cell. Even my bars are padded.”

Eunbi heard the sound of shuffling, and she looked up to see the faint outline of a face come into view. Finally, a girl about Eunbi’s age appeared from the shadows. She had scars all over her face and body, and some of her fingers had been crushed to the point of being deformed. She moved with a limp, pain briefly flashing in her eyes every time she moved. Despite all this, the girl was still absolutely stunning. She had a delicate looking face, and the her eyes tilted upwards when she smiled at Eunbi. Eunbi couldn’t help feeling awestruck by her beauty despite the situation.

“I guess you’re my cell buddy for now. Nice to meet you.” The girl said, bowing her head.

“Nice to meet you. I’m Kwon Eunbi, and you?”

“I’m Jieun, Park Jieun.”