She Does Have Big Ears...
She really does have big ears.... "Where did the Go player go?"
It was a regrettable tale, but since it was ultimately just Go played among us grunts, the XO's board manners were never particularly refined. And the board manners I had picked up while keeping that XO company were not exactly elegant either.
"You rascal, is that any way to tease your master?"
"At least in front of the Go board, it seems I'm the master here."
"Ugh..."
Master Lu Zhi's deliberation stretched on. He might be able to snatch victories in individual tactical exchanges, but on the grand strategic scale the board had already tilted heavily in my favor. This result would never have emerged had I not carried the countless records accumulated hundreds of years into the future. And it certainly would not have happened if my XO back in the Afghanistan deployment had not been the undisputed best Go player in the entire force.
"...I lost."
"Thank you for the lesson."
"You learned well. I feel as if my eyes have been opened a little."
"You flatter me."
"You... You look so neat and proper, yet you play a truly vicious, merciless game of Go."
"Yeah... well."
I don't actually know Go that well. Factions, territory, all of it—at the end of the day it had simply been a way to kill time with the XO in that brutally hot Afghan dust. And since the man himself had learned from internet servers, there was a limit to the profound secrets I could have absorbed. In truth, had it not been for the early advantage I seized by invading the corner with the 3-3 invasion, I would have been the one defeated.
Even though I had profited by deploying modern joseki unknown to the ancients, even though I had shattered every single refuted opening that had been dismantled long ago, my lead remained razor-thin. If we played again, would I lose? Not that I had any intention of granting a rematch.
"Hmm... Yes. That should do nicely."
"Pardon?"
"Among my current disciples there is one who stands in complete opposition to you. He knows how to save everyone else but has no idea how to save himself. Unlike you, who pursues profit with such ferocious single-mindedness, he is a man who builds influence with equal ferocity."
"Is that so?"
"Neither you nor that fellow came to me to study the classics, so get to know each other. Ask him whatever you wish to know."
"...Pardon?"
"You did not come here to learn literature, did you? Even if only half of what Lord Hou said about you is true, your insight cannot be so shallow. Moreover, judging by the current state of the Liaoxi Army, your capacity is already far too large for anything I could teach you. What you need is not knowledge from me but the reputation of having studied under me, is it not?"
"..."
"And you have no plans to head to the capital, I presume. A fierce profit-seeker like yourself would not dream of reviving a crumbling imperial house. Instead... yes, instead you would let the Dirty Stream faction collapse as it deserves, transform the Liaoxi Army into a paradise of peace, and bide your time. Am I wrong?"
He was exactly right. Until that big-eared fellow, that NTR bastard, that rat seized power and stabilized the chaotic world, my only desire was to live quietly and comfortably with my family. No faction would bother aiming for You Province, which possessed nothing but snow, ice, barbarians, and clean air. If things went truly wrong, I intended to hand over gunpowder technology to Liu Bei or that other bastard and seek shelter with them. If it grew even worse, crossing the Yalu River to Goguryeo remained an option. And if it went wrong even after that? Buddy, if it reaches that point, then I become a gangster too. There is no next step. Cross the Bering Strait to the New World? Even in the twenty-first century that remains the most dangerous sea on the planet.
"Therefore the suggestion is that you mingle with that Liu Bei fellow, the extreme territorialist. Since the two of you are polar opposites, you will make perfect friends—each able to shave away the other's excesses and supply what the other lacks."
...What? Who?
"Liu Bei... you mean?"
"Yes. Ah, his courtesy name is Xuande."
The brilliant so-called dirty blonde... hair of a deep golden hue so dark it approached black. The green eyes that only manifested in those carrying the imperial bloodline had faded considerably, now appearing nearly black. Thanks to the legacy of Emperor Gaozu Liu Bang—or perhaps the imperial blood still carried that particular trait—her chest swelled larger than most men's heads, boldly asserting its presence. Her white, slender fingers bore calluses in several places, testimony to the manual labor she had performed.
"Liu Bei of Takhyeon, at your service."
"Gongsun Zan of Liaoxi."
...She really did have big ears. No—wait, she's an elf? What the hell? Was primitive ancient China actually a fantasy realm where dwarves lived in the mountains ahead and dragons in the mountains behind? Or had Homo sapiens, those primitive ancient war machines akin to Neanderthals, wiped out both elves and dwarves to emerge as the final victors of Ragnarok? If there truly is an afterlife, I really must ask a history-major ghost about this someday.
"Master has spoken of you. He said you pursue profit rather than righteousness."
"I do pursue righteousness. It simply isn't my highest priority."
"...I see. Since Master has spoken, I will accompany you for the time being. However, I would appreciate it if you refrained from harboring any untoward thoughts. I am thoroughly tired of men who approach me claiming distant ties to the imperial clan."
"I have a fiancée."
And I prefer Eastern women to Western ones, you delusional princess.
"..."
"Why are you looking at me like that?"
"It's nothing."
Much, much later I learned that she had felt embarrassed for acting smug in front of a man who already had a partner.
"So, what shall we do now?"
From what Teacher Lu Zhi had told me, I was supposed to follow her around and do whatever needed doing. We had already exchanged greetings and I had unpacked my belongings at a nearby inn. Thanks to the rather generous allowance my father-in-law (Jin) had provided, I would not need to worry about money for several years. Teacher Lu Zhi had essentially abandoned me with the instruction to learn as I saw fit. So... now what?
"Hmm... Would you care to spar?"
"...Pardon?"
"It is no boast, but I am currently gathering my own faction."
"A faction?"
"Yes. The hearts of the people are restless, the Emperor is ensnared by eunuch schemes and cannot even govern himself. A chaotic age will soon arrive. The Han imperial house may not perish, but we will need a group capable of protecting those who cannot protect themselves."
"That is true."
"Master is aware of this as well. The reason he attached Lord Baigyu to me must be because he believed it would benefit my faction. Therefore, should I not first assess Lord Baigyu's ability?"
So she wants to throw down right here and now? Fine. I added a line to the mental memo pad.
Liu Bei is a crazy bitch. If things go south, sticking close to that other bastard seems like the best move. The reason Homo Elfius went extinct was because they were all battle junkies.
"Very well. Let's do it."
I was the newly arrived rolling stone. In that case, it would be wise to accommodate the temperament of the stone already embedded in the ground. I loosened my stiff joints one by one, picked up a wooden sword lying in the corner of the training yard, and snapped it in half across my knee.
"...?"
No matter how many times I say it, I was a soldier in my previous life. And soldiers rarely have occasion to use swords. I knew how, of course, but never the kind of full-length longsword these primitive ancient Chinatown people wielded—blades as long as a man's torso. At most it had been machete-style jungle knives or dagger work for close-quarters battle. Fighting a longsword with a dagger is insane, but since this was only a wooden practice sword that wouldn't kill you even if it connected, I figured this would serve as a decent test of how my skills measured up in this era.
I extended my left hand, gripping the broken half like a dagger in reverse hold, measuring the distance to Homo Elfius... to Liu Bei. My right hand remained hidden behind my back to distort her perception of range. I twisted my stance slightly diagonal to minimize my target profile. My center of gravity rested on the balls of my feet, ready to explode forward at any instant. My knees stayed softly bent to receive acceleration easily.
"Should I come at you first?"
I recalled a mad bastard I had met in my previous life. A dopamine junkie utterly obsessed with CQB. He had once said that every so often—very rarely—a certain moment arrived. A moment in which even blinking became a life-or-death crisis, every nerve in the body stretched taut, where you had to perform acrobatics on a single-log bridge leading directly to death. A moment when the opponent's breathing fell perfectly in sync with your own. When one second stretched like an hour and a single blink felt like eternity. A time when it genuinely felt as though you could do anything. That was why he had charged Middle-Eastern terrorists with two knives in hand. He had been one of the few genuine lunatics I could count on one hand from my past life.
"Do as you please."
"Good. Then... now!"
Still, the techniques I had learned from that madman remained vivid in my memory. The peculiar triangular footwork, driving off the ground with the left foot that had been rear, claiming the right diagonal, then kicking off with the right foot while dropping my waist as low as possible to slip out of her line of sight. The moment I reached the perfect position her sword swept through the space where I had been, passing harmlessly over my back which was now bent low enough for my left hand to brush the ground. I slammed the dagger in my left hand against the earth and used the rebound to snap my waist upright.
"What?!"
My left foot landed directly beside her lead foot. With our feet nearly touching it became awkward for her to pivot her body, and by the time she tried to recover her sword the dagger I held reversed in my left hand was already faster. She twisted her waist desperately to escape the line, but—
Crack!
My right knee, still carrying the full force of the spring, drove straight into her back. The recoil whipped her head backward into the wooden sword held in my left hand.
Thud!
It was wood, but the fractured end I had created by snapping it was still serviceable. I switched the piece in my right hand to a reverse grip and moved to tear open her carotid—
That was enough. Tsk... Had it really been that long? I couldn't control myself. No, if I've reincarnated, shouldn't something like this have improved on its own? Shouldn't it? I don't know anymore.