In Zhenjin County
Wang Yeon lay neatly on her back.
And I lay draped over her body, still buried inside her.
I pressed my ear to her belly, feeling the rise and fall of her breath, savoring the pleasure of her Myeong-gi as it clenched around me with relentless strength.
The stretched folds of her pussy coiled around my cock. The pressure those folds delivered was beyond any comparison to Hyeon-ju's.
A martial artist. Her muscle power surpassed even the elite athletes of the modern world — and in a realm where the physical gap between men and women barely existed, even a Myeong-gi of the same class gripped my shaft with twice Hyeon-ju's force.
The ridges around her cervix ground hard against my glans, working me with tireless delight.
Stroke. Stroke.
Wang Yeon, head resting on the pillow, looked down at me with a soft gaze as she gently stroked my hair and my backside.
"Haah… Husband. Does it feel good?"
"Yeah."
That was the beauty of a Myeong-gi — even without thrusting, both partners could ride a continuous wave of pleasure.
"Yeon. How far do you want me to climb? Emperor? King? Grand General?"
"Mmm… Do as you please, Husband. But I am against becoming a king, an emperor, or a high central official."
The answer caught me off guard. I lifted my head and looked at her.
"Why?"
"Husband. Even my cousin, the Imperial Censor Wang Yun, is constantly swamped with work. And from what I hear, emperors and kings live under all sorts of constraints."
Come to think of it, I had heard that a king's schedule in Joseon was murderous, even if that was a different dynasty entirely.
A Provincial Inspector of one of the Han Empire's thirteen provinces. Aim for a post at that level, fill the commanderies with my own people, and swagger as a regional warlord — that didn't sound half bad.
Yi Province.
"Hmm. Fair enough. The age of warlords is about to begin… So we take the talent from Jing Province and head for Yi Province. If we just hold Yi Province and defend it well, we should eat and live comfortably until you and I both die of old age, don't you think?"
"Hoho. Yes. Husband will rule over us women, and we will handle the practical affairs ourselves. With those food stores alone, the population will grow. In Yi Province, our children's generation might even see its population surpass the Central Plains…"
I nodded.
"Hmm. Then should we hold off on releasing the seeds?"
"Just rice… Only rice for the Zhao village. Once we reach Yi Province, we release the Joseon wheat, Joseon sweet potato, and Joseon sorghum — all of it. Only your homeland on the Korean Peninsula and Yi Province get to prosper."
"Only on Baekje land… No. Those people would pass the grain on to Japan the moment we gave it to them. Only Goguryeo."
"Yes."
I liked Baekje best — a maritime kingdom. But Baekje had colonized Japan, which meant the seeds would almost certainly be planted there as well. So they were out.
Silla didn't sit well with me either. Goguryeo alone, then.
I was pleased.
Wang Yeon, who had always fretted over her clan, hadn't mentioned her family once. Today's sex seemed to have bound her completely to me.
"Why not Bing Province?"
"No. Thinking it over, even releasing them here in Zhao village is risky. Better to just send money through the merchant caravans on a regular schedule. And don't open any estates in Jing Province either."
Talking with her made me reconsider the whole seed-release problem.
Food was a weapon.
Abundant food meant stable population growth.
And then there were the medicines. I would have to pour gold into restocking the gold the system consumed, but used properly, the idea of Yi Province overtaking the Central Plains in population no longer felt like pure fantasy.
"And the Korean Peninsula?"
"I'll cut off trade with the peninsula for now. Give them only rice, Joseon sorghum, and Joseon wheat. Even then, it will take decades for anything to spread as far as the Central Plains."
"You're my Zhang Liang."
"Hoho. Oh, Husband."
I felt her soft hands. Her scent. Lying this comfortably on a woman's body was something I could only do in this young frame.
"Husband. The Yellow Turban Rebellion, the Ten Attendants' Revolt, Dong Zhuo, the campaign against Dong Zhuo — do any of those ring a clear bell?"
Scratch, scratch.
She picked up the spring-bound notebook and ballpoint pen I had bought her, recording everything she had heard from me in Hangul.
"Hmm. First thing that comes to mind is Cao Cao's massacre in Xu Province."
"What? A massacre? On what pretext?"
"Well… Cao Cao's father was murdered in Xu Province, and that set it off…"
I listed the fragmentary facts I could recall. Cao Cao's father dying in Xu Province, the massacre that followed, and how Yu Bi ultimately took Xu Province as a result — then a string of other half-remembered events.
— The campaign against Lu Bu: Cao Cao and Yu Bi
— The war between Cao Cao and Yuan Shao
— Yuan Shu declaring himself emperor
— Cao Cao's occupation of Xiangyang
— The Battle of Red Cliffs
— Zhuge Liang's strategy of dividing the realm in three
— Yu Bi's entry into Shu
I tried to dredge up five years of Three Kingdoms anime, but this was as far as I got.
The memories were patchy, and the order of events I spat out was a complete mess.
"Then Yu Bi meets the great general Hwang Chung at Changsha after the Battle of Red Cliffs, doesn't she?"
I nodded.
Wang Yeon had remembered what I said earlier about Yu Bi meeting Hwang Chung at Changsha and pinned down the timing. Working backward from the facts, it had to be after Red Cliffs and before the entry into Shu.
Before Red Cliffs, Yu Bi clearly had no territory of her own.
Wang Yeon stared at the notebook for a long while, drawing circles. Then she met my eyes.
"Why is it that Jo Un, Jang Bi, you, and I never left our names in history?"
Talking about Jo Un and Jang Bi stung my pride. It made me feel as if I were afraid of Yu Bi and running from her.
"Smallpox? If I hadn't awakened my past-life abilities, I never would have released the smallpox vaccine, and we all would have died, don't you think?"
"Ah!!! Smallpox. Yes. And after the entry into Shu?"
"Sun Quan stabs them in the back and kills the great general Guan Yu, so Yu Bi raises hundreds of thousands for revenge. Ah!!! Lu Xun!! Lu Xun burned Yu Bi's entire army of hundreds of thousands at Yiling. The protagonist of the whole story dies, so I barely watched anything after that. I only know the ending — Cao Pi gets backstabbed by Sima Yi, and wait, Cao Cao's eldest son dies attacking Wan, taken down by Jia Xu."
The scratching of her pen stopped cold.
"Wasn't Jia Xu supposed to be on Cao Cao's side?"
"Hmm… They suffered a crushing defeat at the time, and I think the Grand Administrator and Jia Xu surrendered afterward. That was probably around the Lu Bu campaign."
Jia Xu.
Why did she feel more familiar than any other strategist except Zhuge Liang?
She hadn't been that likable in the anime.
"The unification of the realm is accomplished by Sima Yi or his son, correct? And even that dynasty doesn't last — the Wei-Jin Northern and Southern Dynasties period? The barbarians overrun the Central Plains?"
World history class.
I remembered my Korean history teacher saying that the civil wars of the Three Kingdoms era had ultimately left the country torn apart by foreign tribes.
I also remembered some kid who actually knew history asking whether it wasn't really the Jin Dynasty's own failures that caused it.
I nodded.
Nothing more came to mind. Trying to dredge up five years of memory only made my head hurt; nothing new surfaced.
"Yeah. But I think that's everything I remember. Will any of it help?"
"Hmm… Even this much is enormous information. Thank you for your hard work."
"But don't trust it too much. Like I said, the anime was based on a novel written a thousand years later. There'll be plenty of wrong facts. Like Diaochan."
"Yes. But no matter how much of a novel it is, the major events can't be completely twisted. If they had been, it never would have stayed popular for another thousand years."
Would it?
Well. If the whole thing had been pure fiction from start to finish, it might never have caught on as historical fiction.
Two heads really were better than one — just today, I had already recovered the event of Cao Cao's eldest son dying and the name Lu Xun.
She set the notebook aside. I had already taught her how to use the night-light, so she pressed the button and killed the lamp.
Two in the morning.
Feeling her body heat, feeling her hands on me, I tossed and turned and drifted off to sleep.
"Husband."
"Mm?"
Sweet sleep.
A sensation of being shaken.
"It's morning. Jo Un and Jang Bi will be here soon. Please get up."
"Did you already pump the milk?"
"Yes."
A breast pump. A manual model sold at A-Mart.
I had bought two of the hundred-thousand-won units, plus ten five-hundred-milliliter milk bottles. Through body modification, I had set each of her breasts to produce a full liter, so that once she expressed her milk in the morning, daily life would be free of inconvenience.
She handed me four bottles.
"Hmm. Good."
I pulled another two breast pumps and ten milk bottles from Subspace — fresh purchases.
"These are…?"
"Give them to Seop Yeong. I hear she's still producing milk too."
"Ah… Yes."
I picked up one of the five-hundred-milliliter bottles and drank.
A rich, savory flavor.
Like drinking thick soy milk.
Ahhh.
"You're not having any?"
"You drink it, Husband. How could I drink my own? When I pump Seop Yeong's, I'll drink hers."
I nodded.
"Give one each to Jo Un and Jang Bi. Tell them it's from the ranch cows."
"…Yes."
At the word "cows," she twisted her body in embarrassment.
Then she tucked the remaining bottle into the icebox sitting in the inner room — packed full of ice and drinks bought the day before.
"Tell me when the ice melts. I'll swap it out."
"Yes."
I missed having a refrigerator, but an icebox was better than nothing.
She had already mixed iced tea somehow, poured it into a glass with floating ice, and handed it to me. Then she mixed one for herself and sat down beside me.
"Husband. This is true luxury. Even an emperor couldn't enjoy this — ice as much as you want, and tea this delicious."
"Heh. That's true enough."
"Don't ration the tea. I'll keep giving you more."
"Yes."
January thirty-first.
Today was the day the village spear instructor came to our house.
He visited on the first, eleventh, twenty-first, and thirty-first of every month to teach the Changshan Zhao family's spear arts to me, Jang Bi, and Jo Un.
"Hmm. Muscle soreness again. Instructor Jo Hyeong comes today and tomorrow, right?"
"Yes."
Seop Yeong came to mind. She was a woman skilled in the Nie family's horse-cleaving saber arts, yet at some point she had learned the Changshan Zhao spear techniques from the sidelines and could now reproduce them at a high level.
These days she bought modern undergarments without hesitation and wore them under her martial robes. Wang Yeon came over and tied the knots of my clothes for me.
I pulled the B-rank and C-rank Awakener composite bows I had bought yesterday from Subspace and handed them over.
"These are…"
"Yeah. Weapons are available for purchase too. They're made of a material called composite plastic — should be better."
To my eyes, the material listed as composite plastic had some name scrubbed out. The description said they were made from the bones and sinews of something, but I ignored that.
"Two of them?"
"The black one can only be used by someone who can channel qi. The red one is the highest-grade weapon available for people who can't. Try drawing the black one first."
She had the Divine Archer trait.
She set the red bow down, gripped the black one, and took a deep breath.
The Divine Archer trait above her head flared, but it wasn't enough.
She strained and grunted, yet couldn't even draw the string.
"Haaah!!! Hah… I can't, Husband. This one really needs qi to move."
"Then try the red one."
"Yes."
I took the black bow back into Subspace. She looked at it with clear regret, then lifted the red bow and drew.
The string pulled back. When she released it, an enormous sound cracked through the air.
Whoooosh — ting — dee-dee-ding.
"Wow!!! Husband. Even the high-grade bows brought from Goguryeo can't match this draw weight. This is a true treasure-grade weapon."
She clearly liked it, cradling the bow and stroking it.
I pulled all the arrows from Subspace and set them down as well.
"They're steel arrows, apparently."
She lifted one, flicked the tip with a finger, and ran her hand over the fletching.
"Wow. Every single one of these is top quality. They weigh about six nyang each — shoot someone with these and they'll punch through two skulls and still hit the person behind."
"Really? Good to know."
I pulled out three children's bows, then purchased six more C-rank Awakener bows and handed them to her.
"Give them to Seop Yeong and Jang Hwa, and one each to your maids. That should be enough for travel, right?"
"Yes. Even if hundreds of bandits swarmed us, I think we could handle them all."
She tested a children's bow as well, drawing the string.
"Husband. Even these — at Jo Un or Jang Bi's level, they could kill a person at close range. Within fifty meters."
"That good? Then what about yours?"
"I'd have to shoot to be sure, but I think it would carry past five hundred meters. It's completely broken. Anyone hit by an arrow would die without ever knowing where it came from. Perfect for sniping enemy generals on the battlefield."
I nodded.
Sniping.
We had just put a devastating weapon in our hands.
At this rate, Wang Yeon was going to leave a massive mark on history.
"Husband, do you have spears, sabers, and swords too?"
"Yeah."
"Let's distribute those when we depart."
I nodded.
A snake spear for Jang Bi, a spear for Jo Un, and — if we ever met Guan Yu — a crescent blade without the Green Dragon engraving. I already had them all in mind.
Considering Seop Yeong's horse-cleaving saber arts, giving her the crescent blade I had intended for Guan Yu didn't seem like a bad idea either.
She organized the bows, then took her own and headed out.
"Husband, I'm going to the open ground to try some shooting."
She looked utterly delighted.
"What about the Goguryeo reflex bow you had?"
"I don't need it anymore. It takes too much maintenance. I'm just going to donate it to the village."
"Alright."
After she left, I picked up the wooden staff standing in the room, stretched, and stepped out into the courtyard.
A yard and training ground paved flat with stone.
It was a shame to think how much money had gone into this house — and that we would have to leave it. But if we wanted to live, there was no choice.
Avoiding Yu Bi left us no other path. And no other way to live with Wang Yeon either.
"Will Seop Yeong or Jang Hwa awaken spear talent?"
Seop Yeong would likely land on either horse-cleaving saber arts or spear arts, and Jang Hwa on either spear or some other weapon style — but whether spear talent would actually surface was hard to guess.
I loosened up with modern national calisthenics, then set the wooden staff down and began a slow jog around the wide courtyard.
"Build the stamina first. I'm a stamina king during sex, but day-to-day I'm nowhere near that level."
A cool breeze.
Sweat beaded on my skin.
Late January still carried a sharp chill, but martial training came first.
As I ran, I thought through the migration route Wang Yeon had described. The commercial road cutting across the harsh Taihang Mountains. That was where her father and Jo Un's father had been killed by bandits.
Bandits, please show yourselves.
I could use Soul Devour and settle a blood debt at the same time.
"Whoever I find, I'm putting an arrow straight through their forehead."