The Filial Daughter's Defense of Cao Cao
But no matter how many times I wiped my face, the situation refused to change. I read the words on the blackboard again.
Talk with your assigned partner about a person you respect.
The fact that my partner was Cheon Mari was one thing, but most of the people I used to like no longer existed in this world. By "no longer existed," I didn't mean they were dead. I meant they hadn't left a single trace in history. For me, that left only the standard choices: great figures like King Sejong or Admiral Yi Sun-sin.
"Here you go. Once you've finished writing and discussed it, bring it to me."
A huge sheet of A2 paper landed on the desk. Cheon Mari and I kept nodding with sullen expressions. The teacher patted our heads and moved on to the next group.
"Sigh. Do I really have to do this at my age?"
The lament came from someone who had just turned eleven this year. Never mind the actual age she'd lived through—her behavior was clearly that of an eleven-year-old or younger.
"Tsk. Hey, Sian."
Sian. At some point that had become her nickname for me. She called out in a tone that could have been affectionate or mocking, twirling her pen before continuing.
"Who do you respect?"
"...Willis Haviland Carrier."
"Will... Carrier? Who the hell is that nobody?"
What? Nobody? Bullshit! This rich girl who blasts the air conditioner all summer long! The man who carved his name into human history and left an indelible mark on logistics and labor! In an era of global warming and absolute bastards turning the weather into a complete disaster, he deserves even more reverence! The god-king who created the air conditioner! How dare she insult Carrier-sama!
Of course I couldn't actually yell any of that at her, so I answered calmly.
"The guy who invented the air conditioner."
"Ah~ That guy? Yeah, I guess air conditioning is non-negotiable."
She understood immediately. I'd expected pushback, but it was surprisingly smooth. With no argument to slow me down, I wrote the "god's" name and a suitable reason without interference.
While I was busy extolling Carrier's virtues, she simply kept twirling her pen.
"Aren't you writing anything?"
"I'm thinking. There are a lot of candidates."
"Like who?"
"Well, it's obvious. Me from a week ago, me from two weeks ago, me from a month ago, me from six months ago, me from a year ago, me from two years ago, three years ago, four years ago. And..."
This was terminal-stage princess syndrome mixed with narcissistic personality disorder. And there was no cure. The fact that someone like this was a regressor proved the world had already gone as far as it could go. At this rate, a cheerful bad ending like in the game might actually be the natural outcome.
I had zero confidence in expanding my evaluation of Cheon Mari, so I asked with clear reluctance.
"Anyone besides yourself?"
"Hmm. There is one."
Most Respected Person: Cao Cao
I scratched my head.
"Cao Cao?"
"You know him?"
"More or less."
I knew him from YouTube summaries and gaming lore, which was problematic in its own way, but I knew the basics. So I gave my verdict right away.
"Cao Cao was a bad person."
"Cao Cao, a bad person? He's an incredible man."
"He massacred the people of Xu Province."
"That was an act born from his deep filial piety. It wasn't wrong."
Are your parents from Yan Province or something? At first I thought Cheon Mari was joking. But the more she spoke, the clearer it became that she was completely serious.
"Cao Cao is the greatest treacherous minister and villain in history."
"Treacherous minister? In what way exactly?"
"He destroyed the imperial family. He left it so broken that his incompetent son could usurp the throne."
"That's because the imperial family was incompetent to begin with. If they'd been competent, the Three Kingdoms period wouldn't have happened, let alone Cao Pi. And you call Cao Cao a villain?"
"He killed his friend Lü Boshe who was hosting him for no reason."
"Sian, Lü Boshe's death wasn't Cao Cao's doing. It was the work of the world itself. The same goes for Emperor Xian's wives later on."
Flawless, insane logic. It went beyond admiration and straight into shock. Only someone with this level of shamelessness could have kept regressing all this time. Regression really was a horrifying thing.
As a last resort, I decided to bring up Cao Cao's fatal flaw.
"...And coveting another man's wife is wrong."
"Oh dear, Sian. It seems you still don't understand the Romance of the Three Kingdoms very well."
"What don't I understand?"
"Think about it. If someone wants to seize the world and rule it, isn't taking other men's women only natural?"
Excuse me? What the hell is natural? What exactly is common sense here? What kind of nonsense was rattling around in that head of hers to produce statements like this? The logic was stupid enough on its own, but hearing it from a girl made it even stupider. In the end, I was left speechless by the deranged defending of this hardcore Cao Cao fangirl.
"─The big-eared bastard is the greatest traitor in the world! The rat from the east of the river showed the greatest display of senility, the idiot!"
I made a mental note. Cao Cao moms... are not sane.......
"So? Isn't this perfect logic that would make even the ancient Greek philosophers slap their knees in approval?"
"There's not a single ounce of persuasiveness in it. Logic? Knees? What the hell are you even saying?"
"My my─ Oh dear, it seems my words are still a hundred years too early for a Shu fan like you."
"What? Shu fan?! All you Wei fans are nothing but hardcore Cao Cao stans."
"Huh? Hardcore Cao Cao stan?! How dare you insult the heavenly Cao Mengde?"
She took my casual retort extremely seriously and started throwing a fit. As expected, all that thrashing around ended in the usual collision.
"Teacher! Sian and Mari are fighting again, grabbing each other's hair!"
"Kang Sian, Cheon Mari! It's wrong to fight with your friends!!!"
The silver lining was that I won that day. The reason was simple: Cheon Mari's logic sounded far too absurd to any proper educator.
Heh heh. Stupid regressor.
The school day ended like that.
Now it was time to head home. The walk back used to be with Lim Hana, but that had become impossible since the end of last year.
"Sian! After talking with Mom, Dad, and the teacher, they said it would be best if I enrolled in the magic academy near school!"
It was a hunter training academy that promised admission to good hunter middle and high schools, that it would turn you into a K-hunter who made foreign hunters tremble just by hearing the name, that the tuition was expensive but there were discounts, and so on. Her parents naturally opposed it, saying there was nothing particularly good about the place, but how could parents ever win against their own child? It wasn't too heavy a burden for the family, so she started attending the hunter academy.
Lim Hana got home at nine in the evening. I got home at four. Walking home together was now impossible. We only saw each other on the way to school, saw each other at school, and habitually ate lunch together. That was it. So from this year onward, I had to walk home alone.
It wasn't some lonely, desolate, bachelor-style existence... actually, it was surprisingly comfortable. It felt like all the stress that had piled up at school was melting away. As expected, I was better suited to staying home like a loner than mixing with other people. A life full of healing. If only this kind of life could continue—
"Ugh..."
Enjoying that peace was impossible with an uninvited guest stuck to my side. I glanced at Cheon Mari, who had been chattering beside me since the moment the walk home began.
"Sigh. Stop grumbling and just go home already."
"But Grandpa... said he won't give me any allowance until I record you apologizing in front of your house."
This was going to drive me insane. If she were the type to change just because someone told her to apologize, she would have changed long ago. Just what did that grandfather think I was? Some kind of character correction device? A trash bin for bad personalities? A character-building sandbag? We were supposed to be friends, not enemies. I couldn't understand why he kept making her apologize.
"Ha, so you are planning to apologize?"
"Isn't that obvious? I'm a conscientious student, so—"
"Not some half-assed apology. A sincere one."
"U-um. That's..."
It basically meant 'I live my life without reflecting at all.' Otherwise there would be no reason to agonize this much over an apology that should come naturally.
"And how many times has this apology been already? The six-hundredth? You're the boy who cried wolf, so I don't trust a single one anymore."
"Ah, not six hundred. Today makes exactly six hundred and seventy-four."
"Same difference."
Look at her acting all proud. Someone please take this kid away. Or just kill her off already.
In the end I clicked my tongue and declared that I wouldn't accept any apology from her. Only then did Cheon Mari seem to realize she was in the wrong and started awkwardly fawning over me from the side. It was so transparent that no sincerity could be felt at all.
I did my best to ignore her as we reached the area near my house. Just a short straight stretch left.
"Ugh, that superpowers teacher. The way he talks and everything he does pisses me off."
"I completely agree."
"We just wanted to smoke a little and he starts going on about how our skills are declining and all that bullshit. Tsk."
Alleys branched off between the streets. In one of them, students were puffing away on cigarettes. Judging by their uniforms, it was a middle school not far from here.
'Hunter middle school?'
A special-purpose school aimed at training hunters. The combination of keywords—cigarettes, crude speech, hunter middle school—naturally brought up the term "hunter delinquent." There was no more routinely threatening existence for an elementary student. Anxious about getting bullied with magic, I quietly tried to slip out of their line of sight.
"Hey, you two lunch kids over there. Come here."
But I got caught.
I'm screwed.