Chapter 59
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Translator: MadScientist
Chapter: 59
Chapter Title: Do the Three Brothers Dream of Peach Blossom Paradise? (1)
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“Uuum, this is good! Today was very satisfying too!”
Just as Kim Yul had predicted.
Chloe licked every corner of the manuscript she had received before perking up her ears and expressing her satisfaction with her entire body.
The narrative was reaching its climax.
Liu Bei and Cao Cao, the protagonists of the first part of Two Heroes, were finally clashing head-on at equal footing, each leading their armies.
Chloe had a weakness for developments that steadily recovered the foreshadowing scattered from the early chapters.
There was no skimping on the praise for the protagonist either.
From Zhou Yu, who coughed up blood and died after losing a battle of wits with Zhuge Liang, to Pang Tong, who made a flashy appearance only to divide readers and exit quickly.
The classic progression where the exploits and sacrifices of various supporting characters only made the protagonist shine brighter.
Chloe decided to gift Ulysses the precious smile of her esteemed self.
But.
“……Why are you staring at me like that?”
Today, Kim Yul's expression was strangely sullen.
He looked sulky, a bit peeved, like he had some grievance.
As if any moment now, he might lunge at her ears with a fierce grab...!
The terror etched into her ears...!
Finally, his mouth opened.
“You don't trust me?”
“Eh...?”
At the utterly unexpected line, Chloe froze like a broken doll.
“T-Trust? What are you suddenly talking about?”
“Sigh... They say you shouldn't trust big-eared folks for a reason...”
Kim Yul sighed and lowered his head, but Chloe's mind was spinning in dizzying circles.
For high elves, trust was sometimes a value more important than life itself.
As long-lived beings who spanned endless ages and were innately superior to other races, high elves did not easily grant their trust.
This applied not just to short-lived races, but even to their own kind.
The only place a high elf's trust could be directed was one: true family, bound by blood or heart.
But.
Suddenly, trust?
Trust here?
No matter how loosely and shamelessly she had offered her ears up until now.
Surely not that easily──
“Eekyaaang!”
Her thoughts cut off along with the warm, tingling sensation surging from the tip of her ear.
One of the three beings who placed unconditional trust in Kim Yul.
“Aigoo, I'm beat...”
Hero Serephin sprawled out on the frigid earth of the Demon Realm.
Lately, demonic beast outbreaks had been happening more frequently.
That meant more intense battlefronts, and while Serephin was still assigned more to outpost defenses than frontline scouting, the shifts had increased slightly.
Still, bit by bit, ever so slightly.
Humanity's active area within the Demon Realm was starting to expand.
He could call it a great human victory and pat themselves on the back.
But.
“They're here!”
“Finally, time to rest!”
“Please take care of us today too!”
“Thank you, O Eagle One...!”
The bizarre entities that had appeared in the Demon Realm recently contributed just as much as humanity's efforts.
They resembled humans but were not.
Infantry armed with plate armor and long spears.
They suddenly erupted in a burst of pure white light.
“──!”
“──, ──!”
“───!”
With language incomprehensible to their ears, they annihilated the surrounding demonic beasts before vanishing contentedly.
And circling the skies above where they appeared was a single pristine white eagle, strangely bald at the crown.
The soldiers called them the army of the Eagle God.
But Serephin, in his private musings, named them Caesar's Legion.
It was a tribute to the author Ulysses, whose insight perfectly grasped the ecology and weaknesses of massive beasts.
Gazing at the eagle's bald pate naturally evoked images of Caesar, who supposedly went bald in his later years.
“Hero! Let's head back!”
“Very well.”
As his comrades approached, Serephin rose, brushing off the demonic residue clinging to his clothes here and there.
“By the way, isn't today porter delivery day?”
“Yes! We can finally rest a bit...”
Having been unable to leave the Demon Realm at all lately, Serephin was bored out of his mind.
The last scene of Two Heroes he had read was Red Cliffs, and over a month had passed since.
How much more exciting story could there be now?
.
.
.
After returning to base, Serephin dove into a reading trance with the mail that was his share.
First, Two Heroes.
Jing Province, then Yi Province.
Absorbing the process of Liu Bei's leadership, Zhuge Liang's strategies, and the valor of his subordinates leading to victory after victory.
“So the Three Visits was foreshadowing too...”
Serephin exclaimed in admiration, hitting exactly the points that binge readers would notice.
Of course, only now, after so many serializations, could readers fully appreciate Zhuge Liang's greatness.
No matter the reputation.
How contrived was it for a leader to visit a penniless NEET three whole times just to recruit him?
But now it all made sense.
Could Liu Bei have achieved greatness without Zhuge Liang?
No.
And what of the current state of affairs?
During the Three Visits, Zhuge Liang had proposed dividing the realm into three.
The first to solidify his position: Cao Cao in the north.
Unlike Sun Quan in the east, who had proven their strength at Red Cliffs.
Liu Bei was forever the wanderer.
His forces paltry compared to the other two.
- Though we wish to serve the Emperor from afar, communication with the court is severed... Cao Cao devours the realm from without... We, following ancient precedent, enfeoff Liu Bei as King of Hanzhong, Grand Commandant, to lead the army, rally alliances, and exterminate these vile traitors.
Finally.
At last.
With Zhuge Liang's memorial drafted and Liu Bei approved, Liu Bei ascended to equal standing with the other two.
If Sun Quan and Liu Bei allied to pressure Cao Cao now, victory seemed plausible.
“But that'd be no fun! Haha, what an intriguing development.”
Serephin burst into cheerful laughter at the final scene of the serialization so far.
- How could we give a tiger's cub to a dog's whelp?
Guan Yu's fiery temperament on full display.
It had been another deeply satisfying read.
Regrettably, he was stuck in the Demon Realm for another month at least.
When the next supply run came next month.
What delightful tale would await?
Today too, Serephin placed firm trust in Kim Yul.
Ha, damn.
Who is it?
After acquiring Yi Sun-sin's abilities, I got curious and wandered around checking.
Honestly, I thought at least one would be a doubter, but nope.
- Sun Shangxiang! Loved the story! A political marriage doomed by fate to enmity... so romantic!
Roselin was obviously not it.
The Saintess had grabbed my collar and shaken me physically more than once or twice. Hmm, she seems to have some other holy purpose.
Excluding my home scrap heap, one more.
“Wha? Trust you? Of course I do!”
It was the yellow chick.
“You feed me delicious kibble every day, and no neutering!”
“...The Sima Yi story's on hiatus.”
“I hopped off first, so it shouldn't matter, right?”
“You little punk.”
What an...
odd situation.
But simply because he was more diligent, prolific, and capable than any novelist I'd seen, and possessed my scrap heap.
[Nearby Target: Esthea]
He had become a man who earned the credit of a gold dragon, no less.
The minor issue being.
“Hmm, should I put Zhuge Liang on hiatus too?”
“Whaaat?!”
[Total Subjects: 2]
[Nearby Target: None]
“Just kidding.”
“Kyarruk!”
[Total Subjects: 3]
[Nearby Target: Esthea]
That...
Isn't the threshold for firm trust a bit too elastic?
Dragons are transcendent beings that can even toy with status window powers... right?
Otherwise, who else could shove their head into the lab and attempt physical hacking?
“So, where are we going?”
“The workshop.”
Originally, he planned to bring the doubter.
But the captain was disappointed that even a doubter lacked faith in him.
Hmph.
Thinks I have nowhere to get funding without her?
Thus, his provisionally selected new investor: our yellow chick.
If she munches gold bars like snacks, she must have a mountain of wealth stashed, right?
Plus, no better bodyguard exists, and in a pinch, she could recharge Hector.
Hmm.
Dragons are the best.
“We're here.”
The workshop where he arrived, leading the yellow chick.
“Oh! Come in, Uly... H-Huh, guh, n-no way...”
Bolin, who had dashed out mid-work upon hearing the boss arrive, went pale in an instant.
His trembling pupils fixed on.
“Hmph, failed creation daring to cast such irreverent eyes upon me── Guk!”
“Tsk. Sorry, the chick was rude.”
He gave a knuckle rap to the top of the suddenly horned, growling yellow chick's head.
Aftermath?
“Esthea. If you act rough with my friends, this delicate soul of mine will be too wounded to write.”
“Can't have that!”
The chick's horns retracted with a pop.
Bolin was still shuddering, gripped by genetically imprinted fear.
...Were dragons and dwarves on bad terms?
Did I bring her for nothing?
Fortunately, Bolin quickly regained his composure.
“Here, the completed Emperor's General Cannon. Fires too! Haha.”
He proudly showed off the full-scale prototype of the commissioned cannon.
“Hoo, not bad...”
Of course, he had no intention of sticking to historical accuracy for a cannon, so Emperor's General Cannon in name only.
In reality, a flashy-looking breech-loading cannon.
“Wowww! So cool!”
The chick's aesthetic sense passed muster.
“And the performance?”
“Why tell when I can show.”
.
.
.
A moment later.
Capital outskirts.
Toward Bolin's masterpiece, 'Caesar's Fortress'.
The Emperor's General Cannon spat fire.
With a heaven-shaking roar.
Caesar's Fortress crumbled.
“Owaaah...! Power on par with my claws...!”
Ignoring the scale-differing chick's reaction.
This secured plenty of practical viability.
Two steps left.
Secure investor and buyer.
Gazing at the chick, who couldn't resist extending her tail to fiddle with the still-scorching barrel post-firing, hissing 'hot hot'.
He pondered how to coax out the investment.
Hmm.
Maybe ten straight rounds would do it.