Zhuge Yang (1)
When the kid they called the boss went down, he screamed through gritted teeth, "Beat the crap out of that bastard!" — so I gave the ones who charged back in a few good smacks each for their trouble.
Before long, the kids were kneeling quietly with fresh lumps on their heads, waiting for me to decide their fate.
After all, I was bigger than any of them, had the experience of a professional fighter, and — best of all — my lower body worked just fine. There was no way in hell a bunch of brats were taking me down.
"So my name is Ma Won, and I'm twelve?"
"Th-that's right."
I pieced together everything the kids had told me, and thanks to all the novels I'd read in my past life, I arrived at one inescapable conclusion: I had almost certainly crossed over into another world.
Since my legs worked, and my voice, build, and skin were all unfamiliar, it didn't seem like a simple dimension shift. Not a return to the past, obviously, and not reincarnation either. Within the limits of my knowledge, the only thing left was possession. The most likely scenario was that I had possessed the body of this Ma Won — a boy who shared my exact name.
One piece of evidence was the language itself. Right now I was chatting with these kids in fluent Chinese. In my old life, I hadn't known a lick of Chinese — I couldn't even read hanja properly.
Another clue was the faint memories slowly surfacing, like puzzle pieces that had sunk to the bottom of a lake bobbing up one by one. My most recent memory was of stealing an apple out of hunger and getting chased by these very kids. Before that, I remembered curling up to sleep in an abandoned house at the edge of the village. Beyond that, the memories blurred out and refused to surface.
Whatever it was probably had something to do with why these kids called me an idiot.
There was a limit to what I could figure out on my own, so from here on out, I needed to learn how the people of this village saw me. I clenched my fists — not threateningly, just to keep my hands busy — and pressed the conversation.
"So. I've been an idiot ever since I came to this village, and my parents just up and abandoned me?"
"...I didn't call you an idiot. The others did..."
"What's this 'monster' business about, then?"
"Uh, that's... your face, Won-ee..."
Now I was curious what my face actually looked like. I glanced around and spotted a scrap of rusted metal. It wasn't as clean as a mirror, but it was good enough to get a rough look at my reflection.
Well. No wonder the kids called me a monster.
Whether from burns or something else, my scalp was patchy and bare in places, and the exposed skin was warped and disfigured in spots — so badly that the fact I could see clearly and speak without slurring felt like a genuine miracle.
Some people might have been devastated. But a face? Compared to two perfectly working legs, it was nothing. I was barely holding back the urge to shout for joy right now.
"Never mind that. Where is this, exactly?"
I had a suspicion. Something told me this might be the world of the Three Kingdoms. Maybe it was my punishment for hoarding every last treasure in the game — right before I blacked out, a message had appeared on my Treasure Locator. My vision had blurred too much to read it, but in the novels I'd read, getting pulled into the world you were looking at on your final screen was a common enough trope.
"Th-this is Longzhong..."
A Three Kingdoms place name after all. The village where Zhuge Liang lived in seclusion — hardly obscure, was it?
"What year is it right now?"
"Wh-what do you mean?"
"Like, the Han dynasty? The Wei dynasty? Something like that."
"We just call it our country..."
"You guys don't know either?"
The other kids just shook their heads. Idiots, all of them.
"Then you wouldn't happen to know about Zhuge Yang...?"
I didn't hold out much hope. Liu Bei had famously called him out of obscurity with three humble visits, but kids who couldn't even name their own dynasty were hardly likely to have heard word of him.
"Zhuge Yang? Sure, we know him."
I'd been wondering what to ask next when my whole body went rigid.
"You know him?"
One of the kids pointed a finger toward the base of a distant mountain ridge.
"He lives in that house over there."
Longzhong. Zhuge Yang. Still living in this village.
Situation: understood. I didn't know the exact year, but I had arrived before Zhuge Yang was recruited by Liu Bei.
Recruited him... could I do that?
The kid they'd been calling the boss went by Gwak Jin, and he had decided to serve me as the new boss of the group. Apparently, among kids, the strongest one was the boss — and since I'd thrashed every last one of them, they were ready to listen.
"If kids from the next village come swarming over, you'll fight with us, right?"
"Yeah. Won-ee's gonna win every time. He looks like a monster, but now he talks just fine and he's not an idiot anymore."
"I'll sneak you apples from my dad!"
With their apologies accepted, I reconsidered an invitation I'd been about to turn down as mere children's games. Having kids in the village who actually knew me might come in handy, so I went along with it.
"Fine. Gwak Jin — you're my second-in-command from now on."
"Got it, Boss!"
"First order of business. Can you show me where Zhuge Yang lives?"
"Right now? Sure, let's go!"
I led the kids out of the alley and immediately locked eyes with two middle-aged men who had clearly been watching us.
"It's over this way!"
Apparently I'd picked the wrong direction, because Gwak Jin grabbed my sleeve and hauled me the opposite way. As I fell in step, I noticed the middle-aged men watching me with something that looked suspiciously like pity. One of them might even have clicked his tongue.
Weird old men.
We were headed to Zhuge Yang's house, sure — but I wasn't fooling myself into expecting much. This was the man they called the Sleeping Dragon, after all. One of the two great strategists of the age, alongside the Young Phoenix, and the kind of genius said to be worth the whole empire: obtain either the Sleeping Dragon or the Young Phoenix, and the realm is yours.
As of right now, the odds of such a genius agreeing to serve me were damn near zero.
Even setting aside the monster looks the kids had mocked, I was far too young, and I knew absolutely nothing about this era. A few minutes of conversation and my ignorance would be laid bare for anyone to see.
My one advantage was a rough grasp of how the future would unfold — and knowing who the truly extraordinary figures were. Of course, that only counted if I could prove it. As things stood, I doubted Zhuge Yang would take my word for anything.
"Hey, Boss. Were you always this strong?"
"It's not strength, it's..."
Technique, I almost said — then realized that to a bunch of kids, it would probably just look like raw power anyway, so I changed my answer.
"No idea. I was just born strong, I guess."
Which reminded me that I had another asset worth mentioning: a durable body and honest-to-goodness fighting skills. But measuring that against the generals of the Three Kingdoms would have to wait — I didn't know how to handle a spear, a blade, or anything of the sort, and I'd never fought an armed man in my life.
For now, maybe I should just try to stay close to him.
There was at least a chance I could get recruited alongside him when Liu Bei came calling. And if that happened, might I not one day take the place of that blockhead Ma Su during Zhuge Yang's northern campaigns, and actually hold the positions he was ordered to defend? At the very least, I could give him the advice he never got: whatever you do, don't camp on the mountain.
And before any of that — who knew, I might even manage to save Pang Tong's life.
I was lost in a pleasant daydream of all the moments where I could make my mark on history when one of the other kids clapped his hands.
"Hey, Boss — was your dad strong too?"
My father? No, he must mean this body's father.
Honestly, I had zero memories of any parents here and had nothing to say — but before I could fumble through it, Gwak Jin suddenly smacked the kid across the back of the head.
"Ow!"
"Hey! Don't bring that up!"
Who died and made you the boss of what I get to hear about my own parents?
"Gwak Jin. Do you know anything about my parents?"
He fidgeted and kept glancing at my face. That told me enough — this wasn't going to be a pleasant story.
"It's fine. I don't remember a single thing about them. Just be straight with me."
"Hmm... okay, but this is just something I heard from other people..."
"Tell me what you heard."
He hesitated a little longer, but finally opened his mouth.
"So... you used to be an idiot, Boss? Wait, no — a long time ago! I mean way back!"
I nodded at him as he frantically waved his hands and made excuses.
"That's right. My head's clear now, as you can see. It's fine. Go on."
Pressed by my look, Gwak Jin squeezed his eyes shut and blurted it out.
"The truth is... your parents said raising you was too hard, so they set the house on fire and ran away!"
"......"
I was struck speechless.
They actually did that? These people had the audacity to be called parents? Call this body an idiot all you want — that was unforgivable.
The originals of this body were scum, no question. But so what? Was I supposed to avenge Ma Won, the boy who'd originally owned this flesh?
I asked myself the question and found the answer immediately: no. I felt nothing. I was a possessor — an outsider. Whatever bonds existed between this body and its parents, none of that sentiment had carried over to me. I decided to let the past stay buried.
Not that there was any debt of gratitude to bury. They hadn't raised me long enough to earn one.
"Boss! Come drink some water before we go!"
A stream was running along the path. I took a quick drink and splashed some water on my face — and in the process, got a long, clear look at my reflection on the water's surface.
...Yes, that would definitely count against me with Zhuge Yang. Likely the work of that house fire. Maybe I should track those bastards down after all...? That was how grotesque it looked.
"Almost there! We just have to pass that bend!"
When we rounded the winding road, a small house came into view in the distance. At the thought that that person might be waiting there, my heart started to pound. Tension wound its way through my whole body.
Funny — I don't think I'd been this nervous even fighting for a national title.
Trying to shake it off, I asked Gwak Jin about the man himself.
"So what's this Zhuge Yang like?"
"Dunno, I've only seen him once. But he's super cute!"
...I'm sorry, what?
Unless my ears were broken, the little bastard had definitely just said cute.
I began inching away from Gwak Jin, one careful step at a time.
Was this kid... gay? Was that a thing in this era — what did they call it, "the passion of the cut sleeve"?
I looked over the other kids again and, sure enough, both of them were pretty-faced little things. Around the time I started suspecting exactly what criteria Gwak Jin had used to assemble his gang, the gate of the small house swung open and someone stepped out.
"Huh...?"
A woman who looked to be in her twenties, with an air of quiet elegance. By the aesthetic standards of the modern age, "cute" wasn't quite the word — she was more of a striking beauty.
The moment I laid eyes on her, my brain spun into overdrive. And the conclusion it finally spat out was—
Wait. Don't tell me this is Romance of the Three Kingdoms: maid version?!
I couldn't help thinking of that Three Kingdoms game where all the major generals had been turned into women. As she approached us in her plain white robes, my body stiffened slightly, and I respectfully clasped my hands together.
What pressure. This is Zhuge Yang for you!
I was still agonizing over what to say when Gwak Jin, perfectly at ease, spoke up first.
"Hello? Is Zhuge Yang home?"
Whew. So it's not the maid version.
The relief washed over me. Speaking of which — this little punk. Since when was Master Zhuge Yang on a first-name basis with you?