Zhuge Yang (4)
"Wow! Won, you've improved so much. The seasoning is just right!"
"Really? Is it actually good?"
Zhuge Yang's praise was hard to take at face value. Whatever I did, she cooed and fussed over me, and sometimes I got the feeling she saw me as a baby — like a mother showering a hurricane of praise on a toddler who had just managed his first wobbly steps.
"Yes, really! Escort Yeon, isn't it tasty too?"
On the other hand, Yeon Hwa — who never hesitated to hand me a stingy evaluation — might well unleash a scathing review. I'd endured so many icy glares over my cooking lessons that even now my hands trembled faintly.
I stared tensely at Yeon Hwa's lips, waiting to see what would come out of them, and the moment stretched into an eternity — until at last they parted.
"Mm. It's delicious. I can trust you with the cooking from now on."
"WOOOOHOOOO!!"
Before I knew it, I had thrown both arms into the air and let out a shriek of joy.
"Ahahahaha! Are you that happy about it?"
Zhuge Yang laughed merrily, as though my reaction were the adorable one. The adorable one was her, though. Those chubby cheeks! Those dimples!
"Of course! Leave the cooking to me from now on!"
For once, even the corners of Yeon Hwa's mouth curved upward, ever so slightly.
Was being off cooking duty really that wonderful?
Thought of that way, I could understand why her gaze had been so frosty every time she taught me a dish. Getting three meals a day on the table was a chore, no doubt about it.
Of course, I was only too glad for the chance to prove my usefulness.
Our daily routine these days went something like this.
First, Yeon Hwa. Aside from doing the laundry and occasionally walking down to the village to buy groceries or books, she had no particular schedule. Judging by the shouts of exertion that sometimes drifted from the clearing outside the house, she was training in the martial arts.
The first time I heard those shouts, curiosity got the better of me and I tried to sneak a peek — only to be nailed by a glare from Yeon Hwa so terrifying that I never went near the place again. That day, her glare made the one I'd earned for ruining dinner look positively gentle by comparison.
"Tch. If only I weren't stuck in this twelve-year-old body, I'd love to have a go at her."
Not that the sword at her hip wasn't intimidating in its own right. Someday I would have to learn to handle weapons too, but I wasn't nearly close enough to Yeon Hwa to ask her to teach me.
Next, Zhuge Yang. True to her future self — the genius strategist and counselor — she loved books. Apart from the time she spent playing with me, she was almost always reading.
Even when I sneaked a glance while cleaning, I couldn't tell what the books were; I was illiterate. I really did need to learn my letters.
Even when the thought Maybe I should just ask her? crossed my mind, I would hesitate — what if I interrupted her now, and her studies fell behind because of me?
And last, me. I handled most of the housework except the laundry. It was a drag sometimes, but it was the perfect excuse to stay close to Zhuge Yang, so I threw myself into it.
That left me plenty of spare time, which I spent on my own brand of martial training or hanging out with my subordinates (Gwak Jin and his gang of kids).
The small change came to that routine on a day when the wind had turned chilly, when the three of us went down to the village together.
We exchanged a few words with some villagers whose faces I couldn't remember at all.
"Hm? Isn't that Won?"
"Ah, hello...?"
"Yes. Heard your wits finally came back to you. That's a real blessing, lad."
"Thank you..."
"Would've been better if they'd come back sooner, though..."
With that, the villager walked off.
Was that about the fire my parents set...?
Honestly, I felt nothing. If my mind had come back sooner, wouldn't I have simply gone on living with parents who might well have burned me to death? That would have been far worse. The mere thought of it put a slight scowl on my face — and at that exact moment, my eyes snapped into Zhuge Yang's.
The instant our eyes met, she flustered, glanced wildly left and right, and pointed off to one side.
"Won! Won! Have you ever eaten one of those?"
Past all that commotion, where she was pointing, stood a vendor's stall with something round displayed on it.
"Dang...wa? Is that right?"
The word dangwa had surfaced from my hazy memories, and I tried it out loud. It seemed to belong to the original Ma Won, and moments like this always frustrated me — even things that were common knowledge to everyone in this era, I could never be sure of.
"That's right! Let's go try some!"
Zhuge Yang bustled over to the stall, poked about, and came back with three dangwa.
"Here! Won! You too, Escort Yeon. It's my treat!"
"Thank you for the treat, Young Miss."
"Thanks, I will."
Zhuge Yang bit into hers first.
"Mmm~! So good!"
She closed her eyes, a blissful smile curving her lips, and swayed from side to side as if to demonstrate just how delicious it was. How could every single thing she did be that adorable?
Come to think of it, dangwa was a sweet I'd heard of back when I read martial arts novels — I just never knew it existed as far back as the Three Kingdoms era. A traditional confection with a longer history than I'd thought, then?
I took a bite. Quite sweet, and quite tasty. Something like malt taffy, maybe.
"Good, right? Right?!"
"Y-yeah. It's really sweet and good."
Her face was so close to mine that I felt a flicker of embarrassment, and I heard myself stammer.
"Should we try that one too?!"
Zhuge Yang swept through the market so relentlessly that I began to suspect her true goal was to leave me dizzy and dazed.
She came to an abrupt halt only when she spotted a large notice posted on the wall at the center of the market.
She stood there studying it with a grave expression for a long while, so I asked casually.
"What? What does it say?"
"Huh? Oh — nothing! Let's head home!"
Zhuge Yang summoned a bright smile in an instant and started back toward the house, but for some reason her footsteps looked sorrowful.
So did Yeon Hwa's, walking beside her.
What did it say? I can't read, and she won't tell me, so there's no way to find out.
I resolved to learn my letters no matter what it took — but first, there was work to do. Namely, getting dinner ready.
After we returned home and I was in the middle of preparing the meal, Zhuge Yang came slinking over.
"Oh? You're hungry, aren't you? I'll have it ready in a minute."
"No, it's fine. Take your time!"
She said that, but she kept hovering around me all the same. No matter how I looked at it, she clearly had something to say.
"You do have something to say, don't you?"
"Well... maybe... Um, don't get the wrong idea when you hear it. Okay?"
"Okay. I'm ready."
Even then, Zhuge Yang hesitated, uncharacteristically. What on earth did she need to say that required this much stalling?
...Don't tell me.
"You're kicking me out?!"
"Absolutely not!!!"
Zhuge Yang frantically waved her hands in denial.
Phew. Thank goodness. I hadn't done anything particularly wrong, so getting thrown out would have been monumentally unfair. I couldn't afford to lose my line to Zhuge Yang — my personal express lane to success.
"Hmm. Well, if it's not that, we're fine. So what is it?"
"Would you... like to learn to read? No, I mean — you were curious about what that notice said earlier, weren't you? If you learn your letters, you'll be able to read things like that yourself."
"Really?!"
I broke into a wide grin.
Learning to read was the very thing I'd been longing for. I'd kept my mouth shut because I didn't have the nerve to ask — so why had she stalled so much over bringing it up?
"Oh, thank goodness... Won, I couldn't bring myself to say anything because I was afraid it would hurt your pride."
"Why on earth would it?"
"Well, there was someone like that once. Anyway! So we start tomorrow?"
"Deal!"
And so, learning to read was added to my daily routine.
She truly was Zhuge Yang. How on earth did she explain such difficult Chinese characters so clearly? My reading improved by leaps and bounds.
"...That character's 'head,' isn't it? So what's this word?"
"That's a migraine!"
"Aha, so this is a medical text too. How come the only books in this house are medical ones?"
"Ahahahaha! You're right. I'm thinking of getting some other kinds of books soon."
I'd expected shelves full of military treatises and the sayings of ancient sages; instead, they were all medical texts. So Zhuge Yang had a deep interest in medicine as well.
I flipped through the books at random, then stopped at one part that was worn more than anywhere else. A character I recognized appeared, and I pointed at it.
"'Gu'? How do you read this one?"
"Hmm... that one... Study hard and try guessing it yourself!"
"Fine. Now you've got my competitive blood up. Then what about this one? ...'Jiche'? Hmm, this one's brutal."
"Of course it is! This may not look it, but it's a medical text! Hard is what it's supposed to be. Escort Yeon has promised to find us some easier books next time, so just hang in there a little longer!"
"Okay!"
I wanted to master my letters quickly so I could read a military treatise or two. It would be wonderful if I could get my hands on something like The Art of War.
The residence of the head of the Zhuge Family.
"Chief Administrator. Did you find any promising children?"
"Yes, my lord. We posted notices in the surrounding villages and were able to take in several promising children."
"Good. If we are to build a firm foundation beneath Lin, we must secure as many children as possible this time."
"Yes, Family Head."
Having finished his conversation with the Chief Administrator, Zhuge Zhongying, head of the Zhuge Family, sat on the second floor of the main hall and watched his daughter Zhuge Lin training her martial arts on the practice yard below.
Having already reached the First-Class realm, she seemed certain to ascend to the Peak Realm within three years at the latest, so long as she succeeded in consolidating the internal energy within her body.
A Peak-Realm master at fifteen! Truly worthy of the legendary Pure Yin Body.
If Zhuge Lin continued to flourish, the Zhuge Family would shake off the stigma of being "brains and nothing more," and acquire the martial might to set its sights on becoming the Number One Family Under Heaven.
At that thought, Zhuge Zhongying's gaze drifted to distant Mount Longzhong, its peaks rising against the sky, and he murmured softly.
"Forgive me, Yang... It was all a decision made for the sake of our family..."
"Young Miss, how has your health been lately?"
"Mm... I only feel pain very occasionally now. Don't worry so much."
Yeon Hwa turned her gaze to the mountains of medical texts piled up in Zhuge Yang's quarters.
"...Have you found any other way?"
"No. But it's all right. I already knew."
Yeon Hwa pressed her once more. If no other method could be found, then surely they ought to pin their hopes on the one method that did exist?
"Then leave with me, even now. 'It' must exist somewhere out there. If heaven's fortune favors us..."
"There is no such fortune. In all of murim's history, the Ten-Thousand-Year Snow Ginseng has been recorded as found only five times — and those are legends handed down in story, hardly worth believing. You must be tired, Escort Yeon. Go on to bed."
At Zhuge Yang's none-too-subtle order to turn in, Yeon Hwa slipped out of her chamber. Feeling stifled, she headed for the clearing, thinking to work her body at least.
Someone had already claimed it.
It was Ma Won — the boy she'd despised at first sight, but who was slowly, gradually becoming useful of late.
He was drilling basic martial forms in his usual stance.
...Should I coax even that boy into proposing that we leave this place with the Young Miss?
Even as the thought took shape, she shook her head, gave up on training, and turned back.
For a martial artist, spying on another's training was taboo.
Not that Ma Won was exactly a martial artist.
One year passed after that.