The Cunning Hero's Dark Night
The dark night. With no fires lit to pierce the gloom, dozens of men approached Cao Cao’s pitch-black tent. The moment they saw her, their faces froze in terror, like chicks staring down an eagle.
One of them lay unconscious, dumped on the ground, his whole body a canvas of bruises both large and small, bound tightly with ropes. Cao Cao, seated on a cart as she waited, broke into a radiant smile at the sight of the fallen man.
“Oh dear! So he refused right until the bitter end?”
“Y-yes, ma’am! That’s exactly how it went…. I talked till my mouth went numb, but that Zhao Yun fellow was stubborn as iron, so in the end….”
“Ah! It’s quite all right. Whether he came in one piece or like this, the result doesn’t change much.”
Cao Cao let out an amused chuckle as she examined Zhao Yun and the rest of the group. Zhao Yun was covered in wounds, while the Dontou Village soldiers looked completely untouched. Even though the villagers had been unarmed and drunk, they should have sensed something off—yet it seemed they had trusted these men deeply enough to be knocked out without resistance. Perhaps living among them for so long had blinded them. Even on the traitors’ faces, a faint trace of guilt lingered.
Ah, the more I look, the funnier it gets.
“Haha! Goodness….”
The moment Cao Cao let out a cold, involuntary snort, the men flinched. No, I can’t laugh like that yet. Just hold it in a little longer. If they caught on, things would get unnecessarily annoying. Though with brains like theirs, I doubt they’d notice anyway. If they had even a shred of sense, they wouldn’t have come to her after telling Zhao Yun and trying to flee together.
“Don’t make such gloomy faces—smile! You made the right choice. Desertion? In this world? If some high-ranking official found out, what then? Getting caught, having your money seized, and your family executed… isn’t it wiser to take this reward and return safely to your loved ones? …Don’t you agree?”
With a light hop, Cao Cao jumped down from the cart and yanked away the cloth covering it. Gold and jewels spilled into view, glittering brilliantly even in the moonless night. Several more carts waited behind hers, no doubt loaded with equal riches.
The faint guilt and hesitation on the Dontou Village men’s faces vanished as if washed away.
“Hehe…. Exactly! We came here to fight hard for our country. It’s not like we were in it for the money, right?!”
“That’s right! That Zhao Yun bastard… after seeing Cheng Yuanzhi get his head chopped off, he should’ve known better! But no, he got greedy and tried to steal the spoils! Tsk tsk….”
“We only found out tonight ourselves. If we’d known sooner, we would’ve broken his legs to stop him!”
“Look, it’s sad that Zhao Yun’s getting executed, sure…. But we can’t all die with him! We’ve got families left behind… and Lord Cao said if we handed over the ringleader, we’d get the original spoils plus a bonus….”
The Dontou Village men raised their voices loudly to wash away their guilt, their chatter filling the air. Cao Cao simply smiled at them in silence.
“Right! Shall we each go our separate ways now? I’ll take Zhao Yun, and you gentlemen take these carts. It’s a long road back to Dontou Village, so you’d best set out immediately.”
“Y-yes! Let’s move, quickly! Thank you, Lord Cao!”
Amid a chorus of grateful thanks, the men from Dontou Village hurried off. They fled as if Cao Cao herself were a plague. Xiahou Dun frowned in open displeasure.
“Aman, so this was your plan…. But did you really need to give them a reward? They looked like the type who’d hand over Zhao Yun and the spoils if you simply told them to scram or die.”
“Wonyang, isn’t that a bit too cold? When people are setting off on a long journey, you give them money, not take it! I, Cao Cao, am not the sort of person who robs travelers on the road to the afterlife.”
“…The road to the afterlife?”
Xiahou Dun dug at her ear and repeated the words. Cao Cao nodded with a smile.
“Someone has to take responsibility for stealing the spoils, right? Wouldn’t it paint a much prettier picture if they bore the blame instead of our Zhao Yun?”
“Ugh, what are you plotting now… Never mind. You must have thought it through.”
“Of course! Wonyang? At dawn, chase those men down and punish them according to military law. What happens to deserters who get caught again?”
“Depends on the amount, but… at this scale, we can execute them on the spot. Their families will be arrested and turned into slaves, too.”
“Oh no, how tragic~ Still, let’s leave their families alone. After all, these were men who earned merit fighting the Yellow Turbans, weren’t they?”
Cao Cao gazed down at the still-unconscious Zhao Yun. He was badly beaten, but… he still looked like he could move just fine. That would be inconvenient.
“From what I can see, he doesn’t appear seriously injured. What’s your assessment, Wonyang? Does it look like he’ll need to stay in bed for a week?”
At those words, Xiahou Dun rolled Zhao Yun over, inspected him thoroughly, then shook her head.
“A week? No way. He’ll probably be up and walking the moment he wakes.”
“Mm, as I thought. And this is his first day as my subordinate… Can’t be helped!”
Cao Cao stepped into the tent for a moment, then emerged again. When she had gone in, her hands were empty. When she came out, she was gripping a vicious-looking iron club.
“Wait… what the hell is that for?”
Cao Cao scratched her head awkwardly, hesitating as she searched for the gentlest possible words.
“Um… how should I put this? I intend to become Zhao Yun’s… Yes! His savior in a moment of life and death.”
“What?”
What is this girl even saying? The man would be walking around fine soon—how was she his savior? And what did an iron club have to do with saving anyone’s life?
Faced with Xiahou Dun’s utterly confused expression, Cao Cao gave an embarrassed little smile and spoke.
“So… Wonyang? If it looks like Zhao Yun won’t be able to move for a week, you have to tell me to stop. Got it?”
Stop what? Before Xiahou Dun could ask, Cao Cao gripped the iron club with both hands, her face solemn, and stood over the unconscious man.
Then—
Whoooosh—!
CRAAAAACK!!!
“A-Aman!!! What the hell are you doing?!”
Cao Cao’s justified violence descended upon Zhao Yun.
When he opened his eyes, an unfamiliar ceiling greeted him.
…I never thought I’d be saying this twice in one week….
He searched his memories for the last thing he remembered. The image of the Dontou Village men beating him with clubs rose to the surface. Fuck. What the hell were they thinking? Or had he hit his head so hard that his memory was distorted?
As if to prove his body remembered perfectly, a sudden wave of pain stabbed through every inch of him like needles.
“Ugh….”
Had he been injured so badly he couldn’t even move? He barely managed to turn his head to check his body and—good god. There wasn’t a single spot without a bruise! At this rate, it looked less like he’d been beaten with wooden clubs and more like someone had gone at him with iron rods for hours. Just how long had they pounded him?
Never mind that—where was he? The bed was suspiciously soft for this era, which only made his heart sink further. Comfort like this was reserved for the powerful. And around here, there were only two people with that kind of power. Either Yuan Shu or…
“Ah! Zhao Yun! You’re awake! Goodness, I thought you were going to die!”
Right… it had to be either Yuan Shu or Cao Cao. And it was Cao Cao.
“Fuck.”
“Swearing the moment you open your eyes?! …Ah, of course! With your body in that state! Does it hurt terribly?”
The curse had slipped out unconsciously. Not because of the pain, but because the first thing he saw upon waking was Cao Cao’s face. Before he could explain, she had already drawn her own conclusion and moved on.
If this was Cao Cao’s tent, things had gone horribly wrong… What the hell had happened?
“Um… Lord Cao. What exactly is going on here?”
Cao Cao looked at him with an expression of pure shock.
“Shouldn’t I be the one asking that?! Why were the men from Dontou Village beating you half to death? From what I saw, they had already stolen the spoils from Nusang Village and even our army’s supplies and were trying to flee!”
…What? The army’s money? No, that couldn’t be right!
“Th-those men stole military supplies and ran away?! No, that’s impossible….”
“Oh? Zhao Yun? You don’t seem surprised they ran off with the Nusang Village spoils?”
“N-no! That’s shocking too, but… touching the army’s funds….”
Unless they had a death wish, they would never do that. Fuck! No matter how he thought about it, none of this made sense. Did this mean he had been betrayed and Cao Cao had saved him? That those uncles had suddenly grown balls big enough to steal his property and military goods and bolt? The more he considered it, the stranger it seemed. There was no reason for them to do that…
Wait. Then how had he—
“Aman! You in here?!”
“Ah! Wonyang, come in.”
Before he could finish the thought, Xiahou Dun entered, looking for Cao Cao. Her armor was splattered with blood here and there, as if she had just come from battle.
“Those bastards ran farther than I expected. Took a while. …Hm? Ah! So you’re finally awake! Hey, you okay? I’ve never seen someone get beaten that savagely with an iron— I mean, wooden? Yeah… wooden clubs. Just how hard did those men hit you to turn a person into… well. Ahem!”
Xiahou Dun suddenly stammered and trailed off. What? Did his body really look that bad? And “those bastards”—was she talking about the Dontou Village men?
“So, Wonyang? You found the deserters, I take it.”
“Yeah. The deserters…. Found them and killed them all. They put up a fight, but it didn’t take long.”
So that was it… They had been caught and executed. Only natural after running off with the army’s property. Stupid bastards…. Of course, while the previous owner of this body had been close to them, Zhao Yun himself hadn’t shared any deep bond. Still, they had treated him warmly, so some affection had grown. Hearing that the men who ruined his plans and fled were now dead left a bitter taste in his mouth.
Maybe seeing the spoils tent had sparked their greed. Once they decided to desert anyway, perhaps they figured they might as well take as much as possible. Even so, trying to run with the army’s funds was far too reckless.
…No. If that were the case, there would have been no reason to cut him out of the plan. And they couldn’t have failed to realize they would be chased after stealing military property. Something was off.
“Of course. Did you recover the spoils?”
“I gathered everything and handed it over to Liu Bei on my way back, just as you instructed. She was so shocked she tried to rush here, but I barely stopped her.”
“Well done! Zhao Yun is badly injured, so he needs complete rest! Probably… a week? At least that long he must stay here in bed without fail! Understood? Take your time recovering, and we can discuss the future together! Well then!”
The spoils had slipped from his hands and returned to Liu Bei’s embrace. The soldiers who might have helped him steal them again had been killed. He had no money to buy an official post, and without connections, the only paths to rank were through Cao Cao or Yuan Shu. Cao Cao had “happened” to find him gravely injured and unable to move. He was now in her grasp. And he now owed her a life debt for being saved. Finally, there was Cao Cao’s long-standing desire to keep him under her.
In a single night, everything had smiled upon Cao Cao.
If she had known how desperately he wanted an official position. If she had known he wanted to leave Liu Bei. If she had even known how much he avoided her…
It was absurd, but if she had known all of it… wouldn’t this exact situation have unfolded anyway?