Never Imagined
"General. I came again today. Hehe."
Liu Shan arrived as he always did, grinning from ear to ear, and I managed my expression as best I could while receiving him.
"...Yes. Welcome, Your Highness."
Unfortunately, Ma Su was occupied with other duties. He wasn't unemployed, after all — it couldn't be helped. Gan Yong had also fled, so once again I was left to handle Liu Shan alone.
The relentless barrage of questions, paired with a mind that turned at a rate inversely proportional to their volume, pressed in on me from both sides. Still—
"Your Highness, shall we stop here for today?"
"Yes, General. Thank you for teaching me to read again today."
As usual, we finished with reading practice. He was keeping up better than I'd feared, which was a relief — even if that scattershot storm of questions still wore me down.
One thing struck me as odd. The entire time Liu Shan read and asked questions, he never once let the smile leave his face. He was always cheerful and quick to laugh, but today it seemed even more pronounced.
What is it? Did something good happen?
"General. See you next time."
"Yes, Your Highness the Crown Prince. You worked hard today. I'll see you again."
Liu Shan beamed and scampered off as if racing to meet someone he'd been aching to see. A strange feeling tugged at me, so I slipped outside the official residence for a discreet look — and there he was, meeting a young girl.
With her, Liu Shan looked brighter than I had ever seen him.
Who is that girl? Oh-ho~ Now I get it. That's General Zhang Fei's daughter. So that's why he was so happy.
Zhang Fei's daughter. The girl who would one day marry Liu Shan and become empress.
I'd heard that once Zhang Fei remained in Jingzhou, his family would soon join him here. So today was the day.
The two of them walked off side by side into the distance. Good. Grow well. Grow strong enough to protect the people you hold dear.
"Your Highness the Crown Prince. You worked hard again today. Please go carefully."
"Yes, General. I learned a lot too. See you again."
Once more I spent several hours with Liu Shan and was in the middle of sending him off. His attendants had come out to receive him.
"Yes, yes. Your Highness the Crown Prince. You truly labored hard at your studies again today. I shall escort you. And General Jin — thank you so very much for serving His Highness. Truly, you are the renowned general whose fame resounds throughout the land. From here, I shall take charge of His Highness. Leave him to me."
Among the many attendants, he was the eunuch who always stuck closest to Liu Shan's side. Bowing and scraping alternately to Liu Shan and to me, he ushered the prince away with nasal, painstaking devotion.
He stood out among Liu Shan's retinue. At first I'd taken him for just another eunuch in the prince's service, but Liu Shan seemed rather fond of him.
"You've grown even more dashing today. With a Crown Prince so splendid, the future of this nation can only look bright."
One reason Liu Shan liked him was simple: flattery. He laid it on thick with me as well whenever we met, and Liu Shan seemed thoroughly susceptible to it. Every time the eunuch cooed praise in that honeyed voice, Liu Shan practically glowed with delight. He was good with jokes, too — whenever he was nearby, smiles never left Liu Shan's face.
"And I've brought Jinwang along as well."
"Wow! Jinwang! I was just wishing I could see him!"
Jinwang was the cat Liu Shan adored. The moment the eunuch held him out, Liu Shan lit up and scooped him into his arms. Nestled against the prince, Jinwang wriggled his yellow fur and purred.
The man also had an uncanny knack for zeroing in on exactly what Liu Shan liked. His eye for reading what the prince wanted in any given moment was considerable.
A pale, fair face; age somewhere in the late teens to early twenties.
All I knew was that he had come with the reinforcements from Chengdu and attached himself to Liu Shan.
"Now then. Once we return, I'll see to your attire again. You'll be going to meet Miss Zhang soon, after all."
In any case, since he'd arrived, Liu Shan's dress and bearing had improved markedly. He always seemed in better spirits, and with a neater appearance he looked like a young man who'd leveled up a full tier.
A eunuch attending the Crown Prince was nothing unusual — and yet something about it sat wrong with me.
I feel like I'm missing something important. What is it?
That was when it happened.
"General Seyeong. Has His Highness the Crown Prince gone?"
I turned to find Gan Yong poking only his head out from behind a wall.
"Master Gan. Why do you keep avoiding His Highness like that? Have you committed some crime?"
"Ahem. This person. Who said anything about committing a crime?"
"Then why hide until the moment he leaves, only to appear right on cue?"
"Ahem. Pure coincidence. Coincidence."
"If it's coincidence, how about arriving a little earlier and helping me look after His Highness?"
"I haven't the depth of learning to withstand His Highness's barrage of questions."
"So then, I look after him because I have depth of learning?"
"Better than me, no? And at my age, I'd rather live avoiding bothersome work. Quietly. At my ease."
Truth be told, I couldn't argue with that. Once the realm was settled, I too wanted to live somewhere quiet and forget the world entirely.
Getting tangled in succession politics could land you in all sorts of headaches. And yet here I was, doing exactly that…?
"That aside — a guest has arrived. Are you going to leave him standing outside?"
"I know perfectly well you came because you were bored. Please come in."
"Hehehe. That's my girl."
Gan Yong was always slippery, but when he came by I could set down the grind of my routine for a while and actually talk to someone — so it wasn't all bad. Xu Shu was perpetually busy, and everyone around me was solemn and serious (except Ma Su). A person to trade jokes with was the least I needed.
"Master Gan. Please have some."
I seated Gan Yong in my office and set out tea with a few simple refreshments.
"Your love of tea truly deserves recognition. I'll enjoy this. Mmm — fine aroma."
Gan Yong flared his nostrils, savoring the fragrance for a moment, then swallowed a mouthful with a gulp.
"The scent and the taste both keep getting better, don't they?"
"Thank you for the compliment. I've been paying more attention to the fragrance lately. But is it all right for you to keep coming out and leaving Lord Mi Zhu behind? How is his condition?"
"Much improved. And I'm not out here for fun, you know? Mi Zhu keeps wanting news of the outside world, so I go to all this trouble. Besides, there are plenty of servants tending him — what's the harm in my stepping out a little?"
"Ugh. Still as smooth-tongued as ever."
Beyond nursing Mi Zhu, Gan Yong had little else to do. He was a senior minister, and by now he simply wanted to set hard work aside and live at his leisure.
"That aside — how are things in Chengdu? Is Her Majesty the Consort well?"
Gan Yong seemed restless after leaving Chengdu, but thanks to that I could learn about the capital's internal affairs through him.
"Mmm. About that. Nothing has actually broken out yet. But there's been a bit of a stir over Her Majesty."
"Has something happened to Her Majesty?"
"Nothing has happened, exactly. But when Wu invaded this time, it seems Her Majesty came under some pressure. There was talk that she must have known of Wu's attack in advance."
"How awful…"
"On top of that, Her Majesty has borne a prince. Whispers are starting to spread that she might be angling to install her own son as heir."
"Ah. What a headache."
"Her Majesty is keeping silent for now, but those rumors seem to be circulating under the surface. His Lordship has warned people not to be led astray by baseless talk — but how can one stop every rumor that seeps up from the bottom?"
I had been worrying about that myself. Lady Sun was from Wu; it was only natural that noise might arise within.
Even here in Jingzhou I had kept up correspondence with Sun Ren, exchanging letters. Sometimes she sent me tea as a gift, but most of our contact was little more than asking after each other's health — so I had no idea things had reached this point.
Chengdu was more unsettled than I'd thought. That must have been why Liu Bei and Zhuge Liang had returned there so quickly.
Did they leave Liu Shan here for fear that if he stayed in Chengdu he might get caught up in those suspicious rumors, or tangled in something strange? Before leaving, Liu Bei had said there were circumstances that prevented him from taking Liu Shan to Chengdu…
That thought crossed my mind. Ordinarily a crown prince belonged in the capital — but circumstances were circumstances.
Ah — speaking of Liu Shan reminded me of something else.
"By the way, Master Gan. Do you happen to know that man? The eunuch who sticks right to His Highness the Crown Prince's side and waits on him. Pale face, looks about twenty."
Since it had come up, I asked about the eunuch as well. At the time I still thought little of it, sipping my tea without a care — utterly unaware of the shockwave his next words would set off.
"Ah, that smooth-talking eunuch fellow? As far as I know, he's been serving His Highness since the palace. I heard His Highness said he missed the man, so our lord brought him all the way here. His name is…"
His name is…?
"Huang Hao, I believe?"
"Pffft—!"