Chapter 14
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Translator: MadScientist
Chapter: 14
Chapter Title: Ding Bu
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The morning after the mad feast came to an end.
The air in Saibang that morning was exceptionally cold. Ding Yuan had arrayed his entire army of 13,000 across the plains and now overlooked them all from the highest platform.
"Waaaaah! Long live the Governor!"
The soldiers' cheers, boosted by last night's banquet, filled the plains. And at Ding Yuan's summons, I made my way silently toward the platform.
Countless gazes pierced toward me, mingled with awe and curiosity.
'Hmm, why exactly is this new father calling me up to the platform?'
As I reached the front of the platform, Ding Yuan began praising this great victory in an impassioned voice, as if he'd been waiting for me.
"Did you all see it? In a single night, we crushed thousands of Wuhuan cavalry! But even more astonishing is the fact that amid this magnificent triumph, our brave Bing Province troops suffered fewer than a hundred casualties!"
"Waaaaah! Long live him!!"
His shout sent the soldiers' morale soaring to the heavens.
Pride and excitement lit up every face, as if yesterday's victory was replaying right before their eyes.
When the soldiers' cheers reached their peak, Ding Yuan pointed at me—drawing every eye—and bellowed.
"Whose achievement is this great victory? It belongs to the Unit Commander Lu Bu, whom I myself appointed! His divine might brought us this overwhelming win!"
"...."
Ding Yuan paused for a moment, watching for my reaction. Then, in an even louder voice, he made a declaration no one could have anticipated.
"To reward such an enormous feat with mere office or wealth would be an insult to the hero! Today, before you all, I go beyond mere praise for Lu Bu's merits—I take him as my own son!"
"....Huh?"
Ding Yuan's bombshell announcement silenced the cheers that had pierced the skies just moments before, as if by magic.
"....??"
The 13,000-strong army fell into utter silence, doubting their own ears.
The soldiers could only stare at each other's faces. No one dared open their mouth properly.
"A son? The Governor is... taking the Martial God as his son?"
"Uh... uh...."
Shock and astonishment spread across every soldier's face. Then, one old soldier muttered unwittingly.
"...Now a dragon and tiger dwell together in Bing Province..."
That mutter was the spark.
"Invincible under heaven..."
"Man, with this, we don't have to worry about the battlefield anymore, right?"
Murmurs from one or two soldiers spread like wildfire in an instant, until they erupted into a roar from the full 13,000 that shook the plains.
"Waaaaaaaah!! Invincible under heaven! We're invincible under heaven now!!"
It wasn't mere cheering. It was the absolute relief and pride exploding from soldiers who had witnessed the union of overwhelming power and authority.
Meanwhile, Wei Sok, standing before the platform, stared blankly, utterly lost as if he couldn't comprehend any of it.
Wei Sok's jaw hung open as he alternated glances between me and Ding Yuan, then muttered gravely to himself with a serious look.
"...Wait, if Brother becomes the Governor's son... does that make me a son too?"
Having savored the soldiers' cheers to his satisfaction, Ding Yuan approached me, gripped my shoulder, and said,
"You are now my son. How could a father not bestow a courtesy name upon his boy?"
Ding Yuan shouted once more, loud enough for all the soldiers to hear.
"In reverence for your ancestors and to bid you serve this father well henceforth, I grant you the courtesy name 'Fengxian'! From this day, you are my son, Lu Bu Fengxian!"
As Ding Yuan's declaration ended, I rose, bowed toward him properly, and cried out.
"Father! This Lu Bu Fengxian will not disappoint you!"
"Wooooooh!! Long live him!!"
The soldiers unleashed another wave of frenzied cheers at my oath.
But inside, my thoughts were different. Far from the cheering soldiers and Ding Yuan's satisfied smile, I still had mountains of tasks ahead.
'Wuhuan, Xianbei, Xiongnu. We've beaten back the Wuhuan Tribe somewhat, but we haven't even touched the Xianbei or Xiongnu properly. To smash their heads, I need troops—no helping it.'
I glanced at Ding Yuan once more.
His face brimmed with the satisfaction of having acquired the finest sword.
'As long as he doesn't cross the line, I'll serve him well as a father.'
As the mad cheers faded and we entered the command tent, Ding Yuan finally dropped his mask.
The ecstatic shouts from the soldiers outside no longer mattered to him. Alone in the empty tent, he filled a cup with wine but didn't drink.
Instead, the face of the man he'd just called "son" from the platform lingered in his mind.
'Lu Bu Fengxian...'
A twisted smile crept across Ding Yuan's lips.
Son? Ridiculous. That wasn't a son—it was the greatest commodity he'd ever acquired in a lifetime of merchant dealings, a treasured sword that could cleave the realm.
And now, he held the hilt of that sword.
'No item to rot away in a backwater like Bing Province.'
Ding Yuan's ambitions didn't stop at the north.
Reports kept coming in of unusual movements among the southern barbarians in Yang Province.
The court foxes wouldn't stir until fire scorched their own feet. Some massive upheaval was inevitable—and that would be his chance.
Ding Yuan began coldly calculating costs and gains.
'From yesterday, I saw pure hatred for the barbarians burning in his eyes. How perfect! I'll use that rage.'
Handing Lu Bu some command authority and letting him rampage freely was a dangerous investment. But the returns were incomparable.
Any merits his "son" earned would flow straight back to him—the father and lord who had discovered and nurtured the talent.
'What safer bet is there?'
Ding Yuan hardened his resolve, took up his brush, and began drafting the memorial to the court.
He lavishly boasted of the great victory: thousands of Wuhuan crushed, with minimal losses on their side. And at the center of it all, naturally, was his son.
"...All this is thanks to the divine might of my son, Ding Bu..."
Ding Yuan nodded in satisfaction at the characters "Ding Bu" he'd written.
"Yes. From now on, there is no Lu Bu in the world."
Only Ding Bu—a treasured sword he alone could wield.
'The more the realm praises your feats, the more they'll revere me, Ding Yuan, who recognized you.'
Ding Yuan smiled with deep satisfaction at the finished memorial.
Unbeknownst to himself, Lu Bu had been swept into Ding Yuan's ambitions, debuting to the world as "Ding Bu."
The day Ding Yuan officially declared me his adopted son, he didn't return straight to Jinyang despite his momentum.
Instead, he kept the army stationed in Saibang, throwing himself into wiping out the Wuhuan remnants through late autumn, as if determined to uproot the northern threat this time.
Of course, I was always at the vanguard of that frenzied campaign.
The long pursuit ended only when the first snow fell and the harsh northern winter arrived.
Once the beastly foes fully retreated beyond the barren border, Ding Yuan triumphantly led the victorious army back to Jinyang.
Finally doffing my armor, I now sat at the Chief Clerk's desk in the office for the first time in my life.
Jinyang's winter carried a damp chill that burrowed into the flesh, unlike Saibang's biting winds. But the Chief Clerk's office blazed with a red-hot brazier, filling the room with warm drafts.
Wei Sok, however, trembled like an aspen leaf despite the warmth.
"Ah, Brother! My head's gonna explode! My head!"
Wei Sok flung down his brush and clawed at his hair. Piles of bamboo slips crammed with characters and numbers towered before him.
"You wear your head as decoration?"
I snapped curtly without lifting my eyes from the slips. Wei Sok wailed in misery.
"No, I mean! How does holding a brush feel harder than swinging a sword? I'd rather patrol the walls another round right now!"
"What barbarians are gonna storm Jinyang that you need to patrol walls? Do your job right. If you don't finish by tonight, I'll dock your pay."
"Eek! That's too much!"
Wei Sok snatched up his brush again and wrestled with the slips. Watching his pathetic struggle, I couldn't help but chuckle.
'Ha, good thing I dragged this guy along by force from Master. More uses for him now.'
Back then, he'd foam at the mouth just seeing the word "accounts." But he'd learned enough that I could put him to work with a brush.
As we grappled with the paperwork,
the office door burst open, and a messenger from Ding Yuan came panting in.
"Chief Clerk! The Governor summons you urgently!"
Ding Yuan's office was filled with incense as always.
As I entered, he rose from his seat, grabbed my hand with a beaming face, and pulled me close.
"Hahaha! My son, Fengxian! Come in! Wonderful news has arrived at last—a true blessing!"
Ding Yuan pointed excitedly at a lavish silk scroll on the table, stamped clearly with the emperor's seal.
"The court has finally recognized your feat of smashing the Wuhuan skulls! Here, read it yourself! See how proudly this father has proclaimed your merits to the realm!"
'Making a fuss over nothing...'
I clicked my tongue inwardly and unfurled the scroll indifferently.
The imperial edict was a string of predictable flattery. The Bing Province Governor Ding Yuan's loyalty was laudable, his troops' valor superb... praises for the achievements followed by a tedious list of rewards.
As I skimmed through it halfheartedly, my eyes suddenly halted on one phrase.
'...Thus, to the son of Bing Province Governor Ding Yuan, Ding Bu, we bestow a hundred bolts of silk and ten taels of gold to commend his bravery... Ding Bu? What, even the emperor's edict has typos? Tsk tsk tsk...'
That was my first thought.
I looked up, deeming it trivial—only to find Ding Yuan across from me, staring with a repulsive mix of anticipation and satisfaction.
The moment I saw that expression, an alarm blared in my head that something was wrong.
'Wait. That old fox's face... no way.'
I double-checked the "Ding Bu" in the edict and Ding Yuan's face alternately. Ding (丁), Bu (布).
My surname is Lü (呂). That old fox's is Ding (丁).
'Holy shit, this lunatic actually changed my surname for real?'
Absurdity surged before anger.
I'd seen countless heads roll, but this was the first time I'd met someone who swapped a living man's surname.
He'd arbitrarily written my surname as "Ding" in the official report to the court. And they'd accepted it without question.
'Hah...'
A hollow laugh escaped me.
It was so ridiculous, yet almost admirable.
You needed that kind of nerve and cunning to govern a province. Master never taught politics like this.
"......."
As I stood speechless, Ding Yuan apparently mistook it for overwhelming emotion. He smiled warmly and patted my shoulder.
"How about it, my son? Now the realm will call you not Lü Bu, but 'Ding Bu'! The pride of our Ding clan, and this father's greatest gift to you!"
Those words snapped me back. I forced an awkward smile.
"Haha... Yes, Father. It's my first time having my surname changed since birth, so... I hardly know how to thank you... Truly a... fresh experience."
"Uhahaha! No need for thanks between father and son!"
"Ah... Yes..."
As I left Ding Yuan's office, Wei Sok, waiting outside, approached with an innocent grin.
"Brother! Did something good happen? The Governor's face was all smiles."
I just started walking without a word. Wei Sok trotted after me, chattering away.
"Oh, but Brother. I overheard outside—what's a 'Ding Bu'? We got someone like that in the army?"
"......"
"Man, that guy's hit the jackpot! The Governor himself calling his name. But wait... Ding Bu? Ding... Bu? Huh? Your surname's Lü... Wait, no way?"
His eyes widening as realization dawned, Wei Sok poked my side and asked.
"Brother! Don't tell me it's what I'm thinking? Your surname changed from Lü to Ding? Then what about me? Do I grind mine to 'Ding Sok'? Suddenly the family tree's a mess!"
—Whack!
I spun and smashed the back of Wei Sok's head with all my strength.
"Gahk!"
"Shut it, you idiot!"
Unbeknownst to me, my surname had changed.