The Enthronement Ceremony
The fateful day dawned. I escorted Yu Hyeop to the imperial court conference hosted by Dong Zhuo.
Sob... sob...
A handful of officials were weeping. Tears also welled in the eyes of Liu Bian, who sat upon the throne after so long an absence.
“...And so. Liu Bian is hereby deposed from the imperial throne.”
Dong Zhuo read aloud the edict he himself had drafted, declaring that Liu Bian was no longer the Son of Heaven. Empress Dowager He poured out curses at him through her tears, and several ministers who vented their fury were dragged away by the Imperial Guards.
“Long live! Long live! Ten thousand years!”
Most of the officials, however, had already gone over to Dong Zhuo. They praised the new emperor as they watched Yu Hyeop receive the imperial crown.
“...”
Wang Yun’s expression was far from bright. Yet he was a born politician who prized efficiency to a startling degree. He seemed to have resigned himself long ago that Dong Zhuo’s treason could not be stopped.
“This one has ascended the throne only through the great labors of Grand Preceptor Dong. And to have so many ministers celebrate it fills me with joy. I ask that you all give your utmost to help me restore the broken discipline of the realm.”
Yu Hyeop was stronger than I had expected. Even after watching her own brother lose the throne before her eyes, she played at perfect composure so as not to rouse Dong Zhuo’s suspicion.
Her insides must be rotting away by now. She must be terrified, fretting over how the assembled ministers and the scholars of the realm will mock her.
Yet she still slipped her arm out in secret and brushed her fingertips against mine—as if my presence alone let her endure, as if she meant to keep enduring that way forever.
But if she knew that today might be the last... would Yu Hyeop ever forgive me?
A grand banquet followed at once. There had been a little noise, yet the deposition and enthronement had gone far more smoothly than expected.
Dong Zhuo’s spirits were at an all-time high. Having firmly replaced the emperor, he trusted the Imperial Guards’ defenses and drank with abandon.
“How much longer must we remain here?”
Yu Hyeop asked, looking exhausted. We had already stayed long enough for the festivities; returning to the palace at once would cause no great trouble.
“Offer wine to Dong Zhuo and Lu Bu. As much as you can.”
“...?”
It was the final mission she had to perform for me. She seemed to find it a little strange, yet she still trusted me and walked toward Dong Zhuo and Lu Bu.
“Grand Preceptor Dong, you have labored greatly. This one wishes to offer you a cup.”
“Hahaha! If it is wine from the Son of Heaven, I could drink a whole jar!”
Dong Zhuo laughed as if he held the entire world in his hands. Yu Hyeop swallowed her disgust and turned next to Lu Bu.
“You are called Lu Bu, are you not? You have labored well serving the Grand Preceptor. Receive this one’s cup.”
“I am on duty. I will not drink.”
Lu Bu cut the emperor’s command short with a flat refusal. The chill that settled over the hall needed no description.
“Lu Bu, it is wine from the Son of Heaven—take it. Who would dare harm this Dong Zhuo?”
“...”
Dong Zhuo scolded him and forced the cup into his hands. Left with no choice, Lu Bu accepted it and drained it deep.
Please... let that single cup weaken him just enough for me to beat him.
Yu Hyeop kept pressing wine on Dong Zhuo. Lu Bu, however, had drunk only that one cup. Now everything truly hung on that single drink.
Staggering...
Dong Zhuo, his revelry at its peak, rose from his seat. Lu Bu started up in alarm, but Dong Zhuo waved him back.
Do not do anything that would diminish my dignity.
He meant to throw a proper drunken fit for once; if Lu Bu followed, he would look like a coward. Astonishingly, Dong Zhuo himself kept helping me.
“Ugh... I am drunk. This Dong Zhuo has something to say to you all!”
As expected, he was about to launch into a grand speech. Realizing the moment had come at last, I slipped my hand inside my robe and caressed the hilt of the Seven-Star Sword.
“This Dong Zhuo has roamed the realm for fully twenty years. Raising merit here and there, and so on and so forth...”
My eyes were already fixed not on Dong Zhuo but on Lu Bu. He watched only for his master’s safety and never once glanced my way.
“And so this Dong Zhuo, and so on and so forth...”
The signal is now and only now. Strike Dong Zhuo in a single chance, lure the pursuing Lu Bu away and kill him. Then escape the palace...
Whoosh!
Yet at that very instant something happened that even a god could not have foreseen.
Someone had slipped a hand inside a robe ahead of me. That someone even snatched the only weapon that could defeat Lu Bu, then dashed straight toward Dong Zhuo and cried out:
“Sorry, but this is as far as you go, Dong Zhuo. Lord Cao wants your head!”
“...?”
The one who made that historic declaration of assassination was none other than Seol-i. Wait—what exactly did you just take, and what do you think you’re going to do with it?
And “Lord Cao”? Does she mean the same Lord Cao that I know, that Dong Zhuo knows, that every last one of us knows?
“Th-this bitch has gone mad!”
Dong Zhuo started so violently he dropped the cup in his hand. Seol-i did not miss the opening; she sprang forward with tremendous spring.
“Die, Dong Zhuo!”
It was a moment of absolute crisis. I still had no idea what was happening, yet Seol-i was trying to do the very thing I had planned.
Drunk as he was, Dong Zhuo’s movements had grown quite sluggish. The distance to the blade was now five cheok. Then four. Then three.
When it closed to two, I clenched my fists without thinking and rooted for her. I still did not know the full story, but Seol-i’s strike was no amateur’s work; at this rate she might truly...
Clang!
Before I could even feel the damp sweat in my palm, two blades flashed a single cheok short and sparks flew. Incredibly, Seol-i’s sword was stopped by Lu Bu with exactly one cheok—twenty-three centimeters—to spare.
“A mere palace maid dares try to harm someone?”
“This fucking...”
Seol-i spat a curse and faced Lu Bu. Blindingly fast sword strokes stabbed at him without mercy.
Clang! Clang!
A duel between masters at the absolute peak. Seol-i’s blade was so swift it vanished from sight, yet Lu Bu parried every strike by a hair’s breadth.
Rumble...
Meanwhile the Imperial Guards under Hua Xiong swarmed around Dong Zhuo. Was it over just like this?
I haven’t even done a single thing—am I failing before I even start?
Clang!
At the same moment the two fighters’ exchange was decided. Lu Bu’s sword knocked the Seven-Star Sword aside; Seol-i felt a searing pain in her wrist and staggered back.
Whoosh whoosh whoosh!
A dozen blades instantly surrounded her. Seol-i ground her teeth in pure frustration.
She bit so hard that blood welled at the corner of her mouth even though no blade had touched it.
“Seize that woman!”
Hua Xiong bellowed, and the guards rushed the now-disarmed Seol-i. She was bound in ropes without managing even a single struggle.
Let her go!
Dong Zhuo shoved through the ring of guards and emerged. Then, with his massive frame, he cracked Seol-i across the cheek.
“You insolent... Who dares attack me on this fine day? Lord Cao? Do you mean Cao Cao?”
“Kh... Who else but Lord Cao would be the hero trying to execute the realm’s greatest traitor? You’re lucky this time, Dong Zhuo. But next time it won’t end like this.”
“Th-this bitch dares!”
Thud! Thud! Thud!
Dong Zhuo beat Seol-i—who was barely a quarter of his bulk—right where she stood. When she finally collapsed bloodied and unconscious, he roared in a voice thick with rage.
“Lock that woman up! Tomorrow, before everyone’s eyes, I will tear her body into five pieces!”
Thud!
He kicked the ruined form lying on the floor and shouted again. Yu Hyeop, face white with terror, turned to me.
“Wh-what on earth is going on?”
“That is...”
How should I know? The most baffled person here is me.
That bitch Seol-i stole the only weapon that could beat Lu Bu, so I never even got to attempt the assassination!
“Why were you carrying a sword?”
At that moment Lu Bu fixed his gaze on me instead of the furious Dong Zhuo. Every eye in the hall swung toward me at once.
“Pardon? What do you mean by that...”
“Just now that woman drew the sword from inside your robe, did she not? I am asking why you were hiding a sword.”
“Because I am the emperor’s personal guard? Grand Preceptor Dong himself ordered me to do so.”
“I am asking why you kept it hidden.”
“Would I leave a sword out in the open at a banquet and ruin the mood? Unlike you, Lord Lu Bu, I have to watch other people’s faces.”
Why is this bastard so sharp-eyed? In the middle of a life-or-death fight with Seol-i he still noticed that?
Yet there was not a single flaw in my claim. I had only done as Dong Zhuo ordered, and I was not of a rank that could openly display a sword at a banquet.
In my agitation, however, I had forgotten one thing: my Intelligence was only 1. No matter how correct my words, a lingering “suspicious doubt” always remained.
“Do Yeop is right. That sword is the White Peach Sword bequeathed by the late emperor, given to him personally so that he might protect me.”
“...?”
It was Yu Hyeop. Mistakenly thinking I was in danger, she volunteered words she need not have spoken—and thereby cast suspicion on a sword that need never have been examined.
“This... is the White Peach Sword? The White Peach Sword I know does not look like this.”
Li Ru lifted the blade Lu Bu had just struck aside. She was a woman who had served as a court academician and was thoroughly familiar with palace protocol.
Such a woman could not possibly be ignorant of the White Peach Sword. Yet the seven jewels set in the shape of the Big Dipper were something she had never seen anywhere.
“Do Yeop... just what is that sword?”
And now Dong Zhuo had noticed as well. A heavy voice rolled from his flushed face, and a terror I had never felt before made every hair on my body stand on end.
“Th-that is...”
“Lu Bu was right. You were hiding a sword! You ungrateful wretch... Did you dare try to harm me?”
“...”
There was no room left for excuses. All that remained was to spit resentment at the one who had ruined everything.
Ugh...
But what could I say to Seol-i, already unconscious on the floor?
More importantly—who the hell are you? Who are you that Cao Cao ordered you to pull a stunt like this...
“...?”
In that instant I realized something enormous. I finally remembered where I had seen those strangely familiar eyes.
The poetry contest at Jin Lin’s house. That day Cao Cao had shouted a single phrase to tear off Yu Bi’s face veil.
“Miaocai, strip it.”
In a flash a woman had dropped from the ceiling and torn away Yu Bi’s veil. And in the eyes of the fallen Seol-i before me now, that exact same shape was embedded.
Skill: Three Days Five Hundred (15)
[Unit mobility +20%]
Special Ability: Three-Eight Cross
[In years whose final digit is not a multiple of 3 or 8, Leadership & Martial +2]
Alias: White Paper General
[Local procurement ability doubled]