Dragonheart Spear

It had been nothing more than a casual exchange with Chosun. But somewhere in that conversation, talk of Yu Bi had come up — and of all the words that might have slipped out, the one she least needed to hear had been the one that did.

"Did you call me a fool? Have you thought of me that way this entire time?"

"Y-you heard that? That isn't what I meant at all. I was only—"

"How could you say such a thing? I know perfectly well that I am incompetent. So even if you think ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠so, Do Yeop, I would not mind. But… but how could you say it in front of Lady Chosun? Did you not even consider how lightly she would regard me? Hic… sob…"

Yu Bi started crying again. This was no tear-gland skill — genuine resentment had boiled over, and she was weeping in earnest.

Well, hearing something like that would set anyone off. She'd been quietly nursing a rivalry with Chosun for a while now, and to be treated like an idiot right in front of her… of course the tears would come.

"Yu Bi, I'm sorry! That wasn't what I intended—"

"Hic… Have you been in contact with Lady Chosun all this time? Did you not say there was nothing between you?"

"There really is ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠nothing. You've seen it yourself — she treats me like an outright lackey."

"Do you take me for that blind? Who dresses so splendidly just to go see someone they treat as a servant?"

"She's always been particular about her appearance, hasn't she? Maybe she bought new clothes, the way you did?"

"That is precisely my point!"

"…"

What was this? So the problem was that Chosun had bought clothes for the same reason Yu Bi had?

Wasn't it just winter, and she'd wanted a change of style?

"Hic… You cannot do this to me. How can you insult me so? Did you not say you would serve me as your lord? And yet, Do Yeop… have you been holding two people in your heart? Hic…"

"Please calm down, Yu Bi. This is all my fault. But Chosun is nothing more than a messenger who relays the Emperor's words. She is fundamentally different from you — the one I will stand beside for the rest of my life, for the sake of the Han."

"Hic…? D-did you just say for the rest of your life? Meaning you and I will grow old together until the day we die?"

"I don't think 'grow old together' is quite the right phrase here… more like fish and water. Like we couldn't live without each other?"

"Ah—! Saying something like that so suddenly…"

Yu Bi seemed so taken with the phrase that her tears stopped at once, and a wave of lightheadedness hit her. She looked ready to tip backward, so I quickly braced her back.

"…"

Which left us in something uncomfortably close to an embrace. Yu Bi flushed and turned her face away.

"Th-this is outdoors. For a lord and vassal to observe the rites here would be…"

"No! You looked like you were about to fall. Haa… let's just sit over there and calm down for a bit, all right?"

So I sat with Yu Bi on the wooden veranda, side by side, her tears finally spent. The night wind was sharp, but with our collars drawn close it was bearable.

"I was so startled. You broke off the lord-and-vassal rites and rushed out to meet someone — and of all people, it was Lady Chosun…"

"I didn't know it would be Chosun either, all right? Anyway, I'm sorry for speaking so carelessly. I was never treating you like a fool."

"Ah… I've already heard it so many times from my teacher that it hardly even stings anymore. Without you, Do Yeop, how could I ever have reclaimed office?"

"You would have managed it on your own. I only hurried things along a little. The realm returns to those of virtue — so hold fast to the heart you have now. That is…"

"That is what?"

"Nothing. It's nothing."

"…"

I'd almost said the thing guaranteed to drive a person up the wall, then stopped. Yu Bi pouted, thoroughly sulky, and soon her characteristic sigh followed as her head drooped.

"Ah… I understand. You never tell me the things that matter."

"That isn't it… I was going to say that was why I chose you. Unlike Yuan Shao, who deceives even himself to reach his ends, and unlike Cao Cao, who terrorizes women and children — that steadfast honesty of yours."

"Ah—! Was that it? But Yun Chang has always said that living that way means you will never obtain a single thing you desire…"

"Don't worry. That's why I'm here — to stand in for that part of you. The filthy, disgusting, underhanded work — I'll handle all of it. You just stay exactly as you are, always in that same place. Like the sun at midheaven setting and darkness falling — while I hide in the moonlight and do evil in the shadows, you become the sun everyone is waiting for."

"Hup—! Now that you mention it, there is no moon tonight!"

"…"

I'd put real care into that speech, and that was what she cared about — the moon? But when I looked up, she was right. There was no moonlight at all.

The new moon had returned.

"Ah… now that I think of it, it was the same that day. A new moon night just like this one — I nearly lost you, Do Yeop."

"The day He Jin died? You must have been terrified."

"No. I cannot say I felt no fear — but it was not because Dong Zhuo's soldiers were dragging me away."

"Huh? Then what were you afraid of?"

Yu Bi turned her head toward me.

A pure, kind presence without the slightest trace of malice. That alone seemed to warm a heart gone cold on a winter night.

In those moist eyes that still held the ghost of tears, my reflection was looking back at me. Then was she reflected in mine as well?

"The thought that you might die right then left room for nothing else. If only you could be safe — I believed I could endure whatever horrors Dong Zhuo's soldiers might put me through."

"…"

How could anyone wear a face that beautiful and speak words that lovely? My throat closed of its own accord, and my breath trembled.

And for a moment, I wondered if Chosun's suspicion might have been right.

That I hadn't chosen her because she was the most suitable person — but for purely personal feelings…

Without thinking, I had taken her hand. Far from pulling away, Yu Bi leaned her body against my shoulder.

Soon our sides touched, and warmth layered upon warmth. If I could sit on this veranda for a lifetime, talking quietly like this, I felt I could weather any chaos the age threw at us.

"Yu Bi?"

"Please speak."

"I plan to leave Yawang for a while."

"Wh-what do you mean by that!?"

Yu Bi jerked back in shock — though even then, she did not let go of the hand she held so tightly.

"A tremendous upheaval is about to crash down on Hanei. Yuan Shao will gather the warlords of every region to oppose Dong Zhuo. I've made some preparations, but a single county can't weather all of it. So I'll leave for a time to ready our response."

"Must you… truly leave my side to do this?"

"I'm afraid so. Guan Yu and Zhang Fei are with you, so don't worry. I've already told Sima Lang, Jian Yong, and the others what needs doing — stockpile supplies steadily and train the soldiers. Thoroughly enough that the moment I return, we can move at once."

"That you would leave… but I will take it to heart. I will do exactly as you say. Only… please come back safely. That is all I ask."

Yu Bi collapsed into my arms just like that. As if already missing the me who would be gone by tomorrow, she kept rubbing our joined hands, storing up the warmth.

And so, with one arm around Yu Bi and my eyes on the black-veiled new moon, I greeted the coming moon.

The lands north of the Yellow River are commonly called Hebei, and from ancient times they have been fertile country, unusually prosperous.

The great states of Zhao and Wei from the Warring States era rose to power here. It is also the promised land that would one day become Yuan Shao's foundation and elevate him to the foremost man under heaven.

But even the richest soil turns barren when crisis strikes. The Yellow Turban Rebellion and the rise of bandit gangs of every stripe gradually transformed the region into lawless territory.

The only ones who could protect themselves were the local magnates who already monopolized the land and power.

And as the age of chaos fully arrived, these men came to wield more authority in their own districts than the court itself.

Jizhou, Julu Commandery, Qiao County.

A short distance from the county seat, a man named Jang Gyeom had seized control of a large reservoir. Every summer, when water ran short, he sold it to the farmers and amassed a great fortune.

The cunning Jang Gyeom pretended to do them a kindness by lending water on credit — then charged ruinous interest. In the end, no matter how hard they farmed, nothing remained after the interest was paid.

The farmers around him all went bankrupt, surrendered their land, and became tenant laborers. His influence had grown so great that even the county magistrate dared not look at him lightly.

"Could you not wait just a little longer? When spring comes the wheat will be in — I ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠can truly repay you then."

Son Hong had inherited vast holdings from his ancestors and been a wealthy farmer. That was how he had survived the murderous interest rates this long.

But even he had reached his limit. Pride as a landed farmer had kept him paying the usurious water fees and working his fields — yet for several years now the land had been stripped away piece by piece, and nothing was left.

"That's a problem. You barely have any land left as it is. What if you skip town overnight? Who covers that loss?"

Jang Gyeom refused to extend any credit and laid down the threat. Though it wasn't as if he stood to lose anything, really.

"No good. Just in case — drag this one along. I'll watch him myself until the debt is paid."

"N-no! Father injured his back last year — he cannot travel far!"

A young woman rushed forward and dropped to her knees before Jang Gyeom. Her fair skin and refined beauty were hard to believe belonged to a farmer's daughter.

"Yeona… was it? You've grown even prettier since I last saw you. About time you were married off, isn't it?"

Jang Gyeom appraised Son Yeona's beauty the way a man swallows at the sight of meat roasted golden-brown. Son Hong felt an instinctive dread in that naked gaze.

"Master Jang! Please — say nothing of that sort about my daughter. I will go with you. Only promise that when the debt is settled next spring, you will release me."

"Should have said so from the start… Bring him!"

In the end Son Hong was led away by Jang Gyeom's men like a calf to the slaughterhouse. Son Yeona watched her father's wretched back and cursed her own powerlessness.

Just wait a little longer. The moment he enters the forest — that will be the chance.

But in a world where the law has collapsed, to earn a grudge is to make that many enemies.

In the forest Jang Gyeom would pass through, a band waited with his throat in mind — farmers who had lost every scrap of land to him and had nothing left but hatred.

"Now!"

"Waaaaah!!"

They poured out armed with plows, shovels, and every farm tool they could find, surrounding Jang Gyeom's party. The numbers were ten to four.

And since two of the men were binding Son Hong's arms, it was effectively just Jang Gyeom and a single bodyguard.

"I thought I'd seen these faces somewhere — you're the ones who stiffed me and ran, aren't you?"

But Jang Gyeom showed not a flicker of alarm. He even wore the irritated look of a man who'd found cockroaches in his house.

"When did we ever stiff you? Just because you grabbed one damn reservoir, you ground us into the dirt!"

"Do you know how many starved because of you? And you still expected to die in your own bed?"

"Harsh words. I allowed tenancy, didn't I? You lot refused and ran off — so why blame me when your families died?"

"Shut your mouth! With the rents you gouged, how were we supposed to feed anyone?"

"Then you should have bred more carefully. I was only weeding out the useless stock for you — you really don't understand my grand design, do you?"

A villain with a human face and a beast's heart. The farmers no longer saw any point in answering.

They meant to gather every grudge of everyone Jang Gyeom had ever wronged and take his life.

"Kill him!"

"Waaaaah!!!"

All ten farmers charged Jang Gyeom at once. But even as they closed to arm's length, his expression did not change.

"Dispose of them."

Shrring! The moment the words left his mouth, Jang Gyeom's bodyguard seized a spear. The rags pulled over the head made it impossible even to tell who it was.

Whoosh! Thunk!

But the hands that moved were so fast the eye could barely follow. In the blink of an eye the spear thrust through one man's belly.

Pop. Sssspill…

When the spear was drawn free, intestines poured from the small hole. The rag-wrapped bodyguard struck the way a bee drives its stinger.

No — more precisely, massacred.

Ghk! Aaaagh!

In a forest where even the mountain birds had forgotten how to sing, only the death-cries of dying men rang out. The rag-wrapped bodyguard felled nine in an instant without taking so much as a scratch.

"H-hiiik! D-die!!!"

The last remaining farmer flung the sickle in his hand with every scrap of ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠strength left. But whoosh! — the bodyguard flicked their head aside, let it pass, and drove the spear straight in.

Pik!

With exquisite skill using only the spearpoint, the throat was pierced clean through. Son Hong sighed, ashamed of the brief hope he had allowed himself.

"To think a woman in this world could possess such skill…"

Thud…

He was right. The sickle the farmer had thrown with his final grudge had succeeded in tearing away her rags.

What emerged was the form of a woman whose face had forgotten how to hold expression.

"Well done. Let's go."

At Jang Gyeom's word, the woman pulled the torn rags back over her head. And as if nothing at all had happened, she stepped over the ten corpses and dragged Son Hong away.

Well then — I suppose I should follow too.

I arrived at the tavern. The woman had cast off the rags, revealed herself, and was drinking alone.

"Where'd a girl like you come from? Never seen that face around here."

The flies began to gather, one by one. Hard to blame them — her beauty was simply overwhelming.

Height around seven chi three cun — roughly a hundred sixty-seven centimeters? Small head, solid muscle packed into the shoulders; she looked considerably taller than that.

Sharply drawn brows and large eyes. A high, clean bridge of the nose and red lips. A classical beauty so complete it was hard to believe she had just killed ten men.

"Leave."

But her temperament was past cool and into pure ice. One light word, and the men found themselves overpowered by her presence and edged away of their own accord.

Across her chest she wore a single plate of solid iron armor — little more than leather with the vital areas covered.

But she maintained it so carefully that the polished iron gleamed like silver.

The onlookers swallowed their disappointment and settled for watching her drink as their side dish. In that case, the bravest man here — me — would have to make a move for the beauty.

"Leave."

"…"

But the moment I drew near, she spoke without so much as glancing my way. Everyone was watching with interest, as if they'd placed bets on how quickly I'd give up.

"Looks like I'll need to get a new spear tomorrow."

"…?"

Maybe that was a fresh enough opening line. She lifted her head without meaning to. Those luminous eyes held a strange blue cast.

"I'm serious. I can read fortunes a little — that spear of yours is about to break."

"Nonsense. I put no stock in fortune-telling."

"You'll see soon enough. I'll be at the smithy tomorrow, so I expect we'll meet again there."

"Final warning. Lea—"

But I was already moving back to my seat before she finished. She glared my way for a long time, as if my words had soured her mood.

But I was telling the truth. Because my readings never miss.

I gave her a leisurely little finger-wave. And at the same time, I checked the status window.