Reunion

The inevitable, fated confrontation between Yuan Shao and Sun Jian. And then Cao Cao appeared.

As if he were some kind of ninja, he had been lurking on the roof for quite some time, and the moment every eye in the room was fixed on the two of them, he dropped cleanly between them.

A low, grinding tension filled the air.

For a stretch of silence, a heavy, razor-edged staring contest held the room. Had someone somehow foreseen this first meeting of three heroes destined one day to dominate the realm?

Not a single person present could open their mouth. Not even Yuan Shu.

"Have you ever seen me late for an appointment?"

Cao Cao was the first to break the silence. Answering Yuan Shao's earlier question at last, he made it plain that he had been hiding in the rafters since before the gathering even began.

"No — it's that nasty habit of yours. You break out in hives if you aren't spying on someone."

Yuan Shao snorted and shot back. Cao Cao only smiled faintly and offered no reply, so this time Sun Jian spoke up.

"You're Cao Cao?"

"A man of Sun Jian of Jiangdong's stature, taking notice of a nobody like me?"

"I hear you pull cheap little ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠tricks. Your specialty is snatching other men's military credit, isn't it?"

Cao Cao had built his reputation by a different path than Yuan Shao. Where Yuan Shao had meticulously upheld the duties of a proper scholar-gentleman — even observing the full six years of mourning — Cao Cao had stacked practical achievements. But Sun Jian dismissed even that reputation as empty. The defeat of the Yellow Turbans in Yingchuan, he said, was thanks to the famed generals Huangfu Song and Zhu Jun; none of it was Cao Cao's own doing.

"And so what? If you snatch every scrap of credit under heaven, doesn't that make you the greatest hero of the age?"

Cao Cao brushed off even Sun Jian's open contempt as if it were a game. At a glance it looked like he was avoiding a fight — but in truth it was pure confidence: he simply had no intention of taking Sun Jian seriously enough for a real conversation.

"First time I've seen a man brag so hard about how worthless he is. Are all the men of the Central Plains like this?"

"Shut your mouth, Sun Jian. Mengde is not someone the likes of you get to speak of so freely."

"Ha! A man from beyond the Yangtze can hardly live for the sheer misery of it. Watching you two stroke each other's antennae like this, you're no better than a pair of girls."

Yuan Shao sided, not so subtly, with Cao Cao. Sun Jian kept insulting them to the last, but the momentum had long since swung to the other two.

"That is enough!"

A low, resonant voice rolled through the room and stopped all three of them cold.

As one, every head turned. A tall, white-haired man had just opened the door and was fixing the three of them with a hard stare.

If a noble crane grew old, would it not look exactly like this? From the refined light in his eyes to the unshakable composure of his bearing — he was the very model of a distinguished elder.

"Minister. Forgive us for this disgraceful display."

"This was not my fault, Cao Cao. If anything, I was trying to stop Benchou and that man from fighting — I deserve a word of praise."

"…"

The Minister — Lu Zhi? The three men's reactions to him could not have been more different. Yuan Shao, the model scholar-gentleman, offered a proper apology. Cao Cao, even now, was busy explaining the situation. But Sun Jian's silence was unexpected. There was even a faint look of awe in his eyes — as if even a man as ruthless as he still found himself cowed by Lu Zhi's renown.

"The Governor of Henan will be arriving ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠shortly. Take a rest of about one dajing — roughly a quarter of an hour — then we will resume. And for the record: Yuan Shao and Yuan Shu are not to sit together under any circumstances. That goes for you as well, the gentleman from Jiangnan."

Lu Zhi took in the situation at a glance and separated Yuan Shao from Yuan Shu. Yuan Shao bowed with impeccable courtesy and returned to his seat; Sun Jian, likewise unable to say a word, trailed off behind Yuan Shu.

Only Cao Cao remained, grinning to himself as he watched it all unfold. Lu Zhi glared at him as if he found the man thoroughly frivolous.

"Whew… Good thing it ended there. But Cao Cao, Yuan Shao, and Sun Jian — now that's a rare sight you don't get twice… Huh!? Yu Bi?"

I had meant to exchange a few words with Yu Bi, but where on earth had she gone? When I turned my head, I caught her back as she slipped quickly out through the exit.

Had she needed the privy that badly? Was that why the moment Lu Zhi called a recess she bolted for the outhouse?

Part of me wanted to march straight up to Cao Cao and shout, Take me as your subordinate, big brother! — but he was every bit as popular as Yuan Shao, and people were already clustering around him.

First things first: find Yu Bi. If she ran into Yuan Shu's pack by accident, she would be in for a world of trouble. I couldn't just leave her.

"Yu Bi~"

I stepped out into the corridor and searched, but she was nowhere to be seen. Had she really gone to the privy?

Someone dressed that conspicuously vanishing without a trace could only mean she was hiding on purpose.

With no other choice, I turned back toward the assembly hall — and in that instant, a dagger blade gleaming with silver light flashed out and barred my throat.

"Hhk… Wh-who…"

"What are you doing here?"

"Huh? Chosun?"

It was someone I knew. Standing before me was Chosun — the woman I had encountered by fate in the dead of night only a few days ago.

Of course, in that shinobi-like outfit with a mask covering her face, an ordinary person would never have recognized her. But those unforgettable sanpaku eyes, and that swaying chest — there was no way I could mistake her.

"Wh-what did you just call me? How do you know my name?"

Chosun's eyes went wide the moment I spoke her true name without hesitation. There I went, making another slip.

"That is… I overheard it in passing. Anyone who walks around carrying Lord Wang Yun's treasured sword would have to be…"

"Do not lie to me! Only a bare handful of people know my true identity — how could a worthless creature like you know that name?"

"Haa… Maybe I'm not so worthless?"

For a man with a blade at his throat, the words came out surprisingly naturally. Probably because she was so beautiful that the reality of her actually stabbing me refused to sink in.

I had just said whatever came to mind — but to Chosun it must have sounded rather significant. After all, knowing the true name of a woman wrapped in that much secrecy already put me well outside the category of "ordinary person."

"What is going on here?"

Whoosh — another man's voice came from behind me, and Chosun hastily withdrew the blade. Then — shashak! — she vanished behind a pillar.

Hold on… we already saw everything. Hiding now is completely pointless, isn't it? From behind the pillar came a voice thick with embarrassment.

"It is nothing of importance, Father. Please pay it no mind."

Father? So the man behind me right now was Wang Yun?

I spun around at once and checked the status windows. There stood Lu Zhi, whom I had seen earlier, and beside him an old man of similar years.

As expected — holders of staggering stats and enormous fame. I immediately bowed my head in proper respect.

"Ah — greetings! I am, well…"

I had nothing to say. Giving my name would be easy enough — but the moment someone asked, And what exactly do you do?, I would be thrown out of the assembly hall on the spot.

"So who are you?"

"That is… I happen to be acquainted with the lady Chosun over there."

I had no choice but to trade on Chosun's name. She had ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠already been caught revealing herself to Wang Yun — he could hardly cut my throat here and now.

"Chosun? Who is that? Do you mean the young woman who just hid behind the pillar?"

Lu Zhi asked Wang Yun as if he had never heard the name. Wang Yun, for his part, was stunned that I knew it at all.

"Why did you so freely give your name to an outsider?"

"I-it was not like that. I truly do not understand it myself — but that man already knew my name."

"Speak sense. I can scarcely believe it. After all the times I warned you to mind yourself around strange men…"

Wang Yun recoiled as if the whole thing were outrageous. From the look of it, he had raised Chosun half as an adopted daughter and half as a shinobi — so of course he was furious that she had given her name to some nobody of unknown identity.

"Haa… It really wasn't like that. The truth is, a few days ago I happened to overhear Lady Chosun speaking with someone."

That she had been escorting a superior that night was an established fact. He had lent her the treasured sword himself — Wang Yun would already know as much.

"What a ridiculous blunder. What am I to do with this man…"

Wang Yun was weighing whether to kill me or spare me. Then Lu Zhi spoke.

"Come inside for now. You as well — follow us."

Meaning he intended to bring me in and keep me under close watch? With no other option, I followed the two of them back toward the assembly hall.

A sharp glare burned into my back.

From behind the pillar, Chosun was staring daggers at me. I had freely exposed our connection and gotten her scolded by her father — of course she was in a foul mood.

But it was kind of cute, wasn't it? That a cold, wicked ice beauty could glare like a sulking child…

Ah… Maybe Yu Bi was right. Maybe I really had fallen for her.

I returned to my seat — and to my astonishment, Yu Bi was already there.

"Yu Bi? Where did you go?"

"Ah… I went looking for someone and lost my way. And you, Do Yeop — did you visit the privy?"

"I went looking for you. Yuan Shu's pack is crawling all over this place — how could I just leave you alone?"

"You were worried for me? I truly do not know where to put myself."

Yu Bi seemed genuinely moved, twisting her body in that characteristic way of hers, all bashful embarrassment. But you got caught red-handed just now, didn't you?

Who exactly was she going to look for in a place like this? She must have seen Yuan Shao leave and sneaked after him for a closer look.

Honestly — what was she, some obsessive idol fan? Though to be fair, Yuan Shao really was the idol of the political world…

"The Governor of Henan has arrived. Let us begin."

Lu Zhi returned to the dais and resumed chairing the assembly. Wang Yun, as the highest-ranking official present, sat with solemn dignity and listened to everyone's words.

"May I speak first?"

Yuan Shao, of course. Or rather — this entire gathering had been driven by his initiative from the start, so there was hardly room for anyone else to step in.

"For decades now, the court has been steeped in the private cabals of the eunuchs, tossed this way and that at their whim. I have no wish to insult the late Emperor, nor any desire to defend the rebels — but it is also true that those men tore out the very pillars of the court, and so a crisis that should have been resolved simply has dragged on for years."

Yuan Shao latched onto today's primary target — the Ten Attendants — and refused to let go. And to be fair, nothing he said was particularly wrong.

"In recent years, the realm's finest men have returned to court and only just managed to restore a measure of balance. In particular, the Grand General — as a loyal servant of the Han — has overcome calamity, protected the newly enthroned Son of Heaven, and labored day and night to stabilize the realm. And yet the eunuch faction still sets itself against him. This Yuan Shao is deeply anxious for the future of the empire."

He Jin might be underrated by later generations, but to the politicians of the present — especially the Pure Stream faction — he was nothing short of a messiah. He alone held the authority to crush the Ten Attendants, and he alone could stand against the Empress Dowager.

"And still the eunuchs work their three-inch tongues, begging the Empress Dowager's mercy — it is enough to make one's heart restless. Worse still, by leaving the Black Mountain Bandits to their own devices, they forced us to watch the flames rise at Luoyang's very doorstep. The time has come for a true decision. I ask that each of you affix your name to the joint petition I have prepared. Do only that, and I shall deliver it to the Grand General — and we shall root out every last enemy of the state!"

A roar of approval swept the hall.

I had always heard that politics was conducted behind a black curtain. Yuan Shao had already finished every political maneuver; this was merely a performance. The great majority who had already thrown in with him erupted in cheers. Yuan Shu still nursed his grievances against Yuan Shao — but even he agreed that the eunuchs had to be put to the sword.

"Isn't that… going a bit far?"

"…?"

This time the objection came not from Yuan Shu, but from another quarter entirely. Every head turned — and there sat Cao Cao, chin propped on one hand, face painted in that bizarre makeup of his.

"What are you saying, Mengde?"

"Come on, think about it. The Grand General already sits one man beneath the Emperor and above ten thousand. The eunuchs are clinging to the Empress Dowager's skirts, begging for their lives. At a moment like this, what good does stomping them do? If anything, I worry that word will spread that the Grand General is too hungry for power."

"You're fretting over nothing. Or has that itch of yours flared up again — the one that won't let you rest unless you're picking a fight?"

"It's not picking a fight. I consider it a constructive suggestion. Governor of Henan, Minister — what are your thoughts?"

Cao Cao appealed not to Yuan Shao but to the authority of their superiors. But Wang Yun and Lu Zhi were precisely the sort of men who were itching for a chance to crush the eunuchs.

"If idle talk arises, one need only reveal the truth. Ten eunuchs have been devouring the state for years — Cao Cao, how can you say such a thing?"

"If you are fretting over your grandfather's reputation, set it aside. You distanced yourself from their kind long ago, did you not?"

Cao Cao's grandfather, Cao Teng, had been the foremost eunuch power of his day — a man even the Ten Attendants deferred to. He had scraped together so much wealth that he once paid a full ten thousand taels to purchase a position among the Three Excellencies for his adopted son. In that sense, Cao Cao was one of the few men of the Turbid Stream present. Yuan Shu was another, of course, and not every Turbid Stream man was an enemy — but the appearance of looking after one's own still sat poorly with them.

"Surely not. Everyone seems to be making an issue of my origins — but none of you have forgotten that I beat Jian Shuo's uncle to death, have you? One of the Ten Attendants, no less. All I am saying is that another bloodbath at court will do no one any good."

Cao Cao answered with that same sly grin throughout. And yet I couldn't bring myself to think the strategy was a bad one.

Despite Cao Cao's opposition, the majority opinion would pass regardless. And Cao Cao himself would reluctantly sign the petition, which would then be delivered to He Jin just the same. But the fact that he had boldly stated his own position would be remembered for a lifetime. Honestly — was there a single person in this room who didn't want bloodshed, yet was being shoved forward by public opinion?

"Cowards can sit this out. I'll kill them all myself."

But Cao Cao was not the only one looking to score points with a bold declaration. A rough, gravelly voice erupted from the lower seats — and there was no need to ask who it was. Sun Jian.

"You again? Listen, Gonglu — maybe manage your subordinates a little better. If the Lord of Nanyang can't even control one lackey, what kind of disgrace is that?"

"What did you just say, you bastard? What did you call me?"

The fight spilled over to Cao Cao and Yuan Shu. Lu Zhi furrowed his brow in sheer disbelief, while Wang Yun glanced at Yuan Shao, signaling him to break it up.

"Mengde. Gonglu. Both of you, stop."

"I only offered a legitimate opinion. The one who butted in without knowing his place is that country bumpkin from Jiangnan."

"I told you to address me by my office, didn't I? And why are you only going off on me? What about those two freaks over there?!"

But both of them were the type who believed only they were right — Yuan Shao's mediation made not the slightest dent. Yuan Shu in particular was fully enraged; he whipped out a finger and pointed straight at Yu Bi and me.

Huh? Who did he just point at?