Great Romance (1)
Ma Chao, who had chattered away with the enthusiasm of someone determined to stay up until dawn, finally took her leave when the passing hours began to show on my face, insisting that I get some proper rest.
So it was the day after I'd whiled away the evening trading stories with her.
"My lord. You have a visitor."
Diaochan entered my room and announced this not long after I'd woken.
It was still early, barely time for the day's duties to begin—so who on earth could it be? A flicker of puzzlement crossed my face.
"At this hour? Who is it?"
Diaochan replied with her usual composure.
"General Ma Chao has called on you."
"...Is that so?"
What could she want? I couldn't help wondering why Ma Chao had come calling at the crack of dawn.
"Tell her I'll be out shortly, and to wait just a moment."
"Yes, my lord."
With a slight bow, Diaochan withdrew.
Curious what state I was in, I ran a hand through my hair to check.
"...Mm."
I'd expected as much, but even a careless sweep of my fingers told me my hair was a complete bird's nest. Considering what celebrities on old television used to look like straight out of bed, I figured I had to be an absolute sight right now.
"My lord."
It was then that Seo Yeo, who had been quietly watching me, spoke up. When I turned, she was already holding an exquisitely crafted wooden comb, gazing at me with clear, unblinking eyes.
Facing Seo Yeo, who so rarely gave anything away, I caught on to why she'd called out.
"You want to brush my hair?"
"Yes."
If I let myself be waited on over every little thing like this, wouldn't I eventually grow hopelessly lazy? Surely that wasn't her scheme.
Still scratching at my tangled mop with one hand, I spoke up anyway.
"I can do it myself."
"That won't do."
"......"
That was a remarkably firm refusal. It was genuinely rare for Seo Yeo to contradict me, so I looked at her and asked.
"Why not?"
"...Because you force the comb through."
Force it? Apparently she meant the way I just yanked the comb down through the tangles with brute strength. But isn't that how everyone brushes their hair?
"There's really no need to go that far..."
"That won't do."
"......"
She'd been awfully stubborn about this from the start. When I continued to wear a baffled expression, Seo Yeo went on, her face as blank as ever.
"You are a treasure unmatched under heaven, my lord."
"...Huh?"
"Is it not my duty to see that so much as a single strand of such a lord's hair goes undamaged?"
"......"
What on earth had switched her on like this? Was she really upset over a few hairs getting pulled out whenever I combed too hard? Seriously? Her affection weighed a ton.
And Seo Yeo, once her switch had been thrown, stared at me with the look of someone who would never, ever yield.
I held out against those eyes for a while, but in the end I had no choice but to nod.
"...Fine. Do as you like."
"Thank you, my lord."
The moment permission left my mouth, Seo Yeo moved around behind me and settled into position. I was still sitting up in bed with only my torso raised, and the height difference between us meant that even on her knees, she looked decidedly uncomfortable trying to reach my head.
So she simply stretched her thighs straight up and out, easing into a posture that looked painful at a glance. Sneaking a sideways look at her, I asked.
"Doesn't that hurt your knees?"
"I'm sitting on the blanket. I'm fine."
Still, that couldn't be good for her joints. Making a mental note to have a plusher cushion brought in later, I surrendered my head to her care.
Contrary to my expectation that she would begin combing straight away, Seo Yeo slowly unraveled my knotted hair with her slender fingers. It was an affectionate touch, careful to the point of reverence, so that I might feel not even a hint of pain. It was a strange sensation—like I might melt into a puddle on the spot.
After a while of coaxing the tangles loose with exquisitely calibrated pressure, Seo Yeo spoke.
"I'll begin now."
"Go ahead."
At my answer, she started to comb. Unlike me, who ordinarily raked the comb straight down from top to bottom, Seo Yeo drew it slowly upward from the ends—front locks back toward the crown, the sides brushed upward, the back smoothed toward the crown of my head—working through every section with deliberate care.
...It was honestly a feeling beyond description. Wasn't this usually the sort of thing a man did for a woman? You know, compare an ordinary man's hairstyle to an ordinary woman's, and the woman's hair is far and away the longer of the two. The man gets to rack up points through skinship, and the woman gets to feel cherished while having her troublesome hair dealt with as a bonus... Either way, it's supposed to be a win-win event for everyone.
While I was lost in that train of thought, Seo Yeo's devoted combing came to a stop. Apparently she was finished.
"All done?"
"...Yes."
Maybe it was my imagination, but a note of reluctance seemed to color her voice. I raised a hand and ran it lightly through my hair.
"Oh."
Hair that had been dry and straw-like before now swayed with a silky lightness. If Lü Bu had been the one at my head, I'd probably have lost a whole chunk of it. Thinking of that, it seemed Seo Yeo truly did possess a natural gift for anything involving hands-on care.
Feeling refreshingly light of head, I gave Seo Yeo a small smile.
"Thank you."
"...It was nothing worth mentioning."
Watching her face flush as she said it, a laugh slipped out of me.
"All right, then. When I find the time, I'll brush yours too."
"......"
At my offer, Seo Yeo could not manage a single word. Her wish not to trouble me was apparently at war with her desire for the skinship all the same. She opened and closed her mouth for a long moment, and in the end, unable to decide, she bowed her head deep.
Once I'd finished preparing and stepped outside, I found Ma Chao standing right in front of my residence.
"Just like Father said... be proactive..."
I couldn't tell what had her so worked up, but Ma Chao was muttering something under her breath, nodding stiffly to herself with a rigid expression.
"What are you doing out here?"
"G-General-in-Chief!"
When I came up close and spoke, Ma Chao flinched and whirled to face me.
"I hear you came looking for me. Is there something you need?"
I gave Ma Chao, who had turned up at my door since morning, a puzzled look. Her voice climbing half an octave, she answered.
"I-It's really, really nothing!"
"Hmm... If you say so."
She seemed to be stammering something awful. Or was that just me? When I nodded with a dazed air, Ma Chao pressed on.
"W-Well, the thing is... I haven't been in Luoyang for very long, so... would it be all right if I followed you around and learned the work?"
Oh. So that's what this was about?
Hearing her dilemma, I chuckled and nodded.
"Do as you like."
The instant those words left my mouth, Ma Chao's face bloomed open.
"Thank you!"
She had a point, too. The work to be done in Xiliang and in Sili Province could hardly have been more different.
Xiliang. Just as Ma Chao had told me the night before, the main job there was running around personally and putting troublemakers in their place. As a frontier province constantly raided by foreign tribes, Xiliang attracted every manner of rogue, and most of them understood only the logic of force. Unless you smacked such characters down and reestablished the pecking order each time they acted up, they wouldn't listen—they'd simply keep causing problems.
Sili. Here, the main duty was gathering up the flood of matters pouring in from the provinces under my authority, weighing them together, working out solutions, and seeing them through. On top of that, it was a place where political struggles raged so fiercely beneath the surface that you could rightly call it the Han Empire's very own den of demons. If I tried to handle things the Xiliang way—fists first—I'd be branded a public enemy and buried alive by the court's slithering snakes before I knew what happened.
Even now, if I went to the court where our petite little Empress resides, they'd no doubt be at one another's throats, arguing this policy and that. Well, I'd already cleared out everyone who was genuinely a problem long ago, so by this point they were just bickering over which policy was better. And since the final word on any policy rested with Her Majesty—who always took my side—I wasn't worried. Whenever the question arose, she would ask, "Which do you think is better?" and then go with whatever I chose.
Now that I thought about it, something about that felt off. I really was the power behind the throne, wasn't I? If some enemy of mine ever launched a smear campaign claiming I pulled the Empress around like a puppet, I wasn't sure I'd have much of a rebuttal.
There actually had been someone at court making exactly that argument—and as for what became of him at Her Majesty's hands, I'll spare you the details. That was when I gained a faint understanding of how a man can simply vanish from one day to the next.
Thinking about it again sent a chill down my spine. I gave a little shiver, then tossed Ma Chao a casual nod.
"Come along. I'll show you how Luoyang runs."
"Yes, sir!"
Ma Chao beamed and fell in step behind me. Could going to work really make anyone that happy? From where I stood—a man who dreaded the very thought of it—it was a baffling perspective.