Crouching Dragon (5)
Sima Yi narrowed her eyes ever so slightly and took in the scene unfolding before her.
"I must say, being welcomed like this puts me in fine spirits."
"It falls far short of the grace the Grand General has shown our family, my lord."
Pleasantries drifted back and forth between them, each exchange polished to a shine. Anyone might have asked what was so strange about that — but thinking of Jeong Reung as he usually was, Sima Yi could say with certainty that something here was deeply off.
The Grand General spoke.
"There is no need for that. I extended the invitation because I hold your family in high esteem — nothing more."
"And the grace our family has received will not fade for it, my lord."
Look at him. Toss him a few compliments and already the corners of his mouth were straining toward his ears.
Normally, the Grand General's reaction to words like those fell into one of two camps.
'Oh... is that so?' — a dazed little nod, paired with that perpetually bewildered expression of his.
Or else 'I see.' — a brush-off delivered with an air of sublime indifference.
The former was how he responded when praise came from someone genuinely close to him. The latter was how he handled the sorts who shoved themselves forward, angling for favor with flattery.
But the reaction Jeong Reung wore now belonged to neither.
It was as though some inexplicable conviction lay settled in the depths of his heart — the unshakable belief that this girl would never stoop to flattering him.
"......"
Something about it left a distinctly sour feeling in Sima Yi's chest.
—Don't tell me... you're not jealous, are you?
The question the Grand General had tossed at her in jest just moments ago rose unbidden in her memory, and she hurriedly shook it away.
'This isn't jealousy or anything of the sort. I'm simply worried that naive man might be taken in by some strange woman. That's all.'
Rationalization complete, Sima Yi cut into the conversation.
"Pardon me."
"...?"
At her call, Zhuge Liang turned her head. Meeting those unfathomable white eyes, Sima Yi spoke.
"Would you care to play a game of Go with me?"
Zhuge Liang proved far more docile than I had expected, and the conversation flowed along comfortably enough. Honestly, it felt as though she were serving up nothing but words I wanted to hear — but what could the great Zhuge Liang possibly stand to gain from sweet talk?
In truth, the biggest surprise of all had been Sima Yi's reaction as she studied Zhuge Liang.
"Would you care to play a game of Go with me?"
In a rare turn of events, Sima Yi had been the one to challenge Zhuge Liang to a match first. What wind, I wondered, had swept through a girl who would normally pull a face at the mere mention of playing Go?
Go might be called a pastime, but Sima Yi had always preferred a book and a comfortable sprawl to a board and stones.
Just as I was watching the whole affair with growing interest, Sima Yi spoke again.
"If you're afraid of losing, you're welcome to decline."
"......"
"So — what will it be?"
Bald-faced provocation was rare from her; she had clearly resolved to fight this match in earnest. And so, much as Sima Yi's father once must have, I murmured to Zhuge Jin beside me.
"I'm sorry about her. She isn't usually like this — I honestly don't know what's come over her."
"Please, don't apologize. If anything, I think I understand."
Zhuge Jin answered with a calm, gentle smile.
"You truly are loved a great deal, my lord."
"Hmm..."
Was I, though? Enough to earn a remark like that?
So the question I'd asked Sima Yi in jest — are you jealous? — had landed dead center, had it? Was this the sulk of a child who had suddenly gained a sibling and watched her parents' affection split in two? Or the stickier, clingier thing that normally springs to mind at the word jealousy?
...Probably the former. Before we even got to sticky and clingy, Sima Yi was still a child who hadn't yet undergone her coming-of-age rites. To put it bluntly — how many years apart were the two of us, exactly? Where would feelings like that even come from? It wasn't as though I was her Daddy-Long-Legs.
—You must never be remiss in how you attend to Us.
For an instant the little Emperor's face flashed through my mind, and I hurriedly swept it aside. Hers was such a singular case; best to leave her out of the reckoning altogether.
Sima Yi and Zhuge Liang held each other's gaze in a brief silence — a span long if you called it long, short if you called it short. After a moment's deliberation, Zhuge Liang curved her lips into a cool smile and nodded.
"Then I shall gladly receive your instruction."
"......"
"I look forward to our game."
Her words were perfectly courteous — but if there seemed to be a thorn tucked inside them, was that only my imagination? Zhuge Liang merely kept her placid smile, and Sima Yi answered it with a look of pure displeasure.
...Why on earth were these children's battles of will so cutthroat?
And so commenced the thrilling event known as the match between Zhuge Liang and Sima Yi. The two of them settled side by side on the floor, a board fetched by a Zhuge household servant resting between them.
Gazing at the stones arranged atop the board, Sima Yi asked:
"Black or White. Which will you take?"
"Ah — then I shall have this one."
At Sima Yi's question, Zhuge Liang chose her stones without an instant's hesitation.
"......"
Sima Yi's brow twitched. Small wonder — the color Zhuge Liang had picked was White.
In a turn-based game like Go, deliberately taking the white stones — the second move — carried real weight. Black, moving first, held the higher winning percentage, and the gap was far too large to brush aside; even in the modern game, a rule called komi awards White bonus points to even the scales. In bygone eras, the custom had been for the weaker player to take Black and the stronger to take White.
For Zhuge Liang to reach for White without a moment's thought, then, could only mean one thing: she looked down on Sima Yi.
"I beg your understanding. There is no particular meaning to it — I simply chose white because I am fond of the color."
Zhuge Liang delivered this with impeccable courtesy. That was what she said — but not a soul present failed to grasp what she had truly meant by taking White.
"......"
Sima Yi glared at her, twin flames of fury kindling in her eyes.
...Yep. These two really were duking it out for dominance.
Forcing down her anger, Sima Yi said:
"Suit yourself."
My chest was just swelling at the spectacle of the Three Kingdoms' two greatest strategists dueling over pride when the match began.
"Then let us begin."
"......"
The two of them gave themselves over to the game.
...And, naturally enough, I understood not one bit of it. Every stone that touched the board only left me wondering — why there, of all places? In fairness, I'd never paid much attention to Go even back in the modern world, and had only started playing a game or two after being born into this era, so it stood to reason. Still marking time at the beginner level, all I could do was nod along — ah, so that's how it's done.
Zhuge Jin, watching the very same game, was another matter entirely.
"Good heavens..."
Her reaction piqued my curiosity, and I asked quietly.
"What is it?"
"This is the first time I have ever seen anyone play on even terms with my little sister..."
Zhuge Jin, who had doubtless watched her sister from the time Zhuge Liang was small, made no effort to hide her awe at the skill Sima Yi was showing against her.
"To think she would find such a move there..."
Leaving Zhuge Jin to her stream of exclamations, I edged over toward Seo Yeo.
"......?"
As I drew near, Seo Yeo turned her flat, expressionless eyes on me, as if to ask what was the matter. I put the question to her.
"What about you, Seo Yeo? Is the game exciting?"
"......"
A small, silent shake of the head.
"I have been watching you this whole time, my lord."
Having answered my question with a shake of her head, Seo Yeo went on.
"Your safety comes before any game, my lord."
I mulled that over for a moment, then tried again.
"So what you're saying is, even if something happened right beside you, you'd have been looking at me and nothing else. Is that it?"
"......"
Seo Yeo had no answer for that, and held her silence. Watching an odd flush creep across her face, I let out a quiet laugh. She really was adorable every single time she got embarrassed.
Mischief took hold of me, and I set about playing with her soft cheeks to my heart's content.
"......"
Even with her face being squished this way and that, Seo Yeo made no move to stop me.
"Ah."
Just then, a flustered voice drifted over from the board. I stopped what I was doing and turned to find Sima Yi staring down at the stones with a grave expression.
"This is..."
Zhuge Liang, likewise bent over the board, gave a nod.
"A chōsei — 'eternal life.'"
I couldn't hide my astonishment.
"'Chōsei'? You mean Eternal Life?"
I pulled my hands from Seo Yeo's face and bent over the board. The moment I let go, she looked, if anything, a little wistful.
Looking down at the stones, I murmured:
"So it is."
It's a tangled thing to explain, but the short version goes something like this: Black strikes at White's stones; White answers; Black answers the answer — and when the board eventually returns to exactly the position it held several moves before, that is called a chōsei.
As the name suggests, it means an eternal life, repeating without end. In plain terms: a drawn game so rare that a person might play their whole life through and never once lay eyes on one.
"All right, then. Let's call the match here."
Having just witnessed something so extraordinarily rare, I couldn't contain my good humor, and a smile spread across my face.
"A chōsei is an omen of good fortune — something wonderful is bound to happen before long."
"Uuuugh..."
Sima Yi clearly mourned the match left unsettled, but she conceded the point.
"Whew... I suppose so. It's better than a triple ko, at any rate."
"Well reasoned."
A triple ko doesn't mean losing three times over; it's a Go term for a position where ko — the endless capture-and-recapture — breaks out in three places at once. That, too, is an exceedingly rare way for a game to end in a draw, but where the chōsei symbolizes good fortune, the triple ko symbolizes calamity.
I turned to Zhuge Liang, still seated in her place.
"Watching that match has only deepened my conviction. Inviting the Zhuge family was the right choice after all."
"...The honor is mine."
Zhuge Liang smiled at my praise.
Rising from my seat, I said:
"Forgive me for troubling your household. I'll take my leave now."
"Please, stay a while longer if you wish."
Moved by her consideration, I reached out a hand.
"To think of others so readily — you really are a good child."
I patted her head once, then went on:
"Still, you must be tired after such a long journey. Rest well, so you'll be in fine form for the banquet before long."
With that, I turned to go.
"Sima Yi, what are you doing? Are you coming or not?"
"...Coming."
At my prodding, Sima Yi hurried to fall in close behind me. I had the odd feeling that she and Zhuge Liang had exchanged some final words between them — or was that just my imagination?