The Return (2)
I read the Empress's letter through to the very last line, then slowly set it down.
"Why? What does it say?"
Catching my pained expression, Lü Bu asked in a puzzled voice.
"Her Majesty is telling me it's about time I came back to Luoyang."
"Ahh..."
Hearing my answer, Lü Bu cocked her head.
"Yeah, it sure has been a while."
She reacted with complete indifference, as if no thought in particular stirred behind her eyes.
I heaved an inward sigh and pushed myself up from my seat. And here I'd been planning to do absolutely nothing today and just sprawl around—and now my boss sends a letter out of nowhere. Well, what could I do? When Her Majesty says jump, you ask how high.
On my feet, I addressed the others.
"We return to Luoyang. Have everything ready to depart."
Xiangyang Castle, where I currently found myself, and Luoyang, where Her Majesty resided, were not so terribly far apart. Sail upriver and you would soon reach Wan County in Nanyang Commandery, and from Wan—once Yuan Shu's stronghold—a swift ride on horseback would carry you the rest of the way to Luoyang in no time.
Well. At the moment, we couldn't get to Luoyang anything like that quickly.
The reason was simple: our procession was currently hauling a considerable amount of dead weight behind it.
The dead weight in question being a handful of magnates who, quick-witted as ever, had bolted first while everyone else was still busy reading the room. Had it not been for Zhuge Liang's flawless plan and Gan Ning on hand to carry it out, these luckless bastards would have gotten away clean—and now there they stood, face to face with carriages built exclusively for them.
A cavernous interior with room to spare even if three or four people lay down at once. An inner frame reinforced nice and sturdy, lest any accident befall them. Even barred windows, installed so they could admire the scenery and never grow bored along the way.
It was, in the end, nothing more than a prisoner-transport wagon that had simply been built bigger.
The magnates, now being loaded aboard, appeared to grasp their situation at last.
"G-General-in-Chief..."
"Hm?"
As I watched the magnates' complexions turn a sickly shade of green, someone addressed me. I turned my head slightly toward the voice and found a magnate whose name I couldn't even recall looking my way.
Zhang Fei caught sight of him and stepped forward with a rumbling growl.
"Since when does a criminal bastard get to talk to him? Huh? You wanna die?"
...
Meeting Zhang Fei's glare, the magnate ducked his head and glanced about nervously.
"You still don't seem to know your place. Do that one more time and—"
"It's fine."
"Huh?"
At my interjection, Zhang Fei turned to me with wide, round eyes.
"A little conversation does no harm. Leave him be."
"...If you insist."
Zhang Fei blew a snort through her nose and fell back a single step. She'd been toting the Analects and books like it around with her lately, so I'd assumed her firecracker temper had cooled at least a little. Apparently it was exactly as it had always been.
...Hmm. What on earth am I to do with her. Was watching and waiting really all I could do? All I could do was pray that the words of Master Confucius would somehow cure Zhang Fei of her habit of snarling at anyone beneath her.
"Thank you!"
At that, the magnate, freshly freed from Zhang Fei's pressure, hurried to offer me his gratitude.
I looked at him and spoke.
"Spare me the pleasantries. Why did you call out to me?"
"W-well... I wished to ask where you intend to take us..."
The magnate who'd had the good fortune to survive the banquet asked in the most deferential of tones, carefully gauging my mood.
"Ah. So that was the question."
I tilted my head.
"It seems no one has seen fit to answer you."
"...Indeed. We were told only to follow, without a word of explanation..."
Saying this, the magnate darted furtive glances at the people around him—plainly worried that speaking up might earn him their resentment.
The poor man had already been branded a pariah, and here he was worrying about that. How very pointless.
...
"...Gah!"
...Or maybe not? The moment the people nearby fixed him with long, silent stares, the questioner crumpled on the spot. Their eyes made their meaning plain: he could have simply followed in silence, but no—this oblivious fool just had to pester the General-in-Chief himself.
Which only goes to show, I suppose, that a man must sometimes learn to leash his curiosity.
I could understand the magnate's feelings, mind you. His own neck was on the line, after all. He hardly could have let the question go unasked.
"Her Majesty the Empress wishes to meet you all."
"...Pardon?"
Blindsided by news beyond anything he had imagined, the magnate forgot his manners entirely and echoed the words in a daze.
Paying his lapse in etiquette no mind, I continued.
"Under ordinary circumstances, this matter would have ended at my discretion. That is no longer the case."
...
"Her Majesty has issued her decree. What choice do I have in the matter?"
At my breezy answer, cold sweat began streaming down the magnate's brow.
"General-in-Chief! Do you march on Luoyang to pass judgment upon us?!"
"I do."
I answered while restraining, with a flick of my hand, Zhang Fei—who looked ready to butt in yet again with that same explosive expression.
The magnate's voice trembled.
"Th-then... what treatment do you suppose Her Majesty will hand down to us?"
"Hmm..."
That question left me no choice but to ponder. Whatever she decided, I doubted they would walk away from it unscathed. No—truthfully, I questioned whether they would survive at all. All the more so when I recalled what our little Empress had shown me she was capable of.
After a moment's deliberation, I faced the magnate wearing the most benevolent expression I could muster.
"I will do what I can to see that your clan is not wiped out to the last soul."
"G-General-in-Chief?!"
"Fear not. Her Majesty is merciful—and if I submit a petition for clemency, the children, who know nothing of their elders' crimes, will not die."
Really, guilt by association was the whole problem. Having to file my objections every single time somebody's head went rolling was a chore in itself. In this era, it was simply accepted custom that anyone judged guilty of a great crime would lose not only his own head but those of his entire family—three clans of kin included. And so every time I petitioned for mercy, I also had to endure the sideways looks of officials who clearly took me for some manner of madman.
Butchering even children who knew nothing, all in the name of rooting out future threats? No. However you dressed it up, that was going too far. I wouldn't call myself a good man, but even I had a final shred of conscience.
As they say, even the arm bends inward. A child who survived the purge might well grow up nursing a grudge against me. But a risk of that size I could shoulder. I had hardly lived a life soft enough to be done in by a vengeful child, after all. The guilty parties themselves, of course, would receive no such consideration.
I smiled at the magnate.
"Think of it as a journey up to the capital, and rest easy. It will not take long."
At my response, the magnate's face drained bone-white. He flung himself flat on the ground and shrieked:
"General-in-Chief! I beg you—take my head here and now instead!"
What the—? What's gotten into him all of a sudden? Whatever it was the man had sensed, he was now pleading to be killed on the spot.
"I implore you! Please show us merciful treatment!"
"M-me too! Behead me as well!"
"General-in-Chief!"
Dying there or dying here—what difference could it possibly make? Why were they like this? With the magnates carrying on so abruptly, bewilderment was all I felt.
"Are you asking me to defy Her Majesty's decree this instant?"
"That is..."
"Such insolent attitudes would ordinarily merit punishment—but I shall graciously extend my mercy instead."
And isn't this exactly the 'merciful treatment' you were all begging for?
While the magnates stood frozen in blank-faced bewilderment at my words, I withdrew from the scene with all due speed.
Then the magnate cried out again.
"No, I say! As the price of my rudeness, I offer up my head!"
"I beg of you! Take our heads!"
Good grief. What a racket.
Ignoring him, I turned to Liu Bei, who stood nearby.
"We've wasted enough time. We should get moving."
"At once, my lord."
Liu Bei took the hint without missing a beat. She offered me a courteous bow and a small nod, and at the sight of it Zhang Fei seized the magnates by the scruffs of their necks.
"All right, in you get. How long do you intend to carry on like this?"
Zhang Fei handled them like so much freight, hurling them one after another into the barred wagon.
"Urk!"
CRASH!
The magnates could do nothing but roll around the carriage floor, groaning.
Slamming the door shut with a bang, Zhang Fei bellowed to the rider at the head of the column:
"Move out!"
And with that, the procession began its slow advance.
The world has no shortage of sayings about curiosity. Curiosity killed the cat. What you don't know can't hurt you. Famous ones, every one—and I couldn't help thinking how perfectly they fit the situation these people now found themselves in.
As the price of having satisfied their curiosity, the magnates would now spend the entire journey to Luoyang trembling in terror.
"N-no! The moment we reach Luoyang, I'll surely—!"
"Kill me here instead! I said kill me—!!"
And now he's dropped all pretense of politeness, too. But what could I do about it? It wasn't as if I were the sort to fly into a rage over a little casual speech. So really—why did you have to ask, with no sense whatsoever of your situation?
...
...Hm. Seo Yeo looks angry, though.
Perhaps she had decided the magnates had insulted me, because Seo Yeo was fixing them with a faint but unmistakable glare.