Zhao Yun (4)
Ever since Zhao Yun had been appointed the Grand General's Colonel, she could be found at his side wherever he went.
That a capable general had joined their ranks was, on its face, cause for welcome—yet Guan Yu and Zhang Fei somehow found themselves feeling displeased. They could not have said exactly why. It was simply true that their hearts had grown a little uneasy.
Just as the two were briefly floundering amid this inexplicable emotion, Liu Bei spoke up.
"You see, people who look that meek and gentle are often the very ones who pull ahead first."
"...Whatever do you mean by that, all of a sudden...?"
"Ah—was that a touch premature of me?"
At Guan Yu's reaction, Liu Bei chuckled softly and went on in a small voice.
"Then let's keep it simple."
"......"
"Go and have just one duel, then come back."
"A duel?"
Zhang Fei tilted her head at Liu Bei's words. What did she mean, ordering them out of nowhere to cross blades with Zhao Yun?
Guan Yu looked equally baffled, and her face showed it.
"Whatever the outcome, things are about to become very interesting indeed."
Liu Bei smiled as she always did—a smile that gave away nothing of what lay beneath.
"...Every time I see her, it strikes me all over again—Xuande's mind is impossible to read."
Zhang Fei muttered the moment they stepped out of the building, their meeting with Liu Bei at an end.
"I feel a little awkward even saying this, but she looked awfully suspicious just now."
"......"
Ordinarily Guan Yu would have answered—and taken the chance to lecture Zhang Fei on her manner of speech besides—but this time she simply kept her silence.
Then, standing rooted to the spot, Guan Yu tilted her head back slightly and gazed at the sky.
"Hm?"
The moment Guan Yu's footsteps stopped, Zhang Fei's stopped along with them.
Zhang Fei asked, bewildered.
"Yunchang? What is it?"
"......"
Even to that question, Guan Yu said nothing.
A scene had surfaced in her mind.
"Whether you truly duel or not is entirely up to you two, my dear sisters."
Liu Bei, smiling her usual bright smile as she continued.
"But if you start moving diligently from this very moment, you'll arrive before too long, you know?"
What on earth had she meant by that?
After a moment's deliberation, Guan Yu called out to Zhang Fei.
"Yide."
"Hm?"
Zhang Fei, who had been staring blankly at her, answered in a voice that asked why she was being called.
Guan Yu put the question to her.
"Do you intend to cross blades with Zhao Zilong?"
"Huh? Yeah. I was planning to?"
Zhang Fei replied as though it were the most natural thing in the world.
"I've wanted a bout with her from the start anyway, and Xuande's already given her blessing—so there's nothing to hesitate over, is there?"
"......"
"...You're not about to tell me I can't, are you?"
Zhang Fei asked, sneaking wary glances at Guan Yu's face.
"I mean, sure, we've got a mountain of work right now, but one duel won't hurt anything, right? Right?"
Apparently she wanted that match that badly—Zhang Fei pleaded with a pitiful look on her face.
"Even at the very longest it won't take much time! Just this once, pretty please!"
Watching her, Guan Yu let out a sigh.
"I was merely asking."
"...Really? Well, that's a relief."
Relief spread across Zhang Fei's face.
When Guan Yu resumed walking, Zhang Fei fell in beside her once more.
"......"
Even as she moved forward, Guan Yu's thoughts refused to stop.
Her sworn younger sister had been showing peculiar behavior quite often of late.
No—it would be more accurate to say the strangeness had begun far earlier than that.
There had been a time when Guan Yu, seeing Zhang Fei acting out of the ordinary, had put a question to her.
"Yide, why on earth are you wearing armor beneath your clothes?"
Her sworn sister, clad in armor under her garments.
Remembering how she used to refuse armor even on the battlefield—dismissing it as a nuisance, nothing but a hindrance—it was a truly remarkable sight.
"Oh, this?"
Zhang Fei seemed to have a fair guess as to why Guan Yu was asking, and spoke up in a sheepish voice.
"The Grand General gave it to me as a gift."
"...Hmm."
"One look and you can tell it was given out of concern for me, so turning it down would look rather poor—and besides, it'd be a waste to carry around a gift and never use it, wouldn't it?"
Zhang Fei said all this with an utterly matter-of-fact face.
"Might as well take the chance to fix a bad habit or two."
"Bad habits?"
"You know. How I always grumble that it's a hassle and go without armor even on the battlefield."
She even meant to mend her ways while she was at it.
This, from the same headstrong sister who, no matter how often Guan Yu scolded her, only listened for that one moment before reverting to type.
Was it mere fancy, that she brought to mind a woman who would defy her parents to the bitter end, yet obeyed the instant her beloved chided her just once?
"Ow!"
Feeling somehow aggrieved by the thought, Guan Yu had narrowed her eyes a touch and driven her knuckles into the top of Zhang Fei's head.
Zhang Fei's transformation had not ended there.
"Yunchang! I memorized the whole Analects!"
"...You memorized what?"
"The Analects!"
The same girl who had always looked up to famed scholars—figures whose names were known throughout the land—yet threw a tantrum whenever told to open a book, had now taken up study of her own accord.
Seeing this, Guan Yu had asked, half-dreading the answer.
"...Did our lord perhaps counsel you to read the Analects?"
"Huh? How'd you know?"
Zhang Fei had declared it with a proud grin.
"The old sayings really weren't wrong at all! Should I say I took a little time to look back on my own character?"
"......"
Well, now.
Was that truly thanks to the words of the ancient sages—or to a certain someone's admonition to carry herself with a little more decorum?
Guan Yu could not say for certain.
...Not that she was in any position to point fingers.
After all, at the urging of her sworn sisters and the Grand General, Guan Yu herself had broken her stubborn vow to read nothing but the Spring and Autumn Annals with Zuo Tradition and had taken other books into her hands.
And her old prejudice—that the scholar-officials, those born to high office and illustrious name, were prone to every sort of high-handedness and wrongdoing—had long since been stripped away.
Guan Yu looked at Zhang Fei.
"Now, where might she be..."
Even now, her sworn sister—draped in the armor the Grand General had bestowed—was turning her head this way and that in search of Zhao Yun.
Guan Yu spoke, intending to lend her a hand.
"If Lady Xuande's words hold true, would she not be posted at our lord's side, now that she has become his Colonel?"
"Huh—now that you mention it, you're right!"
Zhang Fei nodded as though the logic were sound, then wheeled about sharply.
"Then she's probably this way!"
What on earth gave her such confidence that their lord would be found this way?
But Zhang Fei was one who sometimes displayed instincts like a wild beast's, and so Guan Yu said nothing and simply followed at her heels.
Thus, after a brief change of course, it was not long before Zhang Fei cried out.
"Found her!"
"......"
Astonishing as it was, Zhang Fei had in fact located the Grand General.
Even Lü Bu, she who was hailed as Peerless Under Heaven, had shown an uncanny, almost eerie talent for tracking the Grand General down—and now Zhang Fei was displaying precisely the same gift.
"Since when does a general get to be that weak, huh?"
"Shut up, you acorn-sized bitch!"
"What?! You wanna die?!"
Guan Yu vaguely recalled the exchange Lü Bu and Zhang Fei had traded during the Battle of Hulao Pass.
Was there, after all, some current that ran between people cut from the same cloth?
Then Zhang Fei, who had been striding briskly toward the training grounds, came to an abrupt halt once they had drawn within a certain distance of the Grand General.
Guan Yu spoke, puzzled.
"Is something the matter?"
"...Look over there."
"......?"
WAAAAAAH——!!
Just then, the soldiers' cheers rolled out across the grounds.
The cause of it all: a blue-haired general stood there with her spear pressed against Zhang Liao's flank.
"You are formidable."
"Right back at you."
To any eye, it was plain that the two had fought their duel to the end—and that Zhao Yun had carried off the victory.
Zhang Liao flashed Zhao Yun a grin, dusted herself off, and stepped back.
"You fight far better than I expected."
Whether her thirst for glory had been stoked by the sight or not, Zhang Fei started forward, Serpent Spear in hand.
At that moment, Guan Yu spoke.
"Leave it be, for now."
"Huh?"
Zhang Fei turned her head, wearing a puzzled look.
"Why?"
"Challenging one who has only just finished a duel is unseemly."
"Ah..."
Zhang Fei nodded, seeming to understand.
Defeated she may have been just now, but Zhang Liao was one of the veterans who had upheld Jeong Reung's army from its earliest days.
One of the few generals whom even she could not treat lightly.
Look closely, and one could see beads of sweat standing out all across Zhao Yun's body.
To pick a duel with Zhao Yun, so plainly spent, was more than a warrior's pride could ever countenance.
"Then I'll just set my sights on tomorrow, I guess."
Zhang Fei said it in a can't-be-helped sort of voice and slung her Serpent Spear across her shoulder.
Just then, Zhao Yun—sensing the weight of Guan Yu's and Zhang Fei's stares—turned her head.
Blue eyes that called a clear sky to mind.
Meeting that limpid gaze, Zhang Fei murmured.
"...I think we'll get along just fine after all."
Though she couldn't have said why.
With that, Zhang Fei spun on her heel and walked away.
Guan Yu, too, stood watching Zhao Yun a while longer before taking her leave.
"......"
Zhao Yun held her gaze fixed until the two of them had vanished entirely from her sight.
Without pause. Without end.