Resolve (1)
As I led my army out of Shuchun, Cao Cao appeared with her own forces in tow, as though she had been waiting for precisely this moment.
Watching her ride out, I murmured flatly,
"...Now that I think of it, aren't you still at war with Tao Qian?"
"Ah, that old man?"
At my question, Cao Cao pulled the faintly insufferable smirk she always wore.
"A withered old coot who's all territory and no substance? I could knock him down any time I pleased."
"Is that so."
Hearing that, I nodded. Ah, so she's in 'just here to enjoy herself' mode.
Well, even if Cao Cao never fought in earnest, an opponent like Tao Qian would be no trouble for her. Turning a losing battle around demanded real skill — the kind Tao Qian's officers simply did not possess.
Ask whether a single capable commander served under Tao Qian, and the answer was: not one. At best, Cao Bao, who led the Danyang troops — and the only reason I remembered even him was that he was the man who had stabbed Liu Bei in the back, paving the way for Lü Bu to snatch Xuzhou out from under her.
"So do you plan to finish Tao Qian off now?"
"Hm? I have no intention of doing so at present," Cao Cao replied, a flat denial.
"You are aware, I trust, that the old man of Xuzhou has never once bested me in open battle?"
"I'm aware."
I nodded flatly. Every time she sounded a victory report, a boastful letter arrived on my desk — how could I not know? It was the sort of thing one couldn't have missed even if one tried.
"With matters flowing that way, the old man has taken to cowering behind his walls and refusing to show his face," Cao Cao said, her whole bearing one of mockery toward Tao Qian. "I expose openings on purpose, I cut the supply roads into his cities, and still he simply endures. The affair is bound to drag on."
…….
"By the look of it, he means to hold out until Gongsun Zan's relief force arrives."
So this much, at least, had flowed along the riverbed of the original history. If events followed the official record, the next act would be the Peach Garden Sisters — then sheltering under Gongsun Zan — marching out to rescue Xuzhou. And after she clashed with Cao Cao there, Lü Bu, driven out of Sili Province, would ally with Chen Gong and seize Yanzhou — the point where their great feud truly began.
Oh, for heaven's sake.
Liu Bei isn't in Gongsun Zan's camp anymore.
She had already, on my orders, delivered a thundering blow to Gongsun Zan's back. The Gongsun Zan I knew was the sort to tuck away every last slight, however small, and forget none of them — anyone who came crawling back now would be turned away at the very gate. The man surely had soldiers enough to send as reinforcements, but no one worthy to command them. He did not even have Zhao Yun, the one warrior who might honestly have been called his last hope.
Judging by that alone, Gongsun Zan's faction looked ripe to be snuffed out by Yuan Shao at any moment — yet from Yuan Shao's side, too, matters had tangled up, and she could not finish him off right away. I had never intended this state of affairs, but when I absorbed the remnants of Liu Yu's forces, one faction that might have backed Yuan Shao dropped off the board, and the Wuhuan tribes, who might otherwise have joined hands with her against Gongsun Zan, had reportedly descended into a mess of their own infighting. True, Gongsun Zan was weaker than in the original history — but Yuan Shao, who had once thrashed him at three-to-one, had weakened in her own way as well.
……?
Feeling my gaze on her, Liu Bei, who stood nearby attending me, made a puzzled face.
"Then what do you intend to do?" I asked Cao Cao again.
Cao Cao answered in the tone of someone stating the obvious.
"I have severed every supply line there is to sever. All that remains is to wait, no?"
…….
"Cao Ren — Zixiao, that is — will see to the encirclement without any help from me." With that, Cao Cao gave a shrug of her shoulders. "All the future left to that old man now is to slowly wither away, bit by bit, I daresay."
What.
And here I thought she was just in 'enjoying herself' mode — she'd thought it all through?
"And surely stability comes first for a woman carrying a child, does it not?"
…….
The instant the bomb left Cao Cao's lips, the atmosphere froze over solid — with an almost audible crack.
"...What was that supposed to mean?"
"...Quiet now."
Zhang Fei, who had yet to fully grasp the situation, muttered under her breath, and Guan Yu rapped her for the utter lack of tact.
…….
"Hmph."
Seo Yeo and Lü Bu — who in the old days would have been knocked head over heels by the shock — looked the very picture of composure. Was that the ease of women already bound to me? And if not that, then...
Still, if I had to name the one most conspicuous figure in our company, there was only a single candidate.
…….
If Her Majesty the Empress were to grow into her full self, would this be what she'd look like? A woman whose straight black hair had grown a touch longer, whose figure had grown all the more graceful.
Even amid everyone else's confusion, Liu Bei's smile never wavered. Dependable as ever, truly. To hold her composure alone while everyone around her lost theirs was proof enough of her remarkable gifts—
Neigh?
...Or perhaps not?
I turned to see Liu Bei's horse, Dilu, letting out a distinctly puzzled whinny.
Looking closely at the backs of her hands, I found the veins standing out in ridges — she was pouring her entire strength into her grip.
Nnngh.
She was rigid from head to toe, which meant the thighs wrapped around Dilu's barrel were clamping down with monstrous force — and the pressure fell on the horse in full.
Hrrn...
Dilu wore a face no horse should be able to make: pale, drawn, the look of a creature pressing past the very limits of its species.
I turned my head from the scene and thought, How on earth am I supposed to handle this?
Cao Cao paid not the slightest mind to the confusion her declaration had sown. She simply stroked her belly with a hand full of fondness.
"It is not yet time for my monthly bleeding... and yet I know. Instinctively."
"...Hold on."
I moved to stop her before she dropped another bomb, but Cao Cao's mouth knew no brakes.
"Something that thick, poured so deep inside me — do you truly expect me not to conceive?"
At those staggering words, Xiahou Dun, who had followed her lady here, stood frozen with her mouth hanging open.
My sentiments exactly.
"Hmm... what shall we call the child, I wonder." Cao Cao asked me, smiling. "What name would please you?"
"...Phew."
I had meant to fire back at her at least once — but at the sight of that utterly guileless smile, all that escaped me was a sigh. Her surface manner was pure mischief, yet I could tell that Cao Cao, in this moment, was genuinely happy.
"What about Ang? It means 'lofty.'"
"Oho... I cannot say why, but it rings beautifully indeed."
Of course it does.
In the original history, Cao Ang was Cao Cao's firstborn son.
Even had I let the matter slide with a vague nod, the firstborn would have ended up named Cao Ang regardless. And now that I thought of it, I found myself curious — would the child be born a boy in this world, or a girl? A question no amount of brooding would answer, so I let it pass without ceremony.
"Once the child is born, I shall invite you before long," Cao Cao said, mischief on her face and happiness in her voice. "Ah — but first I must make my way to Luoyang and prove my loyalty before Her Majesty the Empress, mustn't I."
"...And why, precisely, must you?"
"Because if I do not, the people who follow you will keep a wary eye on me, will they not?"
Coming to our home base utterly unguarded, proclaiming to all the world that we were, in effect, a single power — Cao Cao truly intended a merger of our factions.
...And just how enormous would that make us?
Yanzhou, part of Ye Province, half of Xuzhou besides... it would be staggering. Had Tao Qian and Gongsun Zan — the two currently squared off against us — heard the news, they would have crumpled where they sat. Liu Yao in Gangdong and Liu Yan in Yi Province would surely have worn the very same look.
"I do find myself wondering how Benchu would react, were she to catch wind of the two of us."
Why on earth does Yuan Shao come up all of a sudden?
Cao Cao and I were close enough to have mixed bodies, yes, but Yuan Shao had no reason whatsoever to react to that. We had been apart so long I could no longer recall the specifics of her face — I remembered golden hair and golden eyes, but...
When had I last met Yuan Shao? It must have been that conversation before she departed for Jizhou, after we drove Dong Zhuo out of Luoyang. Carried away by some inexplicable mood that day, I had gone and told her not to let power blind her, or some such drivel — a memory that now sat among my most painful embarrassments. Yuan Shao, with her signature poise, had betrayed nothing on the surface, but inwardly she must surely have found me a strange one.
Meeting my bewildered stare, Cao Cao let out a soft laugh. "Very well. If that is what the General-in-Chief thinks, I shall not press the matter further."
The nuance there is a little odd.
Like a lover comforting her beloved over some needless worry...
Then Cao Cao closed the distance and whispered into my ear.
"I do look forward to seeing just how many more women you can take into your arms."
…….
I had more or less expected it, but she had gone and detonated a bomb of the largest caliber all the same. Cao Cao flashed me one last smile, then withdrew with an airy gesture, leading her army away.
...And just how, exactly, am I supposed to clean up after that?
Under the stares boring into me from every direction, I heaved a long sigh.