Resolve (5)
I asked Liu Bei, who was smiling at me.
"Since when have you felt that way?"
"Since when, you ask..."
Liu Bei let the words trail off for a moment before continuing in a calm, quiet voice.
"It has been a long while, if long is what you would call it—and a short one, if short."
...
Another vague answer.
Liu Bei was kind to everyone, and yet she was a person difficult to truly grow close to. It always felt as though some invisible wall stood between her and the rest of the world. Given how often she produced unreadable remarks like the one just now, it would have been stranger not to feel that way.
'That woman is up to something, I'm telling you! You can't trust her!'
...
A while after I had first accepted Liu Bei, Lü Bu—who had once crossed blades with her face to face—had said exactly that to me.
And when I held my silence, Lü Bu, looking enormously pleased with herself, declared it outright.
'One look at her face and you can tell she'd betray you without so much as blinking.... Brrr!'
Of course, there was only one response I could give upon hearing that.
'There you go again with that talk. Didn't I tell you to cut it out?'
'But...'
'Ah-ah.'
Without a shred of hesitation, I took Lü Bu's cheek in my hand, pulled, and scolded her soundly.
'Hng....'
Cut off mid-sentence and given a dressing-down, all Lü Bu could offer was a deflated whimper.
Considering the bitter feud between Lü Bu and Liu Bei in the original history, her reaction was hardly surprising—though in truth, the one who betrayed Liu Bei without a second thought was none other than Lü Bu herself. If anything, it seemed certain people really were fated to be at odds. How do I put this—you know how you sometimes meet someone and know at first glance that the two of you simply don't mix?
...Come to think of it, Lü Bu and Liu Bei did once clash spear against blade in a ferocious fight at Hulao Pass. So maybe this was just a case of a bad first impression leaving its mark.
While I was still piecing my thoughts together, Liu Bei spoke up.
"There is something I, too, would like to ask."
"...Is that so? Go ahead, then."
"You once spared our lives, General-in-Chief, on the grounds that we seemed like a good match for you."
She meant the time she and her sisters were taken captive in Luoyang. I had been privately flustered out of my mind then—in all honesty, I'd never imagined that this Liu Bei would let herself be seized by soldiers without some scheme lying behind it.
I had simply released them, citing that we seemed like a good fit, and entrusted them with a single task. Quite a few people were dumbfounded by my eccentricity, but when the lord has made up his mind, what is anyone going to do about it? Since then, the Peach Sisters had weathered no end of trials, and now they campaigned as my colonels, lending me their aid.
Liu Bei asked me,
"And how about now?"
...
"Do we—and you, General-in-Chief—truly seem to suit each other?"
Liu Bei was unmistakably smiling, yet a trace of anxiety had woven itself into that smile. It had been a remark I tossed out without a second thought, and she had been turning it over in her mind ever since.
I answered with studied indifference.
"If I thought we were a bad fit, I'd have thrown you out long ago."
I was, after all, fairly decisive about my likes and dislikes. If I had truly felt there was no redeeming this woman no matter what she said, I'd have convened a trial and passed judgment on the spot.
Hearing my level reply, Liu Bei murmured, ever so softly.
"...Then there is nothing left for me to hesitate over."
"What's that supposed to—mmph?!"
Liu Bei pressed her lips to mine once more. That alone was startling enough, but the instant our mouths met, her tongue slipped straight past my teeth. Caught off guard, I mounted no real defense and simply surrendered to the intrusion.
And then, as the lewd sound of tangling tongues spread through the room, everyone present reacted in their own distinct way.
"...!"
Guan Yu's face flared crimson, and she froze solid exactly where she knelt, like a statue.
"Whoa..."
Zhang Fei hid her mouth behind both hands and let out one awed gasp after another,
...
while Seo Yeo said not a word and quietly slipped out of the room.
Was that her way of respecting my privacy? Or was she simply worried about her own future—about being swept into this chaos if she stayed? Either way, with Seo Yeo gone, the only ones remaining in the room were me and Liu Bei's sworn sisters.
I wrapped an arm around Liu Bei's waist and tried to rise. Sensing my intent, she lent herself to the movement with practiced ease, and once I stood without difficulty, I laid her down firmly on the bed beside us.
...
Lying on the bed, Liu Bei gazed steadily into my eyes, heat simmering in her own.
I spoke.
"...Going this far means you've steeled yourself for this, I take it?"
"...Hehe."
Liu Bei answered my question with her usual warm, enveloping smile.
"Please, do as you please."
"...Well, in that case."
Hearing her decisive answer, I reached for her body without a moment's hesitation—or I would have, had I not stopped dead where I stood. And small wonder: there were still spectators hovering within arm's reach of me. My experience points were nowhere near high enough for exhibition play, and I wasn't keen on attempting it.
"What are the two of you planning to do now?"
"...Pardon?"
"I mean exactly what I said."
Guan Yu and Zhang Fei flinched the moment my gaze found them, their eyes darting every which way. Embarrassed as they clearly were, they stubbornly refused to budge from their spots. Watching them, I narrowed my eyes a touch.
"Don't tell me you mean to watch to the very end?"
...
"And if not that, then—"
Just as the sentence threatened to continue, Liu Bei's gentle hand came to rest against my cheek.
"Why would you turn your gaze away from me?"
"No, it's only—your sworn sisters are right there..."
"That much is a trifling matter."
...How, exactly, was that trivial?
Her answer, beyond anything I had imagined, briefly melted my brain. Liu Bei lifted her head and whispered into my ear.
"You are a man of many worries, General-in-Chief."
"...Hm?"
"If they remain in this room even after the deed is done, would that not mean they wish to be embraced as well?"
...
So... that's how it works? Why was that actually persuasive?
Liu Bei had spoken in a whisper, but those two, with their extraordinary physiques, had surely caught every word. Persuaded in the end, I gave a small nod.
"If they're still here at the end, then."
"Yes. Exactly so."
I went on, glancing at the pair once more by way of confirmation, and Liu Bei chimed in with a smile of her own.
"...Very well."
Leaving the two of them—still frozen in bewilderment—behind, I set about the main event in earnest.
Liu Bei, styled Xuande. Whenever I looked at the woman before me, my eyes would drift, entirely on instinct, to one particular place.
"Mmnh...!"
That mountain of a chest. Do you know where men most often look when they first set eyes on a woman? First comes the chest, second the waistline, and third the face. What's more, the chest holds their gaze far longer than any of the rest. Is this what being "true to one's desires" means?
In that sense, Liu Bei's chest possessed every quality needed to beguile a man. Melon-like in size, lovely in its overall shape, it was more than enough to drag a man's eyes toward it like a magnet. Of course, however a man might feel about it, from the woman's side of things it amounted to sexual harassment all the same. Terrified that I, too, might be sucked into that fearsome black hole, I had always thrown every ounce of willpower into keeping my eyes fixed on her face alone whenever we met.
And now, at long last, the moment for that effort to shine had arrived.
"I expected as much... but you truly do begin with the chest, don't you?"
At my hand caressing her breast through her clothes, Liu Bei shivered faintly.
I answered as though it were only natural.
"Men are simply made that way."
"Hehe... I am only glad it pleases you—?!"
The moment I slipped my hand between her garments, Liu Bei's words broke off and her fingers clenched hard around the blanket. A better reaction than I'd expected, no?
Of course, working my hand between her outer robes did not mean I reached bare skin at once. It was autumn, with a chill wind blowing, so she was likely wearing layer upon layer. Liu Bei's body was simply that sensitive.
Watching her reactions, I moved my hand slowly, stroking the whole of her chest, and before long I felt something stiff and prominent jutting against my palm. Tracing lazy circles around it, I spoke with deliberate mischief.
"You seem to be dressed rather lightly. So—what might this be, I wonder?"
"...You are too, too mischievous..."
Liu Bei flushed scarlet at my teasing. Well, naturally. When the woman sharing your bed reacts like this, how could I not play with her a little?
"...Nnh!"
As my maddening caresses went on, Liu Bei shuddered from head to toe and drew her knees upward. Her breathing, too, had grown suitably rough—it seemed the next stage was upon us. Without pausing the fingers of my right hand, I used my left to undo her clothing with easy familiarity.
"...Oh."
My attention fixed entirely on Liu Bei, I let out a small gasp of admiration. Stripped of her outer robe, her alluring figure stood out all the more.
Unable to tear my eyes from her body, I opened my mouth.
"It feels rather like unwrapping a gift."
"...There is still one more layer to go, you know?"
Her provocative tone drew a chuckle out of me.
"Now I truly can't wait."