The Emperor (6)
The news that the Emperor's betrothed had been chosen.
It was more than weighty enough to send tremors through the entire balance of power, and it spread through all of Luoyang in no time at all.
"Wh-what?! M-m-married?!"
She had more or less expected it, but the moment Lü Bu heard the news, she all but leapt out of her seat with the shout.
Lü Bu thrust her face in close to mine.
"Then what's going to happen to the two of us now?! Huh?!"
She was afraid, it seemed—afraid that she might not get to stay close to me anymore.
Feeling a touch mischievous, I deliberately let my answer hang in the air.
"Well, now...."
"......"
Reading my face, Lü Bu gave a violent flinch, then muttered in a voice gone distinctly cold.
"...Right. If it's come to this, I've got no choice but to rise up in arms."
"Huh?"
What on earth is she on about all of a sudden?
Come to think of it, the Lü Bu of Romance of the Three Kingdoms had a falling-out with Dong Zhuo over a woman, hadn't he?
Dong Zhuo, enraged at catching Lü Bu secretly meeting Diaochan, hurled a hand-halberd at him, and thus....
The famous tale of how Lü Bu, nursing that grudge, repaid his adoptive master with a serving of white-hot "filial piety" by running him through was legendary among Romance readers.
Not keen on watching this Lü Bu stomp the accelerator toward the original history, I hurriedly opened my mouth.
"I was joking. Things will go on just like they always have."
"...Really?"
"Yes."
"Hmmm...."
There went that unconvinced look again.
Every line of her face said she didn't believe a word of it.
She could sniff out a single lie with uncanny precision, so why act like this?
I leaned my face in close, mirroring exactly what Lü Bu had done to me a moment before.
"......?"
Lü Bu seemed to have no idea what I was about to do, and a puzzled look crossed her face.
But that lasted only a heartbeat.
"W-wait just a second.... What are you doing all of a sudden?!"
Whatever scenario her imagination had cooked up, Lü Bu flushed scarlet to the ears and her words began to stutter.
I answered in my usual, even tone.
"What does it look like? I'm giving you my trust."
"How is any of this proof of trust?!"
Lü Bu murmured it in a small, mortified voice.
And yet she put not a single inch of distance between us—her body, at least, was honest.
I replied to her question with perfect calm.
"You can tell just by looking."
"Uuuugh...."
Tap. Lü Bu's forehead came to rest against mine, and I stared straight into her eyes at point-blank range.
"Now look at me properly. Do I look like a man telling lies?"
"Uwa, uwaaah...."
Given no way to answer me, Lü Bu could only spew strange noises.
"...Lü Bu?"
"Aah, aauuaah...."
No, could that even be called speech?
She just seemed so thoroughly flustered that sounds were pouring out at random.
I knew she was weak to this kind of toe-curlingly sappy atmosphere, but I hadn't guessed she'd short-circuit this fast.
Watching her come undone, I said nothing more—just pressed my lips lightly to hers, then straightened back up.
"......"
The instant I did, Lü Bu's legs seemed to give out beneath her, and she slid soundlessly to the floor.
I asked her once more.
"Still can't bring yourself to believe me?"
"......"
"And what's this silence supposed to mean? Very well, I suppose I'll just have to give you my trust one more—"
"I b-believe you! I believe you, I said!"
At my threat that wasn't quite a threat, the startled Lü Bu nodded her head in a frantic blur.
Simple as that.
I gazed fondly on the sight of Lü Bu struggling to push herself upright on wobbly legs.
"...My lord."
"What is it?"
At Seo Yeo's voice sounding from just nearby, I turned my head.
Meeting my gaze, Seo Yeo opened her mouth with her usual, unreadable calm.
"I cannot bring myself to believe it either."
"Hm?"
"I cannot bring myself to believe it either."
There was something almost resolute in her voice, and for a moment my brain simply stopped turning.
This was... a bit of an awkward spot.
I turned over why Seo Yeo might be acting this way, and arrived at an answer before long.
So... she wanted me to do for her exactly what I'd done for Lü Bu?
"......"
Just as I had with Lü Bu, I brought my forehead to rest against Seo Yeo's and stared straight into her eyes.
Seo Yeo, for her part, gave as good as she got, staring right back without a flicker of retreat.
How long we stayed like that, I couldn't say.
"...Nngh."
Seo Yeo, who had been gazing at me with eyes that seemed ready to pull me in and swallow me whole, let out a strangely familiar sound as her gaze began to waver.
...Now that I thought of it, wasn't this precisely the staring game I used to pick with her all the time?
Save for the close quarters and the kiss at the end, it was identical down to the letter.
I watched her eyes flit this way and that, finding no purchase anywhere, and then brushed my lips lightly against hers.
"Ah...."
And just like Lü Bu, Seo Yeo crumpled onto the spot.
This time, too, victory was mine.
"......"
Seo Yeo sat where she'd fallen, staring blankly at me for a long moment, then muttered flatly,
"...You do grow more skilled at this by the day."
"Right? How does any of this even make sense?"
Lü Bu, too, nodded away vigorously, as if she understood Seo Yeo's point all too well.
Hearing that, I couldn't help a wry smile.
Wasn't it less that I'd grown skilled, and more that those two were simply far too easy?
"Look at him! There he goes again, seducing us like it's as easy as breathing!"
"......"
This counted as seduction?
I got the distinct feeling the very concept had been bent out of shape somewhere along the way.
Then Lü Bu grumbled,
"Uuugh.... If I just hadn't lost, I'd have flattened him ages ago...."
"Is that right?"
I drew near to Lü Bu, who was muttering in disappointment.
"Then all you have to do is win this time."
"...Huh?"
"Come along. There's somewhere quiet just nearby."
"W-wait a second—?!"
In the end, Lü Bu failed to beat me that day as well.
As for Seo Yeo... I'll simply say she got swept up in that battle.
Naturally, my betrothal was not a matter only Lü Bu reacted to.
BANG!
"Son! So it's true—you're marrying Her Majesty?!"
So announced my mother, bursting through my door with enough force to reduce it to splinters.
"......"
She hasn't taken a word of it back, I see. So this marriage really is here to stay.
I glanced at my door—now looking distinctly worse for wear—and heaved a sigh.
"...Yes. That's how it's turned out."
"Oh, for heaven's sake! What's with that stone-faced reaction?"
Mother laughed with gusto as she thumped me on the back, whap whap.
Ow.
She hadn't hit me nearly hard enough to justify it, and yet my whole spine felt like it had been knocked loose at the seams.
Mother might well be the only person alive who could lay hands on me with this much abandon.
If anyone else tried it, Seo Yeo would have ground them into the floorboards, after all....
"I always knew our son was bound for great things, but who'd have thought you'd be joined with Her Majesty the Emperor herself!"
Mother's voice climbed a full octave with delight.
"When will you hold the wedding ceremony?!"
"...I'm told it's set for next spring."
"Then it's practically upon us!"
Mother beamed from ear to ear.
"Time to go bragging, then! I'll tell the whole world my grandchild will carry the blood of the imperial house!"
"Mother...."
"Oh, I simply cannot wait to see the looks on people's faces!"
At that, I buried my face in my hands.
There were days when Mother's energy outstripped even what I could weather, and this was clearly shaping up to be one of them.
Then, at the very peak of her vigor, Mother seemed to remember something and turned to me.
"Oh! That reminds me—son!"
"...Yes?"
"Have you been taking that Good For Men Tonic I gave you?"
Her genius for naming things remained as peculiar as ever.
I nodded at her question.
"Yes. The effects are beyond dispute."
"Hmmmm.... I see?"
Mother mulled something over for a moment, then broke into a wide grin.
"Then I'd better ask her to make more!"
"...I have plenty."
"Nonsense! If you keel over from exhaustion, that's bad for everyone!"
I somehow doubt burying yourself quite so enthusiastically in nighttime labors is so wonderful for you either, Mother....
I aimed a meaningful look her way, loaded with exactly that sentiment; it sailed clean past her.
"You're no bachelor anymore, so mind you take care of that body of yours! Right—off I go!"
Having declared this, my mother vanished like a gust of wind—whoosh, and she was gone.
"......"
The thought of her returning lugging an armful of Good For Men Tonic, all in the name of my health, was already giving me a headache.
I'll have to go see Hua Tuo later and have a private word with her.
Next spring, then....
"Once the new year dawns, the very eyes with which the General-in-Chief looks upon Us shall be wholly transformed."
"......"
"We shall look forward to it."
So spoke the Emperor after my marriage to Her Majesty had been settled without so much as a by-your-leave from the parties concerned—she who now had not a shred of restraint left where I was concerned.
"And when do you intend to start calling Us by Our courtesy name?"
"When the time is right, Your Majesty."
...Bolian.
Bo, for the eldest; lian, to yearn for.
Where the character bo typically denoted the firstborn or a head of men, lian meant precisely what it appeared to—longing, love.
Why on earth would she choose such a courtesy name for herself?
In the original history, Liu Bian's younger brother Liu Xie had borne the courtesy name Bohe, if I recalled rightly.
Perhaps because they shared the same blood, their taste in naming ran strikingly similar.
Turning the Emperor's courtesy name over in my mind, I looked up at the sky.
Overhead, the snow kept falling as if intent on proving that the dead of winter still held the heavens.
...It really does come down in absurd quantities.
When were we ever supposed to clear away all this white garbage?
I could almost hear the soldiers' wails of despair drifting all the way here.
"My lord."
A voice that wrung at my heartstrings from the very first syllable.
In all this world, only one person had ever borne a voice like that.
"...Diaochan?"
"Yes, my lord."
A woman who could rightly be called a beauty to topple kingdoms bowed before me with flawless grace.