Diaochan (1)
The Seven Star Sword.
Like the Green Dragon Crescent Blade or Zhang Fei's Serpent Spear, it was a fictional weapon from Romance of the Three Kingdoms.
A precious blade with no fewer than seven jewels set into its scabbard, it enters the story not long after Dong Zhuo seizes power—and the reason for its appearance could not be simpler.
It exists for one purpose alone: Cao Cao's attempt to assassinate Dong Zhuo.
Wang Yun weeps with rage at Dong Zhuo's tyranny—the man deposes even the Emperor on a whim—while Cao Cao laughs heartily, volunteers for the job himself, and walks off with the Seven Star Sword in hand...
...only for the assassination to fail, of all things, because of Lü Bu standing guard at Dong Zhuo's side.
So Cao Cao passes the blade off as a gift and somehow wriggles out of the crisis—that is the plot of the novel.
What comes right after is the infamous Lü Boshe affair, the episode that puts Cao Cao's garbage personality on full display, but let's skip past that.
Once presented to Dong Zhuo as a gift, the Seven Star Sword never appears again.
Luo Guanzhong probably just forgot about it.
Either way, it flashes by early in the story and vanishes—a sword only someone who has truly dug into the Three Kingdoms would ever know.
That was the Seven Star Sword.
Setting the box down, I drew the Seven Star Sword from its sheath.
Shing.
One look at the blade told me everything I needed to know. This was no sword that merely looked the part—it was a genuine masterwork, the kind of famed blade any warrior who swung steel from the saddle would dream of owning.
"Ooh~. Now that's a genuinely fine sword. Where'd you even get something like this?"
As Lü Bu marveled, the attendant who had handed me the sword answered with careful courtesy.
"It is a treasured blade, passed down through Elder Wang's family as an heirloom for generations."
"...Huh? He can just give that away?"
Hearing where the sword had come from, Lü Bu pulled a doubtful face. Naturally enough.
I sighed and slid the Seven Star Sword back into its sheath.
"Elder Wang hails from Bing Province himself, after all. This blade has probably seen him through more close calls than either of us could count."
For all I knew, his ancestors had won their own glory with it. In the world I'd left behind, it had been nothing more than a made-up weapon; here, it was a bona fide object of reality. That a man born in that rough frontier country had climbed all the way to a seat among the Three Excellencies was astonishing in its own right.
Which marked him as a man of real talent—except, of course, Emperor Ling, that dumpster fire of a sovereign, wouldn't listen to a word he said...
I put the Seven Star Sword back in its box and handed it to the attendant.
"...General-in-Chief?"
"It seems your master had rather a lot to drink."
I went on, to the attendant whose surprise was plain on his face.
"Tell him this: should his heart remain unchanged once he has sobered, then I will accept the sword."
"Y-yes, my lord!"
The attendant took the box, dipped his head, and slipped away.
Lü Bu asked me, "You think it was just the drink?"
"Yeah."
I knew the feeling all too well—waking up to find your premium game currency had mysteriously ballooned overnight, or a character you had never once rolled sitting there in your account. Drink enough, and anyone's judgment goes fuzzy. Until minutes earlier, Wang Yun had been three sheets to the wind—no one could call that a state fit for sound decisions. If I had just nodded along and accepted a family heirloom handed over in that condition, things would have gotten strange fast.
"It really did look nice, though..."
Lü Bu's face fell into open disappointment.
I looked at her and smirked. "What, you want it?"
"It'd look so cool, you carrying it around, Jeong Reung."
...
"And it's a good sword. It'd keep you safe, too."
Now that was an answer I had not seen coming. Whatever else, the disappointment wasn't for her own sake—it was for mine—and I found myself quietly touched by it.
"With all of you around, what is there for me to worry about?"
"I-is that so?"
At my words, Lü Bu broke into a pleased little grin.
One compliment and she was over the moon. She was far too easy.
Just then, Seo Yeo glided to my side and spoke.
"Master. The night wind is cold."
"Hm? Right."
My face was starting to sting, that much was true. Lingering too long in this kind of cold evidently did not agree with me.
I made sure Wang Yun's attendant had vanished completely, then started walking.
The next day.
I had been sprawled lazily around the house when word came of an unexpected visitor. I received him and settled in to wait, calm and composed.
...
The unexpected guest, for his part, seemed to be picking out his words, and let the silence stretch a moment longer. Then the old man before me opened his mouth.
"General-in-Chief."
"What business brings you here?"
"I, Wang Yun, have been moved to my very core by the General-in-Chief's kindness yet again."
...Was he talking about my returning the Seven Star Sword last night?
To be fair, it was a reasonable reaction to have. The man had drunkenly tried to press his family's treasure into my hands, and all I had done was give it back. Had Wang Yun not been the head of his own house, he would have deserved every harsh word his kin threw at him.
"I only did what anyone would. There is no need for thanks."
I said it in an even voice, then pressed straight on.
"Still, I would advise a little more moderation with the wine from now on."
"...Haha! No one alive can match your nerve, General-in-Chief!"
Wang Yun's laughter boomed out, hearty and unashamed.
"And in return, I have brought you a gift."
"A gift?"
He was giving me another one? Really?
"You there. Bring it in."
"Yes, Elder."
Sensing my interest, Wang Yun signaled the attendant waiting behind him and took receipt of a box. It looked a good deal more opulent than the one that had held the Seven Star Sword the day before.
I voiced my suspicion. "What is this?"
"See for yourself."
Wang Yun held out the ornate box, and I lifted the lid without a second's hesitation.
...
One look at the contents, and the words died in my throat—because lying inside the box was the Seven Star Sword, the very sword I had quite unambiguously returned to Wang Yun only yesterday.
"Did you not say last night, General-in-Chief..."
...
"...that if your heart remained unchanged once you had sobered, you would accept it then?"
Watching my reaction, Wang Yun stroked his beard.
"This is precisely my choice."
I let the silence sit for a moment, then spoke.
"...Might I ask why you would bestow so rare a treasure upon me?"
Wang Yun answered without an instant's hesitation.
"To ask that you take good care of my adopted daughter, Diaochan."
In the same breath, Diaochan—pouring wine at my side—stopped mid-pour and went rigid where she stood.
"Haha! My daughter, who has shown the world nothing but perfect composure through all its affairs—this is the first time I have ever seen her like this!"
Wang Yun laughed heartily at Diaochan, frozen stiff as though she had hit some kind of error.
"...General-in-Chief. I want my daughter to live a happy life."
I held my tongue at the gravity in his voice.
"It feels unseemly to say it of my own household, but my adopted daughter is extraordinarily beautiful."
Wang Yun went on.
"A beauty to topple kingdoms."
"...Looks that could bring a nation to ruin."
"Just so. Diaochan could topple a country and still have beauty left over."
Wang Yun tilted his head a fraction, then said,
"And women graced with such beauty have, almost without fail, met bitter ends."
"...Father."
Diaochan, it seemed, had grasped exactly why he was saying all this.
"I do not wish for my daughter to meet a tragic end," Wang Yun said.
"And for that, she must needs tie her fate to a man who will not invite calamity by losing his head over women—would she not?"
Having said his piece, Wang Yun looked me dead in the eye.
"General-in-Chief. This old man begs of you."
...
"Grant my daughter, I implore you, the chance to serve at your side."
I had not expected the mood to turn this solemn...
I wrung my brain for all it was worth and answered.
"...When it comes to forming a bond, I hold that person's own will above all else."
"By that will, you mean..."
"Who could ever feel happiness in a bond they never wanted?"
The words were barely out of my mouth when Diaochan, beside me, spoke.
"That is of no consequence."
"...Huh?"
"If this humble one does not serve the General-in-Chief, whom else would I serve?"
An answer delivered as though her mind had been made up long ago—it robbed me of speech. Suspecting she had misunderstood something, I laid it out for her once more, in careful detail.
"That's—look, it's not about living up to anyone's expectations. I mean you should only give yourself to someone you genuinely hold in your heart."
"Then there is all the more no difficulty whatsoever."
So perfectly matter-of-fact was Diaochan's confession of her own heart that I found myself at a loss for words all over again.
When? When on earth had it happened? Had I ever done a single thing that would make Diaochan fond of me?
I turned the question over and over, but this hardly seemed the moment to start asking, so I kept my mouth shut.
"Hahahaha! Now here is a sight one rarely sees!"
At the spectacle of me clamping my mouth shut again and again, Wang Yun roared with laughter, delight written across his face.
I felt Seo Yeo's gaze on me sharpen past its usual intensity, and thought: it was nothing short of providential that Lü Bu was not here right now. One glimpse of this scene and she would have gone bouncing off the walls again, throwing the whole place into even deeper chaos.
And not a single soul in that room spared a glance for the Seven Star Sword, quietly radiating its understated splendor all the while.