The Wedding (2)

Ever since the Chanyu of the Xiongnu had come sweeping across the border with a great host, Bing Province had been left badly exposed to incursions from the other nomadic peoples.

The Black Mountain Bandits, who had met tens of thousands of Xiongnu head-on, had suffered casualties too numerous to count, and even among their commanders — veterans tempered on countless battlefields — more than a few had perished. Elite troops capable of standing against foreign tribes were not the sort of thing that could be replenished overnight, and so the General-in-Chief, for want of any better option, had left a handful of soldiers and officers behind in Bing Province.

And who, exactly, had been left behind?

"Hmmmm..."

"..."

Zhang Liao, Gao Shun, and Seo Hwang — veteran commanders who could fairly be said to have held up the General-in-Chief's army from its very earliest days.

"It does bother me, I'll admit."

Zhang Liao, going through her usual practice with Seo Hwang, murmured in a soft voice.

CLANG—!

"And what might you be referring to?"

Seo Hwang asked the question after batting Zhang Liao's crescent blade aside with a vigorous sweep, while Gao Shun, entirely unbothered, simply kept her attention fixed on maintaining her own weapon.

Zhang Liao spoke up.

"Lately, don't you get the feeling that our place here has been shrinking?"

"..."

Seo Hwang worked her jaw for a moment before answering.

"...Is there some particular reason you feel that way?"

"It's just... a feeling, that's all."

There was no real conviction in Zhang Liao's voice.

"It's as if a stone that came rolling in has pried loose the stones that were already set."

"Our lord did not leave us here with any such intention."

Seo Hwang spoke in a stiff register, true to form for a woman who drew so strict a line between public duty and private feeling.

It was the sort of remark that could easily have sent the conversation somewhere awkward, but Zhang Liao brushed it off without a care.

"Oh, I know that as well as you do."

She understood perfectly well why the General-in-Chief had left them here. Concentrating capable people in a single place was, frankly, a terribly inefficient way to use them.

Unless one were an immortal out of a storybook, blinking from one end of the land to the other in an instant, every person alive lived bound by the tyranny of distance. Even for her, moving at full tilt, the road from Bing Province to Luoyang was a good two days' journey — and that was ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠traveling alone. Bringing soldiers along would stretch it well past a week.

Hadn't that very problem nearly seen Bing Province ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠plundered by the Xiongnu?

"And still... I can't help but let it weigh on me."

A faint trace of hurt crept into Zhang Liao's voice.

"Zhao Yun, was it?"

"..."

"Say the General-in-Chief meant nothing special by it — the fact remains that he took her with him, doesn't it?"

A commander who had appeared like a comet from who knew where, punched straight through the Chanyu's honor guard, and given chase all on her own. It was fairly famous news by now that the woman with that serene countenance was campaigning at the General-in-Chief's side as part of his personal bugok.

Yes — just like the Liu Bei sisters, who had once held General Lü Bu at bay at Hulao Pass.

"Hmmm... by any fair reckoning, this amounts to a promotion for us, and yet..."

From leading a mere fragment of the General-in-Chief's host, they had become commanders of fully independent forces — positions one could now, without embarrassment, call that of a general.

Zhang Liao murmured, the strength gone from her voice.

"So why does it feel so lonely, then?"

She had, beyond argument, gained an army of her own and earned a promotion on top of it. And yet what Zhang Liao missed were the days when their forces had still been small, and they had crushed their enemies together — every one of them, shoulder to shoulder.

"Surely you don't feel the same, General?"

"..."

At Zhang Liao's question, Gao Shun — who had been silently tending her weapon — finally spoke.

"...I merely attend faithfully to the duties entrusted to me."

At that stiff reply, Zhang Liao could only offer a wry smile.

Even among the General-in-Chief's many officers, Gao Shun stood apart as singularly different. Hers was a devotion that had passed clean through loyalty into the realm of worship. Had the Yellow Turban army of Zhang Jue, once followers of the Way of Great Peace, ever looked upon their leader with eyes like that? Were the General-in-Chief to command her to end her own life, she was the sort who would run herself through without a hair's breadth of hesitation — and still have strength to spare.

"...The more I watch her, the more she fascinates me."

Seo Hwang, apparently having noticed the same thing, whispered under her breath.

"How on earth does the General-in-Chief keep finding people like her...?"

"Your guess is as good as mine."

Even Zhang Liao did not know precisely when Gao Shun had first begun to follow the General-in-Chief. Whether she had climbed her way up step by step from the common ranks or been singled out as an officer from the very start, no one could say. The one certainty was that at some point, unnoticed by anyone, she had simply begun to follow him and lay her loyalty at his feet.

Though it ran in a direction all its own, it would be no exaggeration to call Gao Shun's devotion to the General-in-Chief supremely lofty and utterly pure. If some calamity were ever to befall him, those who would be shattered by it would number far more than one or two.

And if it were Gao Shun — then perhaps...

Zhang Liao let her thoughts go only that far before steering the conversation elsewhere.

"Come to think of it — have you heard the news that the General-in-Chief is to be wed to Her Majesty the Empress?"

"Ah, I have. It's been quite the talk lately, hasn't it."

Seo Hwang nodded along, her voice perfectly casual.

"..."

Gao Shun, who had been silently maintaining her gear, stopped dead the instant those words reached her ears.

Seeing her like that, one began to suspect that supreme, pure loyalty was not the only thing dwelling in that breast...

"...Was there something you wished to say to me?"

"No. Nothing at all."

Zhang Liao smiled faintly as she took in the sight of Gao Shun, her grey hair pinned up neat and orderly.

"Being trusted by the General-in-Chief is all well and good, but I'm only human. Other wants have begun to stir in me, you see."

At that, Seo Hwang's face showed open surprise.

"...And what would you mean by that?"

"What else would a grown woman come to want from a man?"

The woman with brown hair tied back in a ponytail said it in a warm, gentle voice.

"Waiting patiently gets you no answer, so one had best move oneself, hadn't one?"

"..."

"The last I remember, the look in her eyes whenever they rested on the General-in-Chief was, I'd swear, anything but ordinary..."

If things had perhaps already begun without her, Zhang Liao concluded, then she had no choice but to act — and quickly.

"And as it happens, an invitation has just arrived."

Zhang Liao drew a single sheet of paper from her breast and read it out, enunciating every word.

Having recited the contents of a letter whose author could be no one else, Zhang Liao smiled.

"The foreign tribes have gone quiet of late, and the soldiers' training is finished, so a few days away from my post should do no harm."

"..."

"And what will you do, General?"

Gao Shun, her equipment maintenance complete, answered from where she stood in silence at her post.

"I must hold the ground our lord has entrusted to me."

"In that case, I suppose there's nothing for it. I'll simply have to go with you, Gongming."

Seo Hwang, ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠who had been following the exchange, blinked her large, round eyes.

"...And when, exactly, did it become settled that I was going along?"

"If you stay behind, you'll have no one to spar with, will you?"

"Well, that's..."

Seo Hwang lapsed into thought. It was true. If Zhang Liao left, there would be no one left to share her one and only hobby, the practice of arms. General Gao Shun there could surely have given her a fine match, but Gao Shun was the sort who would sooner spend that hour putting the troops through one more round of maintenance, and so that door ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠was closed. She had always prided herself on being strict where official duties were concerned — and yet here stood a woman who outdid even her...

Just then, Zhang Liao tossed a question her way.

"Think about it. How many commanders of renown are sitting in Luoyang at this very moment?"

"Er, well..."

Seo Hwang's mind began to race. The General-in-Chief's personal guard, a warrior against whom she doubted she could cross blades even ten times. The Peerless Under Heaven, whose martial might she would never dare so much as contemplate. Guan Yu and Zhang Fei, whose display at Hulao Pass had made it impossible to look away. And Changshan's Zhao Zilong, who had put the Xiongnu Chanyu to flight all on her own.

"...No, I can't let a chance like this slip away."

"Right?"

Having called to mind the likes of a Match for Ten Thousand, Seo Hwang ultimately allowed herself to be talked round.

In truth, contrary to the General-in-Chief's worries, the numbers of nomads pressing into Bing Province had been few. Cold weather was coming on apace, and besides, the Northern and Southern Xiongnu had thrown themselves into open war with one another.

It was likely there that the General-in-Chief had sensed an ill omen. The gnawing dread that the Xiongnu might knit themselves back into one and come pouring over the border when least expected. And yet striking out onto the vast open plains would have meant bearing losses far too great to stomach — a bitterly unfair state of affairs.

...Still. Someday, the day will come when we push beyond these mountains.

Just as the Emperors of Han had done time and again before, a peaceful world would, in the end, demand a settling of the nomad question.

"As for me, I suppose I'll just go see some old faces after so long~"

"..."

Zhang Liao was still prodding gently at Gao Shun.

...And if the sight of it somehow stirred something like jealousy, surely that was only her imagination.

Gao Shun, her blue-green eyes gone distant, sat sunk deep in thought, as if wrestling with some question she could not name.