Change (4)
Before I could say a single word in reply to Liu Bei, a familiar voice rang out from nearby.
"G-General-in-Chief! It's been so long!"
"...Ma Chao?"
Hers was a beauty that stood out even in this world, where lovely women were a dime a dozen. The blue-silver-haired girl gazing at me had, compared with the first time we'd met, unmistakably grown a great deal.
Somehow it feels like the guests just keep coming today.
"Hm."
Liu Bei studied Ma Chao — the one who had cut her conversation short — with an appraising look. The timing of the interruption was far too convenient not to strike one as odd.
Had she cut in deliberately, sensing the conversation drifting somewhere unusual? Or had it simply been a stroke of bad luck, from Liu Bei's standpoint?
Whatever the reason, the fact remained that Ma Chao had butted in on them, so there was no way Liu Bei and her companions would be wearing friendly expressions.
"...What's the big idea? Interrupting out of nowhere."
Zhang Fei made no effort whatsoever to hide her displeasure, and even Guan Yu — who had seemed determined to avoid my eyes all day — fixed Ma Chao with a level stare.
...That glare is terrifying.
No wonder they called her the most famous human blender in the Three Kingdoms — she could cow a person into silence with her gaze alone.
But the girl facing her was no pushover either.
Ma Chao Mengqi.
The general who, in Romance of the Three Kingdoms, had crossed weapons with that very Zhang Fei for days on end and left a deep impression. In the official histories, she was the warlord who had put even Cao Cao's life in jeopardy with a stratagem aimed straight at his blind side.
She had lost our last bout, but I still believed that someday Ma Chao would climb to a level near that of a Match for Ten Thousand.
And as proof, there she stood at this very moment — ramrod straight, not the least bit cowed, as if nothing at all were out of the ordinary.
If it had been me, I'd surely have been sweating buckets and edging behind Seo Yeo.
...Now that I actually picture it, that would be pathetic as hell.
The Peach Sisters went on staring at Ma Chao, and Ma Chao went on ignoring them, her eyes fixed squarely on me.
If I kept quiet, they looked ready to carry on this war of nerves until the end of time. Before I ended up the shrimp whose back snaps in a fight between whales, I opened my mouth at once.
"What brings you here? Is there something you'd ask of me?"
"Yes! Forgive my presumption, but would it be all right if we continued the match we began before?!"
Ma Chao had closed the distance until she stood near me, and she cried this out in a ringing, energetic voice.
Somehow her energy is cranked way up today.
To put it more precisely, she gave the impression of someone barreling headlong with a to-hell-with-it attitude.
Wondering what on earth had gotten into her, I turned the request over carefully in my mind.
For a sparring match, why would she need my permission at all? I was hardly the sort to police a general's every move; this was something the two parties could settle with a simple word between themselves.
The instant that question formed, Ma Chao spoke again.
"A-and if the outcome of the match should please you, I humbly beg that you grant me one small request!"
So that was her game.
Asking me for a favor outright would feel a touch too forward, so she meant to cook up some pretext to approach me.
She really didn't need to go to all that trouble.
...Or was she angling for two birds with one stone — a rematch to redeem herself, and a favor from me besides?
Yeah, that was far the likelier bet.
Having sized up her intent, I gave a nod and said, "So wanting to continue the last match means you'd like to face Zhang Fei again?"
"Yes, sir!"
Hearing that answer, I turned to Zhang Fei standing nearby.
"I see. Well? What do you say?"
"...Hmph. I don't turn aside from a fight that walks right up to me."
Slinging her Serpent Spear across her shoulder, Zhang Fei advanced slowly on Ma Chao as she spoke.
"I said it to you once before, remember."
"......"
"That if you piled up a little more experience, you might just give me a proper match."
With that, Zhang Fei leveled her Serpent Spear at Ma Chao.
"So — shall we see just how far you've come, now that the chance has arrived?"
At first hearing it sounded like she was building her opponent up, but at bottom it was a haughty declaration: you are still beneath me.
Hearing it, Ma Chao — as if she refused to lose this contest of presence either — answered in a bright, blooming voice.
"If you'll put it that way, then a certain saying comes to my mind as well."
A lovely voice, too.
So this is why they call her the Splendid Ma Chao of Xiliang.
Even in the midst of my idle musing, Ma Chao's words rolled on.
"In a fight on horseback, I believe I would win. What do you say to that?"
"......"
"After all, on a battlefield you've no choice but to fight mounted, haven't you?"
She had a point.
On a battlefield where every weapon under heaven came flying at you, mobility was a precious commodity indeed. Wasn't it simple common sense that a beast on four legs outran a man on two?
In the first place, the creature called a horse could itself turn into a lethal weapon against a human being. No one trampled by a horse at full gallop ever walked away whole.
Even as my thoughts ran on, Ma Chao's needling showed no sign of stopping.
"Or do you plan to take leisurely strolls across battlefields as well? Well, in that case, I suppose there's nothing to be done."
She couldn't have meant that in earnest, but that's a fairly steep provocation.
Ma Chao was applying pressure: refuse this proposal, and it would amount to admitting fear of her.
"Ha. So that's how you want to come at me?"
Obvious as the ploy was, Zhang Fei was not the sort to give ground before such taunts. This was a woman who had charged without a flicker of fear even at Lü Bu, who had very nearly taken her life — what was Ma Chao to her?
"For the one being challenged, that much is nothing. Where do you want to do this?"
"There's a drill ground nearby. Let's settle it there."
"Good."
And so the two of them, their exchange thick with menace, left at once to prepare for the bout.
...Judging by that display, Ma Chao has plenty of mettle herself.
Or does her temper simply turn gentle in front of me, of all people?
'How the hell are you supposed to fight properly, staggering around like that?'
'...What was that?'
'If you've got a problem, then step up and find out!'
Soldiers of Qiang stock — the ones forever cooking up trouble with the other units.
Their skill had been beyond dispute; they had held sword and bow from childhood and lived their days in battle. But that savage environment had warped their tempers, and they meshed terribly with every unit around them.
On a grand battlefield where tight coordination with the neighboring formations was everything, who in their right mind would want a unit that only played among itself?
Strong, and yet weak — a unit of pure contradiction. Such were the frontier tribes.
I found myself recalling how the Qiang soldiers had feared Ma Chao to an almost strange degree.
'I hear you caused trouble again while I was away.'
'G-General! It's not like that! Those bastards started it—'
'Now you're cursing right in front of me. Enough. All of you—...Hm? General-in-Chief?'
I'd brushed it off at the time without much thought, but there had been something unmistakably unusual in her bearing.
I could still see it: Ma Chao, catching the feel of my presence, snapping her head around with a smile.
'Please don't worry, General. I'll take this chance to drill the discipline into them for good!'
'...Right.'
Looking back on it now, the Qiang soldiers had worn the desperate eyes of men begging to be allowed to stay.
"Someone who can meet Yide head-on at full spirit is a rare find indeed. Quite remarkable."
"Yes. I am certain her skill, too, has advanced day by day and month by month."
Liu Bei and Guan Yu had begun trading words while I was lost in the past.
Liu Bei said with a smile, "'Day by day, month by month' — that's a verse from the Book of Songs, isn't it? So you truly have read it all?"
"...What reason would I have to lie about such a thing?"
Guan Yu looked distinctly put upon by Liu Bei's teasing tone.
That Guan Yu — who once went everywhere with nothing but the Spring and Autumn Annals with Zuo Tradition clutched to her chest — had taken up the study of other books genuinely astonished me as well.
So this was the harvest of those books I'd once pressed upon the Liu sisters.
Zhang Fei, too, seemed to be studying as diligently as Guan Yu these days; all I could do was hope it might, in time, smooth out a few of her rougher edges.
"Hmph. Study all she likes, she'll still lose to—"
"Lü Bu."
Before the Lü Bu standing beside me could get another word out, I called her name in a flash and turned my head.
She flinched hard at that, then began anxiously reading my face.
"...Wh-what? What is it?"
"Are you really asking because you don't know?"
For the first time in a while, I took Lü Bu's cheeks in my hands and stretched them out like sweet rice cakes.
That addictive feel is as good as ever.
"I told you to stop saying things that pick fights with people, didn't I?"
"M'sowwy…!"
"Repeat after me. Think thrice before speaking, think thrice before acting."
I scolded Lü Bu, invoking the old saying attributed to Confucius.
Think thrice before speaking, think thrice before acting. In other words: weigh a single word three times before you utter it, and weigh a single deed three times before you do it.
Frankly, anyone who followed just that one rule could sidestep most of the hardships life has to offer. The trouble is, it's anything but easy.
"Think thwice befowe speaking…! Think thwice befowe acting…!"
"Are you going to answer me properly?"
At my scolding, Lü Bu raised her voice.
"Leg go ob my cheeks an' Ah'll talk pwoperly!" (Let go of me and I'll speak properly!)
"Are you talking back to me right now?"
"Uh, uh-ee, thad's nod id!" (N-no, that's not it!)
Whatever she had been trying to say, the moment I put on a stern face, Lü Bu deflated on the spot.
If she knew this was how it would end, why does she keep letting her mouth run loose?
Seo Yeo's trouble was that she wouldn't open her mouth for anyone but me; Lü Bu's was that she was so rough, fights broke out at the slightest brush.
And there was no putting these two to study the way Guan Yu and Zhang Fei had been. What was I to do with them?
If I forced them into a seat, they would go through the motions, but I knew perfectly well not a thing would stay in their heads.
Letting go of her cheeks, I heaved a sigh.
"Whew... For now, let's just go watch the match."
"O-okay..."
Lü Bu agreed, gingerly, all the while carefully reading my mood.