A Tiger's Fatal Miscalculation
After giving my orders to every soldier, I took one last look around the Nanman. Once I left this time, there was no telling when I would be able to return. With a wife who hated being left far behind in Luoyang, heading anywhere was an ordeal unless it was official business like this.
Unless I planned to parade my authority across the realm on an inspection tour like Qin Shi Huang, travel was something I couldn't even dream of.
In any case, driven partly by my own curiosity, I set out to tour the Nanman with only the bare minimum of attendants. Judging things only after experiencing conditions on the ground firsthand was, after all, a crucial part of governance.
Deadly poisonous plants that radiated the unmistakable will to kill you outright if you so much as touched them carelessly. Herbivores that munched away at those very plants' leaves, all but shouting what are you going to do about it with every bite. And then the predators that pounced on those herbivores and made a meal of them.
It was simply an animal kingdom with a jungle for a backdrop. A world, in the most literal sense, of the strong devouring the weak.
Jungles covered only a tiny fraction of the Earth's surface, and yet, if I recalled correctly, some thirty percent of all the species on the planet made their homes in them. With countless species waging a battle royale for survival in that cramped expanse, this was hardly a place where humans could live in safety either.
"Grrr…"
There it is. No sooner had I thought it than a tiger revealed itself. Most predators prefer to lie hidden and strike by ambush, but the sight of this one stepping out so boldly suggested it was an individual that had hunted humans before. In other words, it looked down on people as creatures beneath it — easy prey.
And honestly, that wasn't an unreasonable way to think. Humans are excellent at running for a long time, but our outright speed is far slower than that of other herbivores. Even an elephant, too massive to run quickly, can make short work of a person. Then again, no predator in its right mind would charge at the beast that sends rhinos flying through the air.
The tiger that had emerged looked at me first. As if to prove it was no dumb beast, it had seen straight through to the single weakest one among us with uncanny precision. So this was what they called a beast's instincts. Ah, right — tigers are beasts. A magnificent specimen, too; what on earth had it been eating to grow that big?
The trouble for this tiger, which feared nothing in the world, began right after that.
"…Grr?"
The tiger, which had been staring at me first, swept its gaze over the people around me — and froze with a jolt.
……
"What, tiger hunting again?"
Seo Yeo calmly drew her greatsword, and Lü Bu deftly set the Sky Piercer Halberd spinning.
"A gift for our lord…"
"This time we'd better cut it down in one stroke, so the hide doesn't get ruined."
For these two, neither of whom was any stranger to hunting beasts, were already planning to turn the tiger into a tiger-that-used-to-be. Had it realized that if it just sat still, it would be picked clean down to the last splinter of bone?
"ROOOAR—!"
The great tiger, proud of its enormous frame, let out a mighty roar to turn the tables — and then shot away at astonishing speed. …Into the depths of the jungle, that is. Honestly, watching it act, it seemed a little pathetic.
"Oh? It's running away."
Lü Bu sounded genuinely taken aback by the tiger's quick thinking.
"Jeong Reung, what should we do with that one?"
"Hmm…"
Hearing the question, I sank into brief thought. The way it had first appeared so boldly, and the way it had fled the very instant it sensed disadvantage… The fact that it ran straight for the densest woods told me it had lured pursuing hunters into terrain like this before, then taken the careless ones down one by one. It wasn't as though Bing Province had no beasts, so this wasn't my first time seeing the type.
Viewed through the eyes of a man with a fair share of experience, my conclusion was this: that tiger was a crafty devil that knew exactly what human flesh tasted like. Left alone, the death toll would climb considerably.
Having finished thinking it through, I spoke to Lü Bu.
"Forget the hide — just turn it into a beehive."
"Got it."
At my order, Lü Bu drew her great bow from her side.
"Hehe. They say exercise is good for the baby — about time I got some."
……
Come to think of it, I did vaguely recall reading that exercise improves blood circulation and is supposed to be good for the fetus. Having confirmed just last night that Lü Bu's belly was slightly rounded, I spoke up, half fearing the worst.
"Don't overdo it. If it feels like too much, just come on back."
"Aigoo, you and your worrying."
For all that her answer sounded annoyed by the advice, Lü Bu looked thoroughly pleased at being fussed over. Grinning from ear to ear, she seized Red Hare's reins and shouted to the soldiers around her.
"Only those of you confident in shooting a bow from horseback, follow me!"
"Yes, ma'am!"
"And stay together no matter what! Anyone caught alone is dead!"
Did she mean dead by the tiger? Or dead by her hand? The elite cavalry who had once been personally trained by Lü Bu shuddered all over, apparently remembering a past spent flying through the air every which way.
And so, as Lü Bu led off twenty cavalry and the hunt began, I followed slowly behind at a comfortable distance, together with Seo Yeo.
"───!!"
At the sudden uproar, every beast nearby that had been peacefully grazing startled and scattered in a panic.
"───Hey!! Can't you ride straight?! Where do you think you're going alone?!"
"───S-sorry, ma'am!"
What on earth was happening up ahead right now? Judging by the dialogue alone, it sounded like a soldier who had wandered off somewhere strange was getting thoroughly beaten down by his senior. For a moment the tone was so similar I almost mistook it for Lü Bu herself. Had being trained by her turned even their personalities into copies of hers?
The real trouble came a short while later.
"───We have a problem! The tiger suddenly doubled back—!"
"───Whoa?! Why is this thing so fast?!"
Apparently, with so few hunters and the jungle so vast, it had slipped clean through the encirclement. …But the opposite direction, you say? The tiger had turned its back on me and fled — and if it was now coming around the other way…
"GRRAAAWWRR—!"
That gave me a start. When the enormous tiger burst without warning from within the brush, I flinched back in fright. The beast was streaming blood, evidently having taken several arrows from Lü Bu and her soldiers, and yet its ferocity hadn't dimmed one whit — it was nothing short of astonishing. This truly was a creature that could not be left to its own devices. Thank goodness I had ordered the hunt when I did.
Already beyond reason, the tiger charged at me in a dead straight line. You sure that's the right choice? It had already broken through the encirclement — run hard enough, and it might yet have lived. Hmm… had it simply decided, after swallowing all those arrows, that it had no hope of survival? Judging by the blood it was trailing, even a successful escape would only have postponed the end.
This was a jungle where every living creature went full animal kingdom. In a world so ruled by the strong devouring the weak, was there really not a single beast of prey nearby with a keen nose for blood? Perhaps, right at that moment, the tiger had decided to drag me along as company on its road to the afterlife. Anyone watching would have mistaken it for a human being.
People always say a wounded beast is the most dangerous of all… but there was one person before whom that rule held no sway.
"…How dare a mere beast."
Those were the last words the tiger ever heard.
The tiger lunging at me hung in the air as though it had just been hit by a car, then came crashing down to the ground with a heavy thud.
……
I had figured she would at most cleave it in half, but she had gone one better. Seo Yeo had sent a living automobile — one weighing a good several hundred kilograms — flying like a slugger connecting at the plate.
The fallen tiger, as though something inside it had broken, twitched fitfully for a while before going utterly still. Had its skull literally cracked open, the shock reaching its brain? Even that tiger could never have imagined it would die like this.
"Seo Yeo?"
"You called, my lord."
I addressed Seo Yeo, who stood calmly before me.
"Was there a particular reason you had to send it flying like that?"
She could simply have turned the edge and split it in two — so why had she wielded the Chu Heaven Sword like a blunt instrument?
Receiving my question, Seo Yeo answered evenly in her usual expressionless voice.
"If I cut it, blood gets on me."
"Ah."
Quite the practical reason. True enough — had she halved the tiger at that range, the blood would have sprayed everywhere.
"Jeong Reung! A-are you all right?!"
Just then, Lü Bu appeared from between the bushes the tiger had burst out of. One look at her face said she was badly rattled. She stared at the tiger-that-used-to-be sprawled limp on the ground, then let out a long breath of relief.
Before Lü Bu could take anything out on the soldiers, I spoke first.
"I'm only saying this in case — the soldiers did nothing wrong, so don't you say a word to them."
……
"When a thing like that comes charging to its own death, losing it would hardly be strange."
If anything, it was nothing short of miraculous that they had managed to sink several arrows into the tiger, just as Lü Bu had.
There was only one response Lü Bu — who turned docile the moment her eyes were on me and me alone — could possibly give.
"…Fine."
Good grief. All I'd wanted was a look around the Nanman, and look at the state of things. King Mulu had said that a beast which had devoured too many people was one even she herself could not tame. The people who made their home in this land beyond human limits were, quite simply, astonishing.