Nanman (13)
To put the conclusion first: Meng Huo held out far longer than anyone would have guessed.
...You look like you're having a rough time of it. You holding up okay?
"M-my vision swam for a moment there... but I'm fine!"
This was the woman who, in the original history, had risen a seventh time after being felled six times by Zhuge Liang — the very picture of grit. Meng Huo, who had left readers of Romance of the Three Kingdoms with a lasting impression of sheer tenacity, endured more stubbornly than any figure I could compare her to.
Call it a refusal to retreat, even before an overwhelming gap in power(?). When I recalled that even Seo Yeo and Lü Bu had failed to overcome this strength of mine and merely pretended to faint, it was a scene that left a deep impression indeed.
As if to prove that no one else could claim the lead in the saga of seven captures and seven releases, Meng Huo fainted the very moment she filled the number seven.
Seven times, if you counted. That was two beyond the record of five, until then the joint peak of Cao Cao and Diaochan — all the more astonishing given that this had been Meng Huo's first experience.
So this was the power of a tanned, blonde delinquent?
"Mmm..."
After taking a moment to admire her bronze skin, beaded with sweat from head to toe, I settled into a suitable spot. Should I call in Seo Yeo and Lü Bu, who were no doubt waiting outside right now?
It was a moment of mild deliberation. ...Well, even if I did bring them in, they'd be quivering the instant I laid a hand on them anyway. For all their tremendous stamina, those two became remarkably sensitive once the switch flipped. Was touching me like undoing some limiter in their brains?
Having mulled it over, I finished my thinking and sprang into action.
"W-wait a second! You two looked like you were at it for quite a while — is that still not enough?!"
When I flung the door open and appeared, Lü Bu jolted in startlement, visibly flustered. I calmly nodded in response to the question she had thrown at me.
"If you've already started, you ought to see it through till dawn. No?"
"What kind of nonsense is that...?! Kyaa!"
Lü Bu was whisked away on the spot, like a horror-movie character being dragged off by a ghost. Why would the Peerless Under Heaven, blessed with monstrous strength, put up no resistance whatsoever? More accurate to say it wasn't that she couldn't — she simply chose not to.
I tossed a word to Seo Yeo, who stood nearby.
"You too. Come in."
"...Yes."
Seo Yeo bore a flush so faint you would miss it unless you looked closely.
Once that night of frenzy had passed, Meng Huo began pressing herself on me even more aggressively, just as she had promised.
"My lord! I look forward to your care again today!"
"...Right."
Clearly struggling to endure, yet boldly marching closer all the same. Watching her, Lü Bu shouted.
"Hey! Stop coming around! Why do you want to do it so often?!"
"Well... the more we do it, the higher the odds of conception, no?"
Meng Huo tilted her head as if Lü Bu had asked the most obvious question in the world. But that wasn't why Lü Bu was yelling at her. She knew full well that if Meng Huo, unable to withstand my onslaught, fainted, the next turn would fall to her.
And even though I had been wrapping things up moderately these days, given that it was around the time her belly had begun to show, watching her carry on like this made me think she would never get the better of me under the covers for as long as I lived.
"Ugh..."
Unable to explain the real reason, naturally, Lü Bu could only flush red, her mouth refusing to open.
"...Aha! So that was the problem!"
At that, Meng Huo put on a look of having caught on to something.
"Your worry was that you have far too much energy to spare, my lord! Please wait just a moment!"
"H-hold on. What exactly are you about to...?"
Having cried that out, Meng Huo vanished before Lü Bu's question had even finished. Her energy overflowed to a degree that would startle any onlooker.
"Uuu. Somehow I've got a bad feeling about this..."
Without even a chance to explain herself, Lü Bu murmured, gazing at the empty spot where Meng Huo had stood.
The wait was not long.
"Hurry up! His lordship is waiting!"
Meng Huo's voice drifted in from outside. Judging by that familiar tone, she seemed to be speaking with someone on close terms with her.
"Sis?! I'm not ready yet...?!"
"No, what on earth is going on?"
...Voices I had definitely heard before. The door burst open before I could even finish the thought.
"Aaagh... So they really did come..."
Meng You, with the looks of Meng Huo shrunk down wholesale.
"...?"
And Zhurong, with red hair much like Lü Bu's. I calmly met a pair of green eyes much like Pang Tong's.
Lü Bu, who had tried to hint, in the most roundabout way imaginable, that pressing herself on me would leave a person worn out by the night's labors.
And Meng Huo, who had caught the hint in Lü Bu's words and immediately gone off to fetch other women.
If I sorted out the situation and thought it through calmly, the intent behind it all was discernible — but taking it at face value was simply too bewildering.
In the end, I opened my mouth and asked Meng Huo directly.
"Meng Huo."
"Yes! You called, my lord!"
"Can you tell me what exactly this is supposed to mean?"
"That's simple!"
Without a shred of embarrassment over her own actions, Meng Huo answered with her chest out.
"My little sister and my old friend have both taken a liking to your magnanimous heart, my lord!"
"...?!"
"In that case, seizing this opportunity to see them joined with you—"
Scarlet to the ears, Zhurong bellowed at the top of her lungs before Meng Huo could even finish.
"Y-you crazy woman!"
"Gwahk!"
A backhand slap delivered with such hearty force it hurt just to watch. As Meng Huo staggered from the crack against her back, Zhurong cried out in flustered panic.
"You said it was urgent, hauled me out here in the dead of night, and now what in the hell is this garbage you're spouting?!"
"I was merely stating facts... Kyaaa!"
A strike, and now a joint lock? The way she folded the arm with smooth, flowing motions was honestly admirable.
Cold sweat trickling down her, Meng Huo still adroitly pressed on.
"Th-then what, you plan to live as a virgin your whole life?!"
"...!"
"You're already revered within the tribe as a descendant of the god, aren't you?!"
Now that was news to me. For reasons I couldn't fathom, Zhurong was apparently treated as something of a demigoddess among the Nanman.
"Keep putting on airs and you won't find a single mate until the day you die of old age—"
"Shut up!"
"Gwagagak!"
That mood-shattering scream of hers, at least, remained as reliable as ever.
"That's enough. Release her."
Left alone, the two looked set to keep this up until dawn, so I had no choice but to step in as mediator.
"I have no intention of embracing a woman against her will."
"..."
"And refusing will cost you nothing. If your heart isn't in it, withdraw."
At my words, Meng You stole furtive glances this way and that, while Zhurong — who had looked ready to split Meng Huo clean in two — heaved a deep sigh and eased out of her stance.
"...! ...!"
Lü Bu, who had been about to step forward, had long since been seized by me and was left whimpering in my grip. Breaking this hold would take a burst of rather violent force, and Lü Bu, who treasured me above all else, would never dream of such a thing. In a way, wasn't I the single most perfect binding rope Lü Bu could ask for?
As for Seo Yeo, she never moved first unless my life was in danger, so she had never once pinned anyone with her own body. Then again, I suppose she wasn't so very different from Lü Bu.
Even with me saying all this while holding Lü Bu in a somewhat ridiculous pose, Zhurong answered without a flicker of hesitation.
"...Whew. When you get right down to it, nothing you said is wrong."
"..."
"If you fancy someone, seizing them is only natural."
I waited calmly for Zhurong to continue.
"Well, then? Do you find me to your liking?"
"Hmm..."
At the question, I gave the woman called Zhurong a proper once-over. Bright red hair that called blazing flames to mind. Green eyes identical to Meng Huo's. And a beauty without a single flaw even at a casual glance. Her supple figure, yielding nothing even in comparison to Meng Huo's, was the sort to steal any man's gaze at a glance. On top of that — perhaps because she lived in a land of sweltering heat — her attire was daring in the extreme. Short of a man with truly peculiar tastes, no one alive would turn away a woman this captivating.
"Well, I do find you appealing."
"...Heh. Is that so?"
Hearing my answer, Zhurong smirked, evidently not displeased.
"Then there's only one thing to be done."
"...?!"
With that, Zhurong began stripping off her clothes without a moment's hesitation. Every person present showed their shock at the audacity.
Meng Huo's eyes sparkled as she cried out.
"That's our Zhurong! When you commit, you really commit!"
"Shut up and strip too."
"Wha—?!"
What... what on earth was happening right now?
"Z-Zhurong! Just give me a moment to steel myself...!"
"How many times have you said that now? Quiet down and get over here."
"Eek!"
Watching that chaotic scene, I managed to learn one thing: when the Nanman people take a fancy to someone, they charge in without a thought for what lies before or behind.
"Well, then? You're not the sort of coward who'd run from a feast already laid out before him, are you?"
Faced with a scene so dizzying I was afraid to describe it in detail, I had no choice but to be swept along by Zhurong's momentum. You call yourself a virgin, so why are you this bold? Is charging straight ahead, holding nothing back, the Nanman way of courtship?
...In any case, that day I contentedly devoured three chocolates.
And that includes the two desserts who had been inwardly sighing in relief, thinking, We'll be just fine.
