Nanman (14)
Some time had passed since the tiny strategists had thrown themselves into the census in earnest. They gathered information from the local residents, then fanned the soldiers out to verify that what they heard was accurate. Ordinarily they would have had to comb every last corner of this vast Nanman territory, but with Pang Tong taking the lead in unearthing documents that recorded land holdings and household registries, the labor had grown far lighter.
The capture of Oldolgol at Luofengpo had been much the same story — it seemed the true worth of the Fledgling Phoenix was finally beginning to show.
"Uuuughh…"
Of course, now that the weather had turned properly hot, she still couldn't so much as twitch from her seat. So the phoenix and the vermilion bird really were different species after all.
"The census is more or less finished, so we should head back now."
"Right."
About a week passed like that, and then Sima Yi, the survey complete, folded her arms and spoke. Hearing that brusque voice, I gave a small laugh — same as ever, I thought.
"…Why are you suddenly laughing?"
Naturally, Sima Yi had noticed, and she asked while narrowing her eyes ever so slightly.
I fielded the question with practiced ease.
"Just because."
"There you go again with the random remarks…"
It was undeniably random, so I didn't bother offering anything further.
"Well, since the survey's done, shall we get moving?"
I murmured it as I rose from my seat. The soldiers had surely had their fill of rest by now. Too long a break, after all, could backfire and leave them soft. There had once been a general who threw a lavish feast intending to lure the enemy into attacking, only for his own men — lulled by the unbroken revelry — to grow genuinely complacent and lose the battle. A sorry affair indeed. We weren't at war with anyone at the moment, but there was no harm in staying sharp.
If there was one thing worth noting, though…
"My lord! I will follow behind you whenever you call!"
"…I'm ready to go too."
…that the Meng Huo sisters and Zhurong, who had spent the night with me, had already packed up their things.
Sima Yi, who had been watching all of this from nearby, asked the question that practically demanded asking.
"…Meng Huo I can understand, since she holds an official post, but you're seriously planning to take those two as well?"
"Think about it from Meng Huo's side of things — she'd be leaving for a foreign country all on her own. Naturally I should bring others along so she isn't lonely."
When I explained in a perfectly matter-of-fact voice, Sima Yi pressed on without missing a beat.
"Then who's going to govern Nanzhong?"
"We can leave it to the other talents who surrendered to me."
People like King Mulu, King Duosi, and Oldolgol. None of them had struck me as the type to stab me in the back, so there was little cause for worry.
"Hmmm…"
Having heard me out, Sima Yi let out a single skeptical snort.
"Is that really all there is to it?"
"Er, yeah?"
What on earth was she aiming at with that question? …She couldn't have caught on, could she?
"Hic!"
Doing my utmost to ignore Meng You — who had started hiccuping out of her own guilty conscience — I answered as evenly as I could.
"Of course. You don't honestly think I'd lie to you?"
"You already have."
"……"
So she had noticed something had happened between us. Fair enough — assuming I could pull the wool over Sima Yi's eyes had been arrogance itself. Unable to guess what was going on behind those eyes of hers, I broke into a faint sweat.
Just then, Sima Yi heaved a deep sigh.
"Haaah… It's no business of mine, so whatever mess follows, you can clean it up yourself."
"……"
At those words, a familiar figure flashed through my mind. A beauty with raven hair and obsidian eyes, who held the most exalted station under heaven. …The moment I got home, I'd be sitting down to a private audience with Her Majesty the Emperor whether I liked it or not. For days on end, she probably wouldn't let me out of her arms. Her Majesty had consented to my adding women to my life, but that possessiveness of hers hadn't gone anywhere.
Was this vicious streak something she'd inherited from her mother, Empress Dowager He? I had never witnessed it myself, but considering the Dowager's temperament — the woman who had eliminated Emperor Ling's consorts one after another — the possibility seemed more than real. Not that the Dowager had done it out of love for Emperor Ling; power was the likelier motive. I would have to look after Her Majesty carefully, so she never went astray the way her own mother had. After all, everyone who served in the imperial palace knew full well that Her Majesty did not flinch at the sight of blood.
"Ah — as for Yuan Shu's corpse, have it torn to ribbons and dumped in the forest."
"…Your Majesty?"
"We boiled him in rolling water, so the wild beasts should find him to their taste — surely they won't refuse meat that comes already cooked."
Execution by Boiling had not been enough for her — she had ordered the body erased without leaving so much as a trace. Her Majesty's cruelty was enough to make even me click my tongue. Then again, Yuan Shu had no one to blame for such treatment but himself. What on earth gave a man destined to die begging for honeyed water the confidence to proclaim himself Emperor — I still had no idea.
At any rate, it genuinely worried me how the Han would run without me. There was no one else who could ride the brakes on Her Majesty. Which was exactly why I'd lately been taking every medicine Hua Tuo handed me and minding my health. Beyond that, I had also taken up the Five Animal Frolics, a set of exercises modeled on the postures of animals… and since the whole point was imitating animals, there was no helping how ridiculous I looked doing it.
"Pfft! You're not a newborn — why are you crawling around on all fours?!"
Lü Bu had once burst out laughing at the sight of me imitating the animals exactly as the book described. Of course, I was hardly the man to let that slide. I pounced on her right in the middle of her cackling.
"Behold — the bear embracing the tree!"
"Hyaaak?!"
Even the Peerless Under Heaven couldn't so much as squirm once I had her in a crushing hug. And that, right there, is justice in action.
"…Master."
"Hm?"
"I, too, am standing like a tree right now."
"……"
Let us quietly overlook the fact that Seo Yeo, watching this bewildering spectacle, had made a small claim of her own.
Just as I was lost in these old memories, my aide came up and called out.
"General-in-Chief! Preparations for the march are complete!"
"Oh?"
I watched the aide draw near and offer a respectful salute, then gave a single nod.
"Everything's finished, so let's head home. You've all worked hard."
"This much was nothing at all!"
Bursting with energy, that one. At least no one looked likely to fall behind, I thought with a wry smile. And so began the long march once more — back through Yi Province, all the way to Luoyang.
It was around the time Jeong Reung had only just set the army in motion and was directing his troops.
"…Honestly, there's nothing about this I like."
The violet-haired strategist, arms crossed and eyes fixed hard on one spot, murmured in a small voice. They say that beautiful flowers inevitably draw their share of insects, and no saying fit the present situation better. The one problem was that she did not even rank among those insects. She was still nothing more than a larva, waiting inside her chrysalis for the day it would take wing.
"Wasn't it said that even the Emperor was wed at twenty — the traditional age of adulthood?"
Seen from that angle, the General-in-Chief was a strange man himself. Had he set his mind to it, he could have wed the Emperor the moment her coming-of-age rites were done; that he had instead gone out of his way to wait five more years struck her as truly peculiar. Was it simply a matter of taste? Or was there something else at work — something even he himself did not understand?
"Phew…"
Sima Yi heaved a long sigh as her thoughts ran on. To think the day would come when she, of all people, would agonize over this. Surely she was not the only one nursing a heartache over the General-in-Chief's standards — firm, if nothing else. It was moments like these that made her resent how young she still was.
"Let's see, now… how much time remains to me…"
Fan in hand — the violet one the General-in-Chief had given her — Sima Yi counted the years, then fell silent.
"……"
A full four years. By her own projections, even after the realm was unified, a long stretch of time would still remain, spread out before her eyes. There was no telling how the ranks of her rivals would swell across those four years.
…Still, things could be worse. She could be that insufferable white-haired brat. That child was forever spouting one grating remark after another — it's all going according to my plan and the like — yet at moments like these, Sima Yi almost pitied her. Had the brat heard her, she'd have snapped back furiously: a mere two years apart, and already playing the grown-up. But what could you do? If it galled her that much, the only answer was to be born sooner.
"…Four years, then."
A long span, if you called it that — but a span one could wait out. If she knew nothing else, she knew how to lower herself and bide her time better than anyone. Had the General-in-Chief — who knew better than anyone who history's final victor had been — overheard, it was an argument he would have nodded along to.
Cao Cao, Cao Pi, Cao Rui, Cao Fang. A man who, pressed into service by Cao Cao in his late twenties, had gone on to serve the Cao clan across no fewer than four generations before finally seizing state power in the Incident at the Gaoping Tombs. The Wolf-like Glare, wasn't that what it was called? A wary wolf, they say, will shadow its prey for days before striking without hesitation at the single most perfect moment. Whether that hunt would end in success, only heaven could know.
"…Hm? What's this?"
"What's wrong?"
Jeong Reung shuddered, seized by a chill he couldn't explain.
"Dunno. Just a weird feeling all of a sudden."
"…?"
At those cryptic words, Lü Bu could only tilt her head.