The Hunt (3)
I had succeeded in bringing down a massive stag so that Her Majesty the Emperor could keep her dignity intact. The arrows she used on hunting excursions fairly dripped with nobility—anyone could recognize them at a glance, so the courtiers had no trouble telling whose they were.
"Long live Her Majesty the Emperor!"
Thanks to that, the courtiers, convinced that the stag I had killed was the Emperor's own kill, kept erupting into fresh cheers. That said, it wasn't as though every last one of them had failed to witness me loosing the arrow.
"……Long live Her Majesty the Emperor!"
The very courtiers who had been fluttering at the Emperor's side, attending to her every need. They, too, worried that Her Majesty might lose face over failing to bag a single kill, and so they shrewdly joined the marching chorus of cheers.
And that, right there, is the art of social survival. Well… if things went sideways, she might fly into a rage, demanding to know whether they took her for a fool—but the Majesty I knew was not that sort.
"……Hmm."
See? Even now, still unable to process the sudden turn of events, she was wearing a perfectly dazed expression. And as a bonus, I stood to earn fine marks with the officials of the imperial faction, so everyone came out ahead. Now, if I could just succeed at bagging another beast, the picture would be complete.
Nodding to myself, I waited for the cheers to die down, then began drawing my bowstring once more. Thwip! And the arrow I loosed, as though nothing had ever happened, plunged into the ground yet again.
……
What was this? Had my ancestors' blessing deserted me? Well, if we're being pedantic about the timeline, I suppose I'd technically be the same generation as those ancestors anyway….
"Kreeeak."
Just then, a deer that had been watching my arrow bury itself in the dirt let out a cry. A coat of white straight out of a legend. Bright, gleaming black eyes. A white deer beautiful enough that anyone who saw it would call it lovely was staring right at me.
…Don't tell me it just laughed at me?
They say a deer's call differs greatly from species to species. Some bellow a deep "Uuooong," while others let out a piercing "Kweeeek."
"Kreeeak."
And the white deer standing before me now possessed a truly peculiar cry.
"Kreek. Kreek. Kreeeak."
It was no door swinging open and shut, yet it just kept creaking away. So it really was laughing at me. What on earth possessed it to provoke me like this? Well, if it wanted me to glare at it, glare at it I would.
"Oh, you're in for it now."
…?
As I muttered to myself and drew the bowstring once more, Seo Yeo—who had been devoted to her guard duty nearby—tilted her head. The hunt had only just begun.
How many hours had passed like that?
"Wow, this thing is seriously good at dodging."
Chasing hard after the white deer, I couldn't help but let the words slip out. Fine—beasts are fast, that much I could accept. But the way it wove its line of flight this way and that was pure artistry. It didn't have eyes in the back of its head, so how was it cutting direction at such absurdly perfect timing?
Considering that uncanny footwork and how it had mocked me mere moments ago, the odds were good that this was a spirit creature. Its very appearance—that exceedingly rare white coat—was evidence enough.
"…Honestly, wouldn't it be easier to just ride a fast horse after it and finish it with one cut?"
It had gotten bad enough that even Lü Bu, who had been trotting faithfully at my heels, was saying it. Hearing her out, I shook my head.
"If I caught it that way, it wouldn't count as catching it at all."
……
"This is a matter of pride."
"…Uh, yeah."
At my flat, decisive tone, Lü Bu conceded with a bemused look. Besides, the moment I picked up speed to run it down, I had a feeling the thing would simply run faster still. Like Seo Yeo's Ochyma, Lü Bu's Red Hare, or the red ox Meng Huo rode everywhere, spirit creatures were uniformly blessed with extraordinary gifts.
And what did that mean? It meant the thing was still going easy on me, humoring me even now. To be this leisurely with its very life on the line…. This beast had mastered exactly one art: how to get under a man's skin. And there was ironclad proof of it.
"Kreeeak."
When I slowed my pace, the white deer slowed its own, never once slipping from my sight.
"Kreek. Kreek."
And that maddening cry. If it was producing that sound deliberately, like a parrot mimicking speech, I'd have been more than happy to commend it for it. Call it a hunch, but I suspected that even if I gave up and withdrew now, the thing would follow me the whole way, taunting me with that infuriating cry. People of old revered white deer as deeply sacred creatures—but looking at this one, it was nothing more than a delinquent.
"…Want me to take it down for you?"
"No."
At her offer, I shook my head at once. No question, Lü Bu could ride Red Hare after it and take its head in a single stroke—but this was a matter of a man's pride. Even in defeat, I could not accept another's help. …Wait, was that thing even male? It had antlers growing from its head, so presumably. Either way, those antlers were destined for the medicine pot.
Giving the white deer—still lingering stubbornly within my sight—one more glance, I turned to Lü Bu.
"Stay right there and watch. I'll bring it down right now."
"…All right."
Lü Bu, who ordinarily nodded along to my every word, wore an expression that plainly said she couldn't quite bring herself to believe me this time. Honestly, I said watch. Somewhere along the line, I had ended up locked in an ugly contest of pride with a white deer, ignoring every other beast in the field as I chased that one alone.
Having been treated to a round of resounding cheers, the Emperor caught sight of a curious spectacle unfolding nearby and murmured.
"Hmm… so that is a White Deer—a deer whose coat is white as snow."
A deer said to be born, only on the rarest of occasions, with snow-white fur. A precious spirit creature that even hunters who spent their entire lives in the mountains might glimpse but once or twice had revealed itself on the imperial hunting grounds.
The Emperor turned her head and put a question to the official who kept the hunting grounds.
"Were you aware a White Deer dwelled here?"
"I-I, too, am beholding a white-furred deer for the first time in my life."
"I see."
The Emperor, gifted with a keen talent for detecting falsehood, could tell that her official spoke nothing but the truth. A beast that even the man who had managed these grounds for over a decade had never once laid eyes on. And now that cunning creature had chosen this very moment to appear before the General-in-Chief, flaunting its very existence. Was this not a rather intriguing turn of events? The Emperor found herself sinking into curiosity over just what the white deer's appearance might signify.
"Hahaha! This is, without question, a most auspicious omen."
Just then, an elderly man nearby offered a modest chuckle. This was the man who, together with Sima Hui, had named Zhuge Liang the 'Sleeping Dragon' and Pang Tong the 'Fledgling Phoenix.'
The Emperor turned to the old man and asked.
"An auspicious omen, you say?"
"Indeed."
Pang Degong—a man strong-armed into court service by the General-in-Chief's relentless pressure—stroked his splendid beard and went on.
"According to the Classic of Mountains and Seas, a deer of pure white hue shows itself only before those of virtuous heart and utmost filial devotion."
The Classic of Mountains and Seas—a tome that catalogued every geography under heaven, down to the very beasts one would expect to find only in fantasy. The old man, who had mastered that text, could not hide his smile at the rare sight before his eyes.
"They say all who behold a White Deer are granted great fortune and long life. How could anyone witness such a thing and call it anything but a good omen?"
……
"First that old man performing bizarre sorcery the other day, and now this—the world has been full of marvels of late."
Even back in the days when he had lived in the mountains gathering herbs, he said, he had never once seen a White Deer—and Pang Degong kept right on chuckling.
"U-Uncle… d-didn't you say you wouldn't do anything that drew too much attention…?"
"Ah."
At Pang Tong's fretful words, he stopped laughing at once—but the damage had already been done. Pang Degong, who delighted in likening people to animals, simply could not let a question concerning beasts pass him by. He clamped his mouth shut too late; he had already left a deep impression on everyone around him.
The Emperor flashed a smile at Pang Degong—the man who had just rated her consort so highly—and spoke.
"It would seem there is work that befits you after all."
"Haaah…."
Pang Degong knew all too well that the deeper the impression a talent left, the heavier the workload that followed—and the color drained from his face.
…Even now, the General-in-Chief was diligently chasing the white deer that mocked him with its bizarre cries, drawing his bowstring again and again.
One courtier who had been watching him offered the Emperor a word of counsel.
"Your Majesty, it has been said since ancient times that to hunt a spirit creature is to invite divine punishment."
……
"Even now, it would be wise to restrain the General-in-Chief…."
"Do you still not understand?"
Before the courtier could even finish, the Emperor replied in a level voice.
"You saw for yourself how the General-in-Chief loosed his arrow but a moment ago."
"That was…."
The sight of him skewering a stag's head in a single shot the instant he was handed the Emperor's arrows. To strike a deer at full gallop from horseback—where even holding one's stance was a struggle—was a feat beyond the reach of most seasoned generals. So why would a man like that pretend he could not hit his mark? The reason was simple. He was sparing her feelings, lest she lose heart over her own lacking archery.
The Emperor gazed at the General-in-Chief with eyes brimming with affection.
"He is merely trying to frighten that White Deer away, nothing more."
……
"A man who has felled every manner of ferocious beast since his days in his homeland—do you truly think he cannot draw a bow?"
Had Jeong Reung overheard this exchange, he would have jolted upright in alarm, demanding to know what on earth she was talking about.