Taking Stock (1)
"...Are they done? They've stopped staring, right?"
"Yeah."
Liu Pi, who had bolted from the city gate to the heart of Luoyang in a blind scramble, finally let out a sigh of relief.
"Holy shit, I honestly thought I was about to die. What the hell was with that look in their eyes?"
She had been walking the whole way with her guard up, minding every glance around her — and yet at some point, her eyes had met someone else's.
She couldn't say why.
How to put it — as though drawn by something, her gaze had simply drifted upward on its own.
......
The person she had locked eyes with cut a truly striking figure.
Uniquely black hair, the kind said to be nearly impossible to find anywhere under heaven outside the imperial family — and, paradoxically, a pair of brown eyes that proved he was no royalty at all.
"Goo-goo!"
...And the two babies cradled in his arms, to boot.
The distance was too great to hear whatever sounds the infants were making, but she imagined the reaction had gone something like that.
Even at a glance, the man clearly held no ordinary office, and there he sat, perched atop the city wall, watching them the entire time.
Yes — watching them, with fearsome warriors at his side, the sort whose mere glare would make an ordinary soldier's knees buckle.
Liu Pi shook her head and muttered,
"What in the world do they even do in this place?"
Truth be told, there were plenty of warriors more skilled than she was.
Gwan Hae, already somewhere in Luoyang, for one — and then there was the ruler of Yanzhou, the province right next door to Ye; even watched from a distance, that woman had clearly outclassed her.
Mmmh...! One glimpse of a strong opponent and I just itch to cross blades with her...!
Stay put. I told you not to touch that army.
She still remembered how exhausting it had been, back then, to calm that hunk of muscle beside her before it lunged.
Call it instinct, but had she left the lump to its own devices, it would very likely have met its end.
It would have died a pathetic death without ever getting close to the woman called Cao Cao.
None of them feared death — but a meaningless dog's death was another matter entirely.
Warriors of that caliber were a dime a dozen, really.
The world was vast; how could it not hold such people?
And yet the generals she had just laid eyes on were a different breed altogether.
......
Beings that seemed to have stepped a few paces clean beyond humanity.
That four such monstrous generals had gathered in a single place was shock enough to stagger Liu Pi.
It felt shameful to even think it, but against those ones, victory seemed possible only by refusing a head-on clash on the battlefield and resorting to every means at hand — betrayal, assassination, whatever worked.
"Hey, muscle hunk. Not raving about your blood boiling this time?"
Recalling how He Man always tried to charge like a wild boar at the sight of any strong general, Liu Pi tossed out the jab.
His reaction, however, was astonishing.
"What — comrade? Whatever are you saying right now?"
"Huh?"
"I know you cannot stand me, but there are limits. How could you tell me to go and die?"
He Man spoke as though genuinely wounded.
"Truly, that is too cruel. My heart aches terribly as we speak."
"......"
Why was he suddenly acting like the only sensible man alive?
Had his sanity, having run away from home under the shock, finally wandered back?
Watching them cure that muscle hunk's personality disorder, those people really were something else.
Just as Liu Pi was thinking this, He Yi, standing nearby, spoke up.
"This time, he is right. The fault was yours."
"...And how is this my fault?"
At that, Liu Pi's eyes went round, but the old man only shook his head.
"You were about to throw an ordinary man at a monster. Was that reaction not only natural?"
"......"
Calling to mind how those two usually behaved, Liu Pi could feel nothing but wronged.
Just then, a familiar voice drifted over from nearby.
"For all the racket you kicked up, you all came through remarkably intact."
"Huh?"
The woman who currently possessed the greatest martial strength among the Yellow Turban remnants heaved a long sigh.
Gwan Hae, who had entered Luoyang one step ahead of them, continued in a level, unhurried tone.
"For the time being, you will need to live as quiet as dead mice."
"...Is it really that serious?"
"Yes."
Having answered Liu Pi's question, Gwan Hae let her gaze drift casually over their surroundings.
......
Countless eyes, watching from among the commoners, from the mouths of secluded alleys.
Whether they had been posted there deliberately, she couldn't begin to tell — but someone was keeping the group under surveillance.
So this was Luoyang, capital of the Han, was it?
It felt like a warning: the moment any of them tried something foolish, their heads would leave their shoulders.
It would be a lie to claim she felt no pressure under these conditions.
But she had once lived through something far worse, and so she could take it in stride.
"Hey. Who even are you, and why are you scurrying after me?"
Hair and eyes red as though soaked in blood.
The general known as Peerless Under Heaven had leveled a weapon at her throat with a speed Liu Pi's own eyes couldn't even register, and said:
"Come along quietly."
......
"Refuse, and you die?"
Having taken that monstrous killing intent head-on, she had found she could laugh off almost anything since.
Gwan Hae, who had visited Luoyang once in the past, smiled easily as she spoke.
"You must be hungry after such a long walk. Let's get some food into you first — the rest can wait."
"...Fine by me."
Having stayed cooped up in Ye Province all this while, the group knew nothing of Luoyang, and so they simply trotted along at Gwan Hae's heels.
"Wow. It actually worked."
It had been a few days since I sent Zhang Liao out on campaign.
I couldn't help marveling at the news that she had seized the whole of Ye Province without fighting a single battle.
Apparently, the moment her army crossed into Ye Province, it ran into some bandit horde and traded blows — but with our side suffering not a single casualty, it hardly deserved the name of a battle.
From what I heard, Zhang Liao took point herself and simply drove the cavalry straight through them, and the bandits were swept away like dry leaves.
Only natural; no one expects mere bandits to have proper training or quality equipment.
Those bandits had done nothing but pad our officers' merit ledgers.
Truly the Giving Trees of our age.
Please, in your next lives, live honestly and leave other people alone.
After the bandits were dealt with, the campaign was uneventful.
Gong Ju, the Inspector of Ye Province, flung his city gates open and surrendered almost before his troops had finished marching them up to the walls.
Yu Chong, the Prince of Chen, spent a brief while radiating a distinctly dangerous air, but after a single round of talks with Zhang Liao, he pulled his army back.
The Yellow Turbans who had been running wild across Ye Province went quiet, and the only two powers in the region with any name to them — the Inspector and the Prince of Chen — made no move whatsoever.
Once matters flowed this far, there was only one gesture left for the magnates scattered across Ye Province to make toward me.
Submission.
The clans of Ye Province, who had barred their gates tight and done nothing but watch the wind, judged that the tide had turned in our favor and came flooding in with letters and treasure of every description, each swearing its loyalty.
On the heels of Yi Province, we had swallowed even Ye Province whole without a real fight.
Just thinking about it made my mouth water.
...But what on earth had those two talked about, that Yu Chong withdrew so meekly?
No matter how I turned it over, I couldn't picture it.
I'd have to pry it out of Zhang Liao at my leisure once she arrived.
Having tidied up my thoughts with a shake of the head, I looked over at Zhuge Liang standing nearby.
"......"
Zhuge Liang was buried in thought, staring hard at a stack of documents — and even at a glance, her expression said she was wrestling with something.
I crept up carefully behind her and spoke.
"...What are you working on, that has you this absorbed?"
"Byaak?!"
Oh. Now that was a proper start.
A scream I had never heard from her before.
When I made my entrance by sliding my head in over her shoulder, Zhuge Liang scrambled backward with the face of someone who had just seen a ghost.
Having retreated a few steps, she flushed red, cleared her throat, and asked,
"M-my lord. What, ah, business brings you here so suddenly...?"
"Just checking what you were up to."
Still, I hadn't expected her to jump like that. Surprising.
Had some serious matter arisen that I knew nothing of?
As though she had read the question in my eyes, Zhuge Liang slyly slid the documents behind her back.
"It is nothing at all. There is no need to worry yourself."
"Really?"
"Yes."
Watching that reaction, I said,
"For it being nothing, there's a rather suspicious list in those papers..."
"......"
At my words, her eyes trembled — just slightly — and I narrowed mine a fraction and pressed on.
"...It truly is nothing?"
"Yes."
"Truly, really nothing?"
"That is so."
"Truly, truly, really nothing?"
"......My lord."
Busted. She'd caught me teasing her.
Sharp as ever, that mind of hers.
I reached out and stroked the hair of Zhuge Liang, who was wearing a faintly sulky expression.
"All right. If you say so, I ought to believe you."
"......"
"But don't shoulder all of it alone. Keep that up, and something will break."
After all, even in the original history, Zhuge Liang was the one who had propped up Shu Han right up until overwork killed her.
Sima Yi, at least, knew how to slack off when the load grew heavy — but Zhuge Liang never would, and that was exactly what worried me.
...And no, that wasn't me badmouthing Sima Yi, so don't get the wrong idea.
Pang Tong, for her part, pleads busy-ness with her books and such, but she is quite devoted to her leisure time.
If I had to name the single hardest worker among my little strategists, there would be no contest: Zhuge Liang, and only Zhuge Liang.
I gave her small head a couple of light pats and said, in a tone that brooked no argument,
"If you ever look worn to the bone, I will force you to rest. Remember that."
"...Yes, my lord. I will keep it firmly in mind."
At my words, Zhuge Liang bowed her head low.