Inspection (3)
Beigong Boyu.
Honestly, it was an unfamiliar name.
All I knew for certain was that he was some warlord of Qiang descent. What manner of man he was, or what thoughts dwelt behind his eyes, I couldn't begin to guess.
But scarce as my information on him was, one thing was beyond dispute: a man who dared sell my name while committing every outrage under the sun was not someone I could let slide.
"Han Sui."
"Yes, General-in-Chief!"
"You really don't mind at all?"
I had marched out at the head of Wuwei's troops, taking command directly from Han Sui. The way he'd surrendered it so eagerly, as though he'd been waiting for the chance, left me a little bewildered. I'd expected at least a momentary flicker of displeasure to cross his face.
"You know what I'm going to Jincheng to do, don't you?"
"Of course, General-in-Chief."
"Then you also know that a battle is a hundred percent certainty."
"I would imagine so."
"You're about to lose men you trained with your own sweat and blood because of me—and you honestly feel nothing about that?"
To my question, Han Sui answered slowly.
"They are my soldiers, yes—but they are the General-in-Chief's soldiers as well."
...
"I have pledged my loyalty to you. How could I possibly resent your taking them?"
The man really knew how to lay on the flattery.
If he'd been born in Luoyang instead of Xiliang, this was someone who could have secured himself a seat in the imperial palace without breaking a sweat.
"They were scum I would have had to put down myself sooner or later anyway. With your permission first, of course, General-in-Chief."
"Is that so?"
"Yes. All those fools ever do is cower behind the General-in-Chief's name and indulge their own desires. That was never something I could simply sit back and watch."
With those words, Han Sui bowed respectfully at the waist.
"If anything, I feel ashamed at having handed my own duty off to my lord. I am honored, yes—but it does not sit easily with me."
...
I had no way of knowing whether those words were truly sincere, but with him being this gracious, there was nothing I could snap back at him with.
I stole a glance at Han Sui's aide-de-camp. The man wore a slack-jawed expression, as if this were the first time in his life he'd ever seen his commander behave this way.
"So what exactly does this Beigong Boyu fellow do?"
At my question, Han Sui sank into brief thought before opening his mouth.
"He is... no different from any other bandit—one who loves wealth and delights in slaughter."
"I see."
I nodded and pressed on.
"We're nearly at Jincheng, aren't we?"
"Yes. It should come into view once we clear that hill."
"Then hold here for a moment."
At my order, a puzzled look settled over Han Sui's face.
"Is something the matter?"
"I intend to see for myself whether that bastard really is selling my name and making the people's lives miserable."
Jumping straight to a conclusion after hearing only one side of the story would be hasty.
Han Sui seemed to grasp my intent, and he folded into a respectful cupped-fist salute.
"Understood. We shall wait here, then. Please take care of yourself, General-in-Chief."
"Right."
With that, I left Han Sui's soldiers behind, and after riding on for a short while, a city rose into view in the distance.
"Lü Bu."
"Yeah?"
I struck up a conversation with her as I rode.
"Does Han Sui strike you as someone who's lying?"
"Nope? Didn't seem like a liar to me."
Lü Bu, who had been watching me, shook her head as she answered. Judging by her manner, Han Sui hadn't lied to me after all. With instincts as sharp as hers, Lü Bu could separate truth from falsehood to an almost uncanny degree. If Han Sui had fed me a false report, she certainly wouldn't have kept quiet about it.
"Then Beigong Boyu really is the problem, huh."
After all, Beigong Boyu was one of those who had submitted to me out of sheer terror—so surely, at the very least, he wouldn't turn me away at his own gate. In that case, I could simply ride into the city and judge things with my own eyes.
"I hope Han Sui was telling the truth."
If his words were true, then Beigong Boyu would lose his head, and the matter would end right there. But what if Beigong Boyu wasn't the cause of it all? What if Han Sui was simply mistaken, and the true culprit lay elsewhere?
In that case, my stay in Xiliang would drag on even longer. And the scolding waiting for me when I returned to Luoyang would stretch out along with it.
That part, I could do without.
Lost in thought as I rode, I arrived before Jincheng's gates before I knew it. Guards stood at their posts through the open city gate, but something about the sight was distinctly off. Slouching stances and sour faces. Armor slung carelessly over their shoulders, and rust-eaten weapons to match.
I began to doubt these were truly the men assigned to guard the gate at all. And when one of them looked me over and opened his mouth, my doubts only multiplied.
"Hey! You must be new around here! Anyone coming in pays the toll first!"
...?
What in the world is wrong with these bastards?
"And if you're short on coin, I don't mind borrowing those pretty ladies of yours for a while!"
At the guard's filthy leer, Lü Bu drew up close beside me.
"Can I kill him?"
"Hold on just a moment."
"Fine."
At my restraint, Lü Bu nodded and fell back a step. I rode my horse up toward that guard.
"Hey."
"Huh? What?"
"You truly can't tell who I am?"
"Why would I recognize some ugly pile of horse dung like you?"
The guard sneered at me, and the others nearby roared with laughter along with him.
How novel. This is the first time since my rebirth that anyone has treated me like this.
"I don't know where you crawled in from or what you do, but we couldn't care less about any of that."
...
"Oh? You know who stands behind us? The General-in-Chief, that's who! The General-in-Chief!"
That General-in-Chief would be me.
Now I was genuinely curious just how far this fool would take it.
When I said nothing and simply listened, the guard only grew bolder, shouting with full swagger.
"What's the matter, cat got your tongue? Scared stiff now that you've heard the words 'General-in-Chief'?"
...
"And that stiff neck of yours has been rubbing me the wrong way this whole time. Get down off that horse, you little—"
No sooner had the words left his mouth than the guard, spear shaft raised to jab at me, went wide-eyed as saucers.
The arm holding the spear went spinning through the air.
"Wha...?"
...
I turned to find Seo Yeo behind me, the Chu Heaven Sword drawn, her expression so grim it made the backs of my knees go weak.
"AAAAAAGH!!"
Finally grasping what had happened, the guard clutched at the stump where his arm had been and shrieked. Watching the scene unfold, I clicked my tongue.
"If you're going to sing 'General-in-Chief' like a mantra, you might at least learn what the man looks like."
"Wh-what are you..."
While the one-armed guard was still screaming, another beside him turned his gaze on me. And in that same moment, one of the armless man's ankles was lopped clean off by Seo Yeo.
"She seems to be quite angry."
If I told her to stop, she would. But I didn't particularly feel like stopping her.
"It's laughable enough that he's running wild under a name he borrowed without asking. But failing to recognize the very general he was milking it from? What exactly does that make him?"
...!
At my words, the guard finally understood who stood before him, and the color drained from his face. When even the gate guards were in this state, there was no longer any need to enter the city at all.
"Hey."
"Y-yes, sir!"
The guard whose limbs had gone flying at Seo Yeo's hand eventually died of shock, unable to endure the pain and the blood loss.
"If you want to keep living, go find that Beigong whatever-his-name is and tell him to run over here. Now."
"Yes, sir!"
With that answer, the guard bolted off in a stumbling, gasping sprint.
Seo Yeo sheathed the Chu Heaven Sword and returned to my side, and I spoke to her.
"Feeling a little calmer now?"
"...Yes."
The guards she had personally cut down lay half-drowned in a pool of their own blood.
...Best not to look too closely. I'd thought myself adjusted to most things by now, but that was pushing it.
Drawn by the commotion, the other guards came running, and the gruesome tableau Seo Yeo had left behind turned their faces a sickly green. A few doubled over and gagged at the sight of the corpses. Every last one of them stared at us with fear written across their features, none daring to come near.
"Tch. I wanted to do it."
Lü Bu, having ceded her turn to Seo Yeo, grumbled with a discontented pout.
"Don't worry about it."
"Huh?"
"An opportunity to work it out of your system will come along soon enough."
At my words, Lü Bu's expression eased ever so slightly.
"Well, in that case, fine by me."
As we passed the time near the gate waiting for Beigong Boyu, a man came sprinting toward us from the distance.
"I beg your forgiveness, General-in-Chief!"
The man, who had been running with a box clamped under one arm, dropped to his knees the instant he reached me and thrust the box forward.
"What's this?"
"The head of the imbecile who failed to recognize the General-in-Chief!"
When the man flipped the lid open, inside sat the severed head of the very guard I had sent to fetch him.
A slight frown creased my face.
"Throw it away."
"I beg your pardon?"
"I said, throw it away."
"F-forgive me!"
Sensing the ominous air, the man flung the box aside and pressed his forehead flat against the ground. The guard's head tumbled from the discarded box and rolled across the dirt.
Was it simply because he'd gotten off on the wrong foot? Nothing the man did looked good to me anymore.
"You're that Beigong what's-his-name, aren't you?"
"Yes! That's me!"
I had mangled his name on purpose, yet the man took it calmly, without a hint of offense.
Well, at least he had some sense about him.
Smiling, I drew closer to Beigong Boyu.
"Right. Let's leave the matter of the guards for later. Shall we have a different conversation instead?"
"Wh-what sort of conversation, may I ask?"
Beigong Boyu answered me, trembling like a leaf.
"You see, I crossed paths with an awful lot of bandits on my way here."
...
"Did you turn those bastards loose?"
At my question, the trembling drained right out of Beigong Boyu's face, leaving it frozen stiff.
I had my answer.