Return (4)
It was deep into the night, the hour when well-behaved children ought to be drifting off to sleep. Having spent the entire day going from place to place announcing that Zhuge Liang would be resting for the time being, I made the little strategist's home my final errand.
"You've come, my lord."
"That's right."
Though I couldn't have told you why, it felt like an awfully long time since I'd last seen her. Facing Zhuge Jin—Zhuge Liang's elder sister—I entered the house without the slightest difficulty despite the late hour. We had already discussed this matter beforehand, so there was no fuss to speak of. Zhuge Jin, I was told, had been quietly fretting over her sister, who never seemed to take a moment's rest. Well, in that case, was there any need to say more? I had no trouble at all seeing eye to eye with the kind-hearted sister who worried for her little sibling.
With steady steps I made my way over, and there before Zhuge Liang's door stood a familiar figure.
"My lord."
"Has everything been quiet?"
"Yes."
Zhao Yun, Zilong. A general said to excel in both letters and arms, with a flawless character to boot—quite possibly the least divisive commander in all of the Three Kingdoms. And on top of that, one whose very name was impossibly cool.
Changshan Zhao Zilong.
It was nothing more than a birthplace and a name strung together, and yet there was something in it that struck a chord deep in a man's heart. Though the Zhao Yun of this world, for her part, found being called that mortifying.
Just try to imagine it: Liu Bei hailed as "Liu Xuande of Zhuo Commandery," or Cao Cao as "Cao Mengde of Pei." Awkwardness aside, doesn't that come out a little funny? Apply that same rule to me and I'd be "Jeong Hwahyeon of Shangdang."
...Yeah. Definitely weird.
Anyway, I nodded to Zhao Yun, who carried herself with an air much like Guan Yu's, as always.
"Good. In that case, I had better check for myself."
"By 'check,' you mean...?"
I flashed a sly grin.
"It's late. If the strategist had actually listened to me, she'd have been asleep ages ago. And if she'd been cute about it and cooked up a little scheme, she'd be secretly working right about now."
And I put the odds heavily on the latter. People's habits aren't the sort of thing that changes easily, after all. If she were the kind of girl who'd reform just because I told her to, I'd never have needed to order a forced vacation in the first place.
Under the gazes of Seo Yeo and Zhao Yun, I eased the door open and leaned my upper body through the gap.
...
Contrary to her cool, composed impression, Zhao Yun apparently couldn't contain her curiosity either; from the other side of the doorway she poked her head in to peer about the room. And so the two of us, surveying that room, beheld it:
Zhuge Liang, squirming about beneath a blanket thrown over her head like a dumpling.
...
Hm. She looked exactly like I had as a kid, sneaking my phone under the covers. There was a time when I, too, believed I wouldn't get caught doing that.
Just as I caught onto Zhuge Liang's very childish line of thinking and laughed to myself, the dumpling before my eyes gave a violent flinch.
"Eep...!"
Our eyes had met. She'd been so sure she hadn't been caught—and all the while, someone had already been watching her... Put in her position, it was frightening enough. The sight of Zhuge Liang jumping clean out of her skin the instant her eyes met mine was a rare treasure indeed.
Because there was exactly one expression Zhuge Liang ever wore for other people: a leisurely smile, the lower half of her face hidden behind her White Feather Fan. That unreadable smile, paired with her brilliant mind, had led more than a few people to call her an unsettling girl. But setting the suspicious smiling aside, she treated everyone with courtesy and deference, so her relationships were hardly bad.
...Of course, with the purple-haired little strategist, she got along like a sworn blood enemy.
The moment my eyes met Zhuge Liang's, I spoke in a level voice.
"What are you doing up at this hour?"
"That is..."
"Aha. Say no more."
Having said that much, I nodded to myself.
"You were working, weren't you?"
"..."
When I smiled like a murderer straight out of a horror film, Zhuge Liang flinched all over again.
And so, once that whole noisy episode had run its course, I finished every last preparation and set off for Luoyang. The road from Jiangdong to the capital could by no stretch of the word be called short, but mercifully, nothing out of the ordinary happened along the way. The past few days of hunting down the bandit gangs and Shanyue tribes in the vicinity with our eyes ablaze had paid off, it seemed. Not that any fool would have picked a fight with an army of this colossal scale even had we left them be.
Just then, Lü Bu, standing nearby, stretched and spoke up.
"Aaah... We're finally heading home."
Watching her reaction, I asked evenly,
"That happy about it?"
"Of course I'm happy!"
Scarcely had the words left my mouth before Lü Bu answered in a ringing voice.
"Every night the second it gets dark, I start thinking about our little girl and I can't sleep a wink?!"
...
"Ugh... She barely touches her food when I'm not around. How is she even getting by...?"
They really had become proper parents. I was fairly sure my own mother had once muttered something very much the same. Looking at Lü Bu like that, I couldn't help but wear a wry smile—a parent worrying over their child was only natural, after all.
If I asked her right now, "Who do you like better—me, or Yeo Hwa?"—Lü Bu would tremble to the very depths of her eyes and fail to give any answer at all. ...That scene would be plenty entertaining too, but out of consideration for Lü Bu's mental well-being, I would refrain.
And so I pressed onward, crossing the vast expanse of the Yangtze, passing through Jingzhou and Yuzhou until we reached Sili Province, and at last entered Luoyang to the warm welcome of the people along the road.
"The Grand General has returned! Report it to Her Majesty at once!"
"Sir!"
The moment they laid eyes on me, the Imperial Guards keeping watch over Luoyang lit up with delight—now, what could the reason for that be? Only two people in this world could put the squeeze on the elite force guarding the Emperor in Luoyang: one was the Grand General, supreme commander of the Han central army, and the other was, quite naturally, Her Majesty the Emperor herself, the very person those guards were sworn to protect. And the Grand General—that is to say, I—had been off enjoying myself in Jiangdong. Which meant the suspect narrowed itself down to exactly one.
...
...Why, though? What could our Emperor possibly be so dissatisfied with this time, that she was taking her moods out on everyone around her? If the Imperial Guards, whose sole duty nearby was escort work, were this rattled, the officials who attended Her Majesty must have felt like they were walking on thin ice. I mean that without a hint of exaggeration—one misstep, and they could be stripped of every office and shipped off into exile somewhere far away. And in anything concerning me, they wouldn't even be granted that much of a chance.
Just then, Lü Bu said, her eyes sparkling.
"Let's hurry and get home first! We have to go see our little girl!"
"Yes, yes, I know—so calm down."
I did still have to see every last duty through first, after all. Having given Lü Bu that answer, I was busy marshaling the soldiers at the camp when a familiar figure came toward me from the distance.
"Grand General. It has been some time."
"Xun Yu?"
The woman, whose brown hair was as striking as my niece Xun You's, bowed to me with perfect courtesy. For a strategist who normally stayed near the imperial palace attending to Her Majesty to come all this way could only mean one thing: something urgent. Knowing her as I did, I asked with a faintly worried look.
"What is it? Has Her Majesty summoned me?"
"She has."
Answering my question evenly, Xun Yu went straight on.
"The reason Her Majesty has summoned you is... hmm..."
Having begun to speak, Xun Yu let the words trail off for a moment—then flashed me a bright smile.
"You will find out when you are received in audience."
"...?"
What was this? Xun Yu, who met absolutely every matter with crisp, decisive efficiency, had never once trailed off like that before. Taking in the faint weariness on her face, I asked,
"Has Her Majesty changed again, from how she usually is?"
It felt terribly rude to say such a thing about the sovereign I served, but the Emperor turned remarkably emotional whenever I wasn't near. No—"emotional" wasn't quite the word. "Irritable" fit better. Outwardly she looked exactly as she always did; it was more that her threshold of patience plummeted to almost nothing. As I mentioned just before, the instant anyone made even a single mistake, the fuse on a bomb was lit. And when it finally went off, well...
You simply vanished from the court without a soul noticing.
Having received my question, Xun Yu murmured under her breath.
"Her Majesty is like that as a matter of course..."
"Hm? What was that?"
"Merely thinking aloud."
I had the distinct feeling I'd just overheard something rather ominous. While I tilted my head, having failed to catch her mutter properly, she bowed with unshaken composure.
"I will escort you. Please follow me."
"Hmm... Very well."
Turning my head, I addressed Cao Cao and Liu Bei, who stood nearby.
"I leave the cleanup to the two of you."
The two generals each gave their own distinct reply.
"Understood."
"We shall carry out your command."
Their manner of speech alone made the difference between them plain as day. Even so, I trusted that those two would see to the soldiers worn ragged by the long campaign without any trouble.
"My lord! And what am I to do?!"
"Uh..."
I gave Sun Quan, who was pressing herself eagerly upon me, a somewhat dazed look.
"You are to shadow those two generals and soak up whatever teachings you can."
"Yes, my lord!! I will not disappoint your expectations!!"
Her volume remained as impressive as ever. Did talking to me make her nervous, or something?
Gazing upon the three rulers of the original history gathered together in a single place, I found myself seized by an indescribable rush of feeling.