The Return (5)
Just before following Xun Yu, I turned to Lü Bu and spoke.
"Ah, right—you head home and look after our little one."
"...Are you sure?"
At her question, a short laugh escaped me.
"Stand there looking that restless, and what else am I supposed to say?"
"But..."
"No one around here has the guts to lay a hand on me."
True, I had placed the soldiers under Cao Cao's and Liu Bei's command, but a portion of them still remained at my side, guarding me with Guan Yu at their head.
Hmm... "the most elite unit assigned to my protection" would be exactly the right way to put it.
The guards who followed me about did, in fact, have a rather splendid unit name.
Though depending on how you looked at it, you might call it a little baffling.
The One Hundred Army.
The name alone leaves you scratching your head, but the meaning behind it is simple: an army built on the premise that a single warrior can withstand a hundred foes.
...Even on a second look, it's a name I just can't get used to.
But come to think of it, most of the special units from the Three Kingdoms that I remembered had names much the same.
Cao Cao's elite cavalry, the Tiger-Leopard Cavalry, took its name from the first characters of "tiger" and "leopard," while Liu Bei's bodyguard unit, the White Feather Troops, meant simply that its men were adorned with white plumes.
And then there was Wu's special unit—the one I'd failed to recall before and only mentioned after finally dredging it up—the Blue Turban Troops, which tells you everything from the name alone, doesn't it?
Literally, it means they wore blue headwraps. That's all.
It wasn't as though every individual among them could genuinely hold off a hundred men.
Even that berserker who lugged around a blade far too massive to be called a sword cut down his numbers only after a world of suffering, didn't he?
They say even the elite troops personally led by that Hegemon-King of Western Chu topped out at one man against ten—a hundred was simply impossible.
But even if the "hundred" was figurative, these had hardly been soldiers picked at random.
Why else would this unit number a mere few hundred, when other armies swelled into the thousands and tens of thousands?
It meant they had been screened and sifted to exactly that degree.
"One hit! You go down without blocking a single hit—you'd better be ready to die for real!"
"Waaagh—!"
Watching soldiers get knocked flying this way and that by Lü Bu day after day, I nearly felt sorry for them.
"Hmm... I've looked into the matter separately, and you don't appear to be lying."
"......"
"Good. Then carry out your duty with your very life."
"Yes!"
They said the unit was staffed exclusively with people who would never betray me under any circumstances—but how on earth do you even measure that?
Given that a strategist with time to spare personally judged each candidate whenever replacements were brought in, there had to be some standard behind it.
I spoke to Lü Bu in an even voice.
"Besides, the Imperial Guards are stationed right around here. What is there to worry about?"
The Imperial Guards kept watch over the palace grounds, while the Luoyang garrison patrolled every corner of the streets.
They were guarding the vicinity with such intensity you'd half expect lasers to fire from their eyes.
If some assassin ever managed to punch through them and reach me, that man would deserve a starring role in a wuxia novel.
He would certainly have had to sneak up on me with tricks like the bone-shrinking art or a human-skin mask, no doubt about it.
...But in my experience, the moment I confidently declare that security couldn't possibly be breached, some catastrophic incident breaks out as if summoned.
Oh, come now.
It's not as though a ninja is about to materialize out of nowhere and start cutting people down.
Though if that happened, I suppose I'd go to my death shrieking something like "Aieeeee!"
"Hurry along, now. I'll be back before nightfall at the latest."
"Uuu... You promise?! You swear it?!"
"I do."
When I coaxed her along with a gentle push between the shoulder blades, Lü Bu finally relented and moved off, looking for all the world like she had no other choice.
"......"
I watched her figure vanish from the spot in an instant, courtesy of those superhuman legs of hers, then turned away.
"Sorry to keep you waiting. Let's be on our way."
"Yes."
...Nothing strange is actually going to show up, right?
Contrary to my nagging worry, nothing endangered my person on the road to the palace.
No assassin out of a wuxia novel appeared, nor any ninja either.
I had laid the foreshadowing down perfectly, and nothing came of it.
If a twist was what this was, then a twist it was, I suppose.
"......"
Once through the palace gates, I turned my head this way and that, studying the people around me.
Carrying on like this inside the palace was normally an open invitation to be called out for disrespecting court etiquette.
But anyone who might have dared to nitpick me had long since been cleared away by Her Majesty the Emperor.
"Hmm..."
Tilting my head to read the faces of those nearby, I sank into thought, arms crossed.
The Imperial Guards manning the palace, the officials attending Her Majesty at her side—every last one of them wore an expression of bone-deep exhaustion.
Well, of course. Currying favor with someone who could take your head over a single careless word was never going to be easy.
What bothered me, though, was that even those who had served in the palace for years wore their fatigue openly.
Even Xun Yu—she of the famed Talent to Assist Kings—hadn't quite managed to hide a trace of weariness.
From that alone, I could tell just how extraordinarily on edge Her Majesty had become.
...Had someone recently put a foot wrong where I was concerned?
No—even granting that, this seemed a bit much...
"I shall await you here."
Just as I was thinking we must be nearing the audience chamber, Xun Yu spoke, bowing with perfect courtesy.
Then she went straight on, her manner composed.
"Please take good care of Her Majesty."
"...Understood."
When you look at me with eyes that full of expectation, it only adds to the pressure, you know.
Recalling Xun Yu's words—that I would learn the reason for the summons once I stood before Her Majesty—I moved forward slowly.
"......"
Passing the gate held by the Imperial Guards and stepping into the inner reaches of the audience chamber, I sensed it at once: something about the air was off.
Winter hadn't even arrived yet, and yet a faint chill crept over my skin.
This strangely skin-crawling sensation was one I had never known before.
I had moved all of one step, yet the impression was so odd that I tilted my head for a moment.
"Your Majesty."
"...Ah."
No sooner had I opened my mouth to call the Emperor than the mood in the room brightened, as though it had never been any other way.
...What was that?
Had it simply been my imagination?
In a slightly stiff posture, I knelt before Her Majesty and offered my respects.
"Your subject, Jeong Reung, has seen every duty through and returned."
"...It is you."
Having murmured just that much, the Emperor went on in a voice that sounded as though her heart were being consumed by longing.
"Hwahyeon."
"Yes."
"Keep no distance. Come close to Us."
Knowing full well that keeping my distance here would win me nothing, I rose to my feet and looked the Emperor squarely in the face.
Hmm...
She looked no different from usual?
Perhaps because she took after her mother, Empress Dowager He, Her Majesty possessed a rather fierce set of eyes.
Well, if you were asked to name the great villainesses of the Three Kingdoms, Empress Dowager He would have to rank among the top five.
The reason relations between the Emperor and the Prince of Chenliu had once grown strained, after all, was surely that Empress Dowager He had put to death everyone in the Prince's orbit.
The most representative examples would be Lady Wang, the Prince of Chenliu's mother, and Empress Dowager Dong, his grandmother.
The way she killed others without a flicker of remorse, drunk on power, earned the word vicious without the slightest exaggeration.
...Which is to say nothing of how astonishing it is that such dark intrigues were hardly rare within the palace at all.
That Her Majesty never hesitated to spill blood owed something to being hounded by the likes of Dong Zhuo until she went half-mad, no doubt—but the fearsome temperament inherited from her mother, Empress Dowager He, surely played its part as well.
Blood ties or no, there was truly no need to inherit that particular trait...
Having closed the distance with the Emperor, I greeted her warmly, wearing the same smile as always.
"Your Majesty, is there any place you're feeling unwe—?"
I stopped dead mid-sentence.
And small wonder—there was something about Her Majesty that could not possibly be missed.
I hadn't noticed while offering my greetings from afar, but up close, it was plain to see.
"Hehe. So you've noticed, have you?"
Having caught where my gaze had landed, Her Majesty stroked a certain spot with a tender hand.
"There, look. Your father has come."
"......"
At the sight of the Emperor gazing down at her own belly with eyes full of affection, stroking it ever so gently, I found myself briefly at a loss for words.
It was the moment the heir who would carry the Han dynasty forward had revealed itself.
Seeing this now, I finally understood why the palace officials had been wearing expressions of men headed for the executioner's block.
Pregnant women suffer violent mood swings, after all.
Even mere beasts grow ferociously on edge the moment they carry young in their wombs—how much more so a human being?
And what if the husband meant to shield and cherish both her and the child had gone off to distant parts on duty?
Her Majesty must have radiated an air that promised death to anyone who touched her wrong, and the ministers facing that must have weighed every single word as though their lives depended on it.
So the icy atmosphere I'd felt upon first entering the audience chamber had been entirely real.
That such an air could turn this bright and warm in the space of a moment was a little hard to believe.
Once the shock had settled and my thoughts had run their course, I quietly reached out and caressed Her Majesty's belly.
"Mmnh..."
Her Majesty flinched and let out a soft moan.
When I lifted my head, the Emperor murmured in a small voice.
"I-I was merely startled, that is all."
"Is that so?"
Had anyone else done the same, wouldn't they have been torn limb from limb and strung up in the marketplace?
Hearing her answer, I flashed a grin and rubbed my face against her without restraint.
"Kyah?! I-It tickles! Stop! Enough, I say!"
As if she wouldn't sulk if I actually stopped.
"I must decline."
"H-How mischievous you are...!"
I spent the hours that followed showering the Emperor with affection, as though to make up for every day of our long separation.
And needless to say, after that, Her Majesty the Emperor turned positively gentle toward everyone else as well.