The Coalition (2)
"Sister Xuande!"
"Hmm? What is it?"
A small village somewhere in You Province. There, a black-haired woman with side-tails called out to the woman with long, straight hair seated nearby.
"Did you hear the news?"
"...What news?"
The woman with the long, serpent-coiling spear slung across her shoulder gleamed her crimson eyes as if she had pulled off something tremendous. Knowing from experience that whenever her younger sister got like this, something absurd was about to come out of her mouth, Liu Bei braced herself in advance.
"They're saying every thieving scoundrel under heaven is starting to move?"
"Yide. Watch your words."
The side-tailed woman called Zhang Fei blew a raspberry.
"Hmph! And what part of that's wrong? There isn't a single fat cat living it up in this whole world who's got a sane bone in his body!"
"..."
Just then, from behind Zhang Fei, a woman with jet-black hair bound in a ponytail appeared. Zhang Fei, apparently unaware of her presence, kept right on going.
"Any of those bastards so much as catches my eye, and I'll just... Gyaaagh!"
Zhang Fei shrieked at the fist that had come down on her head out of nowhere.
"Uuuurgh......"
While Zhang Fei clutched her head and writhed in awful pain, the woman who had delivered the blow let out a sigh.
"Yide. Have I not told you, time and again, not to open your mouth so recklessly?"
Having confirmed just who it was that had knocked her head, Zhang Fei grumbled with tears welling at the corners of her eyes.
"Tch.... What did I even say wrong...."
"..."
At her discontented grumbling, the woman's eyes — warm only moments before — slowly began to chill.
Zhang Fei knew exactly what happened when her second sister got properly angry, and she jerked upright in alarm.
"Okay, okay! I get it! I'll watch my mouth, all right?!"
"That will do."
Seeing the woman's faint smile, Zhang Fei let out a long breath of relief.
"Honestly... Sister Yunchang's temper is way scarier than Sister Xuande's...."
"Oh? So my anger is nothing to fear, then?"
"Even when you're angry, Sister Xuande, you never actually do anything about it."
"Now when was that..." As Zhang Fei rummaged through her memory, an exclamation mark lit up above her head.
"I still remember how all you did was keep smiling through it when that pig, Du You or whatever he was called, was throwing his weight around?"
"That was...."
The post of county magistrate, granted as reward for the merit she had earned in the Yellow Turban Rebellion. It was a rank absurdly low for what Liu Bei had accomplished, but knowing full well how rotten the imperial court was, she had accepted it without a word of complaint.
One day, a man came to the village under Liu Bei's care. So well had the man eaten and lived that his whole body was slathered in layer upon layer of flesh, and one look was all Liu Bei needed to know exactly who he was.
In an age when every soul in the realm struggled to scrape together a single meal, only one kind of man could grow so fat: one of the high and mighty.
Just as she had expected, the man wasted no time on his "inspection" in seeking out the person in charge and demanding a private audience with Liu Bei.
A Du You — the office charged with inspecting the counties. The man stared at Liu Bei blankly for a time, then shifted his expression and spoke with plain displeasure.
"Ahem. Have you no intention of showing even the barest courtesy?"
"I'm afraid I don't follow...."
"Dear me. To be quite so slow on the uptake."
The Du You cleared his throat and shot Liu Bei a pointed look.
"As for me — whatever's expensive, I'll gladly receive. I'm not particular."
A bribe. Liu Bei was utterly dumbfounded. Step outside and glance around for a moment, and the roads were crowded with people starving and in rags — yet here was the Du You, demanding a bribe without a flicker of shame.
"Well, if that truly won't do... there are other ways, you know?"
"..."
"How about it? Isn't this precisely what they call everyone coming away a winner?"
At Liu Bei's continued silence, the Du You seemed to read something else into it altogether. Eyes swimming with desire, he raked them over her body and slowly began to close the distance.
"Truly, my money was well spent. To think it buys me a beauty like you as well."
He bore himself with the swagger of a man whose pride was the bribes he had paid. Just how far had this country rotted through? The very office meant to root out corruption was the one demanding kickbacks and persecuting the innocent.
While Liu Bei sat lost in thought, the Du You, close enough now to touch her, reached out a hand with a lecherous grin.
"Fear not. Even looking as I do, beside the others I'm quite the gentle—"
"Just who do you think you're laying a hand on, you fat pig?!!"
A voice bellowed and cut clean into the conversation. It was someone who had been worried about Liu Bei and had come secretly to see how things stood. Zhang Fei had walked in on the very sight of the Du You reaching his filthy hand toward her sister.
"Wh-what the—?"
While the Du You flinched and froze mid-motion, Zhang Fei snarled, seized him by the collar, and flung him out the door.
"Uwaaaaagh—!"
Hurled out by Zhang Fei, the Du You tumbled across the dirt, screaming the whole way.
"I snuck over for a look just in case, and I knew it!"
Zhang Fei snapped a branch off a nearby tree, cracked her joints loose, and advanced slowly on the dust-covered Du You.
Sensing that matters had turned well past serious, the Du You hurriedly opened his mouth.
"W-wait! Raise a hand against me, and the two of you become criminals on the spot!"
"So what?"
"Do you not understand?! Become a criminal, and you'll be hunted by the Han for the rest of your lives!"
"Heh. What a load of crap."
Zhang Fei said, glaring at the Du You.
"The moment Sister Xuande refused, you'd have sulked off and invented crimes out of thin air just to throw her in a cell, you bastard."
"..."
"What? Can't deny it, can you?"
Meeting those blood-red eyes head-on, the Du You shuddered from head to toe.
"Honestly. Being too pretty is its own problem, you know? Every kind of vermin comes crawling after you."
"Wh-what did you say...."
"Love high office that much? Fine — I'll get you set up with an application to be a palace eunuch. Don't you forget this kindness."
Swinging the thick branch in her grip whoosh, whoosh through the air, Zhang Fei closed in on him. The Du You's face turned chalk-white at the sight of the branch in her hand — little better than a lethal weapon.
"S-stop! I said stop!"
"Don't wanna."
"I was wrong! I'll mend my ways and live honestly, so please—!"
"You? Repent? Don't make me laugh."
The Du You wrenched his head around toward Liu Bei.
"Lord Liu! I beg you, rein in this raving mad dog!"
"What? Mad dog?"
Zhang Fei's face twisted in a flash. Liu Bei, her smile perfectly intact, turned her face ever so slightly away from the Du You.
"Seems our sister agrees."
"Y-you...! Just you wait! I'll make every last one of you pay for—!"
"You're loud. Shut it."
Zhang Fei said with a lazy grin.
"Come at me, bastard. I'll walk you right to the gates of hell."
The Du You who had reached his slimy hand toward her was beaten black and blue and barely escaped with his life.
After that, she had cast aside her office and fled, taking command of a band of volunteers....
"Sister Xuande?"
"...Hmm?"
At the voice calling her, Liu Bei cut short her journey into the past. Zhang Fei, watching her sister trail off mid-conversation and sink into thought, could not hide her puzzlement.
"Anyway, Sister Xuande — your one real flaw is that you're far too good to people."
"..."
"When you're angry, be angry! If something doesn't please you, smash it to pieces!"
"The smashing part I could do without."
"Sis!"
Zhang Fei stared at her with a look of pure grievance.
"Don't worry. Even if Zhang Fei hadn't barged in that day, I'd have seen to him myself."
"Seen to him yourself?"
"I'm saying I'd have given him every bit as much as our Yide did — if not more."
To put it more precisely, she probably would have administered a good two hundred strokes of the rod.
Zhang Fei, blissfully ignorant of what was passing through Liu Bei's mind, merely tilted her head.
"But that wasn't what you wanted to talk about, was it, Yide?"
"Oh, right! It wasn't!"
Zhang Fei, only now catching on, swung back to the subject at hand.
"With Yuan Shu at the front, all those bastards are banding together to attack Luoyang!"
"Is that so?"
"What are you going to do, Sister Xuande?"
At the question, Liu Bei fell deep into thought. Jeong Reung's faction currently held Luoyang and the capital province of Sili, along with Bing and Xiliang. There was no telling how large the coalition might swell — but even Jeong Reung's forces could not easily withstand the whole of it.
"Word going around says Jeong Reung is a traitor no different from Dong Zhuo?"
"..."
Could the rumor actually be true? Manufacturing public opinion and whipping up the masses — a faction of Yuan Shu's caliber could spread a piece of malicious slander without breaking a sweat. And yet it was hard to write the rumor off as pure fabrication, either.
The moment Jeong Reung drove out Dong Zhuo, he had risen to General-in-Chief, holding command over the Han's entire military power. She had also heard that he kept drawing on the imperial treasury, ostensibly to rebuild Chang'an.
The Han stood at the crossroads of ruin. Was he truly a great man who had appeared, like a miracle, to serve the dynasty? Or was he simply another traitor, no different from the beasts she had seen so far?
Zhang Fei said, her crimson eyes glittering.
"So? As blood of the imperial house, shouldn't you teach the traitor persecuting Her Imperial Majesty a proper lesson?!"
"...You don't simply want a round against Lü Bu, do you?"
At Liu Bei's question, Zhang Fei's face went stiff with horror.
"H-how could you tell?!"
"After all the years we've spent together, how could I not?"
Liu Bei heaved a long, deep sigh.
"I, too, am curious. What do you intend to do?"
Guan Yu, who had been quietly watching the two of them, put the question to Liu Bei. Looking into Guan Yu's azure eyes — so unlike Zhang Fei's scarlet ones — Liu Bei spoke.
"I'll simply have to watch this Jeong Reung with my own eyes and see what manner of man he is."
Too much about the man nagged at her to pass judgment on street talk alone. Jeong Reung's army and the coalition could already be considered at war; one thing at a time was all she could do.
"...Right. First, let's take the measure of this coalition."
"And how exactly will you do that?"
At Zhang Fei's question, Liu Bei smiled a little.
"What do you think all my fine connections are for? I plan to join as a guest general under General Gongsun Zan."
"Ahh. ...An acquaintance of yours, Sister Xuande?"
Her memory hazy, Zhang Fei tilted her head.
Back in the days when they had studied under Lu Zhi, Liu Bei had used her natural gift for winning hearts to form a bond with Gongsun Zan. He had been generous to all who came into his fold; he would surely not refuse her proposal.
"A coalition that claims it will crush the traitors and carry out justice — I intend to see for myself what it's really made of."
Liu Bei went on.
"After that, I plan to tour the cities under Jeong Reung's control, one after another."
"...Would that even be possible?"
What lord would open his own cities to an enemy he had faced on the battlefield? She would be lucky simply not to be seized as a spy.
"What choice do I have? The war has already begun."
At Guan Yu's concern, Liu Bei squared her shoulders.
"Judging people is the one thing I trust myself to do, so I doubt my time with the coalition will last all that long."
"..."
"Every warlord under heaven will come flocking to it. I couldn't pass up a chance like this."
"I see."
Guan Yu, hearing her plan, nodded.
"And so long as we keep our heads down in the meantime, all should be well?"
With that, Liu Bei turned to Zhang Fei with a smile.
"Right, Yide?"
"Th-that's right! Keep our heads down and we're fine!"
As though something had pricked her conscience, Zhang Fei nodded hard and fast.
Watching the cold sweat gather on Zhang Fei, Guan Yu turned her gaze back to Liu Bei.
"And if you should find them all beyond hope — what will you do?"
At Guan Yu's question, Liu Bei closed her eyes. What would she do, Guan Yu was asking, if every soul under heaven turned from benevolence and righteousness and moved only to serve its own desires?
"...If — if that truly came to pass..."
Liu Bei, gathering her breath for a moment, suddenly broke into a smile.
"Who can say. What would I do?"
"...Once more, you leave me wondering."
Black hair and black eyes — the living proof of the blood of royalty in her veins. The other protagonist of the Three Kingdoms, her long hair flowing loose, took a step forward.