An Unexpected Visit (4)
“…….”
“…….”
Staring at Liu Bei and her sworn sisters—hauled into security custody yet again barely any time after I'd let them go—I found myself at a loss for words. Then again, at least they weren't bound head to toe in rope like the last time they'd been locked up, so I supposed this counted as an improvement.
After a rough report from the soldiers handling the matter, I gave a nod.
“I'll take it from here. You may withdraw.”
“As you command.”
The soldier bowed his head in salute and slipped out of the room.
I gave the three sisters a slow once-over and opened with a tease.
“It hasn't even been that long since I let you out, and here you are, dragged in by the security force?”
“That's strange. I'm positive I saw him stealing something…”
Zhang Fei rolled her eyes this way and that, apparently sensing that something had gone sideways.
Pushing her any further seemed likely to cause more trouble than it was worth, so I let it go there and went on with a small grin.
“No, no—you did well. That pickpocket you caught has been a thorn in the city's side for ages, you see.”
“…….”
“From what I hear, he's got slick fingers and knows every last alley in Luoyang, which makes him anything but easy to catch.”
He was apparently so deft that his victims took a while to even realize they'd been robbed, and by the time someone shouted Pickpocket! he was already a good distance gone. Even when soldiers caught up and gave chase, he'd somehow memorized the whole tangle of back alleys and slipped away with ease. Or so the report went.
Having heard it all, I nodded. Capable fellow, no doubt about it. A lone operator, too, with genuine talent—a shame he'd never put it to honest use.
At my explanation, Zhang Fei let out a sigh of relief.
“Phew. And here I thought we were in real trouble. So why'd they bring us in, then?”
“Just the bare minimum of questioning.”
Explaining it all properly would have taken forever, so I kept it short.
“Anyway, you've caught a man who was even on the wanted list, so you're owed a reward. Anything you'd like?”
“Hmm…”
“Anything at all. If it's money you want, you'll have money; if it's something else, I'll do my utmost to provide it.”
When the man who governs the empire's capital says he'll do his utmost, that's as good as saying there's next to nothing he can't get his hands on.
“Really?”
“Really.”
Zhang Fei's face lit right up. Since she was the one who'd made the catch, Liu Bei and Guan Yu hung back a step, watching the exchange unfold.
Eyes narrowed in brief deliberation, Zhang Fei at last seemed to reach a decision and turned to me.
“A horse. That work for you?”
“A horse?”
In this era, a horse filled much the same role a car did back in my old world and cost a small fortune—but considering the bounty hanging over that man's head, it wasn't out of the question. Except, hadn't these three already had horses to ride? They'd ridden into the clash with Lü Bu at Hulao Pass, so where had those mounts gone? When they were taken captive in Luoyang, I'd been told they had their weapons but not a single horse among them.
I was curious, but we weren't close enough for me to pry.
“There's a state stable where horses are raised. You can pick one out there.”
“Really? Aw yeah!”
At my answer, Zhang Fei practically bounced off the floor with delight. When the recipient was this happy about it, giving the gift felt worthwhile on the giver's end too.
I rose from my seat.
“Follow me. I'll show you the way.”
“Okay!”
Zhang Fei trotted along at my heels, her blood-red eyes—the very same shade as Lü Bu's—glittering with anticipation. Liu Bei and Guan Yu traded looks of fond exasperation and followed after her.
On the way to the stables in the city, I glanced back. Zhang Fei waddled after me like a duckling, sweeping her gaze over the surroundings in search of a horse worth riding.
She kept flinching with the urge to dash ahead at any moment, so I spoke up.
“Go on, take your pick.”
“I can pick any one I want?!”
To her breathless question, I nodded.
“Every horse here is ownerless. Take whichever you like.”
A treasure-hunting ground, in other words.
Every unclaimed horse—seized on the battlefield or sent here as gifts from elsewhere—ended up gathered in this stable. Whenever a soldier's mount died in an accident or simply of old age, a replacement was drawn from this stock. The inferior animals were periodically rotated out, reassigned as packhorses or sold off outright, so the stables never burst at the seams.
Perhaps because we were forever fighting the nomad tribes who lived and breathed horses, we had—for reasons beyond me—a suspicious number of men dead serious about the animals tending the stables with real devotion. In all that time, the place had never once seen trouble.
With a poor eye, you'd pick out a nag worse than anything you'd pay a merchant good money for; with a keen one, you might unearth a magnificent steed no one else had ever noticed. But as I said, those horse-mad fanatics ran the place with genuine passion, so unless your luck was truly rotten, the odds of striking gold were decent.
“Xuande! Come pick yours with me!”
“Hm? Why me?”
Liu Bei, who'd been watching Zhang Fei from a step behind, asked with a puzzled look. Zhang Fei struck a triumphant pose, arms planted at her sides, and answered.
“'Cause it's gonna be your riding horse, Xuande! Duh!”
At Zhang Fei's breezy declaration that she was giving the horse away, Liu Bei's eyes widened a fraction.
“…You're the one who caught the pickpocket, Yide.”
“That's right! I'm the one who spotted him!”
Zhang Fei nodded along.
“Then the reward ought to go to you, so…”
“But what I spend my reward on is my call!”
Zhang Fei cut Liu Bei off, barging right in.
“Just like when you swore you were broke, then sold your horse and spent the money helping total strangers for no reason at all!”
“…….”
“If our eldest sister's living like that, how were Yunchang and I supposed to keep horses of our own? So we sold ours too, plain and simple!”
So they'd sold the very horses under their saddles… to fund acts of kindness that asked nothing in return? So that was why they had no horses. What was I even supposed to say to that.
In the original history, Liu Bei had shown flashes of exactly this sort of behavior from time to time. Not that a good deed always came boomeranging back with interest attached. Still, selling the horse you rode to help the common people was the stuff of heartwarming legend.
…Surely she hadn't sold it with the legend in mind? If so, the woman truly defied underestimation.
“Yunchang and I are sturdy—walking for days wouldn't faze us. But you're different, Xuande.”
Unable to refute a word of it, Liu Bei said nothing.
Guan Yu and Zhang Fei. Setting Lü Bu aside, they were the archetypal human weapons of the Three Kingdoms—the kind of pair who inspired an idiom like the Valor of Guan and Zhang. Who would dare belittle them? In this world there happened to exist outliers beyond all scale, Xiang Yu and Lü Bu, but neither of these two would ever come up short anywhere.
“Th-thank you…”
Deeply moved, Liu Bei managed to Zhang Fei, her voice wavering. Guan Yu, who had watched the whole scene unfold, addressed her.
“Yide. How rare it is, to see you bear yourself so maturely.”
“What's that supposed to mean?! I've always been mature!”
Zhang Fei squawked, refusing to let the charge stand. A faint smile touched Guan Yu's lips, and she nodded.
“So it is. My mistake. Yide has ever been mature.”
“…Why are you being like this all of a sudden?”
Guan Yu agreeing with her seemed to throw her completely; Zhang Fei made no effort to hide her bewilderment.
That was when I cut into the heartwarming little exchange.
“So, to be clear—none of you has a horse to ride right now?”
“…No.”
Liu Bei answered slowly, as if embarrassed.
“And no money either?”
“……No.”
Oh, Liu Bei.
I hadn't noticed at first, but looking closely now, there was a distinctly threadbare quality to the three sisters' appearance. They kept themselves meticulously groomed, yet the faint traces of a hard-scrabble life still clung to them. I sighed inwardly.
“Then I'll simply give you three horses. Pick one each.”
Color bloomed across Guan Yu's and Zhang Fei's faces at my words.
“R-really?!”
“Is this truly so?”
I nodded at the questions. Unless the three sisters intended to pretend my offer didn't exist, they would be bound for You Province before long. It was a long road, with more than a few mountains to cross—decent horses were the least I could provide to make the work easier.
“Take this as well.”
“…….”
I dug through my robes and pressed a portion of the money I carried into Liu Bei's hands. She held the pouch respectfully on both open palms, her eyes trembling.
“B-but I couldn't possibly accept this much…”
“Don't think of it as a gift. Think of it as an investment.”
The smaller the kindness offered in the hardest of times, the deeper it carves itself into a person's memory. Knowing the three sisters' character as I did, the gesture could only do good—never harm. These were people fortune itself favored when it came to survival; they'd have eaten well and lived well without my help. Better, then, to leave a debt of gratitude behind while I could.
I gave a few pats to Liu Bei's back, still frozen in that exact posture.
“What are you doing? Your sisters are waiting.”
Liu Bei bowed her head slightly to me.
“…Thank you.”