Inspector of Youzhou (2)
Thanks to the help of the Black Mountain Bandits, Liu Bei and her sisters were able to make for You Province without incident. They received the grateful thanks of the villagers, and the bandits — calling it payment for putting down the foreign raiders — pressed a reward into their hands as well.
That men of bandit stock, the sort anyone would nod along about the moment greed came up, would so readily hand over a reward drew a faintly surprised look from Liu Bei.
"No, now — greedy we may be, but we're hardly beasts."
At the look in Liu Bei's eyes, the Black Mountain bandit grew sheepish. "I couldn't speak for the old days, but these days there's nothing much we lack."
"Nothing you lack...?"
"What would bottom-of-the-ladder folk like us be short of, anyway?"
Liu Bei pressed him with open curiosity, and the bandit answered as though it were the most obvious thing in the world.
"So long as our families eat their fill and have a roof to keep off the wind and rain, we're content."
……
"Isn't it happiness itself, not having to lie awake wondering how you'll survive tomorrow?"
It was a conversation shared with men who had once been bandits. In the end, they too were the Han's own people.
When Liu Bei told him they had to make for You Province, the bandit's face filled with surprise. "You Province? That place they say has been a complete mess since the war?"
"Yes."
"Can't say I follow why you'd head for You Province of all places, but I suppose you must have your reasons?"
"Because there is something I must do."
Seeing the resolve in Liu Bei's eyes, the bandit nodded. "Well, it's not as though you're skilled enough to keep from dying on some roadside out there... In that case, listen closely."
With that, he shared a mountain trail known only to those in the know. "It's nowhere near fit for passage even with a small company, but with only three of you, you can take it any time you please."
It was the sort of premium information only natives of the region would possess. Followed exactly as the bandit described, the route would surely shave several more days off their journey.
"Thank you."
"It's hardly worth thanking me for. Grab any villager and ask — everyone around here knows the way."
Seeming a touch flustered by Liu Bei's gratitude, the bandit waved a dismissive hand. "Now hurry on, then. I need to be getting back to my rounds soon enough."
"Yes. May nothing ill befall you."
A few minutes after parting with the Black Mountain Bandits, Zhang Fei was still grinning from ear to ear. "Man, they weren't kidding — do a good deed and blessings come find you!"
Guan Yu said nothing, but her delight was every bit as plain as Zhang Fei's. The hardship they had endured for the sake of others had come straight back to them. It was the kind of moment that would fill anyone who had done a kindness with quiet pride.
"We should move quickly. Something about this feels wrong."
"Huh? What do you mean, a bad feeling?"
When Zhang Fei asked, puzzled, Liu Bei — already quickening her pace — gave her answer. "...I can't shake the feeling that time is running short."
?
Words she couldn't begin to parse. At Liu Bei's odd behavior, Zhang Fei stroked her chin, Serpent Spear resting on her shoulder. When was it that Big Sister Liu Bei usually got this antsy?
……
Ah.
An exclamation mark practically popped up above Zhang Fei's head as she pondered. She got like that whenever ordinary matters started tangling into a proper mess. Our eldest sister, forever warm and smiling, had always had remarkably sharp instincts — if she was acting this way, something had surely happened.
Did that mean this Liu Yu person had already been defeated by Gongsun Zan?
……
Then we have a very serious problem on our hands.
Guan Yu, too, seemed to have followed the thought that far, for her face paled slightly. "...It appears this is no time to be taking our ease."
"I was thinking the same thing."
If they kept on like this, the chances of failing the General-in-Chief's request would only grow. And how, then, could they ever face the man who would be waiting in Luoyang for good news? Judging by the temperament they had glimpsed during their brief stay in the capital, he would likely say nothing even if they failed — but that was not what weighed on them now. To fail the request would not be repaying the debt they owed him; it would only deepen what they owed in their hearts. If it came to that, the three of them would be too ashamed of themselves ever to hold their heads high again. The proud Guan Yu certainly did not want that — and neither did Zhang Fei, who despised owing anyone anything.
Guan Yu and Zhang Fei turned to face forward at the same moment. The mountain terrain was too rugged for hard riding, yet not so impossible as to rule it out entirely. The two of them, who had been trailing behind Liu Bei, amiably drew up on either side of her.
"What is it?"
Liu Bei regarded the two who had pressed in close with a puzzled look. Guan Yu, settled at her left, spoke in a calm voice that suited her azure eyes. "Might we not move with somewhat greater haste?"
"...Huh?"
The proposal came entirely without warning. Failing to grasp what was happening, Liu Bei could only voice her bewilderment. "What do you mean by that...?"
"You said something felt off, didn't you? Then we'd better hurry!"
Zhang Fei chimed in over Guan Yu's words. Sensing that something in her sisters' mood had shifted, Liu Bei looked dazed. "...We are already going as fast as we possibly can, aren't we?"
The mountains of Bing Province were treacherous enough as it was. Push the pace any harder here, and she would go tumbling down the slope in merry unison with the very horse beneath her. It would hurt. Tremendously.
"Any faster than this and we're bound to have an acci—"
"Oh, come on! We didn't just learn to ride yesterday — you think we can't manage that much?"
Zhang Fei beamed with supreme confidence, as if to say she was worrying over nothing. At the sight of her, Liu Bei sank into brief thought before speaking again. "Yunchang and Yide may manage, but I would be the one in danger."
Going by the skill she knew her sisters possessed, terrain like this would be easy going for them indeed. They had performed far wilder acrobatics crossing blades with enemy generals from horseback — as if mountain trails like these would ever trouble them. The problem was that her own horsemanship fell short of theirs. Nine times out of ten she would cause a serious accident and land herself in danger. Rushing ahead half-cocked could only make matters worse, and that was the last thing she wanted.
At Liu Bei's worried question, Zhang Fei looked genuinely puzzled. "Huh? Didn't you pick her out knowing that, Sister Xuande?"
"What are you talking about?"
"Guess you didn't, then."
Zhang Fei nodded to herself, satisfied. "The horse you're riding right now, Sister Xuande. That is... Dilu, was it?"
"That's right."
"If that girl puts her mind to running, catching up with the likes of us would be nothing to her."
Liu Bei could not hide her astonishment at Zhang Fei's flat assertion. A horse capable of chasing down sisters whose riding far outstripped her own? She had known Dilu was a magnificent animal — but that good?
She stared at Zhang Fei, dumbfounded. "...Really?"
"One look at her and you can tell she's built for rough country."
So saying, Zhang Fei rested her spear-free left hand on her hip and gave a scornful snort. "This eye of mine has never once been wrong."
"...Yide speaks the truth."
It was Guan Yu, silent all this while, who finally joined the conversation. "On that steed, you would be able to run abreast of us."
Even Guan Yu had acknowledged it, calm and matter-of-fact. If those two vouched for it, it could be trusted — a matter touching their very lives was not one they would speak of idly.
Liu Bei trusted them both — yet in that instant, mischief stirred within her. Heaving a sigh as though she had just been condemned to race through the mountains with her life on the line, she said, "Very well. If anything happens to me, it will be entirely my little sisters' fault."
"Ah..."
"Uh..."
At Liu Bei's playfully muttered words, Guan Yu and Zhang Fei exchanged wary glances.
"After all, even if I die here, I won't be going all alone and lonely."
"...Sister Xuande?"
What was that supposed to mean? A faint chill ran through Zhang Fei.
Liu Bei smiled sweetly at her sworn sisters. "The vow we made beneath the peach tree. You haven't forgotten it, have you?"
"Though we were not born on the same day,
we pray to be granted death on the same day."
It was the vow that later generations would call the Oath of the Peach Garden.
Zhang Fei's face drained of color.
Belatedly, she opened her mouth in a scramble to salvage the situation. "Now that I think it over, I believe going slowly would be perfectly fine?"
Guan Yu, who had long since caught on to Liu Bei's mischief, showed no reaction whatsoever.
Liu Bei tightened her grip on Dilu's reins. "Let's go!"
She shot forward at full gallop. The sight of her plunging down the slope, dodging trees by a hair's breadth, was enough to make any onlooker's heart leap into their throat.
"Aaaah! Sister Xuande——!!"
Zhang Fei tore after her with something close to a scream, while Guan Yu, wearing a wry smile, quickened her pace as well.
"I had best offer a prayer to the heavens."
Guan Yu prayed that her sisters' allotted fates might not reach their end in this remote mountain wilderness. However playfully Lady Liu Bei invoked the vow, if she were truly to lose her life here... Swallowing the rest of the thought, Guan Yu guided her horse with practiced skill and strove to keep hard on Liu Bei's heels.
She and Zhang Fei had given their word, but no one could say how things would actually unfold. She stayed close, ready to snatch Liu Bei up at the very first sign of a fall. And by great good fortune, the steed beneath Liu Bei went tearing through the mountains as though they were flat plain, flaunting her full majesty.
It was a moment that proved Liu Bei's keen eye.
"Say, this girl seems to be in a bit of a foul mood, doesn't she?"
"...Does she?"
Ever since they had come safely down the mountain and entered You Province, Dilu's expression had turned sour, as though she had chewed on something bitter — and the party could not for the life of them fathom why.
Arriving at the city of Ji, Liu Bei and her sisters gazed upon its walls from afar. For a city that had supposedly been through war, it looked uncannily unscathed.
"Huh? I was so certain we'd arrived too late..."
Liu Bei tilted her head in puzzlement, and Guan Yu and Zhang Fei looked no less baffled. "It is a relief that nothing has yet come to pass."
"Still, it's strange. Sister Xuande's instincts have never once been wrong before."
At Zhang Fei's words, Liu Bei said nothing at all. She could not shake the uneasy conviction that something was already stirring within that city.