Inspector of Youzhou (9)
Liu Bei's company, having successfully seen Liu Yu back to Luoyang, was at last enjoying a moment of rest. They stabled Dilu—who looked, for some reason, inordinately pleased with herself—and Liu Bei and her sworn sisters seized the opportunity to wander every corner of the capital.
Once, they had stood against the General-in-Chief as his enemies; now, roving the city openly under his sanction, not a soul in Luoyang moved to bar their way. For days on end the sisters explored to their hearts' content, doing nearly everything they had ever wished to do. After running breathlessly ever since the Yellow Turban Rebellion, it was a stretch of time they could only call happy.
Thus, having devoted several days to a thorough tour of Luoyang, the three sisters each delivered their verdict.
"Compared to Gongsun Zan's territory, this place is better by a factor of a few dozen."
Arms crossed, Zhang Fei gave a firm nod. Guan Yu, true to form, offered no comment whatsoever, yet she did not look displeased.
Watching the two of them, Liu Bei spoke up.
"...So, what should we do now?"
The General-in-Chief had paid them handsomely for their service, and Luoyang—capital of the Han, as befitted its name—offered amusement in such abundance that boredom never stood a chance. But the wellspring ran dry sooner than expected. After days of diligent revelry, Liu Bei's company at length collided with a single, formidable obstacle: they had entirely exhausted their ideas for how to pass the time pleasantly.
"Uh..."
"..."
To Liu Bei's question, Guan Yu and Zhang Fei had no answer. Never had the three of them been so magnificently idle.
After a moment's deliberation, Zhang Fei ventured an idea.
"How about a drinking party?"
"Just the three of us?"
Remembering that this was a city where they knew not a single drinking companion, Zhang Fei shut her mouth at once.
Eldest sister Liu Bei and second sister Guan Yu, a drink shared between the three of them. Not bad. Not bad at all— but, honestly, they had done far too much of it already. So much, in fact, that she had long since lost count.
Then it was Guan Yu who offered her suggestion.
"What about reading?"
"Oh, don't tell me—another round of the Zuo Zhuan?"
Caught out by Liu Bei, Guan Yu sealed her lips just as Zhang Fei had. She had been quietly hoping to use this free time to keep reading her favorite book, and the loss stung a little.
Zhang Fei turned on her sister with a look of pure disgust.
"Give that poor Zuo Zhuan a rest already. Just how many times are you planning to read it?"
"A book containing the wisdom of the ancients can be read a hundred times over and still yield more."
At the sheer, unblinking audacity of Guan Yu's bearing, Zhang Fei heaved an inward sigh. It wasn't as if her sister was wrong, exactly—it was simply that with Guan Yu, it always seemed to be the Zuo Zhuan, and nothing but the Zuo Zhuan.
"Then might you have a good idea in mind, Lady Xuande?"
"Yeah! Out with it, we're dying to know."
Guan Yu and Zhang Fei turned to Liu Bei in unison. Reading in their eyes a promise to kick up a fuss the moment anything displeased them, Liu Bei simply smiled.
"I asked because I haven't come up with anything myself."
Guan Yu and Zhang Fei stared at her, feeling an emotion neither could quite name.
"Imperial decree—! An imperial decree—!"
While the sisters sat wrapped in mutual silence, none of them able to bring herself to say another word to her eldest sister, a voice rang out from beyond the door, calling for Liu Bei's company.
"An imperial decree?"
At words she had never once imagined, Liu Bei stepped out of the house wearing a puzzled air. Emerging with Guan Yu and Zhang Fei at her sides, she found a man waiting whom anyone would recognize at a glance as an emissary of the imperial court.
"Are you Liu Bei Xuande?"
"I am."
Something about the atmosphere struck her as grave and unusual, and Liu Bei answered with a deep, respectful bow. Guan Yu and Zhang Fei still wore expressions of utter bewilderment, yet true to their calling as bodyguards, they had already taken up their posts at her flanks.
The man studied Liu Bei for a brief moment, then, wholly indifferent to the sisters' posturing, delivered his message.
"Liu Bei Xuande, Guan Yu Yunchang, Zhang Fei Yide! By command of Her Majesty the Empress, you are to present yourselves at the imperial palace at once!"
"...We shall obey Her Majesty's command."
Though the summons came without warning, Liu Bei accepted it with unruffled calm, raising no question whatsoever. It was still early, the sun not yet climbed past its height. Liu Bei and her sworn sisters had received the Empress's call.
Answering the imperial summons, the three sisters made their way to the palace and came face to face with the Empress of the Han.
"Hmm... I see."
Certainly no ordinary individual—that much was plain. The Empress gave a small nod. Seated upon her throne and regarding Liu Bei, she was surrounded on all sides by a host of attending officials. For a woman who had never once set foot in the imperial palace, it would have been only natural to wilt under such scrutiny, yet Liu Bei showed no trace of it.
Black hair and black eyes—the coloring said to belong to the noble blood of the imperial house alone. Perhaps sensing kinship in that shared blood, several officials of imperial descent were already casting favorable glances Liu Bei's way. No doubt they counted her a powerful ally; they had all heard what she and her company had achieved at the Battle of Hulao Pass.
Laughable fools, the lot of them.
A faction of the imperial clan had hungered since days long past to keep the General-in-Chief in check. What, in heaven's name, did they find so distasteful about the man? Did they truly believe that if he ever set his mind to it, he could see them all dead at a moment's notice? A pointless fear. Provided they committed no crime of their own, they had nothing whatsoever to dread—the General-in-Chief was not a man who punished the innocent.
The Empress let her gaze drift to Guan Yu and Zhang Fei, who bowed in perfect form behind Liu Bei. Like the General-in-Chief himself, both wore black hair despite being no kin to the imperial house.
How truly remarkable.
Word had it that the three of them together had fought that General Lü Bu to a standstill. To the Empress—who had witnessed the general's martial might from afar, if nothing more—it was nothing short of astonishing.
"Liu Bei Xuande."
"Command me, Your Majesty."
Liu Bei answered the Empress's summons with impeccable courtesy.
"You too carry the blood of the imperial clan, do you not?"
"I do, Your Majesty. I am a distant descendant of Prince Jing of Zhongshan."
"Hmm..."
The Empress fell into brief thought, then gave an order to the official at her side.
"Bring it to me."
"At once, Your Majesty."
Though the Empress's command omitted its subject entirely, the attending official understood at once, as though it were second nature. Withdrawing briefly, she returned before long bearing a single document: the imperial genealogy, the written record of the dynasty's bloodlines.
There and then, the Empress paged through the genealogy line by line, verifying Liu Bei's lineage against it. For quite some time a deep silence settled over the palace, yet not a soul dared find it strange.
"...Hm."
The Empress, who had been tracing the characters with her fingertip, breathed a short exclamation, then shut the genealogy over her knee.
"So it is true."
A descendant of Liu Bang, Emperor Gaozu of Han. A descendant of Liu Zhen, Marquis of Lucheng—son born of a concubine to Liu Sheng, Prince Jing of Zhongshan.
"You are, then, truly of the imperial clan."
At the Empress's pronouncement, Liu Bei bowed lower still.
"I am deeply honored."
The Empress studied her a moment, then spoke with placid calm.
"The reason We have summoned you today is but one."
"..."
"Word has reached Us that you lately rescued the Inspector of Youzhou at the General-in-Chief's command."
The Empress cast a brief glance at Liu Yu, seated at her side. When the imperial gaze settled upon him, Liu Yu offered up a gentle, untroubled smile. Her eyes returned to Liu Bei.
"We have called you here to bestow a reward upon you for that service."
"..."
"Have you any objection?"
"None, Your Majesty."
Liu Bei gave her answer with due reverence, and the Empress nodded.
"Good. Now then—tell Us. Is there anything you desire?"
"If Your Majesty speaks of rewards..."
"An official post would serve. Wealth, likewise."
With that, the Empress leaned slightly forward on her throne, inclining her head toward Liu Bei.
"Or, failing that—do you perhaps desire the rights of the imperial clan? The right that might one day raise you to a vassal king?"
At so staggering an offer, the surrounding officials' eyes flew wide with shock.
As things stood, Liu Bei was indeed of imperial blood, yet she possessed not one of the privileges that bloodline should confer. A collateral branch of the dynasty, without a shred of real power to her name. And so, in all her life, Liu Bei had never once been able to leverage her lineage for gain.
"You understand as well as anyone, Liu Bei, what immense power it would mean for Us to recognize your rights as imperial kin."
"I do."
Liu Bei answered with her head slightly bowed.
"Then answer Us. What reward do you desire?"
From the Empress's standpoint, the question was a test.
Recognition of imperial rights was one thing in name; in an age of chaos such as this, it amounted to a hollow privilege whose true power had long since withered. And yet—precisely because the times were so disordered, those same rights could serve as a pretext for amassing strength. A mandate by which one might raise a faction all one's own. An official post, wealth—these the Empress could surrender with an easy heart. But if Liu Bei should ask for the rights of the imperial clan?
From that moment onward, the Empress intended to file Liu Bei away as a dangerous woman and pass a quiet word of warning to the General-in-Chief. The bare fact that Liu Bei had once stood against him already sat ill with her.
Empress and assembled officials alike fixed their gazes upon Liu Bei.
"I..."
Liu Bei opened her mouth slowly.
"I have need of nothing."
"Hm?"
At the answer no one had foreseen, a flicker of surprise crossed the Empress's face.
"I acted only to repay the kindness shown to me by the General-in-Chief. Beyond that, there is nothing else in this world I require."
"...Do you speak in earnest?"
"I do."
Had the woman sensed the snare lying in wait and slipped away like an eel? Or did she truly desire nothing at all? Gazing upon Liu Bei's serene, unhurried smile, the Empress sank deep into puzzlement.