Warlords Carving Up the Realm (2)
After the episode in which Dilu had so thoroughly lived up to her ill-omened name, I went back to my aimless wandering, with Lü Bu trailing at my heels.
The horse thief (well, former horse thief) was handed over to the guards who came hurrying at the commotion. As for Dilu, still stamping and snorting beside the corpse, the stable owner came running up, bowed low to Lü Bu, and led her home. I made a mental note to set Liu Bei up in a house with its own stable one of these days.
A murder, in the middle of a public street. The bystanders were visibly startled, but not one of them bolted screaming in panic. The ones with small children covered the children's eyes or scooped them into their arms and moved quickly out of the way, while the rest merely clicked their tongues at the thief (well, former thief) or picked up right where they'd left off—a remarkably thick-skinned lot. I supposed that in an age like this, where incidents like these happened constantly, the common folk had simply grown hardened to it all.
"They trust in the soldiers."
"Trust in them?"
Catching my grumbling train of thought, Zhang Jue went on.
"No matter how vicious a crime may be, they believe the soldiers patrolling the streets will protect them."
"Hmm..."
"General Lü herself patrols the streets whenever she can spare a moment."
"Oh, does she now?"
Lü Bu, walking beside me, caught our exchange and shot Zhang Jue a sidelong glance.
"Perhaps later on you might summon the general and formally commend her diligent—"
"Th-that's not what it is!"
Flustered, Lü Bu blurted her denial straight into the conversation. Zhang Jue smiled faintly at the reaction, her face the very picture of someone who already knew everything there was to know.
"...Of course. That is what the general insists."
"Right. Exactly what she insists."
"Yes."
I gave a small nod, happily playing along with Zhang Jue.
"I'm telling you, that's really all it is!"
Flustered or not, Lü Bu could protest all she liked; Zhang Jue and I simply looked at each other and laughed.
"My lord."
"What is it?"
Seo Yeo, who had been standing guard behind me, stepped close and spoke.
"Someone is watching us."
"What?"
"To be precise..."
Seo Yeo let the words trail off and turned her gaze toward Zhang Jue. Catching her meaning at once, I spoke up.
"You mean someone's watching Zhang Ye?"
"Yes."
At my question, phrased in Zhang Jue's assumed name, Seo Yeo nodded.
I turned to Lü Bu beside me.
"Lü Bu. Apparently so."
"..."
"You didn't notice?"
Lü Bu gave a slight shrug of her shoulders.
"I noticed. I just figured our paths happened to cross, that's all."
I nodded. To be fair, it hadn't been long since Lü Bu had joined our company. From where she stood, it must have looked like nothing more than coincidence: a route overlapping here and there, and a passerby staring in open wonder at the General-in-Chief strolling the streets like an ordinary man.
Seo Yeo, whose instincts ran far sharper than even Lü Bu's, must have taken her time confirming the tail before saying a word—there was no other explanation for the delay. And since she clearly had no intention of abandoning her post at my side, the errand naturally fell to the woman standing next to me.
"Go bring them here. Politely."
"And if they run for it?"
"Well, what can you do."
I went on, perfectly unbothered.
"Put them gently to sleep and toss them in a cell."
Anyone who actually ran was as good as confessing they had something to hide.
"Got it."
Lü Bu grinned and slipped away. Watching her melt into the crowd at what was nearly flight speed, I sank into thought.
Just who could be following us? A spy, most likely. Honestly, there was no real way to stop them—if someone walked in posing as an ordinary commoner, what could possibly screen them out? But a spy, almost by nature, ended up behaving suspiciously just like this. Slipping in was easy; walking back out unscathed was another matter entirely.
Our faction was the most talked-about in all the realm, and spies came pouring in from every direction. I arrested every last one I laid eyes on and wrung out of each of them which power had sent them—then recorded the whole lot, name by name, in what could only be called a Book of Grudges... well, something very much like one, anyway. If they were all so devotedly interested in our little enterprise, surely I would have to return every last one of them someday. And since a captured spy could, with the right handling, be turned into an agent within her former master's own camp, I poured an extra measure of zeal into the business of catching them.
Even back in my gaming days, nothing infuriated me like sabotage from within. The enemy is at the very gates, and suddenly—gate sabotage from the inside!—and the gates swing wide open. What could be more exasperating than that? It was an extreme example, perhaps, but every time internal treachery bit me, it soured my mood all the same.
Following that thread of thought, though, a question snagged me. A spy would want the real prizes—an army's size, the locations of military facilities, secrets worth carrying home. Why behave like this? Shadowing us through the streets would dig up nothing. Tail a handful of high-ranking figures out for a stroll, and there was simply no meaningful payoff to be had.
Just then, Lü Bu reappeared in front of me, stepping back out of the crowd she had vanished into.
"Got them."
"You got them?"
"They came along quietly, believe it or not."
When I showed my surprise, Lü Bu looked just as puzzled. And then I noticed that the Sky Piercer Halberd, normally hanging at her hip, was in her hand.
Had she put it to the woman's throat, perhaps? The point of the halberd hovering a hair's breadth from bare skin. Lü Bu glaring murder over it with blood-red eyes. And the unspoken promise: walk quietly with me, or die here. Yes—no one refuses that.
Having staged the whole scene out in my head, I nodded to myself in silent agreement.
"Come out."
"..."
At Lü Bu's word, a figure emerged from behind her: a woman, watching us with an unreadable light in her eyes.
"...Huh?"
Zhang Jue, seeing who Lü Bu had hauled back, looked openly startled.
I turned my head toward her.
"Someone you know?"
"...Mm. How should I put this..."
Zhang Jue looked genuinely troubled by the question. And then the woman Lü Bu had brought in murmured a single phrase.
"...Yin and Yang, and the Five Elements."
"..."
Zhang Jue's eyes flew wide open. A heartbeat later she narrowed them slightly and spoke.
"Yin and Yang commune as one; all things follow the law of the Five Elements."
...What?
No sooner had Zhang Jue produced those cryptic words than the woman before us returned another just as cryptic.
"Pursue tranquility and harmony; do good, and virtue shall be heaped upon you."
What was this, all of a sudden? Why were the two of them trading lines nobody else could follow? Lü Bu, evidently as lost as I was, wore a splendidly baffled expression, and while Seo Yeo kept her usual unreadable blankness, to my eye she hadn't understood a word of it either.
Having concluded their incomprehensible exchange, Zhang Jue breathed a small sigh and looked at me—she had clearly noticed the strange look I was giving them both.
"This isn't something to discuss out here. Might we move somewhere else?"
Curiosity thoroughly hooked, I had no choice but to nod.
"You've returned, my lord."
"I have."
Diaochan, having finished all her duties and come home ahead of me, greeted me with a graceful, formal bow.
"Show us to an empty room."
"At once."
Back at my residence, I followed Diaochan's guidance, settled the group into an unused room, and took my seat. Zhang Jue sat down beside me and looked my way.
"Might I ask the household staff to withdraw?"
"Is this really that sensitive?"
"Yes. Please."
That much was easy enough. I tipped my head at Diaochan, and she led every attendant out of the room.
"Well then. Shall we hear just what the situation is?"
"It's simple."
Zhang Jue smiled at me and continued.
"She is one of the generals who served under me, back when I led the Yellow Turban Army."
"...The Yellow Turban Army?"
"Yes. The Yellow Turbans."
I blinked at her.
"Didn't you say no one would recognize your face?"
"...I can't speak for strangers, but her close circle would have seen through it at a glance."
The answer came, unexpectedly, from the still-nameless woman herself. I turned to her.
"Come to think of it, I never did catch your name. What do they call you?"
"Gwan Hae."
"Gwan Hae?"
Now why did that name ring a bell? I drummed my fingers against my knee, digging through memory.
"Zhang Jue. What manner of person is she?"
"Hmm... She was with me from the earliest days of the Yellow Turbans, and..."
Zhang Jue let her words trail off for a moment.
"She fights very, very well."
"Fights well, you say?"
"Yes."
And with those words, I could finally place exactly who Gwan Hae was. The Siege of Beihai—the very battle in which Taishi Ci and Liu Bei's party first crossed paths. When Kong Rong's forces collided with the Yellow Turbans, it was this woman who led the Turban host. In Romance of the Three Kingdoms, she crossed blades with Guan Yu herself for dozens of exchanges—easily one of the more memorable figures among the Yellow Turban remnants.
And just what caliber of warrior was Guan Yu, in that novel? The one who cut Hua Xiong down with a single stroke, beheaded Yan Liang with one blow, and put Wen Chou to flight in a mere three exchanges before running her down and killing her besides. Gwan Hae did die at Guan Yu's hand in the end—but the very fact that she had traded dozens of blows with such a monster already marked her as anything but ordinary.
I looked at Gwan Hae and spoke.
"I take it you have business with Zhang Jue?"
"...I do."
At my question, Gwan Hae answered with all the courtesy she could muster.
Hmm. Well, I was curious. No harm in hearing her out.
"Do as you like."
"Thank you."
With my permission granted, Zhang Jue broke into a bright smile.