Hidden Tiger (3)
My first morning at the Sima estate.
Sima Fang had shown me to the finest guest room in his residence, so I slept soundly, without so much as a restless turn.
The moment I opened my eyes, I found Lü Bu sitting beside me, staring blankly down at my face.
"...You awake?"
"Yeah."
I nodded at her question. When she'd insisted that, since she'd come along in her capacity as my bodyguard, she had to stay in the same room, I'd simply told her to do as she pleased.
…
I turned my head slightly and found Seo Yeo, just like Lü Bu, gazing at me in silence from behind.
Honestly, this is a lot of pressure.
The thought that they'd spent the entire night watching over sleeping habits I didn't even know I had was a touch embarrassing. They could have stood guard outside, so I chose to believe they hadn't come into the room to fulfill some personal desire of their own.
…
…
When I looked back and forth between Seo Yeo and Lü Bu with exactly that meaning in my eyes, the two of them slowly averted their gazes.
What the hell.
Just what desires did they come in here to satisfy?
"Pardon the intrusion."
While I was staring at the two of them just as they had stared at me all night, a servant of the Sima household appeared.
"Have you been waiting for me to wake?"
"I have, my lord."
"...Right."
I rose from my seat, worked the stiffness out of my body, and started walking.
"Tell Sima Fang I'll come find him once preparations are complete."
"As you command."
The servant bowed with due courtesy and withdrew.
The moment I stepped out of the room, I caught a faint glimpse of purple hair in the distance.
…
A girl wearing an adorable ribbon headband, as if to insist to anyone who doubted it that she was still a child. The instant I appeared so abruptly, she scurried from her spot and put a healthy distance between us.
It was obvious Sima Yi was avoiding me outright, and I found myself agonizing over what to do about it.
Should I just follow the example of Cao Cao in the original history and present her with that hellish ultimatum—serve, or go to prison?
In actual history, Sima Yi turned down official appointment again and again with one excuse after another, until Cao Cao finally decreed that if she refused the offer this time as well, she would simply be locked away. And the record says that Sima Yi, knowing full well that Cao Cao really would do such a thing, went pale at the order and at last took office.
For someone who avoided work so desperately, once she actually held the post, she worked like a demon.
…
A distance too close to call far, and too far to call close. Holding that ambiguous gap, Sima Yi poked her head out just far enough to observe us once, then vanished completely around the corner.
Seeing that, she didn't seem to outright dislike me, at least.
Well, nothing to be done about it.
"Jia Xu."
"Yes."
Jia Xu had somehow already settled into place at my side. She may have been staying in the next room, but could she truly have heard me leave mine? In this world, anyone with exceptional ability seemed to possess senses running on an entirely different plane from ordinary folk, so I resolved not to dwell on it.
"I'm changing the schedule. We'll be staying here for a while."
"Understood."
Even faced with the abrupt revision, Jia Xu accepted the order calmly, without a hint of question.
"What for? Why the sudden change?"
Lü Bu came up beside me while Jia Xu was summoning messengers and dispatching them this way and that.
"Got to recruit talent, don't I?"
"...That little squirt?"
Lü Bu's brow creased slightly, as if she were picturing Sima Yi. Look at her, calling someone a runt just because she happened to be a hair taller.
"You've come here pretty often, you know. Don't tell me it's because of her?"
"It is."
I nodded in the affirmative at her question. I had been visiting the Sima family often since long ago, working to deepen our ties and get close to Sima Yi through every effort I could muster.
I'd hit it off with her younger siblings, but Sima Yi alone kept her distance from me. Aside from the eldest, Sima Lang, born early enough to already pass for a grown woman, they were all little children, so I'd waded in brimming with confidence...
...and now it felt as though the self-assurance in child-rearing that had soared while caring for the orphans in Bing Province was taking another nosedive.
Just as I was starting to sulk a little, Lü Bu spoke up.
"The way she's acting right now? I don't think it's gonna work."
"Still, if I keep showing her I'm sincere, she'll come around eventually."
After all, isn't there one anecdote that anyone with an interest in the Three Kingdoms knows by heart?
Three Visits to the Thatched Cottage.
The idiom for patiently, persistently striving to win talent to one's side. A famous four-character phrase born from Liu Bei calling on Zhuge Liang three times to recruit him.
Paying a visit to someone's door was well within even my abilities, so I might as well do at least that much. Henei was also remarkably close to Luoyang, so setting aside time to call on the Sima estate was no burden at all.
...Though I'm pretty sure I blew past three visits a long time ago.
They were the Eight Da of Sima, after all—so let's just multiply three by eight and agree that anything up to twenty-four visits was acceptable.
"Doesn't that get tiresome?"
"Something like this doesn't bother me in the least."
I shook my head at Lü Bu's question.
"If I keep at it ten times, a hundred times, it'll work out someday, won't it?"
"...Haah."
Perhaps my answer struck her as utterly hopeless, because Lü Bu heaved out a sigh. Then, sighing, she fixed an unreadable gaze on the corner where Sima Yi had disappeared.
"What's over there?"
"It's nothing."
When I asked, looking at her, Lü Bu gave a slight shake of her head and shut her mouth.
For some reason, I could have sworn I'd just glimpsed a flash of purple hair.
I asked Sima Fang for permission to remain here for a while. Had he refused, I planned to lodge in a nearby village, but fortunately he readily granted it.
"I shall do my utmost to ensure that nothing is wanting in our service to you."
"Take it easy. I mean it—take it easy."
Put in modern terms, Sima Fang was far too by-the-book, so I gave him a clear hint that moderation was perfectly acceptable.
"But then the dignity of the General-in-Chief would..."
"Enough."
When Sima Fang opened his mouth to object, I cut him short.
"Do I look like a man who nitpicks every little thing?"
"...No, my lord."
"Then that settles it."
Having been warned this firmly, Sima Fang surely wouldn't drive his household staff too hard either.
"Being too strict with one's own family can, at times, prove to be poison."
…
"Well... I suppose it might look laughable, coming from a man without a single child of his own."
"How could I ever harbor such a thought?"
"Then I'm grateful."
With that said, I rose and left the room.
"You need not follow me. Attend to your duties."
"I am grateful."
Sima Fang raised his clasped hands in a courteous salute and bowed.
So—what to do now?
I had decided on impulse to stay longer, but I had no real means of getting closer to Sima Yi. Sima Fu, a year her junior, warmed up to me easily enough if I approached her like a small child, but Sima Yi was a different story.
Should I call her an old soul in a young body? Compared to other children her age, something about Sima Yi's values was simply askew.
"...Um, excuse me."
As I stepped into the corridor and sank into thought, a faintly familiar voice reached my ears.
"Hm?"
When I lifted my head, the very reason I was staying here stood before my eyes.
A cute headband with long ribbons at either side. Loose hair that just brushed her waist. The violet hair said to be the special mark of the Sima bloodline. And even amethyst eyes, said to appear only rarely even within the Sima family.
Sima Yi Zhongda—the squirt—all of twelve years old this year, was staring straight at me from mere steps away.
"Me, I mean?"
"Yes."
This was the first time Sima Yi had ever approached me first, so I must have worn a rather dazed expression.
"What is it?"
…
At my question, Sima Yi closed her eyes for a moment, drew a deep breath as though steeling herself, and then opened her mouth.
"Would you... care to play a game of Go with me?"
"Go?"
I nodded at her invitation.
"I don't mind, but I'm absolutely terrible at it."
"That doesn't matter."
"Then by all means."
Sima Yi, who had done nothing but dodge me until now, had come to me of her own accord. Could I consider us somewhat close at last? Sincerity really does get through in the end, I thought, a fond warmth spreading across my face.
"This spot should do nicely."
A room with a clear view of the courtyard. Following Sima Yi, who had settled herself there, I took a seat in a convenient spot, and the match began.
As if by prior agreement, the two of us played fast. The moment I set down a black stone after brief deliberation, Sima Yi answered with a white one, placed without a hint of hesitation, as though she had foreseen my move.
Once that way. Twice. Three times...
…
Oh no.
Without my noticing, the game had already tilted decisively in Sima Yi's favor. I'd expected to lose, but not to be crushed this badly.
I shook my head and spoke.
"I surrender."
"...This is seriously..."
Whoa, whoa. Shut that mouth right now!
Having witnessed my skill, Sima Yi clearly had plenty she wanted to say—her lips kept working—but she couldn't quite force the words out.
An attitude containing not one shred of courtesy toward the General-in-Chief. Any ordinary General-in-Chief of this era would have flown into a rage, but I, at least, was not one. Knowing her, she had probably seen straight through that about me, which was exactly why she dared behave this way.
"...Let's play one more."
"Sure."
After mulling something over for a moment, Sima Yi offered a rematch. One more loss hardly concerned me at this point, so I agreed without fuss.
And so, game two.
…
Steamrolled again.
This time I tried thinking differently and placed my stones in unfamiliar territory, only for the board to tilt against me even faster.
Watching my play, Sima Yi finally couldn't hold it in and muttered under her breath.
"You really are terrible at this."
"Ahem."
Confronted with the truth, I gave a sheepish cough. I'd tell Jia Xu everything later and have her scold the girl on my behalf.
If this were the grown Sima Yi of the future, perhaps—but for now, Jia Xu was the one beating the child.
Even so, the distance between Sima Yi and me seemed to have shrunk by leaps and bounds, and I put on a thoroughly satisfied expression.