Chapter 20
-----------------------------------------------------------------
Translator: volt
Chapter Title: The Traitor's Last Breath
-----------------------------------------------------------------
In the past, I once exchanged words with my master on a certain matter.
"Disciple. What do you believe is an unforgivable evil?"
"Murder."
Before enlisting, I answered with what I considered the gravest sin I had suffered.
"And those who casually take another's life can surely be called villains."
In my previous life, I plummeted to my death from an airplane.
Whether it was turbulence or a maintenance failure, I can't say.
Accident or murder—there's no way for me to know.
But in this era, though I wasn't killed myself, I witnessed my family stripped of their lives.
Bandits took my parents from me.
Though the time I spent honoring them as my parents was far shorter than in my previous life, they loved me with all their hearts.
Having endured it, I can state even more firmly.
It is a death that can never be tolerated.
"Indeed. Murder must never be allowed. Of course not. And yet... there are far too many in this world who need to be told even such obvious truths."
My master, cherishing me like a father, repeated this to me time and again.
"This era deems something even more unforgivable than murder."
There was a disconnect between my thinking and the ways of this age.
"What could that be?"
"Is there a crime graver than murder?"
"Yes. In truth, when you get right down to it, they punish it more thoroughly and cruelly than even those who commit murder. Sometimes to the point of exterminating entire clans."
"Ah."
I'd seen that phrase in historical dramas I watched with my father.
"Treason, then."
"Exactly."
Treason. Rebellion.
"Since this land was unified under one dynasty centuries ago, there have been countless plots of treason. Yet the imperial house has always strived to suppress them before they fully ignite."
"Because if they surpass that stage, it becomes a dynastic revolution?"
"Precisely. Though you shouldn't speak so lightly of it... well, I'll let it slide this time. That's not the point."
My master would sometimes overlook my slips when the matter was truly grave.
"Disciple. Never become a traitor. It will drag not just you, but your friends, family, acquaintances, subordinates, and everyone you love into death."
"Is it just a matter of watching my words? So no one can say, 'That bastard's finally revealed his traitorous heart!'"
"No."
My master denied it.
"If you pretend utter ignorance of court etiquette, they'll let it pass. Some might try to teach you, as I did, but if you stubbornly insist, 'I'm just some ignorant fool,' they'll eventually give up and warn you not to cross the line."
"That sounds convenient."
"Don't say you'll never learn it at all. Tch. Here I go nagging again. Anyway, what I caution you against isn't your actions so much as..."
My master pointed at me.
"...when man-killing beasts try to frame you—a righteous walker of the straight path—as a rebel and put you to death."
"Are they mad?"
"What if those madmen are the lofty figures you sometimes speak of?"
"......"
I knew.
"It would be difficult. Grueling."
That one person cannot overcome an entire state.
"I hesitate to call it impossible—it wounds my pride—but I know reality. If one man could topple those lofty ones, you wouldn't be here, Master."
"Hahaha! Buttering up your master's face, eh? But it's a sad tale too. Even I ended up fleeing to my hometown, unable to bear my name openly because of those lofty ones."
One man cannot defy a nation.
"Do you know of the Overlord of Western Chu?"
"Xiang Yu? I looked him up and studied after you mentioned him. To avoid his fate."
"Good."
Even if such a being existed, it's impossible in this era.
"The Overlord of Western Chu died in the end. You may surpass him in virtue, character, and valor, but precisely because of that, there are things one 'individual' cannot bear."
No matter how much I cultivate my martial prowess, if soldiers charge at me with death in their eyes until my last breath, I will die.
Exhausted, pierced by a blind arrow.
Or if the enemy wages a war of attrition, denying me water and sleep until I collapse from overwork.
Or when all my men fall to the foe, and I flee alone by boat down the river, only to hurl myself into its depths.
"So hide yourself, cultivate your strength, and prepare for the day the sun shines upon you."
Like a plant sprouting underground before raising its head above the soil.
"A blade hidden in one's sleeve will one day be revealed."
In the end, the day will come when I tangle with those lofty ones.
Both my master and I believed so.
"And you're no mere blade—you're a spear, and more."
"Someone will brand me a traitor in the end. Even if I commit no wrong. Right?"
"Yes. In their eyes... they might think so."
My master pointed to the heavens, then the earth.
"In the flow of this era. Perhaps in the chaos to come. Any who defy their order are defying the natural way—and that is treason."
"......"
"Avoid treason at all costs. Not just for your sake, but because being entangled in it is even worse."
As he spoke, my master's voice trembled faintly.
"No matter how you cry your innocence, no matter how spotless you are before heaven, they will swing the blade under the name of treason and slaughter all."
In that moment, my master looked profoundly lonely—especially sorrowful.
"Then, Master, if innocents die while we follow the natural order those in power preach, what should we do?"
"There are two paths."
My master imparted his teaching upon me.
"One is to accept it as the natural way, the reason of the world, reality itself."
With the hope that I would not take it.
"The other..."
With the wish that I would walk the path he could not.
"...is to wield such overwhelming power that you upend their heaven and earth, taking the reins of order yourself."
Overwhelming power.
"Teach those man-killing beasts that their cries of 'treason' are no order at all—that defying justice is their crime."
With that power, my master hoped one thing of me.
"May the one who pursues virtue, proclaims justice, and walks the path of righteousness and chivalry safeguard the order of heaven and earth."
Advocating good.
Punishing evil.
"So that no wicked beast dares harm you or your kin."
"Release me, you beast!!"
Curses echo through the air.
"You ungrateful wretch! Release me! What right do I have to be treated like a prisoner!"
Though curses should never be flung lightly anywhere, it's especially egregious considering this is the imperial palace.
"Release me, I said! Do you not recognize your own father?!"
By the words alone, one might think I was some illegitimate spawn.
"Your words go too far."
I addressed the old man whose neck I pinned from behind with a blade straight out of a folk museum prison.
"Why claim to be my father?"
"Y-You?! Have you truly lost your mind!"
"The mad one is you. Governor Ding Yuan."
As blood trickled from his mouth, Ding Yuan tried to rise, but I pressed down on the wide blade at his neck with my foot, holding him fast.
"Gahk!"
"I'll ask. Where is this place?"
Preventing him from standing, I gestured to left and right.
"Over the past few days, countless eunuchs have died right here."
This was the execution ground.
Tucked in the most desolate corner of the palace, yet in recent days, it had claimed innumerable heads.
"Since the day of the upheaval, hordes of eunuchs and their cronies have been beheaded here and exposed in the streets. The Ten Attendants and their ilk, down to every last underling."
On the day of the chaos, eunuchs died in droves.
And after them fell, no kin remained to mourn them.
Their families, too, were dragged here solely for sharing blood and butchered en masse.
"The number slain here up to yesterday rivals those who perished on the upheaval's day."
The air reeked of blood.
Only a downpour from the heavens might wash it away, but instead, the stench festered like pooling gore.
Foul.
Though only one man would die here today, the stench assaulted my nose with excessive force.
"Criminal Ding Yuan, hear this."
"Who dares call me criminal! Me, the Governor of Bing Province and Colonel Who Arranges the Sequence?!"
"By imperial decree, I pronounce your crimes."
No need for another to recite them.
"You disguised soldiers as Black Mountain Bandits to slaughter and burn innocent commoners, fabricating cause to mobilize troops into the capital."
The sin was no longer memorized in my head—it boiled in my chest.
"How could I follow as kin to one who commits such acts?"
Across history, the massacre of civilians is an unforgivable crime.
No grand justification erases the question "Was it truly necessary?"—and he did it to worm into the capital's power center.
"Governor Ding Yuan. You betrayed our Bing Province Army of seven thousand—and all the people of Bing Province."
Ding Yuan was Bing Province's steward.
"Now blood winds will scour Bing Province. Orders will come to root out you traitors and your confederates, slaughtering you all."
Such a Ding Yuan committing treason—surely not alone.
"How many will die? Curious, aren't you? Some might cast suspicions."
For political maneuvering.
"Oh, the seven thousand Bing Province troops all joined the treason—slay them all to show the majesty of the law."
"Th-That's...!"
"What? Want to die together? Or drag us down with you?"
The treason's ringleader.
And his seven thousand underlings.
"Are you saying our Bing Province Army are your private troops, sworn not to the state but to Ding Jianyang himself—rebel minions?"
Even if Ding Yuan didn't say it, those who saw us as thorns in their side would spin the tale to kill us.
Dong Zhuo, Yuan Shao, or perhaps another faction.
Strong as the Bing Province Army was, loyal to the state not private cliques, they might view us as yet another power.
"We are not your private troops."
"G-Grrr...!!"
"We soldiers move by the sole command of His Imperial Majesty—not you."
Kraaack.
"Why should we die with you? We took no part in treason."
"K-Kaaah!!"
A slight pressure from my foot crumpled the kneeling Ding Yuan's frame.
"Had we known you harbored treason and meant to raise troops, not one of our Bing Province Army would have followed."
I hadn't come here to become a traitor and turn to morning dew on the execution ground.
Nor had Zhang Liao, nor the six thousand Bing Province troops.
"No regrets? For the thousand Bing Province troops who followed you innocently?"
The Bing Province Army had split.
One: the six thousand in the camp outside the capital under my command.
The other: the thousand who entered with Ding Yuan.
"Some among them truly shared your traitorous heart."
Among that thousand, some were fellow rebels, but others merely obeyed their Governor of Bing Province.
"What of those who came to the capital seeking office, dreaming of glory and fame? No pity for them?"
"Sh-Shut your mouth...!!"
Ding Yuan's neck veins bulged as he spat fury at me.
"I promoted you! Without me, you'd never have joined the Bing Province Army!!"
Perhaps because we were at the execution ground.
Or kneeling like a condemned man.
"You've lost your mind."
Bit by bit, the man called Ding Yuan was crumbling before my eyes.
"Ah, yes. I'll grant you that."
In the life of soldier Lü Fengxian, his start as an official was indeed tied to Ding Yuan.
Ding Yuan recommends Lü Bu.
The official Lü Bu's beginnings were thus.
"Though it's a tale over ten years old now, I enlisted in Bing Province not just because it's my homeland, but because my master lived there at the time."
I chose Bing Province, not Ding Yuan.
"Had my master urged another post, or passed before then, I'd have become Lü Fengxian of Ji Province—or You Province."
"Wh-What?!"
"You Province. Fine land."
Had I gone to Ji, perhaps I'd have served under Liu Yu, then governor there.
If he soured, I'd have rallied like-minded warriors, formed a volunteer corps, and swept bandits.
"Is Bing the only place to enlist? Or do you think I rose this far only because of Bing? True, I worked harder there than elsewhere."
To reclaim barren lands, I toiled without cease.
Not for Ding Yuan.
"You misunderstand. I enlisted in Bing not to fight under you, but to show my master in his final years that I had joined the world as a soldier."
My master worried for me until his dying breath.
Worried I'd cause trouble after enlisting.
I wouldn't die beaten somewhere, but might butt heads with the lofty, defying orders.
Acting against this era's order and heavenly way.
"My master passed seeing me live soundly as a soldier."
If a disciple is like a child.
"Helping him close his eyes in peace, without worry, was a disciple's duty—and repayment for his grace."
My master departed reassured, seeing his child had foundations to live by his teachings without unjust death.
"I'd have observed three years' mourning if I could, but he forbade it."
I stayed by his deathbed to the end.
"He said not to wail at his grave for three years, but go where you belong. Use that time to save those you can protect."
And so, as Bing Province's soldier, I exterminated bandits and saved countless souls.
"I will heed his final words and save those I can protect."
I heft the Fangtian Halberd.
"Ding Yuan."
I aim the Fangtian Halberd.
"Killing you alone will save me, seven thousand soldiers, and Bing Province's people."
"Y-You bastard!!"
Ding Yuan bellowed in rage.
"Wretched spawn! I cherished you like a son! I granted every whim! Drilling wells in barren land, soothing troops—I approved. Mobilizing soldiers to build homes for refugees—I allowed!"
"......"
"Do you know how much flak I took from underlings each time I indulged your mad requests?! I didn't birth or raise you, but since you became a man and official, I pushed you up, carried you here!!"
"......"
"Had you just obeyed me quietly, by now you'd be...!!"
"Is that your dying wish?"
No more words needed.
"I, Lü Fengxian, for old ties' sake, offer you final respects on your last road."
Whoooosh.
Wind stirs the execution ground.
"A new governor comes to Bing Province. Far younger than you, far more reasonable, virtuous, and renowned. He will defend it."
"Kh-Khuh...!!"
Bloodshot eyes glare, growling at me.
"Bing Province will become a better place to live. Remote as it is, it will transform into a land all desire."
I will make it so.
"For now, I remain in the palace by Dowager Dong's command, becoming the young prince's archery master. The troops stay in Luoyang's camps, deployed to rebuild the Mengjin area you torched."
"Ha...! You too crave power in the end...!"
"It's the only path to our survival now."
Because of whom.
"I don't fancy dying as traitors alongside some great lord. We must find realistic ways to live."
"......"
"Tch. 'The guilty are one thing, those cleaning them up another'—that's the world's way, they say."
Ding Yuan fell silent.
"No one in Bing Province will remember your name. All will cheer the new governor fervently."
"......"
"Your name will no longer echo on this earth. So..."
I raise the Fangtian Halberd high.
"One last question. What is the name of the man who executes you?"
"Y-You damned... bastard Lü Bu...!"
"Lü Bu. Yes."
I infuse the Fangtian Halberd with power and intent.
"I am no son of yours."
"......!!"
"I am Lü Bu, not Ding Bu—why call you father?!"
Ding Yuan shuddered violently.
"Honoring you as father mocks my true parents who birthed and raised me. How could I commit such filial impiety?!"
As if shot by an arrow, his eyes rolled back, body quaking.
"Farewell..."
Thud.
Ding Yuan collapsed sideways, head smacking the ground.
The motion was so natural, it seemed no feigned faint—but true collapse.
"...Passed out from exhaustion? Won't save your neck..."
Ding Yuan breathed no more.
Eyes open, yet utterly still.
"......"
Dark red blood oozed from his slightly parted lips.
#189 AD. Amid talks of changing the reign era from Guanghe to Chuping.
After the Ten Attendants' downfall.
Bing Province Governor Ding Yuan.
Disguised soldiers as Black Mountain Bandits to arson near the capital, inciting unrest. Captured by Lü Bu, dragged to the execution ground.
Cause of death: pent-up rage.
Heaven's punishment?
Or the grudge of Mengjin's wronged people?
Or heaven's warning, lest Lü Bu's Fangtian Halberd be stained by such blood?
On the verge of execution.
Ding Yuan died.
Unofficial histories say.
Merely seconds before Lü Bu swung, Ding Yuan collapsed without even a proper last word.
Posterity speculates cerebral hemorrhage from hypertension.
Ding Yuan, deceased.
It was summer.