Chapter 25
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Translator: volt
Chapter Title: Farewell to the Emperor
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I'm flustered.
So incredibly flustered.
All the civil and military officials worth mentioning are crowding around me, and leading them is the emperor himself, who has stepped down from the throne to bar my path.
"Your Majesty."
"Are you truly leaving?"
The emperor gazes up at me.
He'd grown a bit taller since before, but his ill-fitting imperial crown still only came up to about my solar plexus.
"Your Majesty."
I dropped to one knee before the emperor.
It felt awkward to go down on both, so I knelt on one knee and bowed my head toward him.
"I am but a warrior. A guardian of the frontiers, and the blade of my Fangtian Halberd forever points toward the bandits."
"General."
The emperor's voice trembled as he addressed me.
I couldn't bring myself to look him straight in the eye, but I could clearly sense the gazes fixed on me from all around.
-He's just putting on an act.
-He's clearly trying to head back to Bing Province over and over to win the emperor's favor.
-Does he think he'll become Left General like that? No, actual Grand General?
Contemptuous stares directed at me.
-If Lü Bu leaves, Dong Zhuo will rise to power. Then who will check him with force?
-We can rest easy with Lü Bu around. At least he keeps the public order in check.
Gazes seeking to use me.
So many eyes upon me—if glares could pierce like arrows, I'd be a porcupine riddled with dozens, hundreds of them.
"General Lü."
Even.
"His Majesty is making a request of you."
Empress Dowager Dong herself, furrowing her brows at me from behind the emperor.
-The court is full of jackals. You may have the strength to take on a thousand bandits single-handedly, but you won't easily handle the three-inch tongues of ten court ministers.
My master's words echoed in my mind.
-Bandits aim for your throat and heart, but the court's attacks target your loyalty, conscience, and humanity.
I wasn't sure if it was because people were pressing close, but a stench unique to the unwashed assaulted my nose.
Foul odor.
Not just from bodies, but the malice seeping from twisted hearts manifesting as a smell.
"General..."
Only.
"Are you really set on leaving for Bing Province?"
Just one person—the emperor alone—looked at me with innocent eyes.
"Your Majesty."
I lifted my head to face him.
"Bing Province winters are harsh. The bandits, the Xiongnu, the Black Mountain hordes—they'll plunder Your Majesty's subjects to fill their starving bellies."
"General."
"Your Majesty is the father of all the people, and I... I go to save Your Majesty's children..."
I clasped my hands together and bowed my head to him once more.
"I seek leave from the court, if only for a time."
"For a time...?"
I emphasized it deliberately.
"Yes. How could I defy Your Majesty's command?"
"Not a command—a request...!"
"Command me, then, Your Majesty, as Lü Fengxian."
I bowed deeply once more to the emperor.
"To exterminate the frontier bandits threatening Your Majesty's children, until the cold winter passes and spring breezes infiltrate the palace once more."
"..."
"When spring winds brush Luoyang and peach blossoms scatter. Should Your Majesty ever call for Lü Fengxian, I shall cross the Yellow River on foot if need be and come running at once."
"General..."
The stares around me brimmed with efforts to make me stay by any means.
"Promise me."
"Your Majesty! General Lü...!"
"In the name of the emperor, I command you."
In this land, the emperor is paramount.
"This winter, proceed to Bing Province and fulfill your duty as a soldier, General Lü."
"As you command."
An imperial decree.
"...General. I am saddened. If you leave..."
"I am saddened as well. How could a child not grieve at leaving their parents' side?"
"..."
"Yet Your Majesty's children—my brothers—in the frontiers suffer. I go to aid them."
"And if, if you do not return...!"
"Your Majesty."
I stated firmly.
"Would it be filial for a child to abandon their parents? That is unfilial, a betrayal of duty. Lü Bu shall serve Your Majesty with filial piety."
Lü Bu.
"Should Your Majesty call, Lü Bu will fold the earth itself to reach you in a single step."
I am no unfilial son.
...
A short while later.
The imperial edict was issued.
I returned the seal of the Cavalry Commander before all eyes and paid my ritual respects to the emperor.
At that moment, in the secluded quarters of a certain manor.
"I've brought one piece of good news and one piece of bad."
Someone approached Yuan Shao, a young man sipping tea alone in the room, and spoke.
"Benchu. Which first?"
"Mengde."
Yuan Shao, dressed in court robes, pointed to his own attire as he regarded Cao Cao seated across from him.
"Did you come to hear my take on court affairs from a sickbed patient?"
Unlike Cao Cao, Yuan Shao wore plain white garments more suited to an invalid.
"I wouldn't think you so lacking in decorum."
"I know of your illness and brought the prescription. That makes it perfectly decorous."
"And what is my illness?"
"Malingering."
"..."
"Hahaha! Who in the realm could outdo this Cao Mengde at feigning illness? When you pretend to be sick, you have to make it real. It's not enough to just parch your lips."
Cao Cao giggled, pointing at Yuan Shao's lips.
"Who doesn't know that? I've been at it for six years."
"...Heh heh. Or were you faking illness to lure someone out? If so, my regrets. To spare you further wasted effort, I should share the news quickly."
Cao Cao tapped the table with his finger.
"Good news first. Lü Bu is leaving for Bing Province. Oh, what a spectacle it was. I truly regret you missed it."
"...You're joking."
Yuan Shao scowled in irritation.
"Would the emperor let Lü Bu go?"
"Lü Bu got the emperor's personal permission."
"...What is that man thinking?"
"Noble thoughts!"
Cao Cao laughed heartily, slapping the table.
"A paragon of loyalty in this world! He could linger vaguely in the palace and become Grand General, yet he kicks away all glory and wealth to return to the frontiers of his own accord!"
"...I can't comprehend it."
"Right? Neither you nor I can grasp him. He's cut from entirely different cloth than the likes of us."
"...Tch."
Yuan Shao slowly lifted his cup.
His hand bore a healthy flush, far from that of a sick man.
"If I'd known, I should have pushed through that marriage back then."
"Marriage? ...Ah, yes. We were nearly blood brothers once. But that's ancient history, isn't it? Back when the Yellow Turbans were rampaging."
"Had Yuan family embraced him more aggressively then, Dong Zhuo never would have gained power in the court."
"And you'd have taken Dong Zhuo's place. Forget the past. No use dwelling on it endlessly—it just festers."
Cao Cao kept smirking as he refilled his empty cup.
"Heh heh. What a shame. If Lü Bu had a daughter, we could have become in-laws."
"...Just tell me the bad news."
"The bad news, naturally."
Cao Cao merely filled his cup and stared into it as he continued.
"General Lü is leaving the court."
"..."
"No need to spell it out? Without Lü Bu, Dong Zhuo has free rein to rampage."
"He knows that and leaves anyway?"
"It's not Dong Zhuo he trusts—it's the imperial house and the ministers great and small of this realm."
Cao Cao fiddled with his cup, closing his eyes.
"The court was in uproar from the Ten Attendants' chaos, with emperors changing twice in a year. Another change now? Unthinkable by any common sense."
"Does power ever heed common sense?"
"True. It's not sensible. Before raw power, all crumbles."
Cao Cao downed his cup in one gulp.
"Friend. As your companion, one bitter truth."
"Just once, Aman."
"Some things must never come to light."
"What?"
"The Black Swallow."
"..."
Yuan Shao's eyes narrowed.
"The Black Mountain Swallow—obviously him."
Cao Cao ignored Yuan Shao's glare, twirling his empty cup in his hand.
"Since when did Cao Cao take to metaphors and circumlocutions?"
"Out of regard for you. Why? Shall I be blunt?"
"Try it. Yes, what of the Black Swallow?"
"You've secretly joined hands with Black Mountain Bandit Chief Zhang Yan."
Clang!
"Nonsense!"
"Utter nonsense. Rumors swirling about you—that the Black Swallow frequents the Yuan estate. Your reaction... heh heh. No, no. I won't press further."
Cao Cao quietly set down his empty cup.
"News floods in from everywhere. Those sent to Xiliang never returned; those to Jizhou took bribes and spied against us. Only from Bing Province do messengers return with reports."
"..."
"He Jin became a traitor. One trigger for Empress He Dowager's fall was her ties to him, and He Jin's treason stemmed from Black Mountain disguises. Ding Yuan burned Mengjin on He Jin's orders."
Cao Cao pushed the empty cup toward Yuan Shao.
"Who suggested He Jin's scheme?"
"...Who knows."
Yuan Shao personally lifted the flask and filled Cao Cao's cup.
"I know nothing of it. Even if accused, it's mere slander."
"Even with Dong Zhuo hunting the culprit?"
"..."
The liquor sloshed over as he filled the cup.
"He Jin's men have gone under Dong Zhuo. No Lü Bu to hold him back—he'll purge opposition in earnest now. He's minded Lü Bu until now, but with Lü Bu gone of his own will, what will Dong Zhuo do?"
"So, our Aman plans to become Dong Zhuo's dog?"
"Hahaha!!"
Cao Cao slammed his full cup down.
"Would this Cao Cao become that pig's dog?!"
Liquor splashed onto Yuan Shao's face, but he calmly wiped it with his sleeve.
"Eunuch spawn or not, this Cao Cao knows right from wrong. If Dong Zhuo lives up to the rumors..."
Gulp, gulp.
"I'll march into his bedchamber and kill him myself."
"Anyone hearing would think you and Lü Bu twin paragons of loyalty."
"If Dong Zhuo truly revels in murder and plunder, came to Luoyang to seize the court and wreak havoc."
Cao Cao emptied his cup and raised it to the heavens with one hand.
"In this land's history, Cao Mengde's name shall endure as the loyalist who slew traitor Dong Zhuo!"
"...Doubtful. I see it differently."
"Differently?"
"Wang Mang, Dong Zhuo, and Cao Cao's name—"
"You bastard!!"
Crash.
The cup rolled across the table.
"How dare a so-called friend equate Wang Mang and Cao Cao?!"
"..."
"Remember this. I spare you as a friend. Had I seen you not as kin but some Xun Yu sort, I'd have run to Lü Bu this instant and denounced you as the one scheming Black Mountain disguises."
"...I spare you as a friend, too."
Yuan Shao wiped the remaining liquor from the other side of his face with his sleeve.
"Have you been swayed by Lü Bu too?"
"Why? Grieved that the pure-stream dignitaries flock to Lü Bu, ignoring bloodied Yuan Shao?"
"You too, no?"
"Me? Eunuch spawn anyway, turbid-stream in their eyes."
Cao Cao pushed back his chair and stood.
"Don't see me out. Word of bidding farewell to a patient would ruin Cao Mengde's face."
"Aman. Last question."
"What?"
"His Majesty is young."
"..."
"The deposed Hongnong King was too young, swayed by Empress He Dowager. And the current emperor?"
"Who knows."
Cao Cao waved his empty hand dismissively.
"Not even twenty yet—must watch and see. I was a wild thing myself at your age, Aman."
"..."
"Men mature past twenty. Guide him well till then. And... heh heh, what son casts out his father?"
"...Take care."
"Yes. Hope next we meet, you're hale."
Yuan Shao saw Cao Cao off without rising.
"...When he grows into a man."
Yuan Shao quietly closed his eyes.
"With Liu clansmen countless across the realm, we wait for a frontier general's hanger-on boy to mature?"
Thud.
"Isn't the current emperor's bloodline the same sort that let eunuchs sway him into plunging the realm into chaos?"
Yuan Shao rose, face bloodless, opened the door, stepped out, and gazed at the night sky.
"The heavens grow darker still."
A half-full moon reflected in Yuan Shao's eyes.
"If someone must be the light piercing this darkness, Yuan Benchu shall be that light."
Meanwhile, in another manor in Luoyang city. An annex.
"Lately, the night skies seem especially dark. Looks like your divination was off."
The elder, Minister of Works Wang Yun, chuckled lowly at the woman residing in the annex.
"Don't you think?"
"...Heaven's omens have not shifted."
The woman, water dripping from her face, carefully wiped it with silk.
As if scrubbing away some stain, her movements revealed skin fairer than white jade.
"My daughter."
"Yes, my lord."
"I never trusted divination. Nor astronomy entirely."
Wang Yun, hands behind his back, parted the curtain at the room's far end.
"I took you as my foster daughter solely because of that divination."
Beneath the silken curtain lay stacks of books covered in geometric diagrams.
"Taking in an orphan like you, your divination kept me unshaken in court. When all predicted peace, your words let me warn of Yellow Turban rebellion and earn the emperor's trust."
"Even without my words, my lord would have risen to Minister of Works."
"But far swifter than I anticipated. Even if heaven's flow is constant, the clouds beneath shift swiftly with the winds."
Wang Yun lifted one silk sheet.
"Without you, I'd never have given you this costly paper. You'd have carved your own bamboo strips."
Paper lay spread within the silk, already scribbled with all manner of things.
"I still don't know if what you write are characters or your private symbols. This myriad script—Western tongues? Hanzi?"
Not Hanzi, something else.
The paper bore Western script, Hanzi, geometric patterns blended like sorcery.
"You conveyed these divinely inscribed contents to me verbally. Heaven's omens were precise. He Jin would be slain, Ten Attendants fall, Prince Bian deposed, Prince Xie of Chenliu enthroned."
"My lord."
"Yet."
Wang Yun picked up another silk.
"Does Yuan Shao look the indecisive sort to botch the greater good?"
"..."
"No. Yuan Shao dispatched troops to the palace the moment He Jin died."
"My lord."
"And Dong Zhuo? Does he seem one who delights in murder and plunder? Rough-tempered, yes—but"
"That's unknown."
The woman raised her voice despite Wang Yun's rebuke.
"Dong Zhuo is a villain. Send someone to Xiliang to confirm."
"Enough. Overworry. No need for investigators."
"My lord!"
"To begin with."
Wang Yun lifted yet another silk.
"Lü Bu."
"...!"
"Your heavenly omens and my eyes see such different Lü Bu—how can I keep trusting them?"
"My lord. That's!"
"Does Lü Bu look the sort who betrays at every meal, swaps emperors on whim, turns tail for riches?"
"..."
The woman fell silent.
"Without this, I might have welcomed Lü Bu first and foremost. Met the realm's most loyal man before all others, far sooner."
"My lord. Lü Bu is..."
"Betrayed Ding Yuan in the end, you mean? Is that truly betrayal? Ah, yes. He betrayed your image of him."
"..."
"It's late. Don't ruin your health divining further. You've gleaned heaven's aid enough; the rest is mine."
Wang Yun extinguished the candle and exited.
"Ah, right."
He paused abruptly at the door.
"Xiaochun."
"Yes, my lord."
The woman, Diaochan, bowed her head.
"You're of age now. Time to repay my grace, no?"
"..."
"Your body is ready. Prepare your heart."
"..."
Diaochan made no reply, but Wang Yun nodded emphatically and left.
Creeeak.
"...It can't be."
The door shut, and Diaochan bit her lower lip as she entered beyond the curtain.
"Lü Bu, Lü Fengxian, Wuan Army of Bing Province..."
She spread one sheet of hanji over the silk, gripped a fine brush, dipped it in ink, and began scribbling rapidly.
"Married Lady Yan unlike others, currently single... Last position... Ugh...?"
Diaochan clutched her head with her brush hand.
Gripping tight, her ink-stained hand trembled, staining her clothes.
"..."
Something trickled from her mouth.
"Hah, hah..."
Red blood.
Her face paled in an instant, but Diaochan wiped her mouth with her sleeve and gripped the trembling brush anew.
"Must remember, must remember..."
One hand to her forehead, she continued scrawling on the bamboo slip with the fine brush.
"Lü Bu, Lü Bu..."
Drip, drip.
"If I were her, surely I would..."
Ink and red blood seeped into the paper, but Diaochan kept writing—
"...Ah."
Her hand stopped.
"..."
Thud.
Diaochan collapsed forward as if fainting.
At the end of the frantic scribbles was written something like '199'.
"Hoo. Feels like I can breathe now."
Deep night, aboard a vessel crossing the Yellow River.
"Air's fresh, night sky clear, water smells a bit of earth—but whatever. Not drinking it."
I lightly scooped Yellow River water in my hand, then slowly let it trickle through my fingers.
"In a world without bandits, I'd live quietly. Retire to a mountain manor someday, raise disciples..."
"General!! Over there, beyond the water! Bandits!!"
"...Tried sinking into thought for once. Tch."
I shook off the remaining water and dirt, gripped my Fangtian Halberd.
"General! We'll dock the boat soon! To shore...!"
"No need."
Gripping only my halberd, I headed straight to the bow.
"Swimming's faster."
Splash!
Muddy as it was, the nighttime Yellow River ran cold.
In the darkness, one thing alone was visible.
"Wh-what?! A p-person here why...?!"
"Black clothes. Zhang Yan's lot. Heard rumors I'd stay in Luoyang and started plundering at last."
Bandits preying on villages.
Nothing else.
"You dare, where?"
Vwooom!
"Gahk!!"
"A-a person cleaved in two...!"
No need for complicated thoughts—just exterminate the bandits before me.
"Come. If not, I'll come kill you."
"Bing Province Army, follow General Lü! Purge the bandits—!!"
I charged the bandits alongside soldiers leaping from the boat.
"People say a child dying before their parents is unfilial."
Indeed.
"But parents bereft before their child can fulfill filial duty—that too is unfilial."
Better than playing intrigue games in court.
"You lot are scum breeding the realm's unfilial sons."
Fwoosh!!
"Defiling your parents' faces who raised a brigand like you—I shall punish that unfiliality."
Nothing more.
"Bandits die."