The Capital Reduced to Ashes
I need you.
It has to be you.
I want you, and no one else.
To Lü Bu—who was both the strongest warrior to bear the peerless epithet "Peerless Under Heaven" and a maiden of innocent, marriageable age—Liu Seong-hwi's sudden statement sounded exactly like a romantic confession.
A confession.
It was clearly a confession.
A confession that he wanted me as his lifelong companion.
The expressionless face that had maintained its iron composure in every situation instantly collapsed. Her trembling soft cheeks and her full lips, twitching without pause, gave voice to the turmoil inside her.
"It... it has to be me...! We're sworn enemies destined to take each other's lives! I suppose it's natural to be captivated by martial power that is Peerless Under Heaven, but still, this is so sudden...! I-I think there needs to be a bit more... process, some steps! Ah, I'm not saying I don't want to! I mean, a Hero of the South who commands the respect of the masses is certainly more than worthy as a lifelong companion."
Her eyes, moist and glistening.
Cheeks ablaze with innocent, maidenly shyness.
The corners of her lips, loosening into a giddy fool's grin.
And she even shook her whole body as if enraptured by a searing ecstasy.
"General Lü Bu! What in blazes are you babbling about?! Strike Liu Seong-hwi down this instant! The leader who commands the treasonous bandits of Guandong is right in front of you! His escort numbers only a few dozen riders! If you kill him now, General Lü Bu, you will be the war's foremost hero!!"
The commander-in-chief is right here.
And his guards numbered barely a hundred riders.
The main body of the rebels, deployed in a defensive formation, was standing by outside.
It was a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity.
Recklessness born of excessive confidence had created an opening.
With martial power that was Peerless Under Heaven, she could charge in alone on horseback, reduce the guards to ribbons in a single stroke, and send Liu Seong-hwi's severed head tumbling. Yet, even with that perfect chance before her eyes, the peerless warrior merely stood there, hesitating.
'Now I understand why you sent that letter just to provoke me! You didn't know how to show your feelings to a woman, so you deliberately provoked me to get my attention...! For a mere cadet imperial clansman from the sticks, you're quite bold. Hmph..., looking at you now, you're rather cute. You're definitely a year or two younger than me, aren't you?'
No,
nobody, under any circumstances, issues a declaration of war as a method of courtship.
Liu Seong-hwi had specifically provoked her with the insulting slur "a bitch with three separate daddies." Even though the provocation was severe enough to warrant a fight to the death, Lü Bu, having just interpreted Liu Seong-hwi's words as the confession of a lifetime, now treated them as nothing more than a younger man's mischievous prank.
"Hwooh...!"
Wearing the expression of a bashful girl, she let out an exclamation that betrayed her elated feelings.
And then,
with a single sweep of her Sky-Piercing Halberd, she cut down Wang Fang, who had been screeching at her.
Shrrrak—
Kill him.
I said, kill Liu Seong-hwi right now!
She had slaughtered the rude obstructionist squawking right next to her.
As Wang Fang's head flew off, hot blood spurted in thick gouts. Lü Bu, still drunk on the afterglow of the confession, had beheaded one of Dong Zhuo's trusted personal troops.
"L-Lord Fengxian...?!"
A graceful woman with flowing black hair cried out in a single shriek.
The officers under her command reacted the same way.
She had just been rejoicing with that elated sigh, and now she had killed an officer of Dong Zhuo's army in one stroke. The officers from Bing Province, apparently unable to grasp the situation, looked back and forth between the blood-soaked Lü Bu and the corpse of Wang Fang, who had become a dead man in an instant.
'She just suddenly got happy all by herself, acted shocked, got embarrassed like a girl who'd just received a confession from her first love... and then decapitated a Dong Zhuo officer in one stroke. She really is the rumored monumental lunatic...! I guess a woman who tossed aside her own father and her lord like used rags, one after another, could never be normal.'
She had beheaded a man while still wearing a shy girl's expression.
Having witnessed this grotesque sight right before his eyes, Liu Seong-hwi trembled, utterly horrified.
"Alright...! I won't go back to Dong Zhuo! Just as you said, if I continue to participate in Dong Zhuo's army's brutal and inhumane tyranny, even more terrible things than today's disaster will happen."
"...?"
"And as for my answer to your confession... I'll tell you someday."
"Confession?"
Lü Bu's army had originally been about to withdraw to Chang'an.
But they turned their horses' heads and changed their destination.
Henei Prefecture.
With Wang Kuang's forces annihilated, it was a Sili Province prefecture left as undefended territory.
Lü Bu's army severed ties with Dong Zhuo's army, which had relocated the capital to Chang'an, and became an independent roving army. Even though this sudden decision bordered on a whim, the officers of Lü Bu's army gladly complied.
The Xiliang cavalry who had followed Lü Bu on the Luoyang front turned their horses toward Chang'an City. Though a handful of cavalrymen, captivated by Lü Bu's absolute martial power, defected and joined her ranks, the vast majority chose to return to their main army.
* * *
As in the original history, the brutal Scorched Earth Tactics swept through the entire Luoyang area. The widespread arson, carried out by numerous forces of Dong Zhuo's army, was more than enough to turn the two-hundred-year capital of the dynasty into a sea of fire.
However,
the Scorched Earth Tactics ultimately remained incomplete.
This was because of the Coalition Army's activity, which had pressed on with successive victories and threatened Luoyang. Forced to burn Luoyang as quickly as possible and relocate to Chang'an, Dong Zhuo's army could not help but leave the job half-done.
"The North Palace and Southern Palace have been completely burned to ashes... but by tremendous fortune, most of the East Palace—the domain of the Imperial Crown Prince—is intact, Your Highness, aside from a few of its outer halls which caught fire."
"That is indeed a great fortune."
The North Palace and Southern Palace had fallen into ruin.
But the halls of the East Palace remained in a preserved state.
You could call this a change from history.
In the original timeline, a harrowing record states: "When the sea of flames swept through, not a single dwelling remained intact for two hundred li." The devastation was so complete that the land was scorched bare.
Originally, millions of common people should have lost their lives to the raging inferno and the sharp points of spears and blades. But because Dong Zhuo's army retreated swiftly the moment the fires began to spread, countless people who had barely managed to hide here and there survived.
'I've gone soft too... For the sake of the future plan, it should have been smashed as horribly as possible.'
It was an irreplaceable chance to quickly sear into the minds of all under Heaven the impotence and incompetence of the Han Imperial House and court, along with the heavens-scorning atrocities of Dong Zhuo's army.
But my soft-hearted nature had ruined perfection.
The palaces and halls should have been reduced to ash,
the sprawling city districts and townships fallen into leveled ruin,
and the countless corpses trampled and slain by Dong Zhuo's army should have created a mountain of corpses and a sea of blood.
Did I still harbor this useless pity and sympathy...?
Letting out a deep sigh at my own soft side, I reviewed my future plans.
"Hehe, guess who~?"
"..."
A pair of soft, warm hands crept up from behind and gently covered my eyes.
Hair as fine and delicate as down.
The sweet, heady scent of a maiden's skin, more fragrant than any honey.
And a pair of enormous breasts, simultaneously soft and firm, pressed against me like a caressing touch.
Liu Bei.
Through the gaps between the fingers covering my eyes, a playful smile greeted me.
She was a maiden with pure white hair, flaunting a voluptuous figure. I felt the impulse to gently stroke her pointed ears, as if I were tenderly fondling them.
"Little brother, were you surprised?"
"...You were standing behind me the whole time."
Liu Bei blushed and burst into an innocent smile.
Then she wrapped herself around my arm and boldly burrowed into my embrace.
"We've finally found the treasure my little brother wanted. Do you know how hard it was to find? Who could have guessed... that the treasure representing the legitimacy of the Han Imperial House would be left lying around in these desolate ruins?"
A treasure symbolizing legitimacy.
It is also a treasure signifying the inheritance of lawful authority.
The Imperial Jade Seal.
It was the seal symbolizing the legitimacy of the unified empire that had conquered the Central Plains.
Wearing a smile suffused with satisfaction, Liu Bei set down the treasure, which radiated a brilliant jade light.
"Your big sister kept it nice and warm for you, little brother. Use it as you please."
"..."
She had been keeping the Imperial Jade Seal lodged between her proudly weighty breasts. As I slowly lifted the treasure, heavily steeped in warmth and her bewitching skin scent, I felt a complicated mix of emotions.
It's not some kind of seal-storage pouch...
Surely no Emperor of Han had ever kept the Imperial Jade Seal stored in a maiden's cleavage.
"Now, the lawful legitimacy of the Han Imperial House is in your hands, little brother."
"It's thanks to you, big sister, and the General Who Defeats the Barbarians."
"No, it's entirely the result of your own efforts, little brother. You, who expelled the eternal arch-traitor and recaptured Luoyang, are the one qualified to seize the legitimacy of the Han Imperial House. If the lords of Guandong learn that you discovered the Imperial Jade Seal... there will be movements to nominate you as a candidate for the new Emperor. The meaning and value imbued in the Imperial Jade Seal, stretching back to the era of warring states when countless kingdoms rose in strife, are boundless."
"..."
The white-haired beauty whispered in a sweet voice.
Power.
Legitimacy.
Elaborating on the meaning contained within the Imperial Jade Seal, she signaled the start of the usurpation.
"Anyway, I'm disappointed in you, little brother. Even though you have such a useful big sister right next to you, you went and attracted another woman. It's only natural for a young, hot-blooded man like you to be obsessed with large breasts... but to set your eyes on that shameless bitch who knows nothing but betrayal and treachery, of all people."
"I need a vanguard commander who can command an army of thousands to pacify the north. I judged that a warrior of Peerless Under Heaven was the most suitable candidate."
It was my judgment.
When I added that statement, Liu Bei's face, which had briefly turned venomous, brightened up radiantly.