Your Name is.
Your Name is.
Caught off guard by my mother's unexpected words, I asked, plainly baffled.
"Why do you say that? Are you worried I might give this child an unsuitable position?"
"N... no, it is not that. I am not doubting your judgment, General—cough. It is only... right now, my daughter and I wish to leave this place and go to Bing Province. I beg you... to grant us permission."
"Bing Province? Why on earth would you choose such a dangerous frontier?"
Even further north than our location in Hedong, Bing Province was practically a border zone with the northern tribes.
In the bluntest terms, you could call it the front line.
Compared to here, it was a harsh place to live in almost every way.
Even so, Seon-i's mother spoke to me in a voice filled with entreaty.
"It is my homeland—cough. That place. And we have relatives there who are waiting for us."
"Ah..."
"I am well aware that conditions in Bing Province are difficult. But since my husband died, it is the only place my daughter and I have to return to. I am grateful for the General's favor, but foolish though I may be, I believe the only place this young child can truly grow up in peace is there. I implore you... please grant us leave to return to our hometown."
At the word "homeland," I understood where this woman was coming from, but I also began to feel that achieving my goal would not be as simple as I had hoped.
I knew all too well what a hometown meant during hard times.
Even more so when there were relatives and friends there—people you could reliably lean on.
After all, even I sometimes found myself longing for the land of Korea, the original world where I had been born and raised. I could comprehend her feelings fully.
But still unable to let go, I carefully directed a question to Seon-i, who was standing behind her mother.
"And what do you want? Do you wish to follow your mother to Bing Province? Or... would you rather stay here and enter official service with me?"
"..."
"If you choose the former, so be it... but if you choose the latter, I swear to push you forward with everything I have. Wealth, fame—anything else you desire, you will be able to grasp."
"Anything..."
The girl stared at my face as if boring a hole through it.
The mother's decision was important, but ultimately the choice belonged to the child.
Asking this of a young girl who still lacked proper judgment was a little underhanded, but that was how much I coveted her.
If she chose to stay, then even if it took somewhat rougher methods...
"N... no... I am... sorry, General. I am grateful for your intention, but I... I wish to go to Bing Province with my mother."
"Hmm..."
Contrary to my hopes, however, Seon-i expressed her refusal.
Watching her grip her mother's hand even tighter, I had no choice but to raise the white flag.
"Hah... Very well. If that is your wish, so be it. But should your heart ever change later, come find me at any time."
"... Yes, General."
Forcing someone to stay when even the person herself had refused would only backfire. Above all, I did not want to go that far myself.
I was uncomfortable splitting a mother and daughter apart,
and more than that, no matter how hard you try to hold onto someone whose heart has already left, they will leave in the end.
It was a truth you could see from the anecdote in the Original Timeline: Cao Cao was never able to keep Guan Yu, who left to seek Liu Bei.
And so, once again struck by the sense that the man who had become Yuan Shu was plagued by appalling luck, I spoke to them with bitterness.
"Understood. Then I shall provide you with ample reward money and provisions. See to it that you are well supplied."
"Th... thank you. Truly, thank you, General."
"Th... thank... you."
Their gratitude also carried a note of relief.
Even though I had shown them considerable favor, I reflected that winning people's hearts was no easy matter. Feeling precisely as if I had been dumped, I sank into deep regret.
*
"... Hah."
A heavy sigh escaped the lips of the girl packing her belongings.
The regret was vivid.
Seeing this, her mother drew the girl into a tight embrace.
"... Mother."
"Seon-a..."
"N... no... I'm alright, Mother. It's... unavoidable, isn't it."
"I am sorry, Seon-a... truly... so sorry..."
"... Kuh..."
In a voice laden with pain, the mother apologized to her daughter.
She knew it as well.
That if she accepted the General's proposal even now, her daughter might seize a golden opportunity that could change her life.
And that Seon-i—though she was trying not to show it—felt this lost opportunity with deep regret.
Yet despite that, Seon-i could not bring herself to choose the path to official service.
No... she must not.
It was because of a "crime" committed in the past
by Seon-i's father, the late husband.
Treason.
To be precise, he had merely been unjustly implicated and falsely accused,
yet because of it, the blade of Collective Punishment—still fiercely sharp—was aimed at their necks.
The rule was that treason was punished by three generations.
They had changed their family name and concealed their identities to avoid this somehow, but there were still people in this world who knew their faces.
No matter how well they concealed their origins and rose in the world, for Seon-i to enter official service and reveal herself was an act of indescribable danger.
Though that General had shown them goodwill and looked favorably upon Seon-i, he was still someone they had known for barely a few days.
And he appeared to hail from a rather high clan—
if he ever learned that Seon-i was the daughter of a traitor, there was no guessing how he might react.
Swallowing their regret over their bitter reality that had resurfaced once more,
the mother and daughter finished packing and began to leave this place.
The only place in this world where their necks would be safe, and where the one person they could truly trust was.
Setting out on that journey, the girl looked once more at the black war coat she was wearing.
Another gift that person had given her at her request.
Holding it preciously close, the girl resolved on a single goal in her heart—one that, for the first time in her life, she truly desired with all seriousness.
"Right now, there's no choice... but someday, for certain..."
The girl's cheeks were dyed red as she murmured quietly, recalling the man's face.
*
Several days had passed since I had sent Seon-i and her mother off.
The bitter aftertaste of my regret still not fading, I was lolling listlessly on my bed.
'Damn it... the more I think about it, the more it stings. How does this life of mine never let anything go right?'
After Ji Ling, I had thought I might grasp another ace-tier player, but in the end, I failed.
Of course, as the saying goes, even a Governor of Pyeongyang can refuse if he does not want the post—if the person herself said no, there was nothing to be done. But still, a loss is a loss.
That was when I was soothing my aching gut and struggling to forget these troubles with the thought that "once again, the air sure is tasty today."
"My... my lord! My lord!"
"... Hah..."
Ji Ling tumbled into my tent with a crash, as though she had rolled in.
She was always overflowing with energy, but seeing her even more hyper than usual lately, it felt as if my own energy was being drained right out of me. Without getting up from the bed, I just turned my head and asked,
"What, what's this... has a fire broken out? Why all this noise?"
"An... urgent report... it's an urgent report, my lord!"
"... Urgent report? What kind of urgent report? Did His Majesty send another Imperial Edict?"
"Huh! H... how did you know?"
"Huh?"
"As expected of my lord... you have the ability to see what lies ahe—"
"No, it was just a lucky guess."
Ji Ling's reply almost made me blurt out, "Wait, seriously?" After throwing out a line to cut short her predictable overpraise, I heaved myself upright and hurriedly pulled on an outer coat.
"So, an Imperial Edict has really come? For what matter this time?"
"Well, about that... I heard through the grapevine that right now the situation in the other regions has gone to utter shit. They said they're granting you something in connection with that?"
"Even the part you heard through the grapevine already sounds ominous..."
It was certainly the flow of the Original Timeline that the government forces would get clobbered by the Yellow Turbans until the Ten Regular Attendants burned their own tails and started moving in earnest.
In the middle of that, my conduct—gaining minor victories all by myself—was bound to stand out.
But even so, for an Imperial Edict—not some routine order—to fly my way once more...
I furrowed my brow, thinking that this was likely to become far more troublesome than I had imagined...
And as expected, this prediction of mine did not miss the mark; it struck with perfect accuracy.
*
In a government office with an opulent exterior,
a middle-aged man looked at the woman seated before him and asked in a voice full of concern.
"Are you feeling somewhat better, sister-in-law?"
"Yes, I am fine, Inspector. Thanks to you, I have improved a little. Cough."
She said so, but her complexion still did not look good.
The specks of blood that seeped out each time she coughed, her face so pale, seemed to show that her time was short.
"Please take heart. You have come all this difficult way to Bing Province; you must recover your health as soon as possible. If I were to send you off in this state, I would have no face before my deceased elder brother."
"I am sorry... but... more than that. What progress on that matter? The one we spoke of last time... the matter of the amnesty."
The woman posed her question with urgency.
The middle-aged man answered her in a noticeably calm voice, to put her at ease.
"It is proceeding well. General-in-Chief He Jin has acknowledged our unjust circumstances and officially reported them to His Majesty. It will take some time, but should be resolved without major trouble before long."
"Truly... cough. Will it really be resolved? Does this mean... we no longer need to hide who we are..."
"Indeed. Though reinstatement or compensation will be difficult, given the implication in treason, at the very least the collective guilt and the stain of the rebel label will vanish. Soon, my deceased brother may at last close his eyes in some small peace."
"What a... relief. To think such a good thing was progressing without my knowledge... I am truly... truly grateful. Inspector. Cough! Cough!"
"Sister-in-law..."
The man rose from his seat, watching her struggle with her coughing.
But the woman, even as she wiped the blood from her lips, raised a hand to stop him, as if she still had more to say.
"In truth, I came here not only about the amnesty, but above all... to entrust this child to you, Inspector. The child of my husband and me... the one I spoke of before..."
"Then, could it be that this child is... my brother's...?"
A secret that had been concealed to the very last, kept for the worst-case scenario.
Now, she spoke of it to the one person she could trust...
To the man who had been a sworn brother of her late husband.
The woman looked into her daughter's face, the daughter who had been standing behind her all the while, and said,
"Give your greetings. Seon-a."
"..."
At her mother's words, the girl with brown locks of hair bowed her head courteously.
Gazing at her, the man replied in a voice that carried affection.
"I am Ding Yuan, Inspector of Bing Province. You will know from what you have heard, but I was your father's sworn brother. What is your name?"
In that child, he caught a glimpse of his deceased brother's face.
As Ding Yuan felt both nostalgia and welcome at the sight—
the girl wrapped in the black war coat answered in a respectful voice.
"I am honored to meet you. Gung... no... My name is Lü Bu, courtesy name Fengxian."