Why are you ladies coming out of here?
Why are you ladies coming out of here?
Banners that symbolized the Han Dynasty's government troops.
At a glance numbering in the tens of thousands, they were piercing through enemy lines that had not yet formed up for battle, unleashing an offensive in the blink of an eye.
But what seized my attention in this moment was neither the government troops fighting desperately nor the Yellow Turbans.
It was the command banners fluttering among the government soldiers.
The familiar names I spotted there were unmistakably—
Yuan Shao and Cao Cao...
"Huh?..."
Names I'd stumbled across without ever expecting to find them here.
I had figured from the original timeline that those two would take the field eventually, but I had never imagined I would run into them this soon.
And of all places, here in Ji Province.
No—I might have accepted Yuan Shao, but wasn't Cao Cao supposed to head south to Yu Province, not here?
Seriously, why are the big sisters here?
Just as I was feeling flustered by the truly unexpected situation, Ji Ling, who was next to me, began tapping me while I stood there, spaced out.
"Hey, my lord, are you just going to stand there watching that?"
"Huh? Ah... right... you're right."
Her words jolted me back to my senses.
The big sisters were one thing, but right now the enemy had clearly been thrown into confusion by the government troops' surprise attack.
Originally I'd wanted to avoid battle as much as possible, but now the situation had changed.
"We'll join in too. We'll smash those bastards to pieces while we're at it."
"Got it, my lord."
"Advance! All units, assume attack formation!"
"Hua Xiong."
"Understood! Now, all you adjutants, heed the command! We're going to wipe out every last one of these Yellow Turban scum who despise the Han Imperial House!!"
The moment we seized the opening, we immediately began crossing the river and launching our attack.
The water wasn't deep, and with the Yellow Turbans also out of their right minds, we were able to carry out the river crossing without much difficulty.
And the scene that followed did not stray far from my expectations.
"Come at me, all of you! I am Ji Ling!"
As always, Ji Ling took the lead, swinging her Three-Pointed Blade and sweeping away the enemy.
Xu Rong also followed behind her, swinging her greatsword and launching into an unbridled slaughter.
But powerful as those two might be, the most conspicuous performance without a doubt came from—
—Kreuurgh!!
"Wh... what is that?!"
"I... no, what are you... gyaaah!!"
A force that smashed apart everything in sight with terrifying speed, literally tearing the enemy limb from limb.
Red Hare.
And atop it rode Dong Zhuo.
The sight of her rampaging across the battlefield, wielding sword and bow with complete freedom, struck terror into the enemy and drew spontaneous admiration from our own troops.
Of course, about sixty percent of that overwhelming martial prowess came from the Red Hare Dong Zhuo was riding, but handling Red Hare with near perfection while carving up the enemy was something only Dong Zhuo herself could pull off.
Proving that she wasn't counted among the hidden monsters of the original timeline for nothing, Dong Zhuo was one thing, but Hua Xiong, steadily piling up feats of arms while following in her wake, was practically a bonus.
So the offensive by these warriors, whose strength lay beyond the reach of ordinary men, delivered the decisive blow to the Yellow Turbans, who had been unable to regain their senses after getting sucker-punched from the very start.
"Ret... retreat! Retreat!"
"Everyone fall back! We have to get out of here somehow!"
Unlike my expectation that the fighting might drag on for a good while, the Yellow Turbans were mopped up quickly.
More than half were taken prisoner, and the other half were killed or fled.
Right after the situation was more or less settled,
we immediately began moving to meet the people who had come all this way.
"Oh! There they are!"
"Ah..."
Two people I had been able to pick out easily thanks to their striking looks.
The moment I spotted them, meeting them for the first time in nearly a year, I felt genuine gladness and approached them.
The two of them likewise spotted us and came running with bright smiles.
But then...
—Whump!
"Oof."
"..."
The next instant, without a shred of hesitation and with all the momentum of her sprint, she threw her arms around me.
Cao Cao.
As always, feeling the sensation of being wrapped in softness, my face grew a little red.
"I missed you, Gonglu. Have you been well?"
"Uh... um... Sister Aman? This is a bit, you know, in front of everyone..."
"What does it matter? Right now, more than that... good heavens, your face has gotten so haggard. How long has it been, and you're practically half the man you were. Has our Gonglu been eating properly? You aren't sick anywhere, are you?"
"Mmph... I'm fine... Sis."
Sister Cao Cao, doing her own thing as always.
Here, among tens of thousands of people, her familiar way of kneading my face with her hands gave me an odd sense of peace alongside the embarrassment.
Maybe it was because the years we'd spent this way weren't just a day or two, but I got the strange feeling of having come home to that house in Luoyang...
"Cough! Cough!"
"Mm!..."
"! Mm..."
In that moment, a strange sound reached my ears, impossible to tell if it was throat-clearing or a groan.
At this, Cao Cao made a face tinged with odd regret and, for the moment, let me go.
Then a scene met my eyes.
There—
Unchanged from a year ago and wearing an expressionless face, yet somehow giving off a chill as if cold air were radiating from her, stood Sister Yuan Shao.
"Ah... um... i... it's been a long time, Sister Benchu. Have you been well?"
"I haven't."
"Pardon? Ah... yes... I... I heard that your Six-Year Mourning had ended. I apologize for not having come to see you..."
"Yes. You should be sorry. Very much so."
"I... I was in the wrong, Sis..."
Sister Yuan Shao replied as sharply as if cutting with a blade.
At that, I could do nothing but bow my head and express my regret; I had no other answer to give.
Then—
—Clap!
"Guh!"
"!..."
"..."
A hand suddenly settled onto my shoulder.
Along with that touch, which felt strangely cold, the voice of yet another big sister began to reach my ears.
"General Yuan. How long do you plan to stay like that?"
"... Huh?"
A big sister who was clearly smiling, yet gave off the feeling that something black was welling up behind her back.
Dong Zhuo.
Applying a little strength to the hand she had on my shoulder, she spoke in a soft voice that somehow felt edged.
"From the look of things, they belong to the government forces, and they seem to be people our General Yuan Shu knows well. Shouldn't you introduce them to me, the General of the Household for the North?"
"Ah... yes. This is the eldest daughter of my clan, and my elder sister..."
"Yuan Shao. Courtesy name Benchu. My office is Commandant of Cavalry."
Sister Yuan Shao cut me off and spoke in an icy voice.
She was plainly angry about something, which filled me with deep puzzlement, but unable to identify the cause for now, I meekly moved on to the next introduction.
"Mm... and this person is a big sister who is like a family friend, whom I've known since I was young."
"I am called Cao Cao. Courtesy name Mengde. My office is likewise Commandant of Cavalry. I am deeply indebted to you for looking after our Gonglu."
Sister Cao Cao spoke with a meaningful smile.
Her mood, too, wasn't exactly good... but unlike Yuan Shao, who radiated outright frost, something subtly different swirled around this one.
Just like the Cao Cao of the original timeline, who was as skilled at schemes as a fox, she was highly likely to be thinking about something I didn't know—something I currently had no way of grasping.
Amid an atmosphere that was unsettling in more ways than one,
she...
Dong Zhuo, still slowly moving the hand resting on my shoulder, spoke with a deep smile.
"My name is Dong Zhuo, courtesy name Zhongying. That aside—Commandants of Cavalry, is it... I had heard the court would be sending people to serve under my command, and it seems it was you two."
"..."
"Yes, that is correct. Under orders from General-in-Chief He Jin, we were commanded to assist the General of the Household for the North and to completely suppress the Yellow Turbans here in Ji Province. We look forward to serving under you, General of the Household for the North."
"The feeling is mutual. I look forward to it."
Yuan Shao maintained her silence, and Cao Cao lowered her posture slightly while smiling.
And Dong Zhuo treated them with an attitude that exuded the dignity of a superior officer.
For me, who knew the original timeline, it was a scene that inevitably stirred up a strange sense of déjà vu.
According to the original timeline, right after Dong Zhuo seized control of Luoyang, Yuan Shao found Dong Zhuo's tyranny impossible to stomach, left Luoyang early, and began laying the groundwork to form the Anti-Dong Zhuo Coalition by linking up with the Coalition of Eighteen Lords.
Cao Cao, on the other hand, at first bowed her head and flattered Dong Zhuo, nurturing familiarity. Using that accumulated "trust," she then attempted to assassinate Dong Zhuo, who had fallen asleep at ease right before her eyes.
Well, the outcome was a failure—she'd bluffed that the knife she'd drawn was a gift and promptly bolted—but still.
Anyway,
Yuan Shao, openly radiating hostility like this,
and Cao Cao, who seemed to have things she didn't like but, for now, killed her feelings and kept a smile on her face—
on top of that, the image of Dong Zhuo asserting her authority as a superior before these two—it created an uncanny match, as if scenes from the original timeline had been gathered together in one place.
'How to put it... could this be that thing? Like heroes recognizing heroes... it's their first meeting, but maybe these people, too, are sensing something as they look at each other...'
Feeling quite curious about what exactly was going on inside their heads, I turned to look at them and spoke in the brightest voice I could manage.
"Now, now... let's not keep standing here like this, and please head to our encampment for the time being. The soldiers must be weary from the long journey, after all."
"... Fine."
"I agree with Gonglu, too."
"Let us do so."
Fortunately, the three of them followed my words without a single complaint.
Letting out an inward sigh of relief, I began to feel my head throb over how on earth I was supposed to handle these people, who were clearly incompatible no matter how you looked at them.
*
Three women crossing the river and heading toward the encampment Yuan Shu had set up earlier.
At the very front of them... specifically, walking right beside Yuan Shu, was the silver-haired woman.
Yuan Shao thoroughly disliked this situation she had long been waiting for.
'What is it? That woman...'
Along with the astonishing martial prowess she had just displayed, this was a woman who gave off an extraordinary presence at first glance.
The General of the Household for the North, Dong Zhuo.
According to what Yuan Shao had heard before coming here, she was from the Turbid Stream Faction that regularly delivered bribes to the Ten Regular Attendants, and the person who, together with Yuan Shu, had achieved the feat of smashing two hundred thousand Yellow Turbans in the last war.
Although Yuan Shao had come all this way to see Yuan Shu, the fact that she had to serve under this person—whose faction and past conduct were, in so many ways, incompatible with her own—had been a source of deep discomfort for Yuan Shao. But...
The scene just moments ago had gone beyond simple discomfort; now it stirred in her something closer to fury.
'Barely a year has passed... and a vixen has latched onto him. Daring... beside my Gonglu...'
A big-breasted temptress whose dark inner nature was obvious to anyone.
If she had her way, the urge to bury her right then and there surged up.
But—the terrifying martial prowess Dong Zhuo had just shown,
and the fact that she was, after all, her direct superior,
meant this woman named Dong Zhuo was not someone even the current Yuan Shao could touch carelessly.
Above all, even if Yuan Shao didn't like her, Gonglu did not seem to view that woman badly... no, he probably thought quite well of her.
That was Gonglu: innocent, good-hearted, and full of affection.
From his standpoint, thinking only well of a comrade-in-arms like Dong Zhuo was perhaps only natural.
Concealing her bitter feelings, Yuan Shao felt the need to first get a better grasp of the situation.
And yet...
'Why is Mengde acting like that, though? For some reason, she looks like she's in a good mood...'