Antlion Pit (26)
It was a familiar sight to Sun Quan as well. Sun Quan called out that name filled with emotions of surprise and joy, but the other party—Gan Ning—merely glanced at her without offering any further reaction.
“Where are the others?”
“I’m not sure. I came as soon as I received the news… though it did seem like someone was following me on the way.”
It certainly looked that way. Only a few dozen cavalry followed behind Gan Ning, and every one of them appeared utterly exhausted. When I asked how urgently they must have ridden to look so drained, Gan Ning answered with a casual shrug.
“I left behind everyone who fell behind on the way.”
“Gan Ning, what happened to you all this time? Why were you here?”
Sun Quan’s questions poured out again in a rush. Gan Ning turned her gaze toward me and asked silently. I nodded, and she gave a short reply.
“There were various circumstances.”
Though she had answered, it provided almost no information. Sun Quan tried to press further, but her attempt was cut off by the other riders who came bursting out of the trees.
“Hey, I told you to go together!!!”
“I didn’t hear that.”
“Liar! You glanced back!!! I said let’s ride the horse together and you got all stingy about it!”
Zhang Fei, her entire body covered in twigs and leaves, had leapt from the bushes, clung to Gan Ning while growling, then noticed us late and waved her hand cheerfully.
“Ah, Master!”
“Master…?”
“You’re safe!!!”
She immediately latched onto me. With no time to clear up Sun Quan’s confusion, I found myself flailing. Only after Gan Ning forcibly peeled the clinging, rubbing Zhang Fei off me could I continue.
“You’re disturbing the lord. Get off.”
“Disturbing?! No way? Master, it’s not like that, right???”
“Umm… if I have to say, it’s a bit… No, it’s not necessarily the case.”
By now Sun Quan wore a completely dazed expression. In the meantime the rest began to appear—Gi Ryeong, Won Dam… Finally, when Man Chong faithfully gathered the troops the others had abandoned and brought them along, the surroundings were already bustling with soldiers.
“You all worked hard to get here.”
“Appa, this isn’t the time to gloss over things, is it?”
“Don’t be rude, Won Dam. …Still, you really must explain.”
“Um, Hwanin.”
When Gan Ning first appeared, Sun Quan might have thought some form of help had come from her. But the armor worn by those who arrived afterward was identical to that of the Ye Gwan army she had fought so desperately. Suspicion was inevitable.
She seemed to be trying hard to suppress the feelings creeping up inside her chest, yet she couldn’t hide the unease in her eyes as she asked me.
“What in the world is this…?”
“Oh. I was late in explaining.”
Come to think of it, Sun Quan wouldn’t know much about them. To introduce the group, I raised my hand toward the soldiers. At that moment every noisy soldier and general knelt at once and bowed their heads.
“I’m sorry, but the name Hwanin is not my real name.”
“We greet the Lord!!!”
“We greet the Lord!!!!!!”
With someone’s lead, the shouts of generals and soldiers spread in all directions. The reality she had been denying with a “no way” mindset was finally hammering itself into Sun Quan’s head.
Before she could fall completely into confusion, I gently stroked her cheek and told her the truth.
“My identity is as follows. The one who bound Gan Ning and buried all several thousand of her subordinates alive. The one who deceived Ju Tae into death and ensnared the rest in a trap to let them die. And the one who deceived the noble name of Sun Quan, corrupted her as if it were sincere, and toyed with her.”
Each name awakened the truth inside her.
“No way…”
“Yes. That’s correct.”
I smiled brightly and affirmed her response.
“It’s Jin Hwan.”
I shouted toward the sound of approaching hoofbeats from behind.
“Is Ye Gwan still not here!!!”
“Ye Gwan is here.”
At my words the hoofbeats stopped. One rider slowly approached while still mounted. She was carrying someone in front of her, and the sight was familiar to both Sun Quan and me.
“Ju Tae…?”
As if she had heard the name, Ju Tae half-opened her eyes for a moment before closing them again. Indeed. The power of love is great. Even in that condition she could still hear and open her eyes.
That was the extent of my impression, but Sun Quan clearly didn’t intend to stop there. If I were in her position I would probably react the same. Her whole body was a wreck—broken limbs, torn flesh, a jaw and cheekbones that looked shattered.
“It was difficult to bring her. Still, it’s fortunate she’s alive, isn’t it?”
“…How.”
“Yes…?”
“How can this beeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee!!!”
At that moment Sun Quan went berserk. After a scream loud enough to deafen the ears, she immediately tried to swing her sword at me. But a human wall already surrounded me, and Gan Ning, Zhang Fei, and the others didn’t stand idle. She was subdued in an instant. I spoke my excuses to the woman now forced to kneel on the ground.
“Well, I’m sorry too, but there was no other way. As you know, Ju Tae is quite strong. Still, thanks to Lady Sun Quan mixing in the drug, we were at least able to—”
“Aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaah!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!”
“Well, I guess this is it.”
Unstable faith injures a person regardless of the purity of that faith. Only believing in a single truth will bring the reward of faith. That faith is precisely.......
I asked in a low voice, and the answer came back immediately—in a desperate, blood-tear-stained form.
“…I… don’t believe. Anything…!”
“No.”
This kind of reaction was a first, but I cut her off coldly without any particular agitation.
“Believe.”
I watched her bloodshot eyes turn vacant, then stood up.
“Bring Ju Tae over here.”
At my command Ye Gwan carefully set Ju Tae down beside me. She was on the verge of death, yet somehow her breath still clung to life. Whether it came from her originally strong body or from a sense of responsibility for failing to protect what she had to protect, I couldn’t say.
“It was a close call.”
Thinking it was truly fortunate for her that she had lost the strength to keep her eyes open, I pressed the imprint onto her forehead.
“It’s fine.”
I answered while alternating my gaze between Sun Quan—slumped like a puppet with cut strings, her expression complicated—and Ju Tae, who was slowly beginning to regain her color.
“That much is enough.”
A week later, I led the entire army into our base at Gongyang in the Langya Kingdom. The citizens flocked with cheers at the sight of our forces returning triumphantly after crushing enemies from every direction. I scattered the goods we had plundered from Yangzhou and other regions among them, answering their sincerity in kind.
“Hwanin, if we go in like this, we’ll meet His Majesty the Emperor, right?”
The red-haired beauty with sparkling green eyes asked after emptying a pouch of loot into the crowd. I answered her question while raising my hand in response to the citizens’ cheers.
“Yes. Want to go see together?”
“Yes! I really want to see it. You’re coming with me too, right, Hwanin?”
“Lady Sun Quan, the citizens are watching, so clinging like that is…”
“Ehh, who cares? We’re lovers, after all. Right?”
While Sun Quan clung to me and acted spoiled regardless of who was watching, Ju Tae frowned from the side and tried to intervene. Sun Quan, however, refused to listen. It was a bit much, but prying her off seemed difficult. With an awkward smile I endured the gazes I felt pouring down on me from behind.
“Of what?”
“Well, whatever. Having someone who can fight as well as Zhang Liao is enough, isn’t it?”
When I turned Ju Tae into a puppet, I had told Ser to fill most of the command words with memories related to Sun Quan. Ser grumbled that it was a waste of manpower, but in the end she drew on the experience of turning Jang Hun into a puppet and succeeded in creating a version that was almost no different from before.
“No!”
“Ugh… I got it, Ju Tae. So stop glaring at me like that…”
“I’m not really glaring that much.”
“Mirror, Hwanin, don’t we have a mirror?! We have to show Ju Tae that expression for real!”
“Who carries a bronze mirror when returning in triumph?”
And thanks to that, Sun Quan’s mental reconstruction was also completed successfully. She was able to recombine her memories without significant mental trauma. As a result, her current perception of me was that of [Husband].
I had told the others that my own mental balance was still unstable so it couldn’t be helped and asked them to understand her clinging, but it probably didn’t carry much weight. If things continued like this, Liu Xie’s reaction when we entered the imperial palace would be quite a sight.
“Lord, today’s event should end around the hour of the boar. How shall we handle the schedule afterward?”
“Schedule afterward…?”
When Man Chong, who had been glaring at me with a face full of dissatisfaction, spoke up as if to interrupt, I answered immediately to avoid piling up any more resentment.
“Don’t schedule anything. I want to rest a little.”
In truth I was exhausted in every sense. I had fought for far too long, and only mentally draining matters had awaited me. There were things to resolve—including the Xiahou Yuan situation—but it seemed better to rest thoroughly first and then deal with pending issues.
Man Chong nodded and actually canceled all the schedules, but uninvited guests always arrive without warning. Late at night, after finishing my duties and heading to the bedroom to rest, I discovered someone sitting on the bed.
“Is that you, Zhang Fei? Hey, I’m really tired today. I’ll play with you tomorrow…”
I tried to shoo the figure away with half-closed eyes, but I quickly realized it wasn’t Zhang Fei. It was only natural; the figure differed from her in many ways. The long hair that reached all the way to the waist was silver and sparkled beneath the moonlight. The strange taste in clothing—wearing robes so oversized it looked like the person was buried inside them…
The other party stared at me intently while I spoke. When I shortened my words and began to grow wary, she slowly opened her mouth.
“Um…”
“What is it? No—before that, how about revealing your identity first?”
“Both questions are a bit difficult…”
The moment my fumbling hand touched the short spear leaning against the wall, I immediately leveled it at her without hesitation.
“Speak.”
“I see. Then one at a time…”
The other party smiled as if troubled, then counted on her fingers as she answered.
“Hmm… first, my business is… I’ve come to collect a debt. And… as for my identity… it’s hard to say since you probably know almost nothing about me. In truth I’ve carried many names for a very long time. Still, if I must give one, it would be better to use a name that’s familiar here, wouldn’t it?”
After speaking, the other party straightened her posture—though doing so while sitting on the bed looked rather comical—neatly brought her hands together in front of her, bowed her head, and revealed her name.
“My name is Wu Ji.”