“You sent a wu of only five men—including three peasant soldiers—to a Black Mountain bandit stronghold of over five hundred? And not for reconnaissance, but to seize it⋯?”
Cao Cao had personally gone down to Juancheng to recruit soldiers for the coming battle against the Black Mountain bandits and had just returned.
She could not tell whether what she had heard was truth or a dream.
“Xi Zhicai……!”
Flushed with anger, Cao Cao glared at Xi Zhicai, who lay prostrate before her, and ground her teeth.
She nearly spat out a stream of curses, but barely recovered her reason and took a deep breath.
There was only one reason she had abandoned even her trusted confidants Xiahou Dun and Cao Hong and raced without rest to Dongwuyang.
It had been a momentary whim, but she could not stop thinking about that insolent man to whom she had bestowed her beloved Qinggang Sword.
That outrageous, fantastical man who had dared ignore the words of Cao Mengde herself and spout nonsense.
Had it been anyone else, he would long since have been expelled from the army, yet for some reason, even as Cao Cao found him absurd, her gaze had strangely been drawn to him.
The events of that day had even appeared in her dreams to torment her. Cao Cao had meant to face the man in person as soon as possible, to deny her own feelings and brainwash herself into accepting that he was merely a rather useful chess piece.
“Five, I said. Five. No matter how outstanding his martial skill may be, it was only five men! What could they possibly do against hundreds of Black Mountain bandits holed up in a fortified stronghold?”
‘We’ve lost a precious talent for nothing!’
Cao Cao bit down hard on her lower lip in frustration.
It was not some vulgar thought about having lost her beloved Qinggang Sword.
She had sought the man out in order to deny her own heart, yet when she thought that she might never see him again, the anxious, furious state of her own heart felt so pitiful and insignificant that she was angry at herself.
Xi Zhicai opened her mouth, cold sweat streaming down her face.
“M-my lord. Please calm yourself. Squad Leader Ian has the merit of having cut down two hundred Black Mountain bandits during the weeklong journey from Juancheng to Dongwuyang. I merely tried to fathom the deep intent behind my lord bestowing upon him even the Qinggang Sword, which is like your own other self, and making him an independent detachment….”
Cao Cao did not want to hear Xi Zhicai’s excuses and cut her off coldly.
‘It must be a lie.’
Without even casting a glance at Xi Zhicai, who lay face-down on the floor, Cao Cao decided so inwardly.
She did not believe that this strategist, who never failed to offer her wise counsel and brilliant proposals at every moment, would have pushed a mere low-ranking squad leader into certain death just to test his strength. Cao Cao changed her line of thought.
‘There must surely be the filthy gazes and influence of the Yingchuan notables behind that wretched excuse…!’
At present, beneath Cao Cao, three great factions existed in a precarious balance.
The first was the Dong Commandery faction, led by the famed scholar Chen Gong.
It was a force formed by Cao Cao’s staunch political backer Bao Xin and the powerful figures of each county in Dong Commandery, gathering and scattering as their interests aligned.
The second was the Yingchuan faction, centered around the deputy governor Xun Yu.
It was a massive force composed of the foremost notables of Yingchuan in the age, centered on the renowned Xun clan of Yingchuan.
And lastly, there was the personal guard faction, which offered blind loyalty solely to Cao Cao herself, such as the Xiahou clan, the Cao clan, and Li Qian’s Li clan.
Xi Zhicai belonged to the Yingchuan faction among them, and so she was not someone who could ever be free of the faction’s shadow.
‘That is why, as a form of restraint, they drove Ian into the jaws of death. Perhaps bestowing the Qinggang Sword on him in the first place was the root of the problem….’
Cao Cao’s mind went blank, and the strength left her legs.
By her guess, Ian was one of Li Qian’s private retainers.
If not—if he truly was a Dongyi tribesman from beyond Liaodong—then he was the clearest, purest talent in Cao Cao’s army, liberated from the bindings of the noble clans.
‘His individual martial strength was excellent, and he was a man who had received Xiahou Dun’s acknowledgment. There was no one better to keep by my side….’
Of course, she could not say there had been no personal fondness or desire involved, but in any case, by bestowing upon him her beloved Qinggang Sword, she had intended to raise him into a pillar of her personal guard faction.
‘What should I do now….’
Should she punish Xi Zhicai?
Over a mere squad leader, was she to make an enemy of the Yingchuan faction?
Cao Cao shook her head.
To begin with, all of this might have been something the Dong Commandery faction had contrived to frame the Yingchuan faction.
‘My head is in turmoil….’
Cao Cao closed her eyes and slowly thought over the situation.
And after a moment, Cao Cao opened her eyes and spoke.
“Xi Zhicai.”
“Yes, my lord!”
“Select a death squad at once and rescue Ian and his wu, who went to Mount Seomu!”
“I shall obey your command!”
Cao Cao stroked the Yitian Sword hanging at her waist and rose from her seat.
“And I will take the field as well.”
“My lord…!”
“No questions! This all began with my own negligence. Therefore, I will see it ended.”
Just as Cao Cao, her face grim, was about to stride out of the tent—
“My lord!! Urgent report!!”
A sentry outside the tent came rushing in, gasping for breath.
“What is it!”
“F-from Mount Seomu….”
“What?! Mount Seomu? Is it about Squad Leader Ian?”
The sentry nodded.
“Yes… that is correct. Outside the camp, a man calling himself Squad Leader Ian says he has returned after completing his mission, accompanied by a group of roughly sixty people….”
At the name Ian, Cao Cao’s heart dropped with a thud.
“Ian!!!”
Calling Ian’s name, Cao Cao roughly swept aside the tent flap and ran out of the camp.
‘Ian, have you truly returned? Thank goodness, truly, thank goodness! It is enough that you came back alive…!’
Cao Cao hurried forward, imagining Ian collapsed before her, covered in blood.
Behind her, Xi Zhicai followed with a flustered expression.
“My lord…!!”
‘Please, just come back with your arms and legs still attached…. Even if you threw aside your mission and returned, I will never call you cowardly. As long as your body is unharmed, I will be sure to put you to good use…!’
Cao Cao ran without stopping toward the camp entrance.
And the moment she confirmed Ian’s face, she rushed to him.
“Hm? Wait, my lord! How did you get here so quickly?”
“Ian…?”
Cao Cao could not help but be astonished.
Contrary to what she had imagined, the one greeting her at the camp entrance was Ian with a fresh, clean face, not a single drop of blood on him.
Cao Cao asked Xi Zhicai, who had barely followed after her and was panting for breath.
“Xi Zhicai…. Did you not say that Ian went in with five people, himself included?”
“T-that is so, but…”
“Then what exactly are all those people behind Ian…?”
What Cao Cao saw was far too large a crowd to be called a single wu.
A group that looked to number at least fifty, and Black Mountain bandits being obediently dragged along bound in ropes.
And even a mysterious female general hauling Black Mountain bandit prisoners and a wooden cart, with ropes tied to the iron halberds in both her hands.
“…….”
Cao Cao thought she must surely be seeing things.
‘I must have worried so much that I’m having a waking dream. Surely Ian didn’t not only return alive from a stronghold holding hundreds of Black Mountain bandits, but smash the stronghold apart as well?’
The man she had agonized and worried over was far too unharmed, as if he had merely gone out for a stroll, so Cao Cao rubbed both eyes and stared at Ian.
Ian, too, met Cao Cao’s eyes, cupped his fist, and continued looking at her, so an odd silence settled before the Dongwuyang camp.
The first to speak was Cao Cao.
“Ian….”
There were so many things she wanted to say, but Cao Cao barely suppressed the impulse to stride up to Ian and embrace him, then continued.
“You have worked hard.”
At that, Ian replied with a smile.
“Mission complete, my lord!”
***
[ Yuanbao currently possessed: 3,400 ]
After completing two quests, an enormous amount of currency had piled up in an instant.
‘Now I should start trying to draw generals soon.’
The equipment I needed right away had more or less been assembled, so it was time to move on to drawing military officers, which could be called the flower of gacha.
‘And I even have a guaranteed Wei general draw ticket.’
The draw ticket I had obtained by clearing the official post quest.
Since it would bring in an SSR-rank general of Wei for free, it had a value worth a thousand pieces of gold.
—Whoooooosh!!
By the way, why was the wind so strong today?
It was then.
“Squad Leader! It’s dangerous!!”
Hm?
Thinking the sky had somehow gone dark, I looked up and saw the enormous flag at the camp entrance falling toward my head.
I could have dodged it easily enough, but if I moved out of the way, Xi Zhicai walking beside me might be hit.
Just as I hurriedly tried to stretch out my hand, someone’s hand suddenly appeared and held up the flag.
“Are you all right, Elder Brother?”
“I’m fine.”
It was Dian Wei, holding the flag up with one hand.
“When you walk, don’t look elsewhere. Look ahead, Elder Brother.”
“R-right.”
Soldiers hurried over to Dian Wei, who was holding up the flag with one hand without so much as a change in expression, and began supporting it together.
“Nnngh…!”
The sight of six grown men clinging to the flag Dian Wei had been holding up with one hand and barely raising it upright.
At that, I resolved to tell Cao Cao that she must not neglect the soldiers’ training.
“Heavens… she lifted the Yamen Banner by herself?”
Cao Cao muttered with a shocked expression.
What’s a Yamen Banner?
“I can lift a flag like that too.”
“Do not indulge in pointless bravado, Ian.”
Feeling somehow vexed, I said that to Cao Cao, only to be scolded.
But it’s true…. I’m stronger than Dian Wei…. I even beat her in a duel…!
As I walked through the camp with my lips jutting out, Cao Cao spoke to me.
“More importantly, that warrior you brought with you.”
She must mean Dian Wei, right?
“She looked at you and called you elder bro….”
“Yes?”
The wind was so fierce that Cao Cao’s words were buried, and I asked back without thinking.
Then Cao Cao frowned and came up in front of me.
A pleasant orchid fragrance greeted me.
When I reflexively bent my knees slightly, Cao Cao suddenly came closer and whispered into my ear.
“She c-called you Elder Brother.”
Ah! So that’s what she meant?
I briefly explained what had happened at the stronghold.
“And so Dian Wei became my sworn younger sister, and I intended to introduce her to you, my lord.”
“Hmmm…. Is that so?”
The fine lines caught between Cao Cao’s brows melted away as if they had been a lie.
“You mean you are merely sworn siblings who share the same purpose, neither connected by blood nor bound by an engagement?”
“That is correct, but…?”
“Then that is fine!”
Cao Cao whipped her head around and took the lead.
Not understanding what was going on, I looked around, and everyone’s reactions were strangely odd.
“Why are you looking at me like that?”
“It’s nothing, Elder Brother. Just look ahead, Elder Brother.”