As we walked into their encampment, we found that the camp was brightly lit by torches everywhere and there were several soldiers silently and vigilantly patrolling. Seems like military discipline is fairly tight here.

As I looked over, I saw a girl with an aura of elegance sitting outside a large tent. She was looking at the night sky with a bottle of liquor and seemed to be deep in her thoughts.

“This is–”

“This is my lord, Sun Ce Sun Bo Fu.”

Though I’d guessed it already, looking from afar, she really does have an uncanny resemblance with Sun Jian.

“Let’s do our greetings first.”

“Un.”

And so we went to where Sun Ce was and introduced ourselves before bowing.

“Oh~~ So you’re Liu Bei Liu Yu Zhou huh~~ I heard of you from Tais.h.i.+ Ci.” Sun Ce hurriedly got up and bowed when she heard my name. “Seems like you recommended Tais.h.i.+ Ci to come over to my place back then. Because of that, I was able to gain a brave general. I owe you thanks for this.”

“A brave general~~” Tais.h.i.+ Ci covered her reddened face and fidgeted about.

“No need to specially thank me. In the end, the one who chose her lord was herself after all.” I bowed once more as I said so.

As I bowed, I took a good look at Sun Ce under the illumination of the torches.

Since she’s Sun Ce’s daughter, she’s probably about 16 or 17. Her yellowish hair was short, and only extended to the lower half of her neck. Her fringe, on the other hand, was long and almost covered her eyes entirely. Under her high bridged nose was a small, elegant and dignified mouth, which was slowly chewing on a pastry presently.

Overall, Sun Ce seemed like a good-natured person but the aura of a beast that hung about her exposed the fighting spirit in her.

“Un, what brought you here.”

Ah, that’s right. We haven’t gotten into the main topic yet.

And so, we quickly gave her a run through of what happened and finally resolved the misunderstanding.

“Hahaha, so that’s what it was huh. And you even came here specially to explain it.” Sun Ce said as she laughed loudly and then returned to a calm expression. “But then that means Tais.h.i.+ Ci has need for more training huh, how could you have let your weapons be stopped just like that?”

Just then I realised, behind her long fringe were a pair of eyes that held a gaze as sharp as wolves and just looking at them sent a chill down your spine.

“Ah… Yes.” Tais.h.i.+ Ci said softly with her head hung low.

“What General Sun Ce said is not quite appropriate.” Just then, Yun Chang stepped up, which surprised Tais.h.i.+ Ci and Sun Ce. “I believe that General Tais.h.i.+ Ci’s skills are top notch and the only reason why I was able to defeat her in a short span was purely because of luck. Additionally, when you consider General Tais.h.i.+ Ci’s nightblindness, my win isn’t spectacular in the least. If we should cross swords once more, I’m not sure the result will be the same.” Everyone sank into silence after hearing what Yun Chang said in one breath.

I understand that Yun Chang’s intent in saying so was not to support Tais.h.i.+ Ci, but because she really thinks highly of Tais.h.i.+ Ci’s skills and feels that her victory was not conclusive.

Since she thought as much, she said so. Saying what she means is one good quality of Yun Chang’s after all.

After a moment of silence, Sun Ce broke into laughter.

“Hahaha~~~” She laughed as she walked over to me, who was slightly taller than her, and patted my shoulders. “You really have an interesting bunch of subordinates huh.”

“Un, I think so too.” I said, and heaved a sigh of relief as Sun Ce was not angered. “But personally speaking, I’d rather call them my companions.”

“Maa maa, anything goes.”

“Un? Oi, this…”

“Tais.h.i.+ Ci, bring Liu Bei’s companions to somewhere they can rest. I’ll be speaking with Lord Liu Bei.” Sun Ce said as she pulled me into the tent, not forgetting to grab the wine bottle that was not empty yet.

Entering the tent, I found that though it was large, it was mostly empty except for a bed, a desk covered in bamboo scrolls and an armour rack.

Come to think of it, this is a girl’s room right… No, this is something different altogether on various levels.

No good, I don’t know what to say all of a sudden.

“Hai, I scared my subordinates again.” Sun Ce said all of a sudden.

“Ah?”

“Eyes, my eyes~” She said as she parted her fringe, revealing the ferocious pair of eyes that gave me such a shock, I backed up. On seeing my reaction, Sun Ce looked very sad. “As expected, my eyes are just too hateful.”

“Eh! Oi! Don’t dig out your eyes!”

I hurriedly ran over and stopped Sun Ce’s stupid act… So that’s why you let your fringe grow out huh.

It took a great deal of persuasion before Sun Ce finally regained her composure.

“Sorry, I lost my composure just now.” Sun Ce said as she sat on the side of the bed and scratched her head tiredly before rearranging her fringe so that it covered her eyes.

“No, it’s okay.” Everyone has a side of themselves that they don’t like. “And besides, there’s nothing wrong with your eyes, aren’t they actually quite beautiful?”

“Be, beautiful?!”

“If I said your gaze isn’t sharp, I would be lying. But after a closer look, the bright l.u.s.ter is rather comforting.”

“Wu…” Sun Ce shrank into a corner of the bed.

Un? Why is Sun Ce’s face turning red? As expected, staying up late isn’t a good habit huh.

And I don’t know why but it became silent in the tent. I don’t know what else I should say either.

“By the way–” Sun Ce suddenly spoke up, which surprised me and I could only give a “Wh, what?” in reply as I waited for her to continue– “We came here in secret…”

“Then why did you light fires huh? Won’t they find you out like this?!”

“Ah.”

“Hai~ Realising it now is too late…” I sighed heavily as I shook my head.

All pressure I had felt dissipated the moment I gave her a tsukkomi.

As expected of Sun Jian’s daughter, whether it’s her personality or how she leads her troops, both are reckless and do what they want without thinking about the consequences.

“Maa, if it’s like that, then it can’t be helped.” She actually accepted things immediately, and got back up on the bed. “But my calling you here is not for this. All I wanted was to thank you. For the matter about my father, thanks.”

“Thank me?”

“Un,” She nodded, and began explaining when she saw my puzzled look. “Back when my father left Luoyang, you told him not to pa.s.s through Liu Biao’s territory right.”

“Ah, I did say that.” You’re thanking me just because of that? … I can’t accept it. “Maa, I’m actually quite guilty about that. If I had been more adamant about it, maybe Lord Sun Jian–”

“I understand my father’s temperament full well. No matter how much you try and talk him through, he will still follow his path.” Sun Ce interrupted my apology and smiled, perhaps from recalling how her father was, but the smile turned into a sorrowful one shortly after.

“I should be the one feeling guilty. The precious Jade Seal which my father went through h.e.l.l and high water was handed over for the sake of grabbing more territory by me, and now things have become like this.”

“This” probably refers to the matter of Yuan Shu declaring herself Emperor.

“So you came here with the intention of fixing the problem you created?”

“Ah, that is part of the reason. Honestly, I’m just here to grab more territory.” She said honestly, without hiding anything at all. “So if we manage to conquer Shouchun, we’ll have to discuss how to divide the territory then.”

Sun Ce’s expressions changed a lot, and now it was one of a sharp merchant. At this, I only shrugged and said, “We’ll discuss this when the time comes.”

After we concluded our discussions, I looked outside the tent and found that the sky was much bluer than before. Looks like dawn is not too far away. The nights now were long but the night of yesterday has now pa.s.sed us. The pa.s.sage of time is really difficult to grasp.

“We’ll be heading back first then. We’re going to launch our offensive on Yuan Shu today after all.” I stretched my back in a show of nonchalance at the coming battle as I said so. In reality, my heart was already racing.

“Un, everything that needs to be said has been said.” Sun Ce put down the wine bottle and got up from the bed. “Well then, let’s coordinate our attacks, how does 09:00 sound?”

“… How many have you brought?”

“Less than 20,000.”

Though Sun Ce’s position had probably been exposed, joining forces with her is still much better than going solo against 30,000 strong with my force of 10,000.

“Alright, got it.” I replied and made to leave but then remembered something and then spoke up to Sun Ce who was behind me. “Aren’t you going to sleep for a bit?”

“…” She should probably be looking at my back now wordlessly but she can’t see my expression at this time. After a moment, Sun Ce finally stammered in reply. “H, how can I have a good sleep when war is upon us~~~”

“… Maa, take care of yourself.” I parted the covers and exited the tent as I said so.

No matter how capable she is, she is only 16 and being afraid of battle is understandable. Sun Ce, you’ve probably been working tirelessly since you’ve been made to inherit your father’s position all of a sudden.

Thereafter, I returned to our encampment with Yun Chang and the rest before the sun came up, and we communicated to the rest on the agreement with Sun Ce to a.s.sault the city at 09:00.

I’d thought then that everything would go according to plan and any surprises would only crop when we attacked the city.

But this way of thinking was merely my naive delusions. In war, the situation can change drastically with every step on the battlefield. Some changes have always been brewing since the very beginning, and were only undiscovered until it’s too late.

And right at 08:30, Sun Ce’s army mutinied.