Liu Bei POV

“Yuan Zhi, this is…” I asked when Yuan Zhi was right in front of me.

“Don’t move!” She quickly interrupted me and pointed at my head.

When I saw this, I quickly closed my eyes as I thought that she was going to hit me. But even after a few seconds, I could not sense any force landing on my head so I slowly opened my eyes and saw that Yuan Zhi was touching the leaves on my gra.s.s hat. She looks like she’s think pretty hard too and I wonder if she is trying to figure out what type of plant they are from.

“The biggest deviation from my original script has to be this.” She spoke to herself as she looked at my face, “Liu Bei–”

Eh?! I panicked when she suddenly called out my name and turned around and saw that several people had heard her and were looking over. When I saw this, I hurriedly lowered my head and gestured to Yuan Zhi to keep quiet.

Why are you talking about me so loudly when you were the one who wanted me not to expose my ident.i.ty?

“Is dead.” Yuan Zhi said, and I heaved a sigh of relief on hearing that, and then pointed at me chest as she continued, “Why are you being so frantic? Shamoke?”

Eh? This is…

Ah, could it be that Yuan Zhi thinks that continuing to pretend that I was still missing could be used? Yes, from what I can remember, I do not believe that Liu Bei ever faked his death. Of course, I could have remembered wrongly but who cares. Yuan Zhi has alluded to it as much so there’s no need for me to doubt this.

“What you mean is…” I said as I nodded and tried to send my guess to her through my eyes.

“What are you staring at me for?”

Wu… It did not get through at all. As expected, being able to send messages just by a glance cannot be done so quickly huh?

“Let’s go, Shamoke.” Yuan Zhi said as she turned around and headed back to her horse. I have to say that it really is well-trained. It did not move at all when its master left and remained where it stood. Now that I think about it, Yuan Zhi does seem to be well-versed in horses so that might explain it.

I now know what Yuan Zhi is going to use but not how. I have some doubts but I am also very expectant. Compared to before, this is probably the real Yuan Zhi at work. And the actions she will take from here on out will be genuinely ‘Xu Shu’. As for history, who cares if it’s a little different? Right now, all we need to do is to win. Everything else can wait for later.

As I thought so, I hurried after Yuan Zhi out of the street we were in and eventually out of the market, feeling alive as I did so.

“Hu~”

“Don’t relax so quickly. We can rest later on.” Yuan Zhi called out to me just as I spat out a sigh and was about to sit down on a nearby rock.

“What’s the matter?” I asked Yuan Zhi as I got up and chased after her.

“Help me gather everyone. We’ll have a meeting in the afternoon.”

“Eh?!” I was surprised by this, “Have you decided on a strategy already?”

Is that not a little too fast?! She said she would consider the problem on her own and come up with her own strategy but she came up with one the moment she realised that my faking my death could be used?

“No way,” Yuan Zhi said with her hands behind her back as her eyebrows jumped, her bandana going up along with them, “But with how things are right now, time is of the essence, and I have some questions for those who took part in the last battle.”

(… I’d also

like to apologise to everyone.) Yuan Zhi added very softly as she turned back.

“I got it.” I said as I held back a smile, “Well then, what’s the main idea? Are we fighting or retreating?”

“…” Yuan Zhi looked at me from the side and said, “Of course we’re fighting.”

“Good.” I said as I nodded, feeling delighted.

“But don’t have too much hope.” Yuan Zhi continued just as I finished, “If I don’t succeed this time, that means that my abilities are insufficient for this battle and we’ll need to retreat when the time comes.”

“Un, I am ell aware of that possibility.”

Everything that needs to be said has been said. Let’s see how this third battle goes. I too made my resolve in my heart and looked at Yuan Zhi as I thought back to how we first met. Now that I think about it, she has been saying a lot of incomprehensible things back then that I should have picked up on. Things might have been very different if I did.

However, all of this is just hindsight. Be it me or Yuan Zhi, neither of us could have guessed that we would be in the current situation we are in. Nor do I know how much of a deviation there is between the battles here and those in history.

— Are you ready to be responsible?

The words by the mystic came to mind yet again. Could it be that the many deviations in this battle are due to my doing… Because of all the things that I did before…

“Shamoke? Why are you standing in a daze over there?”

“Ah, un. It’s nothing.” I shook my head and replied when I regained my senses. I have some worries about everything that is going on but they will have to wait for after I deal with the problem at hand.

I was just sitting here not too long ago in the main hall. I did not think that I would be sitting here again so soon.

As I sat in the main hall, I looked outside. It was very bright outside during the morning meeting but the light has already started to have an orange hue as the afternoon begins to transition into the evening.

“Un…” I breathed out lightly, feeling nervous about the meeting.

I had already notified everyone as Yuan Zhi told me to but only half of the seats are now filled. That cannot be helped as the reorganisation work is very troublesome. It is the first day after reorganising the troops into the 4 battalions and there is much training to do to get the troops used to the new battalions. All the warrior generals were therefore outside the city except the ones who were in charge of the city defences.

“Lord Xu Shu, where did you go before this?” Chen Gong suddenly asked a very difficult question as she looked at Yuan Zhi.

Yuan Zhi had been sitting quietly at the end and calmly replied her, “To relax.”

“Are you relaxed now?”

“Yes, thanks to Xuan De.”

Her reply was very simple straightforward and left no room for Chen Gong to ask any further. Chen Gong frowned and s.h.i.+fted her gaze to me before s.h.i.+fted it back to her. Looks like she is hoping that I would discuss what happened.

Naturally, I cannot tell her the whole truth. Instead, I did a pressing gesture and smiled as I nodded, “I met with Yuan Zhi in the city and when I did, her mood had already improved significantly and she was on her way back.”

As I said this, I s.h.i.+fted my gaze to Liao Hua and then to Huang Zu as well who were both shooting glances at Yuan Zhi and me from time to time, “In any case, there’s no problem now and the reason for gathering everyone now is because Yuan Zhi is going to talk about what will happen next.”

“Did benefactor come up with a strategy?” Huang Zu asked as she looked at Yuan Zhi meekly. Her expression usually held a fierce expression but she seemed like a curious student at this time.

“…”

“More or less, more or less.” I replied on behalf of Yuan Zhi who remained silent and shot Yuan Zhi a glance.

To be honest, I am reaching my limits here. Yuan Zhi has not told me anything at all about her plans so all I can do is continue to rely on her and believe in her capabilities. But not knowing anything does not give me something concrete to believe in.

“Yuan Zhi, do you want to sit over here? It will be easier to explain things from here after all.” I said as I s.h.i.+fted slightly to the right to make s.p.a.ce for her. To be honest, my intention was to discuss with her what she had planned to allay my concerns.

“No, I’ll just stay here. It’s the same wherever I do it anyway.”

Wu… She did not understand my intent.

“My lord, seating positions is a matter of propriety. It’s not very appropriate to have Lord Xu Shu sit at the second seat.” Gong You admonished.

“Don’t just sit there and do nothing, my lord.” Zi Zhong said as she continued to write with both eyes on her scroll, “Have you finished today’s quota of work?”

“Ah, un.” I hurriedly nodded, “I finished it this afternoon.”

For the sake of eking out this time for a meeting, I worked extra hard to finish all of today’s work. But as I looked at how busy the 3 of them were, it’s clear that the work handed to me was just the tip of the iceberg.

“Ah… Do you want to give me some more?”

“… That works.” “Since my lord asked for it, I’ll give you some.” “Oh~ I get to clear some of what I have left.”

*Pa* *Pa* *Pa*

As the 3 of them said their bit, they threw over a stack of scrolls. They threw so many over that I could not catch them all and a fair number landed on the floor.

“Get to work my lord.”

“Ah, yes, yes…” I said as I hurriedly picked up my brush at Zi Zhong’s urging. At critical times like these, the handwriting on these doc.u.ments gets messier than usual and it really is difficult to read…

“Big brother, we’re back.” A voice came from outside the room just as I opened a scroll. I did not need to look. It was definitely Yun Chang.

“You’re back huh, Yun Chang.” I replied while looking at the scroll and hastily finished it before looking up. Looks like everyone in the encampment is back.