Chapter 28
Perhaps it was thanks to the massive marketing campaign launched before serialization even began.
Kim Yul's ambitiously unleashed Three Kingdoms isekai, officially titled 'Two Heroes' as the combined name of the two works, started surging in popularity from the very beginning of serialization.
Especially.
“Hey, you there, filthy dwarf?”
“Hm?”
“I shall grant you the honor of becoming sworn brothers with me.”
“Go screw yourself.”
Even though Kim Yul hadn't explicitly mentioned it in the author's note, was it because literary genes are shared across eras and worlds?
It was because the trio of Liu Bei, Guan Yu, and Zhang Fei—nicknamed the 'Peach Brothers'—were performing a species-harmony move that set the hearts of the so-called humanitarians ablaze.
Of course, no dwarf would ever agree to become sworn brothers with an elf.
And.
The 'Peach World Tree' planned by Lady Chloe of House Whisperaud had, before long, become a city tourist attraction.
“Ohohoho! Business is going splendidly!”
Oddly enough, the café of uncertain ownership near the Peach World Tree was showered with a rain of cash.
The money going into the newspaper was dad's money.
The money earned by the café was her own money, in that sense.
It was the moment Lady Chloe's elf-like business sense truly shone.
.
.
.
That was about the extent of the elves' reaction, though.
As serialization continued, however, 'Two Heroes' gradually began to be seriously enjoyed among humans.
“An empire falling to corruption and graft... Indeed, even putting that cesspool incident aside, this writer called Ulysses has a remarkable interest in politics.”
Now he had been impeached and returned to civilian life.
What had prompted Congressman Asterik, who suffered from Orange Disease and had his face turn yellow as a lingering aftereffect, to decide to blow the whistle?
Even though he ended up becoming a dictator, hadn't it all begun with the young Caesar's heroic exploits?
For that reason, people—especially those interested in politics—came to regard 'Two Heroes' as required reading.
Naturally, salons were filled with earnest discussions about it.
“Those so-called Ten Attendants who control the empire... however you look at it, this seems aimed at the high noble families.”
“If that's the case, the Yellow Turbans are a bit ambiguous, aren't they? No matter how you look at it, they seem more like a reference to black mages and cultists.”
“That makes sense. A mystical leader who wields sorcery... Judging by the deeds those cultists committed, that's a plausible interpretation too.”
“Black mages are ultimately working to bring down the imperial system too, so hmm, this is a bit controversial.”
If Kim Yul had heard that, he'd have spent a very exhausting time shouting, 'Left-nyat! Right-nyat!' while declaring political neutrality.
Unfortunately, Kim Yul had been too busy writing lately to set foot in the imperial capital's salons.
Unintentionally, Kim Yul—more precisely, the writer using the pen name Ulysses—began to be regarded as a rising sensation in imperial politics.
Of course.
People who dealt with heavy topics like politics were practically a tiny minority even in the salons.
Most of them were...
“So if Guan Yu and Zhang Fei fought, who would win?”
“Even if it were a 1-on-2 fight against Liu Bei, I feel like Liu Bei would wipe the floor with them.”
“Honestly, I mean, isn't Liu Bei just a country bumpkin by origin?”
“Take that back... what you just said...!”
“But is Cao Cao really the villain? Doesn't seem like it, does it?”
“Judging by what we've seen so far, hmm, not sure. Besides, Liu Bei himself isn't exactly hiding his bloodline, is he?”
“But fifteenth generation? Seventeenth generation? At that point, isn't it embarrassing to even call that imperial blood?”
They were indulging in character-versus-character fandom wars.
Especially in the early chapters, it was no exaggeration to say the author deliberately unfolded the story by placing the two figures in complete contrast.
As Cavalry Commandant, Cao Cao led the government troops and, with outstanding leadership and charisma, suppressed the remaining Yellow Turban rebels in Yingchuan.
Liu Bei, who sold off his own family assets to form a volunteer army with his sworn brothers and threw himself onto the battlefield.
One side was an unmistakable elite path.
The other was a weed-like path starting from the bottom.
By military law.
By virtue.
Of course...
“What merchant in his right mind would take a loss and hand over all the horses? No matter how much of a novel this is, that makes no sense!”
“Foolish. If a high elf wielding twin swords with ease showed up and asked you to sell them, could you honestly say you wouldn't chicken out?”
“I-Is that so...?”
Because Kim Yul had written with the mindset of, 'Liu Bei is from the Romance—so crank the exaggeration up to the max!'
Jang Se-pyeong and So Ssang ended up reduced to horse merchants who got shaken down by Liu Bei even in another world—and, to make matters worse, were overpowered by a high elf.
In the historical account, they were portrayed a bit more plausibly as bottom-buyers of Liu Bei coin, but Kim Yul couldn't overcome the limitation that you can't spare narration for extras in a novel.
Since he had been fashioned as an elf, Liu Bei was fated to be unfairly treated no matter what.
.
.
.
And so, for a while.
If there were a popularity poll, Cao Cao was so overwhelmingly popular he'd win by a two-to-one margin.
So far, Liu Bei had only shown the image of a soft-hearted high elf with big ears.
Because Cao Cao, from his position as an outsider slightly removed from the center of power, did an excellent job serving as the narrator of the political drama.
Even his refusal of appointment as Administrator of Dong Commandery and his return home to build his own power base.
The way he lightly dipped his toes into the various conspiracies centered around the court and showed himself as both an observer and a schemer was also very well received.
It wasn't like in the Romance, where he failed to assassinate Dong Zhuo in dramatic fashion and made a humiliating getaway, but fleeing from Dong Zhuo once he showed signs of becoming another tyrant was still good.
But.
- I may betray others, but I will not let others betray me!
“......”
“......Huh?”
“Hmm...”
“Wow, that's a bit much.”
Cao Cao's sudden action finally started living up to the title.
Because of the Lü Boshe incident.
The growth of Cao Cao coin, which had been hitting limit-up endlessly, slowed down somewhat.
* * *
“Phew.”
Did I... pick the wrong subject...?
A pressure I had never felt even while writing Caesar's story seemed to have been bearing down heavily on my shoulders lately.
I had vaguely thought I'd just cross over the Records and the Romance and squeeze out some easy juice.
After all, the most important part of a novel is shaping each installment so the dopamine bursts with every chapter.
Besides, since I was serializing both at once, I had to avoid distortions in the timeline or critical discrepancies in the narration.
At that point, the flow from the Yellow Turban Rebellion to the purge of the Ten Attendants was actually easier to write.
Cao Cao had been thrown into the very center of the maelstrom.
Liu Bei could just wander around doing good deeds, and with a bit of added adaptation here and there, rescue a young lady kidnapped by Yellow Turban remnants and even set up a little romance angle.
Basically, I could just stir up attention by throwing in a fake heroine like that.
However.
In a way, the real highlight of Romance of the Three Kingdoms.
The Anti-Dong Zhuo Coalition, where every warlord gathered in one place and raised their spirits to punish the traitor Dong Zhuo.
…The historical record was a little too ambiguous on this.
The Romance dressed it all up neatly with grandiose labels like the Three Sovereigns and Five Emperors or the Empire's Seven Great Swordmasters, and even slapped on the stylish epithet of the Eighteen Warlords.
There was nothing like that in the historical record.
That Hulao Pass grasshopper fleeing in terror from the continent's strongest dual-sword master, Liu Bei, is also material that only appears in the Romance's Three Heroes Battle Against Lü Bu.
…Aside from that.
Is there any fun in it?
No, honestly, I feel like it wouldn't be fun at all...?
To begin with, even Liu Bei's participation in the Records of the Three Kingdoms is uncertain.
At best, only in Wang Can's Records of Heroes is there even a mention of it—and even then, all that remains is a note that he fought alongside Cao Cao.
That could be turned into something really compelling if adapted well...
But then too many story beats would change all at once, so that wasn't possible either.
“Then why not just cram all of Cao Cao's part into the exposition and describe the scenes in Liu Bei's part?”
“They're different novels, though. Isn't that a bit much?”
Historie looked at me with a sullen expression.
“The readers won't tell the difference anyway. Estea's happy about getting two consecutive chapters, too.”
“...Is that so?”
I opened the status window to check.
“...Yeah, I guess?”
I thought there would be at least some difference.
The daily reader counts were nearly the same.
In that case...
* * *
“Mm-hmm, nyan-nyan──”
Having joined the Peace-of-Mind Squad, Estea was wandering around the imperial capital from dawn again today, humming to herself.
A life where minions would come running at a mere flick of her hand in the lair was nice enough, of course.
“Today's papers! Bring them all!”
“Well now, isn't the little miss impressive.”
So overfed on the heaping helpings Historie kept serving up that...
She was now happily living a little mutt life, gobbling up every source material she could find without even distinguishing genres.
Of course.
She was also generous with her opinions, so in the meantime there had been the trivial incident of driving three rookie writers to quit writing.
In a dragon's long life, three struggling writers giving up their pens was nothing to Estea.
“What? The serialization's been canceled? No way!”
She didn't even realize that the reader opinions she herself voiced had become daggers stabbing into the author's heart.
She was the worst of the worst.
“Well, the little miss is strong too.”
“Thank you!”
After showing the proper traits of a righteous dragon by listening carefully even to praise from a lowly human.
Estea toddled over, not even trying to hide her giggles, and sat down on a park bench.
The first thing she picked up was, naturally, the Truth Daily.
Flutter──
She brushed aside the political talk of the lowly humans, which she wasn't particularly curious about anyway, and immediately started reading 'Two Heroes'.
First, the front half in sequence: 'Two Heroes: The Villain Hides His Ambition.'
But.
Today, the quality of the source material was poor.
Where had the dopamine-packed developments gone? They were just spending all day and night making plans to take down that bastard Dong Zhuo.
This is a scam!
They're freeloading on the page count!
Boo! Boooo!
“Grrr.”
With her complaints and a faint puff of breath curling in her mouth, Estea frowned and turned to the next installment, beginning 'Two Heroes: The Royal Descendant Hides His Bloodline'.
“No, why does the protagonist of another story keep showing up here?”
Oddly enough, 'Villain Hides His Ambition' had almost no narration about Liu Bei, while 'The Royal Descendant Hides His Bloodline' kept having Cao Cao pop up like a co-lead and tidying everything up.
Well, if you thought of it as consecutive-upload material, it was understandable.
After all, retelling the same scene from a different angle is the very pinnacle of padding out the page count.
And then.
“Waaah──!”
Having been sucked in, Estea finished the story in one go and let out a satisfied cheer without caring about the stares around her.
- I shall return before this cup cools.
In her dragon heart,
the Guan Yu hype began to surge.