Chapter 74
I looked out the window and chewed over my mixed feelings.
To call this ingratitude... well, I did have a little bit of original sin.
I did feel a little guilty toward the saintess, who had jokingly told me the last time we met to at least give her a happy ending.
But.
What on earth are the other two doing?
Seriously, why are they protesting for more chapters?
I gave them two chapters the day before yesterday.
I even gave them three chapters yesterday.
I gave them everything already!
They're making a fuss because I only serialized one chapter today!
“It's the old three-in-the-morning, four-at-night trick, Kim Yul.”
Seeing my bewildered expression, Kangtongi looked out the window and gave a cool assessment.
“No, but, Secretary.”
“Yes.”
“Why is your boss... no, our boss... acting like that over there?”
I could understand the saintess and Yellowy.
But that knife-ear is the boss here.
What kind of CEO stages a protest in front of his own business?
“Well, he's an elf.”
“Hah.”
I doubted I'd ever understand knife-ear logic in my lifetime.
The secretary added some strange talk after that about clearly distinguishing right from wrong, and so on, almost like a bizarre kind of elf-style Juche ideology.
I pretended not to hear it and let out a sigh.
After all, one must distinguish between what can be done and what cannot.
“Well, with the boss looking like that, manuscript review will be hard. Please take care of it.”
The secretary pushed her glasses up and took the manuscript I handed over.
A look of grim determination came over her face,
as if she had become the last helmsman of a ship even the captain had abandoned.
Whether those enraged citizens would leave the Novelpia headquarters building alone—hmm, judging by the mood, it didn't seem likely.
So the best thing was to get off the sinking ship quickly—
“Oh, did you call a Buster Call?”
Kangtongi, who had kept looking out the window until then, let out an exclamation and muttered some nonsense.
“What are you talking about now, Kangtongi?”
When I moved up beside her and looked out the window,
I could see a troop of soldiers in armor that looked flashy and gaudy from a mile away, surging forward in a rush.
At the same time.
“Wow.”
“Amazing, Kim Yul. I can see the afterimage.”
Roselyn, having spotted the royal guard,
vanished backward in an instant, leaving an afterimage behind as if she had used Sandevistan.
Her skirt fluttered slightly from the sheer speed.
“White...”
Indeed, I took in a color befitting a pure saintess.
I got an elbow in the side along with a pitiful look from beside me, but I didn't care at all.
Eros is supposed to reveal himself in everyday life.
So holy, so holy.
With that thought, I stared blankly at the remaining protesters.
“Ah.”
“Gah.”
Kangtongi and I both froze in alarm at the same time.
Yellowy growled and hissed at the royal guards trying to stop the protest, and before long horns began popping out of its head with a crackle.
It smelled like obstruction of official duties.
“Kangtongi, run.”
“I'll bring him back.”
I hurriedly deployed Historie, who these days was practically a nanny raising Esthea half the time, as the fire-suppression response team.
If I let her cause trouble for no reason, I'd probably sleep badly.
Soon enough.
Kangtongi dashed out the front gate, slipped through the royal guard's protection, shot over in a flash, and grabbed Yellowy in a hug.
Then she babbled into the ear of the Yellowy whose horns were half-grown.
Whether she was reciting some victory spell or another.
Yellowy's horns vanished in an instant, and before long it was heading back toward headquarters, docilely tucked under her arm like an obedient puppy.
Roselyn out.
Esthea out.
And the last girl standing.
Our boss, Lady Chloe, had suddenly been left with both companions gone, and her expression was getting more and more scrunched up and severe.
Even the other protesters near the fountain seemed unable to get close, all because they were being crushed by Yellowy and the saintess's spiritual pressure.
The protesters lingering in back inched forward.
And before long Chloe started to look like the protest's ringleader.
Why use such an awkward passive construction, you ask?
“Secretary.”
“Yes.”
“Boss is getting hauled away right now?”
“...?”
With great power comes great responsibility.
Our boss Chloe had, in the blink of an eye, become the protest's leader and ended up handcuffed by the royal guard.
Thinking I was joking, the secretary came over and peeked out.
“Agh, that idiot.”
She dashed out and switched places with Yellowy, who had been brought back in Kangtongi's arms.
“Grrr!”
The opaque Yellowy howled.
* * *
Even seeing Esthea, who looked like she might whip her tail around and coil herself up at any moment, Kim Yul remained calm.
He had already entertained the great Gold Dragon countless times and had completely mastered how to keep her in good spirits.
Kim Yul's secret technique.
“The last chapter.”
“Gimme!”
The manuscript feed landed perfectly in Esthea's mouth, nom-nom.
## ====== ##
“So Kongming really is dead. Don't miss this chance—quickly pursue them and annihilate the Shu army!”
Sima Yi personally stepped to the front of the army and gave chase to the Shu forces.
......
......
The retreating Shu army sounded their flutes and gongs.
A banner reading “Han Chancellor, Marquis of Wuxiang Zhuge Liang” was fluttering powerfully in the wind.
“Hmph, what kind of trick is this now...?”
Sima Yi's sneering expression gradually turned to shock.
In the distance, atop a cart,
was Zhuge Liang, just as usual, holding a white feather fan in hand and wearing his Zhuge headscarf.
A piercing gaze pierced Sima Yi's soul.
“I, impossible, Zhuge Liang is alive! A trap! Kongming's trap!”
At that moment, Sima Yi immediately retreated.
Xiahou Ba, who had followed the wildly fleeing Sima Yi,
“We've run far enough. Calm down.”
tried to calm the still-thumping Sima Yi,
“D-do I still have my head attached properly?”
Even then, Sima Yi
could not forget the piercing gaze that Zhuge Liang on the cart had sent him.
......
......
: : So this is as far as it goes. : :
Zhuge Liang, who had scattered what little soul remained of him in Jiang Wei's final stratagem, let out a deep, deep sigh.
Though he had been a crouching dragon lying on the ground until now,
now, having shaken off all lingering regrets, he had taken on the duty of the Yellow Dragon, to look down upon and swallow all under heaven.
: : Even in death, I can't rest. : :
Even as Zhuge Liang sighed,
he took all things under heaven at in a glance.
And then, at that moment.
“You truly worked hard, Kongming.”
Along with a voice he would never forget even in his dreams, a sturdy hand rested on his shoulder.
With trembling eyes, he turned around.
There, just as he had looked when they first met in the thatched cottage at Xinye, his lord was smiling proudly at him,
and behind him,
the heroes who had graced an era
were smiling softly, as if they had been waiting for him to arrive.
When he blinked and looked up at the sky, there was the lofty heaven,
and when he lowered his gaze back to the ground, the realm lay spread out before him.
What is divided for a long time under heaven will surely unite,
and what is united for a long time will surely divide.
Within that cycle,
humans are mortal,
but heroes are immortal.
Therefore, this story was
a story of two heroes and countless heroes interweaving with one another, each firmly planting their convictions squarely upon the earth.
For this reason,
later generations came to call it Romance of the Three Kingdoms.
(Thank you for reading so far.)
## ====== ##
As soon as Historie read the draft, she fired off the cutting line, “This is a rush ending, isn't it?”
Kim Yul had shot back, “Should I speed-run the Eight Princes too?”—it was basically the ending of a canceled Japanese manga, but
“Eya-ho! As expected, Zhuge Liang was a blood relative of the great Gold Dragon!”
Esthea let out a satisfied rumble.
At that reaction,
Kim Yul exchanged glances with Historie.
‘Yellowy, right?’
‘Yellowy, right.’
It was a spiteful thought that would have been a little unfair if Esthea had been able to read it.
Esthea had also once been a picky eater, nibbling only at gourmet treats like Poppy did,
but over the long years, while reading countless works,
- What? Another hiatus again?
- No! How are you supposed to go on hiatus here?!
her patience threshold had sunk all the way to the floor.
Esthea thought,
a forced ending is better than an indefinite hiatus!
If she didn't like the ending, she could just go over and beat them up!
If Kim Yul could read that inner thought, it was such a vicious idea that he'd have nightmares every night of Yellowy strangling him with its tail.
.
.
.
With a satisfied grin,
“When do the side stories start? Tomorrow, right? I'm looking forward to Jiang Wei too! Since he's Zhuge Liang's disciple, he'll definitely lead Shu to victory!”
After leaving behind a very dragon-like remark with no human feeling whatsoever,
Esthea lightly waved the white feather fan, took Historie's hand, and strolled off.
Kim Yul let out a sigh of relief at that surprisingly calm ending, as if it were a four on the dice.
Life, after all, always reverts to the mean.
“Hngh, for this young lady to suffer such humiliation... unforgivable, desuwa...!”
Thanks to the secretary's earnest plea and Chloe having sold out her father's status, Chloe was finally freed and returned to the boss's office, grinding her teeth.
And after reading Kim Yul's manuscript,
“What the elf...!”
Chloe rolled her eyes back and grabbed Kim Yul by the collar, shaking him like crazy.
Since the saintess lurking on the street was set to pounce on him a little later as well,
Kim Yul's day of suffering was only just beginning.
* * *
Reactions to the ending of “The Two Heroes” were split right down the middle.
Not everyone had the same kind of Yellowy-level mindset.
“Wouldn't it have been better to portray the tragedy more properly? It feels like it ended way too vaguely...”
“So what happened to Shu? Did Jiang Wei win or what!”
People who couldn't hide their discomfort with the rushed ending.
“If Liu Bei and then Zhuge Liang died too, the driving force behind the story was basically gone. Isn't it more accurate to say they left while the applause was still going?”
“Still, the ending where they ascended and reunited with Liu Bei wasn't bad...”
People who gave it a positive assessment because, as a character biography, even if the war narrative itself hadn't ended, it had at least put a period on their lives.
“The nineteenth installment never even made it to the end...! The author needs to hurry up and write ten episodes about the time Liu Shan was born...!”
“Rather than A Dou, wouldn't a sticky, bittersweet night with Lady Sun be better?”
“No, the biography of Cao Cao's married women should come next...”
People who just wanted something smutty.
But there was one point they could all agree on.
“Still, it was really fun!”
“Telling a story that's close to an ensemble piece while portraying each character so delicately and making it so easy to empathize with their individual circumstances is by no means easy. I'm looking forward to how the author, Ulysses, will grow from here.”
“It was such a long time since I'd last come across a heroic tale that made my heart swell...”
It was a point that could only be acknowledged: the work was so purely entertaining that salons were debating its plot and characters all night long.
And then.
The omnibus edition of the Two Heroes,
and the official ad also announced that “Romance of the Three Kingdoms in One Volume,” now finally restored to its original title, would be published.
Those left regretting the end of the setting started waiting with pounding hearts.
The War of the Two Palaces.
Deng Ai. And the Gaoping Tomb Incident.
.
.
.
And around that time,
“Let's set out.”
“Why are you bringing the laptop? Since you're going, wouldn't it be better to rest a little?”
“I need to prepare for the next work. I've still got mountains of stories to write.”
Some time before, after Kim Yul was asked by Aizen to head for the port city of Alberis, he tightly packed his laptop into his travel bag and finished getting ready to set out.