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“I’ve… made a decision,” Sun Jian said as Sun Ce returned and took a
casual seat near the entrance to the sleeping quarters. “I… have decided to-”
“Oh, Husband, no,” Lady Wu
scoffed. “You signed up, didn’t you, to fight those cultists… so how many is
it, then, exactly…? I have heard that there are thousands of them, maybe as many as a million; how do you intend to face them alone this time…?”
“No, no!” Sun Jian insisted. “I’ve actually put a militia together this
time.”
“Well that’s something, I
suppose,” Lady Wu grumbled as she wiped the baby boy’s face; the oblivious
child laughed happily.
“Can I go and fight…?” Sun Ce
asked eagerly.
“You’re nine!” Lady Wu
scolded. “Save that nonsense for when you’re at least five years older! Who’s
supposed to keep things here…?”
Sun Jian frowned and said, “Your brother-”
“No, he can go with you,” Lady
Wu insisted. “If nothing else, he’s level-headed… he’ll maybe stop you from
doing something reckless.”
Sun Ce laughed involuntarily, while his father was suitably awkward.
“This ‘militia’… how big is it?” Lady Wu prompted.
Sun Jian smiled sheepishly and said, “I promise, it’s a few hundred
already; I’ve met four men, four really good, decent, honest, courageous men
that have really helped me inspire people to-”
“Abandon their families and go off on some mad, suicidal mission to kill
a load of heretics,” Lady Wu interrupted. “Why under Heaven is this not being
done by the army…? Why do they need bands of ordinary men like you?”
“I’m not ordinary,” Sun Jian
said with sudden seriousness.
“…Sorry,” Lady Wu sighed sadly. “I… I did not mean to belittle you; it’s
just that I worry, for us all. We’re not wealthy… we can’t afford any more
trouble.”
“To answer your question, the army is underfunded and inadequate… a sad
sign of how bad things have got,” Sun Jian lamented.
“This whole region- nay,
the whole country is badly run, and
if I’m honest, I’m surprised that we haven’t seen something like this sooner…
I’m doing this to stop it now before
it spreads to the south and endangers us. Anyhow… the fact that I even had to
go it alone against those pirates says enough about the state of things for
some years, now… there were no soldiers for the people to ask help from then, either.”
“No… only good people, like you,”
Lady Wu said soberly. After a pause, she smiled and added, “You’re far from
ordinary, Husband. You’re quite amazing, in fact, and I’m sure that you
probably could defeat them all on
your own.”
“That’s right, he could!” Sun
Ce proclaimed. “You’ll get them all,
Father! One day, I’m gonna be brave and strong, like you, and get them old pirates!”
“Listen to him,” Lady Wu
snickered. “Another one looking for a hero’s early grave, and he isn’t even
ten.”
Sun Jian was morbidly silent.
“…Sorry,” Lady Wu said quietly. “How long do you think you’ll be away,
you and your new friends…?”
“A few months, now that I come to think about it,” Sun Jian replied
miserably. “Are you sure that your brother shouldn’t-”
“I said that he should go, and I think that he should; we’ve all got to
do what we can against these dangerous heretics, right…?” Lady Wu suggested.
“Off you go, then, Husband.”
“I’m not going yet!” Sun Jian chortled. “No, we set out in a few days;
tonight, I must gather a few things… but in all, we’re going to need supplies,
weapons, armour-”