Became The Sultan Of The Ottoman Empire [EN]: Chapter 5

#5. Look at this guy? (1)

“Too salty.”

I risked my life twice, and all I get is a measly 10 points.

Even Scrooge would say, ‘This is a bit much….’

But what can I do? I’ll take what I get and make the most of it.

Fortunately, with 10 points, I could afford my first trait in the shop.

‘Around this time, there was always advice given to beginners.’

In 「Sultan, Dominate the World,」 they always said not to expect too much from talents or traits.

Take talents, for example.

Just because you max out your physical talent to 10 and get a martial god-level talent doesn’t mean you can become a Sultan.

If strength alone could make you Sultan, then Xiang Yu would have defeated Liu Bang, and Lu Bu would have unified China.

Even with high intelligence, in this era where fists are closer than the law, you’d likely lose your life to a night visitor before you could even use your brain, and even with a hundred instances of good luck, one instance of bad luck could kill you.

Charm? Not even worth discussing.

Even the most highly rated talents were treated this way, so lower-ranked traits didn’t receive good evaluations.

‘No, the abilities are useful. The problem is the hopeless situation even with these abilities.’

It’s easy to say Lu Bu-level talent, but if it were that common, would he be praised as “Among men, Lu Bu?”

The problem was that even with talents that would be heavily recorded in history books, becoming a Sultan was impossible.

‘Well, the Sultan’s seat isn’t just about having outstanding talent.’

Mustafa, who could have continued the empire’s golden age after his father, was caught up in a conspiracy and executed by his father, Suleiman I.

In the end, Selim II, who indulged in alcohol and women, became the Sultan.

It’s no wonder that Hürrem Sultan, Selim II’s mother who created this mess, is called the “Kihwanghu [Empress] of the Ottomans.”

Anyway, that’s not important.

What’s important is that the gamble with my life as collateral was successful, and I got the opportunity to use my abilities.

If I had missed this opportunity, I would have wasted four years or been assassinated while the Sultan’s seat was vacant.

“After all, what I need to exploit is the difference between the game and reality.”

Yusuf tapped the table lightly and came to a conclusion.

No matter how much freedom a game offers, there are limits, and a gamble like this would have been impossible.

In the game, Yusuf would have ended up waiting for four years, twiddling his thumbs, and dying without even putting up a proper resistance.

Thanks to this incident, I was able to clearly feel the difference between the game and reality.

In the end, I needed to choose traits that might be poorly rated in the game but would show excellent performance in reality.

Yusuf examined the shop with a fluttering heart, as if he were in a duty-free store.

[Strong Grip] [Charming Speech] [Authoritative Voice] [Quick Battlefield Assessment]…

The traits continued endlessly, as if the game developers were living up to their reputation as perverts.

There was one absolute rule about traits: there were no unrealistic or excessive abilities.

In other words, there were no traits that allowed you to bend steel bars with your bare hands or wield internal energy like in martial arts, and there were no traits with ridiculously high cost-effectiveness.

For example, to be called a great general, you needed to have various traits like tactics, mercenary management, and mental strength.

You couldn’t just add one trait and be on par with them.

‘So, you usually have to build up your traits well.’

If you stack traits well, you can become a great general or an outstanding administrator.

That’s why I said not to expect too much from each trait.

“That’s just in the game. Just being able to make up for my lack of experience is enough for a trait to play its role.”

Modern experience and memories?

It’s not enough to face monsters in an era where a single misstep can cost you your life.

The more I looked, the more good traits there were to fill in the gaps, and Yusuf finally chose two traits.

[Emotion Detection] [Quick Talent Assessment]

Emotion Detection is, as the name suggests, the ability to easily discern what emotions the other person is harboring.

It’s highly versatile but also has clear limitations. It doesn’t work on monsters with hundreds of snakes coiled in their bellies.

The Sultan, and anyone with a bit of fame, can easily hide their true feelings, making it useless in the most important situations.

Even without this limitation, it wasn’t well-regarded in the game.

‘After all, most high-ranking officials are enemies or people you can ignore, so there’s no need to bother confirming with a trait.’

Still, since I’ve gained the Sultan’s favor, I don’t have to worry about my reputation being in the gutter.

[Quick Talent Assessment] is the ability to vaguely discern the physical and intellectual talents of others.

Talent assessment sounds like a good ability, but it’s not as good as a physical fitness test for physical abilities or an IQ test for intelligence.

It’s similar to how a skilled trainer can roughly tell if someone has a good physique by looking at their body shape or how an experienced professor can sense how smart someone is after a few conversations.

It’s a decent trait if you’re thinking about nurturing talent, but it wasn’t well-regarded in the game either.

‘What’s the point of finding someone with good talent? Those talented people aren’t likely to attach themselves to someone with little chance of becoming Sultan. Even if you raise them from the start, they’ll just get snatched away.’

It would be fortunate if they just ended up as unattainable ideals without being taken away.

‘And what kind of education they received is more important than having good talent in this era.’

You shouldn’t mistake it for the modern era with public education.

Even if there’s a genius on par with Einstein, they’ll spend their whole life farming without ever seeing a book.

Conversely, even ordinary talents can become reasonably capable individuals if they receive excellent education.

After much deliberation, Yusuf made a decision.

[Emotion Detection]

It was an ability that filled an empty trait slot.

I used all 10 points I got from the two crises, but I had no regrets.

Because it’s the most useful ability I can have.

Yusuf called the servant waiting outside the room.

“Amal!”

“Did you call, sir?”

The servant opened the door at Yusuf’s call and bowed his head.

Yusuf carefully examined the servant who entered and felt a strange sensation.

Isn’t there always someone around who’s particularly good at reading other people’s emotions? I wondered if that’s what these people feel like.

I could vaguely sense the servant’s emotions from his breathing, pupils, and the pitch of his voice.

‘Tension? Fear? Something like that.’

Well, there was an assassination attempt just yesterday, and people were being beheaded one after another for failing to protect the prince properly, so it was understandable.

“How much disposable funds do I have right now?”

“Currently, you have 2,000 Venetian ducats.”

‘That’s a lot. Even if I don’t know when I’ll die, a prince is still a prince.’

The Venetian ducat was a gold coin produced by the Republic of Venice and served as a key currency.

Each gold coin contained 3.545g of 99.47% pure gold, so it could easily be seen as about one *don* [a traditional Korean unit of weight, approximately 3.75 grams] of gold.

At this point, one ducat was worth about 60 *akçe* [Ottoman silver coins], and since the total Ottoman tax revenue was less than 8 million ducats, you could see how big 2,000 ducats was.

‘I can’t make a definitive judgment since there’s a lot of money coming in besides the officially collected taxes.’

Because there are additional incomes such as loot from wars and tributes from various regions.

Even considering these things, 2,000 ducats was a lot of money for an 11-year-old to have.

Of course, once I’m officially appointed as a Sanjakbey [governor of a district], I’ll have a lot of money to spend, so I can’t just splurge.

“Still, I have to spend it when I need to. Amal, prepare to go out.”

“Where are you going, sir?”

Amal asked with a nervous face.

If there was another assassination attempt, he could be beheaded along with me this time.

Yusuf, who had barely survived, said nonchalantly as if he wasn’t scared.

“The slave market.”

“W-what, Your Highness?!”

Yusuf waved his hand at the servant who was almost having a fit.

“Just kidding, just kidding. How can I go to a crowded place after what happened yesterday?”

It wasn’t that the slave market was a place you needed courage to go to be praised for being brave.

How could I go to the slave market when I’m likely to lose the points I earned from the Sultan at the risk of my life?

‘If I go to Trabzon, I’ll have to go once.’

Of course, it’s not that I’m going to look for beautiful slave girls with my mere 11-year-old body, but because I have a plan in mind.

Since every big city has a slave market, there’s no need to go to the capital’s slave market, but the capital is the capital for a reason.

Kostantiniyye [Istanbul] is where all sorts of precious Ottoman goods gather.

Anyway, I couldn’t go to the slave market right away, and I was wondering how I could use my time effectively.

-Fatima Hatun has come to see you.

“…Ah.”

She looked so fierce that her beautiful appearance was overshadowed.

The servant and guards all ran away at Fatima’s glare, which was scarier than the assassin I met yesterday.

“Yusuf! If you were safe, you should have sent someone to your mother! How worried I was all night….”

Yusuf had to sweat for a long time because of Fatima, who scolded him, shed tears, and checked if he was hurt.

It was my fault for forgetting the people who would worry about me while only thinking about my plans.

Still, it wasn’t a bad feeling to have at least one person who genuinely cared about me in a life full of enemies who wanted me dead and bystanders who wondered when I would die.

“Does my mother’s words make you laugh?!”

“…I’m sorry.”

I’ll have to suffer for a long time for underestimating maternal love.

Fatima, who had finally calmed down, stroked Yusuf’s small hand and sighed.

“I’m sorry. I knew you were doing dangerous things, but I was so surprised when I heard the news. You’ll have many dangerous things to do in the future, right?”

“Probably.”

Even if I don’t deliberately invite danger like this time, I’ll have to overcome several life-threatening situations in the future.

That was the fate that those who wanted to become Sultan had to bear.

“Then this mother will also steel her heart. This will not happen again from now on.”

Fatima wasn’t stupid.

She knew very well that her actions could act like shackles on Yusuf.

Yusuf, knowing how much determination it took for her to say those words, quietly nodded his head.

“Then tell me what you talked about with the Sultan yesterday.”

Yusuf told her everything he had talked about with the Sultan, and Fatima listened attentively, expressing admiration and surprise.

“Amazing, to have such a dream. Then you’ll be appointed as a Sanjakbey soon, even if it’s not the Trabzon you wanted.”

“Probably. That’s why I was checking the money I have.”

“Good. I have a business that this mother was running, so if you add that, you’ll be able to secure ample funds.”

These words were like rain during a drought for Yusuf.

Just moving soldiers around is like throwing money into the air, so the more money, the better.

“I’ll organize it well and add it to yours.”

“Before you organize it, can I check it out myself?”

Who knows? Maybe leaving it as it is would be more useful than organizing it.

Fatima, thinking about Yusuf almost dying yesterday, hesitated for a moment and nodded her head.

“Then let’s go together.”

***

“I’m Hassan! It’s an honor to meet you, Your Highness.”

Yusuf, who met Hassan, who runs the business on behalf of Fatima, raised the corners of his lips.

‘Look at this guy?’