My dreams have been disturbed by the Goblin Elder.
I calmed my heart while drinking ginseng soup.
‘Indeed, ginseng soup is very effective.’
I wonder if I’m going to have another child.
‘It would be difficult to care for them if many children were born at once.’
It would be easy to leave all the childcare to the nannies, but I value bonding with my children.
It would be a real disaster if they later said, ‘What is Dad! Did you even care about me?’
‘Thinking about it, it’s a disaster for the children, not me.’
In Joseon [Korean dynasty from 1392 to 1897], filial impiety is not a figurative meaning but a real crime.
In the land of morality, Joseon, a precious child cannot survive.
Fortunately, thanks to my meticulous care, our children will likely never become guilty of filial impiety.
Seeing my son come to find me like this.
“Dad!”
“Oh, what brings our Crown Prince here?”
“Since His Majesty is late leaving the office, His Highness suggested we go see him.”
‘He didn’t shake off No-boon this time.’
Good job, my son.
I stroked Dan’s head and woke up the guard who was dozing off.
“Hey, you typist there. You can leave the office now.”
“······Huh!”
The guard, who looked young but had incredibly muscular body, blinked and then prostrated on the floor.
“Y-Your Majesty! I have committed a crime worthy of death!”
“It’s okay. It happens.”
The typists are inherently strong, and since their original job is Gapsa [elite soldiers], they take turns guarding.
But somehow, this friend had been typing since the afternoon and then came back to guard at night.
‘Or maybe he was just bored and fell asleep.’
He’s still a young Gapsa, so I don’t need to scold him directly; I’ll just give a hint to the head of the guards later.
It was when the guard was packing up his things with a pale face.
“Dad, show me something amazing!”
Now that I see it, he didn’t come to find me because he was worried, but because he was bored.
“Shall I show you a coin trick?”
“I’ve seen it!”
“Then how about a yo-yo?”
“I’ve seen that too!”
“How about shadow play?”
“The lights are off now! And I’ve seen it!”
Damn it, I’ve run out of tricks.
I should have only shown them one at a time.
I got excited seeing him jumping up and down in amazement and released them all at once, and this is what happened.
“Your Majesty!”
At that moment, the guard, who had been watching my troubled expression, knelt down with a determined look.
“If you allow it, I would like to offer a small amusement to His Highness the Crown Prince.”
“You?”
Is he trying to make up for the points he forgot while dozing off?
It won’t be easy since I’ve been showing off so many amazing things.
Still, the guard seemed to have something to believe in.
“Are there any necessary preparations?”
“Please lay out several bricks.”
At the guard’s words, I had No-boon bring the bricks from the warehouse.
‘Is it a breaking demonstration?’
Not a bad idea, but these bricks are not for breaking, so they will be hard.
The strength of bricks varies depending on the firing temperature, and unglazed bricks are considerably weaker than glazed bricks.
The bricks that No-boon brought were construction materials from the start, so they were all glazed bricks.
However, the guard took off his shirt and put in a strong spirit.
“Haaap!”
Then he struck the brick with his hand blade.
– Pow!
“Hoe-eh!”
Dan was surprised to see the guard cutting the brick like tofu.
I was too.
The stacked bricks, except for the one at the very bottom, were all split in half.
The guard bowed his head as if he was disappointed.
“You look young, but your strength is amazing! What is your name?”
However, when I showed a positive reaction, the guard shouted with a face as if he had come back to life.
“Yes, Your Majesty! I am the typist Lee Jing-ok!”
‘That’s a familiar name?’
If I’ve heard it somewhere, it means he’s a person who left his name in history because of his abilities.
Among the people who left their names in this era, there were few useless and unhelpful sycophants.
I thought that a warrior with this much strength might have made a name for himself as a military officer.
“Me too, I want to try it too!”
Dan said, jumping up and down.
“Haha, does the Crown Prince want to try it too?”
“Your Highness, it’s dangerous!”
No-boon hurriedly stopped him, but I smiled and had Lee Jing-ok lay down a brick.
Dan stepped forward confidently, as if breaking one brick was a piece of cake.
And he struck the brick, but of course, it didn’t budge.
Pain shot up from his hand, and Dan’s face became tearful.
“Hwaaang! No-boon······.”
“Your Highness! Why did you do something unnecessary!”
No-boon clicked his tongue as if he was a pity.
He’s giving me a resentful look for not stopping him.
I chuckled and looked at my son running towards No-boon.
No matter how unbelievably energetic he is, how can a six-year-old break a brick?
This is how you learn the bitterness of the world, my son.
As I turned around smiling like that, I heard something breaking behind me.
– Crack!
I turned around at the sound that shouldn’t have been heard.
The cracked brick broke in two half a beat late and collapsed.
“······.”
I wasn’t flustered.
This was a situation that could be explained rationally.
‘Hmm. Is it the brick that Lee Jing-ok touched earlier?’
Probably.
He must have taken out the brick that was laid at the very bottom and laid it down while I wasn’t looking.
It must have already been cracked due to the impact.
‘No matter how much it’s just one brick, how can a child break this.’
It’s not even a brick for breaking.
‘Lee Jing-ok must be amazing.’
I should remember him.
I might have a use for his strength in the future.
===
“There are rumors that your brother is preparing for war.”
“Who the hell is saying that?”
“It’s a secret story circulating in the Jiphyeonjeon [Hall of Worthies, a royal research institute].”
I raised my eyebrows at Chungnyeong Daegun’s words.
Lee Sook-beon, is that bastard spreading it?
I quietly drew a red line on Lee Sook-beon’s name in my head.
I’m leaving him alone for now because he’s capable, but someday I’ll send him into exile to Samsu Gapsan [remote and desolate regions in northern Korea].
“I am the king of this country. Even if it’s something that won’t happen, I have to prepare for it. Don’t I also have them create flood and drought countermeasures?”
However, this kind of generalization doesn’t seem to work for this smart guy.
“Your Majesty always says it’s providence, providence, but is it just a coincidence that you ordered the establishment of a war plan in the Jiphyeonjeon?”
‘It’s not a rumor, he knows everything and came to find me.’
Well, this guy is the Deputy Head of the Jiphyeonjeon.
Once he notices something and starts digging, there’s no way he can’t know.
“Well, wasn’t there a strange omen?”
“Aren’t you the one who said that auspicious omens are just omens?”
There are countless people who are intoxicated with power and fall into delusions of grandeur.
Especially an absolute monarch like the king of this country.
‘But I’m different from those delusional patients.’
I am the true superman who came to this land riding a shooting star.
Isn’t it because the heavens gave me the world that I transcended time and fell into Joseon······.
‘Enough with the nonsense.’
I shook my head.
It’s better to put up the Retired King shield in times like this.
“Then would you like to go ask Father directly?”
“T-That’s a bit.”
For a Grand Prince to ask about military affairs is to directly touch Lee Bang-won’s reverse scale [a dragon’s sensitive spot; something that provokes anger].
Even if he asks, he’ll only get a scolding like, ‘What are you doing interfering in military affairs?’
Chungnyeong Daegun can’t not know.
Do sighed and said.
“You really have no intention of teaching me, brother.”
“You’ll know when the time comes.”
I asked to change the subject.
“How is the Hangul [Korean alphabet] dissemination project going?”
“As always, it’s going smoothly. The people who learned it first are spreading it around, and the momentum is unusual.”
“Of course it should.”
How much effort did I put into it?
I’m putting in effort by taking out all the miscellaneous prefaces and creation principles from Hunminjeongeum [the original name for Hangul, meaning “The Proper Sounds for the Instruction of the People”] and spreading a two- or three-page summary that only summarizes how to read Hangul.
“’Good Thoughts’ is unexpectedly having a big impact.”
“······It was too big, it was a problem.”
The old scholar and Miss Joo, who adapted Romeo and Juliet.
Around Good Thoughts Issue 3, when they both committed suicide due to misunderstandings and misinterpretations, the subscribers were shocked.
‘Gyaaaak! Guwaaaak!’
‘Who wrote this kind of thing!’
‘If you write about the love affairs of men and women, it should end with them getting together, but how could you twist the natural order?’
‘The women’s association should kick out the writer who killed the old scholar and Miss Joo!’
But isn’t it because the original ending was like that that it has been talked about for a long time and remained a classic masterpiece?
As expected, there’s a reason why Shakespeare is a great writer.
“Didn’t the Queen say anything? I heard the Queen was in charge of editing?”
“She didn’t say much?”
Is it because she got vaccinated with The Little Mermaid?
She looked at me with a face that said, ‘Why do you only write things like this,’ but she didn’t say anything in particular.
“Anyway, it’s part of the Hangul dissemination movement, so please write a more charming story. At this rate, all the subscribers will leave.”
“Don’t worry about that. Who else in the world can write masterpieces at this rate besides me?”
Unlike the modern era, where there are plenty of things to enjoy, there are few types of novels in this era.
In that situation, I’m the only one who can churn out stories this quickly.
And not just mediocre works, but only immortal masterpieces can be selected and extracted.
‘If I’m in charge of the story and have other people ghostwrite it, I can churn out dozens of books a month.’
I can’t be fired even if I’m not the king but a scholar in the marketplace.
The subscribers won’t be able to leave Good Thoughts either.
“It may not matter to you, brother, but it matters to us.”
Do looked at me with cold eyes.
“Rumors have spread that one of the princes wrote it, and rotten persimmons are flying at the walls [being thrown in protest], and people around me are asking why I did that······.”
“I’m sorry.”
I guess I’ll have to drop the Four Great Tragedies series that I was going to release after Romeo and Juliet.
“Anyway, it’s become the talk of the town, so isn’t that a good thing?”
Rather, the shock of the ending drew people’s attention.
Already, Good Thoughts Issue 3 is being burned in one place and selling like hotcakes in another.
From the perspective of promoting the Hangul dissemination project, it was welcome news.
“If it hadn’t been for that, I would have quit a long time ago.”
Do grumbled, saying that he was keeping quiet because it was a lifelong project.
“If I don’t receive a posthumous title like Munseonggong [a title for distinguished scholars] after doing this much, I might wander around in the afterlife because I’m so upset.”
“Don’t worry. I’ll tell the Crown Prince firmly.”
Maybe my lifespan was longer in the original history, but history has already changed, so I don’t know.
If I manage my diet well, exercise well, and have no stress as a king, my longevity genes can be fully expressed.
There’s no order in going, but if the conditions are the same, there’s a high probability that I, who am older, will go first.
Even if that’s not the case, the future won’t be smooth.
“Just in case.”
I said seriously.
“If something happens to me, you have to protect this country.”
Do blinked, thinking about what it meant, and asked.
“Are you saying to take good care of His Highness the Crown Prince?”
“If the Crown Prince is smart, help him, and if not, you······.”
“Don’t say things that will get you killed, brother!”
Do jumped up and shook my shoulders.
How did he know it wasn’t sincere?
“Cough, it’s a joke, a joke.”
Do glared at me with a face that said, ‘A joke, you old man.’
Oh, you should just take it as a light joke.
Why would I die?
I’m still a promising youth.
I have to live at least until I see my grandchildren.
ⓒ Pit Kong