Chapter 105
Sadly, the First Prince was neither a regressor nor a transmigrator, nor anything of the sort. He was merely an ordinary human who had not been granted any special abilities, such as foreknowledge of the future.
That was why he failed to notice the truly horrific thought that had brushed past Kim Yul's mind, however.
“Hmm, this should be enough to make him lose heart on his own.”
Having reminded the Second Prince, right to his face, of his position and place while he was flattering him to curry favor,
he decided there was no need to pile on any more pressure at this point.
Even a rotten corvina is still a corvina.
Though his methods and process had been wrong, he had at least brought matters to a close without putting himself in immediate danger.
Of course, that did not mean Kim Yul had cowered and meekly taken his punishment.
“Hi, Cansby.”
“Why do you ask?”
“Tell me the recipe for soy-marinated crab.”
“First, you need live blue crabs, 500 milliliters of brewed soy sauce, and 25 ounces of water……”
“So I need to prepare the brewed soy sauce first……. No, hold on. Why is the water measured in ounces, Tin Can?”
In this fantasy land, where fresh persimmons existed but soy-marinated crab did not, he also shared this sort of banter with Historié.
“Nureongi.”
“Yeah?”
“If I ever incur someone's grudge and can't serialize my novel anymore, and even have to destroy this Nin■do…… Agh! Aaaagh!”
“Grrr!”
When I casually floated the hypothetical of a ‘serialization hiatus caused by outside pressure’ and provoked Nureongi, I immediately got my head chomped.
Though I never said it directly to anyone,
Kim Yul began sketching out a blueprint for a future in which the First Prince elegantly fell from power and the Second Prince seized it.
Whether the method would truly be soy-marinated crab and fresh persimmons,
or whether he would turn his older brother into a ‘Yangnyeong,’
or perhaps…… infuse the Second Prince's body with the soul of Li Shimin, remained to be seen.
* * *
They say a superstar drives both fans and haters insane.
But does that make me a superstar? The First Prince bastard seemed a little too crazy, though I didn't think I was quite that bad.
The point I had recently been agonizing over was……
“Do I skip Egypt or not?”
The Egyptian expedition was one of Napoleon's blunders.
Of course, the justification itself was not especially bad.
The British Empire, one of history's great sources of evil, had firmly established its might as the empire on which the sun never set. It was one of the most powerful moves available for checking the British Empire.
How could France, thrown into chaos by the maelstrom of revolution, possibly catch up with Britain's naval power?
Even considering that the mustache demon king himself had failed to land on the British mainland, it was obvious that an indirect means of checking Britain was necessary rather than punching it straight in the face.
There was also the intention of punishing the beastly Britain that was beating India to a pulp in the days before Gandhi was born.
From Napoleon's personal perspective, the success of the Italian campaign dovetailed with the fact that the revolutionary government of the time had wanted to send him as far away as possible.
Of course, if Napoleon had succeeded as intended—conquering Egypt, punching the Ottomans in the face, and then jabbing Britain right in the backside—his name would have become a far more immortal icon than it is today.
He succeeded as far as conquering Egypt, but after that, things went very badly.
If you ask what the core of war is, the answer will differ depending on the era and the person.
But no one would disagree that there is little more important than supplies.
It may be an anecdote consumed as a meme, but the records of Emperor Yang of Sui's invasion of Goguryeo prove the point.
How is a premodern state supposed to supply a million men? The country will collapse!
In fact, he could not supply them, and the country collapsed.
Of course, there was also the new meta of advancing so quickly that supplies became irrelevant and simply cutting off the enemy's head.
If you consider the might of the United States, which can capture and haul in a nation's president and commander-in-chief in just two and a half hours, well……
But an irregular is still just an irregular.
Napoleon, too, eventually got absolutely hammered by the British navy, had his supplies cut off, and ended up fleeing in a hurry.
In the process, he also suffered the humiliation of failing to break through Jezzar Pasha.
The plague ran rampant, and after he brutally trampled the locals, rebellions broke out as well……
For a hero, he showed a somewhat less-than-edifying side. Expecting lessons from Europe's China in the first place was misguided.
“If I leave it out, won't he come across as too one-dimensional?”
“The biggest problem is that readers don't really like excessively three-dimensional characters.”
This was different from the time of the Three Kingdoms.
Napoleon's popularity at the moment was roughly comparable to the image of a hero striving to defeat the Demon King.
And now, on top of that.
What if the hero actually condoned massacres of civilians, suggested euthanizing soldiers who fell ill, recklessly expanded the front while intoxicated by the self-delusion that he was a descendant of a legendary hero, and eventually even fled with his tail between his legs……
If I piled all those settings on,
the novel's popularity would probably plummet even without the First Prince doing anything.
“Wouldn't that make him even more compelling?”
“Tin Can, are you possessed by Satan?”
With the shadow of Skynet seeming to ripple behind Tin Can, I had the dizzying thought that all the effort I had put into reforming him had come to nothing.
Historié's next words, however, reminded me of my original intention.
“Humans are imperfect by nature. Even historical figures cannot be flawless superhumans. Even if Liu Bei threw A Dou to the ground, and even if he betrayed Liu Biao and Liu Zhang, how did the readers react?”
“Not badly…… right?”
“Kim Yul is writing a novel, not a history book. Rather than completely omitting events and breaking the flow, you can sufficiently prepare a defense for Napoleon by using deliberate omissions or shifting the viewpoint when constructing the scenes.”
Persuasive……
Is it……?
When my eyes lit up, Historié smiled and gently ruffled my hair, just as I did to Tin Can.
“Kim Yul, you are already the one and only historian and author in the top 0.000001%. Write as your heart leads you. You want to write it, don't you?”
“……That's right.”
That's right.
I want to write it.
Even if Napoleon's spirit cursed me.
Merit (功) is merit.
Fault (過) is fault.
Rather than distorting and deifying him to pander to the public's tastes, portraying him as he truly was was obviously the more sensible choice.
Looking back, I was the one possessed by Satan.
Besides popularity, I think there was also a subconscious part of me that wanted to reduce the number of things that bastard First Prince could latch onto and use to find fault with me because of all the shit he had pulled.
Before I quit being a hero, I'll definitely take that bastard down.
Anyway……
Once I got past the Egyptian expedition, there was plenty of material afterward to run through the washing machine.
“All right, then. Shall I write?”
“Then I should go see my teacher, the troupe director.”
“Hmm? Where's Estea?”
“She left the house early today. She didn't tell me where she was going, though.”
Well.
Historié had probably been quite busy lately, babysitting Nureongi.
“Have a good trip.”
“I shall return, Kim Yul.”
* * *
Estea was displeased.
- If I ever incur someone's grudge and can't serialize my novel anymore, and even have to destroy this Nin■do…….
Of course, Kim Yul had merely been grumbling offhand.
In fact, he had no intention of commissioning someone else to carry out his revenge.
Kim Yul was a pettier man than one might expect,
and he had firmly resolved to take his revenge with his own hands.
Forget gratitude—grudges are tenfold!
Had he been reincarnated into a martial-arts world, he would have been a man like a venomous insect, combining the pettiness and viciousness perfectly suited to the Sichuan Tang Clan.
But to Estea, it was a little different.
No retainer had entertained her this much in the past several decades. Who dared bare their teeth so insolently at her retainer?
If Kim Yul had heard her, he would have thrown a fit, saying, ‘Why am I your retainer, Nureongi?’ But human and dragon thought processes were impossible to compare.
Since Estea had already come to regard Kim Yul as her firmly established retainer, his problem was her problem.
Therefore, rather than scolding the Seventh Director and taking her badge,
naturally, solving the problem Kim Yul was currently facing had to take priority.
And so, swish-swish, flap-flap.
Without even hiding her tail and wings, Estea floated high above the imperial capital, her brow furrowed.
“Hmm…… who could it be…….”
It was all well and good that she had boldly set out to solve the problem, but Kim Yul had not even let slip who dared to torment him.
If so, who might know?
Estea's deliberation did not last long.
After all, even counting the people she knew as Kim Yul's close associates, his social circle was narrow enough to count on one hand.
.
.
.
A short while later.
“Hyaaaaaa──! Please don't eat me──!”
The plaintive wail of Chloe, whose ears were being nibbled, echoed mournfully through Novelpia headquarters.