Chapter 60
“......What exactly have you made?”
As you can see, it’s the new weapon for the Demon Realm you requested.
Aizen looked at Ulysses, whose real name was Kim Yul, as he calmly gave the briefing.
Aizen could not hide his shock.
This weapon called the 'Cheonja Chongtong' had completely shattered the common sense he thought he knew.
Of course, it had been a long time since gunpowder had been discovered and put to use. Fireworks that painted the night sky at every festival were proof enough of gunpowder's power.
But for various reasons, the technology had more or less fallen into disuse.
There was no need to research such a dangerous substance, prone to explosions, when magic was already an excellent substitute.
And if you asked whether it had enough potential to rival the power magic could produce, the answer was no.
......It had not been.
At least, not until he had just seen the fire-spewing Cheonja Chongtong in front of him completely smash a stone fortress wall to pieces.
Before he was a prince, he was a competent battlefield commander.
Naturally, he couldn't help but imagine what would happen if that weapon were deployed on the battlefield.
A massive, heavily fortified stronghold built by the enemy.
Cheonja Chongtongs lined up in formation before it.
At a hand signal, they all fired at once, with a thunderous roar as if heaven and earth themselves were splitting apart......
“It's for the Demon Realm only. My patron was growling that if she saw humans using it to beat each other up, she'd wipe them out on the spot.”
Kim Yul's words completely shattered Aizen's train of thought.
“A patron?”
“I have a few connections here and there. By any chance, do you see the engraved pattern on the Cheonja Chongtong?”
Aizen's gaze, which had been overwhelmed by its internal performance, finally turned to its outward design.
The pattern was far too ornate and meticulously carved for something that was merely a weapon.
From the majestic head at the muzzle, as if the barrel were a mouth, to the dragon carved with delicate scales one by one—every single scale was gold-plated.
Only then did Aizen remember what he had recently heard from Duke Schnaysen about Kim Yul's 'suspicious backer.'
“No way.”
“Don't say 'no way'—that kills people, and it kills dragons too.”
Kim Yul recalled the recent long, tongue-twisting negotiations he had had with Nureongi.
- Why me? I don't even have any gold to eat!
Dragons were, by nature, greedy creatures.
There were certainly some that, after living through the ages, had grown detached from worldly desires, but dragons were creatures that took comfort in piling up any and all assets, tangible or otherwise, in their lairs.
But.
- By any chance, do you know where the name 'Cheonja Chongtong' comes from?
Kim Yul did not negotiate or beg. Instead, he focused on Nureongi's favorite method—storytelling.
What is cheonja? The one who receives Heaven's mandate and rules the world in Heaven's stead. Even if its authority is a little diminished in *Two Heroes*, it still means the master of vast lands!
What is chongtong? The one who receives humanity's will and rules the world in humanity's stead. There isn't yet a novel with a chongtong as the protagonist, but the word itself means the master of all living beings!
So combine cheonja and chongtong—Cheonja Chongtong!
What a noble and great name it is! It is truly fitting for Estea Golden Lintberius, the supreme and most exalted being!
It was a bizarre line of reasoning that the two mustachioed war criminals of the Hissi family would have applauded like seals if they'd heard it while soaking in a hot spring in hell.
- Mmm......! It suits me, it's cool......!
Having been promised endless praise for its name, and even that its magnificent form would be engraved on the cannon barrel,
- If that's the case, then sure!
Estea fell to Kim Yul's silver tongue.
“......So the rumors were true. How on earth did you tame a dragon?”
“Tame it? Don't say something that could get me in trouble. Let's just say we've formed a mutually beneficial, bilateral contractual relationship. Anyway, I'd like to supply this Cheonja Chongtong to the Empire; this should be fine, right?”
“Indeed, it is certainly valuable enough.”
Of course, that new weapon, Cheonja Chongtong, was brimming with value too.
But what mattered more was that his vague expectations had turned into certainty.
This guy.
Squeeze him a bit and he's ridiculously competent, huh?
Aizen decided inwardly.
That man, who seemed to be made entirely of the word 'competence,' would be brought over no matter what and kept planted in his own command staff.
If Kim Yul had known, he'd have gone to Roseline that very day, bawling as he applied for asylum in the Holy Kingdom.
* * *
Recently, I feel like I've been getting tangled up in weird incidents more and more often.
There's that sort of vibe, isn't there?
The so-called hidden-powerhouse vibe you see in Japanese light novels or Korean novels, where they leave a line like, 'Haa...... I just wanted to live quietly, yare yare.'
Whenever I saw that, I used to think, Why do they go looking for trouble? Why are the people who want to live quietly making such a fuss?
......But now I'm that guy?
At this rate, I might end up quitting novel-writing and switching careers to an all-purpose entertainer and businessman.
Of course, the latter would make a lot more money.
But money can solve 99.9% of problems; it can't solve the remaining 0.1%.
I might be able to stack gold bars into a tower, build a golden throne on top, and reign like the emperor of capitalism.
I still couldn't buy a person's heart.
[A-rank] [Yi Sun-sin's Leadership]
[Total targets: 4]
......I seem to have bought the second prince's heart with a single artillery sales pitch, but that wasn't bought with money, so let's set that aside.
If I hadn't acquired every skill I'd picked up so far, I wouldn't have been able to succeed like this.
I've survived by talking my way through things, too.
And I've survived with combat skills more than once, too.
So I can't give up my day job.
“Then how about you stop lazing around and write something?”
“Waaah......!”
But......!
I don't want to write......!
.
.
.
A sudden writing slump.
The reason the dreaded glump had struck was simple.
Was the story progression blocked?
In the first place, what in my novel would even get the plot stuck? To be blunt, I'm only handling the roles of editor and adapter.
My wrist hurts?
My wrist had always hurt from time to time, and if it got too hard to bear, I'd go see Roseline and whine 'hoeeeng,' and I'd be cured. Of course, it would relapse just as quickly.
The more fundamental reason.
“No matter how I think about it, I can't find an answer.”
“If you made the Three Kingdoms your subject, you'd have to factor that in. If it had been this popular when Luo Guanzhong was alive, Luo Guanzhong would have felt threatened too. Even among late Joseon-period professional storytellers—”
Yeah, yeah.
In fact, according to the Annals of King Jeongjo, there was a professional storyteller who read The Tale of Im Gyeong-eop so immersively that, having become completely absorbed in the villain's performance,
- You are the traitorous Kim Ja-jeom!
There was a horrific incident in which mistaken patriotism repeatedly stabbed him to death.
This kind of over-immersion isn't just a thing of the past.
There are plenty of similar things in modern-day Korea too.
Or when villain performances are so convincing that they get flooded with vicious comments on social media, or get shouted at on the street: 'Don't live your life like that!'
“At most, I'd just be an isekai Conan Doyle, wouldn't I?”
“Stahp.”
I mean, I want to avoid that ending.
You tin can. You've been saying ominous things from the start.
With a long sigh, I looked back at the sheet of paper that had become the source of my inner demon.
[Character popularity poll for the 'Two Heroes' series]
[1st: Guan Yu]
[2nd: Zhuge Liang]
[3rd: Zhao Yun]
[4th: Liu Bei]
[5th: Cao Cao]
[……]
Character popularity polls are truly an amusing culture.
When a character I stan ranks high, I get needlessly happy; when a character I hate ranks high, I mutter, 'Hmm, is it really that good?' and feel my mood sour a little.
It's only a byproduct of democracy, so I don't know why this little number game gets on my nerves.
One thing was certain.
The characters ranked No. 1, 4, and 5 in popularity.
And even Zhang Fei at No. 8.
If I wiped these guys out completely......
Could I handle it?
* * *
Kim Yul wandered the wilderness for a while in a state of qi-deviation.
Of course, he still kept writing with the mindset of 'gotta do what I have to do' and finished the manuscript.
Even though the conclusion was already set, the plot dragged on because everything else kept spinning around it.
- Finally, it's becoming a long-running series!
- Yeah, this is right. The plot's been too fast up until now......
- Giggling, teehee!
Unexpectedly, the detail-rich padding had been well received, so he had been given quite a reprieve before the scheduled catastrophe.
Of course, History—the sage granted by the age and the greatest intellect—had long since handed Kim Yul the answer sheet.
- Then why not just change the plot to a no-kill route? At this point, you don't even need to keep historical accuracy anymore.
But Kim Yul, the demon of historical accuracy, rejected that suggestion.
Kim Yul tried to preserve the purity of the plot by throwing out every maxim he could think of—historical butterfly effects, humans are meant to die, and the like.
And so, after all that roundabout thinking, the essential problem still remained unsolved.
Kim Yul stepped into a salon—more specifically, the Jean Renovil Salon, the largest in the imperial capital.
Ego searching is an author's instinct.
Every writer is inevitably someone hungry for attention, and Kim Yul was no exception.
He also thought that if he knew what kind of public opinion had formed, he might be able to get hit by fewer stones, and with less pain.
.
.
.
At the salon, there were various events beyond simply civilized discussion among people who enjoyed literature.
The most representative of them was debate.
Of course, if the topic started out negative, a so-called 'thunderdome' could open up, but today was a day for a fairly literary discussion.
Today's debate topic.
‘On the catharsis brought by tragic developments.’
“Tragedy can sometimes be the perfect seasoning to elevate a novel's flavor. Let me give you an example. In the novel The Tale of the Swallow Knights, it is eventually revealed by Part 2 that the heroine suffered extremely harsh ordeals, including gang rape. And yet......”
“Boo! Gang rape?!”
“Drag that bastard off!”
A few eggs thrown by enraged people at the stage did fly in, but there were also those nodding along in agreement.
As he listened to the many stories that were exchanged afterward, Kim Yul sorted out his thoughts.
That crazy bastard deserved to get pelted with eggs for talking about NTR, but the other stories clearly had points worth taking notes on.
People feel an extreme resistance to tragedy when it arrives without warning.
If that's the case.
Let's just lay the foreshadowing on thick from the start.
And let's make people say, 'That guy sure knows how to go out in style.'