The Emperor's Great Decision
Ever since I returned from Russia, the novel had been progressing smoothly.
Once I switched the protagonist from Cheoljong to Heungseon-gun Yi Ha-eung, the readers' response had been excellent.
And now the time was coming for Cheoljong—Lee Byeon, to use the name he took after the throne, since the better-known Lee Wonbum unfortunately overlapped with my own—to exit the story.
Readers were waiting with bated breath for what Heungseon-gun—no, Heungseon Daewongun—would do once he seized power.
Heungseon Daewongun? Watch him do a little reform and then die for some completely unhinged reason, guaranteed yeah.
Then only his young kid is left—what was his name, Yi Hyeong?—and the sedo families go full chaos mode. High probability yeah.
Hmm... so the readers are starting to see the pattern.
Dishing out catharsis and frustration in turn—that was how I had trained my readers all this time, and it was the formula most web novels followed. The reason it had never been a problem until now was that the rhythm itself had stayed hidden from them.
Never knowing when an incident would hit, or whether the outcome would be good or bad, was what kept readers hooked.
But after serializing for so long, readers who had almost completely cracked my pattern had started to surface.
Just as they predicted, I had planned a reversal: let the Daewongun push through internal reforms, then use incidents like the French campaign of 1866 and the American expedition of 1871 to harden the isolationist policy.
Hmm... posting exactly what they expect isn't really a problem, but...
It just felt like I'd lost somehow.
Ah. What if I swapped the order of events?
Kim Jaeseon, a junior attendant in the Palace Administration Department of the Imperial Household Ministry—who, after the uproar at His Majesty's private residence, had been slated for reassignment to the winter palace in Danamo for the summer and the summer palace in Harbin for the winter—had mercifully been spared the winter trip to Harbin.
It was thanks to the light disciplinary measures imposed on Imperial Household staff being canceled in light of His Majesty the Emperor's imperial wedding.
In truth, what Kim Jaeseon himself had received was never a real punishment so much as a "disciplinary-adjacent" personnel shuffle, so strictly speaking it hadn't been a sanction at all—but because His Majesty had personally intervened, he was free of the Harbin assignment.
(His senior, however—the one who had taken the lead in detaining the civilian who came to the private residence—still boarded the plane to Harbin, though the length of his stay had been shortened.)
Whew... they say Harbin's already hitting minus ten degrees. I really dodged a bullet.
Checking Harbin's temperature every morning—the place he had almost been sent—and offering infinite prayers of gratitude to the imperial family had become Kim Jaeseon's daily routine, and today, as always, he got ready for work.
Lately, with the two Majesties set to arrive at the winter palace aboard the Gwangmu-ho, preparations were in full swing, so he had to leave for work earlier than usual.
Oh right—My Great Empire should be updating around now.
One of the perks of being posted to Danamo was the time difference: a novel that used to drop after he was already at work on the mainland now went up right as he was commuting.
Wasn't that the whole point of web novels—reading them exactly at times like this?
So, just as he always did, he tapped open the latest chapter of My Great Empire. After all the refreshing payoffs of late, today's update would surely be another saga of Heungseon Daewongun sweeping away the tyranny of the sedo families...
The first line of the new chapter he opened with such anticipation read as follows:
If our country had really been at that level, tomb-robbing would have been a guarantee, so I can't even yell at the author for being unrealistic this time lmao
Who the hell is going to stand up in that climate and propose opening trade? Joseon's isolation is staying locked in lmaooo
Joseon just collapses and the novel ends. Peak bleakness. Ah lmao
These guys are all talk lmao
As expected. Swapping the order of events makes the impact land even harder.
Originally, the Byeongin Persecution—the crackdown on Catholicism—and the subsequent conflict with France, the French campaign of 1866, should have come before the Oppert tomb-robbery incident.
But that would shrink the impact of Oppert's grave-robbing.
It would just become one more incident among many after the Daewongun had already decided to maintain isolation.
But if I wrote the Oppert incident first, and only then had the Byeongin Persecution unfold? It would show the atmosphere of "isolation" far more naturally.
A Daewongun whose misunderstanding of Western civilization deepens because of Oppert cuts off all exchange with the West, executes every Catholic convert, and eventually ends up in a military clash with France...
Wasn't that far more organic?
There was just one problem with deploying this secret technique.
From the readers' point of view, the frustrating stretch would go on too long. And there was only one way to solve that problem.
Keep uploading without rest until a payoff that satisfied the readers finally arrived.
Which meant there was something I had to do.
"Are you sure about this?"
Sofya asked carefully after hearing my "plan."
"Sofya. This is a choice I have to make for my own sake, too."
"Hmm... as your wife I'd rather talk you out of it, but I also know that sometimes an artist needs to do this sort of thing... so I can't exactly stop you either."
The moment the imperial couple arrived in Danamo, a grand welcoming crowd gathered at Daebuk Harbor, just as expected.
The Emperor answered them with the same good-natured smile he showed everywhere else, then headed straight for the winter palace.
The press immediately began speculating about the Emperor's schedule. The Imperial Household Ministry had released no materials, yet the guesses ranged from the modest—that His Majesty would attend the Danamo baseball league playoff finals—to the grand—that he had come to make some major decision regarding Danamo's autonomy.
With speculation running wild, the Emperor entered the winter villa and issued a single, firm order to his attendants.
For the next week, he would not leave his room. Even the Empress was not to enter unless he summoned her.
(Anyone bold enough to suspect marital relations was promptly given a lesson in the proper conduct of an Imperial Household attendant by Jeguk Ikmunsa, so nothing leaked outside.)
Self-canning. That was the Emperor's great decision.