The End of Seclusion
The Empress’s sudden YouTube debut immediately set the internet ablaze.
The first to notice were the communities where Sofya had discussed classical music and performers long before she became Empress.
Was looking up info on the Danamo concert this time when the algorithm randomly shoved this at me. It’s real lol
Link ← click to confirm
“I was bored”
It’s real… She says since she’s pregnant she can’t do any intense exercise so she’s bored and is going to film daily vlogs;;
The content of Empress Sofya’s vlogs was every bit as ordinary as the channel name Sofya’s Daily Life suggested.
She showed the interior of the winter palace and a few rooms the public never saw, practiced the piano as a pianist would, and filmed herself eating dinner. That was the whole of it.
Yet certain viewers felt a strange dissonance in those natural scenes.
Hmm… why though
Meanwhile, even the “Alternative History Gallery,” which had nothing whatsoever to do with the Empress, started taking the bait.
You idiots…
This body shall personally spend its precious time for the sake of commoners like you.
From this moment, follow this body’s reasoning carefully.
First, behold my evidence.
[Photo showing the serialization dates of My Great Han]
Quite the coincidence, isn’t it.
It was precisely after His Majesty the Emperor entered the winter palace and went into seclusion that My Great Han started uploading at a deranged pace.
In the video she said “Friday.” So yesterday was Thursday, and on Thursday My Great Han triple-uploaded.
And that is hardly the only proof.
[Video clip where dinner conversation is audible: “Where’s His Majesty?” “Ah, still in his room…” “Still?”]
“Still?”
In other words, he has skipped dinner in the dining room for at least several days.
Yet the voice and tone carry none of the worry one would expect for an ailing person—just a flat, matter-of-fact delivery. As if the reason for the seclusion is nothing special at all.
And some of you speculate His Majesty “fell ill.” That is pure ignorance.
Do you seriously think a wife whose husband is sick would smile while practicing piano and eating meals like that? A newlywed who is even pregnant?
Tsk tsk… Reasoning that doesn’t even reach amateur level.
Haa… Do you understand now?
That the author Lee Myeongbok = His Majesty the Emperor?
“When you have eliminated the impossible, whatever remains, however improbable, must be the truth.”
His Majesty the Emperor is currently secluded in the winter palace mass-uploading My Great Han.
Open your eyes and face reality already.
The gallery meme that His Majesty = author of My Great Han
I usually just laugh it off, but when some guy shows up taking it dead seriously like he’s lost his mind I got so flustered I had to leave a post.
First, light verification.
[Civil servant ID from the Imperial Household Agency with face covered by a sticky note and IP visible]
Haa… so in the end I “revealed” my identity…
Yare yare…
I’ll stop the bullshit here.
Anyway the fact that His Majesty is in seclusion while resting in Danamo is fact. But that seclusion is not like you big-bros here rolling around in your rooms on a holiday.
Imperial “seclusion” can be simple seclusion, but they also use “seclusion” as the external excuse when they can’t announce something publicly.
It makes it possible to summon people to the palace for secret imperial councils, after all.
Historically speaking those secret councils ranged from major war resolutions down to constitutional amendments.
People who know already know, so it’s fine to say this much.
There’ll probably be some announcement once the seclusion ends? That’s the consensus among Imperial Household Agency staff too.
Don’t go around saying His Majesty is a web novel author…
It’s seriously embarrassing sharing a gallery with you guys;;
The gallery’s bait immediately shifted to the latest chapter of My Great Han.
France and America they blocked even at the cost of zero exchange ratio, but Japan just does a little gunboat diplomacy with one ship and they immediately enter negotiations?
Joseon’s current situation is basically illiterate, but “Yi Hyeong” ← this crazy bastard instinctively knew what was disadvantageous and cut it
Extraterritoriality ← Japan, which had adopted somewhat modern law, says “your laws are barbaric so we’ll govern,” and the Joseon ministers just think of it as the same level of self-rule the Waegwan always had and brush past it, but Yi Hyeong alone grasps it’s a serious issue
He immediately negotiates for a mixed court where “we process under your law but our judges also sit in.” Mixed courts were actually implemented in Egypt around the same period—looks like the author knows his history
Use of Japanese currency ← he knows he can’t block it because Joseon’s currency is in bad shape, but orders that Joseon people must use only Joseon currency outside the open ports. It probably won’t be well enforced, but at least he understands there’s an economic problem
Whatever else, the author seems to have set this character with insanely outstanding political ability yeah
While the internet burned hot, Emperor Lee Wonbum quietly did what he had to do.
Writing his novel, of course.
The one-week period he had set for himself. The long age of seclusion had already passed the halfway mark.
In truth he could come out of isolation now. He had planted in the readers the fantasy of “the capable monarch Gojong,” so even if he showed some wobbling during the enlightenment-to-Korean-Empire period, the number who dropped off would be small.
The problem was everything after that.
What’s left from here…
Just the major ones: the Imo Incident, the Gapsin Coup, the Donghak Peasant Revolution, the First Sino-Japanese War, the Korean royal refuge at the Russian legation, the Russo-Japanese War, the Eulsa Treaty, Gojong’s forced abdication, the Japan–Korea Annexation Treaty. Yeah, about that much.
Readers, please endure…! I’ll slip delicious episodes in between for you!!!
Alright. Time to come out of seclusion.
He had talked about a week of isolation, but coming out after only five days—wasn’t that proof of a capable author? Absolutely it was.
When he stepped out of the room, Sofya happened to be in the living room.
“Sofya. What are you doing?”
“Huh? Honey… you’re out? You shouldn’t come out right now?”
“Huh?”
“Ah, I’m filming a YouTube video right now.”
“Huh?”
“Ah. You wouldn’t know. I’m a YouTuber now. Two million subscribers.”
What on earth was she talking about.