The Heirloom Seal of the Realm
"Come on, no way that's for real?"
1. Stuck alone in Danamo with nothing to do, she got so bored she opened a channel.
2. She uploaded a simple video, and within two days she already had two million subscribers—still climbing in real time.
3. She's so fired up she's already filming the next one.
"So, to sum it up, that's what happened?"
"Yeah. Pretty much."
How does an accident even unfold like that…
"Well… doing what you want is your freedom, Sophia, but you can't just go around filming anywhere, right? There are some national security facilities in the area."
"I know. That's why I already got permission from Chamberlain Kim."
While I was shut away in my room, I had told them to run anything that wasn't a major crisis past Chamberlain Kim—never imagining he would approve something like this.
As if on cue, Chamberlain Kim appeared the moment he heard I had come out of my room.
"Ah, Chamberlain Kim. Nothing particularly serious happened while I was gone, I hope?"
"No, Your Majesty. Nothing aside from Her Majesty the Empress's matter."
"I personally see no problem with Sophia uploading videos online, but was there any opposition from others?"
I had been surprised when Sophia suddenly announced she was debuting as a YouTuber, yet the more I thought about it, the less bad an idea it seemed. It could even help build that warmer, more approachable image of the imperial family we had discussed before.
Besides, most of the places she stayed were residential quarters—areas already opened for documentaries or during public seasons. As long as security-sensitive material was carefully screened before upload, it should be fine.
"There was some opposition, but nothing that truly stood in the way. Her Majesty is currently pregnant, after all…"
"So the prevailing opinion is basically 'just let her do whatever she wants,' is that it?"
With the imperial family effectively reduced to a shell, a pregnant empress held power second only to the emperor—or perhaps equal to him. The consensus was probably that as long as she delivered the child safely, she could do whatever she pleased.
"That's right. Who am I? I'm the Empress carrying the legitimate heir to the Korean Empire, that's who."
"Sophia doesn't talk like that."
Sophia… just how long did you spend on the internet in that short time I was gone…
"Anyway, didn't you say you'd be gone a full week? You came out two days early."
"The writing went better than I expected, so I finished quickly. Looks like I can keep uploading one chapter at a time for a while."
"Ha… this is the part where a husband is supposed to say he came out early because he missed his wife."
"Should I go back in and come out again?"
"No, no need to go that far… I was just bored, okay?"
After spending a little time with Sophia, I finally checked the internet's reaction for the first time in a while.
Personally, I believe that with a creative work like a web novel, it's better for the author not to decide everything in isolation from start to finish, but to take the readers' opinions into account to some degree. Moments spent absorbing that feedback are important.
Thankfully, the response is positive.
Just as I had thought while alone, I could afford to write something a bit darker for a while.
Maybe I'll start with the Donghak…
If I portrayed the in-story Gojong, Lee Hyeong, as someone who only ever schemed to preserve his own position, the readers would slowly start to feel uneasy.
I was about to jot down notes for the upcoming plot when a voice came from outside.
"Your Majesty. It is Chamberlain Kim."
"Come in."
"A short while ago, in front of Her Majesty the Empress, I reported that nothing of note had occurred. However, there is a matter I must report to Your Majesty, so I had no choice but to seek you out."
"What is it?"
"Just yesterday, the director of the Danamo Museum requested an audience."
"From the museum? Sounds less serious than I feared."
A museum was a museum; the museum director was essentially a museum curator.
How important could anything that happened at a museum really be?
In this world's history, Danamo had never known the Japanese Empire or the Kuomintang. Ever since the early modern era it had remained territory of the Korean Empire.
So the "National Palace Museum of Taiwan" I once knew did not exist here, and its famous treasures all remained in the Forbidden City and Beijing's museums. Yet during every period of turmoil in the Central Plains, countless artifacts, ancient texts, and works of art had been sold off to nearby Danamo, and under imperial patronage innumerable pieces had entered the Danamo detached palace.
Those palace storehouse collections had been converted into a museum in modern times and opened for exhibition—that was the Danamo Museum. Although it held relatively few Korean Empire artifacts, the abundance of Central Plains treasures more than compensated, making it a constant contender with Seoul's Central Museum for first or second place in visitor numbers within the empire.
Among Danamo's citizens, many even insisted that the history of the "bakmulwon" predated that of ordinary "museums," proudly claiming it as the more authentic institution.
"The content of the request is this: among the artifacts recently brought out of storage is one that Your Majesty must examine in person, and they ask that you visit the museum yourself."
"Did they say what the artifact is?"
"That is… hard as it is to believe, they claim it is the Heirloom Seal of the Realm."
"A jade seal? And the Heirloom Seal of the Realm, no less… The museum director isn't close enough to me to be joking about something like that…"
I had graduated with a history degree myself and was reasonably confident in my knowledge of this world's past. Up through the Joseon era, the history here barely differed from the one I knew.
To put it simply: the scholarly consensus was that the Heirloom Seal of the Realm was nothing more than a legendary object. The Qin dynasty had certainly possessed an imperial seal, but the idea that it had been passed down intact all the way to the end of the Han was a manufactured myth.
"Well… I suppose I should meet the museum director tomorrow. And if the 'artifact' is in decent condition, I'd like to see it for myself."
"Yes, Your Majesty. It shall be arranged."
The very next morning I was able to meet the museum director.
"It is an honor to be received by Your Majesty."
"I am equally pleased to meet the museum director. I had always thought we might meet someday, yet I never imagined it would be over a matter like this."
The director of the Danamo Museum was an elderly man who radiated the unmistakable air of a scholar.
"You spoke of the Heirloom Seal of the Realm, yet I too have studied history in my own way, and I know it as an empty legend. Why, then, would you make such a claim?"
"Until now I thought the same, Your Majesty. But when I happened upon this artifact in the storage vaults, I became certain enough to continue my research. Recent radiocarbon dating has also returned results consistent with the Qin-Han period."
With those words the museum director carefully revealed the so-called Heirloom Seal of the Realm.
"To call this a jade seal… isn't it really just a fragment?"
The face used for stamping was so worn that the characters were impossible to make out with the naked eye, and the corners were rounded away. Even the knob—the handle and ornament of the seal—had eroded past the point where one could guess what animal it had once depicted.
"Can you tell how it came to be in the vaults?"
"The only remaining record states that it crossed over four hundred years ago, during a time of turmoil in the Central Plains, together with many other artifacts."
"Even if this truly were the imperial seal used by the Qin… in this condition, wouldn't it be nearly impossible either to authenticate or to display to the public?"
There was always a reason something languished unnoticed in storage. Even if the seal before my eyes really were the Heirloom Seal of the Realm, most people's reaction would simply be a skeptical "That thing?"
"If the purpose of requesting an audience today was to show me this seal and have me certify that it is the Heirloom Seal of the Realm… then frankly, I am disappointed in you, Director."
No matter how important it was to promote the museum, bringing an object of uncertain identity and trying to use the emperor as a publicity prop was not merely disappointing—it was impertinent.
An imperial audience was not a game.
"I never harbored even the slightest such intention, Your Majesty. I requested an audience because I have one petition to make concerning this precious object."
"Speak."
"Should research eventually lead the scholarly consensus to conclude that this seal is indeed the Heirloom Seal of the Realm, many will insist that it must be transferred to Hanyang. I beg Your Majesty to issue a command that the seal remain under the care and conservation of the Danamo Museum."
Ah. So that was it.
In the director's eyes this seal already looked like the genuine Heirloom Seal of the Realm, and the thought of it being moved somewhere like Hanyang had him frantic. The artifact was imperial private property, and given the symbolic weight of the Heirloom Seal of the Realm, there would certainly be people arguing that it belonged in a palace in Hanyang. (Especially the people at Hanyang's Central Museum.)
"Very well. It may remain in the care of the Danamo Museum. However, researchers from elsewhere must be allowed to examine it."
"Your grace is boundless, Your Majesty."
"Furthermore, cooperation with foreign research institutions will be mandatory. We cannot simply reach an internal conclusion and declare it the Heirloom Seal of the Realm."
"Yes, Your Majesty."
Hearing my answer, the museum director once again carefully returned the Heirloom Seal of the Realm (or so he believed it to be) to its case and withdrew.
If it really is the Heirloom Seal of the Realm…
Well, then I could simply be glad when the time came. No need to overthink it now.
This was the twenty-first century, a constitutional monarchy. The age when a single seal could claim the Mandate of Heaven was long past.