It's Just a Novel, Why Are You Like This?
After my meeting with Aisin Gioro Yuseo, nothing particularly major happened. That wasn't to say I was idle, of course—I simply went about the ordinary duties of an emperor.
Sitting in the highest seat at every national event, exchanging greetings whenever foreign guests arrived, stamping the bills that had passed through the National Assembly, wrapping up the final loose ends of the funeral rites that were slowly drawing to a close…
Contrary to my first impression, the job of emperor kept me far too busy.
A life in which every minute from the moment I woke until I fell asleep was packed solid with appointments was sheer torment for someone who had spent twenty-six years as a complete idler.
And so I couldn't write.
I couldn't even check the comments, one of the few small joys left in my life.
The result of that neglect now glared at me from the notification on my phone.
Comment notifications: 50+
"I'm scared."
I carefully tapped open the comment section under my most recent hiatus notice.
As expected… the reaction was not gentle.
The one small mercy was that any wild speculation about me being the emperor had been completely buried under the outrage over the long hiatus.
"Fine. Today I post no matter what."
Fortunately the scraps I had managed to write in stolen moments just barely cleared three thousand characters. If I padded the beginning and end a little I could stretch it into a full chapter.
And I mustn't forget to add a brief apology at the end about how busy work had been lately.
Lately, Chief Eunuch Kim Insu had developed a new habit after work: checking His Majesty the Emperor's writing.
As they say, a person's thoughts seep into their words. Reading His Majesty's novel and grasping the intent he holds within it is also part of a eunuch's duty.
Of course the web-novel format was unfamiliar at first, but the prose was easy to read and he adapted quickly. By now he had begun to enjoy the novel itself as a pleasant side benefit.
"Hmm… His Majesty has not updated again today."
Well, the past several days had been exhausting for him. Perhaps a new chapter would appear over the weekend?
Thinking that, he was just about to rise from his chair and go to bed when a fresh notification lit up his phone.
It was His Majesty's new chapter.
He sat up straight, read every word in silence, then quietly set the phone down.
"Heavens… so this is the kind of thought His Majesty has been entertaining…?"
Today was Saturday. Even in this alternate-history Korean Empire that had risen to the ranks of the great powers, the Western calendar week and the five-day workweek had thankfully taken root.
That meant even someone like me, who was no Christian, was guaranteed the right to rest openly on the weekend.
I had posted the chapter Friday night, so once I finished breakfast I would finally be able to check the comments.
Hmm, maybe I should just make it free…
Being emperor of this country alone meant I sat on a fortune I could never spend in a lifetime. Missing out on a few royalties wouldn't exactly hurt.
No. It has to stay paid. That's the only way it means anything.
Paid-view counts were the true measure of my writing. Switching to free would inflate the numbers, sure—but would people still read it when it wasn't free? To judge real skill, it had to stay paid.
As for the royalties, I could just donate them. The royal household ran plenty of good causes.
With those thoughts I leisurely opened the comment window that had piled up.
After such a long gap the section was completely packed.
Huh? Was the content really that inflammatory?
I hurriedly opened the Alternate History gallery. Sure enough, the atmosphere there was even rawer.
Look at today's plot dump. He said real life was busy but he clearly just wants to abandon the story lmao
[Upvotes 21] [Downvotes 1]
He clearly had zero idea today's plot would set the place on fire
Author's note: "Sorry the hiatus got so long because of work" blah blah lmao
Lee Myeongbok ← this guy is pure unhinged energy
[Upvotes 31] [Downvotes 3]
Okay there were some shaky warning signs before this. The synopsis kept stressing it was the extra-spicy version, and a lot of us were reading it like hardcore civilization-sim content.
But fuck, today's chapter is genuinely unhinged, author.
Even if the king and the crown prince hated each other, what the fuck is locking the heir in a rice chest? Are all the surrounding ministers complete idiots or what?
Did you think readers would go "wow I never saw that coming"? Yeah okay, I'll give you that—I really never saw it coming.
[Upvotes 45] [Downvotes 2]
Author Lee Myeongbok ← absolutely not the emperor lmao
[Photo of tears during the national address]
No way someone with a heart that soft wrote a novel where the king starves the crown prince to death in a rice chest like a complete psychopath lmao
If those two are the same person then this country is literally filming Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde fr lmao
[Upvotes 20] [Downvotes 3]
Oh no… Crown Prince Sado really was too much stimulation after all…
In this world Joseon history diverged sharply from the one I knew. Roughly four people seemed to have been isekai'd into it; at every historical turning point a sage king had been born.
The history I remembered had already changed from the reign of Yeonsangun onward. The Imjin War hadn't even broken out in the year Imjin, Joseon had counter-invaded the Japanese home islands, and someone other than King Seonjo had succeeded to the throne.
(Amusingly, even in this timeline Yi Sun-sin was still the same brilliant admiral.)
I thought I'd built it up reasonably well, but locking him in the rice chest was still too radical, I guess.
"But why is everyone this angry? It's just a novel."
By now raw personal attacks aimed at me as the author were starting to appear one after another.
Nothing for it. Time to deploy the Fluid Clone Technique.
We've just gotten used to watching only peaceful successions. Fathers killing sons absolutely happened in real history.
Constantine the Great executed his own son, and Ivan the Terrible's story is famous too.
In the Ottoman Empire open civil war was literally the succession rule.
Yeah today's plot is pretty spicy, but "a king kills a prince" is an event that can and did happen anytime, anywhere.
[Upvotes 13] [Downvotes 38]
Hmm. Good thing I logged out and posted anonymously. If I'd used my own nick it would have been strung up by now.
Well, I have been running the extra-spicy route for a long time. Maybe I should calm things down a little.
I understood perfectly well that reader frustration had been stacking up through the Imjin War–Jeongyu War–Byeongja War combo. I thought I'd been managing their rage by sprinkling in ahistorical catharsis moments here and there, but that had clearly been a miscalculation.
"I cannot control the readers' wrath…"
It's not as if I had some sacred duty to preserve real history anyway. I could just write toward a revival vibe during the Yeongjo–Jeongjo period and call it good.
Today was a weekend and I had no major schedule, so I ought to stockpile some chapters. If I double-posted on Monday everyone would be satisfied and the flaming readers would settle down.
After energetically banging out three chapters in a row, it was somehow already evening.
The internet… better stay off until Monday. It would be a war zone. Times like these called for cutting the connection and thinking up new ideas instead.
Part of me wanted to pull a "Mibok Incognito Stroll," but that seemed a little too difficult right now.
Maybe grab dinner and watch a movie…
I was planning how to spend the last of my holiday when a familiar voice called from behind me.
"Your Majesty. Chief Eunuch Kim Insu reporting."
"Hmm? Isn't today a holiday? I was under the impression you were off-duty as well, Chief Eunuch. What brings you here?"
"I am deeply sorry to trouble Your Majesty, but would you be so good as to look at this article?"
What? Why is a mere web novel getting full articles and this much heat… It's a novel. Why is everyone taking it so seriously…