Chapter 44
Chapter 44
-----------------------------------------------------------------
Translator: Ace
Chapter: 44
Chapter Title: In the Calm Before the Storm (2)
-----------------------------------------------------------------
Wilhelm II's third son, Prince Adalbert, had loved the navy ever since he was a child.
This stemmed from a kind of fateful connection that began when his father, Wilhelm II—who harbored a deep affection for the navy—named him after his great-grandfather Wilhelm I's cousin, Heinrich Wilhelm 'Adalbert' von Prussia (Prince Heinrich Wilhelm Adalbert von Preußen), who had made immense contributions to the growth of the Prussian Navy.
Yet paradoxically, it also became the reason Adalbert felt quietly alienated among his five brothers.
Unlike him, his eldest brother Crown Prince Wilhelm and the other princes showed no interest whatsoever in the navy.
Adalbert's brothers and younger brother, on the other hand, all displayed a keen interest in the army, as if carrying on Prussia's traditions.
Even his youngest brother Joachim showed more fascination with land crabs that burrowed in the dirt than with the path of a sailor.
For Prince Adalbert, it was a regrettable and inwardly lamentable state of affairs.
As a result, Adalbert naturally spent more time reading books or painting seascapes—something his father had encouraged—rather than hanging out with his brothers.
One day, Adalbert came across a novel.
The title was Immortal Admiral Yi.
It was a novel that the Eastern boy Hans Choi—who had saved his father's life and entered the palace—had begun serializing in the newspaper to earn some pocket money.
At first, he started reading it simply because it was set in the navy, which piqued his interest.
But before long, Prince Adalbert found himself utterly enamored with Immortal Admiral Yi.
The exotic backdrop of a 16th-century East Asian war, the dire situation where the king had to abandon his capital and flee, and how that grim outlook gradually turned around through victories at sea—all of it appealed to him, but above all, the protagonist Admiral Yi Sun-sin was irresistibly charismatic.
Admiral Yi embodied the ideal naval admiral that Adalbert aspired to be.
His achievements and abilities stood toe-to-toe with Britain's legendary admiral Horatio Nelson, the idol of every naval officer in Europe.
It was truly regrettable that he had only now discovered this great admiral.
However, for Prince Adalbert, who had become an ardent devotee of Admiral Yi, the latest installments of Immortal Admiral Yi were nothing short of torture—worse than torture.
When a mere facade of a truce treaty turned to scrap paper and Japan reinvaded Korea, Adalbert had fully expected Admiral Yi to repel them magnificently once more.
But Japan was cunning!
Fearing Admiral Yi too much, the Japanese used a double agent to trick the Korean government into ousting him from his position as navy commander-in-chief.
That alone was infuriating enough, but the Korean king—forgetting how Admiral Yi had saved his nearly doomed nation—succumbed to base jealousy, arrested him as a criminal, and even subjected him to torture.
Just like William III of the Netherlands, who out of envy drove the great admiral Michiel de Ruyter to ruin!
And to top it off, they committed the atrocity of appointing "Won"—the story's one and only flaw—as the new navy commander-in-chief. Adalbert's rage knew no bounds.
No, they should have at least appointed Admiral Yi Eok-gi, Yi's trusty comrade!
Won, of all people. Why Won!
The Korean king had elevated this incompetent, greedy wretch—who wasn't fit to utter the honorable title of admiral—and made him navy commander-in-chief. His head must have been addled.
But unfortunately for Prince Adalbert, Admiral Yi's trials didn't end there.
Praying that Yi's innocence would be proven, he opened the next issue—only to find Admiral Yi having all his achievements denied, stripped of his rank, and demoted to a common soldier in a humiliating punishment.
To make matters worse, the news of Yi's arrest caused his ailing mother, who was rushing to the capital, to collapse and die en route.
Hans, you devil worse than Satan!
Overwhelmed by the scene of Admiral Yi wailing over his mother's death, Adalbert immersed himself too deeply, shedding tears while cursing the author Hans.
That bastard was worse than Arthur Conan Doyle, the famous British detective novelist.
Doyle had merely killed off Sherlock Holmes, but Hans was inflicting torments on Admiral Yi that made death seem merciful.
Whew, it's okay. The next issue will surely reveal Yi's innocence.
Adalbert muttered this repeatedly to calm his excited heart.
He felt like he'd go mad otherwise.
Definitely, the next issue would turn things around.
Admiral Yi would reclaim his rightful place, and the innocent Won would be ousted.
But Hans had betrayed Adalbert.
He had betrayed every fan of Immortal Admiral Yi.
"The Korean navy has been wiped out...?"
Prince Adalbert doubted whether the bold print on the newspaper before him had been misprinted.
But no matter how many times he reread it, the outcome remained the same.
"Haaaaaaaans!!!"
Won had ultimately annihilated the Korean navy.
Not only did he fall for a Japanese naval surprise attack that Admiral Yi would never have, but he destroyed the Korean navy—built through Yi's blood, sweat, and tears—without even putting up a proper fight, sacrificing his worthless life in the process.
"Aaaargh! Aaaaaaaargh!"
"Adalbert? What's gotten into you all of a sudden?"
"H-Hey, calm down a bit!"
Losing all reason amid the endless frustration—like a sweet potato burrowing to the depths of hell—Adalbert bolted from the princes' residence where he had been studying, leaving his flustered brothers behind, and took a train straight to Potsdam.
Of course, for Hans, who suddenly found himself face-to-face with Prince Adalbert's fury, it was an utterly absurd situation.
What the hell is going on?
After returning from the Russian Empire, I had been resting deeply to recover from the exhaustion of the trip.
Even after the secret talks ended, I couldn't return to Germany right away and spent time hunting and partying here and there with Tsar Nicholas II and the Russian nobility.
A child's body just can't handle that much.
And now, out of nowhere, Prince Adalbert—someone I wasn't particularly close to—showed up.
I could guess the reason.
I already knew from Prince Joachim that Adalbert was a fan of Immortal Admiral Yi.
Moreover, my study was already piled high with fan letters—or rather, letters of furious protest—from readers unhappy with the plot developments.
"How could you do this to Admiral Yi! Hans, are you even human? Human?!"
Of course, I had no idea Adalbert was this obsessed with Immortal Admiral Yi.
But no matter how much the prince grilled me, there was nothing I could do.
"Your Highness, this isn't my fault. How can I change history?"
That's right. Immortal Admiral Yi was, at its core, a historical novel based on real events.
I wasn't tormenting General Yi Sun-sin out of some personal vendetta.
Sure, I'd sprinkled in a bit of extra spice and seasoning to heighten the drama, but that was unavoidable for the sake of the story's entertainment value, wasn't it?
"You call that an excuse?!"
Of course, I had enough sense not to say that out loud.
I'd probably get punched by the wild-eyed prince if I did.
For now, I had to calm him down by any means necessary.
"Your Highness, would you like to read the manuscript for the next installment?"
"...Manuscript?"
At the words "next installment manuscript," Prince Adalbert froze.
Yeah. No way this Yi Sun-sin fanatic wouldn't be interested.
Normally, I shouldn't show it to anyone, but right now, my life took priority.
I handed Prince Adalbert the latest Immortal Admiral Yi manuscript from the locked drawer.
Along with a stern warning not to tell a soul.
And a short while later...
"Damn it! Admiral Yi, I believed in you!"
Prince Adalbert shouted in a face twisted with such overwhelming joy and ecstasy that I wondered humans could even make such an expression.
Ah, he couldn't handle the Battle of Myeongnyang.
"As you can see, Immortal Admiral Yi is safe. So please go back with peace of mind."
Prince Adalbert nodded with a satisfied expression and left the New Palace.
If General Yi Sun-sin dies in the final chapter, he might actually challenge me to a duel.
Given how deeply Adalbert was hooked on Immortal Admiral Yi, it gave me chills just thinking about it.
Anyway, now that I could finally breathe, I opened the letter Tesla had sent me.
Fortunately, the radio research was progressing steadily.
However, according to Tesla, there were still a few unsolved issues, particularly amplifying electrical signals, which was proving quite troublesome.
This was a major roadblock for radio development.
Without solving it, smooth voice transmission over long distances would be impossible, hindering practical implementation.
I think a documentary on radio from my past life mentioned a solution...
I pondered for a moment, then recalled the term.
Amplitude Modulation.
The technique commonly known as AM.
Using this would resolve Tesla's dilemma.
But there was a problem.
Amplitude modulation required at least a radio valve—specifically, a 'triode' vacuum tube.
Yet the triode vacuum tube hadn't been invented in this era.
It wouldn't appear until 1906, four years from now.
"The inventor of the triode was definitely Lee de Forest from America, right?"
The man dubbed the 'father of radio' for inventing the triode vacuum tube 'Audion,' which sparked the electronics industry boom.
Fessenden was the pioneer of radio technology, but without de Forest's Audion and the amplitude modulation it enabled, practical radio would have been impossible.
However, de Forest wasn't the only inventor of the triode.
The Austrian physicist Robert von Lieben had invented and patented it a few months earlier.
But von Lieben died just seven years after his invention, so his vacuum tube didn't advance much, and in the original history, only de Forest's Audion achieved commercialization.
Of course, there's Fleming too, but he's out of the question from the start.
John Ambrose Fleming, famous for Fleming's rule, would invent the diode vacuum tube—the precursor to the triode—in 1904, two years from now.
But Fleming was affiliated with Marconi's company.
And Marconi was our biggest rival, so enlisting Fleming's help was impossible.
"Let's approach de Forest slowly for now. If that doesn't work, then von Lieben."
There was no need to rush.
Better to proceed steadily than to rush and ruin everything.
And above all, there was something more pressing than the radio right now.
The long-awaited new battleship of the German Empire.
The launching ceremony of the first Dreadnought was fast approaching.