Chapter 24
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Translator: MadScientist
Chapter: 24
Chapter Title: Julius Caesar (14)
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"If I had a dagger in my hand right now, I probably would've stabbed you, author."
......Hearing Gilford's words snapped me back to reality.
Hmm, but I felt a bit wronged, though.
I'd clearly laid the groundwork with foreshadowing about Caesar stirring up grudges everywhere he went.
"It's a scene where the protagonist delivers justice against corrupt nobles. How is that 'rampaging'?"
"......You're right."
Sigh.
These refresh-button readers who don't care about plausibility.
"Still, I can't change the ending. People die eventually, after all. ......How about an open ending where he lived well and ate well?"
"Author. That'd just change the dagger to a rock—a minor tweak at best."
Ha, damn it.
No tragic drift, no open ending.
Forget me pushing it; I had to convince Gilford first, whose eyes were half-rolled back after witnessing visions of the newspaper office in flames.
Was there some way out of this?
.
.
.
Normally, in times like these.
Humanity's pinnacle of wisdom, the sage and insightful advisor (formerly) Historie always had an answer for me, or at least words of encouragement.
But.
"Totally impossible! Even Majiten-si Historie-chan has no answer for that!"
This tin can.
She's alive, cute, busty, sometimes tsundere-ishly adorable, and pretty smart—but otherwise useless.
She must've been rolling around in my room watching anime again today.
"Reset your speech pattern."
"How peculiar. My database and audiovisual data clearly show that women who speak this way are extremely popular."
"That's because it's 2D. And what good does my liking you do?"
Historie clapped her hands.
"Wow, that was a sharp insight for once. Kim Yul."
What.
Why does that feel a little off?
Anyway, after a brief, pointless banter.
We dove into our usual serious intellectual debate.
"Truthfully, I don't fully understand how this 'historical accuracy' system works. History is ultimately the victor's record—doesn't that mean it inevitably differs from what actually happened?"
At Historie's sharp point, I fell silent for a moment.
She wasn't wrong.
No need to dig far for examples; there was an obvious one.
Though betrayed by the Dinosaur Bandits and defeated in the Great Huanpin War, ultimately fading into forgotten history, the Great Huan Empire—
"The Goguryeo watermelon diagram doesn't mention the Dinosaur Bandits either. Get a grip, Kim Yul."
"Ahem."
Anyway.
I couldn't pinpoint the exact criteria.
But through a few experiments, I could test how strict or lenient it was.
For example.
Who landed the final blow on Caesar, or which body part—it didn't matter.
But.
Writing alternate history that could cause major timeline shifts.
Like Caesar finally overcoming the sun, gaining all creatures' abilities and evolving into a perfect being surpassing them.
Or Brutus winning dominance over the ghost and sacrificing himself for Caesar.
Things blatantly contradicting later records got slapped with 'inaccurate to history.'
Surprisingly, the exact number of group project participants didn't matter.
Whether following Nicolaus of Damascus with 35 'likes.'
Or Suetonius and Plutarch with 23.
Either way, no errors popped up.
Though to prevent brain-breaking extremes, bumping the stab wounds past 78 triggered an accuracy error.
So, minor variances like that were allowed.
"What a pointless rumination. No other hypotheses?"
"Well......"
Honestly.
Nothing came to mind.
I might actually end up submitting some innovative group project disaster.
But.
Caesar's death completes the great epic.
Because he died that way, Octavian shines.
These uncivilized isekai fools wouldn't get this simple truth.
"Just submit the manuscript and ditch the pen name. They won't notice anyway."
Tempting, but.
"Gilford rejected it. And if I publish like that...... even if others don't, Nureong or the Saintess might try to kill me."
Historie nodded quietly.
"Please don't call Esthea by that derogatory nickname. Otherwise, I agree."
Hmm.
Some way to break through without altering the novel......
"If you're not writing, give up the seat."
"Fine."
Sitting at the keyboard wasn't sparking ideas anyway, so I yielded to Historie without protest.
Then I lounged half-reclined, staring blankly at her as she hunched over the laptop screen like she was getting sucked in.
Hmm.
She's so quiet; just watching her is healing.
But......
"What's that?"
"You don't even know what's on your own laptop? It's a visual novel. Images and text blending into aesthetic harmony."
No, seriously, why is that installed?
I don't even remember.
And I recognized the content.
『────Can you keep up?』
Hmm.
A masterpiece.
Text alone might feel cringy, but paired with images, the cool factor explodes......
Text and......
images...... paired......?
* * *
No one in the Empire who enjoyed literature could've predicted that The Fallen Noble Excels at Politics would conclude so swiftly.
What about current novels?
Once they gain popularity.
Unless they make a fatal mistake, they milk it for hundreds, thousands of chapters until there's no broth left to squeeze.
But The Fallen Noble shattered that convention entirely.
"Next chapter...... concludes?"
"No way, it's just hitting its peak!"
"Must be some mistake, right? Haha!"
Even inside the newspaper office, debates raged, but no one could override Kim Yul's decision, now a major chunk of their sales.
"Irrelevant."
"Urk......"
Even Gilford, now broad-shouldered enough to voice opinions boldly before the president, agreed.
And so.
Caesar's final tale was printed on eco-friendly paper via magitech.
And that dawn.
Those who picked up the newspaper doubted their eyes.
"This......?"
"Caesar, dies......?"
"No, assassinated?"
"He was good at politics......!"
"Has the author finally lost it?!"
"Argh! I want to gouge out my eyes!"
The protagonist's pitiful end, after showing heroic traits.
Especially before Pompey's statue, his lifelong rival.
Betrayed by Brutus, whom he cherished like a son—a shocking conclusion.
"You, a 4th-circle mage, right?"
"Sigh...... The Tower warned me not to use magic here, but today it's unavoidable."
"I'll prepare the oil."
People were itching to vent this literary catharsis immediately.
"Wait! Look at the next page!"
But only briefly.
Their steps halted.
No 'continued next issue' like serials, no 'thanks for the love' like completed ones.
With a sliver of hope.
They turned the page.
And.
"Huh......"
"No way."
They beheld it.
Historie's painstaking masterpiece.
Chopping off six fingers, erasing the sparrow on his head, and countless touch-ups birthing—
A 21st-century anime style nonexistent in this world.
Depicted in that art was.
A man, impossibly handsome for middle age, baldness traces beautified away.
Blood trickling from his mouth, yet.
He smiled faintly.
And below it.
Kim Yul's plagiarized line, head-wracked into existence, meticulously typed by Historie.
I destroyed the Empire.
And created the Empire.
Facing Caesar's image, reading those words.
Everyone felt clubbed over the head.
They'd thought it an unprecedented downfall for the triumphant protagonist.
But one image.
Two lines of text perfectly reversed the mood.
Destroying the Empire meant......
"I came, I saw, I conquered!"
Caesar boldly declaring his era's arrival, severing ties with the old.
Dismantling the Senate's power, influence, and outdated ways—the old era's emblem.
Creating the Empire meant......
Caesar, lifelong dictator, echoing Sulla whom he'd once condemned in youth.
His death igniting Rome's final spark of reform.
Indeed, below the shocking illustration, more followed.
Shock rippling through Colosseum crowds: their debt-slayer, Rome incarnate, the lifelong dictator slain midday by senators.
Outrage at Brutus' gang's baseless outrage led furious citizens to torch the assassins' homes.
His state funeral, and rising star Antony's speech, seen as his successor.
Though protagonist Caesar met a pitiful end.
Witnessing the epilogue calmly detailing how his death changed everything.
Readers set down oil flasks, canceled aimed spells, sheathed daggers poised for twenty-three stabs.
A fortunate conclusion for Kim Yul.
And for Truth Newspaper.
And.
Not Kim Yul's intent, by any means.
His writing was fluttering like a butterfly, not just altering the Demon Realm but stirring storm omens across the Empire.
"......This, this crazy bastard......?"
Not just Berthus Duke, splash-damaged by Brutus—eerily similar—and drift-beaten by the content repeatedly.
"Quite the intriguing tale. Almost...... poking at the Empire's reality, wouldn't you say?"
The Empire's true titan.
And one wielding power akin to a lifelong dictator.
The Emperor's ears now rang with Ulysses' four letters.
* * *
Of course.
Some readers, ruled by emotion over savoring the ending's aftertaste, gave immediate feedback.
"Grrrrawr! Come out, Ulysssesssss!"
Esthea, mighty dragon though she was, tail swishing at dawn, prowling the newspaper front—then direct-hitting the drift.