Chapter 48
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Translator: MadScientist
Chapter: 48
Chapter Title: Zhuge Liang and Sima Yi (3)
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While the neighboring work was carefully building up to the Great Sorcerer Zhuge Gundam Begins.
'The Empire's number two hides his lust for power well'.
Jane Hidden, as if inheriting the tone of the previous work, once again dove into a plot thick with politics and international affairs.
"Jane Hidden, is this okay? Isn't it too much rehashing?"
"Don't call me Jane Hidden... It reminds me of Jane Suk... Ugh, Vertical Legion Commander...!"
As Historie voiced her concerns.
Contrary to readers' expectations that, as a sequel to the Jojo saga, it would have Sima Yi immediately enter service as a strategist for the Jojo army like Zhuge Liang and rampage just as wildly.
- Eeeeng, Sima Yi hates stuff like government positions, nyang.
To sum up the early part, he was faking illness to dodge military service.
It could be called somewhat of a beta male trajectory.
But Roselin quite liked that content.
- Wh-what about the maidservant?
- She caught on to my lord's feigned illness...! So I killed her!
- ......
Sima Yi, who had been lying limp pretending to have a stroke, suddenly straightened up boldly to save his rain-soaked books from a downpour—and the maidservant witnessed it.
Sima Yi's wife.
The whopping thirteen-year-old Zhang Chunhua neatly snapped the maidservant's neck.
"This ruthless love that even resorts to murder for her husband... I love it!"
How perfect a romance narrative is this!
Finally, finally, Kim Yul was bringing romance elements front and center even into political drama!
...Of course, Roselin shed tears of sorrow about ten chapters later when Zhang Chunhua's screen time vanished.
But by then, her nose was thoroughly hooked.
- You've already read up to the latest chapter, how can you drop it now?
Even as Kim Yul's voice echoed like a hallucination making her tear up, Roselin had no choice but to keep chasing the latest updates like a wife getting beaten.
Anyway.
Sima Yi's early life, in Three Kingdoms style, was that of a hermit scholar.
Reinterpreted in modern terms, he was living the life of a cushy neet security guard at his family estate.
And yet, his deep scheming gaze surveyed the wide world.
Essentially, by putting forth Sima Yi in place of Jojo.
It overviewed just how chaotic the Central Plains had become.
And what butterfly effects Jojo's hegemony had wrought—a recap of the fine details that 'Two Heroes' hadn't covered.
It was a development close to the royal road of political fiction.
And, like the saying "talent and married women are his weaknesses."
- If he refuses once more, drag him here!
Due to Jojo's obsessive pursuit—his chronic illness of not being able to resist talent or married women—Sima Yi ultimately suffered the pain of forced conscription.
At the age of thirty.
He finally stretched his legs onto the central stage of the drama for the first time.
Of course...
Excluding political drama enthusiasts, his trajectory didn't draw much attention.
Because the two-years-younger neighbor kid was just too much of a cheat character.
Luo Guanzhong's Romance of the Three Kingdoms is undoubtedly a well-crafted novel that stirs men's hearts, but if judged solely on historical facts, it produced quite a few victims.
Representatives include the Kan Sonmi brothers and the human blender Li Jue and Guo Si.
Yuan Shao, too, was a character similar to Romance's Jojo if looking only at the official histories, but got demoted to a sniveling wretch due to the rivalry setup.
But the most wronged person was...
"It's definitely Zhou Gongjin."
"I admit it. You really are a Three Kingdoms illiterate."
"...That stings a bit, for some reason."
The legendary line.
'Why, heavens! Did you birth Zhou Yu! And Zhuge Liang! Arrrgh!'
Zhou Mi-rang, Lord Zhou Yu, of course never said such a thing.
But...
"You're still gonna write it anyway."
"Gotta do what I gotta do."
In the end, the true protagonist threading through the entire Two Heroes series was pegged early as Zhuge Liang.
The Three Kingdoms ends at the Battle of Oclong.
There is no after...!
"Definitely, if Gu Ping-ling shows up now based on popularity, Kim Yul would get murdered for sure."
"That Jeong Dun guy?"
Watching the Tin Can shake her head, I closed my laptop and ruffled her neatly tied hair.
Leaving her lips pursed in a pout behind.
"Choco bread when you come back."
"Got it."
Today was flex time.
Berthus Duke's mental damage compensation.
Two Heroes volume 1 and Hero Assembly card pack sales revenue.
And the creation support funds shaken out of Chloe.
All scraped together.
Finally, time to buy a proper house.
Why need a house when I have a lab?
Remember this.
Stocks can betray people, futures can betray people, national funds can betray people, coins can betray people.
But real estate, especially capital real estate, is invincible...!
.
.
.
Today's companion was Roselin.
- Unfortunately, this lady has business at her family home and can't accompany you.
I actually wanted to bring my patron, but she said she'd be away from the capital for about a week.
"Author, long time no see?"
"It's not even a week."
Anyway, I figured traveling with a powerhouse who could lend me her spirit pressure to survive any pinch would be advantageous.
Roselin gladly accepted to come along.
Today's tribute was.
"Spring potatoes... Are spring potatoes really that delicious... Haah, so sweet! So sweet it's melting me away, aaah...!"
Public domain work.
Camellia Flower's Pure Love Slave.
"Lady Historie, your style is so ever-changing... How, how do you capture such fresh emotions...! Haa, haaa, huaaang...!"
It had to be ever-changing.
This time it was text ripped from the demon of copyright, Han■ Typing Practice.
Thus, successfully completing the final rite of Saintess Summoning.
Now this saintess is mine.
I can't do whatever I want with her, but I can take her around.
"Shall we go?"
"Yes!"
Real estate deals are extremely risky.
A newbie like me might rashly step in and get saddled with a dud property in a bad location right off the bat.
So Roselin was necessary.
...I honestly couldn't even imagine what she did to earn the nickname Monster Saintess.
Anyway, our Saintess Lady was pretty famous even in the Empire.
So.
No one would dare scam Saintess Lady.
I flashed Roselin a grin.
She beamed back at me.
The harmonious time was brief.
The shelf life of the straight-laced pure love from that gender-reversed world's Pure Love Slave was short too.
On the way to the real estate agent.
"But why did Zhang Chunhua marry at such a young age? Wait, does Kim Yul have that kind of taste?"
"...Mmmphno."
Rude.
I'm into thicc.
"Then what's Huang Yueying like? Not a kid like Zhang Chunhua, right?"
"Not that either."
I don't even know Huang Yueying's age.
But how could you lump Zhuge Liang with the legendary sex maniacs of the Mang Tak Jo trio: Harem King Dong Zhuo, Married Woman King Jojo, and Pedo King Sima Yi.
Obviously she's a tanned, big-titted beauty with a hair transplant, and characters like that shine as big sis types.
"The author definitely has a bit of a pervert side."
"You said I was a virgin who couldn't write smut to save his life."
"Can't a virgin and pervert coexist? Just imagining Zeus' bizarre sexual exploits──"
"...Let's end that topic here."
Total defeat in the argument.
Damn, Roselin.
Are you the best not just in mid but in tongue too?
But seriously unfair.
I just stuck to historical accuracy, and now I'm lumped with the arch-rapist Zeus.
"Hehe. Kim Yul, your ears are red."
"No more romance in my novels from now on."
"Uwuu... I'm sorry......"
.
.
.
We bantered like that for a while as we walked.
"Ulysses? Isn't he just some hack author full of hot air?"
A voice I couldn't ignore entered my ears.
I turned my head, and what caught my eye was.
"His novels lack soul, and his worlds are just a mess."
A lounge lizard bastard sipping coffee and viciously trashing me in front of a woman.
His looks were decent enough, but more than this irrelevant guy's face, my eyes went elsewhere.
On his chest gleamed a golden quill badge.
As far as I knew, it was the so-called 'Golden Pencil,' awarded only to writers who'd gained great fame in the Imperial Daily.
Well...
Industry folks trash-talking each other is national rule whether in the modern world or isekai, so I planned to brush off the snake vibes easily.
"As expected of a great author!"
"You're too kind. Heh heh. Just stating facts. To me, I foresee Ulysses soon breaking his pen under the weight of his own vast delusions. Vulgar titles, vulgar characters, vulgar plots—obvious."
This bastard?
"Kim Yul, hold back."
"Of course I can hold back."
I nodded at Roselin's whisper.
"But Ulysses can't."