Chapter 6

Chapter 6

Arrival of the Isekai Hero

Originally Joseon people are starved for gossip.

The rumor that a blue-eyed kid came riding a whale had already spread everywhere through the mouths of clerks even before the child arrived at the Hwanghae Provincial Office in Haeju.

Hwanghae Province Governor Simam Jo Dusun, seeing the idle people of the whole neighborhood crawling out instead of inhaling room dust and loitering around the government office, felt the scolding instinct unique to yangban rise, but decided to endure.

Because he himself was curious too.

“What is your father’s name?”

“Father used the name Henry.”

The child who uses the name Aseul, or Arthur in vernacular script, held a small brush with his fern hand and wrote <​Henry> in vernacular script. The more he looked, the more bewitching it was.

Unlike the name, he was not of the powerful Pungyang Jo clan but the Yangju Jo clan, but still a family with some name with the famous Jo Malsaeng as an ancestor.

Later his nephew Jo Byeonggap would be preserved in history as an SSS-class corrupt official who ruined the country, but Jo Dusun was a fairly competent court official steadily climbing his career by taking on various posts.

It took less than three days for the child who had been seated on the Joseon version of the thinking chair used for ‘you know your own crime’ to be moved to a fairly clean guest house.

The instinct flowing in the blood of Joseon yangban.

That was.

“To have your eyes opened to literary principles so quickly, you are endlessly clever.”

“This vernacular script was very easy to learn, so that was why.”

Salivating at the mouth just from seeing a smart child.

Dressing him in decent clothes instead of the ragpicker clothes he was wearing and bathing him made the child look truly cute and handsome, and moreover even that flash of talent couldn’t be hidden?

A rotten-water yangban who met a fresh newbie fell into the tremendous desire to stuff the Four Books and Three Classics into this child’s soft head.

“Henry. What did he do?”

“Uh... um...”

“If it’s difficult because you’re not yet familiar with our language, I’ll call someone who knows Chinese.”

“No. I’ll try. I can do it.”

Saliva is flowing.

Look at that enthusiasm.

“Father rode ships.”

‘Was he a merchant.’

“And, he, he, did the country’s work.”

‘There’s no way a merchant would do the country’s work.’

“Thaaat...”

It took quite some time, but he obtained from the child the information that ‘Britain subjugated the land of India and opened a new court there, and the person named Henry held an official post in that court’. Since Britain is an island country, of course he would have ridden ships.

Henry Lee, who was a former East India Company employee and trader, had somehow transformed into a court official of the British India shogunate, but Jo Dusun was proud looking at the information he had dug out after hardship, so he never even thought the child had intentionally raised his status. According to the thought circuit of Joseon people, it is common sense to regard the family of such a clever child as naturally a yangban family that makes a literary name.

Having found out new information to write in the report, now it was time to fulfill the duty as a Confucian scholar and yangban... not a hobby.

“The vernacular script you awakened is writing made for foolish people to learn easily, and those who learn in China and Joseon must properly learn Chinese characters. But Chinese characters are hard to awaken-”

“I want to learn!”

“Your will for learning is truly admirable. Then will you look at this book once? It is a book called the Thousand Character Classic.”

And some time later.

When the court’s order arrived in Haeju.

He put the child on a donkey instead of a prisoner’s cage and even attached household slaves to send him, and hired a fast horse to first send up a new report.

[... The boy Lee Aseul who drifted this time is the second son of Lee Hyeonri, and Lee Hyeonri was a high official of the Indian country.

... When this servant strictly interrogated Lee Aseul, Britain is an island country that possesses countless ships and invades various countries, and its ferocity was endless enough to make India thousands of ri away by sea route its own land.

The recent frequent appearance of these British in our seas is truly something that cannot be taken lightly, and we too should properly prepare the navy in preparation for the possible invasion of Western barbarians.]

Up to here was a story that the Hwanghae Governor would routinely say.

Anyway even if said, it was obvious it would be dismissed above for lack of money, but if he submitted a report like this, later when something happens he can boast of his foresight and talk about it for generations in the family.

But next, there was a part mixed with a little personal desire.

[... Lee Aseul is only seven years old this year, but he was truly clever to the extent it was hard to believe he was a barbarian child. He acquired Chinese during the period detained by pirates, and not long after drifting he mastered this country’s language and learned vernacular script, so he can truly be called a prodigy.

This servant found this appearance strange and tried teaching true writing (Chinese characters) once, and teaching one he knew ten, and in a short time absorbed the Thousand Character Classic, Yuhap, Hunmongjahoe etc. like sucking water...]

When a big shot of the level of governor evaluated him so highly, the rumor instantly crossed the palace walls to Bukchon, to Unjongga, and finally spread steadily throughout all of Hanyang and the eight provinces of Joseon.

Long before the boy was dragged to Hanyang, spectators were already lining up densely in the north of Hanyang saying they would watch the blue-eyed barbarian, and when the boy entered riding a donkey, the rumor that ‘he spoke Joseon language fluently to an amazing degree and peeled off Chinese character books skillfully’ also came in together following behind and instantly spread a thousand ri away.

“Is that really true right now?”

“I definitely heard it?”

“He mastered the Thousand Character Classic as soon as he came?”

“Isn’t he a barbarian child who learned Joseon language a few days after drifting!”

“My goodness. There’s no separate child prodigy.”

The Joseon court, feeling a bit reluctant to put a child under ten in a prison cell, decided to have him sleep at the house of a suitably easy official, but all the people of the capital flocked in crowds and caused a commotion saying they would watch this prodigy.

“If he even talks heretical religion doctrine to the people like this, it might become a big problem! Immediately put him in prison and drive away all the miscellaneous people!”

“Put a child who lost all relatives and was washed up in Joseon in prison because we’re afraid? That, are you even a human...?”

“You stupid guys! Learned Joseon language in a few days? It’s much more plausible that he studied Joseon language in advance to spread heretical religion!”

“Teaching a seven or eight year old child a foreign language from the other side of the world and sending him to Joseon? Are you saying that seriously?”

No matter that he’s a barbarian, if such a prodigy appeared in the country, what grudge is there to send him to the opposite side of the world instead of sitting him at home and making him study, the sneering.

“Then what should we do?”

“Wouldn’t it be fine to entrust the child to a house that can drive out all the riffraff?”

While this and that squabbling was happening in the court.

“Kueee!”

“Mom, he eats well.”

“Give more!”

“Here. Can you eat this too? It’s called kimchi-”

“He eats auspiciously.”

“It’s tastier than hometown food! Joseon best!”

Before long the public sentiment of the capital had changed infinitely favorably toward this boy.

***

Henry Ford, famous as the king of automobiles, said, “If I had asked people what they wanted, they would have said ‘a faster horse.’”

As with most maxims, there is no evidence that this was really said by Henry Ford. It looks exactly like a line that would come out in some self-help book.

But Steve Jobs also said a similar story. “People don’t know what they want until you show them.”

To survive in a harsh market, it’s not just selling good products well, but catching the real desires of customers that they themselves don’t know and selling products that respond to them, a story with deep lessons.

Why do I know this so well? Because I memorized it thoroughly while going around for interviews. It’s puzzling why they emphasize something that owners or CEOs should do to a newcomer trying to enter as a low-level employee.

Joseon is the same.

Joseon people don’t know what they want right now.

So I, this excellent second-life hero of justice Park In-ho, decided to do ‘Ah, you don’t know? You wanted this’.

“This is the house of this country! I can feel the dignity!”

“Kimchi is so delicious!!”

“Owner, one more bowl of gukbap!!”

“The language and writing of this country are so beautiful.”

19th century version national pride channel.

When seen through the eyes of an innocent pure child, Joseon is such an excellent and cool country!

The Joseon people living here know better than anyone that the country of Joseon is rolling like dog shit and even plunging into the abyss.

But that doesn’t mean they have no desire to be recognized. In this country where ethnic sentiment is laid even though it’s pre-modern, it is even more so.

Even tearing and killing Catholics?

Execution of the death penalty being an awesome festival in pre-modern society is similar anywhere, but conversely speaking, the event of cutting a death row inmate’s neck is nothing more than a common event one can spectate once in a while while living.

But this currently popular <​Blue-eyed Barbarian National Pride YouTube by Joseon> is a one-of-a-kind event that can be used as a lifelong side dish.

Propaganda as trivial as ‘Let’s defeat heretical religion, heretical religion is my enemy’ was instantly forgotten and the streets of Hanyang were plastered with stories like the barbarian child knows how to eat kimchi, knows how to read Sohak.

“Ahem. A child flatters so well. Barbarians are barbarians.”

“Looking far, Yulgok Yi I, looking near, Hwaseo Yi Hangro mastered the Thousand Character Classic at three. What’s so boastful about mastering the Thousand Character Classic at seven-”

“Are you comparing Joseon people and barbarians on the same line right now?”

“Eeeing, now you’re even jealous of a child? What thoughts would that little thing have to flatter us? He just said what he saw and felt as is.”

“Right right. Our Joseon’s culture and objects that retain the true appearance of the Middle Kingdom civilizing barbarians is an extremely natural thing!”

I can feel my favorability rising steadily in the marketplace.

But this was not enough.

Unlike the 21st century where capturing the public’s heart makes success visible, this 19th century is an era where power, wealth, and fame are thoroughly attributed to the upper class.

So provide them with new content targeting them.

“Are these the words of the person called Confucius?”

“Truly heart-stirring sentences. There was such an excellent person!”

“You were talking about the Neo-Confucian paradise! Ah! I feel like I have finally realized what the Way is!”

Words that Joseon of this era would never have heard even once.

The overwhelming pleasure of a foreigner encountering for the first time in life acknowledging the values they so revere.

It was the moment Joseon scholars who tasted the Westerner’s reality shock collapsed unable to even breathe.

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Author's note

Thank you to Danhwi, psm, Green Raccoon, set123 for your sponsorships!!