Chapter 9

Chapter 9

Heonjong Meets the Barbarian

After holding the memorial service for my parents and the sailors, I rose as a symbol of filial piety and was practically recognized as an honorary Joseon person.

The ripple this memorial service request caused was to the extent that I, whose fundamental mental world is a 21st century person, rather seemed to have underestimated it much.

“Recently the country’s atmosphere is disordered and heretical religion is rampant, so we should properly edify the people. When newly supplementing and publishing the Illustrated Guide to the Three Bonds, how about including Lee Aseul’s beautiful filial conduct?”

Congrats! First Westerner registered in the Illustrated Guide to the Three Bonds!

It didn’t stop there.

“Is this the child?”

“Even a Westerner whose appearance of course and even customs are completely different has room to be edified if he learns and practices. As expected, orthodox learning is something that can be a guideline for life for everyone-”

Famous big-shot Confucian scholars of this period.

Hwaseo Yi Hangro.

Nosa Gi Jeongjin.

I’ve heard the names. Just the names.

If I reflect on the memory a bit more, the disciple of that scholar named Yi Hangro would be <​Kill with an axe, Reject Heresy Olaf> Choi Ikhyun. Or not? Was it not Choi Ikhyun but another name? Choi Ikhyun was that person who said ‘that gangster kid’...

Anyway, if you diligently read alternate history novels, they can be useful when you get hit by a truck or Retona or kidnapped by a mountain god. I should have read a bit more diligently. If it weren’t for that stupid jar ghost, I would have prepared in advance and come.

- So I said it was a mistake?! If I hadn’t made a mistake I wouldn’t have followed along and you would have been hit by the storm and died, you bastard!

Hmm. Can’t deny it. But it’s frustrating!

Anyway, in this Joseon, Yi Hangro and Gi Jeongjin are figures who make a name and are respected among scholars, in other words, opinion leaders of the private sector (they have no substantial power).

And both of them were invited several times by the country to take official posts but refused, and devoted themselves to a life buried in the countryside researching Neo-Confucianism and teaching juniors.

Why?

An obvious story.

Because the country is a mess.

How many years has it already been that powerful people divide official posts among themselves and play among themselves. So much so that huge rebellions like Hong Gyeongrae’s Rebellion all broke out. Even the current king Heonjong has experienced a rebellion.

Even if the country calls them to take official posts a bit, it doesn’t particularly seem like they can fix the country, and from the beginning one can’t help but doubt whether that invitation is sincere.

However, even these people who shook off the courtship hands sent by the powerful and devoted themselves to learning, when Kim Jwageun shook the lure named Arthur Lee this way and that, eventually had to come up to the capital and set foot in the splendid Jangdong Kim clan house.

Honestly.

Being Confucian scholars in name, how could they endure this.

It was exactly as Kim Jwageun expected.

Once they set foot as guests, they can’t swear at the house owner ‘You guys are doing politics like dogs’. In Joseon where they dual with courtesy power, doing such a thing is immediately the road to ruin.

Also, making the heretical religion persecution led by Lee Jiyeon fizzle out was not a bad thing from these Kim clan’s perspective. For the Kim clan who already hold the initiative in the court, maintaining the status quo is best, and causing unnecessary trouble would be hard to see much fun.

Thus I who firmly solidified the Kim clan’s power... came to enjoy the extreme luxury of meat side dishes coming up every meal. Kue. Beef is truly delicious. Whether the country is a mess or not, it’s not my country anyway.

With my stomach full, I sat on the wooden veranda and blankly looked up at the sky.

I originally didn’t have a habit of looking at the sky, but now I do. At least Joseon people know that I enjoy looking at the sky.

The reason I developed this habit is of course-

Chirp chirp!!

- Ha, what kind of hardship is this.

Hey, bro. Stop talking nonsense and hurry and blow the intelligence.

Daytime words are heard by birds, nighttime words by rats.

Even during the time I diligently recite the sky heaven earth earth at Kim Jwageun’s mansion, the world’s strongest spy Dragon King agent is conducting intelligence activities in Joseon’s palace and court on my behalf.

Of course there are many holes and many limits to the information that can be heard, but if I can know even part of the stories flowing out from the deep palace in advance, this is a tremendous opportunity.

- There’s nothing particularly special.

Jar ghost. The information you’re bringing these days is all bland.

Clicking my tongue once, I looked at the night sky full of starlight with the Milky Way crossing, which was truly hard to see in 21st century Republic of Korea. Truly literary sensibility is stimulated.

“The bright moonlight in front of the bed, is it frost on the ground. Raising my head I look at the bright moon, lowering my head I think of my hometown.”

“You already that... that...”

“It’s Li Bai.”

I answered quickly before Kim Jwageun became embarrassed.

- Jwageun-ah, Jwageun-ah. If you know less than a seven-year-old foreigner, what are you going to do...

Seeing the jar ghost worry about Joseon’s future, the world is truly a spectacle.

“Right. Hmm hmm. Have you already learned Li Bai and Du Fu?”

“It’s not that I learned it, but somehow the poem soaked into my heart and I just memorized it once.”

Right right. That’s the truth.

It’s just that this poem soaking into my heart was about... a little under 200 years in the future from now.

Most Chinese people I met really liked it when I recited one of Li Bai’s poems. Just once some bastard said ‘Now even the gaoli bangzi is trying to steal Li Bai!’ and that guy was exorcised in the name of Communist Party connections. How much friendship fee was our company paying to the Communist Party?

“Do you want to return to Britain?”

“This Joseon is very good, but since my older brother and sister are in Britain, at least informing them that I’m alive would be proper brotherly affection, wouldn’t it?”

“Then, if I can send a message that you’re alive, will you stay in Joseon?”

“Ei. Wouldn’t they be doubtful whether I’m really alive or not. I have to go see their faces, properly soothe them not to worry, and then come back again.”

Kim Jwageun nodded.

“Since you seem to have already grasped the words of Confucius and Mencius, I have nothing more to say.”

“If you accept me again, I will definitely visit Joseon once more after going to my hometown. At that time, not as a drifter but properly.”

“Just hearing it is a truly beautiful story.”

A little later, I greeted Kim Jwageun and entered the room first.

Even long after I entered, he continued looking at the night sky.

***

Some time later.

I neatly dressed in the most high-class clothes made by the Andong Kim clan.

“Clothes are wings, wings.”

“Wow. Truly decent. Young master of a yangban house, young master.”

Since it’s not at all the age to tie a topknot, of course the hairstyle is a danggi braid. Since everyone seems to be praising sincerely not just lip service, it seemed handsome enough.

Yes.

I now have to enter the palace.

- Don’t tremble.

Do I look like I’m trembling?

No way. It’s my body thrilling about how to do sales. It’s different from trembling, different from trembling!

In my first life, no matter how hard I did sales, could I have met Ping Ping? But now not even ten years old, I’m going to meet the king of a country. Isn’t my talent not just blooming but exploding.

- If it’s the Joseon king, it seems closer to Jeong-eun than Ping Ping... and both are Joseon. Young but bloodline power.

You’ve been cutting in since earlier.

Why on earth did I suddenly get to enter the palace?

Because the king doesn’t study at all. I don’t understand well what that means either, but anyway that’s it.

“The ancestors opened royal lectures three times a day, morning, afternoon, and evening, and studied, and even this was not enough so they polished learning through small and night lectures in between. But Your Majesty, whenever something happens you order even the ongoing royal lecture to stop, and there are more days not studying than studying, so how will learning increase?”

The person who shoots no-back like this is of course Right State Councillor Lee Jiyeon. Since he’s a yangban who cuts Catholic necks like cutting Guo Niu and Hua Xiong’s necks, he seems able to shoot no-back even at the king.

Honestly from my view, telling Heonjong who is only barely 13 to study five times a day, I wonder if he’d listen, but the court officials seemed to be quite anxious.

Finally, the one who took out the extreme prescription of me Arthur Lee was none other than the Queen Dowager who was conducting regency, they say.

- It seems like a decent idea in its own way?

Right.

But the Queen Dowager is... Kim Jwageun’s older sister. Andong Kim clan.

- Ah.

Is this really from a pure idea like ‘Since the king doesn’t study, let’s attach a clever child and give some stimulus’? I don’t think so?

I entered the palace with Kim Jwageun while trying hard to hide my trembling heart, and after wandering around the complicated palace interior this way and that, I entered a place like some small room. The palace buildings all looked the same to me as a 21st century person so I don’t know where I entered.

“Aseul-ah.”

“Yes, Your Excellency.”

“I’ve already said everything. Today’s royal lecture will be much easier than usual, and it’s what you learned last time. So just answer the questions well. Understood?”

“Yes, Your Excellency. Don’t worry!”

“If you finish well I’ll give you something very delicious. Work hard.”

Kim Jwageun who does not attend the royal lecture lightly greeted the officials called royal lecture officers and left, and I now raised a greeting to the royal lecture officers in a perfectly mastered polite pose and scored more points. But among the royal lecture officers there were no names I knew. Hmm, combat power only 5.

Did I wait a bit.

Finally the king of this country appeared.

I pretended not to look and quickly scanned the young king’s face, and he had a quite noble young master style and decent appearance but somehow a prickly vibe was strongly flowing. If this were a drama, it would be like the third-generation chaebol appearance that would say a cliché line like ‘You’re the first to do this to me’.

“The eyes are really blue. Is this child that Lee Aseul?”

“Yes, Your Majesty.”

“Then that’s good. You all go out.”

The royal lecture officers opened their eyes wide.

“What do you mean?”

“You called me to feel alertness while watching this child study and study a bit harder, right. But in my thought, didn’t our grandmother and the Chief Scholar conspire and prepare everything in advance... such a thought suddenly comes to mind.”

“It’s not like that-”

“I became curious whether this child is truly the prodigy of a thousand ages that the whole country is talking about, or just a vain story that busybodies arbitrarily made up, so I thought of testing this child’s learning once. So you all go out.”

“Your Majesty!!”

“Why do you suspect Her Majesty the Queen Dowager?”

“Ahem! I said go out!”

When the thirteen-year-old king breathed from his mouth, the royal lecture officers eventually all withdrew from the place.

Then I should also quickly greet and return home-

“Where are you going? Sit here.”

“Yes?”

“What would a seven-year-old know. You don’t have to observe propriety so just sit. Is there no one outside!”

“Did you call, Your Majesty.”

“Bring some food that children would like.”

In front of us, yakgwa and colorful hangwa were soon served. This is power. Wow, look at the gloss flowing. I’m going crazy. The seven-year-old body is reacting first.

“Look at that guy drooling.”

“A-no, Your Majesty.”

“You don’t have to force yourself to speak formally. Come, hurry and eat.”

Since it was hard to refuse what the king personally offered, I quickly received and ate it. As expected it was really delicious.

The king who was happily watching the appearance of me inhaling the yakgwa as soon as I put it in my mouth rested his hand on his chin and took an endlessly loose posture.

“What is your name?”

“Lee Aseul.”

“Right. What did that Kim Jwageun guy make you do? Did he say to study in advance and recite fluently in front of me?”

Hmm. It’s ambiguous.

- Ambiguous? What?

Should I see this as hostility toward Kim Jwageun and the Queen Dowager, or just as being pissed because they’re nagging him to study a bit.

And am I also being disliked as a sidekick, or is he just seeing me as a mobilized child actor and pitying me.

I need to grasp it well.

“They made me preview in advance the part to report today.”

“As expected! I knew it.”

“But I am clever! I study well!”

When I raised my hand high and said that, the king snorted as if it was laughable. It was natural since an elementary school 6th grader who believes himself an adult met a kindergartener who hasn’t even entered yet.

“Do you study well?”

“Yes. Even in my hometown everyone praised me as smart! Your Excellency also said I am a talented person!”

“No matter how different the customs of Western barbarians are from us, the fact that you can’t lie in front of the king is the same, right? Are you confident?”

“Of course, Your Majesty!”

“Ha! Right, if your words are true I’ll carry you on my back and give you a piggyback. But if it’s a lie, not only you but that Kim Jwageun guy will suffer greatly.”

Heonjong smiled broadly and opened the book.

***

2 hours later.

The eunuchs saw the barbarian who dared to ride on the king’s shoulders and fainted on the spot.

(Commentary)

Originally Yi Hangro’s name was Yi Gwangro, but when Heonjong died and Cheoljong ascended, the name was changed to Yi Hangro to avoid the taboo of Cheoljong’s father ‘Yi Gwang’. In this work, to avoid confusion for readers, it is narrated as Yi Hangro from the beginning.

Nosa Gi Jeongjin also used the pen name ‘Nosa’ decades later, but similarly in this work the pen name Nosa is used uniformly.

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Author's note

Thank you to psm for your sponsorship!!

Tomorrow is a rest day...