From the Imjin War to the Qing Invasion

Making a Decision.

Screech!

Ugh, I’m awake!

Today, my day starts again with the annoying screeching noise.

I opened the door and went outside.

The still chilly winter wind blew away my lingering sleepiness in one shot.

“Did you cough, young master?”

The little kid in front of me is called Kang Cheol.

Kang Cheol is not only a servant in our house but also the closest friend to me.

And he’s also the guy who, besides my family, worried about me when I was having a hard time for a while.

“Kang Cheol, is the morning wash water ready?”

“Yes, young master. It’s already prepared.”

Is this what you call the class of the Joseon dynasty’s nobleman’s house?

It is quite impressive that you can wash your face with warm water as soon as you wake up in this era when there is no plumbing system.

Moreover, the wash water was the leftover water used to wash the rice just before cooking rice. It serves as a soap-like substance in this era when there are special soap-like items.

After washing my face, I dressed neatly and headed to the main building where my parents stayed.

Today is a very important day.

It’s because I decided to do everything I could to survive in this era.

“You look different today, young master.”

Snicker!

“Well, it seems that my memory won’t return, so I decided to accept it and embrace a new life.”

Determination, deciding to do something with a firm heart is the meaning of this word.

“Father, mother, did you sleep well last night?”

“Oh yes, we had a good night’s sleep.”

“How’s your ear?”

Unlike my blunt father, my mother kept worrying about me.

So, I hid my tinnitus, which tormented me more than ever.

The doctor my father brought said that my tinnitus could be a temporary phenomenon from the shock of falling off the horse, but I decided to think of the doctors of this era as quacks and just to consider it as a source of stress.

“You look happy today. Did you get rid of your worries?”

My father seems to know a lot about me, even though he appears blunt.

“I feel much more comfortable after accepting everything.”

“Uh-huh, you’ve been through a lot. Your body must be uncomfortable too, so go back to your room.”

After paying my respects to my parents, I headed to the separate building where my room was.

“Hehe, it seems like the chilly days are slowly giving way to spring.”

It’s already spring, which is not good since time flies…

“But there’s still a long way to go.”

“That’s right. The first day of spring hasn’t even passed yet.”

“Yes, fortunately, the first day of spring hasn’t passed yet.”

Thankfully, I still have about nine years and 300 days left.

“Do you like winter, young master?”

“Well, I just wish time would flow a little slower.”

“Hehe, then I like winter too.”

Kang Cheol and I walked, having a conversation that was oddly out of sync yet not.

It takes several minutes to go from the main building to my room since our house is so spacious.

It also feels like it takes longer because I have short legs.

After eating breakfast that day, a guest who had been waiting in my room visited me.

That guest was none other than my younger sister.

“Oppa! Oppa!”

“Oh my, did our little Soyul sleep well?!”

With a fist-sized face, round eyes, and cheeks about to burst, this adorable creature of the world is my younger sister Kim Soyul (3 years old).

She can’t even speak properly yet, but she still calls me her oppa.

“Oppa! What are you doing?”

“Uh? Soyul, I’m planning to do something very important today. Wanna do it together?”

“What?”

For the sake of Soyul, who shoots sparkling beams from her eyes, I must protect this Joseon.

I’ve named the past month the swamp of emotions, and during that time, I became determined to survive somehow and made a valuable plan to do so.

“That ‘very important thing’ is, well, let’s say it’s a cheat key to easily overcome this damn… oh, pretend you didn’t hear that! This situation!”

“…What!”

Hmm, does this need interpretation? What is she saying? Does it mean she can’t understand? It’s frustrating that I can’t understand the language of little kids.

Is it because my head is complicated?

I concluded that my brain couldn’t interpret Soyul’s language.

“Soyul, I think I fell into the world of the novel I was planning to write. But since I haven’t made any detailed settings yet, I can decide on other settings of the novel as I please, right?”

“Heh?”

Not knowing if she understood my words or not, Soyul just looks at me and smiles.

Right, this is the novel I’m writing with my body.

The most important things in a novel are characters, events, and backgrounds.

In this case, events and backgrounds are somewhat fixed.

And sadly, even the characters have been determined.

I was going to make the protagonist of my story either a history major or a history nerd.

It’s not a novel where I become the protagonist myself!

But it’s too early to despair.

I haven’t made any detailed “settings” for the novel I was planning to write.

First, like the protagonists of existing novels, I know “to some extent” about the future events, even though I don’t have “omniscience.”

For omniscience, one needs to know not only about the upcoming future but also the psychological states and all the information about the characters that will appear.

However, I do know a method that is close to “omnipotence” even though I don’t have omniscience.

If I’m right, and I’m the author of this world, this hope will make me “omniscient and omnipotent.”

I stroked Soyul’s head and muttered the secret spell.

“System!”

“…”

In my quiet room filled with silence,

Fuck, there’s no response. Why? Is it because of the worldview I came up with before coming to Joseon?

Conscientiously, I had planned for a “best-selling” novel and sketched out a rough outline for the story I would write.

Nowadays, the trend in alternate history stories is to exclude systems and author-convenient settings.

Readers of alternate history novels mostly enjoy applying the impossible “if” to alternate history and exploring the variables in history.

I, too, had no intention of writing a story that relied on the system for plausibility.

Also, if an author-convenient device like a system is included, the picky readers might curse at the author.

To be honest, I’m not a pervert, and I wanted to avoid hearing curses as much as possible.

So, the worldview that the readers wanted didn’t seem to favor my convenience.

No, now there aren’t even those cursing readers! Why can’t I just dance with the author-convenient system?

When I shouted “system” and there was no response for a while, Soyul called me.

“What are you doing?”

Her clear and transparent eyes looked at me; honestly, I felt very embarrassed right now.

“Um, maybe I failed in my attempt to live life to the fullest and am feeling despair?”

Actually, if I were the protagonist of an alternate history novel, this situation would be considered taboo, almost like a forbidden action.

The protagonist reveals to a character that he/she has been reincarnated or possessed with knowledge from the future?

It’s an act that readers would not allow even if they stood up and bit their lips in anger.

In alternate history novels, the protagonist’s secret should only be known to the protagonist and the reader for immersion, right?

Well, I don’t particularly plan on breaking this cliché.

I’m already being called half-crazy at home, but if I were branded as completely insane and confined for ten years, it might lead to a bad ending.

But since that day, my worried mother has always kept an eye on me whenever I’m awake.

In fact, Kang Cheol seems to be watching me as well, making sure I don’t do anything stupid in place of my parents.

The only time I can escape my parents’ gaze is when I’m with Soyul.

And I tried mumbling something like a system, which doesn’t exist in Joseon, guessing that it would just sound like a similar word.

Soyul isn’t a genius who can remember things from when she was three years old, so I took the risk and tried it, only to be overwhelmed with frustration.

But I, a human being, am an indomitable Korean! I won’t bow to despair just once.

“Um, maybe it’s the wrong activation phrase! Let’s see, System Window Summon! Not this one? Then, Login!”

After that, I recited countless spells, but no miracle like a hologram appearing before my eyes occurred.

“…What are you doing?”

Now, Soyul looks at me pitifully.

“…Maybe I’m experiencing the bitterness of life? Sigh, Soyul, don’t become a writer.”

It seems like this world really doesn’t have a system.

Weren’t those beeping sounds electronic?

Beep beep beep beep!

This useless tinnitus!

Now, I have no choice but to hard carry Joseon with the knowledge I possess.

I have to admit it now.

This world perfectly matches the world I intended to write in my novel.

A story about being born into a noble family during the Joseon era without a system! Moreover, I was born in the worst generation of Joseon before the Imjin War, similar to the era I researched.

The protagonist of this novel should fight fiercely with the bastards of the Jin and the Qing Dynasty even after 50 chapters.

It completely matches the perfect protagonist setting I intended to create.

But who would have thought that I would become that protagonist!

And my children would also be far from grasping the glory of going to Valhalla after fighting with the bastards of the Jin and Qing Dynasties!

Come to think of it, it’s all because of those damn picky readers.

No matter how you think about it, the Imjin War alone is an apocalypse-level world where hell gates are wide open.

However, I, a positive person, found a good point even after falling into this crazy apocalyptic world.

Now that there are no readers in this world who would pay to read my novel, I can curse at the readers who say nonsense to their heart’s content.

“Soyul, cover your ears.”

Soyul, who doesn’t understand my story, tilts her head.

“Don’t you dare go against your oppa later.”

I covered Soyul’s ears and whispered very quietly.

“Reader bastards! Reader bastards! Reader bastards! Reader bastards! Reader bastards! Reader bastards! Reader bastards! Reader bastards! Reader bastards! Reader bastards! Reader bastards! Reader bastards! Reader bastards! Reader bastards!”

Phew, I feel refreshed.

The future looks bleak, but wouldn’t everything end if I just hung myself?

“What’s a reader bastard?”

Ah, she heard it.

“It’s a kind of creature that does whatever it wants, like a cat. They’re the exact opposite of the reader lords!”

“Meow?”

Soyul meows in my arms.

Sigh, I had such a bad thought about this adorable girl!

First, when I was struggling in the swamp of emotions, one of the scenarios that came to my mind was saving Joseon by getting potatoes and other famine-resistant crops through the [System].

Potatoes, sweet potatoes, and corn, which are too familiar to modern people these days, are crops that spread throughout the world because of the 16th-century age of exploration.

Although they are crops with a history of over 400 years, they cannot be found in the Joseon of this era.

If only there were such famine-resistant crops, Joseon’s food shortage could have been easily resolved. It’s such a shame.

When Joseon’s food shortage is resolved, the population tends to naturally increase.

I tried to overcome national crises based on the population, but the plan collapsed from the beginning.

Why doesn’t this convenient progression work? Is this my karma for wanting to make the protagonist struggle for the readers?

Is this my karma? No, I was someone who played hundreds of matches of the mental illness game called LOL every year.

Of course, I mastered politics in the blink of an eye.

This is not my karma, but it’s because of the readers who want such a situation. Fuck you, readers!

“Ah, life should be enjoyed like sashimi! If this were a novel, this novel would be doomed. It would be so boring! If I go back to modern times and write such a novel and don’t get any comments, I’ll quit writing! I’ll quit! You hear me? Readers, you bastards! If I return to reality after this struggle, just try leaving those shitty comments! I’ll only update once a month! You guys should just shut up and laughㅋㅋ!”

“Hmm~”

Am I talking too much by myself? Soyul slept soundly, using my nonsense as a lullaby.

Phew, fine, I admit it.

It may be my fault for trying to make money by writing a novel and choosing a world view that would be somewhat popular among readers.

But I swear to heaven, I never imagined that I would become the protagonist in that damned novel!

Still, the good thing is that it would have been terrible if I didn’t have Soyul.

If it weren’t for this cute girl, wouldn’t I have drowned in the swamp of emotions?

“Sigh, you cute fellow!”

Holding Soyul, I healed myself while thinking about the gloomy world view that lay ahead.

For now, my future felt like a protagonist who knew the third world war would break out before joining the military.

I was 10 years old, and the Imjin War will break out when I’m 20.

And I have to fight a massive war until the next summer.

Moreover, Ulsan, where I am, is one of the most affected areas in the Imjin War.

Surprisingly, this is just a sign heralding a long period of war.

The Second Japanese Invasion breaks out seven years later when I am 27, and the land suffers in pain again until I am 28.

Of course, this is not the end!

Twenty years later, Japan, the first boss, retreats, and a more formidable enemy invades this land.

The preliminary battle, the Battle of Sarhū, takes place in 1619 when I am 47 years old.

Of course, in this battle, the Joseon-Ming alliance wages an aggressive war against the Later Jin, but the Jeongmyo War, which takes place in 1627, plunges the recovering Joseon again into the quagmire of war.

I might have to fight the Manchus when I’m 55 to protect the country again.

Moreover, if the Machu invades again in 1637, I might have the misfortune of enlisting at the age of 65.

“Wow, even if the third world war breaks out on my returning day, military life seems more comfortable than this?”

What the fuck! I was supposed to kill that demon bastard for the fourth time but couldn’t! Please let the third world war break out before that demon bastard appears.

Please, I’m begging you.

I have to defend Joseon on my own on the hellish difficulty, but when I think of others scratching their butts while playing the hellish difficulty with that demon bastard, I might die of jealousy.

Fortunately, the company that created the game with that demon bastard appearing seems a bit screwed up, so I have hope that they won’t release it for another 10 years.

“Ummnya~”

Soyul, who was in my arms, woke up from her sleep.

“Did you sleep well?”

“Yes!”

Yeah, I have to move busily from today to protect this smile.

“Soyul, I will definitely protect you.”

Soyul ran into my arms with a bright smile.

Yes, I will really protect you, even if the future you don’t remember today’s promise.