Invitation to the Chatroom of the Gods - Chapter 105



Only Krnovel

Episode 105 – The greatest of all time

The emperor’s words that there was chaos of unprecedented scale.

I had met the emperor before at the Murim Alliance, but this was my first time having a formal audience with the emperor at Taehwajeon.

So I didn’t know how the audience was conducted, but usually, it’s not like I have to reveal the purpose of the audience······?

So, it started with a greeting like, “Are you okay?” and went on to the polite greeting, “Thanks to Your Majesty’s personal concern, I am feeling much better,” and then to the polite greeting, “That’s fortunate. But why did you want to see me?” and so on.

By doing so, I tried to make a head-on breakthrough by first revealing the purpose of the audience.

But the Emperor’s words, which sounded like they were cutting off my words, cut off not only the beginning but also the body, and with them, cut off my purpose.

I raised my head without realizing it, my mind blank.

And when he looked at the Emperor’s face and eyes, the Emperor opened his mouth again as if wondering what he was staring at.

“You must have been so dumbfounded when you heard my story.”

This time too, many things were omitted.

But if you know the full context of what happened in Guizhou Province, this is something that doesn’t need any explanation.

“I heard from Gosuk that he started the uproar because he didn’t want to receive a reward.”

Gosuk (姑叔) is another word for a maternal uncle, and the emperor’s maternal uncle meant the Grand Prince of the Martial Arts World.

As expected, it seems that the Grand Prince of Murim has already told us all the details.

Fortunately, it seemed that the Grand Prince of Murim had spoken well. So, it seemed that the Emperor had no intention of reprimanding or punishing me for causing trouble.

“Is that all true?”

······Maybe so.

“That’s right.”

“That’s right···.”

The emperor seemed to be lost for a moment, but then continued speaking.

“Is that all you have to say?”

I glanced at the emperor.

What is certain is that the emperor was not angry. If I had to say, I would say he was dumbfounded by the chaos I had caused.

Actually, if he was really angry, he wouldn’t have allowed this audience.

So the thought flashed through my mind, ‘Should I tell him the situation now?’

If only I could convince him that I could die if I received the reward, all my worries and concerns would be resolved.

From now on, I could accumulate merit without worrying about rewards. I could also use the merit that made the person die right away.

I don’t know how much I have accumulated, but I wondered if I could purchase the ‘highest grade’ immortal elixir among the immortal elixirs of the Taesang Laojun that have growth effects.

Then there was no need to worry about internal energy at all.

Of course, I don’t know if the Emperor will believe me, but you never know until you try.

At first, Ju Gwan-cheon did not believe him. But if it was the Emperor, then maybe something would happen.

But where was the scroll? Did Eungseon take it? Come to think of it, is Eungseon also in the palace?

Now that I think about it, I don’t think there’s any need to persuade anyone since I’m the only one who can see the folding screen anyway.

Only after thinking this far could I make up my mind.

“Actually, my conviction-.”

“It’s impossible.”

But as soon as I opened my mouth, I heard the Emperor’s voice.

“If you are going to say that you will not accept my reward because it will kill you, I will tell you in advance. It is not possible for that reason.”

······I wondered why he asked if that was going to happen.

It seemed as if Ju Gwan-cheon had already said everything. As expected, on one side of Taehwajeon, a familiar-looking official, Ju Gwan-cheon, was staring at me.

When our eyes met, Ju Gwan-cheon’s eyebrows moved up and down. It was as if Ju Gwan-cheon was saying, ‘No matter how much you jump, you’ll end up in the palm of my hand.’

This damn reward guy was really blocking me from every possible scenario.

No matter how I looked at it, I became increasingly convinced that the unidentified person that Taesang No-jun had spoken of could be Ju Gwan-cheon.

It was at that time that the staring contest, not a staring contest, between me and Ju Gwan-cheon continued.

“To be honest, I don’t believe you.”

The emperor’s voice was suddenly heard.

Ju Gwan-cheon and I locked eyes with each other.

After all, how could anyone believe that receiving a reward would lead to death? No one would believe it unless they saw me receiving a reward and dying with my own eyes.

In other words, it is an excuse that is nothing more than ‘bullshit’ in vulgar terms.

As I remained silent, the emperor nodded to one side. Then, as if he had been waiting for this moment, Ju Gwan-cheon came running forward, out of breath.

Then, he took out the scroll hidden in his sleeve and unfolded it. Its length was truly······ unprecedented.

The unfolded scroll was dragging on the floor, so much so that it could wrap around Taehwajeon once.

And the letters written so densely inside made my mind dizzy······.

“Listen to the missionary’s words!”

Ju Gwan-cheon’s loud voice resonated throughout Taehwa-jeon. Ju Gwan-cheon cleared his throat once more and began to recite the contents of the scroll, “Leave the World.”

“The grace bestowed on the situation of the epidemic that spread in Guizhou became an example to the world, and his great achievements and virtues brought great prosperity to the whole world······”

The congratulatory words, adorned with all sorts of fancy decorations, continued one after another.

This time, I really put in the effort, and the words were no ordinary thing.

“······The ceremonial rites are held in a grand manner, and the sincerity that upholds righteousness is displayed! You, the missionary officer, are an example and a lesson for your innate gentleness and pure morality······.”

The outpouring of congratulatory words showed no signs of ending.

Of all the congratulatory messages I’ve ever received, this was by far the ‘best of all time’, but even as someone who has studied quite a bit, there were quite a few words and expressions I didn’t know.

“Furthermore, the spirit and integrity of the pure subject spread to later generations to benefit them, and thus there was a great celebration of the Gyujo clan being passed down from generation to generation! Thus, it will bloom luxuriantly like the yellow dandelion forever······.”

I really wanted to see the face of whoever wrote it.

I don’t think even a top-ranking civil servant would have done something like that. Could it be that Ju Gwan-cheon wrote it himself?

“······The merit of working hard to protect the ground because his intention was the most pure! The merit of carefully investigating and examining the actual state of Guizhou Castle and saving the people outside the regular rites!”

And what other merits?

Credit for this and that.

Credit for this and that.

Merit in one way or another.

Confucius said, Mencius said, merit, etc.

“The rewards of all these merits are doubled and multiplied!”

Ju Gwan-cheon’s eyes widened as if it was just the beginning. But his mouth was smiling broadly.

Seriously, there was no one as crazy as this crazy guy. I swallowed hard and waited for Ju Gwan-cheon to continue speaking.

“I grant Cheongun 30,000 sacks of rice, 15,000 bags of cotton cloth, 10,000 bags of silk, 8,000 rolls of ramie cloth, and 5,000 rolls of hemp cloth!”

‘uh······?’

What the hell is this award list that’s shorter than I thought.

“Furthermore, 5,000 pieces of gold, 2,500 pieces of silver, 1,500 horns of water oxen, 3,000 sheets of good paper, 4,000 sheets of good paper, 6,000 bundles of green sorghum skin, 1,000 geun of pepper, 5,000 heads of sapwood, 500 horses of the highest grade······.”

A series of rewards of unknown origin poured out from Jukwancheon’s mouth.

Even among the list of rewards, there was a horse…? And there were 500 of them. I wondered why they were giving so many, and why horses in particular.

Regardless of my doubts, the list of awards continued on without any sign of ending.

It was beyond the lengthy congratulatory remarks that had been made earlier, and to this extent, it could not be considered an award given to an ‘individual’.

A tribal nation. No, it was so believable that it could even be said to be a reward given to a ‘small nation’.

Without a single joke or exaggeration, it was believable that with just that reward, they could build a small ‘nation’.

So it couldn’t be called a ‘reward’ anymore.

How come it goes far beyond the category and concept of reward?

“Add······!”

Ju Gwan-cheon slurped down the scroll he had finished reading like he was swallowing noodles, folded it up, and began reading new content again.

“As for the offerings and tribute, 20,000 rolls of offering silk, 50,000 pieces of sandalwood, 40,000 pieces of silver pots, 45,000 pieces of silver wine, 25,000 pieces of various colored silks······.”

······There has never been a chaos like this.

The emperor used to say that I was causing trouble and such, but isn’t the emperor actually worse?

At this point, it couldn’t be called chaos.

······I will die. I will definitely die.

It leads to an inevitable death that cannot even be thought of as a possibility.

Even if it is a merit that saved the lives of millions of people in Guizhou, it is absolutely not allowed. Even if it is a merit that caused a person to die(?), it is absolutely not allowed.

“In addition, 2,000 rolls of silk. 3,000 rolls of large silk. 2,500 rolls of yellow silk. 1,500 pieces of saddle leather. 2,000 pairs of black boots······.”

The list of rewards was still going on, so there was no ‘possibility’ whatsoever.

“What, what are you···!”

“Oh my god···!”

As expected, all the ministers of Taehwajeon were shocked and opened their eyes wide.

Furthermore, the historians who had been recording Ju Gwan-cheon’s every word were at a loss as to what to do.

At first, the officers reacted with, “Huh?”, then at some point they started to react with, “Are these numbers correct?”, and now they were reacting with, “What the heck?”

Whether you know that fact or not.

“Yellow hair brush, dragon pattern seat, long robe······.”

Joo Gwan-cheon was busy just smiling and reciting the list of rewards.

How much time has passed like that?

I don’t know for sure, but it was at some point about half an hour ago.

“···Finally, His Majesty personally granted appropriate compensation to the lord of Guizhou and his people, and now relief centers and feeding stations have been set up in Guizhou, distributing daily necessities and food to the starving people!”

Ju Gwan-cheon unfolded the scroll and shouted at me loudly.

“I declare that all these awards are the awards that you alone should receive, Cheongun!”

······It was perfect until the end.

It was the rewarder, Ju Gwan-cheon, who knew full well that I would ‘reward-return’ and blocked me in advance.

Because of that, my means of survival were completely blocked, front and back, but there was only one.

There was one more excuse to reduce the reward, so I quickly gathered my thoughts and opened my mouth.

“I am deeply moved by the award, which is as great as Your Majesty’s award, but I think it is too much. I believe-.”

“There will be no impact on the imperial finances, so don’t worry about that either.”

Ju Gwan-cheon interrupted me with a shout. But in fact, it couldn’t be said that he interrupted me.

······That’s exactly what I was trying to say.

But does that make sense?

Even though it is said to be the imperial vault where all the treasures of the world are gathered, it is not a ‘flower pot’ that grows infinitely.

A reward of that level would inevitably cause a blow to the imperial finances.

Last time, there was the property of Cheon San-ja, the lord of Jiangsu Province, but not now.

I heard that Cheon San-ja’s wealth was all used up to fill the imperial treasury and treasury that was emptied as a reward at that time.

In that situation, the reward given to me was of course the reward given to Guizhou Province, and they even set up a relief center and a cafeteria?

This makes absolutely no sense.

But the fact that Ju Gwan-cheon brought it up first means that there was no problem, so he brought it up first······.

“Are you aware that recently a group called the Jangjiang Heroes have been doing transportation work on the Jangjiang River?”

He told me that there was a corner where everything could come out.

And Ju Gwan-cheon is one of the people who knows that I am the King of the Yangtze River. Ju Gwan-cheon’s eyebrows moved up and down as he looked at me.

“With this, the logistics of the Yangtze River have become smooth, if not completely unclogged. Do you know how much tax was collected from the previous imperial family due to the active trade?”

······I didn’t really want to know. It would just mean I would have no reason to refute it.

First of all, this is the first time I’ve heard that the Jang Gang Hyeopgaekdan is doing such a transportation business.

‘somehow.’

When I went to Guizhou Province, I thought that the rowing of the swordsmen was extraordinary.

It wasn’t the first or second time that he had turned Dang So-hyang’s stomach upside down, and as expected, it seemed like he had been secretly carrying out such a business(?).

Now that I look at it, the previously unheard of rewards seem to be local specialties and products from each region collected through the logistics established by the Jang River Swordsmen.

‘Why are these guys doing things that I wasn’t even told to do······.’

In any case, this meant that the reward I would receive would increase even more.

But it was still strange.

Even if the taxes collected were several times higher, it would not have been a reward of that level.

There could never have been that much tax money, and guess what?

“Above all, these are properties confiscated from the political and business leaders of the Demonic Cult, so you have nothing to worry about.”

The term “politician” (政商) meant a person who used the government for personal gain. To put it simply, it was a general term for corrupt officials or bureaucrats.

Therefore, the politicians of the Demonic Cult could be said to be officials who received bribes from the Demonic Cult.

It looks like there was a force in the imperial family that was in collusion with the Demonic Cult.

I somehow wondered why the imperial family was unaware of the epidemic situation.

It seemed that the imperial officials who had been bribed by the Demonic Cult were covering the Emperor’s eyes and ears.

And it seemed as if they were using this incident as an excuse to completely punish the politicians and merchants of the Demonic Cult and confiscate their property, just like they did with Cheon San Ja earlier······.

‘How much did you actually receive?’

Moreover, considering that all of that came from the Demonic Cult, it means that the Demonic Cult possessed that level of wealth from the beginning.

‘The Demonic Cult has that much money?’

Well, to wage war against the entire world, you need a lot of money, but that was beyond the realm of money-slinging.

It seemed that they far surpassed the imperial family in terms of ‘funds’, as they could use millions of cultists like slaves.

Anyway, what this all means is one thing.

‘······It was done.’

In common parlance, we’re in big trouble.