Long Live The Emperor, Except For Me

The emperor celebrated Baek-ryeon’s promotion with a week-long banquet. However, His Majesty’s generosity, which was always overflowing, did not end there.

Cheong-ryung created a peach wine lake for Baek-ryeon. At Baek-ryeon’s house.

It was after Baek-ryeon refused the initial reward of fifty jars of peach wine.

“Haha, what’s so much about that? You should be able to drink that much yourself, shouldn’t you?”

That was the only thing they couldn’t agree on.

Baek-ryeon thought that the rewards were already sufficient within reason. Was there really any reason to combine the Senior General and the Supreme General?

Even combining that was excessive, but was it really necessary to strip an entire orchard and brew new peach wine when she already had ample territory befitting a Grand General?

However, unlike Baek-ryeon’s thoughts, Cheong-ryung thought it was necessary. Baek-ryeon needed such a reward. A reward that was unprecedented and beyond anyone’s imagination.

In that sense, the lake made with the wine from the fifty jars of newly brewed peach wine was more effective than the fifty jars themselves.

“Your Majesty. I’m afraid I’ll end up guarding my position with alcoholism before the wine in that lake spoils if I try to drink it all by myself.”

As Cheong-ryung said, Baek-ryeon was a pretty good drinker. The only problem was that the wine was peach wine brewed with peaches, and it was summer.

The wine seemed like it would spoil in just a week, and Baek-ryeon seemed like she would fall over with alcoholism if she tried to drink all fifty jars of peach wine by herself.

So Baek-ryeon held a banquet. Banquets were a good way to add color to sharing precious wine with colleagues.

In the end, it was Cheong-ryung who won the victory in the reward battle that had been repeated so tiresomely. He pointed to the gardener with a smile of a victor who had plenty of room to spare.

“If I had known it would turn out like this, I should have hung a few pigs or cows on that tree too. For snacks.”

“Please, just stop it.”

If the peach wine didn’t smell, and the smell of animal blood wafted through the garden, Baek-ryeon would abandon this house without hesitation. There were many territories anyway, so there was no need to live in the capital.

Cheong-ryung, who read her expression, chuckled.

“Then just take the fifty cows I’ll give you this time.”

“……The rewards aren’t over yet?”

“Even if you create a new position, shouldn’t the rewards be unprecedented?”

“That new position is an unprecedented reward, so it’s fine.”

“Haha.”

Cheong-ryung smiled faintly and looked at the gardener again.

Baek-ryeon quickly changed her attitude to the implied threat that he would hang cows on the tree if she refused one more time.

“Are you giving them to me alive?”

“Why? To raise them?”

“Yes. I was thinking that maybe we could create a system to lend cows to poor farmers who don’t have cows. How about we try it out on my territory first, and if it works well, let’s expand it to the entire empire?”

“……Were you thinking about that even now, General of Reforms?”

“Serving the empire is no different from breathing. How can I stop thinking about a system that benefits the people?”

Cheong-ryung let out a long sigh. He knew that Baek-ryeon never took off her mask of a perfect subordinate in front of him, but sometimes it got a little annoying.

In front of him, she could afford to let her guard down a bit. Even if she wasn’t always the loyal subordinate worrying about the nation, he would never abandon her.

 

“Do you know that you ruin the taste of my drink every time you act like this?”

 

Baek-ryeon quickly responded with enthusiasm.

 

“That’s a good thing then. It would be wise for you to cut back on drinking. The imperial physician has been worrying about your health.”

 

Contrary to his earlier complaint about the drink losing its taste, Cheong-ryung drained his glass and extended it back to Baek-ryeon.

 

“Take it.”

 

Sharing a cup was against etiquette. But the Emperor was above both etiquette and law.

 

So, Baekr-yeon quickly scanned the surroundings, confirming that no one was watching, and accepted Cheong-ryung’s cup.

 

“You’re very thorough.”

 

Cheong-ryung smirked as he filled her cup. The fragrant scent of peach wine tickled her nose.

 

“Am I lacking in dignity?”

 

Cheong-ryung asked as he watched Baek-ryon drain the cup in one go. It was an out-of-the-blue remark, but Baek-ryeon did not question it.

 

“The reason you hold these so-called banquets is clear. It’s to reaffirm that you stand above everyone else. It’s a kind of… hierarchy confirmation, isn’t it?”

 

When Baek-ryeon first entered Cheong-ryung’s service, her position was quite ambiguous.

 

Before the Jin Empire became an empire, it was originally a confederation of seven small states. Among the seven leading families of these states were the Yi family, to which Baek-ryeon belonged, and the Jae family, to which Cheong-ryung belonged.

 

Originally, the family with the strongest voice among them was the Yi family. They were, in a sense, the heads of the confederation.

 

So when Cheong-ryung’s elder brother, Jae Hong-won, sought to expand his power, his first target was naturally the Yi family.

 

Jae Hong-won besieged the Yi family’s capital for three years, launching relentless attacks. When the Yi family finally raised the flag of surrender, the only survivors were children under the age of fifteen and elders over the age of seventy.

 

Although they surrendered and came under the Jae family’s control, their relationship was anything but amicable. Baek-ryeon had even served as the head of the Yi family at one point.

 

So when Baek-ryeon swore loyalty to Cheong-ryung, no one trusted her. Even the people of the Yi family probably didn’t believe it. After such events, who would genuinely swear loyalty to the brother of their family’s enemy?

 

Naturally, those around Cheong-ryung all advised him to send Baek-ryeon to an insignificant position. Cheong-ryung ignored their advice, but his ministers remained wary of Baek-ryeon.

 

This was back when Cheong-ryung’s authority was not as high as it is now.

 

“Back then, such things might have been necessary.”

 

Even so, Baek-ryeon could have reported the constant scrutiny to Cheong-ryung, who could have dealt with the internal enemies on her behalf.

 

Or she could have used the scrutiny as an excuse to retreat and live in seclusion.

 

But Baek-ryeon did not do that. She took on the burden herself. She used all kinds of methods to subdue them, sometimes suppressing them strongly, other times soothing them, and scattering any potential leaders among her opponents to prevent them from uniting.

 

Hosting banquets was one of the strategies Baek-ryeon had used since the transitional period when internal enemies could no longer openly check her but still held lingering resentment.

 

From that time, she started hosting banquets and inviting her political rivals.

 

“It looks more like a private hall than a banquet hall.”

 

Baek-ryeon’s banquets had too little laughter and merriment to be called banquets.

 

The guests sat solemnly, wearing gentle smiles and engaging in dignified conversations. Even while drinking, they did not do anything that violated etiquette. Everyone had to act calm and graceful.

 

If fun was the only consideration, no one would want to attend such a banquet.

 

But because Baek-ryeon was the host, people wanted to attend her banquets, even if it meant hours of tension and maintaining formalities, behaving cautiously to avoid any faults.

 

“But this must be hard for you too.”

 

There are countless powerful figures who host boring banquets. What made Baek-ryeon’s banquets special, aside from the lack of fun, was their perfection.

 

If there were any shortcomings in the banquet preparations or if the host showed signs of drunkenness, the guests would merely endure the boredom for a few hours and then go home to badmouth the host among themselves.

 

However, Baek-ryeon prepared everything perfectly. The food and wine were of the highest quality, and the music was elegant. The attendants serving the food and drinks moved quietly like shadows, not disturbing the guests.

 

Throughout the hours-long banquet, Baek-ryeon maintained perfect etiquette without showing a single sign of fatigue.

 

Because of this, the guests were constantly worried about making mistakes. Naturally, Baek-ryeon assumed a position of evaluating the guests, who unconsciously regarded her as superior.

 

In this way, Baek-ryeon tamed her political rivals, who were always ready to attack her, into obedient hounds.

 

“Is there still a need for this?”

 

Through countless other means and by proving her abilities, Baek-ryeon had established herself as the second most powerful person in the Jin Empire, with no one left to deny it.

 

Baek-ryeon had integrated every land she set foot on into the Jin Empire and completed the continental conquest that Cheongnyeong’s brother, Jae Hong-won, had started.

 

Despite no longer needing to establish hierarchy, Baek-ryeon continued to hold perfect but joyless banquets.

 

“Why not host a regular banquet? One where everyone gets drunk and doesn’t even notice a few mistakes. It would be much easier.”

 

Ordinary banquets do not need to be so perfect. As people drink and their rationality loosens, they become more tolerant of everything. If a guest causes trouble, everyone laughs it off, and if the host makes a few mistakes, they are equally forgiving.

 

Unless she intended to flaunt her rank, this would be overwhelmingly easier. Therefore, Cheong-ryung could not understand why Baek-ryeon chose the harder path.

 

For once, Baek-ryeon hesitated to answer Cheong-ryung’s question. Instead of replying, she cleaned the cup, handed it back to Cheong-ryung, and poured more wine.

 

Cheong-ryung drank slowly, without pressing her for an answer. When the cup was half empty, Baek-ryeon finally spoke.

 

“…I am simply doing what I do best.”

 

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