Life is all about timing.
I came to understand that great truth through my two fathers.
My father in my previous life, who seized the opening when his rivals toppled on their own amid corporate political strife,
and finally succeeded in becoming an executive at a major conglomerate.
And my father in this life, who quickly bet his entire life on a war hero who had drawn the wariness of those above,
then became a founding contributor who helped turn that war hero into the Founding Emperor.
I, too, fought and worked with all my might at my father’s side.
The experience and knowledge from my previous life were a great help.
In the process, I realized this place was inside a novel I had read in my previous life.
It was a shame I had only read the early part, but it was useful all the same.
Thanks to that, I was able to perform fairly well in my own right.
Even if I was not on my father’s level, I was acknowledged as a founding contributor.
Father and son, both founding contributors. It was truly an extraordinary thing.
Our family’s fame and authority rose just as much.
Ability and talent are certainly necessary qualities.
I do not deny the saying that even luck is part of one’s skill.
But timing, which determines all of that—
is the factor that separates success from failure, life from death.
A lesson I learned from my father in my previous life and my father in this one.
Someday, I too would put it into practice and pass it on to my children.
Thinking so, I first intended to enjoy my sweet, cushy life.
After all, the title of founding contributor was that tremendous.
But the world would not leave me be.
“Young Master Ethan! T-terrible news! The family head! The family head has…!”
One day, my father suddenly collapsed.
It was not poisoning. It was not assassination. It was a health issue.
He had done an enormous amount of work alongside the Founding Emperor.
The reason was that he had been too busy to look after his own body.
All sorts of great figures immediately came rushing to ask after him.
Even the Founding Emperor himself came to visit him on his sickbed.
But my father never rose again.
He went to the side of my mother, who had passed away ten years before.
“Ethan Montebello. From this moment on, you are now the head of House Montebello.”
I had no time to grieve over losing my father.
I immediately succeeded him and rose to the position of family head.
The remaining family members and servants were looking only to me.
A single word. A single action. Each would decide our future from here on.
Under that tremendous pressure, there were nights when I could not sleep and only tossed and turned.
It had only been six years since the new empire was founded.
When we fought the corrupt, we were steadfast comrades.
But now, we checked one another and fought to gain greater power.
The moment one showed an opening, the others would bite, tear away flesh, and swallow it.
And in this situation, I had come to succeed my father.
One wrong move, and I would be pushed out of power.
And in the early days of the founding, being “pushed out”
did not simply mean losing power. It could go as far as a purge.
If I had not been living my second life,
if I had not possessed the memories of my previous life, it would have been difficult.
But I worked hard, and as a result, I had come this far.
I had not gained the title of founding contributor purely through luck.
Nor had I merely benefited from my father. I had achieved it myself.
Though it might be difficult to match the old monsters of politics,
for the sake of my family and my house, I could do anything.
‘First, I need to secure a position in the most vital department after the founding.’
The Founding Emperor was a great war hero and a powerful warrior.
Even though he was now past sixty, he was still strong.
I had seen him spar with knights not long ago… It gave me chills.
In any case, because of that, the military was a paradise for the Founding Emperor’s subordinates.
And the military faction had been reorganized into the Ministry of War.
There was no better place to establish dazzling achievements.
However, I was inevitably lacking when it came to fighting directly.
It was impossible to compete with the Founding Emperor’s subordinates.
Thus, the Ministry of War naturally fell down the list of candidates.
‘After power comes money and law, of course.’
The Ministry of Justice. A place where every smart gentleman had gathered.
Even now, they were working to create new imperial laws.
In the early days of founding, nothing was more important than those laws.
That was why all the brains of the empire were staking their lives on it.
So I considered that place as well, but a problem arose.
I did not know the law well. I was far removed from that field.
I remembered something my father had once said.
Knowing what you can and cannot do.
Even that alone will change how people evaluate you.
The Ministry of Justice might instead expose my shortcomings.
It would be the perfect excuse to bite me. It would be like revealing a weakness.
There was no need to do that in such chaotic times.
After excluding even that place, only one remained.
“Head of House Montebello. What did you just say?”
“A sweeping reform of taxation is necessary. Yes, I know. I know that these are chaotic times in the early days of the founding. But if we do not firmly resolve this taxation issue precisely at this time, it will drag the empire down for years to come.”
The reason my father had first been able to catch the Founding Emperor’s eye.
War costs a great deal of money. He continued to provide that money.
As I kept working under that father of mine, I came to understand.
As long as one maintained influence over money, one could live for a long time.
“Though much time has passed since Condor collapsed and a new sky rose above us, many people throughout the provinces are still expressing subtle dissatisfaction. Because of them, we are experiencing difficulty collecting rightful taxes. If this instability continues in this manner, it may lead to an acceleration of division.”
“Hmm.”
“That is not all. The grassland tribes to the east, taking advantage of this chaotic period, continue to violate our borders. A special increase in funds for this is absolutely necessary. And yet, because there has been much opposition, it has already failed to pass for two years.”
One more thing. There was far too much damned dirty money.
That was the reason Condor, which had ruled this land before the empire, collapsed.
Bribes should be given and taken only within some tolerable line,
but the situation now was that they were giving and gobbling up amounts neither side could handle.
At this rate, if a rebellion broke out somewhere, the empire would collapse as soon as it had been built.
When it came to money problems, solving them quickly was the best solution.
“Therefore, I propose that a National Tax Service be newly established under the existing Ministry of Finance. And I suggest that we grant it strong authority over taxes and resolve the matter of collection through it.”
At my forceful assertion, the other founding contributors looked at one another.
Some had satisfied faces. Others wore expressions of discontent.
A considerable number among them had probably taken under-the-table money.
Loyalty to the empire and personal greed were separate matters.
There were few people who would not produce a speck of dust if shaken.
But if filth came out instead of dust, that was a serious problem.
“Your Majesty.”
Though not as much as my father, I, too, was unquestionably a founding contributor.
Though I was a very young man who had only just come of age,
I said what needed to be said without shrinking back in the slightest.
“When it comes to state affairs, money is by no means something shameful. Rather, it is the most urgent matter of all.”
The Founding Emperor was a war hero. He had achieved a great victory.
He had once been a commander and a warrior. Thus, he valued honor.
He had the mindset that matters of money were shameful and should be hidden.
Had my father not once said that this aspect of him was sometimes far too frustrating?
I found myself recalling those words my father had said one day.
“Mm.”
Even now, he was probably thinking more as a warrior than as an emperor.
It was true that his political sense as a monarch left something to be desired.
“I believe the words of the head of House Montebello are quite reasonable.”
“Your Majesty.”
“You shall discuss this matter more deeply together with the head of House Montebello.”
Still, he clearly understood what was right and necessary.
My father had not bet his life on him for nothing.
Once he embraced someone, he carried them all as his subordinates to the end.
Unless they betrayed him first, he would not abandon them first.
If the Founding Emperor was such a man, then I could continue to follow him.
With that hope in my heart, I decided to begin the work.
And exactly one month later.
“I am already nearing sixty. Even this morning, it felt terribly heavy to raise myself from bed. At such a time, I felt the need to appoint a successor as soon as possible. A successor who will make the foundations of the empire even firmer.”
I realized that something was going wrong.
“Thus, I have decided to appoint my son, Prince Ruston, as crown prince, so know this and prepare accordingly.”
This statement by the Founding Emperor was more than enough to call forth a storm.
“Your Majesty?!”
“What do you mean by that…!”
Prince Ruston. The second prince born between the Founding Emperor and the empress.
However, in terms of the imperial family register, his position was none other than the eighth prince.
What had happened was this: the Founding Emperor had had a first wife.
They said she had borne him several children and had been the pillar who managed the household.
However, his first wife had not lived to see her husband become emperor.
Afterward, the Founding Emperor took a new wife for political reasons.
His second wife came from House Rejestis.
Before the empire was founded, even in the days of Condor, it had been one of the renowned noble houses.
At first, they had merely formed marriage ties with a war hero.
But now, they had become an extraordinary house that had produced none other than the empress.
And now, they might even become the maternal family of the crown prince.
If one looked only this far, there was no real room for a problem.
She might be his second wife, but in any case, she was the official empress.
The problem was that the Founding Emperor did not have only them.
There were also the many children he had had with his first wife.
“Your Majesty. We humbly dare to offer a word. With princes already fully grown, it is unreasonable to make the eighth prince, who is only ten years old, the crown prince.”
Each of the Founding Emperor’s princes had achieved great merits.
In particular, the fifth prince’s achievements and abilities were at a level that could only be called overwhelming.
The fifth prince was even the only one with experience as an official.
The administration of the Condor era had been virtually impossible to enter without blood ties.
He was someone who had entered that place through pure ability, without a single bribe.
Thus, everyone had been implicitly thinking of the fifth prince.
After all, the first prince had died suddenly four years ago, so there was no succession by the eldest son.
The successor needed now was someone who could lay the foundation for a century-long plan.
Above all, the age gap between the brothers was far too severe.
The eighth prince was only ten years old. He was far too young.
The second prince was nearly forty, and even the youngest, the fifth prince, was soon to be thirty.
In terms of achievements. In terms of seniority. The eighth prince fell behind.
In other words, he was someone who normally could not become the successor.
And yet, the Founding Emperor forcefully pushed through his will.
Here, once again, the habits of a war hero emerged.
On the battlefield, if the commander pushed forward, others would follow.
But in politics, simply pushing forward would only breed resentment.
“No matter how I think about it, this seems wrong, doesn’t it? There will be a lot of talk.”
“Even to us it looks like this, so how must the princes feel…”
“After His Highness the first prince passed away suddenly, the second prince has become much gentler, so perhaps he may be different, but the problem is the fifth prince. In every respect, everyone thought he would become the successor. You never know what a person will do when their expectations are betrayed.”
Everyone gathered there poured out their worries.
But I guarantee it: none of them worried as much as I did.
‘Fuck. What is this? I feel like I’ve seen this scene somewhere before.’
It came to mind. That incident I had encountered so many times in my previous life.
Movies. Dramas. Novels. Webtoons. A stock subject that appeared everywhere.
A son who pushed out his father, the founder and war hero.
An older brother who killed his younger brother, born of the same father though a different mother.
Doesn’t something come to mind? Hm? That Killer Bang-won, you say?
It was chillingly similar to be called a coincidence.
Though it was a novel I had only read the early part of before dropping,
I remembered a comment saying the structure resembled the founding of Joseon.
Of all people, the fifth prince had both outstanding ability and great ambition!
Would things here truly pass without incident?
Had the author from Earth implemented that historical accuracy here as well?
While my heart clenched day after day with such worries,
“Ethan Montebello. I shall newly bestow a fief upon you.”
the Founding Emperor slammed me into the ground in front of everyone.
The fief I received was close to Rejestis, the maternal family of the eighth prince.
It meant he wanted to make me the eighth prince’s political partner.
“…”
And the moment I saw the fifth prince’s eyes as he looked at me,
‘I’m fucked.’
That gaze was unmistakably the gaze of Killer Bang-won.