American: Native Empire

“Your Majesty. The preparations are complete.”

Kim Kiwoo looked up from the paperwork he was doing in his office when he heard the words of his attendant.

‘Time flies…’

He glanced at the watch on his wrist and saw that quite some time had passed.

He then left the building with his attendants and went outside. As soon as he exited the entrance, a dazzling carriage greeted him.

The palace was so vast that most of the transportation had to be done by carriage. Of course, his destination this time was not inside the palace.

‘I want to ride a car soon.’

He felt a desire to ride a car when he saw the carriage. 

Kim Kiwoo was expecting that it wouldn’t take long for the research on internal combustion engine cars to be completed, as it was in full swing.

In fact, he had already made a car that could be driven. 

And he wanted to actually ride it.

But he had to give up his intention because of the strong opposition that followed. 

It was too dangerous to ride an unverified internal combustion engine car, they said.

‘To be honest, carriages and cars are equally dangerous.’

He thought this to himself, but he understood the feelings of his subordinates and accepted their opinion. The ride comfort was still better in carriages.

“Did you wait long?”

“No, Your Majesty. I just arrived here.”

The third prince, the Yellow Flame, lied blatantly. He didn’t report it, but he must have been waiting for a long time. 

But Kim Kiwoo didn’t bother to point it out and moved on.

“Well, let’s get on board.”

“Yes, Father.”

After the two father and son and the attendants got on the carriage, they departed immediately. 

And Kim Kiwoo started a conversation with his son.

“You must have worked hard to prepare for the event. You should rest well after this is over.”

“Haha. Hard work? I feel embarrassed to hear that in front of you, Father, who is doing the national affairs.”

“Kid.”

Kim Kiwoo smiled as he looked at the Yellow Flame, who scratched his head awkwardly. He was the one who had the most clumsy appearance among his siblings.

But he was surprisingly good at his work. He heard that he prepared this event very meticulously. 

He was so picky that many officials were tongue-tied.

“I’m really looking forward to seeing what the Imperial University looks like.”

“I’m sure you will be satisfied, Father. Everyone worked really hard for this day.”

The destination of the group was none other than the Imperial University.

But it was not the Imperial University located in the Great Beginning. 

As the capital moved to the north, so did the Imperial University.

There was a lot of talk about this process as well. 

From opinions that questioned how they could move such a historic Imperial University, to arguments that the Imperial University was a symbol and center of the Wakan Tanka Empire and should be located in the capital.

‘In the end, they decided to move it to the new capital.’

Many officials thought that the latter argument was much more reasonable. 

Just like the palace, there was a limit to expanding the Imperial University’s site in the Great Beginning.

So the newly built Imperial University also received a huge site from the beginning, just like the palace. 

And before they knew it, tomorrow was the day when the Imperial University opened.

“We’re here.”

Kim Kiwoo muttered as he looked out of the window.

As he said, the Imperial University was so large that it took a while to get inside and reach their first destination.

“Wow…”

Kim Kiwoo exclaimed as he saw the exhibition hall in front of him.

The Imperial University Exhibition Hall, which was built for the event that would last for a month from tomorrow, was a building that showcased the advanced aspects of the empire.

That’s why it looked so splendid.

“Father. This is the person in charge of designing and constructing this building.”

“It is an honor to meet you, Your Majesty. I am called Green Wing.”

“Haha. Nice to meet you.”

He continued.

“As per your will, we used glass extensively.”

“I can see that. It must have been difficult to build it.”

Kim Kiwoo had learned about history in his past life and remembered vividly about the first World’s Fair held in 1851. 

The building that was covered with glass enough to be called Crystal Palace.

Thanks to the steady development of glass industry, at this time in the empire, they were able to produce clean glass in large quantities. 

That’s why Kim Kiwoo wanted to implement some aspects of Crystal Palace in the Imperial University.

‘Of course, it’s much smaller in scale.’

Crystal Palace was recorded to be as large as 18 soccer fields. The Imperial University Exhibition Hall in front of him was not at that level at all.

But its beauty was comparable. 

This was also true for the interior. 

The warm sunlight shining through the glass windows was really cool.

It was bound to become a landmark of the Imperial University. 

He could easily imagine the surprised faces of the imperial citizens and foreign guests who would visit here tomorrow.

“I will guide you, Your Majesty.”

“Alright. I’m counting on you.”

The group followed Green Wing and checked each section of the exhibition hall.

‘There’s a lot of academic content.’

There were many advanced inventions on display, as befitting the purpose of the exhibition, but since it was an exhibition inside the Imperial University, there was a lot of content about basic science.

Among them, there was a section that caught Kim Kiwoo’s attention, and it was the section that explained electromagnetism.

‘It’s about time to pay attention to electricity.’

There was a tendency to develop intensively using the knowledge of the future, so the development of science was quite different from the original history.

For example, while internal combustion engines had already been invented, electromagnetism was still in the middle of development.

However, the principles of electromagnetic induction had been discovered, and electromagnetism was slowly becoming a mainstream science.

Kim Kiwoo visited various places in the Imperial University, especially the exhibition hall, and checked them for the last time.

He nodded his head.

“This should be enough. Then let’s start the event for a month from tomorrow.”

“We will do our best, Your Majesty!”

And for a month from the next day, a huge crowd flocked to the Imperial University. 

The imperial citizens wanted to see the newly built university, and their footsteps never stopped.

“…”

Especially, people of various races who came from overseas were speechless after experiencing the university event, especially the exhibition hall.

***

Humans have longed for the sky since ancient times. 

And this tendency was stronger in the Wakan Tanka Empire.

The reason could be found in the introduction of Kim Kiwoo’s myth.

-The great emperor, who is a living spirit, descended from the sky with giant wings.

In fact, it was not wings but a parachute. But at that time, there was no way for the Cree natives, who had far-sighted eyes, to know this.

To them, the parachute looked like giant wings. 

That’s why they immediately bowed to Kim Kiwoo.

After the empire was established, many books and plays about Kim Kiwoo invariably described in detail the scene of him coming down from the sky.

As the situation was like this, the imperial citizens naturally dreamed of flying in the sky like Kim Kiwoo. 

So many attempts were made for a long time.

In this process, things like gliders and hot air balloons appeared.

“Wow! Flying in the sky for real!”

“Hey, how high are we going?”

When they first came up with the concept of a hot air balloon and succeeded in experimenting with it, there was a reason why it was noisy for a while. 

The hot air balloon was the greatest achievement of flight so far.

But as time passed, it was natural that bigger achievements would come out.

And the huge invention that wiped out all previous achievements was interestingly started by a single novel.

***

At this time, the novel industry was very bloated. 

As time went by, the illiteracy rate in the southern regions of the mainland continued to decline, and especially the mainlanders had been living with newspapers and novels since ancient times.

Thanks to this, if one work hit a jackpot, the author literally sat on a money cushion. 

It happened quite often.

Neol Do-ro was one of them. 

He ranked seventh in the last survey by The Sun newspaper: ‘Who is the best novelist in the empire?’

“What should I write this time? Hmm…”

He pondered over and over again while preparing for his next work. And he chose a future novel.

As imperial science rapidly developed, future novels that predicted the social situation of the future were quite popular.

But to write a future novel, a lot of study and research, as well as imagination were needed. As a result, it took much longer than usual to write.

“Oh! The new work of this author came out? I haven’t seen him for a while.”

“Oh my, yes~ It’s very popular because it’s a new novel written by Neol Do-ro. The reviews are good too. You won’t regret buying it.”

“Really? Then give me one.”

Perhaps because of Neol Do-ro’s reputation, his new work sold like hot cakes at bookstores across the country as soon as it was published.

And many readers read his novel down.

“Airplane? Haha. It would be great if there was something like this.”

And in his novel, there was a huge airplane with an internal combustion engine.

The novel’s airplane made of solid steel carried hundreds of people and went to the other side of the earth in just one day.

Most readers thought it was mostly nonsense, but engineers who read it thought differently.

“An airplane with an internal combustion engine… This seems possible.”

The general atmosphere of scholars at that time was very positive. They had repeated development after development so rapidly that they had confidence that they could achieve anything.

In imperial academia, challengers succeeded and engineers who read Neol Do-ro’s work got inspiration from powered flight in his novel.

As a result, research on powered flight began simultaneously at various universities and research institutes.

“Airplane?”

“I knew it. You don’t know this news because you’re stuck in this backwater doing research all day long.”

“Fine then. Finish your story.”

Black Shadow listened carefully to his friend’s words who visited him after a long time. The story was about airplane development competition that started from Neol Do-ro’s novel.

After explaining everything, he said to Black Shadow.

“There’s no one who knows gliders better than you. So why are you doing this here?”

“Hmm… So what do you want me to do?”

“Do you know Engineer Karl from the Department of Mechanical Engineering at the Imperial University?”

“I know him well.”

“Engineer Karl is also joining the airplane development this time, but he lacks information on gliders. So can you join this research?”

“Join? Me?”

“Yes. Think about it. This is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity for you. You can’t live in poverty here forever, can you? And if you succeed, you can do more research that you want.”

“…”

Black Shadow was speechless at his friend’s sweet offer.

‘Powered flight…’

Flying in the sky had been his dream since he was young. 

That’s why he naturally studied gliders.

He was very unfamiliar with powered flight. 

He wondered if he could do it.

But his friend was right. His family was wealthy and kept paying for his research, but he couldn’t always rely on his parents.

After that, Black Shadow pondered for a whole day.

And he decided.

‘Let’s do it.’

No one had felt the limit of gliders more than Black Shadow. 

Even if it wasn’t for this and that reason, he wanted to overcome this limit with his own hands.

So Black Shadow prepared to go to the capital.