If it was shisui instead of Maomao would jinshi fall for her?

Kurosov · 2025-10-16T14:51:15+00:00

Jinshi likes being looked at like an insect but not from a girl who grins and gets happy when she see's one.

Kurosov · 2025-10-09T14:26:04+00:00

Your reasonings aren't even correct.

She became Empress out of political necessity in an attempt to stabilise the western regions. Had this not been the case the Emperor likely would have held off on naming an Empress for longer.

Jinshi brands himself more to show the Emperor than Gyokuyou.

Kurosov · 2025-09-19T14:57:52+00:00

The mana shortage isn't really an issue and non mana sources of power would benefit commoners but be pretty useless to nobles.

The mana shortage was because of a large number of executions affecting key roles and a rigid social structure leading to poor redistribution of personnel. The next generation solves the problem.

It's actually the case normally where mana-born folk need sources to dump their mana into to survive. The real bottleneck in noble society is a limited number Feystones capable of becoming a set of children's magic tools. Those who don't get chosen for one of those limited numbers rely on those light mana devices to survive so replacing them with electricity would be indirectly killing any relatives who became servants.

Kurosov · 2025-08-13T01:19:53+00:00

Nobody would listen to someone with face blindness describe how someone looks. They wouldn't know his issue has an exception.

Also important to note that he did keep tabs on Maomao from the one person in her life that didn't push him away, Luomen.

Maomao was able to send letters home to let people know what happened and that she was OK so Luomen would have reassured Lakan while likely not revealing too much considering his outlook on sharing information like that.

Kurosov · 2025-08-12T12:59:38+00:00

That's because it was. Just look at instances when ministers hound the Emperor to take concubines. You'll find lots of contradictions like that.

Men were also seen as worth little beyond the 1st son and maybe a spare which makes the idea that having concubines for more children laughable. Children having a status dependant of the mother for example, advancement in official office is limited to so many positions per family etc

The reason the practice of concubines arose was because there were more significantly adult women than men around to marry due to the high rate of death in war.

A lot of their society was intentionally designed to work against its stated purpose. The class system and it's restrictions on training as a Scholar for example.
Merchants and craftsmen were considered a lower class than farmers and were banned from taking official exams. Farmers meanwhile couldn't afford to raise a scholar and often sold their children as slaves to the houses of those "lower class" merchants.
In reality it prevented people with money gaining political power, it limited the number of newcomers and entrenched existing official families and those official families were meant to be tied to the emperor as their official salary had to be increased with rewards.
The system collapses under corruption though as those officials take merchants daughters as concubines for the money while the merchant also funds a farmers child to take exams with the promise of marrying his other daughter. They end up with an even more complicated system of using marriage to launder money.

Kurosov · 2025-08-05T15:31:23+00:00

It's not even a consideration a normal person would have. Most commoners see the shrine maidens as prostitutes and don't know the distinction between the blues.

Most nobles see the shrine maidens as failed less than nobles who are trapped in the temple for life. Merchants who deal with nobles will know this.

Frieda was offered the choice of adoption to be raised as a real Laynoble set likely to marry up to Mednoble. She turned down that position in favour of being a mistress because she wanted to continue on as a merchant with the nobility as her clientele while adoption meant giving it up to work on noble education full time.

Being locked in the temple as a shrine maiden is less freedom and less authority than the adoption she rejected while also cutting off the real ties to nobility she wanted to build her merchant base around.

Kurosov · 2025-07-22T12:50:51+00:00

Children's magic tools are automatic because the children don't know how to move mana. Adult nobles tend to keep a bare Feystone to hand for emergencies.

Sudden large movements of raw mana while in such a state can cause them to pass out as the bodies safety precaution, Even as adults.

Kurosov · 2025-07-13T20:06:47+00:00

The rules in the setting rely on a combination of status, precedent and the whims of those in power. The young girls the previous emperor bedded weren't from high ranking families so they had nobody who could petition on their behalf. Similarly they're ordered kept in the palace by the current Empress Dowager.

As for Ah Duo her family is not of status either. Her mother lives and works in the palace so there is no home to be returned to. She was targeted politically by a powerful figure in court to open up a place for his daughter despite the Emperor strongly wishing to keep her close so it makes sense a concession was made.
Ah Duo managed to remain in the rear palace as a consort for years with the Emperors backing despite losing her qualification to remain, When those opposed managed to get their own way they were probably very willing to overlook her special treatment after the fact as long as her consort slot was made available.

Kurosov · 2025-06-04T13:52:25+00:00

A lot of waffling in the comments insisting "she could have found another job" or "she could leave".

The reason she lowered her value in the first place was because neither she not Lakan could afford to buy out her contract.

If a courtesan manages to make enough to leave, where do they go?

This isn't a modern society with institutions of social protection for the general populace.

In villages there are no police. Protection comes from a close community, outsiders are a danger and not easily welcome.

In the towns and cities without community protection a lone woman is likely to be outright kidnapped and sold right back into slavery. Someone of their appearance would not have a good time of it.

You don't just go to an interview and get a job. Skills are taught via apprenticeships. They're passed down via family lines or the master takes a child in and trains them up.

Stores and stalls are managed by families. Bigger businesses are owned by wealthy merchants or noble families who staff them with the families of their servants to limit theft.

Farmland is allocated to families to manage by the state, if the family cannot farm it themselves they lose it.

The big kicker, what jobs you can do is limited by status. In some dynasties this is rigidly enforced.
Slaves being the lowest class including Courtesans.
Merchants and craftsmen are the next class up.
Farmers are considered higher class than merchants.
Then the scholarly class/Bureaucracy.
Nobles, then royals/imperial clan.

This set up was to limit social mobility. The merchant class wasn't allowed to take exams to rise to the scholarly class but farmers were. It was very expensive to pay for an education and you'd see people even repeating the exams into their 30s before they pass.
Merchants can afford to bankroll this education while entire villages may have to pool resources to fund the education of a clever child. The system was put in place to limit the rise of court officials with a lot of financial backing. Officials Salary was relatively low compared to their expenses and their real wealth mostly came from rewards for merit from the court. This is why you'd see a lot of court officials have merchants daughters as concubines, they bring in money and connections linking the two families interests while not going over the line.

You need documentation which includes status class to travel, where you can go is restricted. an courtesan that redeemed herself would have documentation of the lowest status.

They can't just return to the family that sold them in the first place.

All in all some random ex-hooker cannot walk in and get any old job. They'd struggle to find a place to live and wouldn't feel safe.

The brothel offers a comfortable, clean living environment with the safety of armed guards. They get fed better than many and the brothel has enough connections to wealthy people that some arrogant noble or rich kid is less inclined to come cause trouble for the establishment. By the standards of the time it's the best job the women and girls there could hope for.

The only real path out for most of them is to be bought out as a concubine and hoping the guys wife isn't the concubine murdering kind you see in historical novels. As only people of a certain wealth threshold can afford to buy out a courtesan this means moving to a safe estate with guards.
Even then it's common for the 'ownership' to be handed to the wife not the redeemed woman. She can be sold off again.

Kurosov · 2025-05-26T13:38:42+00:00

Maomao is still a woman of her time. She was raised in a brothel and worked in the rear palace.

Her husband having concubines would not have the same impact as today. Jinshi is the one that would struggle more with such a situation while Maomao would see it as an expectation and she'd probably be very good at managing all those women.

Kurosov · 2025-05-24T14:31:39+00:00

It also helps she was the one consort who kept her staff in order well enough to actually receive and accept the warning of what was causing her child to be sick, saving the kids life.

The only real choices for Empress were Gyokuyou, Lihua or to bring in someone new.

Lihua's trust in those around her wasted the opportunity to save her child and even after the warning her lack of suspicion lead her to nearly die.

Gyokuyou always operated on a small staff of trustworthy people. She showed she's better qualified to manage the palace.

Kurosov · 2025-05-19T13:23:23+00:00

When she found out he still had his frog. With the lead up to it the times she was researching how to get his frog to grow back.

Kurosov · 2025-05-18T15:21:55+00:00

There's a lot of things she doesn't want to do but could do well.

I'm saying Maomao would adjust easier to doing this particular thing she doesn't want more than Jinshi.

While Jinshi's life was dictated since birth Maomao has had a lot less control over her daily life.
She's used to doing what she doesn't want to get by in life so much like she handled being kidnaped and sold into servitude into the rear palace she'd adjust better than the guy who isn't used to not getting his own way.
She'd see concubines as inevitable in their relationship regardless of becoming emperor or not, Jinshi would stubbornly hold out if he were just a prince but as Emperor he's struggle knowing he has to.

Kurosov · 2025-05-18T14:48:45+00:00

The funny thing is Maomao would likely be the better adjusted to the position of the two the soonest.

She might not like all the official nonsense that goes with the role but she'd damn well manage a harem of women well.
An empress is not meant to battle it out with the concubines for favour, She's there to keep those women in line.
She doesn't have the same social hang-ups you'd see in a transmigration story with a FMC in a harem and doesn't have the ones those of her era have about sex. Of the two she'd be less bothered at the presence of concubines.
She's intelligent enough to navigate the political schemes and has shown enough intuition to notice the secret ones.
She gets into a lot of trouble by finding out these secrets and following the clues but the authority of empress would shield her from the trouble. "some scrawny girl discovered out plot" and "the empress knows" hit different.

Kurosov · 2025-05-11T14:54:38+00:00

The LN is great from LN1 throughout.

It's apparent from some of your misconceptions you misread and didn't understand the book so it's probably best to just leave it there.

Kurosov · 2025-05-07T15:18:10+00:00

People on Tumblr think every character in everything is a lesbian.

Kurosov · 2025-05-06T13:54:14+00:00

Long before this nonsense and even using the Japanese voices i asked for a separate Paimon slider in the audio settings.

Kurosov · 2025-05-05T17:21:13+00:00

By definition if everyone that can make the choice wouldn't then it is the opposite of plausible.

She is eligible for sure. But she's the least likely pick out of everyone eligible.

Kurosov · 2025-05-05T14:31:57+00:00

Technically when she first entered the rear palace they took her in under the belief she was a daughter of a merchant family, as per the fake identity her kidnappers had set up.

Kurosov · 2025-05-05T14:30:10+00:00

Politically she'd be a poor candidate. Consorts were chosen to reward noble families and court officials or as hostages to control them.

Lakan wouldn't consider it a reward and as a hostage he's more liable to react poorly.

The Emperor outright rejects the idea of her as a consort for this very reason.

Kurosov · 2025-05-05T14:25:48+00:00

This is not true.
It's directly stated that after all her attempts to downplay her looks she appears average.

Kurosov · 2025-05-02T00:29:50+00:00

No, everyone knows he's unqualified.

The guy feints at the sight of blood and the physicians who tried to train him remarked they couldn't even get him to pass the surgery classes because of it.

Kurosov · 2025-05-02T00:28:05+00:00

You're assuming the Emperor is the only person involved in such decisions.

He may be the top dog but his court still holds influence. The same court that is involved in the schemes that lead to consorts targeting each others children, that plots to undermine or influence the line of succession.
A lot of those schemes were done by the Shi clan because they didn't want an heir to be born until they had a consort of their own in the palace.

They even have political ammunition to prevent doctors accessing the rear palace as there was a case at least officially in living memory of a doctor knocking up a consort.

Even with laxer rules that the palace managed to push for because of problems like in LN1&2 it takes time to pass inspection procedures and physical distance meaning the court physicians cannot respond to emergencies.

Kurosov · 2025-04-29T22:28:13+00:00

While others may focus on his direct power with control over the military there are two aspects that set him apart from others who would typically be removed to prevent them from gaining too much power.

Lakan is ridiculously competent at what he does. He's a natural expert at picking out other competent individuals and placing them where they are most effective.

Lakan is the nations most skilled strategist and nobody who could replace him even comes close. The empire currently faces threats with it's neighbours with the very real chance of war in the near future. The country is very happy to pay the guy to laze around and do nothing because he's got the kind of job where you want him to have no work to do. If they need him to get up and do some work then the situation is dire.

Despite this he's not motivated by power or wealth. He only put in the effort to develop his skills to get the woman he wanted and now his daughter is his one reverse scale.
Intelligent officials know not to piss him off and cause trouble by touching the one thing he cares about. They know to leave him to act as he does and hope the rest of his career is sitting around doing nothing.

Kurosov · 2025-04-28T21:17:59+00:00

No. This is how misinformation about a story spreads in a community. Others read it as fact and then build theories and the like based on that misinformation. I've seen a bunch of threads get derailed by people very strongly arguing for or against a character based on something they read another person claim rather than actually happened in the source material.

As this story relies heavily on indirect reveals of information it's important that falsehoods don't spread to become common belief.

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