WeTried Translations
Translator: NEET_Romulus
Discord: https://dsc.gg/wetried
◈ Dropped into the Ending of a Trash Show as an Extra ◈
Chapter 10: The Appearance
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There was nothing Min Do-yeong could not achieve in his life.
Born the young master of the Min Clan, he could have anything he wanted, and everything had always gone as he expected.
With only two exceptions.
The first was Lim Chae-yeon, the love the Crown Prince Lee Geon had taken from him. The poor woman the Crown Prince had abducted.
And the second was this horrific, bizarre situation unfolding right before his eyes.
[...With a national state of emergency declared, warrants for sweeping searches and arrests have been issued against the forces behind the destruction of constitutional order. Great Korea Party lawmaker Min Do-yeong, identified as the mastermind behind the rebellion, is currently unreachable. The Ministry of Justice has urgently issued a travel ban...]
Blood trickled down his chin, carrying the stench of iron.
Without even realizing he had bitten his lower lip hard enough to draw blood, Min Do-yeong ground his teeth.
“Song Haksu... How dare that lowborn bastard stab me in the back?”
A metallic, beastlike growl finally burst from Min Do-yeong’s lips as he crushed his lips until blood beaded there.
Lim Chae-yeon loved me. She was the only woman who melted my frozen heart!
She was supposed to be by my side. Chae-yeon would never abandon me for that man.
But that arrogant Crown Prince stole my woman.
So he had prepared everything. From this remote mountain villa meant for her to the great undertaking that would overturn everything.
The targets were the Emperor and the Crown Prince.
Yet he had never imagined Song Haksu would set the entire imperial wedding venue ablaze and wipe out the Imperial House.
He slaughtered every imperial relative? This was why lowborn trash could never be trusted.
Those fools did not even know how to seize control of the country, and they had ruined everything. Most of all, they had ruined his love!
A seoban, a military official... No, he was not even worthy of being called a yangban. He was nothing but a lowborn dog-and-pig bastard!
And Lee Jin? Where the hell had that Lee Jin bastard come from? What kind of collateral imperial relative showed up claiming to be Emperor and crushed the army?
And that incompetent piece of trash Song Haksu had even babbled his name?
His heart ached. It ached unbearably. The fever of his failed love, the woman he could no longer see, seemed to be consuming even his life.
But his anger ended there. This was not the time. Even in this situation, Min Do-yeong’s cold reason was sounding an alarm, telling him to make a plan.
Min Do-yeong irritably spun the dial on the safe.
What poured out were dozens of bundles of bearer bonds, gold bars, and carefully forged passports from several countries.
“Team Leader Choi! You have the car ready, right? We’re going to Seosan Port. The ship to smuggle us out is prepared, isn’t it?”
“Yes, Assemblyman. A vessel is waiting.”
“Good. Let’s leave immediately.”
He had more money than he could ever spend. He did not know how long exile would last, but the political situation would not remain this way forever.
When the time came... he would return proudly and grind up every bastard who had caused this mess, every bastard who had stolen his love.
Min Do-yeong stuffed gold and valuables into a leather bag and hurried out of the villa.
“Team Leader Choi.”
“...Yes, Assemblyman.”
“I won’t be stingy with you people. I’ll give you ten times the advance payment I gave your company. No, twenty times. Risk your lives and ensure only my safety. Understood?”
They were hunting dogs loyal to anything for money.
Min Do-yeong was their master, and everyone else was merely a dog that wagged its tail when thrown a bone.
Yet Team Leader Choi, who had always obeyed his orders, stood frozen in place.
“What are you doing? Can’t you hear me?! Get the car ready now!”
Team Leader Choi looked down at Min Do-yeong with emotionless eyes. Then his lips slowly parted.
“Why should we?”
“What?”
Min Do-yeong’s brow twisted hideously.
When in his entire life had anyone dared question him like that? Other than Lim Chae-yeon, that insolent bitch...
But this was only some hairy middle-aged man. Naturally, Min Do-yeong’s fury soared.
“Have you lost your mind? Do you know how much of my money you’ve gobbled up?”
“Assemblyman.”
Team Leader Choi pulled a pistol fitted with a suppressor from his jacket.
“His Majesty the newly enthroned Emperor made a clear promise. He said those who surrendered, even if they had supported the rebellion, would be shown leniency.
“We only did as we were told. If we take you in, perhaps that will at least be taken into consideration.”
“You, you bastard...!”
“I don’t believe we’re obligated to protect you beyond that.”
“You dog bastard! You dare not recognize your master...!”
Min Do-yeong did not get to say much more.
Pfft!
A dull burst muffled by the suppressor echoed through the room.
* * *
Let us turn back the clock for a moment.
Even in the drama I knew, the Imperial House had never been portrayed as a particularly normal group.
It was a breeding ground for corruption, where every kind of luxury and power struggle ran rampant.
The drama’s main story was about Lim Chae-yeon, its tough commoner heroine, fighting her way through that cesspit and steadfastly claiming her dreams and love. The Crown Prince was often portrayed as a young ruler who wanted to reform the Imperial House alongside her.
...Well, the portrayal did get strangely inconsistent whenever they wanted to throw in a cool scene, but that had supposedly been the point.
The main hero and heroine were one thing, but what about the second male lead?
He was the typical second male lead who hid a mad obsession with the heroine behind a handsome, gentlemanly exterior.
Whenever the heroine was in danger, he would appear as her knight in shining armor, only to be pushed aside by the Crown Prince and turn dark.
According to my amateur psychiatry, despite supposedly being a psychopath, he had seemed more like an obsessive bad-boy character...
In the end, though, he had really done this.
Well, none of that mattered now.
Onscreen, Min Do-yeong, who had just been urgently arrested by the special task force, was being loaded into an ambulance in a live broadcast.
Covered in blood, he screamed at the reporters bombarding him with flashes.
[Let me go! Let go, you dog bastards!! Chae-yeon! Do you know what I did for you?! How can my love, my sincerity, be treason?! I only wanted to save you!! Chae-yeooon!!]
“...He’s completely out of his mind.”
Do you have any idea how many people died because of your little love game?
What kind of messed-up makjang drama world was this?
“That is true. Whenever people became involved with the former Crown Princess, they often... lost their reason.”
Seo Yu-jin trailed off.
Then again, she had suffered plenty in the drama, caught in the middle of that love triangle and forced to clean up after them.
“Still, since Min Do-yeong is behaving like that in public, his lawyers may try to claim diminished responsibility...”
“That is nonsense. Tell the Joint Investigation Headquarters to ignore any outside pressure.”
Though I doubted anyone would be bold enough to exert outside pressure in a treason case.
At present, everyone connected to the Min Clan was being pulled in one after another.
“Now that Min Do-yeong has been arrested, the underlings who acted as his hands and feet have begun talking as well. They are scrambling to expose each other’s dirt in order to save themselves.”
They did not have an ounce of loyalty between them. They were desperately trying to shave even a little off their sentences.
Still, whatever their motives might be.
The conclusion was simple. Everyone involved in the rebellion would be uprooted completely.
* * *
Jang-dong.
Unlike the ominous night air hanging over the capital, the only thing blooming in the secluded quarters of the serene, elegant hanok[1] was the faint scent of orchids.
[The Joint Investigation Headquarters has carried out a surprise search and seizure operation against the family of former Great Korea Party lawmaker Min Do-yeong. The headquarters continues an intensive, sweeping investigation into all those involved in the insurrection, including the former lawmaker, whose emergency treatment has concluded...]
[Mass arrest warrants have been requested for relatives of former lawmaker Min, who are suspected of raising slush funds through paper companies and smuggling in explosives...]
“...The Min Clan is finished.”
Someone spoke.
The middle-aged man seated before them, idly fingering a silk fan, snorted.
“Hmph. That family certainly raised a child wrong.”
“Exactly. That lunatic, with all the women out there, why did he have to...”
He had dared meddle in the Imperial House’s affairs over personal feelings, without knowing his place. Had he not dragged his entire family into mortal danger?
There had always been one or two people in old families who strutted about as though the world had belonged to them from birth, without knowing their place. But this crossed a line.
And because of that, in a single day.
Heaven and earth had been overturned, the Imperial House had been blown apart, and the sacred throne was occupied by Lee Jin, a collateral imperial relative who had brought in the army.
“It is truly lamentable. As though it were not already enough that we must faithfully support the Imperial House, they committed such acts...”
Even those who had weathered every hardship imaginable could not help feeling restless in such a situation.
After all, even if only the Min Clan was tied to high treason, how many others could claim innocence in every other crime?
For the time being, they needed to lie low. Traitors had thrown Seoul into chaos, and the Emperor’s justification was impeccable.
“We may be next. Chairman Kim, should we not have some kind of plan?”
“Enough.”
At the voice from the seat of honor, everyone gathered for the meeting fell silent.
The old man called Chairman Kim, Kim Yang-han, looked around with an expressionless face before speaking.
“His Majesty rose from a humble village, swept aside the rebels in one stroke, and restored the imperial line. Would a man so wise truly accuse the innocent?”
“...Well.”
As the attendees moved only their lips, unable either to agree or disagree, Kim Yang-han spoke again.
“Fortunately, when the Imperial House’s bloodline nearly faced extinction, Heaven aided us, and a man like His Majesty succeeded to the throne. We scholar-officials[2] need only serve the Imperial House with loyalty and righteousness. Is that not so?”
“O-of course.”
“We can only hope that His Majesty recognizes our loyal hearts...”
Kim Yang-han paid little attention to their replies.
His gaze remained fixed only on Lee Jin’s image, endlessly playing on the television.
“It is as though I am seeing the late Emperor.”
“Pardon?”
The gathered people reflexively asked at the unexpected remark, but Kim Yang-han slowly raised his teacup to his lips.
“The late Emperor was just as full of vigor in his younger days. Youth is a wonderful thing, is it not?”
Kim Yang-han spoke slowly.
“My body is afflicted with many illnesses, so I am a sinner who could not attend the imperial wedding and die alongside the late Emperor. Yet I intend to devote myself utterly to His Majesty’s service. That is the duty of people like us...”
The duty of the capital’s great clans.[3]
So murmured Kim Yang-han.
* * *
In one corner of a dark, damp storage shed.
Over the past few days, the only things to pass through this place had been three meals a day, several newspapers, and rats that had slipped through the strict pest control.
Under the dim light, scraps of newspaper lay scattered, bearing headlines such as “New Emperor Enthroned,” “Rebel Forces Purged,” and “Min Do-yeong Arrested.”
The woman with her head buried in a newspaper muttered.
“They strutted around, going on and on about the House of Min, and now they are worse off than a servant girl. Serves them right.”
“Young Lady.”
Then the door to the shed opened, and someone’s voice slipped through the gap.
“They say it is time for you to come out.”
The woman, who had been confined as punishment, finally lifted her head.
“Really? This time was rather short.”
Kim A-ra.
The chaebol[4] heiress from Tears of the Imperial Palace smiled alluringly.
“Father must be in quite a hurry.”
Footnotes:
[1] Hanok: a traditional Korean house, typically built around an inner courtyard.
[2] Scholar-officials: the educated elite who traditionally served in government.
[3] Capital’s great clans: hereditary elite families associated with high office in the capital.
[4] Chaebol: a large, family-controlled Korean business conglomerate.
A yangban was a member of Korea’s traditional elite official class. Seoban refers specifically to its military-official branch.
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