WeTried Translations
Translator: NEET_Romulus
Discord: https://dsc.gg/wetried
◈ Dropped into the Ending of a Trash Show as an Extra ◈
Chapter 19: Loyal Subject
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The shockwave the Real-Name Financial Transaction System sent through the markets was enormous.
I was swamped with reports on its follow-up measures as well.
But its effects were undeniable.
Kim A-ra's call alone proved that.
[Your Majesty, it's me.]
“Has the JD Group situation been settled?”
[Yes. With the Joint Investigation Headquarters' help, we removed the obstacles and obtained every executive's signature. As of today, JD Group has completely escaped Jang-dong's shadow.]
“You've done well. From the sound of it, you're on the move.”
[Yes. I'm heading to Jang-dong now.]
Jang-dong. The source of this whole affair, and where her father was.
Kim A-ra spoke in an exceptionally composed voice.
Quick. As though she'd been waiting for this. She had taken control of JD, then immediately moved against the Kim clan as well.
“Do you have a plan?”
[The tide has already turned in our favor. And I have something prepared that I've been holding onto for a long time.]
I didn't ask what it was.
It was a kind of trust. Not trust in Kim A-ra's character or our personal relationship, exactly, but trust in her villainess-like capabilities.
[That is why I have one request of Your Majesty.]
“Go on.”
[As promised, I will hand over everything the Kim clan held.]
Kim A-ra had virtually no means of breaking her promise to me anyway.
And considering what she had gained in JD Group, it would be a cheap price to pay.
Even so, her voice was agreeable.
As though she wanted something else.
[In return, please leave Kim Yang-han entirely to me.]
I fell silent for a moment.
“Chairwoman Kim A-ra.”
[Yes.]
“Don't kill him. Even private punishment has its limits.”
[Don't worry. I have prepared an ending perfectly suited to him. Still, if it does not please Your Majesty.]
Kim A-ra paused briefly before continuing.
[You may deal with him again afterward.]
“I look forward to it.”
I didn't think Kim A-ra would go easy on Kim Yang-han.
If anything, the opposite was true.
...She really was ruthless, this makjang drama villainess.
* * *
Kim A-ra entered the room with leisurely steps.
“Everyone is in a panic. This is the first time I've seen the main residence in Jang-dong in such an uproar since I was born.”
“...Do you even know what you've done, you bitch?”
Kim Yang-han's voice was low and heavy. It sounded closer to a chill than anger.
Kim A-ra gave a slight shrug.
“What have I done? I merely went with the flow. His Majesty personally announced the Real-Name Financial Transaction System, so I only acted to ensure the group's survival. Ah, the president of Trading has had unfortunate luck. They'll have trouble breathing fresh air for a while. I know, since I've been there. It isn't a place fit for people.”
Kim A-ra stopped speaking and looked around the room.
The telephone in one corner constantly gave off muted vibrations. The caller was obvious without looking.
“Are you sure you don't want to answer? It must be one of the other elite clans calling.”
The likes of Jo, Park, Yoon, and Hong would all be darting their eyes about, trying to assess what had happened here.
“So?”
Kim Yang-han finally spoke. His voice was dry, utterly devoid of emotion.
“You think a few scraps of paper bearing the executives' signatures mean you can control the entire group?”
“Until now, that would've been impossible. But the world has changed.”
Kim A-ra smiled coldly.
“Accept it. What can Father possibly do now?”
“...”
“People say this family was protected by the Imperial House, deeply intertwined with this country's system, along with the Kim clan's retainers spread throughout political circles, the bureaucracy, and the judiciary.
“But look at them now. They're all too busy saving their own skins to answer even your calls. His Majesty's blade is at their throats. What use is rotten loyalty?”
“From now on, it's every person for themselves. Those without power will be devoured, and only those quick enough to grasp the situation will survive in this battlefield.”
Yes, a battlefield where only true predators survived.
Kim A-ra thrilled at it. She could say such things to Kim Yang-han.
“Accept it. An era has ended.”
Kim A-ra's confident voice rang through the room.
And a new era was beginning.
Perhaps like when the Great Emperor, who had laid this country's foundations, first appeared in the world.
“You say an era has ended?”
Clicking his tongue, Kim Yang-han lightly tossed the teacup in his hand to the floor.
Crash!
The expensive tea set shattered into pieces.
“Never before have I been so ashamed that you are my blood. You dare judge the world by the shallow calculations of merchants skilled only at making money.”
“Denying reality won't...”
“Be quiet.”
Kim A-ra closed her mouth at Kim Yang-han's icy words.
“You fool. Do you think you've grasped every principle of this world because you defeated your father? The gentry[1] bleed beneath the blade wielded by that young Emperor, and you're truly frightened and awed as though the Great Emperor's age has returned?”
Ridiculous.
“You understand nothing of the nature of power, or of the framework that supports this country from below.”
Kim Yang-han gazed impassively at the shattered teacup.
The power of a person respected for exceptional ability, for feeding the people well, or for driving back foreign enemies scattered like grains of sand the moment that greatness ended.
A monarch was not respected because they were great.
A monarch was respected because they were a monarch, and an aristocrat was respected because they were an aristocrat.
Those respected for their greatness would, the moment people discovered they were no longer great, be dragged down and torn apart first by the very people who had once praised them and prostrated themselves before them. That was the nature of the foolish masses.
“That is authority. Authority that must be proven by ability or greatness is nothing more than a spectacle. Like that Emperor.”
“Are you saying His Majesty is merely a lucky spectacle? His Majesty, who brought down the capital's great clans[2] one after another overnight?”
“So what? How long do you think his prosperity will last?”
Kim Yang-han snorted as though the idea were absurd.
If power could be maintained through achievement alone, why had so many founders of nations been usurped from behind the curtain?
The Imperial House after the Great Emperor's death understood that principle, and thoroughly educated this country's commoners.
So they would abandon the arrogant fantasy that a great individual could appear and save the world.
So they would realize that the world's order turned on predetermined bloodlines and an unchangeable hierarchy.
And they had succeeded.
If not for the antics of lowborn soldiers and brats running wild like Min Do-yeong, it would have remained that way forever.
Kim Yang-han slowly rose from his seat. His shadow fell over Kim A-ra as though it would swallow her whole.
His eyes flashed sharply.
“You think you have defeated your father? Perhaps I have lost. But do not think either you or the Emperor have won forever.
“You, who disgustingly proclaim your admiration for the Emperor, will also cast aside that man, Lee Jin, without hesitation once his value is spent.”
Kim A-ra twisted her lips as she answered.
“...Perhaps.”
But not now.
This was the moment she had come to declare her perfect victory.
“I know because I've been to the Joint Investigation Headquarters, but President Yoon won't hold out long. JD Group will hand over all materials concerning the Kim clan's dirty secrets as well. Once the investigation expands, Father's name will certainly come up. The spotless reputation you built over a lifetime will end there too.”
The Republic of Korea literally upheld the line, “Punishments do not reach high officials,” from the Book of Rites[3], but even Kim Yang-han knew the Emperor would not follow that principle at this point.
The shield that had kept even a speck of dirt from touching him no longer meant anything.
All that remained was whether he would die as a criminal... or as a scholar-official[4].
“Leave the Kim clan's cleanup to me. Father knew absolutely nothing, but deeply regrets his failure to properly govern the family, entrusts it to his descendants, and donates the family's assets to compensate the nation and the victims... Wouldn't that be enough to settle matters?”
Kim Yang-han answered Kim A-ra's hopeful words coldly.
“Nonsense. Death is already unavoidable, yet you want me to hand this family over in its entirety to a rootless bastard?”
Normally, Kim A-ra would have had to suppress the anger welling up inside her.
But for some reason, she did not waver in the slightest.
“I'm glad you understand. But do you think you have any other choice if you refuse?”
Kim A-ra smiled brightly.
“Being alive does not make one the master.”
“What?”
“You had a medical examination at JD Medical Center not long ago.”
Kim Yang-han's brow furrowed at the sudden mention of a hospital.
“What does that have to do with anything?”
“The results were truly unfortunate.”
The corners of Kim A-ra's mouth drew a cruel curve.
“Acute dementia and severe cognitive impairment. Father is currently incapable of normal thought and judgment.”
“Ha. Such a shallow trick!”
“That is what the diagnosis says. The hospital director and attending physician both agree. It is a perfect, legal medical record.”
Since when?
Since when had she prepared this? No, that was not important.
What mattered was this.
“Under the law, blood relatives exercise legal and property rights on behalf of someone incapable of making decisions.”
Kim A-ra's eyes gleamed as she looked at Kim Yang-han.
“This is the first time in my life.”
Kim A-ra smiled.
“That I've felt fortunate we are family.”
Normally, he would have sneered at it as a pathetic trick. But Kim Yang-han himself knew better than anyone.
In the world of power, truth itself was not particularly important.
Especially now, when the tide had already turned.
“You bitch... How dare you...!”
Kim Yang-han's face flushed crimson.
He had been caught by the throat. By the bloodline he had trampled and despised his entire life.
Throwing back his head, he shouted.
“Guards! Is no one outside?!”
His voice tore through the main residence.
“Drag this mad bitch out at once! Kill her! Drag this insolent bitch out and kill her!”
But.
Beyond the door was unnaturally quiet. There were no footsteps from the retainers who normally would have rushed to their master's call like a pack of dogs.
“Guards! Can't you hear me?! You bastards!”
Then it happened.
Thud! Crash!
There was a dull impact outside, followed by the sound of something collapsing.
A brief scream, someone tumbling across the floor, then the sound of someone being dragged away.
“Aagh!”
“Stop them! Stop these bastards... Urk!”
The brutal sounds of suppression surged briefly, and then the residence fell silent as a tomb once more.
Only Kim Yang-han's ragged breathing drifted through the empty air.
For perhaps the first time in his life, primal fear seeped into his eyes.
“It seems there is no one left to protect Father now. Fortunately, I made many ‘lowborn’ friends within the Kim clan as well.”
“You unfilial wretch, you would truly do this to your father...!”
“Unfilial? Fortunately, Father has lost his cognitive abilities, so he cannot be connected to the Kim clan's current crimes either. It worked out well. Father can pass away as a loyal subject.”
Kim A-ra spoke with a mocking smile.
“Have I not fulfilled my duty as family well enough?”
From between her lips came a judgment steeped in the bitter resentment she had carried all her life.
“Now spend the rest of your life somewhere narrow and secluded, Father.”
Just like the dark, damp storeroom where she had lived.
Footnotes:
[1] Gentry: hereditary local elites who traditionally held social standing and influence.
[2] Capital's great clans: powerful elite families centered in the capital.
[3] Book of Rites: a Confucian classic concerning ritual and social order.
[4] Scholar-official: a member of the educated governing elite.
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