WeTried Translations
Translator: NEET_Romulus
Discord: https://dsc.gg/wetried
◈ Dropped into the Ending of a Trash Show as an Extra ◈
Chapter 2: Enthronement?
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Looking back, it would have been stranger if something like this hadn’t happened.
‘Did someone really bring in a lunch-box bomb and set it off?’
Even in the drama, this country’s imperial family had done plenty to piss people off. That was why viewers had joked about taking up bamboo spears if they existed in real life.
The Crown Prince had used elite Imperial Guard troops like his private army over personal romantic feelings. A mere villainess from a chaebol family had planted a listening device in the Emperor’s bedchamber. Outsiders had freely come and gone through the Imperial Palace’s secret passages. Their security system was everyone’s punching bag.
‘But what happens to the world left behind after an ending that deranged?’
I couldn’t even remember how I got home.
I walked the empty national highway like a madman after the taxis and buses stopped running, my mind filled only with terror for the horrible future ahead.
If the entire imperial family had been wiped out, who ruled this country now?
An unpleasant, ominous thought crossed my mind, but I shook my head hard.
Come on. At least one of them must have survived.
Lost in grim thoughts, half-frozen as I walked down the dirt road, I finally reached the entrance to my farm.
“...Huh?”
I stopped dead.
Three jet-black limousines.
And in the places where their license plates should have been, golden plum-blossom emblems, symbols of the Imperial Household, were prominently displayed.
As I rubbed my eyes, wondering if I was seeing things, the rear door of the middle limousine opened and a woman in a suit stepped out.
Sharp eyes. Cold, tight lips. A civil service ID hanging from her neck.
Clear red stains, presumably someone’s blood, splashed across the collar of her once-pristine white blouse.
Even though I’d only half-watched the drama, I remembered her face clearly.
Seo Yu-jin, Chief Secretary of the Imperial Household. The closest aide of Lee Geon, the Crown Prince and male lead, and the iron woman who managed every practical matter for the Imperial Household.
In the drama, she had guarded the Crown Prince like a shadow, carrying out her duties with icy calm through every crisis without changing her expression once.
Had viewers jokingly called her the Imperial Household’s only sane person?
“Young Master Lee Jin[1].”
Her voice was colder than the night wind on Ganghwa Island.
“Is that you?”
I answered without a second of hesitation.
“No. You have the wrong person. I live next door. Well then, goodbye.”
Good. I’d casually go through the neighboring gate, climb over the wall, and make a break for the mountain behind it. Perfect plan.
I strode past her toward the neighboring gate.
“That’s strange.”
Seo Yu-jin’s voice struck me in the back.
“Only an elderly woman named Kim Bok-sun lives next door. Our agents have just confirmed Young Master Lee Jin’s identity and appearance. The old woman herself kindly testified that you’re ‘the young man living next door.’”
...Grandma, why did you have to be so helpfully friendly?
I gripped the firmly locked gate handle and muttered in despair.
When I turned around, Seo Yu-jin was watching me with an utterly unshaken expression.
Around her, figures in black suits slowly closed in, cutting off my escape routes.
“So, Chief Secretary, what brings you here...?”
Before I could finish, Seo Yu-jin approached with a sharp click of her heels.
Then she bent her knee before me and lowered her head.
The ground was frozen mud, but she didn’t care.
The guards behind Seo Yu-jin also lowered their weapons at once and bowed to me at a ninety-degree angle.
“Seo Yu-jin, Chief Secretary of the Imperial Household, greets Your Majesty.”
“...W-What did you say?”
Your Majesty? Who had she just called Your Majesty?
I turned around in bafflement. But there was nothing behind me except the flapping vinyl greenhouse.
“You heard correctly. Due to the bombing at Seokjo Hall in Deoksu Palace at approximately 2:15 this afternoon...”
Seo Yu-jin slowly raised her head. Her eyes were bloodshot.
“His Majesty the Emperor and His Highness the Crown Prince, along with every direct and collateral imperial relative ranked first through forty-sixth in the line of succession who was seated at the imperial wedding venue, have all passed away or died.”
“...!”
My thoughts stopped.
Passed away? Every one of them? From first to forty-sixth, all of them?
“More than forty people, all of them...?”
Seo Yu-jin slowly rose to her feet.
Covered in blood and soot, she bowed deeply to me.
“Under Article 2, Chapter 1 of the Constitution of the Republic of Korea and the Imperial House Act, the imperial throne passes to the legitimate eldest son, or to the nearest male blood relative in the genealogy.”
Then she addressed me by a title I had never heard in my entire life, and had thought I never would.
“Young Master Lee Jin is the only surviving member of the imperial clan. Therefore, as of this moment, Young Master Lee Jin is the Emperor of the Republic of Korea.”
“...Ha.”
I felt dizzy. The world spun before my eyes.
My legs nearly gave out, but I somehow remained standing through sheer willpower.
This was insane.
Learning the ending of that dumpster-fire drama only now had already been absurd enough.
And now they were telling me I was the Emperor.
I ran a hand over my face and let out a shaking breath.
* * *
It took less than a second for Seo Yu-jin’s words to hammer at my eardrums and churn my brain.
Even in this biting wind, hot, clammy sweat ran down my spine.
“...Did you just call me Your Majesty?”
Even to my own ears, my voice was pathetically cracked.
Lee Jin. A twenty-eight-year-old agricultural worker on Ganghwa Island. Forty-seventh in the line of succession.
That had been me until moments ago.
Yet Seo Yu-jin, the most powerful official in the Imperial Household, was bowing in my cow-dung-smelling yard with blackened blood crusted on her overcoat.
She repeated what she had just told me.
“That is correct. Under the Constitution and the Imperial House Act...”
“No, wait. Just wait!”
I waved my hands through the air, cutting her off. My head felt ready to explode.
“Even so, you’re saying everyone from first through forty-sixth is dead? Does that make any sense? Dozens of imperial relatives gathered at Seokjo Hall were wiped out by one bomb?”
“It was not a simple bombing. Military-grade C4 explosives planted beneath Seokjo Hall were detonated.”
Seo Yu-jin continued calmly.
“Immediately after the blast, armed troops surrounded Seokjo Hall and fired confirmation shots at the survivors. His Majesty... No, the late Emperor, along with all members of the imperial family, died at the scene.”
My breath caught.
Confirmation shots. Military explosives.
Just as Seo Yu-jin said, this wasn’t the work of an ordinary terrorist group.
“...It’s a coup.”
“That is correct. This is not mere terrorism. We believe it is an obvious attempt to overthrow the state, a de facto coup. We still don’t know who led it or how far the rebel forces extend.”
The moment she finished speaking, a dull explosion sounded faintly from across the sea, toward Gimpo.
Rumble...
The clouded winter sky flickered red for an instant.
“This is driving me crazy.”
I sighed in frustration and looked up at the sky.
My ordinary life of repairing greenhouses until just moments ago felt like a lie.
“What is certain is that some troops from the 1st Imperial Guard Brigade, which was responsible for Deoksu Palace’s outer security, have turned rebel. They set up barricades and blocked the Imperial Security Office’s view before the explosion.”
“The 1st Guard?”
The Imperial Guard had rebelled?
“I don’t believe all of them have. It appears some private factions or traitors moved while the chain of command was paralyzed. The problem is the Capital Defense Command. Its subordinate units have all mobilized. It would be safest to assume its command has either joined the rebellion or been seized.”
Other than the Guard Brigade and the Capital Defense Command, there was no way to tell friend from foe in this darkness.
“Excuse me, Secretary Seo.”
“Please speak, Your Majesty.”
“Cut it out with that Your Majesty nonsense. I haven’t even had an enthronement ceremony yet.”
“Succession to the throne occurs automatically by law. In a national emergency, the imperial authority transfers immediately when the State Seal[2] is inherited. I have already brought the Keeper of the Seal.”
At Seo Yu-jin’s glance, an elderly official standing behind her held out a cloth bundle with trembling hands.
Inside was the golden State Seal of the Republic of Korea.
“...Fine. Let’s say I’m the Emperor. Then who do you think those rebel bastards will target next?”
“Obviously...”
Seo Yu-jin’s eyes fixed on me.
“Your Majesty, the Imperial Household’s only lawful heir.”
A chill ran down my spine.
“What the hell is the government doing right now?! If the Capital Defense Command has rebelled, shouldn’t the Cabinet suppress it or declare martial law?”
“...”
At my shout, Seo Yu-jin looked at me as though I had just said the stupidest thing in the world, but the expression quickly vanished.
“The Prime Minister and every minister were also attending the imperial wedding, directly beneath the dais. You can imagine the result. The Cabinet is currently paralyzed. Its leadership has vanished.”
“Then the vice ministers should step up!”
“Even if they’re alive, they’ll be of no help.”
Seo Yu-jin cut me off sharply. Her eyes flashed.
“There is something you need to understand. In the Republic of Korea, the military does not answer to the Cabinet.”
“...What?”
Seo Yu-jin stepped closer and looked me straight in the eye.
“The National Armed Forces answer absolutely to no one but their Commander-in-Chief, the Emperor. And the current Emperor of the Republic of Korea is Your Majesty. That is why we came for you first.”
What kind of insane pseudo-country was this? There had been a reason the Crown Prince, who’d never even served in the military, played soldier.
“They call me Emperor, but soldiers have risen up with guns. Do you seriously think they’ll obey me just because I walk in wearing an Emperor name tag? If I give an order, does that mean bullets won’t come flying at me?”
When I asked sarcastically, Seo Yu-jin answered without the slightest hesitation.
“I cannot guarantee that. But unless a unit has actively joined the rebellion, it is highly likely to obey Your Majesty’s orders as the sole Commander-in-Chief. This country has been taught that way for over a hundred years.”
“...”
“We do not yet know which forces are loyalist units and which are rebels. You must first evacuate to a prepared safe house. After securing your safety there, we can observe the situation and issue imperial decrees to each corps. There is no time, Your Majesty. Please get in.”
Seo Yu-jin threw open the rear limousine door. The guards pressed close to either side of me.
“A safe house?”
Memories from my previous life suddenly came back to me.
Evacuation. Hiding. A secret safe house.
Warnings shrieked madly in my head.
What would happen if I got in that car and hid in a safe house?
Would I be safe?
Not a chance.
The sole heir, who should have been ascending the throne, would disappear during the most critical national emergency?
“I’m not going.”
“...Pardon?”
“If a commander crawls into some corner to hide when a rebellion breaks out, saying they need to assess the situation, then it’s over.”
The troops beneath them wouldn’t know who the real boss was. They would hesitate, read the room, and eventually line up behind the rebel bastards who were waving guns around and acting tough.
That was the conclusion I had reached as a citizen of a republic that had weathered a turbulent modern history.
“Then do you have an alternative? If we delay, even evacuation to the safe house may become impossible.”
For the first time, Seo Yu-jin showed emotion and raised her voice.
I clenched my fist.
I couldn’t run, and I couldn’t sit here and die.
Think.
It had been three years since I had transmigrated into this dumpster-fire drama as an extra. There was one person in this world I knew for certain could be on my side.
“I don’t know where the loyalist units are. But I know exactly one unit that isn’t rebel.”
At my confident declaration, Seo Yu-jin’s eyes widened.
“Where is it?”
I forced myself into the open rear seat of the limousine.
Then, with a deep sigh from the pit of my stomach, I said,
“Let’s go to the 2nd Marine Division.”
Footnotes:
[1] Young Master: A courtesy form of address for a male relative of a high-status family, not a princely rank.
[2] State Seal: The official seal that authenticates acts of state; in this setting, inheriting it formally transfers imperial authority.
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