WeTried Translations
Translator: NEET_Romulus
Discord: https://dsc.gg/wetried
◈ Dropped into the Ending of a Trash Show as an Extra ◈
Chapter 20: Confiscation
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“Does this make any sense at all?!”
Crash!
The expensive celadon vase shattered beneath the golf club Jo Tae-gyeong swung.
Shards scattered everywhere, but not one of the retainers lined up in the study dared so much as breathe.
He was one of the leading figures among the capital’s great clans[1], yet he could do nothing. Even Kim Yang-han of the Kim clan was the same.
Until now, they had intermarried with the Imperial House and built ties spanning generations.
As much as they respected the Imperial House, the Imperial House had respected them in turn.
Of course, there had been one who abandoned those empress clans, married a commoner, and cast aside his own shield.
Was that not why so many people, including himself and Kim Yang-han, had feigned illness and skipped the imperial wedding?
He was hardly sorry that the Crown Prince had died. With the way the Crown Prince had acted, they would have had no choice but to move to depose him anyway.
The problem was...
Amid all that, someone with no ties or shared interests whatsoever with the old prestigious clans had ascended the throne.
Which was why the capital’s great clans had no choice but to unite and reestablish their relationship with the Imperial House.
But look at the current situation.
Far from bringing the Emperor back into the web they had spun, the old families were being utterly destroyed.
“...Did the Kim clan betray us?”
Jo Tae-gyeong’s voice trembled as it escaped him.
“I should have known from the moment that bastard Kim Yang-han started acting like he was in bed with the Emperor! He started wagging his tail and dancing to the Emperor’s tune as soon as he took the throne. In the end, he sacrificed us and left a way out only for themselves!”
They had really blindsided him.
‘Betrayal.’
The Kim clan betrayed us!
He had always known perfectly well about Kim Yang-han’s pretenses and hypocrisy.
Even so, he had believed in his pride as a member of an elite clan and in the tremendous damage the Kim clan would suffer if such a thing happened.
Could that bastard really have clung to the Emperor over his damned thirst for honor when he was already so close to death?
While shoving the other capital’s great clans into hell?
But those below him saw the situation more clearly.
“It seems Grandfather is no longer capable of sound judgment.”
“That’s what I was thinking.”
“Judging by the way things are going, there are quite a few people from our family who will be dragged off by the Joint Investigation Headquarters.”
The world had changed.
The enormous illicit-gold laundering schemes involving the capital’s great clans had already been branded by the Joint Investigation Headquarters as crimes tantamount to treason.
And if it became known that they had even pocketed part of the donations collected from the public, however small the amount, where would that anger turn?
Until now, it had been an era when it did not matter what commoners said. The problem was that the Emperor now had the conditions to swing his blade like a madman.
In truth, the current situation was like a natural disaster that the capital’s great clans had never experienced before.
No one thought of fighting a typhoon or tsunami.
They either lowered their heads and waited for the storm to pass...
‘Or I step up first and shove the others in!’
“It appears that Kim A-ra has effectively taken control of JD.”
“Lowborn though she may be, a remarkable person is still remarkable. Perhaps we could also...?”
Kim A-ra had secured JD Group and become independent. People who wanted to follow the example of a survivor began to rise.
Those thinking, ‘If I just get rid of that bastard, I can have this whole family to myself.’
Those who could not stand watching someone lord it over them just because they were from the direct line.
Those with enough guilty consciences that, if only they were spared, they would sell out anyone.
Whatever their reasons, more than a few stormed the Joint Investigation Headquarters carrying the ledgers they had painstakingly collected.
A war of all against all.
Relatives from the margins and secondary-born children[2] who had been suppressed for decades. Affiliate company presidents confined to the number-two spot. Even retainers.
They cleared their throats with a pompous Ahem and slipped into the gap.
After all, the first one to grab it owned it.
A bloody free-for-all broke out as they tore apart and divided up the choicest assets of companies and corporations.
They had only one goal.
To find a lifeline that would connect them to the Emperor amid this chaos.
“Who is close to His Majesty?! I’ll offer my entire fortune if you can get me in with them!”
“Seo Yu-jin! And who else... the Marines? Find a way to establish contact with them!”
“Pour lobbying funds into the Joint Investigation Headquarters! I don’t care what it takes, just save me!”
It was pandemonium.
They were being torn apart completely.
* * *
After the Real-Name Financial Transaction System was implemented, the government’s strong resolve had not only quickly stabilized the market, but driven it into an even stronger upswing.
The general public’s reaction was explosive.
And when their anger toward the forces that had manipulated the Korean stock market for so long was added to the mix...
[THE GREAT EMPEROR]
[Ahh, Your Majesty. I dared to doubt you.]
[I bow toward His Majesty every morning. He is the savior who rescued my account from the red T_T]
[Same. First time since I graduated lol. This takes me back to morning assembly.]
[Seeing the short sellers get forcibly liquidated in tears has cleared away ten years of indigestion.]
The response was incredibly heated.
The post with the most upvotes had a simple title.
[LOL wow, I seriously thought I was dead]
[Poster: EmperorPunch
Honestly, until recently I was averaging down in a falling market and thinking, ‘This is where my life ends.’
I was sobbing because I thought my hard-earned bankroll was about to vanish lol, then suddenly the Great Emperor Himself showed up and smashed the big players’ heads in lmao
It feels amazing to cash out after bleeding those bastards dry lol
Now I’m happily agonizing over what to buy with my profits!
My hands are shaking just looking at the money deposited in my account.]
Screenshots boasting insane returns in the thousands of percent drew thousands of enthusiastic comments in real time.
[Are you insane lol? You bought calls there, you crazy bastard lol]
[How do you go all in at that timing? What a fucking beast lol. You earned it.]
[Holy shit, look at those returns. My eyes are rolling back.]
[God-tier Korean market that even saves gamblers like this.]
[Buy us some pizza.]
[THE GREAT EMPEROR. Simply the GOAT. His Majesty personally saves the little investors, so how could he not be a wise ruler? T_T]
[Hey, EmperorPunch. Starting tomorrow, make three bows toward Gyeongbok Palace every morning before you trade lol]
...Somehow, online communities did not seem all that different from my old world.
As I looked through the responses compiled by the Secretariat, Seo Yu-jin continued.
“There are some voices concerned about the capital’s great clans losing influence too quickly, but they remain a minority opinion.”
Kim A-ra had taken control of JD Group.
Even the Kim clan, which could be considered the head of the capital’s great clans, had gone to its knees.
Unlike the Kim clan, which Kim A-ra had swallowed relatively intact, the other capital’s great clans were little better than a complete mess.
“We only need to sort things out to some extent.”
“Sort things out, Your Majesty?”
“If we leave them as they are, the companies will disintegrate and countless citizens will lose their jobs.”
Now that the rotten heads had been cut off, we had to put their usable arms and legs to work for the national economy.
And while we were at it, we could get rid of the shit-flies scrambling to carve up the choicest companies.
Seo Yu-jin nodded at my words and presented a new folder.
“This is a list of the apologies and compensation measures Chairwoman Kim A-ra has offered on behalf of the Kim clan after taking control of it.”
Similar responses would probably follow from the other capital’s great clans, or what remained of them.
Seo Yu-jin continued.
“I had roughly expected it myself, but even so, the scale and substance are beyond imagination.”
“How extensive is it?”
I opened the folder.
And I understood clearly.
How the old men of the capital’s great clans had been able to act as the power behind the throne in this country.
Why even the government had to watch their every move and could not touch them carelessly.
The capital’s great clans had no interest in commerce, or rather, even when they did, they had secondary-born children and household servants handle it publicly. Instead, they accumulated land in their own names.
Ownership of import-export port sites along the west coast. Stakes in key privately funded expressways and transport terminals connecting the country. Large logistics centers, real estate in prime areas of the capital region, and private educational foundations.
They even held operating rights for three privately funded power plants connected to the national power grid.
It would not be an exaggeration to call them a modern version of the right to collect land taxes[3].
“...And this is only part of it?”
“Yes. We will need to investigate further, but they say sorting through such vast holdings will take some time. For now, these are the assets offered in the first round.”
As Seo Yu-jin spoke, I flicked one page of the documents sharply with my finger.
“Kim A-ra kept her promise, all right.”
It seemed she had decided to willingly hand over what she could not obtain anyway, while thoroughly draining the strength of the Kim clan’s remaining members.
“With Chairwoman Kim A-ra’s cooperation, things are proceeding relatively quickly in Jang-dong. As for the other elite clans...”
“They will need to take similar measures.”
Kim A-ra had taken control of the Kim clan quickly, so they were closer to voluntarily bowing their heads in advance.
As for the other capital’s great clans currently fighting among themselves, I did not know whether they had failed to notice or simply thought they did not need to care.
There was still compensation for the victims deceived by the nationwide gold drive.
The monetary amount involved might not be much, but public opinion and the charges were the problem. If they did not step forward and make a contribution first, that much would be extracted from them in fines and recovery payments.
Those who had been arrested would inevitably conclude that they had to bow their heads on their own if they hoped for reduced criminal penalties.
Once we combined the information Kim A-ra had provided about the other families with what the Imperial House was gathering, we would soon have a clear picture of how much of their arms and legs needed to be cut off.
“Prepare an executive order to nationalize these essential facilities in stages and greatly reduce the burden on household finances.”
I was not someone who thought nationalization was the solution to every problem, but it was different when the former owners carried the label of capital’s great clans.
Because they controlled such crucial infrastructure, they had always been able to manipulate politicians even when governments and Emperors changed. They could even deliberately provoke an economic crisis, as they had in the present situation.
If this crisis had dragged on, they might even have intentionally caused a logistics catastrophe.
Swiftly cutting off their heads had indeed been the right choice.
Otherwise, they would have tried to extend their reach into my government as well.
Still, this matter was more or less settled.
All that remained was to kill those weakened capital’s great clans that needed killing, and spare those worth sparing.
“One important matter remains.”
Seo Yu-jin bowed her head as she spoke.
“You must prepare for your coronation.”
“My coronation.”
It had not been the time for it until now, and there had been more important matters to handle, so I had postponed it.
But there was no reason to delay any longer. If anything, it would be a fitting declaration of victory over the capital’s great clans.
When I nodded to Seo Yu-jin, she replied respectfully.
“I will ensure everything is prepared without issue. Ah, and...”
I felt I knew what Seo Yu-jin was about to say.
I spoke first.
“I think it is time to end the state of emergency.”
Now that even the capital’s great clans had been swept away, there was no longer any justification for maintaining a de facto system of personal rule.
It would be better to begin returning to normal.
...If anything resembling “normal” remained in this country.
I spoke.
“I should nominate a Prime Minister.”
Footnotes:
[1] Capital's great clans: Hereditary elite families centered in the capital with long-standing political influence.
[2] Secondary-born children: Children born to a concubine rather than the principal wife, traditionally subject to lower family status.
[3] Right to collect land taxes: The right to collect taxes from land, distinct from owning the land itself.
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