WeTried Translations
Translator: NEET_Romulus
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◈ Dropped into the Ending of a Trash Show as an Extra ◈
Chapter 8: Tae Guk Gi: The Brotherhood of War (2)
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It was not because the people sincerely respected and loved the imperial family that they raised the Taegeukgi.
Some were sick of the immense privileges and budgets enjoyed by the Emperor and his family. Others were disgusted by the endless scandals and corruption of the imperial clan.
But whatever their stance, everyone knew that no “better world” would come just because an armed military rolled out tanks and overturned everything.
Power built through violence would only give birth to greater violence.
Those who butchered people with guns and blades in broad daylight would never provide for the people’s welfare.
They knew it, yet they remained still.
They had reason to be angry, but no rallying point around which to gather that anger. The imperial family had been slaughtered, the capital trampled under military boots, and the press controlled.
But now.
On television screens in apartment living rooms, old houses’ bedrooms, and across the city, there was a man.
A collateral imperial relative who had seemingly appeared from nowhere, someone whose name had not even been known until yesterday.
Onscreen, he wore a hastily acquired combat uniform that did not even fit him properly.
At the barricade outside the broadcasting station, where a wind cold enough to chill the bone howled.
He did not retreat.
Even with the cameras rolling, he did not hide. He moved among the Marines, encouraging them, and tightly clasped the frozen hands of Army soldiers.
His lips moved beyond the screen.
Never give up.
We will not be pushed back.
I am here. I will die with you, and live with you.
Those cries and rough gestures.
That unpolished desperation spread across the nation over the airwaves.
Then someone opened their window and hung a flag from their home’s flagpole.
The house next door hung one. The apartment above did too. Then the building across the way.
The wave of Taegeukgi flags that formed along Northwest Boulevard froze the advancing rebels in their tracks without a single gun being raised.
Creeeak... squeak... screeeech.
The armored column of the 1st Imperial Guard Brigade had completely lost its momentum.
The tanks that should have been tearing through the city at sixty kilometers per hour, spreading terror, were crawling along at less than five.
As though they had fallen into an invisible swamp.
“......”
Leaning out over the command vehicle, the brigade commander stared blankly from side to side.
The brigade commander could barely breathe.
Between building and building.
Between apartment block and apartment block.
Beyond every window draped with Taegeukgi flags, hundreds of thousands of eyes must have been looking down at them.
Silence.
No jeers came. No stones. No Molotov cocktails.
Only cold stares and fluttering flags.
“...Push through to the broadcasting station.”
The brigade commander finally forced the words out.
“We have to take that fake Emperor’s head if we want to live. Catch that bastard, work him over, and make him confess with his own mouth that he’s a fraud!”
It was an order the commander had forced out, but all certainty had already drained from it.
Like a herd of cattle being led to slaughter, the rebels slowly, very slowly, passed through downtown Ilsan.
* * *
Outside IBS Second Broadcasting Station in Ilsan.
Kwak Ji-hoon steadied his trembling hands. He pressed his tongue to his canteen, but only droplets of long-dried liquor touched it.
“We can hear the tanks. They’ll arrive soon.”
“What weapons do we have?”
“Only the armored vehicles’ machine guns and anti-tank weapons. They’re not enough to withstand the tank guns of a regular armored unit.”
Two tank battalions had fortunately been rushed in, but whether that would be enough to stop the enemy remained uncertain.
Captain Kwak clutched his splitting head.
“If they break through...”
“His Majesty will die.”
“Then don’t let them break through.”
“......Understood. We will prevail.”
The Marines dispersed.
They did not need to win. The Mobile Corps, which had been coming down from Pyongyang since the broadcast, was expected to arrive four hours after it.
Considering the time already elapsed, they would probably need to hold out for less than that.
“Enemy armored forces in sight!”
“Bearing twelve o’clock! Three lead tanks identified!”
Captain Kwak shouted in a voice raw with fury.
“Report the moment they enter anti-tank missile range!”
Click!
The Marine armored vehicles and tanks rushed in from the 17th and 60th Divisions turned their turrets as one.
The infantry lying behind the barricades put their fingers on their triggers without even daring to breathe.
And in their midst.
Lee Jin stood in uniform beside Seo Yu-jin.
“Your Majesty. You truly must withdraw now.”
Seo Yu-jin tugged hard on Lee Jin’s sleeve.
Even her normally cool voice betrayed anxiety she could not hide.
The instant the rebel tanks opened fire, the broadcasting station’s courtyard would become a living hell where not even bones could be recovered.
Even as Seo Yu-jin pulled him toward the protective wall, Lee Jin spoke.
“Can you see their momentum?”
Lee Jin spat sharply from his raw throat.
Seo Yu-jin was dumbfounded, but this was not the time to take issue with it.
Lee Jin jerked his chin toward the front.
“They’re moving far too slowly for men who started a rebellion. It means they’re scared.”
“Momentum does not matter in front of tanks. If Your Majesty is harmed, this entire cause will collapse.”
“It’s all right.”
Lee Jin’s eyes were frighteningly calm.
“I’ve entrusted my life to them.”
Whether he believed in them or not, he would die if the line broke. There was no reason not to trust those who had gathered to protect him.
Rumble!
At last, the 1st Imperial Guard Brigade’s armored column reached the main road outside the broadcasting station.
Dozens of tanks and armored vehicles barely came to a stop, belching exhaust.
Their gun barrels aimed at one another’s foreheads as a suffocating standoff began.
“Taking all broadcasts so far into account... it appears the self-proclaimed Emperor remains at the station.”
Seated in the command vehicle, the Guard Brigade commander stared at the scene outside the broadcasting station through the monitor.
Barricades piled in layers.
Marines and Army troops packed tightly behind them.
And beyond those troops, the man who had just moments ago stood ramrod straight in his ill-fitting uniform, glaring in this direction.
Lee Jin.
“......Ha.”
A hollow laugh escaped the brigade commander’s lips.
A truly empty, lonely laugh.
“So he really was the Emperor.”
It was easy to put on a show of bravado. Easier still for someone of noble birth, with subordinates to dress that bravado up as courage.
Like the Crown Prince who, after his stepmother had the Guard seize and imprison his woman, charged in heroically at the head of soldiers to rescue her as if in a fairy tale.
Neither the Empress, the Crown Prince, nor anyone in the imperial family had staked their lives on that farce.
Only the soldiers of the Guard Brigade and Capital Defense Command, drafted to carry out the order, had lost their heads.
So the commander had assumed this man would naturally be the same. Calling himself Emperor with nothing but words, then running away begging for his life before a gun could even be aimed at him.
That would make him harder to catch, but the brigade commander would rather he did exactly that.
Then why?
How could a mere imperial relative possess such bearing?
An Emperor standing at the very front of the line instead of fleeing.
An Emperor clasping his soldiers’ hands and encouraging them.
That alone.
Something in the brigade commander’s heart was crumbling like a sandcastle.
‘The real Emperor has finally appeared...’
The brigade commander swallowed bitterly.
“Too late.”
If that man had been Emperor yesterday, perhaps the Guard Brigade would have pledged its loyalty to him.
But it could not now. They had already burned the imperial palace and butchered countless members of the imperial bloodline.
They had already climbed onto the tiger’s back.
If they dismounted now, they would only be torn apart by its teeth. There was only one way to survive: shoot the tiger before them dead, then keep running to the end.
Killing intent returned to the brigade commander’s eyes.
“All units, listen.”
The brigade commander’s voice went out across the command net.
“Those ahead are enemies of the revolution. They seek to throw the nation into chaos by putting forward a fake Emperor.”
An order the commander had to give, even knowing it was a lie.
“The target is the fake Emperor, Lee Jin. Everything blocking our way...”
“B-Brigade Commander!”
At that moment.
The adjutant who had opened the hatch to check the situation outside tumbled back into the command vehicle, face drained white.
“What are you doing? I am giving the order to fire...”
“The units following us! The rear units have stopped!”
“What?”
The brigade commander’s brow creased deeply.
“Stopped? What do you mean, stopped? Aren’t the tank regiments of the First and Second Capital Defense Divisions supporting us from behind?”
The armored and mechanized infantry units of the First and Second Capital Defense Divisions, subordinate to the Capital Defense Command, had been following behind to cover the Guard Brigade’s advance.
That long column had all stopped in the middle of Northwest Boulevard, just a few hundred meters from the broadcasting station approach.
Like an immovable fortress wall, they would not advance another step.
Beep! Beep!
The external communications line of the command vehicle shrieked.
It was a transmission from the armored regiment commander of the First Capital Defense Division.
[...Guard Brigade. This is the First Capital Defense Division.]
“First Division! Why have you stopped? Advance at once and support our rear!”
The brigade commander shouted urgently, but the answer shattered the brigade commander’s expectations.
[...I’m sorry.]
A deep sigh came through the communications line.
[We will end this here. We cannot shoot the Emperor with our own hands.]
“You bastards! Do you think you’ll get away with this?!”
The brigade commander cried out as though vomiting blood.
But as if drowning out the scream, a sound rose from beyond the communications line.
Whiiirrrk... thud, thud!
The tanks of the First and Second Capital Defense Divisions that had stopped.
Their turrets began turning as one.
And the direction they aimed was none other than the rear of the 1st Imperial Guard Brigade ahead of them.
The 1st Imperial Guard Brigade was now the rat in the trap.
“Brigade Commander...”
The adjutant called out in a tearful voice.
Every staff officer in the command vehicle watched the brigade commander’s mouth.
Should they fire?
Should they perish gloriously within the encirclement?
Death was not frightening.
But what would they be dying for?
Blood seeped from the brigade commander’s clenched fist.
The brigade commander slowly closed their eyes.
“...All vehicles, lower your guns.”
“Brigade Commander!”
“It’s over. Shut down the engines, get out, and surrender.”
The brigade commander dropped the radio onto the floor.
And with that, the rebel tide that had surged like a raging torrent broke apart.
* * *
At the same time.
The underground bunker of the Capital Defense Command.
Only silence filled the command and control room.
On a huge screen covering one wall, footage was being broadcast live of Guard Brigade soldiers casting aside their weapons, walking out, and being bound by Marines.
“Capital Defense Command... is turning back.”
“And their target?”
“Most likely this place.”
The command staff were still as the dead.
Some sank down clutching their heads. Others stared blankly into space with devastated expressions.
“Marshal, it is not too late! Gather the troops remaining here, withdraw, and prepare for what comes next...”
“Silence.”
Song Haksu’s brief dismissal plunged the command room into graveyard silence again.
Song Haksu’s gaze, too, was fixed on the young man in uniform at one corner of the screen.
“Was I wrong?”
Song Haksu murmured quietly.
Song Haksu did not regret it.
Song Haksu took pride in believing those actions had been a decision to save the nation.
But the people, and above all the national armed forces, had chosen the young Emperor who threw himself into danger before their eyes over Song Haksu’s decision.
Then the contest was decided.
Song Haksu slowly rose from his seat.
“Chief of Staff.”
“Yes, Marshal.”
“Release the Capital Defense Commander we have confined.”
Straightening the collar of the uniform, Song Haksu gave the order calmly.
“And all of you, go outside and surrender. My head alone is enough to answer for the crime of rebellion.”
“No, Your Excellency! We will remain with you until the end...”
“Everyone, you have worked hard.”
Song Haksu cut them off, leaning deeply into the chair.
After everyone had left, only a cup of cold green tea sat before Song Haksu.
Song Haksu slowly lifted the cup.
The expression reflected on the surface of the tea...
Was smiling.
Footnotes:
The Taegeukgi is Korea’s national flag.
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