The People's Tribunal
Ah, this is a people's tribunal.
It had only been a day, but that single day had taken everything away and was more than enough to upend the existing order.
"Long live the revolution!"
The Korean revolution, which had dragged on for so long, was gradually being stained with madness.
Yet it was only in the regions where administrative power still reached that the fearsome blade of the newly formed Public Security Committee—a name as bizarre and absurd as it was—swept through without regard for status or position, beheading everything in its path.
The victims were diverse: ministers of the government cabinet, directors of each ministry, customs directors, port directors, observers, generals, and more.
Nothing, not even the hollow titles and insignias, could withstand the sudden visit of the Public Security Committee, armed with two principles: honor and legal principle.
Most chose to be arrested without resistance, and occasionally, those who resisted or brandished weapons were executed without trial or immediate sentencing, their bodies tumbling into the streets.
Among them, the powerful families of the Min clan, who had been taken into custody under the guise of interrogation or house arrest, simply hid and breathed their last.
Among the survivors of the Min clan of Yeoheung, Min Young-ik and Min Yeong-hwan no longer argued desperately about selling the ancestral estate to save the family; they did not hesitate to beg for forgiveness.
Thus, the momentum of the people grew even higher, and today it was on full display in the madness of Hanseong.
The square, soaked in blood, was now filled with another kind of fervor.
"Today, through the enthusiastic investigation of the Public Security Committee and the Vanguard, three Qing collaborators and some anti-revolutionary conspirators have been arrested—"
On the stage, the subordinates of the new regime carefully explained today's sacrifices to thousands of spectators.
Below the stage where they stood, victims with their chests marked in red with their crimes, kneeling and waiting for execution.
The sight alone made one's legs tremble with fear at the sight of that terrifyingly large guillotine.
Was that the terrifying execution platform imported from France?
"Screech! Clank."
A moment later, the executioner's blade fell indifferently, and the victim's neck, severed by the tightening rope, was lifted into the air by the red-gloved hand.
"Waaahaaa!!!"
A mad crowd's roar echoed.
A man who could not bear to watch the tragic scene said,
"...Enough. There's nothing left to see today."
"Yes, sir."
"Enemy of the people! Enemy of the revolution!"
Looking at Yun Chi-ho's fanatical praise as the spokesperson of the Public Security Committee with fearful eyes, the men quietly turned into the alley.
A moment later, among the men who had entered the deep alley where the crowd's shouts mixed with the victim's last scream were forgotten, someone whimpered,
"Sob, I can't hold on anymore. Why are they pressuring us now, when we had nothing to do with the throne?"
"..."
The ones who had hidden in the alley had no guilt.
Or rather, they wanted to believe they had none.
"I never once turned my head to the throne in my life!"
"I feel the same way..."
Two people with slightly more refined appearance than the others were Prince Cheong-an (Yi Jae-sun) and Prince Gyeong-eun (Yi Jae-seong).
They were the next in line to the throne after the tyrant, the closest heirs.
"The tyrant has fallen!"
"The revolution has triumphed!"
At first, when the rumor spread that the tyrant had been dragged out of the palace by the revolutionary army, they had harbored a faint hope.
But that hope lasted only a moment.
Even in the tyrant's time, they had lived quietly in hiding, and in the new world of the revolution, they could not even breathe.
"Those bastards! They never cared about us before."
Leaving Yi Jae-seong, who spat out resentment without pause, Yi Jae-sun also sighed and poured out resentment toward the sky, where the sunset was beginning to deepen.
Only he did not voice his resentment.
"Hoo."
Who knew when and where the dirty limbs of the Alliance and the Public Security Committee would report their words to the committee?
He barely managed to spit out one word in frustration.
"...The learned ones are worse."
As he said, the learned ones were worse.
The self-proclaimed high-ranking members of the Alliance, who had once been revered as leaders of the Confucian literati, no longer tolerated the existence of obstacles to grasping the hem of the rising sun.
Their purpose was simple: the thorough destruction of the rival, perhaps to cut off the focal point of any counter-revolutionary forces.
Recalling the shameful and terrifying scene, Yi Jae-sun's tongue rolled over his palate, and turning with his back to the others, he asked,
"Did it come to you too?"
"Yes. At first, two seemed many, but the next day, it had increased to four."
"I was taken to the Public Security Committee as a witness and interrogated all day."
"Even people with no connection were dragged in as soon as they arrived in the countryside."
As expected, the Public Security Committee and the Alliance, the Vanguard, were monitoring those with the label of royal personnel.
Only Yi Jae-sun, who had known this would happen, shook his head and spoke.
"Tsk tsk, these people are no good."
"Indeed."
Yi Jae-sun smiled bitterly at the answer of another royal relative who had been admitted, and clicked his tongue.
But these were better than him.
He was, after all, the representative of the Confucian literati and the grand elder of the new government, and Choe Ik-hyeon, the former Minister of the Ministry of Rites, had personally visited his residence and threatened him face to face.
A new army, led by dozens of red-armbanded Vanguard members and two stern scholars following him, marched him to the front of the palace and demanded arrogantly.
"Your Highness desires a peaceful revolution."
"But the blood of our people has already flowed across the four seas."
"Does that mean you also have greed for the blood spilled by the tyrant?"
"W-what does that mean?"
"I won't prolong it. If you still want even a shred of peace, do not turn your head toward the palace."
"..."
"Sign it. Now."
It was a conversation full of obvious intent, but it woke him up.
The signing was done on the spot.
He had to abandon his faint desire for the throne under duress and fear.
Crushed by the sharp gaze of the old man, Yi Jae-sun, who could not answer anything and was driven from his house to the street, felt great humiliation and fear at the same time.
When he came out to the street, hundreds of angry crowds surrounded the house and its surroundings.
"The second sacrifice was us!"
The current situation was not just a passing shower.
'Even if the young man does not want it, they have arranged so that we cannot approach the throne. We thought we were free from power and conspiracy, but it was a great mistake of the foolish.'
At the time when the people had declared war on corruption and the new government had gone mad with the cabinet reshuffle, the court officials who had survived and begged for a miserable life were busy removing any possible obstacles in front of their leader, the symbol of the revolution, the young envoy.
Those who had made a name for themselves in the Alliance or former bureaucrats went to each royal bloodline, making excuses, and caused trouble.
When a royal met someone, they attached mysterious companions or escorts, and when a royal relative opened a banquet, one person in the group was taken away the next day as a report to the Public Security Committee.
None of them were exempt.
Moreover,
'Even the Grand Queen Dowager is silent.'
Yi Jae-sun had overlooked this fact, but the Jo clan of Fengyang had long been a faithful dog of the new government after the revolutionary army entered Hanseong.
They were spreading their strengths and rushing to prove their value to the young envoy and the Public Security Committee.
The 'deposed king' announced a week after the revolution was born here.
With the support of the Grand Queen Dowager's silence, the Alliance now openly pressured the royals. 'You have no chance, so give up.' 'Do not defy her heart and remain silent.'
'Those bastards.'
Yi Jae-sun, exhausted by the arrogant and haughty attitude and the surveillance that quietly tightened his throat, recalled Choe Ik-hyeon's final proposal.
'A pledge.'
What they demanded from him was nothing strange.
Perhaps an explicit renunciation of any connection to the throne succession in any case.
The fervent supporters of the new government, who had declared war on corrupt bureaucrats with the appearance of the Public Security Committee and were promoting it, were extremely reluctant for the ghost of the old world and the shadow of the tyrant to revive.
Of course, those who were trying desperately to wash away their original sin for building their families and the sin of joining late to the winners also felt the same.
Despite having no connection to the tyrant, no one sent a helping hand or sympathy to the royal bloodlines who were openly being restrained and attacked.
All of this was the karma they had accumulated through laziness and indulgence.
It would have been less unjust if they had dreamed, but they had no vessel to complain.
Thus, the next generation of leaders were slowly drowning one by one in the shadow of the Vanguard and the veil of the Confucian literati leaders.
*****
The rumor spread.
The tyrant was being brought out to the square.
"Did you hear? Did you hear?"
"What?"
The spectators who had become familiar with the executions and investigations of the Public Security Committee while walking around the square were talking.
"It's a rumor."
"What rumor?"
People gathered around the rumor, and the rumor spread through the wind to the masses.
"The tyrant locked in the prison."
When the rumor teller made a mistake, there were also those who found fault.
"Hey! The tyrant? When did he become the deposed king!"
"He was never a proper monarch!"
The spectators shouted, and the rumor teller apologized.
"Ah, my mistake. The deposed king."
"Yes, yes."
"Our young envoy said that because the deposed king was so unjustly wailing, he gave the people the chance to repent in front of them!"
Huff, people held their breath.
"A chance? A chance?"
"What chance?"
"Isn't the boy too soft?"
The spectators were interested in the rumor teller's story, but on the other hand, they were worried about the young envoy's merciful heart, which was said to be too kind to the common people.
No matter how ignorant the masses were, or how they had been treated worse than weeds on the roadside as the tyrant's people until recently, they knew what to listen to from the high officials.
At any moment when they showed mercy to the fallen power, the new liberator might fall!
When the spectators expressed concern, the rumor teller, trying to exaggerate, stretched both hands to the air and shouted,
"The chance to confess in front of everyone that he is innocent!"
"He is already a doomed man!"
"What confession? He drove the capital's people to their deaths two years ago!"
"Yes! How many innocent people in Wangsimni did the Qing army kill!"
However, this was like pouring oil on a burning fire.
The crowds gathered in the square shouted together.
"That incompetent bastard didn't deserve the throne in the first place!"
People still harbored anger against the Qing army that had massacred many people during the Imo Rebellion two years ago, and this became the driving force to give endless goodwill and praise to the Alliance, which serves as the focal point of the anti-Qing movement.
On the contrary, they made the deposed king, who had ruined the people's livelihood and spilled the blood of the people, the target of all criticism.
The people were noisy, and the rumor teller, who had been adding firewood until just now, disappeared after hearing them say that the deposed king did worse, that the Qing army were bastards.
As if he had perfectly completed his mission.
*****
"Fellow citizens of the Korean people!"
On the approaching holiday, the People's Joint Association was held in the afternoon at Gwanghwamun Plaza to celebrate the victory of the revolution and to firmly declare the victory of the people.
The terrifying guillotine of the Public Security Committee, which had been seen earlier, had disappeared for a while, and when the small stage previously used only for the young envoy appeared in the center of the square, the people cheered.
Toward those people, I raised my voice with solemn and entirely unfeigned joy.
"Today, you have suffered greatly until the victory of the revolution, but now only the final procedure remains!"
Then, in my story, people showed pure eyes of doubt.
The final procedure? What is that?
Toward those people, I unhesitatingly explained without hesitation.
"It is the repentance of the deposed king! The people are infinitely merciful, so I am giving the last chance for reflection to that deposed king who led your lives into the abyss, who killed your families and raped them!"
A moment of silence fell over the square.
Perhaps half of the audience lamented my arrogant act, and the other half just nodded.
The only positive point was that the Confucian literati and the clans approved of my decision and mercy.
'The deposed king, perhaps his justification was more important.'
Unlike the people who required quick and decisive action, the clans, who had a little ink in their heads, were busy plotting conspiracies to exclude the royal relatives from the throne, but they could not even say a word against executing the deposed king.
Among those people, I felt sympathy on one hand and laughed mockingly on the other.
What loyalty is there in a fallen country?
So, I eventually stepped forward.
The new era to come is for our young and ambitious people.
"Let's listen! What is the deposed king so unjust about! What kind of man he is! Let's listen one last time!"
With that shout, the deposed king with a haggard face wrapped in black was dragged up onto the stage by the hand.
I told the tyrant who had once been at their feet.
"You had a table set, but you won't overturn it, will you?"
When I gave him the stage, the audience fell silent.
The deposed king's foolish eyes turned to the people.
His parched lips parted.
"You bold bandits!"
Even with his life hanging by a thread, the tiger chose dignity over a cowardly life.