Bullets Cannot Pierce Destiny
Who do you think I am?
“Let us drag out the Noble Consort who threatens the survival rights of the Korean people!”
“Your—Your Majesty, what on earth is happening? Noble Consort!”
The Emperor was stamping his feet even in the midst of all this. No wonder Ok Jin-seo looked down on him. Would that wretched woman ever pledge loyalty to an emperor weaker than herself?
“Your Majesty, please compose yourself. Give the order to fire.”
“Noble Consort, that would be dangerous!”
If they opened fire, it would truly be the end. Everyone knew that. The pro-imperial faction already lacked a strong justification. They had merely tried to strike first before that damned Ok Jin-seo could rise up. Nothing more, nothing less.
“Your Majesty! I have come with Your Majesty’s subjects to protect you! Please open the gates! We must strike down those who covet power! Citizens of Hanseong! Let us all hold a peaceful demonstration in support of His Majesty the Emperor!”
“Your Majesty, please cast out Noble Consort Eom, that villainess like Empress Dowager Cixi!”
“You bastards! Things were finally getting better! We are not your servants!”
Coming here with a mob and spouting nonsense like that. The Noble Consort wanted to retort, but only furrowed her brow.
“Noble Consort! Stop this bloodshed at once! The world is watching! How could you ruin the great cause of the nation for the sake of your greed for power? It is time to end this!”
Now that rebel leader Ok Jin-seo was painting the imperial family as the aggressors. End this now—in other words, surrender.
“They have committed treason against the imperial family! That’s right! Shoot Ok Jin-seo standing right there!”
That must not happen. The moment they shot Ok Jin-seo, everything would be over.
No. That is exactly what Ok Jin-seo wants—for us to open fire!
Min Yeong-hwan tried to stop it, but Lady Eom, driven to the edge of a cliff, was resolute in defending the imperial authority.
“You mustn’t, Noble Consort! If you do that—”
“Then tell me, is there any other way right now? If we do not do this, how else can we stop those traitors?”
“That is—”
Honestly, there really was no other answer. Think of what happened to King U, who missed the chance to capture Yi Seong-gye in the past. Given that, no matter how much they talked, shooting them dead was the only option left. They had to eliminate them quickly to prepare for what came next.
“So give the order to fire at once! Do you truly wish to see the end of this Yi imperial family?”
“Let us at least hear their demands and buy some time!”
Min Yeong-hwan insisted on negotiation, but negotiation itself made no sense. Why would men who had already turned their troops around accept talks? Even if they did, the imperial authority could no longer be asserted.
“Demands? You want me to negotiate with those traitors?”
“We must, for now.”
“No. Doing so would only lend them legitimacy. Ok Jin-seo and the rest—just shoot them all dead! If we are to protect this empire, if we are to preserve the dignity of the imperial family, that is what we must do!”
“Empress Dowager!”
No. If they did that, there would be no turning back. Did they truly think Ok Jin-seo was just some woman? She was the one who accomplished what even Emperor Taejo could not, recovering the old territories of Goguryeo. Though not entirely, she had washed away five hundred years of humiliation before China through action rather than words, proving her strength. The people’s trust in her ran deep. Moreover, after entering Hanseong, they had not resolved matters by military force. The citizens had gathered peacefully before Seokjojeon of their own accord.
“Your Majesty the Emperor! How can you point guns at your own subjects instead of removing the Noble Consort?”
“Surely they will not actually shoot?”
“If you do not withdraw, we will shoot! Governor of Manchuria, Ok Jin-seo! Returning without orders is an act of treason!”
Bak Seung-hwan stepped forward, hoping to turn Ok Jin-seo and the citizens back one last time, but the demonstration had already matured. A peaceful protest. Bak Seung-hwan hesitated to give the order at the sight, and Ok Jin-seo seized the moment to step forward and speak with authority.
“The only ones you should be hostile toward are the foreign enemies tormenting the Korean Empire! Why do you follow wrongful orders?”
Soldiers who should be aiming their guns at foreign enemies were instead aiming at their own people. They themselves had raised troops, yet they branded the citizens as traitors. What an absurd situation.
“We are the Emperor’s army! We received His Majesty’s command to suppress you traitors, so how could we leave you be?”
The Emperor’s army. With that cry alone, they had expected the people to disperse. But the people were no longer fools. Through modernization and education, Koreans had learned much. They realized how vast the world was and that Korea had been a frog in a well. Naturally, they had believed that an emperor would lead them toward greater prosperity. Yet the declaration that they would destroy the current cabinet to return to the past only felt like squeezing more blood from the people. Koreans, filled with a sense of betrayal, protested even more fiercely. Shoot if you dare. We are not afraid in the slightest. That was their only mindset.
“Your Majesty the Emperor! Will you truly abandon your subjects?”
“Shoot if you are going to shoot!”
Ok Jin-seo strode forward even more boldly, as if bullets meant nothing to her. Naturally, the die-hard pro-imperial guards present could not ignore Ok Jin-seo’s provocation.
“Damn it. What are you doing? Shoot the traitors down!”
Bang! Rat-a-tat-tat!
At last, the gunfire that would overturn history began. With this single order to fire, everything began to twist.
The guards of Seokjojeon fired at me. Dozens of bullets struck me and the citizens. Now the justification that “the Emperor has abandoned his subjects” was complete. For subjects who regarded the king as a parent, being abandoned by that parent was no different from reality. Following the gunfire, a heavy silence fell over the demonstrators. Once the citizens of Hanseong grasped the situation, they erupted in fury.
“General Ok!”
“Shooting at citizens—His Majesty is no longer an emperor!”
“There is no excuse for treating a war hero like this!”
The die was cast. The imperial family was finished. Now, I simply needed to show them I had not died. I only had to prove once that bullets could not defeat me.
“Everyone, I am unharmed! Their bullets could not pierce my body! Look! What else could this be but Heaven’s will to overthrow the imperial family?”
“General Ok is alive! This is nothing less than Heaven’s will!”
I could hear Yi Wan-yong’s voice from somewhere, but it must have been my imagination. I was the one chosen. Unlike that incompetent imperial family, I proved this return of troops was justified. Once again, I stepped before them.
“My fellow citizens! The fact that their bullets cannot pierce my body means our cause is righteous! Let us all enter Seokjojeon! Let us drag out the imperial family that abandoned its subjects and threatened the survival rights of the Samhan people!”
Whoaaaaah!
Holding the Mauser in one hand while showing my resolve not to use it, I advanced toward Seokjojeon.
“Fire! Shoot!”
“Suppress them!”
They surged toward Seokjojeon. The handful of pro-imperial soldiers, thinking the frightened citizens would flee, reloaded their guns—but before they could, they fell to the bullets fired by the Manchurian army. There would be no more mercy. I strode forward confidently and entered Seokjojeon. Manchurian troops followed on either side of me, subduing the resisting pro-imperial soldiers, with citizens trailing behind them. Eventually, we came face to face with the Noble Consort and the Emperor.
“Don’t—don’t come any closer! If you do, I will shoot!”
Look at her now, trembling with fear. Beside her, Yi Cheok was shaking like a leaf. Well, what wrong had that golden child done? Out of pity, I supposed I should at least ensure he could live comfortably. Min Yeong-hwan, Bak Seung-hwan, and others stood beside the Emperor as if guarding him. The sight of so few pro-imperial forces left me incredulous. They should never have attempted something like this. If they had stayed quiet, I would have slowly dismantled them piece by piece. Did they truly intend to retreat in such an ugly manner?
I strode toward them. Min Yeong-hwan, Bak Seung-hwan, and even the Noble Consort raised their guns and aimed at me. Go ahead. Shoot if you dare. Those bullets will not kill me. The citizens who had already seen my body would have no choice but to follow me, and they would realize the Korean Empire’s heavenly mandate had ended.
“If I am truly a traitor to the Korean people, then I shall die here from your bullets. If not, I shall remain unharmed!”
At my words, the Noble Consort raised her trembling hand and aimed her pistol at me. So what? What else could she possibly do besides pulling that trigger?
“I have disliked you from the very beginning! Die!”
Bang!
This time, the Noble Consort fired the gun herself. Everyone saw it clearly—the bullet she had fired with all her might at my head simply fell away.
“Do you see now? This is what it means for the imperial family to have lost Heaven’s mandate!”
An imperial family that had lost Heaven’s mandate could not even kill a person. They could neither do this nor that to me, a war hero.
“This is the true face of an imperial family that abandons its people and thinks only of saving itself!”
“The imperial family must step down!”
“Long live General Ok! Long live Hongikism!”
At this point, it was obvious whose side the people’s hearts were on. The pro-imperial faction was seeing it with their own eyes. This was their reality. I could have ended it with force here, but a little gloating would not hurt. For a perfect finish, I would use dialogue and compromise.
“Nevertheless, I still wish to talk! Will everyone bear witness?”
“As expected of General Ok!” “Please stay safe!”
At my words, the citizens withdrew and surrounded Seokjojeon in layers once more, threatening to storm in if necessary. Now then, that should do it. Time to have a proper conversation. I would maintain the appearance of trying to talk while still trampling them thoroughly. I could not simply beat them down recklessly. First, I used the Manchurian troops to disarm the pro-imperial forces. Then I proceeded slowly and methodically.
“Noble Consort, you desire the strengthening of imperial authority, do you not?”
“And why is that—”
“Then why are you the one occupying that position?”
Why are you the one ordering me around? It is highly regrettable and unpleasant. I have thought so from the beginning, I think so now, and I will continue to think so. How dare an ugly fool like you speak to me in such a manner? Prince Yeong seemed to be hidden somewhere, but in the end they would all live together peacefully as “former imperial family members.”
“What nonsense is that! As the Noble Consort of the late Emperor, I have been—”
“His Majesty the Emperor is present, so how can you behave this way? How is this any different from Empress Dowager Cixi of Qing?”
“You call me Empress Dowager Cixi? What insolence!”
Well, it was the kind of remark that would infuriate anyone who heard it. Still, that much was understandable.
“Seeing is believing. Even Qing expressed concern. Noble Consort, you are merely an elder of the imperial family, not someone who should be meddling in politics. You are not even a regent, after all.”
“How—how can you say such things?”
Min Yeong-hwan glared at me as he spoke. How can I say such things? They should be grateful I had not resorted to gunfire yet. Did they truly want me to start shooting? Regardless, the fact remained that her actions were no better than Cixi’s—she was merely a woman trying to drag the country back into the past.
I looked at Yi Cheok, who was still trembling in the Noble Consort’s arms. My gaze held none of the previous respect for the Emperor, only a direct stare.
“Your Majesty. From what I observed in Qing, that dynasty fell because of Empress Dowager Cixi. Throughout history, no woman of an imperial family who interfered in politics has ever left a good precedent.”
“Then you—!”
Look at her getting angry after being provoked. But what could she do? I had a different body from hers. That old man probably gave me this bloodline for moments like this. Good. From here on, it was time for gloating. I smiled more wickedly than ever, like a demon that had descended upon the human world after ruining several nations.
“I am not merely a woman. I was born with a bloodline nobler than anyone else’s.”
Nobler than anyone else present here.
“What do you mean by that?”
“Do you know that removing just one stroke from the surname Ok makes it Wang?”
Smiling wickedly, I slowly began to speak of my bloodline.
“What exactly are you trying to say!”
Still not getting it? Getting worked up would only make things difficult.