Ascension?
Come to think of it, it would have been stranger if something like this hadn’t happened.
What, did someone really go in with a lunchbox bomb and blow the place to hell?
Even in the drama, this empire’s royal family had done enough infuriating things to make people see red. That was why the viewers had joked about grabbing spears and charging the palace if they’d ever existed in real life.
Wasn’t this the same place where the Crown Prince had treated the palace guard’s elite troops like his personal private army because of some petty love affair, where some rich heiress-turned-villainess had planted a bug in the Emperor’s bedchamber, and where outsiders could stroll through secret palace passages like they’d bought a season pass? A security system so bad it deserved to be laughed off the screen.
But after that utterly unhinged ending, what the hell was left of this world?
I didn’t even remember how I got home.
I walked along the empty country road like a lunatic, the taxis and buses long gone, and my head was filled with nothing but the terror of the nightmare waiting for me up ahead.
If the imperial family had been wiped out, then who was ruling this country now?
Some ugly, ominous thought crept through my mind, but I forced it away. No, one of them had to have survived. At least one.
Half-frozen and lost in a storm of bad thoughts, I made my way down the dirt path and reached the entrance to my farm.
“······Huh?”
I stopped dead in my tracks.
Three black limousines.
And where the license plates should have been, there were the imperial family’s golden plum-blossom crests gleaming brazenly in their place.
While I was rubbing 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, lips set in a cold line, and a government ID badge hanging from her neck.
Someone’s blood had splashed across the collar of her white blouse, which should have been neatly pressed.
Even while half-watching the drama, I had remembered her face perfectly.
She was the Crown Prince Yi Geon’s closest aide, the woman who handled every scrap of imperial administration, the Iron Woman of the royal household. Seo Yu-jin, the Imperial Chief of Staff.
The Ice Witch who stood beside the Crown Prince like a shadow in the drama, never once changing expression even in the middle of a crisis, carrying out her work with absolute, merciless calm.
One of the viewers had joked that she was “the only normal person in the imperial family.”
“Mr. Lee Jin.”
Her voice was colder than the night wind blowing across Ganghwado.
“Am I speaking to the right person?”
At her question, I answered without even a second’s hesitation.
“Nope. You’ve got the wrong guy. I’m just the person who lives next door. Well, then, I’ll be going.”
Good. If I played this naturally, I could open the neighbor’s gate, hop the wall, and bolt for the back mountain. Perfect plan. I strode past her toward the neighboring house’s gate.
“That’s odd,” Seo Yu-jin said from behind me.
“Only Mrs. Kim Bok-soon lives next door, and my agents just finished confirming Mr. Lee Jin’s identity and appearance. Mrs. Kim personally gave a very helpful statement that you are, and I quote, ‘the young man next door.’”
Grandma, why are you being so damn helpful for no reason?
Still clutching the frozen gate handle, I muttered in despair.
When I turned around, Seo Yu-jin was staring at me with a perfectly unmoving expression.
All around her, men in black suits were gradually sealing off my escape route, tightening the net.
“So, Chief of Staff, what brings you here at this hour—”
Before I could even finish, Seo Yu-jin clicked toward me, one precise step after another.
Then she knelt before me and lowered her head.
The ground was frozen mud, but she didn’t seem to care.
The guards standing behind her all lowered their weapons at once and bent at ninety degrees toward me.
“Seo Yu-jin, Imperial Chief of Staff, greets Your Majesty.”
“······W-what?”
Your Majesty? Who was she talking to right now? In disbelief, I looked back over my shoulder. But behind me there was nothing except the flapping vinyl wall of a greenhouse.
“You heard correctly. At approximately 2:15 p.m. today, following the bomb attack at the Stone Hall of Deoksugung······”
Seo Yu-jin slowly lifted her head. There was blood in the corners of her eyes.
“His Imperial Majesty and His Imperial Highness the Crown Prince, along with every direct and collateral member of the imperial line from succession ranks one through forty-six who had been seated at the marriage ceremony, have all either perished or died.”
“······!”
My brain stopped dead.
Perished? All of them? From first to forty-sixth, every last one?
“Forty-plus people just... all of them?”
Seo Yu-jin rose slowly to her feet.
Covered in blood and soot, she bowed deeply toward me.
“Under Article 2 of Chapter 1 of the Constitution of the Republic of Korea and the Imperial Succession Code, the imperial throne passes in order of the legitimate eldest son, or, failing that, the nearest male relative in the family register.”
And then she said the one title I had never heard in my entire life, and had assumed I would never hear in the rest of it, either.
“Among the imperial bloodline of the Republic of Korea, Your Highness is the sole survivor. Therefore, from this moment forward, Mr. Lee Jin, you are the Emperor of the Republic of Korea.”
“······Ha.”
I felt dizzy. The world seemed to spin in front of me. My knees nearly buckled, but I forced myself upright through sheer willpower.
Insane.
It was already absurd enough to discover, years later, how that deranged drama had ended.
Now they were telling me I was the Emperor.
I dragged a hand over my face and let out a shaky breath.
◇◇◇◆◇◇◇
It took less than a second for Seo Yu-jin’s words to slam into my eardrums and churn through my brain.
Even in this fucking freezing wind, sweat was running damp and hot down my spine.
“······Did you just call me Your Majesty?”
My voice cracked so badly even I winced at it.
Succession rank forty-seven. Lee Jin, twenty-eight years old, a farmer on Ganghwado.
That had been me until just a moment ago.
But now the Imperial Chief of Staff, one of the most powerful people in the royal household, was bowing in my yard, which still smelled faintly of pig manure. Her coat was smeared with blackened blood.
She repeated what she had just said.
“That is correct. In accordance with the Constitution and the Imperial Succession Code······”
“No, hang on. Wait a second!”
I flailed a hand through the air, cutting her off. My head felt like it was about to split open.
“How is that even possible? You’re telling me forty-six people all died? Does that make any sense? That dozens of imperial relatives gathered at the Stone Hall were wiped out by a single bomb?”
“This was not a simple bomb attack. Military-grade C4 had been planted beneath the Stone Hall.”
Seo Yu-jin went on in a level voice.
“And immediately after the explosion, armed troops surrounded the area and carried out confirmation kills on the survivors. Your Majesty······ no, the former Emperor and every imperial relative there were killed on the spot.”
I could barely breathe.
Confirmation kills. Military explosives. As Seo Yu-jin said, this wasn’t just some terrorist attack.
“······A coup.”
“Correct. This is not merely terrorism but a clear act of state overthrow, effectively a coup. We have not yet identified the mastermind or how far the rebel network extends.”
As soon as she finished speaking, a distant boom rolled faintly across the water from the direction of Gimpo.
Rumble—
The cloud-choked winter sky flashed red for an instant.
“This is fucking insane.”
I let out a suffocating sigh and looked up at the sky.
My life from a few minutes ago, spent patching up greenhouses and worrying about crops, now felt like a complete lie.
“What we do know is that some of the troops assigned to perimeter security at Deoksugung—the 1st Guard Brigade—have defected to the rebels. They set up barricades and blocked the Imperial Security Service’s line of sight, and during that window the explosion occurred.”
“The 1st Guard?”
The imperial guard had rebelled?
“I don’t believe the entire unit did, but... while command authority was paralyzed, it appears that certain private factions or traitors made their move. The real problem is the Capital Defense Command.
Units under the Capital Defense Command were deployed all at once. It is safest to assume that the command structure either sided with the rebellion or was, at the very least, compromised.”
The 1st Guard, the Capital Defense Command... and no way of telling friend from foe. It was a pitch-black situation.
“Hey, Chief Seo.”
“Please speak, Your Majesty.”
“Could you stop with the ‘Your Majesty’ crap? I haven’t even had an enthronement ceremony yet.”
“Succession to the throne is legally automatic. In a state of emergency, the imperial seal is inherited and imperial authority is transferred immediately. I have already brought the Imperial Chief Keeper of Seals.”
At her sideways glance, the elderly official standing behind her held out a bundle in shaking hands.
Inside it was the gold-shining Imperial Seal of the Republic of Korea.
“······Haa. Fine. Let’s say I’m the Emperor. Then who’s the rebels’ next target?”
“Naturally······”
Seo Yu-jin’s eyes locked onto me.
“Your Majesty, the only legitimate successor of the imperial line.”
A chill crawled over my spine.
“So what the hell is the government doing right now?! If the Capital Defense Command has rebelled, then the cabinet should be stepping in to crush them, or declare martial law, or something!”
“···.”
At my shout, Seo Yu-jin looked at me as if I had said the dumbest thing in the world, though the expression vanished quickly.
“The Prime Minister and all the cabinet ministers were also attending the wedding ceremony and seated directly below the stage. I don’t need to tell you the result. The cabinet’s leadership has effectively evaporated.”
“Then the vice ministers should be moving!”
“Even if they survived, they would be of no help.”
Seo Yu-jin cut me off cleanly. Her gaze sharpened.
“You need to understand this: in the Republic of Korea, the military does not obey the cabinet’s control.”
“···What?”
Seo Yu-jin stepped closer and looked straight into my eyes.
“The armed forces are absolutely accountable only to the ‘Emperor,’ the supreme commander, and the current Emperor of the Republic of Korea is Your Majesty. That is why we came first to bring you to safety.”
...What a ridiculous quasi-state this was. No wonder the Crown Prince had been playing soldier despite having never served a day in his life.
“It’s all well and good to call me an Emperor, but soldiers have risen with guns in their hands. You really think slapping a label that says Emperor on me means they’ll just obey? If I issue an order, what, bullets won’t fly at me?”
At my sarcastic question, Seo Yu-jin answered without a flicker of doubt.
“I cannot guarantee that. However, at the very least, units that have not actively joined the rebellion are highly likely to obey the orders of the sole supreme commander. That is how this country has been educated for the past hundred years.”
“······.”
“Even we do not yet know which units are loyal and which are rebel forces. So first, you must evacuate to the prepared safe house. Once you are secure there, we can observe the situation and issue imperial orders to each corps. There is no time, Your Majesty. Please get in.”
Seo Yu-jin flung open the back door. The guards moved in tightly on both sides of me.
“A safe house?”
For a moment, I remembered something from my previous life.
Evacuation. Hiding. A secret safe house.
Alarm bells were screaming in my head.
If I got in that car and disappeared into a safe house, what would happen?
Would I be safe? Not a chance.
The only heir, the one person who should have been sitting on the throne, vanished in the middle of the most urgent national emergency?
“I’m not going.”
“···Pardon?”
“If the commander runs off to cower in a corner and hides the moment a rebellion breaks out, it’s over.”
The people below won’t know who the real boss is, so they’ll hesitate until they finally line up behind the rebels who are waving guns around and making the most noise.
That was the conclusion I, a citizen of the Republic who had lived through the twisted history of the modern age, had reached.
“Then do you have an alternative? If we waste any more time, even evacuation to the safe house may become difficult.”
For the first time, Seo Yu-jin raised her voice and showed emotion. I clenched my fists.
I couldn’t run, and I couldn’t sit here and wait to die.
Think. I had spent three years possessed as an extra in a deranged drama. In this world, there was only one person I knew for certain, one person who might be on my side.
“I don’t know which units are loyal. But I do know one unit that definitely isn’t part of the rebellion.”
When I spoke with confidence, Seo Yu-jin’s eyes widened.
“Where is it?”
To that question, I forced my body into the open back seat of the limousine and said it with a deep breath rising from my gut.
“Let’s go to the 2nd Marine Division.”