As my grandfather’s massive frame crashed backward, a tremendously loud din pierced my ears.
I couldn’t fathom what on earth had just happened.
Because the situation was shifting rapidly without a single pause, I didn’t even have a moment to think.
I was terrified of what kind of trouble was about to unfold next.
My body ached terribly from being kicked so much that I couldn’t even lift my head, but when someone laid their hands on me, I thrashed wildly.
‘Don’t touch me! Don’t touch me! Hyunwook!’
Strong hands lifted and cradled my body as I struggled painfully, clutching my lower abdomen.
“Haejoo, Daebin Palace! It’s me, it’s me!”
‘Uh…?’
Having heard rumors of his death and not seeing him for days, I wondered if I was experiencing an auditory hallucination.
Like a fool, without even thinking to verify his identity, I froze, hundreds of question marks flooding my mind.
As I slowly turned my head, the hands cradling my figure began to tremble violently upon seeing my state.
I felt the hands holding me shake harder and harder.
‘Who?’
Before I could even process that the man was Joo Minhyuk, my grandfather, who had crashed into the desk, painfully forced himself up.
Shocked to see Joo Minhyuk, he couldn’t utter a single word, busy trying to comprehend the situation.
And Joo Minhyuk, who had appeared out of nowhere, caressed my hair and face, checking my entire body before holding me tightly.
“Ugh…”
“Does it hurt here too? This is…”
As he held me with force, various parts of my body flared with intense pain.
Startled, Joo Minhyuk carried me over to the sofa and laid me down.
The scent of his pheromones drifted faintly through the air.
So it really is Joo Minhyuk?
But what did he mean by asking if it hurt here too?
The suddenly materialized Joo Minhyuk was acting as if he already knew exactly where I had been struck.
“…Your Majesty? Is it truly you?”
“I—I’ll explain everything. Just wait a moment.”
The voice, the face, and this pheromone scent undeniably belonged to Joo Minhyuk.
Therefore, the person standing before me was without a doubt Joo Minhyuk.
I had no idea how things had turned out this way.
Hyunwook, who had stepped up close beside me, also looked thoroughly bewildered, unable to read the situation.
Leaving behind the instruction to wait a moment, Joo Minhyuk approached my grandfather.
Before I knew it, the Pyonjon was surrounded by a completely different faction of soldiers, their gun barrels aimed directly at my grandfather.
‘Was this old man caught in a counter-trap?’
No other thoughts came to mind; that single realization merely flashed through my head.
I did think that everything had been far too sloppy from the start.
But then, how on earth did Joo Minhyuk escape from America and make it all the way here?
Is he uninjured from whatever my grandfather put him through?
The fact that Joo Minhyuk was walking around alive right in front of me was so mind-bogglingly unbelievable that my head throbbed.
“How on earth did this happen? How did you survive out there… The car you were riding in was definitely turned into a honeycomb…”
Since seeing Joo Minhyuk walking around before his very eyes was unbelievable to him as well, my grandfather asked the exact question I had been wondering about.
Standing right in front of him, Joo Minhyuk let out a deeply mocking sneer.
“That’s because, from the very beginning, I was never inside that honeycomb.”
“What?”
Displeased by Joo Minhyuk’s cryptic response, my grandfather scowled and raised his voice.
“I was never inside that vehicle from the start. In fact, I never even left for the United States.”
…?
‘He didn’t go to America?’
A thunderous shock reverberated through my entire body.
What did that mean?
Joo Minhyuk hadn’t gone to the United States?
Intensely shocked, I pushed myself up from the sofa.
I doubted my expression looked any different from my grandfather’s current face.
“No one was sick, so why waste money traveling all the way to America? But Prime Minister, do you truly believe those soldiers outside belong to you? And what about the person who supposedly turned the car into a honeycomb in America? For that matter, that killer who shot up the vehicle—is he truly your man?”
As he listened to Joo Minhyuk’s relentless words, my grandfather’s face began to turn deathly pale.
Maintaining the sneer on his face, Joo Minhyuk stepped toward the man who had been introduced as the Emperor-designate, who had been watching the situation from a distance.
The man offered a bright smile upon seeing Joo Minhyuk.
…W-what on earth is this…
Don’t tell me the two of them are in on it?
As if responding to his smile, Joo Minhyuk offered a faint smile of his own and patted the man’s shoulder.
I stared at the two of them, barely daring to breathe.
“This new Emperor-designate, whom the Prime Minister searched so painstakingly for and managed to secure over several months—is he truly your person?”
A heavy silence instantly blankets the Pyonjon.
Right.
Now I understand.
The fact that Joo Minhyuk never went to America meant that no one was ever sick from the start, which in turn meant this entire affair was Joo Minhyuk’s orchestrated plan.
From beginning to end, my grandfather had merely been dancing in the palm of Joo Minhyuk’s hand.
“…Since things have turned out this way, why don’t you kindly explain? When did you meet that man?”
A bitter laugh escaped through my grandfather’s teeth as he stared at the Emperor-designate.
Since he wasn’t entirely foolish, he seemed to have finally grasped the situation unfolding around him.
“The exact moment the Prime Minister first entered negotiations with him? Believe it or not, I discovered the Prime Minister’s treason plot quite a long time ago. Ever since you dismissed me as a mere green boy and thought lightly of me, I had a plan of my own.”
“Ha,”
“Among the people you believed to be your own, do you truly think there wasn’t a single one of my people? The same goes for the soldiers outside. The actual small fry have already been suppressed, and while you were busy playing king inside the palace, I cleaned up everything outside.”
Joo Minhyuk had overwritten the plan my grandfather prepared with a plan of his own.
There had never been an assassin targeting him from the start.
Joo Minhyuk had handled him in advance and replaced him with one of his own men.
Therefore, procuring a vehicle to stage a performance would have been child’s play.
The soldiers inside the palace had either already been swapped out by Joo Minhyuk, or they had belonged to him from the very beginning.
“Because I didn’t want to drag things out, I intentionally vacated the palace for you. True to my expectations, you eagerly marched right in. Thanks to that, the work was incredibly smooth. Gratefully so, I might add. Even so, I needed to capture definitive and decisive evidence. I couldn’t afford to catch you half-heartedly. Everything proving that you prepared a rebellion and acknowledged it had to be absolute. So you could never wriggle your way out.”
“Is that so. How grand. You are indeed different from the weak and unmotivated late Emperor.”
“…Do not utter my father’s name with that filthy mouth of yours.”
Joo Minhyuk’s low, powerful voice resonated through the executive hall.
“You must have secured the evidence you desired perfectly.”
“Of course, Prime Minister. Your estate has already been raided, and every single faction leader, military official, domestic and foreign politician, and tycoon who shared your sentiment has been captured. They will all receive their due punishment for the crime of complicity in high treason or willful negligence.”
“…You must have wiretapped every single action of mine as well.”
“Would it stop at mere wiretapping? Not to mention the interior of the palace, I suspect it would be harder to find a spot without a camera inside the Prime Minister’s estate. Thanks to that, I watched everything quite clearly.”
“Haha, you watched? You watched, you say? Then that means you witnessed every single action up until now? Yes?”
Listening silently to their absurd exchange, I could grasp one thing with absolute certainty, if nothing else: the fact that I had been used.
Within Joo Minhyuk’s palm, it wasn’t just my grandfather who had been manipulated; I was included as well.
“You must have watched, listened, and recorded everything flawlessly. Is that not right, Your Majesty?”
Understanding what my grandfather was driving at, Joo Minhyuk shut his mouth and offered no reaction.
It was likely because he realized I was included in my grandfather’s mockery.
So this was the reason he told me we should talk after his return.
“Looking at the state of your face, it seems you were entirely in the dark about this as well, Cha Haejoo?”
Yes, I didn’t know.
“This is your Alpha, whom you begged to be returned to you even if it was just his corpse. What are you going to do, Cha Haejoo? From where I stand, it looks like you were thoroughly and utterly utilized as well.”
I know, so please just shut up.
My mind is a chaotic mess, and a resentful sorrow laced with fury surges up from deep within.
No, this can’t be expressed with a mere word like ‘sorrow.’ Look at the state of me, Joo Minhyuk.
If you were watching everything, does that mean you watched me get beaten to a pulp as well?
For Joo Minhyuk, who would have been certain that the Prime Minister would come to my quarters, would he really have left my place without installing a single camera?
“I admit it, Your Majesty. I admit that I was thoroughly played by you. It must have been quite entertaining. Watching the process of a rebellion being prepared, I mean. If that’s the case, keeping that child by your side must have also been entirely part of your plan.”
“…That is not true, so do not make wild assumptions.”
“It is not a wild assumption; it is the truth. You had to keep that foolish thing by your side to deceive my eyes. To succeed in this plan… in all of this, you needed a smokescreen. A smokescreen to distract attention out front. That was that child, and that brat fell for it beautifully.”
“Shut your mouth, Prime Minister. I said it is not true.”
“How could it not be? Then are you suggesting you embraced that child out of pure affection? Surely that isn’t the case? How could you purely love that child who shares my bloodline? You simply left him be because he possessed utility value.”
Having partially pushed up my slumped body, I stared at the two of them.
To be precise, I stared at Joo Minhyuk, but because his back was turned to me, I couldn’t see his expression.
I was desperately curious about his face right now.
Tell him it’s not true.
Tell him that after helping a pitiful me, your heart came to me.
Tell me there was no such thing as a calculated plan.
No response came from Joo Minhyuk, who was gripping my grandfather by the collar.
I felt sick with dread at his failure to deny it.
