Almighty God of War - Chapter 108

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This chapter was translated by Lunox Team. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
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108

Just before dawn, Emperor Changseong headed to Jaseon Hall with Sang On.

What struck his nostrils was the thick stench of blood and the killing intent that had not yet dissipated.

The corpses in the hall’s front courtyard had already been cleared away.

But the bloodstains that had seeped into the cracks between the blue stones on the floor and the nauseating smell lingering in the air bore complete witness to last night’s tragedy.

The Emperor said nothing.

His face as he looked down at the sleeping Crown Prince was expressionless, as if wearing a mask.

But in his eyes, a terrible rage was boiling up.

He had confirmed with his own eyes that his son, who would become the Empire’s emperor after him, had been deceived and was dying within his own palace for over thirty years.

Sang On, standing beside the Emperor, dared not raise his head.

Though he had served the Emperor for decades, this was the first time he had witnessed such deep and intense fury.

The Emperor sighed quietly and gently took the sleeping Crown Prince’s hand.

As soon as day broke, the front of the Great Audience Hall was filled with ministers who had gathered like clouds.

The first to open fire were the Empress and the forces aligned with her.

They claimed that ‘Hahou Gang had tried to assassinate the Crown Prince together with assassins, and was now holding His Majesty hostage with sorcery,’ demanding Guyang Cheongang’s immediate execution.

They also shamelessly added the lie that the blood ritual in the underground of the Buddhist hall was also his doing.

Not to be outdone, Minister of War Muk Cheolgang from the Second Prince’s faction stepped forward.

While pretending to agree with the Empress’s claims, he cleverly twisted the blade’s edge.

“Entrusting the successor’s sacred body to someone who may be a divine healer or a sorcerer was His Highness the Crown Prince’s reckless judgment. As this endangers the Empire’s safety, both Hahou Gang and His Highness the Crown Prince should undergo strict investigation!”

In response, Left Prime Minister Jo Mungyeong from the Crown Prince’s faction refuted their words.

“How can you speak such nonsense! Divine Healer Hahou is a benefactor of the Imperial family who saved Princess Myeonghwa, and is now fighting a death battle alongside His Majesty to root out the rebels. Those who obstruct this—what else could they be but part of the rebel faction!”

Under the silence of the Emperor sitting on the Dragon Throne, the three factions tore at each other.

As if they had no interest in what the truth was, a battlefield of political calculations unfolded.

The Emperor sitting on the Dragon Throne said nothing and listened to his ministers’ words.

The ministers who had been chattering in confusion began closing their mouths one by one.

The Emperor’s silence weighed more heavily on their shoulders than any scolding could.

When the hall became quiet, the Emperor commanded Chief Eunuch Jang In Sang-on in an indifferent tone.

“Bring the prisoner Hahou Gang from Thunder Prison, and escort the Empress here.”

“Gasp!”

“Hmm….”

At the Emperor’s command, suppressed gasps burst out among the ministers.

To order that the Empress, the nation’s mother, be brought together with a prisoner.

The air in the hall grew even heavier.

After a moment, people’s gazes turned to two figures walking toward the center of the hall.

It was Guyang Cheongang and the Empress.

The Empress was surrounded by numerous eunuchs and palace maids, while Guyang Cheongang wore a wooden collar and had his limbs bound with iron chains.

Guyang Cheongang turned his neck this way and that under the weight of the heavy wooden collar and clicked his tongue inwardly.

‘To wear this thing twice with just a few days’ interval… Akasha, don’t you think Mother was right when she said I have a harsh fate?’

[Sigh… This is not the time for jokes, Doctor.]

The Emperor silently gazed at Guyang Cheongang.

His expression seemed indifferent, but storms were raging in his eyes.

The Emperor, who had been silently looking down at Guyang Cheongang, suddenly asked.

“Is the Crown Prince’s treatment finished?”

“Yes, Your Majesty. After about two days, he will regain consciousness, and within a month he will be as healthy as His Highness the Second Prince.”

At his answer, Minister of War Muk Cheolgang widened his eyes and shouted.

“Lies! Your Majesty, this man is a great traitor who dared to put a blade to His Highness the Crown Prince’s sacred body without even receiving Your Majesty’s permission. Even if his medical skills are miraculous, how can we cover up his crime of breaking the national law! How can we believe such a person’s words and waste precious time!”

The Emperor turned his head toward Muk Cheolgang.

His voice was quiet, but carried an indescribable weight.

“I can wait. If only the Crown Prince can become healthy again, I can wait even ten years. But why are you so impatient, Minister? Perhaps there’s another reason you cannot wait for the Prince to awaken?”

Muk Cheolgang could not open his mouth.

The Emperor’s last question was a sharp blade aimed at his very loyalty.

The Emperor turned his gaze to Guyang Cheongang and asked.

“What exactly happened last night?”

Since this was the question he had been waiting for, Guyang Cheongang answered without delay.

He reported that there had been those who had been secretly active in the Imperial family’s darkness for decades, and that they had been shortening the Crown Prince’s lifespan with evil sorcery.

And he revealed that the evidence was precisely the two blood rituals that had taken place underground in Jaseon Hall and Gyotae Hall.

However, he did not mention the fact that the Empress was a key figure in the undercurrents.

Rather, he bowed his head deeply toward the Emperor and said.

“…Your Majesty, though I dare not make a definitive judgment, perhaps Her Majesty the Empress might also be a victim of those undercurrents. There might be their deeper scheme hidden, trying to slander the nation’s mother to create discord between Your Majesty and the Imperial family.”

A smile so faint that no one could notice flickered across the Emperor’s lips.

The implications contained in Guyang Cheongang’s words were by no means light.

If he had shouted ‘The culprit is the Empress!’ right there, the Emperor would have had to bear the worst political burden of judging his wife and the nation’s mother as a traitor.

But Guyang Cheongang had opened an escape route by suggesting that even the Empress could be a ‘victim.’

This allowed the Emperor to gain the political justification of being not ‘a husband judging his wife,’ but ‘a monarch saving the Empress who was deceived by rebels and tracking down the masterminds threatening the Imperial family.’

Moreover, if Guyang Cheongang, a Gangho physician without proper background, had directly attacked the nation’s mother, the essence of the incident could have been distorted from ‘the Empress’s crime’ to ‘a mere physician’s contempt of the Imperial family.’

By making the Emperor, not himself, the subject of this fight, he stepped back and secured his own safety.

Lastly, this was also a clever trap aimed at the Empress.

It blocked her opportunity to counterattack by saying ‘This man is slandering me and trying to manipulate state affairs!’ and instead made her mistakenly think ‘there’s still a way out.’

That misconception would make her let her guard down and lead her to make another reckless move to cover up her crimes.

The Emperor nodded and looked at the Empress.

She felt suffocated by his heavy gaze directed at her and Guyang Cheongang’s words that pretended to defend her while tightening around her neck.

Under her sleeves, she desperately feigned composure by gripping her trembling hand tightly with her other hand.

The Emperor asked the Empress with a worried expression.

“Empress, did you hear? The divine healer is concerned that you too might have become a target of the undercurrents. Do you still think we should punish him for trying to save the Crown Prince?”

The Empress clenched her fists tightly under her sleeves.

She instinctively realized that the game had completely turned against her.

Suppressing her rising anger and humiliation, the Empress spoke in an extremely gentle and dignified voice.

“…If that is Your Majesty’s will, I too have no choice but to follow. I only hope that the divine healer will safely cure the Crown Prince completely and reveal the truth behind all this chaos.”

The Empress had agreed to observe the Crown Prince’s treatment progress.

The Emperor cast a cold gaze toward the Left Prime Minister, the Minister of War, and the Empress beyond them, and said.

“I will never forgive the rats hiding in the Imperial Palace’s darkness and targeting my blood. There is no reason to blame Divine Healer Hahou, so release him immediately.”

Thus the long, long morning at the Great Audience Hall passed.

Having shed his status as a prisoner and returned to Myeonghwa Palace, Guyang Cheongang treated Princess Myeonghwa, who had regained her peace.

Sitting up on her bed, she spoke quietly.

“I was… very worried, Young Master. But please, do not hate His Majesty and Her Majesty.”

Guyang Cheongang was at a loss for words.

Before the Princess’s pure heart asking him not to resent the mother who had tried to kill her son, he felt a corner of his chest ache.

‘Perhaps this girl would be happier living her entire life without knowing the truth of this tragedy…’

Guyang Cheongang smiled faintly and said.

“I do not hate them, Your Highness Princess. I simply want to create a world where people like Your Highness are no longer hurt.”

He continued.

“Now, with just about two more days of treatment, Your Highness Princess will be completely cured.”

Princess Myeonghwa’s complexion brightened radiantly.

After finishing that day’s treatment and returning to his quarters, Guyang Cheongang stood by the window and recalled Princess Myeonghwa’s clear eyes.

‘To protect Princess Myeonghwa’s purity, I must root out this Imperial Palace’s filthy darkness completely.’

His eyes glinted coldly.

[Doctor, while creating a database of the Imperial family’s medical records, I discovered genetic inconsistencies that cannot be explained statistically.]

Guyang Cheongang frowned and asked.

‘What do you mean?’

[The DNA of His Majesty the Crown Prince and Princess Myeonghwa matches 99.9% with His Imperial Majesty’s. However, the Second Prince’s paternal DNA shows no connection whatsoever to His Imperial Majesty.]

“What…?”

Guyang Cheongang’s complexion changed drastically.

‘Then the Empress had an affair…?’

[It appears so. The Crown Prince and Second Prince share the same mother, but different fathers.]

A bomb exploded in Guyang Cheongang’s mind.

‘So that’s why… that’s why the Empress was so desperate. Her attempt to kill the Crown Prince and put her son on the throne wasn’t driven by ambition, but by fear that her secret might be discovered?’

All the pieces of past events fit together with chilling perfection before this terrible truth.

“Mmm…”

A groan escaped from Guyang Cheongang’s lips.

‘If the Second Prince also knows this fact… his attempt to bring down the Crown Prince wasn’t just about succession order. It was a desperate struggle to protect his and his mother’s lives.’

He asked with a trembling voice.

‘Are you saying the Second Prince… is trying to ascend the throne because he knows he’s not the Emperor’s biological son?’

[That possibility cannot be ruled out. If that fact were to be exposed, both the Empress and his lives would be as good as forfeit.]

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This chapter was translated by Lunox Team. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
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