Royal Coup d'État - Chapter 45

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This chapter was translated by Lunox Novels. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
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Chapter 45
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“We interrupt this program for breaking news.”
After the press conference held by Seon, Governor of Cheongyang County, the entire nation erupted. Whichever channel you turned to, they all broadcast the same story.
The Crown Prince had been murdered. By someone within the Imperial Family itself.
Now all eyes turned inward upon the Imperial Family. Who exactly had killed the Crown Prince? Who stood to gain the most from the death of the virtuous and steadfast Crown Prince?
That question pointed naturally in a single direction.
Is it seriously UGD?
Views: 43,685 · 1 minute ago
After watching that press conference, what gave me chills is that the only person who benefits from the Crown Prince’s death is UGD, right?
They didn’t say it outright, but circumstantially, isn’t it just one person?
💬 Honestly, how long ago did his brother die, and they put him on camera crying? That gave me the creeps from the start
💬 But he was his brother—would he really kill him? Blood relations annoy you sometimes, but you don’t actually think about killing them
💬 I heard from someone who knows people at the Imperial Household that Ui-gu Dagun has a good personality?
➥ What? The palace official I know says he’s a total psychopath? If he doesn’t like something, he cuts off people’s livelihoods
Breaking down today’s press conference
Views: 75,415 · 1 minute ago
The Crown Prince’s accident was actually a murder case
The Imperial Household requested a formal investigation due to insufficient investigation
Implication that the culprit is within the Imperial Family
Succession Rights are suspended until this is resolved (meaning they won’t confirm the next Crown Prince?)
Is this real? Are we actually seeing stuff from a melodrama happen in real life?
💬 The Emperor ordered the press conference himself… it seems really serious, and the Imperial Family seems to have their own suspicions about who the culprit is
💬 What kind of madman killed the Crown Prince?
➥ Are you seriously asking because you don’t know? Think about it for two seconds and you’ll have the answer
💬 Tax thief becomes murderer lol, when they arrest him he definitely needs enhanced charges, the money used to kill the Crown Prince was probably taxpayer money anyway?
From television to the internet, there was no corner of the world that didn’t carry news of the press conference.
Tae-o, scrolling through his Mobile Phone, lifted the corner of his mouth slightly.
“Hotter than I expected.”
He’d anticipated that this press conference would change many things, but the reaction was far more intense than he’d predicted.
The people of this nation were not foolish. They were clever enough to find the answer with merely a hint.
Such suspicion was necessary for a successful investigation. Once a doubt appeared, however shallow, it would never be easily filled in.
Seon was exceptionally clever. She had shaken public trust and etched her presence deep into people’s minds. Whenever he saw the world filled with her face, he felt certain that his choice had been right.
He probably wouldn’t have to wait long. Tae-o leaned back into the sofa with a relaxed smile. His thumb, scrolling through the screen, felt unusually light.
Ding—
Right on cue.
Tae-o pressed the message that had appeared at the top of the screen with an arrogant expression. It was from a number he had only saved but rarely exchanged calls with.
[Come to the Commissioner’s Office. By 19:00.]
Those who hungered for power were more sensitive to its currents than anyone else. Now that the object of his loyalty had begun to waver, to scheme about other connections was nothing more than a natural survival instinct.
Tae-o rose to his feet, stretching his body languidly.
The tedious days were over.
Top of his class at the Police Academy, top of his graduating year. Highest arrest rate in the Homicide Division. It was time to prove that the glories of his past were no illusion.
Tae-o’s eyes gleamed coldly. It was the gaze of a wolf standing before its prey.
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After the press conference ended, Seon moved her residence to Gyeongheung Palace.
Gyeongheung Palace had suffered such severe destruction that few of its buildings had been restored.
Yet it remained a Secondary Palace nonetheless. To think that a mere county governor, daughter of a prince, was now entering what had once been a royal palace.
It was a special imperial order to handle the media attention directed at Seon, the spokesperson, but it conveyed more than generosity—it was a kind of signal.
Once Seon had entered her quarters in Deok-yu Hall, she finally released the breath she had been holding.
“At last, I’ve taken a step forward.”
She repeated the words to herself as if crying out to the world.
The child who had cowered before Ui-gu Dagun was gone. So too was the helpless girl whose eyewitness testimony had barely escaped her lips before being buried.
Seon had cried out to the world. To suspect her great-uncle. To remember that my grandfather had been brutally slain.
And the world had answered her cry.
Nor was that all. The members of the Imperial Family, whose messages and calls had been absent while her popularity soared only among the common people, now contacted her without ceasing.
The moment she aimed directly at Ui-gu Dagun, everyone began to see Seon anew.
Power was so flimsy. So easy to turn away from, so easy to steal.
Seon, who had been tossing her Mobile Phone onto the bed as the vibrations continued without pause, now stood before a mirror. Her flushed face came into view.
‘Now more than ever, I need to keep my wits about me.’
She raised her hands and patted both cheeks lightly. The gentle contact sharpened her mind.
Ui-gu Dagun probably believes he excels at public opinion warfare. But does he? The theater was a field where Sun, inheriting the blood of an actress mother, was equally formidable. One could tell simply by watching how the entire world hung on every word she spoke.
Sun, who had been studying herself in the mirror, felt a presence moving beyond its frame.
“You’ve finally arrived.”
It was Seok-chol, a document case in one hand and a Tablet in the other.
Seok-chol wrinkled his nose, bothered by his glasses sliding down to the bridge. Sun offered her reflection a faint smile before walking toward him at a leisurely pace. When she pinched his Tablet between two fingers, she felt its weight. Now free of that burden, Seok-chol hurried to adjust his glasses properly.
Once he had returned to his usual composed demeanor, a note of self-satisfaction crept into the corners of his mouth—the expression of a man who had just proven his own competence.
“You will never regret, for the rest of your life, that I have chosen to stand at your side.”
“What’s this, Seok-chol? You’re positively brimming with confidence.”
Sun laughed lightly and settled onto the sofa, crossing her legs. As she activated the Tablet’s screen, Seok-chol followed suit and sat down beside her.
She typed in the familiar password, and a document-filled screen opened. Her eyes moved rapidly across the densely written text.
At times she held her breath; at others she exhaled sharply; at certain points she paused to clench her teeth. After a moment, Sun turned to look at Seok-chol. This was truly a result she could not deny.
“Even Grandmother didn’t explain these matters to me in such detail.”
“That’s precisely what I’m here for.”
Seok-chol adjusted his glasses once more, pushing them up with his fingertip. The ease evident in that gesture bordered on arrogance.
Yet Sun did not dislike this side of him. Few in the Imperial Family could boast of such a versatile aide as this.
Sun’s eyes returned to the information Seok-chol had brought. The essence of what lay within was singular: Ui-gu Dagun had been attempting to draw foreign powers into this nation to achieve his aims.
It was not merely the suspicion, which she had heard of before from the Emperor, that he sought to hand over the Jeongju mines to foreign capital. A vast web of related allegations was meticulously compiled here.
“Foreign capital was involved in the Jeongju Economic Special Zone development as well?”
Sun murmured.
The announcement of the Jeongju Economic Special Zone was a government decision, not one made by the Imperial Household. The mines, being Imperial property, were open to Imperial involvement—but a national development project was another matter entirely. The Imperial Household, after all, was meant to exist solely as a symbol of national unity, an object of emulation and reverence.
Yet this report spelled out in detail just how naive her judgment had been.
The Vice Minister who planned the special zone was Ui-gu Dagun’s high school classmate; the Minister who gave final approval had recently facilitated through Ui-gu Dagun the marriage of his grandson to a member of the collateral Imperial Family.
Even the construction company ultimately selected was unfamiliar—
“Connected to Ui-gu Dagun’s wife’s family?”
“One of the subcontractors from Gyeong-an Gun’s maternal uncle’s wife’s side, it appears.”
“Which means it’s a small-scale operation.”
“Precisely. The selection of unknown firms for such a massive undertaking is suspicious from the start.”
Seok-chol stated it plainly.
A major project encompassing not merely economic and trade zones but educational and residential facilities as well—even Sun, ignorant of construction matters, understood that such success could not be achieved with a year or two of experience.
Sun’s fingers tapped against the sofa’s armrest, producing a faint, rhythmic scratching sound that filled the quiet room.
“Still, there’s only a connection—no direct evidence that Ui-gu Dagun was personally involved. And you know as well as I do that he’s unmatched when it comes to covering his tracks.”
The practical truth was, on the surface, disheartening. Contending with Ui-gu Dagun, who wielded such formidable connections and held so many secrets of the Imperial Family in his grasp, was indeed no simple task.
“Look into Gyeong-an Gun. He’s a man consumed by paternal love—he won’t easily sever ties with his only son.”
Sun spoke with deliberate calm.
“And I must find my own way to counter Ui-gu Dagun.”
There was no time for despair. She stood now at a point of departure that no one could deny.

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