Royal Coup d'État - Chapter 56

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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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Episode 56
Even after returning to Changdeok Palace, Sun’s mood remained sunken.
Uigu Daegun had killed his uncle. And to cover up his crime, he was now wielding the royal family by holding the names of younger relatives hostage as collateral.
Sun cupped her head in both hands and let out a shallow sigh.
The more clearly the vague misdeeds of her paternal uncle came into focus, the more helpless she felt.
How could she prove his guilt? How could she shatter the image of Uigu Daegun that people believed in? If only she could break that, she could naturally drive him toward confession as the perpetrator.
From here on, she would leave the investigation to the task force. Sun had to begin her own fight.
“I need to make my move too.”
Sun muttered quietly to herself. The mere thought made her frown and her skin prickle with unease. Fighting someone already mired in filth meant inevitably flinging mud upon herself as well.
To stand against Uigu Daegun—a man who could discard others’ lives as easily as drawing breath to win—required resolve of equal measure. Sun had no intention of fighting so filthily, but neither would she cling to false nobility.
“There’s no need to rush. You could just as easily suffer a backlash if you grow careless.”
Seok-chul spoke with measured composure.
As the investigation results pointed deeper into the abyss, Sun’s conviction wavered. There were moments when pure vengeance clouded her eyes more than any sense of justice in revealing the truth.
But it was precisely in such moments that she needed to keep her wits sharp and move with meticulous preparation. Just as Seok-chul said, Uigu Daegun would be watching for any opening she gave him to strike with whatever means available.
When Sun slowly nodded, Seok-chul withdrew several printed photographs from his bag.
“Look at these first.”
The photographs Seok-chul handed over captured various times—day and night, or dawn. Though the times seemed to shift continuously, the location remained constant.
A two-story house with a courtyard, the sort that belonged in upscale neighborhoods like Bukchon or Pyeongchang-dong. Gray stone rose high to form the walls of the estate, and a tall black iron gate extended upward above them.
And there was one person who appeared consistently throughout the photographs.
“So that’s…….”
Before Seok-chul could even answer, Sun intuited it instinctively.
A woman in the photograph, pushing down a hat and warily passing through the iron gate. With a slight frame barely reaching five feet tall, thin shoulders, and short hair reaching to her shoulders, she bore no obvious physical resemblance to Sun. And yet Sun could be certain—this woman shared the same blood as her.
“But I heard Daeseong Pharmaceutical collapsed. How is she living in a mansion like this?”
Sun, who had been studying the woman in the photograph for a moment, furrowed her brow and asked.
From the time she became a high school student, Sun had managed the finances of the residence of Uijeong Daegun.
There was no trace of support for such a large estate, nor any record of maintenance funds being paid to an illegitimate child. Even if her father had maintained a separate purse, it would have been difficult to secure sums this substantial.
Sun’s gaze shifted to Seok-chul. As if he had been waiting for this, he answered.
“Seo Sun-yeong’s family company, Daeseong Pharmaceutical, vanished without a trace. Her maternal family isn’t particularly business-oriented, so financial support would have been nearly impossible from that quarter.”
Seo Sun-yeong. So that was the name of the woman her father had loved to distraction.
Far from burning with anger, Sun’s heart grew unexpectedly calm, as if doused with water. Her father’s infidelity wasn’t even worth the kindling to fuel her rage.
“But her maternal family is a scholarly one. Seo Sun-yeong’s maternal grandfather was a professor at Suhakwon University, specializing in business administration, and apparently maintains extensive connections with political families and major conglomerates.”
Seok-chul tapped the house in the photograph as he spoke.
“This estate belongs to a family connected through those same threads.”
Sun’s lip tightened slightly.
“So Uigu Daegun had no involvement at all?”
“That hardly seems likely. One of Uigu Daegun’s close drinking companions is the eldest son of this family.”
Seok-chul offered a faint smile and turned on the Tablet, handing it to her. The face on the screen was a man she recognized.
“Shin Ji-sang. He’s a judge at the Seoul High Court, isn’t he?”
Though her position within the royal family meant she should not involve herself in politics, it was precisely that unusual status that allowed her to know certain people. The Shin Family was among them.
The patriarch, Shin Jung-soo, was a former Prime Minister. The eldest son was a High Court judge. The second son was a National Assembly member from his district. The eldest daughter served abroad as a consul general, while the youngest, despite his youth, had been appointed to the extraordinary position of Foreign Affairs Ministry spokesperson, making headlines in the press.
“So the Shin Family has been protecting Seo Sun-yeong and the illegitimate child all this time?”
Why would such a celebrated political and diplomatic family shelter merely the mistress and illegitimate child of Uijeong Daegun?
“Now it’s only the illegitimate child. Seo Sun-yeong passed away three years ago from a chronic illness.”
Sun faltered. Her father’s great love—dead.
“The exact reason is still under investigation, but it’s certain that she’s been living there since her high school years. We’ve confirmed her school records under the name she currently uses.”
“……What’s her name?”
Illegitimate child, illegitimate child—that was all Sun had called her, never knowing her actual name. She hadn’t cared to know. Why should a woman who was merely a stain on her own life matter?
Yet seeing the woman in the photograph, an unasked question surfaced from within. Seok-chul hesitated for a moment before answering slowly.
“She took her mother’s surname. Seo Hyun. That’s what she goes by.”
A woman who might have been named differently. Seo Hyun.
“Why did the Shin Family become your paternal uncle’s secret vault?”
“We’re still investigating that. The eldest son and Uigu Daegun are close, and the former Prime Minister did have close ties to Seo Sun-yeong’s maternal grandfather, but I don’t think that’s the full reason.”
This time, even Seok-chul’s expression showed uncertainty. Uncovering deeply rooted secrets was never simple.
Sun exhaled sharply and picked up the Tablet before her. While searching for why Uigu Daegun had entrusted them with such important secrets, she could not afford to sit idle.
“No matter how careful he is, there’s no way someone like my paternal uncle could be flawless. There has to be a crack somewhere…….”
Sun knew where to begin searching for that crack.
Gyeongan Gun. Her paternal uncle’s only child was the thread that could unravel him.
That Uigu Daegun had numerous women who could be called his mistresses was common knowledge to anyone who loved following palace tabloids and rumors.
But his cleanup was so thorough that no news of illegitimate children ever surfaced.
Gyeongan Gun might be somewhat dim-witted, but the consensus was that he lived lavishly as Uigu Daegun’s only child simply because there was no one else to replace him.
Seo Sun-yeong’s pupils darkened as she scanned through the documents Seok-chul had gathered—a comprehensive dossier on Gyeongan Gun’s various controversies.
There was plenty of evidence: his love of drinking and carousing, his appetite for women. Yet none of it amounted to anything truly damaging. Everyone in the nation, Seo Sun-yeong included, already knew about Gyeongan Gun’s proclivities.
Whenever he entered Korea, Gyeongan Gun haunted the clubs, and citizens photographed him each time.
Even Uigu Daegun could not resist the current age, where social media moved faster than words. Rather than suppress the press, he simply provided his son with exclusive bars and clubs where he could indulge freely.
“Finding it won’t be easy, but if we locate Gyeongan Gun’s weakness, we can definitely get a collar around his neck.”
“That may be so. But Uigu Daegun shields him so thoroughly.”
There was only one reason Uigu Daegun protected Gyeongan Gun so fiercely: his son’s weakness would become his own.
Yet frustratingly, nothing useful emerged from the materials Seok-chul had scraped together. Gyeongan Gun’s dissolute lifestyle hardly qualified as a weakness at all—the public harbored no expectations of him in the first place.
One decisive blow. Could such a thing even be found?
Seo Sun-yeong’s lower lashes trembled faintly. She knew well enough that survival sometimes demanded descent into sordidness. Yet the oppressive sensation of wearing ill-fitting clothes refused to lift.
She pressed the Tablet’s power button and darkened the screen, then squeezed her eyes shut. The darkness behind her eyelids seemed to mirror the darkness spreading through her heart.
Buzz—
The vibration thrumming across the table drew Seo Sun-yeong’s eyes open slowly.
The sound wasn’t coming from the Tablet, still dark on its screen. Her gaze shifted from the device to her phone.
[Gyeongan Gun]
What is this?
Seo Sun-yeong’s eyes blinked rapidly. It took her a moment to process whether the name displayed on the screen was truly the one she knew.
But no matter how she turned it over in her mind, there was only one person in the imperial household bearing the title Gyeongan Gun—Lee Min, son of Uigu Daegun. No one else could claim that name.
Seo Sun-yeong reached out as though entranced. The phone, vibrating at regular intervals, continued to tremble even after her fingers closed around it.
The call was finite, but she couldn’t bring herself to answer. She had never had a pleasant conversation with Gyeongan Gun—had no history with him at all.
Seok-chul’s swallow was audible.
“…Hello?”
Seo Sun-yeong swallowed her hesitation and carefully raised the phone to her ear. The hesitation seemed mutual; all that passed through the receiver was the shallow breath of the caller.
―….
There was nothing Seo Sun-yeong could do in the face of such silence. She could only wait, clinging to a thread of patience.
Fortunately, before that fragile thread snapped, Gyeongan Gun’s voice finally emerged from the prolonged silence.
―My father’s going to make that woman public.
He spoke as though fleeing from something, his words tumbling out in panicked haste. The pace was so rapid she could barely make out the meaning.
―And he’s called an assembly of the Daedong Association. Be careful.
Having delivered his message, Gyeongan Gun cut the line immediately.
Click-click. The call ended abruptly, and Seo Sun-yeong and Seok-chul’s bewildered gazes met in the air between them.

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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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