Royal Coup d'État - Chapter 64

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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 64
Even as Uijeong Daegun’s adopted son and steadily climbing toward the Imperial Throne, there were things that never changed.
The romance between his father and mother had been a lie. He was not the product of love. And somewhere out there existed a child born from his father’s infidelity.
No matter how much he pressed Uigu Daegun, no matter how he advanced step by step toward the Imperial Throne—these remained unchanging, terrible facts.
Just as he had landed a blow against Uigu Daegun, this was likely the uppercut his father had prepared for him.
“You called me in here with people watching?”
He asked in a cutting voice.
It was only because quick-witted Seok Chul had swiftly closed the door and taken it upon himself to stand guard that they’d been spared. If a nurse or doctor had happened to pass by, the top portal headline would not have been his words from moments ago, but rather a private family confrontation in a hospital room.
Only in moments like this did Uijeong Daegun and Yeosan Bubuin match perfectly, exchanging a glance. They seemed flustered, unsure which words to speak first. Seeing this, he planted a hand on his hip and exhaled a furious breath.
“Hah.”
Even as he breathed out long and slow, his heart continued to pound—thump-thump—with no sign of calming. The source of that angry, insistent drumming in his chest was unmistakably clear.
“I… I…”
The woman opened her mouth pitifully in the heavy silence, her hands trembling slightly. Her eyes darted about restlessly, unable to settle on anyone’s face. It was almost painful to watch.
Why did she look more miserable than he did?
Exasperated, he let out a hollow laugh, and the woman shrank back, her gaze sliding away.
“How much further will you complicate things, Father?”
Sharp words tumbled from his mouth.
All the careful consideration about what to say gave way to nothing but cutting remarks crowding his mind.
Uijeong Daegun seemed struck by his tone. His brow furrowed as he opened his mouth as if to snap back—but Yeosan Bubuin’s gentle grip on his hand stilled him, and he closed his lips firmly.
“No, that’s not it. He didn’t call me here or anything.”
The one who came to his father’s aid now was, absurdly, the woman who looked ready to burst into tears at any moment. Her voice cracked as she rushed out her excuse.
“It’s just… I was worried. I heard there had been an attack, that you’d been hurt…”
“And so Imperial Family gets full access to the Imperial Palace Hospital ward over a reason like that?”
He laughed hollowly again, and the woman flinched back with a stifled sound.
There was definitely someone who had helped her get in. Obviously Uigu Daegun. Did he think just anyone could waltz into this place?
With his arms crossed, he looked down at the woman with barely concealed disdain. The way she couldn’t meet anyone’s eyes suggested she had no spine whatsoever.
She was small, thin to the point of gauntness, with short hair barely grazing her shoulders. Setting aside what he’d already seen in photographs, even studying her face carefully now, there was not a trace of resemblance. Perhaps because she took after his mother more, but she looked so different that it was hard to believe they shared the same blood. Everything about her—her manner, her appearance—was utterly unlike him.
Seo Hyun, wasn’t that her name?
He recalled the name that Seok Chul had told him.
He had considered meeting her once. Before her identity became public, he wanted to confirm the truth and dispose of the problem. If she had sided with Uigu Daegun, he’d planned to either persuade or coerce her.
But not today. Not like this. It was too disrespectful, too contrary to decency.
How long had it been since his father was attacked? And he had chosen today—the day after he’d spoken confidently to the press about the Imperial Palace’s future—to destroy everything he’d built. There was no need for this.
He looked up at the ceiling and heaved a long sigh. At that sound, Seo Hyun’s shoulders flinched again.
“Sun.”
Uijeong Daegun called out to him.
But he turned away, refusing to look at his father. The bandage wrapped around his hand no longer registered at all.
His father was ruining another crucial moment of his life once more. Whether he had summoned this woman or she had come of her own accord, the source of all this chaos lay with Uijeong Daegun.
He despised this woman who had suddenly appeared in his hospital room like a time bomb about to detonate. But he despised his father even more.
He thought he’d forgotten. With the struggle for the throne, investigations, and constantly chasing after Uigu Daegun, he’d assumed it was already in the past.
But it wasn’t. The moment he saw that face, it all came rushing back. The fact that his father and mother had deceived him for his entire life. The fact that they hadn’t even managed hypocrisy for the sake of that grand love—his mother had betrayed it too.
The genuine concern he had felt for his parents, the calculations he had made about how to use this opportunity, the self-satisfaction he’d felt in front of the reporters—all of it now seemed absurd.
The habitual smile that had clung to his lips slowly faded. The warmth in his eyes vanished completely. Even the sensation of feeling something in his chest began to disgust him.
“What do you want?”
He asked in a clipped tone. At his businesslike manner, Seo Hyun’s entire body began to quiver.
It was not how someone of Imperial Family carried themselves.
His father had lived his entire life overshadowed by his older brothers, but because he was born and raised as Imperial Family, he knew how to maintain a dignified appearance in public.
His mother was the same. She was a person who harbored no less fear than anyone else, but as an actress by training, she had a talent for suppressing her emotions and performing.
But Seo Hyun was different.
Her eyes pleading, pitiful. Yet unable to settle on anyone, darting about helplessly.
Fingers that couldn’t stay still, as if betraying confused emotions. A depressed expression, her eyes drooping at the corners as though thoroughly cowed.
It was as if he had become the villain in some cruel story.
“You lived pretending to be dead, pretending not to exist. Now you show your face at a timing like this—it seems you want something. Tell me. Money? A house?”
Yet even knowing this, he couldn’t help but press her.
Looking at Seo Hyun’s innocent face brought a wave of nausea and revulsion so intense it was nearly unbearable.
It wasn’t her fault that he’d lost the grand title of being the product of his parents’ love. It wasn’t her fault that his mother and father had lied to him. She herself might be nothing more than a victim of someone else’s love.
But he couldn’t bring himself to treat her with pity.
She was the card that Uigu Daegun had hidden away without his father’s knowledge. An illegitimate child of Uijeong Daegun, protected by the powerful Shin Clan. A woman who had appeared suddenly and upended his entire existence.
He couldn’t afford to see her in a kind light, not knowing what danger she might pose to him in the future.
“I… I…”
He saw Seo Hyun’s eyes squeeze shut. Tears had gathered, and her cheeks flushed red.
“I’m really worried. Just worried.”
“Ha!”
Sun let out a scornful laugh, her eyes narrowing at Seo Hyun. If there was an optimal temperature for human frustration, she’d long since exceeded it.
“Are you joking?”
The sharp edge in her voice didn’t shake Seo Hyun. Wearing that frightened expression while stubborn as stone—she was unmistakably her father’s child.
“I know this is hard on you because of me. I’m not stupid enough not to understand that much.”
Seo Hyun lifted her head carefully. In her tear-bright eyes, Sun could see the weight of guilt.
“I don’t know about others, but… you, the Cheongyang Hyeonju… I think you might be able to hate me.”
Ha.
Another hollow laugh escaped Sun’s lips.
Watching Seo Hyun speak in that guileless tone, despite the iron resolve knotted in her own chest, Sun felt her will drain away like water through cupped hands.
‘Why do I keep feeling like the villain?’
Sun bit down hard on her lip. The tender flesh crumpled beneath her teeth, pathetic and raw—much like the way her spirits had been hurled from heights to the ground moments before.
“But honestly, I was curious. My younger sister, the one I’d only ever seen on television… to finally meet her like this.”
Sun opened her mouth to counter, then closed it again.
So this was what it felt like when words simply wouldn’t come.
Younger sister. What a strange word.
A person who barely knows me. Simply because we shared the same father. She’d spoken the words with such innocent certainty.
As if she were truly my older sister. As if my mother didn’t exist. As if, regardless of the circumstances, I—born legally and justly—had simply vanished from the world. As if we were somehow truly family.
None of this was Seo Hyun’s fault, perhaps. Grandfather had done the same, and given the circumstances—Uigu Daegun had orchestrated everything, bringing Uijeong Daegun and Seo Sun-young back together, or so they said.
But was it coercion? They’d chosen to reunite of their own accord. Infidelity was still infidelity, no matter how you dressed it up.
“Just because you’re my father’s illegitimate child doesn’t make you my sister.”
Sun’s voice came out cold as winter stone. Seo Hyun’s eyes began to tremble uncontrollably.
“I am the Cheongyang Hyeonju, born in the Imperial Palace and raised in the Imperial Family records. You are nothing to me.”
The words were cruel, but not untrue. No amount of the two of them sharing a thousand years of love before marriage could change that fundamental fact.
“Stop.”
Before Seo Hyun could respond, Yeosan Bubuin stepped forward.
Her eyes were red-rimmed as she looked between her daughter and the uninvited guest, her voice taking on a decisive edge.
“I’d like you to leave. And I hope you understand that this sort of visit isn’t good for anyone involved.”
Seo Hyun looked startled, as if she’d forgotten Yeosan Bubuin had been present the entire time. Her gaze darted toward Uijeong Daegun, seeking his help, but he turned away from her with a terrible, deliberate certainty.
He never once looked at Seo Hyun as she hesitantly backed toward the Hospital Room door and stepped out into the hallway.
That image stayed with Sun in a way she couldn’t quite explain.
Sun loved her father, and because she loved him, she knew him well.
Uijeong Daegun was simply waiting for this moment to pass. He was a man who could not face the weight of his own deeds, who only waited for someone else to carry it away for him.
It had always been this way since childhood. Whenever trouble came—before Uigu Daegun, within the Imperial Palace, and even now—it never changed.
Watching her father turn away from Seo Hyun, Sun felt no relief, and not because she pitied the other woman.

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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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