The Cruel Imperial Family Episode 4

[Episode 4] Blood-red tears and the prelude to a counterattack

 

"Mama..."

 

As if suppressing the overwhelming emotions that had risen to the throat, Minhyuk's rough breathing shook the heavy air of the inner chamber.

 

Whenever the Empress's noble touch embraced his wounds, he swore and swore again to drive those who sought to trample on that frail woman to the very end of hell, even if it meant sacrificing his life.

 

Sieun looked at the beast-like loyal subject who had been kneeling before her and felt the hot blood returning to her heart, which had been frozen for 14 years.

 

She was no longer the queen of the Korean Empire, which was merely a facade of tears shedding tears overwhelmed by sorrow.

 

"Get up, Minhyuk."

 

When Si-eun commanded in a cold and firm voice, Min-hyuk slowly rose to his feet.

 

His gaze, which had just been as cruel as the apocalypse in the front yard of his family home, was filled with absolute reverence, waiting only for the lord's orders.

 

"After tonight, those arrogant yellow insects will walk into the grave we have dug on their own."

 

Sieun's red lips drew a chilling smile.

 

The next morning

 

The heavy rain of last night, which seemed to engulf the world, seemed to have washed away all the filth, leaving the sky of the imperial palace piercingly blue and clear.

 

However, despite the warm and peaceful morning sunlight, the emperor's side hall was enveloped in the eerie stillness of the calm before the storm.

 

Emperor Yu Jong-seok was drinking fragrant tea from a finest white porcelain teacup, wearing a relaxed smile.

 

On the wide throne, Shin Ari, dressed in a vulgar red silk slip that revealed his inner self, was leaning against his knees like a languid cat.

 

"Your Majesty, did you have a good dream last night?"

 

Ari whispered in Jong-seok's ear with a sweet, alluring voice.

 

"Hahaha, of course, this morning we'll hear the welcome news that old man Min Hyun-seok, who was like a thorn in my side, has passed away. The skill of the Black Shadow I personally raised is the best in the Korean Empire, so by now, they've probably cut off the old man's life without a trace and sent him to hell."

 

Jong-seok burst into a arrogant laugh, as if he had already secured victory.

 

Just thinking about it makes my heart swell. How exhilarating would it be to see that arrogant and insolent, unbearable, begging for help in front of the cold corpse of her father, shedding tears of blood and pleading for His Majesty's life?

 

Ari stroked Jong-seok's firm chest with her thin fingers and acted coquettishly like a snake.

 

It was a moment when he was caught in the sweet illusion that the Empress's position had become entirely his own.

 

It was right then.

 

Bang!

 

The heavy door of the Pyeonjeon opened impolitely and urgently, and Jongseok's chief secretary rushed in with a pale face.

 

Cold sweat was pouring down his forehead like rain.

 

"Your Majesty! This is a disaster! The entire empire has been turned upside down!"

 

Jongseok frowned and did not hide his displeasure.

 

"What's the commotion! Did you perhaps receive a message from the assassination squad leader this morning?"

 

That... That is not it... Ah... As soon as the Korean Empire Stock Exchange opened in the morning, Minseok Group is flooding the market with royal family-related bonds and government bonds! "The stock price of the cultural heritage restoration project, the main business of the imperial family, plummeted to the lower limit just 10 minutes after the market opened, and the national treasury's funding network has been completely paralyzed, leading to the risk of bankruptcy!"

 

The secretary, panting, continued with a shocking report.

 

What's even more horrifying is that Chairman Min Hyun-seok is still alive! He personally stepped onto the press platform and declared that he would completely scrap all investment contracts with the imperial family!

 

"What... what?! What kind of crazy talk is that! Why is that old man, Min Hyun-seok, still alive?"

 

Jongseok, startled, jumped up from his seat like a spring.

 

Ari, who had been sitting on his lap, let out a sharp scream and collapsed onto the marble floor, but Jong-seok, unfazed, ran to his secretary and roughly grabbed his collar.

 

"Sniff..." Black Shadow is those assassination squads! Um... What happened to those guys? Are you saying that the elite unit I sent couldn't even handle a mere old chaebol! "Answer me!"

 

It was at that very moment.

 

"Your Majesty, the Empress, is eating!"

 

Outside the door, the trembling voice of a eunuch, like a trembling aspen leaf, echoed through the royal chamber, and at the same time, the main gate of the massive royal court was flung open on both sides.

 

Dressed in dazzlingly brilliant and splendid golden ceremonial attire, Min Si-eun entered the royal chamber with a confident stride, showcasing her presence as the perfect mistress of the empire.

 

To her right was the brain of Minseok Group, accompanied by a savage black panther-like bodyguard, Kim Min-hyuk, accompanied her to her left.

 

On Si-eun's face, there was not a single trace of her usual gloomy shadow or the sorrowfulness she had felt from being oppressed.

 

She wore a chillingly cold and noble smile, like the ruler of a perfect empire with all the people beneath her feet.

 

"The royal presence has been quite noisy since this morning, Your Majesty."

 

Sieun lightly took steps and stood before the throne.

 

Ari, who had collapsed on the floor, looked up at Si-eun with eyes full of shame and venom, but Si-eun never once glanced at her.

 

He treated her thoroughly as if she were an invisible person, as if she were looking at a trivial bug crawling on the floor.

 

Empress! Yes... What brings you here? "Do you even know what tricks your father is currently up to the imperial family?"

 

Jong-seok shouted, trying to hide his embarrassment.

 

However, Si-eun's voice was as cold and serene as a glacier in the dead of winter.

 

"A trick? Your Majesty's father simply cut off the rotten rope that had lost its appeal as an investment destination without any regrets." "There is no such thing as a foolish merchant who pours water into a bottomless pit."

 

Sieun lightly scoffed.

 

Then, he gave a nod to Secretary Han, who was standing behind him.

 

Secretary Han approached with the sound of his shoes and carefully placed a splendid box decorated with the finest mother-of-pearl on Jong-seok's table.

 

"What is this... what is this?"

 

Jong-seok's voice was trembling slightly.

 

"Last night, uninvited guests visited my parents' home. They seemed like pitiful beasts lost and wandering, so I personally took them in and returned them to His Majesty as a 'gift.' Please open them once, and I hope you will like them."

 

At Si-eun's cool suggestion, Jong-seok swallowed hard and opened the lid of the mother-of-pearl box with trembling hands.

 

Instantly, Jong-seok's face lost its color, and he was terrified, turning pale and discolored.

 

Shinari, who crawled from the floor and peered into the box together, also exclaimed, "Kyaaah!" He let out a deafening scream and stepped back, landing on his buttocks.

 

On the ornate and soft silk cushion, the 'bloody, severed right hand' of the leader of the Black Shadow Assassination Squad, who had been dispatched overnight, was grotesquely placed there.

 

On his thick finger, the ring with the emperor's bestowal of a secret organization was still attached, and beneath it lay the 'original copy of the 500 billion won embezzlement nominee account' that Jong-seok and Ari had so desperately sought to cover up.

 

It was perfect evidence and a cruel warning.

 

"Hwang... Empress... Your daughter... How dare you! You do such a crazy thing to me!"

 

"Your Majesty! How dare you say such an absurd thing...!"

 

Sieun straightened her back and coldly rebuked Jongseok, who was trembling with fear.

 

Minhyuk's hand, standing behind her, was already placed on the sack, ready to draw his sword at any moment and strike the Emperor's head.

 

"Your Majesty declared war first. Not only did I fill the pockets of that vulgar courtesan with my family's money, but how dare you even target my father's life?"

 

Sieun slowly approached Jongseok, who had collapsed weakly from the throne.

 

And then, in his collapsed ear, she whispered in an icy, deadly voice.

 

"Look forward to it, Your Majesty, last night's hell is just beginning."

 

The arrogant emperor who had been commanding the empire in the Pyeonjeon, facing a perfect reversal, collapsed with weakness in his legs, while the greedy villain who had oppressed the empress for 14 years was speechless with a bloodless face, trembling like an aspen leaf, terrified.

 

And at the center of that destruction, Min Si-eun, who had shed the pretense of a wounded young bride at the age of 13 and had fully awakened as the goddess of vengeance forged from hellfire, was smiling brilliantly and cruelly.

 

This was the prelude to a true bloody war that would shake the empire.