Chapter 116 – Alandal’s State of Affair
The fire alarm went off and the people started to pour out of the building. A wall of soaked people was blocking the entrance.
“Hey, get outta my way! Why are you guys standing there like dumbasses!”
The greedy Choi-taeoh’s will to live was extraordinary. He pushed as people fell and was finally able to exit outside.
“All right. I’m alive.”
He didn’t know if it was a small or large fire. However, wasn’t it prudent to move to safety first? He couldn’t just stay behind. He didn’t trust the National Assembly building’s fire suppression system. Choi-taeoh’s suspicion and his will to live was as bloated as his stomach.
After barely getting past the group of people, the fresh air greeted him. The water from the sprinkler system had soaked his suit, so he wasn’t feeling that great. There was the additional cost of dry cleaning he would have to pay. He decided he’d rather just buy a new one…. He recovered his sense of dignity, which he had lost as he was escaping the building.
“Uh-huh! What’s with the sudden commotion!”
He started angrily scolding others. He wanted to know what had caused the fire alarm, but no one responded to him. Everyone was half frozen, and they were hesitatingly standing in place.
“Huh?”
The people gathered around the entrance, facing Choi-taeoh.
The two sides were looking at each other awkwardly. Actually, the group of people were looking behind Choi-taeoh. He tilted his head in confusion, and he turned his body.
“Uh?”
There were people on the ground bleeding out. No, they were already corpses. His good friend Park-sohgook was one of corpses.
A mass murder had happened at the Korean congress. When he was confronted with this preposterous situation, Choi-taeoh neither bluster nor called out for the police.
“…….”
He silently moved backwards, into the crowd.
His eyes rolled around as he observed the situation.
Kahng-woojin’s Death Knights, who he had seen in the convention room, were surrounding the congress. Moreover, the Death Knights weren’t the only ones there.
‘It’s those bastards I saw at Afghanistan.’
He had seen them through the news until he was sick and tired of them. It was Kahng-woojin’s Skeleton army, which numbered around 10 thousand. It seemed Kahng-woojin could summon them anywhere, so several thousand of them were besieging the congress.
The fire alarm had caused him to escape the building, but now he was frozen in shock as he witnessed the murders that had been committed by the Skeleton monsters.
The man standing next to Choi-taeoh asked a question in a small voice.
“He’s crazy. How the hell does he think he’ll deal with the aftermath?”
“I know, right?”
This wasn’t merely a case where a cornered stone met the chisel. He would become Korea’s public enemy… No, he would be considered a supergrade criminal. This was totally different from the act of suppressing the Middle Eastern terrorists.
He had killed the current members of congress who had committed no sins….
Fortunately, it wasn’t an indiscriminate massacre.
“Are the Skeletons able to pick and choose who they kill?”
“I don’t….”
The man who had been whispering his answers stopped speaking. He was frozen stiff. A Death Knight in black armor was leading a group of Skeletons towards him, coming to a stop right in front of him.
[Target confirmed.]
The Death Knight was looking straight at Choi-taeoh.
“W…what the hell?”
Choi-taeoh was so taken aback, he started stumbling backwards. The crowd was packed together like matches in a box, so he had nowhere to go.
“G…get out of the way! I’m Choi-taeoh! Move!”
Even his desperate struggle was only able to get the people to move half-heartedly. The Death Knight’s rough hand grabbed Choi-taeoh’s arm.
Hweeeeek. Kwah-dahng!
Choi-taeoh’s body couldn’t resist against its strength. He was thrown into the air and he crashed against the floor.
[Haul him to our monarch.]
Kee-kee-keek.
The Skeleton received the order from the Death Knight, who was their commander. They grabbed Choi-taeoh’s limbs, and they started to move.
“L…let me go! You dirty monsters!”
Choi-taeoh struggled, but the Skeletons continued to move with him in tow as they let out a bizarre sound. They arrived at a place where Kahng-woojin and a numerous number of corpses was waiting for him.
“Is he the 32nd one?”
The Skeletons came to a stop in front of Woojin, and they tossed Choi-taeoh to the ground. Then a Skeleton pulled back his head forcefully.
“Ooh-oohk. Let me go of me!”
He knew it was useless to yell, but he still struggled mightily. He had seen his future. He had seen the corpses scattering the ground.
Woojin searched through his memory, and he recalled this face.
“It’s Choi-taeoh. Take care of him.”
[I will carry out your command.]
A Death Knight with a spear approached him. Choi-taeoh ranted and raved as he struggled.
“W…why are you doing this?”
“If you see the news, you’ll find out.”
“If you are going to k…kill me, how am I going to see it!”
“Too bad.”
Choi-taeoh ranted and raved at Woojin’s words.
“Do you think you are a god because you have power? At the very least, let me know the reason, you son of a bitch!”
How can he play with a person like this?
Woojin smirked at Choi-taeoh’s words.
“Didn’t you have a connection with Lee-sahngho? You’ve also made a decent profit using the Dungone Breaks. Moreover, you played a role in the missile attack that was aimed to kill me. Those are the reasons.”
Choi-taeoh’s eyes opened wide. He didn’t care about the reasons. He just wanted to live.
“I had nothing to do with that! I’m innocent! How can you kill an innocent man! What does the law have to say about this!”
“Those are enough reasons to kill you.”
Choi-taeoh felt like throwing up blood. How can such a crazy bastard exist? This was happening in the heart of Korea. Moreover, he was conducting his grotesque murder show in front of congress.
“You crazy son of a bitch! This is South Korea. It’s the Democratic Republic of Korea! It’s the Republic of Korea. Do you think you’ll be able to live after carrying out such acts?”
Woojin shrugged his shoulders at his desperate words.
“You should worry about yourself.”
“You mother fucker….”
His words weren’t registering with this guy. How could such a crazy bastard show up?
Kahng-woojin was a Rank AA Roused. Korea’s guardian? Earth’s hope? Role model for the Roused?
It was all bullshit. The crazy bastard in front of his eyes was a terrorist who used monsters. He dared to carry out such brutal acts in a liberal democratic country….
[You are being disrespectful to the monarch.]
The Death Knight’s spear pierced Choi-taeoh’s heart.
“C…crazy….”
His voice lost too much strength for it to be called his last will. Choi-taeoh’s body slumped. Woojin ripped the document related to the man. There were still several more documents in his hands.
“They are damn late in coming out.”
Woo-soonghoon had already emptied his stomach. Soonghoon and Lee-kahngjin was quietly waiting behind Woojin. Woo-soonghoon thought about a lot of things during that time.
‘Whew. I would have probably died instead of being hit on the cheeks if I sold him an Omnia instead of a Galaxy.’
He recalled the terrifying first meeting he had with Woojin as a phone salesman. He was relieved.
Lee-kahngjin also had a lot of thought in his mind while all of this was going on.
‘Is he crazy?’
He was someone, who hated Korean politics more than anyone else.
He knew no politicians were clean. There were some amongst them he considered to be trash. They didn’t deserve to live amongst the people. However, the law of the land had protected these people….
The only thing Lee-kahngjin could do was send them to prison for several months. It was basically sending them on a vacation to prison. The only thing it did was to damage the politician’s image.
However, Kang-woojin was…
‘Is he some kind of a revolutionist?’
Did a revolutionist appear? Was he going to pull out Korea’s rotten roots? Was he doing this knowing he might be labeled the worst murderer in Korean history?
While Lee-kahngjin was thinking hard about Kahng-woojin’s actions, the execution had come to an end.
No, this wasn’t really revenge. This was closer to a warning.
“Let’s go now.”
As if he was getting off from work to go to his home, Woojin lightly rose to his feet, then started walking. The haggard Woo-soonghoon and Lee-kahngjin followed after him, the former of which had no energy left to throw up again. Soonghoon carefully asked a question.
“Is this really ok, president?”
Woo-soonghoon was nervous, since the cameras were taking pictures of them from all angles. Will they really be able to live their lives and not get arrested?
“It’ll be alright. Go over there and bring that camera over here.”
“Yes.”
Woo-soonghoon ran to complete his errand.
The congress was surrounded by the Death Knights and Skeletons. Moreover, there were alarmed soldiers surrounding the Skeleton army.
Amongst the soldiers, Soonghoon caught sight of cameras and reporters. As he was approaching them, several dozen guns were raised towards him. His legs were shaking.
“Don’t come any closer.”
“My president has something to say. Please bring a camera over to him.”
“…….”
The commander of the unit, colonel Park, had an incredulous expression on his face.
This was too bizarre of a business to consider them to be crazy, and now they wanted a camera. Maybe they are really crazy? Shocking was the word that encapsulated Woojin’s actions.
“I’ll go.”
The network executive thought this was an exclusive scoop, so he ran forward. He was willing to put his life on the line for the story. The reporter swallowed his spit and followed after the executive with the camera staff.
Woojin asked a question to the network executive, who had approached him.
“Is this live?”
“What? Yes.”
Woojin looked at the camera and made his declaration.
*
The President had the TV on as he watched it with the Chief Officer.
He had cancelled his trip to the congress.
‘A warning and a proposal….’
The words spoken by Kahng-woojin wouldn’t leave his thoughts.
“What do you think about this?”
“He’s committing high treason against our country.”
The Chief Officer watched the unprecedented breaking news that was all over each television channel. He had spoken in a firm manner.
The President shook his head from side to side.
“No, I’m talking about his proposal.”
“…It isn’t something I can decide..”
“Hmmmm….”
This wasn’t actually an unprecedented event, but at the very least, it was something he would have never thought would occur on the Korean Peninsula. The division of North and South Korea was already a tragedy, and if another country was formed here….
President Kim-byungmahn was deep within his thoughts when one of his secretaries ran quickly towards him.
“It’s a call from the Minister of National Defense.”
He didn’t even need to pick up the phone to know what this was about.
He had ordered the troops to surround Kahng-woojin, and he gave them explicit orders to stay put.
“Give it to me.”
Kim-byuhgmahn answered the phone, and a desperate voice was heard.
[Kahng-woojin said if we don’t break up our encirclement in 5 minutes he’ll attack us. Please give us the engagement order. We have to send a preemptive strike.]
Does he really think a preemptive strike would successfully take down Kahng-woojin?
Even the terrorists in the Middle East had lost to him, because they had lacked enough firepower.
What was truly best for Korea?
After thinking hard on it, Kim-byungmahn gave his answer.
“Break up the perimeter.”
[…We shouldn’t do that. This is high treason against our country. We have to punish him sternly.]
“How many casualties?”
[There are 57 casualties including congressman Park-sohgook.]
Kim-byungmahn made his decision within his heart. Kahng-woojin had kept his exact promise.
“Release them from the encirclement. This is an order.”
[…Understood.]
Kim-byungmahn ended the call and spoke to his secretary.
“Prepare my official press conference.”
“Yes, sir.”
Kim-byungmahn let out a very heavy sigh.
*
The employees gathered inside the Alandal president’s room was discreetly glancing at the vice president Jung-minchan. He was bonelessly lying on the sofa. His expression was of a person who had just lost his country.
His headache was so severe that medicine wasn’t working, so he had tied his necktie around his head.
Kim-haemin comforted Jung-minchan, who was lying down with a devastated expression on his face.
“Just give up, vice president. This isn’t the first time our president caused trouble.”
“Ha-ah…. This isn’t in the same stratosphere as an accident….”
“…….”
Haemin agreed with those words.
Kang-woojin’s story was plastered all over the news.
“Oh wow. Hyung-nim is the number 1 searched topic again.”
Sunggoo let out a bright laugh as he pushed his smartphone forward. The dark circles under Minchan’s eyes became deeper.
How come all the Roused in their guild was like this?
The keywords in the search ranking was full of words like Kahng-woojin, Alandal, treason, rebellion, congress attack, and etc.
It was Jung-minchan’s job to take care of the aftermath when Kahng-woojin created an accident. He held the position of vice president, but the stress and pressure he felt from this job was quite significant. His president always seemed to cause global issues now.
“Try having one more pill.”
“Hah-ah. All right.”
He took a relaxing pill from Kim-haemin. He put it in his mouth and took a gulp of water.
[This is breaking news. The President has started his official press conference not too long ago. The President has announced the Alandal guilds’ declaration of independence. He acknowledged Alandal as its own country, and they will be given sovereignty…]
Poo-oohp!
Minchan spat out the water on the desk and the relaxing pill rolled across the floor. Everyone’s attention was focused on him after he recreated a fountain show.
“The p…president is finally trying to become a king.”
He mumbled as if his soul had left his body. The Holy Maiden, who was watching the TV, spoke.
“He’s already is a king.”
He was Alandal’s monarch. To her, nothing had changed.
She thought about how many kingdoms had fallen to the Immortal’s hands. It was prudent for Korea to not antagonize him.
The mere sacrifice of 57 people had saved the Republic of Korea.