American: Native Empire

Of course, not all people of other religions rejected the spirits.

“It seems like there are spirits when you look at the immortal emperor of the Wakan Tanka Empire…”

“Yeah. No ordinary human could do that. The emperor must be a spirit.”

The spirit faith was not established for long, but it was already the major religion of the world. 

This was partly because the Wakan Tanka Empire was an unbeatable superpower, but more importantly, because of the influence of Kim Kiwoo, the immortal being.

People naturally accepted or believed in the existence of spirits as they saw Kim Kiwoo living forever with their own eyes.

And there was another way to interpret this.

“Look at the emperor of the empire. There are spiritual beings in this world. God must surely be watching over us.”

At that time, science had advanced and atheists had increased slightly. 

Religious people criticized them and pointed to the emperor of the Wakan Tanka Empire as evidence.

The spirit faith was a polytheistic religion in itself. 

Therefore, it also acknowledged the gods of other religions.

If not, there would have been more religious conflicts. 

That’s why most religious people didn’t bother to attack the spirit faith.

But there were religious people who had an exclusive tendency to other religions, as it should be. 

They denounced the spirit faith as heresy and treated it as a cult.

“Spirits? Ha! There’s no way such things exist!”

Even though there was clear evidence of Kim Kiwoo in front of their eyes, they denied it. 

They must have thought there was some trickery involved. 

No matter how much evidence they were presented with, they didn’t get through to them, and they even questioned back.

“Why does the emperor have such strict security if he is an immortal being? Why doesn’t he show his face at official ceremonies? It’s because he’s just like a normal person who can get hurt, bleed, and has only one life.”

This was true.

Kim Kiwoo knew very well. 

The fact that his life was more important than anything else. 

Kim Kiwoo thought that protecting his own safety would be more helpful for the survival of humanity than millions of people dying.

Of course, he had already gone beyond modernity and was heading towards modern civilization, so maybe Kim Kiwoo was no longer necessary for humanity.

But what was certain was that the moment Kim Kiwoo died, the Wakan Tanka Empire would be engulfed in severe chaos. 

There were many ambitious people in the empire, but they couldn’t stretch their legs because of Kim Kiwoo.

Maybe the moment Kim Kiwoo died, the empire would be shattered into pieces.

And because of whatever killed Kim Kiwoo, there could be war and chaos in the world.

If that time was after nuclear development, it could not rule out the possibility of a large-scale nuclear war that did not exist in the original history.

Considering all this, Kim Kiwoo’s life was a sign that guaranteed a stable survival for humanity.

That’s why Kim Kiwoo hid himself very well. 

As a result, many assassination attempts that had been carried out so far had gone to waste.

“How dare you do such a disrespectful thing to His Majesty the Emperor. You won’t die easily.”

And those who were directly or indirectly involved in the assassination did not survive on Earth, which was virtually ruled by the Wakan Tanka Empire. 

They were completely annihilated by the shadow organization with a blue earth as its emblem.

The scale of the shadow was beyond imagination.

But thanks to people who were wary of the empire’s continuous growth and fanatical religious people, assassination attempts against Kim Kiwoo never disappeared.

And eventually, a big disaster happened.

***

The regular meeting of the World Union is held twice a year, on April 1st and October 1st.

People from each country with a certain level of authority must attend this meeting. 

If you do not attend the regular meeting without a special reason, you will be warned first, and then sanctions will follow.

Of course, the meeting hall was located in the capital of the empire. 

It was where the World Conference was held.

The regular meeting did not end in one day. 

Depending on the issue, it could take weeks.

Since many issues that determined the future of their countries were discussed at this meeting, it always resembled a battlefield.

And when the meeting was held, Kim Kiwoo sometimes gave an opening speech and sometimes did not. 

It meant that he didn’t always make time for it.

“Is His Majesty giving an opening speech this time?”

“Yeah. He didn’t do it both times last year. Maybe he made time for it because of that.”

“That could be true.”

Even if they were ambassadors plenipotentiary, it was not easy to see Kim Kiwoo in person. 

Therefore, the news that Kim Kiwoo took charge of the opening speech was treated quite heavily.

And there was someone who had been waiting and waiting for this news.

His name was George Taylor, the ambassador plenipotentiary of Britain.

‘Finally…’

As soon as he heard the news of Kim Kiwoo’s speech, George Taylor cheered inwardly.

‘This time, I’ll peel off the thick mask of that fraud with these two hands!’

His eyes were blazing with madness. 

He was a powerful and trustworthy person who was capable of being the ambassador plenipotentiary of Britain, but before that, he was a fanatic who hated the spirit faith.

George Taylor hated the filthy Catholics, but more than that, he hated the spirit faith that reduced the omnipotent Lord to one of many gods.

Therefore, he believed that shooting and killing Kim Kiwoo and denying the existence of spirits was the noblest way to martyrdom.

Of course, George Taylor knew very well. 

How hard it was to assassinate Kim Kiwoo.

‘But they never dreamed that an ambassador plenipotentiary of a country would be an assassin.’

He had been an ambassador plenipotentiary for three years, and he was confident.

Confident that he could succeed in assassinating him.

And finally, the morning of April 1st dawned. 

The day when the first half of the regular meeting of the World Union was held and Kim Kiwoo’s speech was scheduled.

***

Maybe it was because he had prepared for a long time. 

Or maybe it was because they thought that the ambassador plenipotentiary of Britain would never do anything subversive.

‘Phew… I did it.’

George Taylor was able to smuggle a small pistol into the meeting hall.

And he was lucky. 

The seats for the regular meeting changed periodically, and this time, George Taylor’s seat was second from the front.

That meant he was very close to Kim Kiwoo, who would give the opening speech.

“I’ll be back in a minute. I need to use the restroom.”

“Hmm. Follow me.”

The restroom was a state-of-the-art flush toilet. 

George Taylor asked the guard who followed him.

“…Are you going to follow me inside the toilet?”

“No. I’ll wait here. Go ahead and do your business.”

“Alright.”

After finishing his words, Taylor went straight into the stall and closed the door. 

And he actually did his business. 

If he didn’t, it would have been suspicious.

And he quietly assembled the pistol. 

He had brought it in pieces, so he needed to put it together.

After finishing this work, George Taylor flushed the water and came out calmly. 

And he went back to his seat.

Thump, thump.

He had prepared for a long time, but when he was about to assassinate him, his heart beat like crazy. 

George Taylor tried not to show it and waited for Kim Kiwoo to come in.

‘He’s here!’

And finally, Kim Kiwoo walked into the meeting hall.

“His Majesty the Emperor of the Empire will soon give an opening speech. Please be quiet, everyone.”

When Kim Kiwoo went up to the podium, this announcement was heard. But George Taylor’s attention was focused entirely on Kim Kiwoo.

And finally, when he was about to start his speech.

George Taylor pulled out a pistol from his chest.

“Dieee!”

And he quickly aimed at Kim Kiwoo and pulled the trigger. 

Thanks to his long practice of shooting, his effort paid off.

Soon after, a gunshot rang out loudly.

Bang!

“Ugh!”

Unfortunately, the bullet hit Kim Kiwoo’s torso precisely. 

He had been practicing shooting for a long time, and his effort paid off.

Immediately after,

“Ugh!”

“Cra, crazy!!”

“Aaaah!”

“Yo, Your Majesty!”

The meeting hall was filled with shock because of the sudden gunshot and Kim Kiwoo falling down bleeding.

In the meantime,

Bang! Bang!

Two more gunshots followed. 

He was excited by seeing him spitting blood and falling down, but George Taylor focused on killing Kim Kiwoo for sure.

“Damn!”

But unfortunately, as soon as Kim Kiwoo fell down, the guards who were escorting him nearby threw themselves at Kim Kiwoo.

They blocked the bullets with their bodies. 

One of them died instantly by getting shot in the head.

“You bastard!”

After three shots, George Taylor could not fire any more bullets. 

He was already subdued and beaten severely.

“Kuhuk, kuhuhuk!”

But even though he felt a great pain, George Taylor laughed like crazy. 

He thought of himself as a judge and believed that he had completed his mission.

It was a moment when the empire turned upside down. 

No, the whole world.

***

“Your Majesty!”

“Sob! Sob!”

“You can’t leave us for the spirit world like this, Your Majesty!”

When news of Kim Kiwoo being shot spread, there were cries and wails on every street of the empire.

“Please… please…!”

The people of the empire waited for news of Kim Kiwoo’s condition.

At that time, Kim Kiwoo received treatment as soon as he was shot.

The doctors who always took care of Kim Kiwoo followed him around, so the treatment was immediate.

Thanks to that, Kim Kiwoo was able to overcome the crisis.

“He’s over the worst. Fortunately, the bullet missed his heart by a bit, so there should be no damage to his life.”

“What if the bullet had gone a little bit to the side…”

“Even if he is His Majesty, it would have been hard to survive.”

“Sigh…”

Only then could the various officials and family members of the empire breathe a sigh of relief.

“Then when will His Majesty wake up?”

“That’s hard to say exactly. It’s true that he missed his heart, but it’s still a serious gunshot wound… We have to wait and see how it goes.”

“Hoo… I understand.”

The news that Kim Kiwoo had risked his life spread quickly. 

Along with the news that Kim Kiwoo could have died if things went wrong.

The people of the empire were very happy that Kim Kiwoo survived. 

Thanks to that, the panic situation calmed down a bit.

And what followed was a great anger.

“How dare you shoot at His Majesty the Emperor of Wakan Tanka Empire!”

“We can never forgive this!”

The people of the empire needed a target to express their extreme anger. 

And that target was Britain and its religion Protestantism, which were related to George Taylor.

“We can’t live under the same sky with Britain and Protestantism!”

“Give them blood for blood! A merciless hammer!”

The people of the empire took to the streets and shouted for war. 

They hoped that the overwhelming power of the empire would sweep away their enemies.