Bang! The gunshot crushed all the noise in the square. For an instant, it was as if someone had pressed a pause button on time. Even the sound vanished completely after that shot.
The next second, an Imperial Guard rushed over and pinned the emperor beneath him. Then a second one did the same.
The emperor had just wanted to say, "I'm fine," and joke that he might be the first emperor to be crushed to death. But for some reason, he couldn't get the words out. He coughed twice instead.
Something lodged in his throat was coughed out all at once. The relief didn't last long before it seemed there was something else in his throat.
Time resumed. The people in the square scattered in every direction. Even when the police and Imperial Guard ordered them to stop, none of them did!
The nobles, meanwhile, were surrounded by the Imperial Guard. A clash could break out at any moment.
No one noticed that, at the very start of the riot, a cleaner who had emerged from behind the cafe lowered his face and ran toward the outskirts of the city with everyone else.
Someone reported to the police that the cafe had been the first place to hear the gunshot and that it had been the loudest there. They also found the gun, but... it was already meaningless.
Your Majesty had been assassinated after announcing the abolition of noble privileges. The bullet had struck him in the chest, after which he was sent back to the Imperial Palace for treatment.
Of course, some people might think that if the emperor was injured, he should still go to a hospital... Then let them keep thinking that! Ten minutes later, the Prime Minister, all the ministers, and the great nobles had