# Episode 5. The Right to Be Dangun
The golden line still surrounded the subway accident site.
The Cheonbu Foundation agents stood outside the line, while Han Hae-in and Han Do-gyeong were inside.
No one could cross the boundary while carrying a weapon.
The fire trucks and ambulances also stopped in front of the golden line. Fortunately, once Hae-in allowed rescue workers and medical personnel to enter, the paramedics were able to come inside without resistance.
Han Do-gyeong watched the scene with a blanket wrapped around him.
“Does it distinguish between people?”
Hae-in asked.
“What does?”
“The line you made.”
Do-gyeong shook his head.
“No. I think it distinguishes intentions, not people.”
The unarmed medical personnel passed through.
But the Cheonbu Foundation agents who had left their riot batons inside the vehicle and tried to enter empty-handed could not cross the line. They had no weapons, but they still intended to forcibly take Han Do-gyeong away.
Hae-in didn’t like her power.
It judged not only people’s actions, but their hearts as well.
And it judged them by rules she had created herself.
*What happens if I’m wrong?*
If she drew the wrong line and still believed it was right, would this power obey even a wrong command?
Hae-in looked down at the golden line beneath her feet.
Deciding where to draw a line was far more difficult than creating one.
“There’s another car coming.”
Han Do-gyeong spoke.
A black sedan entered from outside the cordoned-off area.
A path extending from the vehicle was visible to Do-gyeong’s eyes.
It was different from the Cheonbu Foundation vehicles that had come before.
The path was neither gold nor black. The two colors were tangled together, moving along a course that had been determined long ago.
“The person in that car has never chosen his path.”
Do-gyeong murmured.
Hae-in asked, “What does that mean?”
“Someone made his path before he was even born.”
The vehicle stopped.
As the driver started to get out, the rear door opened first.
Baek Do-won got out of the car alone.
He unbuttoned his coat and slowly walked toward the site.
The Cheonbu Foundation agents bowed at the waist.
“Chairman.”
Instead of answering, Baek Do-won examined their equipment.
“Did you use weapons?”
The person in charge of the site answered, “The Awakened refused transport.”
“So you drew your weapons?”
“It was a precaution in consideration of the possibility of danger.”
Baek Do-won spoke coldly.
“If you attack someone first just because there’s a possibility of danger, which side is actually dangerous?”
The person in charge couldn’t say a word.
“Everyone on the field team, withdraw.”
“But Hwanin ordered us to secure the Awakened—”
“I’m the chairman of the Cheonbu Foundation.”
Baek Do-won cut him off.
“Withdraw.”
The agents lowered their riot batons and moved back.
Baek Do-won stopped in front of the golden boundary.
Han Hae-in looked at him.
“Chairman Baek Do-won?”
“You know my name.”
“Fewer people don’t know it than do.”
The Cheonbu Foundation was the largest private foundation in the country.
There was no field it hadn’t entered, from disaster relief, medicine, and education to energy and the space industry. Baek Do-won was known less as a businessman than as someone who took on the work the government couldn’t do.
But the man standing in front of Hae-in now was different from the one she had seen in the media.
He was unnaturally calm.
Baekdu Mountain had erupted, and a superpowered person had appeared, yet he wasn’t surprised.
“Are you carrying a weapon?”
Hae-in asked.
Baek Do-won took out his phone and car keys and set them on the ground.
He also removed his wristwatch.
“Is this enough?”
“What’s your purpose in entering?”
“To talk.”
“You’re not here to take Han Do-gyeong away?”
“If he doesn’t want to go, I won’t take him.”
“Why should I believe you?”
“You shouldn’t.”
Baek Do-won answered honestly.
“That’s why I’m asking you to see for yourself.”
He stepped toward the golden line.
Nothing happened.
Baek Do-won entered the boundary.
The Cheonbu Foundation agents broke into a murmur.
Hae-in narrowed her eyes.
“What trick did you use?”
“I did nothing.”
Baek Do-won looked at the golden line on the ground.
“I merely followed the rules you set.”
“Your men attacked people.”
“So I sent them back.”
“And that’s it?”
“No.”
Baek Do-won bowed to Han Do-gyeong.
“On behalf of the Cheonbu Foundation, I apologize. If you wish, I’ll punish everyone involved and release all the investigation materials.”
Do-gyeong looked at Baek Do-won.
“Do you know who I am?”
“Mr. Han Do-gyeong.”
“Not that name.”
Baek Do-won thought for a moment.
“The person who awakened to the Rat’s Seat.”
Do-gyeong’s expression hardened.
Hae-in stepped forward.
“So you knew about the Awakened.”
“We have records stating that people with special powers appeared whenever Baekdu Mountain awakened.”
“How long have you been preparing?”
“127 years.”
Baek Do-won didn’t hide it.
“The Cheonbu Foundation was created after Baekdu Mountain’s eruption in 1903.”
“Who created it?”
“Hwanin.”
At the sound of that name, Hae-in’s heart pounded.
The golden boundary wavered.
A new path appeared before Han Do-gyeong’s eyes as well. It was a black-and-gold path that began at Baek Do-won’s palm.
The path led north.
Baekdu Mountain.
And it was connected to the being sleeping beneath Baekdu Mountain.
“Are you Awakened too?”
Do-gyeong asked.
“No.”
Baek Do-won held out his right hand.
A pattern of black and gold intertwined across his palm.
“I’m the person chosen to lead the Awakened.”
Hae-in asked, “Who chose you?”
“Hwanin.”
“What about the people?”
“They don’t know me yet.”
“Then by what right do you claim to lead us?”
Baek Do-won couldn’t answer for a moment.
It was the question he had prepared for all his life.
He had rehearsed the answer hundreds of times.
A leader chosen to gather the twelve heroes and protect the people on the day the Korean Peninsula fell into crisis.
The Dangun chosen by Hwanin.
But standing before the person who had awakened to the Tiger’s Seat, he couldn’t bring out any of the answers he had prepared.
“I was chosen to become the new Dangun.”
In the end, he said it.
Hae-in didn’t laugh.
She wasn’t angry, either.
She simply asked, “What is a Dangun?”
“It’s a title referring to the leader of Gojoseon.”
“I know that.”
Hae-in stood on the golden line.
“Who decides who becomes the leader?”
Baek Do-won’s mouth closed.
“You said a being named Hwanin chose you. Then you’re Hwanin’s representative, not the people’s leader.”
It was an accurate observation.
Baek Do-won couldn’t refute it.
At that moment, Yoon Seo-ha’s voice rang out from the air.
“Ms. Han Hae-in, can you hear me?”
Hae-in looked around.
“Who is this?”
“It’s Yoon Seo-ha. I’m at the Baekdu Mountain Joint Observatory.”
A faint image of a black stone appeared before Hae-in’s eyes.
Yoon Seo-ha was also watching the site through the Seal of Memory.
“Some parts of what Mr. Baek Do-won said are correct. Dangun was a title referring to the leader of Gojoseon.”
Baek Do-won looked toward the air.
“Dr. Yoon Seo-ha.”
“But Hwanin has no authority to appoint a Dangun.”
The pattern on Baek Do-won’s palm glowed hotly.
“Dangun was a human leader elected by a tribal council, whose qualifications were attested by Hwanhee. It wasn’t a position appointed by Hwanin or Hwanung.”
“Hwanhee is gone,” Baek Do-won said.
“So Hwanin decided in Hwanhee’s place?”
“If the twelve powers awaken while there is no leader, they’ll fight each other.”
“That still doesn’t give a transcendent being the right to choose humanity’s leader.”
“Disaster won’t wait for people to reach an agreement.”
“So you intend to become king?”
“I’m not a king.”
Baek Do-won’s voice rose for the first time.
“I’ve prepared for this day for 127 years. I’ve learned how many people die when Baekdu Mountain erupts and what happens when an Awakened person’s power goes out of control.”
“Did the people ask you to prepare for them?”
Baek Do-won couldn’t answer.
Yoon Seo-ha’s question cut sharply into him.
“Dangun isn’t the person who prepared the best. It’s the person the people entrust with responsibility.”
“What if people die in that process?”
“Humans still have to choose.”
“Is that Hwanung’s answer?”
“It’s mine.”
The pattern on Baek Do-won’s palm grew even brighter.
A mechanical voice rang inside his head.
Invocation Seal activated.
Confirming the authority of the Dangun candidate.
Assigning the Tiger’s Seat.
Baek Do-won’s face stiffened.
“Stop.”
Hae-in took a step back.
“What are you trying to do?”
“I’m not doing this.”
Black light shot out from Baek Do-won’s palm.
The light headed toward Han Hae-in’s chest.
Hae-in’s golden boundary shook violently.
The Tiger’s Seat will be assigned to Dangun.
Executing submission command.
Hae-in’s knees buckled against her will.
“Urgh!”
She gritted her teeth and held out.
The golden line contracted inward, pressing against Hae-in’s body. The boundary she had created was trapping her.
Baek Do-won clenched his hand.
“Stop!”
But the pattern didn’t stop.
The Tiger’s Seat is Dangun’s sword.
The sword must obey its master.
Hwanung’s voice shook the site.
“That Seal did not make you Dangun.”
Baek Do-won looked around.
“Hwanung?”
“What Hwanin implanted in your body is the Invocation Seal.”
Hwanung’s form appeared faintly above the golden boundary.
“You are not the one who leads the Awakened.”
His golden eyes pierced Baek Do-won.
“You are a leash meant to make them obey.”
Baek Do-won’s face turned pale.
“That can’t be…”
“Even without you giving an order, the Seal is trying to dominate the Twelve Seats.”
“I never gave that order.”
“That is Hwanin’s way.”
Hwanung spoke.
“He does not wait for human consent. He decides on the most efficient answer first, then forces humanity to fit it.”
Han Hae-in raised her head.
Blood ran from her knees, but the light in her eyes had not dimmed.
“Get… out of me.”
Completing assignment of the Tiger’s Seat.
“Who said you were going to become my sword?”
Hae-in reached out and grabbed the golden boundary line.
It was a line she had made.
Then she would decide the rules of that line as well.
“No one inside this line…”
Hae-in spoke with difficulty.
“Can take away another person’s will.”
The golden light exploded.
KABOOM—!
The black light snapped apart.
Blood burst from Baek Do-won’s palm.
Hae-in dropped to one knee, but she didn’t fall.
Assignment of the Tiger’s Seat failed.
The target rejected the Dangun candidate’s authority.
Baek Do-won stared at his blood-soaked hand.
The pattern he had believed all his life was proof of his qualifications felt strange to him for the first time.
“Did Hwanin… lie to me?”
Hwanung didn’t answer.
At that moment, Han Do-gyeong suddenly looked down at the ground.
Hundreds of golden paths were turning red at once.
“Everybody, get down!”
Do-gyeong shouted.
An explosion erupted underground.
BOOOOM—!
The high-voltage substation equipment left inside the collapsed tunnel exploded.
The asphalt surged upward, flipping the rescue vehicles. The ground split apart, and the entire accident site began sinking downward.
Citizens and rescue workers screamed.
Hae-in’s golden boundary collapsed along with it.
“If you release the boundary, you can get outside.”
The voice inside her head spoke.
Hae-in looked around.
Inside the boundary were the injured, rescue workers, and Cheonbu Foundation agents.
Baek Do-won was standing there too, bleeding.
If Hae-in removed the boundary, she alone could escape.
But everyone left inside would be swallowed by the collapsing ground.
“Mr. Han Do-gyeong!”
Hae-in shouted.
“Can you see a path?”
Do-gyeong stared at the split ground.
A single golden line ran through the collapsed underground shopping arcade and connected to the building across the way.
“There is one!”
“Can everyone move along it?”
Do-gyeong examined the path.
The fastest route could save only half of them.
But he no longer chose the fastest route.
“I’ll make one!”
Do-gyeong ran into the rubble.
When he placed his hand against it, an opening appeared in the collapsed wall.
Hae-in spread both arms.
“I’m expanding the boundary.”
The golden line spread along the splitting ground.
“No one inside this boundary will fall beneath the earth!”
The boundary enclosed the entire collapse zone.
Hae-in’s shoulders sagged.
The weight of dozens of people pressed against her body all at once.
Baek Do-won supported her.
“Let go.”
“If you fall, everyone dies.”
“This might have happened because of you.”
“Even so, I have to hold on to you right now.”
Baek Do-won used his coat to tie Hae-in’s waist to a piece of wreckage.
Then he shouted at the Cheonbu Foundation agents.
“Move the injured first!”
“Chairman, you need to evacuate first!”
“I’ll be the last to leave.”
“It’s dangerous!”
“You said you wanted to become Dangun!”
Baek Do-won erupted in anger for the first time.
“If you walk out alone with people in front of you, what right do you have to call yourself their leader?”
The agents moved.
The injured escaped through the opening Do-gyeong had made.
Hae-in held back the collapsing ground.
Do-gyeong opened the way.
Baek Do-won organized the order and carried out the injured.
The three people who didn’t trust one another began saving the same people for the first time.
Yoon Seo-ha watched it all.
Han Hae-in’s name began to blur.
Han Do-gyeong’s name also started to disappear.
Both of them were using their powers at the same time.
“Start recording!”
Yoon Seo-ha shouted.
Park Do-yoon and the researchers wrote down the names and repeated them.
“Han Hae-in!”
“Han Do-gyeong!”
But it wasn’t enough.
Their powers were too great.
The words written on the paper were erased almost immediately.
Yoon Seo-ha looked at the external broadcast equipment connected to the large screen.
“Open the disaster broadcast network.”
Do-yoon stared at him in shock.
“You want to make this public?”
“We can’t remember them among ourselves.”
“The existence of the Awakened will be revealed to the entire world.”
“It has to be.”
Yoon Seo-ha clasped the black stone in both hands.
“The surest way to protect a name is to have a lot of people say it.”
Do-yoon pressed the external broadcast button.
Video of the accident site in Seoul was transmitted across the national disaster broadcast network.
At first, everyone thought it was fabricated footage.
A golden boundary holding back the collapsing ground.
A man creating a path where there had been only a wall.
But the footage was being broadcast simultaneously from hundreds of cell phones and news cameras.
Yoon Seo-ha’s voice spread through the broadcast.
“The names of the people saving lives at the site right now are Han Hae-in and Han Do-gyeong.”
In homes across Seoul.
In convenience stores in Busan.
In hospitals on Jeju Island.
Millions of people watched their screens.
“Han Hae-in and Han Do-gyeong. Please remember their names.”
Someone read the names aloud in front of a screen.
“Han Hae-in.”
Someone else repeated it.
“Han Do-gyeong.”
Children asked their parents, “Are those people heroes?”
“I guess they are.”
“What are their names?”
“Han Hae-in and Han Do-gyeong.”
Dozens of voices became hundreds, and hundreds grew into hundreds of thousands.
Han Hae-in.
Han Do-gyeong.
Their names rang across the Korean Peninsula.
The vanishing record stopped.
Awakened memory loss rate: 0 percent.
A collective testimony system has been established.
Checking the possibility of replacing Hwanhee’s authority.
Yoon Seo-ha realized that the black stone was no longer hot.
One person didn’t have to remember every name.
It was enough for everyone to remember a little.
A new reaction began inside the spaceship beneath Heaven Lake.
Conditions for releasing Hwanung’s hibernation system have been met.
Confirming testimony from the human community.
The transparent chamber opened.
Hwanung set his feet on the floor.
For the first time in thousands of years, he rose under his own power.
The connectors fell away from his body, and golden liquid flowed across the floor. Hwanung staggered several times, but in the end, he did not kneel.
The spaceship’s doors opened.
Cold wind and volcanic ash pushed inside.
Hwanung slowly walked out.
He stood atop the black spaceship that had risen above Heaven Lake’s surface.
Every satellite and broadcast camera turned toward him.
His long hair streamed in the wind.
For the first time, his golden eyes looked upon the modern sky.
The entire world saw Hwanung’s form.
The clouds above Baekdu Mountain parted.
Hwanung’s voice rang simultaneously from every broadcast device and inside the minds of the Awakened.
“I am the last Hwanung.”
The people at the accident site in Seoul looked up at the sky.
Baek Do-won heard the voice too.
“You, the Dangun candidate chosen by Hwanin.”
Hwanung spoke.
“Cast aside the Seal that takes away human will and come before me.”
Baek Do-won clenched his blood-soaked palm.
“Are you going to choose the new Dangun?”
“No.”
“Then who will choose?”
Hwanung’s answer was brief.
“Humans will decide whom to acknowledge.”
At that moment, static poured from every broadcast device.
Krrrzzzt—
Hwanung’s face hardened.
A golden light came on inside the empty hibernation chamber within the spaceship.
The pattern on Baek Do-won’s palm began moving again as well.
An unfamiliar voice seized control of every communications network.
It was slow and awkward.
It was the voice of a being that had learned human speech but still did not fully understand its meaning.
“Wrong.”
Hwanung slowly raised his head.
“Humans have always chosen the wrong ones.”
For the first time, Hwanin revealed his voice to the world after hiding for 127 years.
“It’s been a long time.”
Silence passed for a moment.
“My Hwanung.”