An Advertising Genius Falls into the Joseon Era - Chapter 9

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This chapter was translated by Lunox Novels. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
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Episode 9
“How did it go?”
The moment Ha Yun returned, the prisoners pressed their faces against the bars in unison. The only thing anyone cared about now was whether she would be punished.
“Sigh……”
Instead of answering, Ha Yun slumped against the wall.
The prisoners, their curiosity piqued, gathered around her.
“What is it? Didn’t it go well? Why do you keep sighing like that?”
“That’s…… the slave issue went through smoothly.”
“It went through?”
“But now they’re charging me with a different crime.”
“A different crime? What else could you possibly have done?”
Ha Yun paused for a moment before speaking.
“They’re calling me a Clan Impersonation offender, or something like that…….”
“What? Clan Impersonation?”
The moment the words left Ha Yun’s lips, the jail erupted into chaos.
In an age where social status was everything, impersonating a clan was among the gravest of crimes.
Ha Yun, who had no real way to prove her status, was scarcely different from a slave.
For someone like her to be accused of impersonating a clan was not a matter that would end with a few strokes of the cane.
If luck was on her side, she would receive a hundred lashes and be exiled to some remote frontier; if not, she could be hanged in the marketplace without anyone batting an eye.
The prisoners asked with concern.
“My goodness, how did it come to this……?”
“They asked about my Bon-gwan, and I told them, and this is what happened.”
“Your Bon-gwan? Why? Which one is it?”
At the prisoners’ question, Ha Yun mentioned her Bon-gwan again.
“……Jeonju Im Clan.”
“Jeonju Im Clan?”
The jail erupted once more.
Though the Jeonju Im Clan was not yangban, they held considerable standing in this era.
Indeed, there was even a saying: “Though the royal treasury may run dry, the Jeonju Im Clan’s coffers shall never know emptiness.”
Learning that Ha Yun claimed such a renowned name, the prisoners’ tone suddenly grew respectful.
“Is it true…… that you, miss, are truly of the Jeonju Im Clan?”
“Yes. That’s right. I’m certain.”
“Hmm, if you stated your Bon-gwan correctly, then it isn’t truly an impersonation…….”
A subtle doubt flickered across the prisoners’ eyes.
Their gazes mingled with suspicion, bewilderment, and confusion.
‘A young lady of the Jeonju Im Clan selling soup?’
‘And in such a state, no less?’
‘I wouldn’t believe it myself.’
Even if Ha Yun’s words were true, one problem remained before her.
If Ha Yun were a close cousin of “him,” the matter would be hushed up without incident, but if she were a distant relative or merely shared the same surname, there would be no reason for him to help her.
Ha Yun’s fate hinged entirely on how close she was to “him.”
The prisoners, knowing this, tried to comfort her.
“It’ll work out. It’ll all be fine, I’m sure. Don’t worry too much.”
“Thank you for the kind words.”
In any case, there was no use crying over spilled milk.
Ha Yun could only wait anxiously for what was to come.
***
Days later
“Come this way.”
“……!”
At the jailer’s words, Ha Yun’s heart sank. After spending days locked in that cell, she had begun to feel as though she truly were a criminal.
‘Is this…… when the verdict comes?’
Ha Yun followed the jailer with trembling steps.
Unlike the dim interrogation room she’d been taken to before, the place Ha Yun now arrived at was bathed in bright light.
“Gasp……!”
Ha Yun had been brought to the Gongcheong, where the Gwana’s trials took place. The hall was crowded with constables and numerous other people.
‘Who are all these people……?’
Ha Yun lifted her head and looked toward the raised platform.
Standing there were Registrar Choi Hyang-seo, Magistrate Kim Seo-gon, and a middle-aged man dressed in a fine silk durumagi, whose bearing was solemn and commanding.
As Ha Yun appeared, Choi Hyang-seo called out in a somewhat excited voice.
“She is, Your Honor! This woman is a nobi impersonating the Jeonju Im Clan!”
“Hmm.”
The magistrate studied Ha Yun for a moment, then turned his gaze toward the middle-aged man beside him. He seemed to regard this trial with little genuine interest.
“What do you make of it? Does it appear accurate?”
“I’m not entirely certain. I should examine her more closely.”
“Is that so?”
The middle-aged man maintained an almost obsequious demeanor, as though he occupied a position the magistrate himself could not treat lightly.
“Prisoner, raise your head.”
At the magistrate’s command, Ha Yun slowly lifted her gaze. In the next breath, her eyes met those of the middle-aged man in the silk durumagi.
Snap!
The moment their eyes locked, a single thought flashed through Ha Yun’s mind.
‘……I’m finished.’
She had suspected as much, to some degree.
But facing him directly, the certainty crystallized.
This man was no ordinary person.
“…….”
The middle-aged man said nothing.
He simply gazed at Ha Yun in silence.
‘How much longer is he going to stare?’
There was something in that look—as though he could see straight through her—that made Ha Yun’s instincts scream.
It was over. All of it.
‘What happens to me now? Do I get caned? Or branded?’
A torrent of thoughts crashed through her mind in those brief seconds.
With her status as a nobi now all but confirmed, harsh punishment would surely follow.
She wanted to cry out and deny everything, but this was not a place where such logic held sway.
Her fate rested entirely in that middle-aged man’s hands.
If he claimed she had stolen from his household, her wrists would be severed; if he said she had brought dishonor to his clan, her face would be branded.
Gulp.
Ha Yun waited for his judgment, her nerves stretched taut.
Then, after a pause—
At last, the middle-aged man opened his mouth.
And at his words, everyone present, Ha Yun included, gasped in shock.
“She is one of our household.”
“……I beg your pardon?”
Choi Hyang-seo repeated the words, disbelief written across his face.
“Surely you jest, sir?”
“The girl is my…… niece.”
“Your niece, you say?”
Choi Hyang-seo’s eyes widened with bewilderment.
“That cannot possibly be true…….”
“Then are you suggesting I am lying?”
“No, no, that is not what I meant…….”
This short-haired girl was the middle-aged man’s niece?
The courtroom fell into an uneasy silence as the absurdity of the situation settled over them.
Then, abruptly, the middle-aged man turned to Ha Yun and spoke.
“I hear you left home a while ago. So you were here all along.”
“Sir?”
“Word reached us that you had lost your memory…….”
“Ah, yes. I did lose my memory, though…….”
Ha Yun was equally bewildered.
‘Who on earth is this man?’
She was grateful for his aid, certainly, but such earnest assistance had to have a reason behind it.
His true intentions remained opaque to her.
Yet Ha Yun was not foolish enough to let slip a lifeline when one was offered.
‘This is my chance! I have to seize it, no matter what!’
If survival meant weaving lies from whole cloth, then so be it.
Without hesitation, Ha Yun began to follow his lead and align herself with his narrative.
“Your mother has been quite worried these past days, with you not returning home.”
“My mother, sir?”
Needless to say, Ha Yun’s actual mother did not exist in this place.
Above all, Ha Yun was operating under the premise that she’d lost her memory.
So even if she suddenly remembered her mother, it would have been strange.
‘What am I supposed to do with this?’
As Ha Yun stood there blank-faced, the middle-aged man cleared his throat pointedly.
“Ahem. You don’t remember Sister Ok-hui?”
“…!”
Moments later, Ha Yun grasped the meaning and launched into a performance the likes of which she’d never give again in her life.
“Oh! My mother! I remember! I remember! My mother, Im Ok-hui!”
“Ahem, not Kim Ok-hui—Im Ok-hui.”
“Right! Mother Im Ok-hui!”
“Heh heh, so your memory has returned after all.”
The middle-aged man nodded with satisfaction at Ha Yun’s performance.
“Uncle! I remember you too! Your name is… well, I’m still not quite sure of it, but I remember your face!”
“Of course you do. How else would I have raised you?”
Despite meeting for the first time, the two had an uncanny rapport.
Ha Yun, even while acting, found herself wondering if this man truly could be her uncle.
“Well, I’m relieved your memory has come back at least.”
“Uncle, where is my mother now?”
“Why, at home where she belongs, of course. Even now she prays every day for your safe return.”
“Mother! Mother! I miss you so much! Sob, sob!”
At Ha Yun’s desperate cries for her mother, several constables began wiping tears from their eyes.
“Sniff, how moving.”
“Poor thing, what tragedy befell such a young woman….”
“What is all this… my eyes blur with tears and I can see no more.”
“Sigh, I must convey my respects to her mother on the way home today.”
Choi Hyang-seo watched the scene unfold with a bewildered expression.
“What… what is this…!”
He had gone to great lengths to bring the middle-aged man here, only for it to become a source of trouble.
He had never imagined Ha Yun might actually be this man’s niece.
‘No! It can’t be! The woman who sold soup at that tavern couldn’t possibly be his niece!’
It was a lie.
This had to be a lie.
Though Choi Hyang-seo belatedly grasped this fact, unfortunately this place operated by no such logic.
Everything depended solely on the middle-aged man’s will.
‘It’s a conspiracy! This must be a conspiracy…!’
Yet the middle-aged man’s resolve was unshakeable.
He urged for Ha Yun’s immediate release.
“Now that her identity has been confirmed, release the girl at once.”
“What? I, well, that is….”
Pressed by the middle-aged man, Choi Hyang-seo hesitated.
Then the magistrate beside him began clearing his throat with obvious displeasure.
“Ahem! Hmm!”
Days ago, Choi Hyang-seo had boasted that he had an opportunity to impress the Jeonju Im Clan.
The magistrate had harbored great expectations accordingly, but the outcome was precisely the opposite.
If anything, it amounted to public humiliation of Choi Hyang-seo himself.
The magistrate felt more inclined to cane Choi Hyang-seo than Ha Yun.
“This isn’t… this isn’t how it was supposed to….”
As Choi Hyang-seo stared vacantly at his completely unraveled plan, the middle-aged man pressed again.
“Now then, clerk. You intend to keep my niece bound like this?”
“No, no. Not at all.”
“Tsk! Tut!”
Unable to bear the situation any longer, the magistrate ordered Ha Yun’s release.
“What are you waiting for? Release her at once.”
“Yes, sir!”
With the middle-aged man’s help, Ha Yun was cleared of the false charge and exhaled in relief.
“Phew, I’m alive.”
Ha Yun offered her gratitude to the middle-aged man.
“Because of you, I’m alive. Thank you so much.”
“You’ve been through much hardship.”
Up close, there emanated from him an aura that defied easy description.
Grace and wisdom both—yet marked by a fearless ease.
A generosity of spirit that seemed boundless.
It was a bearing of nobility that Ha Yun had never encountered before.
“Here, put this on.”
“……!”
The Middle-aged Man slipped off his durumagi and draped it over Ha Yun, whose frame had grown gaunt from weeks in the holding cell.
He turned then to address the magistrate.
“Now that the misunderstanding is cleared, may we take our leave?”
“Of course, of course. I apologize for troubling you with such a matter when you must have so much to attend to.”
“Trouble? This is family business—I’d run barefoot if need be.”
“Safe travels to you both.”
The magistrate released Ha Yun, but his gaze fixed sharply on Choi Hyang-seo.
He’d been made a fool before witnesses—there was no getting past that.
“Clerk, once you’re done here, come see me. We need to talk.”
“I’m finished. I’m finished…….”
Choi Hyang-seo’s legs gave way beneath him, and he crumpled to the floor. But Ha Yun, freed at last, walked out through the gates of the Gwana with her head held high.
***
Once they’d put some distance between themselves and the building, Ha Yun finally offered her proper thanks.
“I’m grateful for your help. You saved my life.”
The Middle-aged Man squinted one eye at her words and replied with a faint smile.
“Family helping family—there’s nothing to thank. That’s how we survive. Isn’t it?”
“Yes… yes, of course.”
Ha Yun couldn’t hide her confusion as she watched him maintain the pretense.
Then, abruptly, he drove a needle straight through her defenses.
“But next time you lie, do it properly. Our family’s thirty-second generation hasn’t even been born yet.”
“……!”
It felt as though she’d been struck by a hammer.
Of course—he knew every word she’d spoken was false.
‘Yet he helped me anyway?’
Why would he do such a thing?
What had he seen in her?
She burned to understand his purpose.
Ha Yun couldn’t restrain herself any longer. “Why did you help me when you knew I was lying?”
The Middle-aged Man held her gaze, studying her intently.
She’d felt it from the beginning—the penetrating clarity in his eyes, as if he could see through to the heart of things.
“Because I find you interesting. You’ve got promise, girl.”
“?”
Ha Yun’s face betrayed her bewilderment, and the Middle-aged Man’s smile deepened with meaning.
“The Injaengjunak—that’s what they call it, isn’t it? The place you’ve rebuilt?”
“How did you…?”
He’d already finished investigating her; he knew everything about who she was.
“The rumors have spread all the way to Uiju. How could I not have heard?”
The Middle-aged Man spoke as he walked ahead, his pace unhurried and assured.
“Let’s stop by and taste this national soup of yours. I’m curious what kind of tavern generates such talk.”
Who was this man?
How could he know everything?
Ha Yun watched him for a moment, lost in thought.
Then she quickened her stride to keep pace with his long legs, which had already carried him well ahead of her.

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This chapter was translated by Lunox Novels. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
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