Blooming even in the mud - Chapter 1

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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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Blooming Even in Mud – Episode 1

Prologue.

On a moonless night, the sky burned.
Clashing weapons, tearing flesh, and countless screams. It was a night of rebellion unfolding right in the heart of the Imperial City.
“Kill the wicked Foolish Ruler bewitched by the Evil Cult!”
“Protect His Imperial Majesty!”
The battle between the Imperial Guard defending the palace and the Rebel Army trying to seize it surged like a massive tidal wave. The blazing flames lit up the dark, waning night as if it were broad daylight.
Shocked by the sudden disaster, the people of the Imperial City reacted in various ways. Some rushed in with swords, shouting that they must protect the Emperor; others fled immediately because they couldn’t grasp the situation; and some locked their doors, trembling as they waited for the rebellion to end.
Everything was in chaos.
The only beloved daughter of the late Emperor, Princess Sukjeong Yoo Seo-hwa, was leading the retainers of the Princess’s Residence through the fiery hell.
“Just a little further and we’ll reach a safe hiding place, so take heart.”
Soothing the palace maids of the Princess’s Residence who were bursting into tears in panic, Seo-hwa looked up at the sky. It was a moonless night, yet the strangely bright sky felt sorrowful.
‘He must have been chased like this too. On that moonless night…’
She had heard that it was a moonless night like this back then as well.
That night when even the moon could not dispel the darkness. Having lost and been stripped of everything, he couldn’t even rely on the distant moonlight and ultimately died lonely and alone.
On nights like tonight, Seo-hwa occasionally thought of it.
His red blood droplets that must have fallen patch by patch on the pale snowfield, his despair, his resentment, and his corpse whose eyes would not even have closed.
“Your Highness, will we be safe?”
The nanny-court lady, Lady Lee, trembled with fear. Seo-hwa turned her head away from the deep grief that always wrapped around her ankles and dragged her down like a swamp. Right now, there was something she had to do.
“Do not worry.”
If things go badly, I can just surrender myself and save you all.
She refrained from speaking those words aloud and simply comforted the maids.

They had run for a long time like that when they reached the entrance of a forest. When one of the maids fell and injured her leg, Seo-hwa had the group rest. Park Kwon-bok, the only man in the group, brushed off her warnings that it was dangerous and disappeared, saying he would check the surroundings.
One by one, the palace maids sank to the ground and caught the breath that had risen to the tips of their throats. The thick sweat that had been pouring down from their frantic running cooled rapidly, bringing a chilling cold.
Seo-hwa stared at the flames burning in the distance.
‘It is strange that a rebellion has broken out targeting my older brother, the Emperor, yet I feel no anger or sense of betrayal toward the Rebel Army.’
Rather, it lacked any sense of reality.
Even while fleeing like this, and even while reminding herself of her duty to evacuate her household safely, on one side of her heart, it felt empty.
‘It was always like that. Ever since I confirmed his corpse five years ago, I haven’t felt for a single moment that I am living with my feet planted in reality. It’s no different right now.’
Seo-hwa looked up at the sky.
Her distant gaze traced the black heavens. In the dark night without a single speck of moonlight, only ferocious flames surged.
If her life were to end tonight.
Would she be able to die on a moonless night just like him?
“How could such a terrible disaster occur…”
The sound of a few maids weeping under their breath shook the night air. Seo-hwa smiled bitterly and fondled her simple, white flower-shaped Dwiggoji.
Her life did not belong to her alone. She had to save those who relied solely on her. That was the duty of Princess Yoo Seo-hwa.

“He is late.”
Even though quite some time had passed, there was no sign of Kwon-bok returning. Her chest churned with an ominous premonition.
“Your Highness, shouldn’t we go look for him?”
“But our paths might cross, making the situation even more complicated.”
“That may be true, Your Highness.”
It was just when she was debating whether they should hide after leaving a sign that they had entered deeper into the forest. Suddenly, a nauseating stench of blood and a strange, metallic tang of iron drifted over heavily.
“Here! I found the Princess’s group!”
A band of men burst through the bushes and swarmed in. The palace maids screamed. It was too late to run.
The maids stepped forward to block them, intending to use their own bodies as shields to protect Seo-hwa, but they were nothing more than a laughingstock in front of blades dripping with blood.
“Quite a prize we’ve caught.”
The men smirked.
Seo-hwa straightened her back and drove a cold, stern gaze into the men.
Even when cornered like a hunted beast, her dignified posture with her waist held straight made the men instinctively shrink back, causing them to mock her even louder on purpose.
‘These men are…’
Seo-hwa calmly surveyed the men.
They were not wearing military uniforms. They belonged to neither the Rebel Army nor the Imperial Guard, but the way they held their weapons looked familiar, and they showed no hesitation toward slaughter.
They were the type of bastards who did not fear life-and-death warfare, but rather welcomed it.
Like fish in water, they were the kind of men who would parasite on this night of chaos to plunder wealth and slaughter people.
“You are the Geomgye.”
“As expected, the Princess is quick on the uptake.”
The man who appeared to be the leader sneered. Seo-hwa stepped forward, pushing aside the palace maids who were desperately blocking her path.
“Did the traitors put a bounty on my head?”
“It’s quite a handsome sum. We just need to bring you back alive.”
A doubt arose.
How did mere thugs from the Geomgye recognize her, a precious daughter of the Imperial family, at a single glance? However, solving that mystery could be deferred.
“Instead of taking me, let them go—”
“Scream!”
A man grabbed the hair of the maid who was trying to protect Seo-hwa while dragging her sprained leg. As she was violently dragged away, her skirt tore, exposing her skin.
“How dare you! What do you think you are doing!”
Seo-hwa tried to rush forward in anger, but her wrist was caught by the leader. A hot breath and a disgusting odor washed over her.
“Do you think we’re crazy to just meekly let such beautiful women go?”
Boisterous laughter erupted among the Geomgye members.
“Your Highness! Run away!”
Lady Lee tried to strike the leader with a large rock, but it was in vain.
“We don’t need old ones, get lost!”
The leader’s blade slashed Lady Lee.
“Argh!”
“Lady Lee!!”
Seo-hwa let out a single scream at the sight of Lady Lee tumbling away while spraying blood, but she was devastatingly weak. She could neither shake off the leader nor help Lady Lee.
Was her resolve to protect them so fragile that it would crumble this easily?
Seo-hwa drew the Eunjangdo she had hidden in her bodice and swung it.
“You damn bitch!”
Perhaps because he had let his guard down, even though it was a powerless blade swung without any formal swordsmanship or self-defense training, it left a fairly deep wound on the man’s skin.
But that was the limit.
The man brutally slapped her cheek. The Eunjangdo fell from Seo-hwa’s hand as she tumbled to the ground, rolling far away.
The surrounding Geomgye members actually mocked their leader instead.
“Were you dazed by the noble Princess’s beauty?”
“Shut your mouth!”
Furious, the man poured his rage onto Seo-hwa.
Slap! Slap!
Being slapped repeatedly made her head throb dizzily. Within her wavering consciousness, the wailing of the palace maids echoed distantly.
A surreal stretch of time passed rapidly.
The pain in her slapped cheek, the man’s shouting, the laughter of the Geomgye, the screams of the maids. The messy, tangled sounds drifted past her ears.
Seo-hwa’s vacant gaze traced the moonless night sky.
‘If I knew my life would end so hollowly like this, I really should have followed you, Young Master Kyeong. For what purpose did I survive…’
“We only need to keep her breathing, so it shouldn’t matter if she loses an eye or an ear!”
It was just as the man gnashed his teeth and raised his sword toward her face.
Thwack!
The dull sound of flesh being pierced momentarily tore through the night air, and the man’s body froze.
“Gah…”
A dying groan welled up along with a surge of regurgitated blood that splattered down. Seo-hwa smelled the hot blood falling onto her own face.
Just before the body of the man, whose life had ended in an instant from being impaled by a sharp blade, could collapse onto Seo-hwa, someone stepped forward firmly, yanked out the Hwando embedded in the man’s back, and kicked the body away roughly.
The corpse of the man who had been mocking and trying to violate her just a moment ago tumbled away like a log. Following that, a group of men launched a surprise attack. The Geomgye thugs were subdued in an instant by the trained, elite soldiers.
They were out of immediate danger, but these men did not wear the attire of the Imperial Guard. The palace maids trembled in a new wave of terror without even a moment to feel relieved, but Seo-hwa merely looked up at a man in a daze.
On this dark night that could not keep company with the moon, it was not moonlight, but a fire holding countless corpses and thick blood that wavered and lit up the surroundings.
Right down to the face of the man standing in front of her.
“Ah, ah…”
A sorrowful cry that could become neither a scream nor a sob scraped up her throat. She even forgot how to inhale and exhale. Her trembling gaze wandered frantically.
Seo-hwa clutched her chest. Although five years had passed, and although she was still spending long, drawn-out nights grieving deeply over his death, how could she fail to recognize him?
Even if the youth had become a grown man, and even if the aura shrouding his entire body had turned utterly sinister, it was him. He was her lover.
She would have been able to recognize him by a single fragment of his breath.
It didn’t matter how he, who had returned as a corpse, was now standing in front of her. He was alive. That alone was enough.
It wasn’t a dream. It wasn’t an illusion either. It was reality. A reality where he was alive and had returned to her.
The reality that she hadn’t been able to step foot in for five years finally reached Seo-hwa.
“Young Master Kyeong… You were alive…”
Belated tears blurred her vision into a haze. Through her dizzy sight, she saw the man’s lips curl up into a smile.
And then the man.
The one who used to be her lover.
“Yes, I am alive.”
He whispered in a chilling voice the likes of which she had never heard before. Hatred gathered on the lips that used to whisper sweet affection to her.
“To kill you, Princess.”
The blade, gleaming with blood and grease, soared into the air.
He who had returned alive wanted her life. A blood-red fire flickered within Seo-hwa’s eyes, which flew wide open in shock.

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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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