Blooming even in the mud - Chapter 43

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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 the Mud Chapter 43

The voice carried a faint trace of irritation, and perhaps a touch of breathlessness. It was also deeply familiar.
Yoo Seo-hwa lifted her head in sheer surprise.
“What brings you all the way out here?”
“I asked you first. What are you doing here?”
“Well… This is the only path after leaving through the side gate…”
She explained haltingly, utterly at a loss as to why Gyeong Won-ui was pressing her so aggressively.
A flicker of realization that he had blundered crossed Gyeong Won-ui’s face, but it lasted only a fraction of a second. Yoo Seo-hwa failed to read the look of discomfiture on his face as he looked down at her from atop his horse in bewilderment.
Quickly recovering his composure, Gyeong Won-ui ran a hand through his disheveled hair.
“I came out to hunt.”
“I see…”
This was near a temple where the taking of life was strictly forbidden, and he bore neither a bow nor a quiver. Even so, Yoo Seo-hwa simply accepted his word.
Since he claimed to be in the middle of a hunt, she only hoped he would leave her be and return to his sport.
As she stood there for a moment with her head bowed, the horse that had been pacing before her soon turned and headed down the mountain path.
Only after the horse had vanished entirely from her sight did Yoo Seo-hwa exhale a sigh of relief and straighten her back.
‘If only I knew another way, I could return without running into the young master again…’
The only explanation she had received upon leaving Beopjisa was that following this narrow, solitary path down would eventually lead to the broad road connecting to the Mountain Gate.
‘I just hope I don’t cross paths with him again on my way back.’
She walked on slowly, dragging her limping foot.
Her small wish went unfulfilled.
As she was carefully making her way down the mountain path after some time had passed, the sound of Gyeong Won-ui’s horse approached once more.
“Are you trying to become a runaway slave? With a pace that slow, there wouldn’t even be a need to send a slave hunter.”
“…….”
Run away. Even if she did, she had nowhere to go, and nothing would change.
Yoo Seo-hwa merely fiddled with her fingers in silence. She wished the young master would just hurry back to wherever he was going. Quickly.
“……Tsk.”
Gyeong Won-ui let out a low, sharp click of his tongue that sounded half like a groan and half like irritation. His outstretched hand snatched away Yoo Seo-hwa’s bundle.
“……?”
Before she could even ask what he was doing, Gyeong Won-ui tied the bundle to his saddle and gestured to her.
“Do I need to help you mount the horse as well?”
“Pardon?”
Things were becoming increasingly incomprehensible. As she stared up at him blankly, blinking her eyes, Gyeong Won-ui scowled and lifted her up into his arms.
“Hyah.”
Before Yoo Seo-hwa could even process what was happening, she found herself seated behind him, and Gyeong Won-ui spurred the horse forward. To keep from falling off, she had no choice but to clasp her arms tightly around Gyeong Won-ui’s waist.
“…….”
His body heat was overwhelmingly close.
Just like when they had shared those secret, intimate moments in the mountains. It was a sorrowful agony.

The afterimages of a past she wished to forget suddenly resurrected, wrapping themselves around Yoo Seo-hwa. The promise they had made to ride together had ultimately manifested in this twisted shape.
Yoo Seo-hwa inadvertently gripped the fabric of Gyeong Won-ui’s clothes tightly.
And then, she felt an urge to let go of this hand.

She was in no mood to face people. Creeping back to the Servants’ Quarters as if to hide herself, she untied her bundle and organized her clothes.
It was when she was sitting blankly on her bed for a moment that Kkot-bun paid her a visit.
“Hey, you! I heard you were burning up with a fever!”
“I got plenty of rest at the temple, so I’m fine now.”
“Fine, my foot! Your face looks completely haggard. Wasn’t the journey back exhausting? Did you push yourself too hard during the Buddhist Ritual? It must have been so grueling, how did you walk that long distance all by yourself?”
Kkot-bun made a great fuss, placing a hand on Yoo Seo-hwa’s forehead to check her temperature.
“Even Aunt Deok-sun told you to get plenty of rest today.”
“I’ve been away for several days, so aren’t you short-handed?”
“You just rose from a sickbed and walked for over a shijin; how could you possibly have the energy to work? It’ll only cause more trouble if you overexert yourself and collapse again, so just be unashamedly shameless and rest today.”
“But…….”
“It’s not every day you get told to rest by the Head Slave herself, you know.”
Only after ushering the hesitating Yoo Seo-hwa to lie down on the bed did Kkot-bun wave her hand and leave the room.
With the departure of the boisterous Kkot-bun, the small room was instantly blanketed in silence.
The words of Deok-sun and Kkot-bun telling her to rest were correct. The problem, however, was that the true reason she needed to rest was not because she had walked for a long time immediately after recovering from an illness.
“……Sigh.”
She closed her eyes and tried to summon sleep, but slumber eluded her entirely. It was likely because her mind was in too much of a tumult.
‘Come to think of it, my menstruation has passed again.’
Her monthly cycles had always been on the irregular side, but they had grown even more erratic ever since she reunited with Gyeong Won-ui. Though several months had passed, she had only had it once.
‘It might be for the best if it doesn’t come at all from now on…….’
As she thought blankly along those lines, Yoo Seo-hwa’s face contorted as if she were about to burst into tears.
It was because she recognized within herself an instinctual realization that her intimate encounters with Gyeong Won-ui would not end as a one-time impulsive event.

On a certain night in the past, he had secretly sought out her quarters.
Tonight, unlike that day, was a night when the moon did not rise. Without a single sliver of light to rely on, Gyeong Won-ui walked through the pitch-black darkness.
Yoo Seo-hwa’s dwelling was still located in that same isolated, desolate spot.
“Are you inside?”
“……Please enter.”
Leaving the door unlocked was another thing that remained unchanged.
Gyeong Won-ui pushed the door open with one hand and stepped inside. The cool night air flowed into the room right behind him.
“…….”
Yoo Seo-hwa was sitting primly, as if she had anticipated his visit. She kept her scarred hands hidden away inside her sleeves.
On a night with no lamp lit and no moonlight, it was completely dark. Yet, Gyeong Won-ui could still see her.
In the shadows, he faced the silhouette that traced the contours of her figure. The passion he had been suppressing writhed and boiled over like a spreading wildfire.
‘I should have done this from the very beginning.’
Since he had taken her in as a slave, he should have treated her like one.
He shouldn’t have avoided her out of discomfort, nor did he have any reason to feel conflicted. Master and slave. What relationship could possibly be clearer than that?
Reaching through the darkness, he cradled Yoo Seo-hwa’s face in one hand. The somewhat gaunt face of the woman was easily captured within his large palm.
“Agh…….”
As his fingers, heavily calloused from his life as a warrior, rubbed against her cheek and swept down to her nape, Yoo Seo-hwa’s shoulders trembled.
Gyeong Won-ui let out a brief, mocking laugh.
“Why react so strongly to barely this much? Anyone who heard you would think you were still that foolishly innocent princess of the Princess’s Palace.”
“……Was the price for saving my life at the cliff not enough?”
“I miscalculated.”
If a light were to shine upon them now, it would surely reveal Yoo Seo-hwa’s lips, frozen deathly pale. Imagining that sight, Gyeong Won-ui traced her lips with his fingertips.
Those plump lips that he had once coveted while intoxicated by a fierce longing lost their shape under his rough fingertips. Worn down by grueling days, her lips were no longer as soft as they had been in the past.
“Ngh.”
Yoo Seo-hwa flinched and instinctively tried to pull away, but she could not budge an inch. Even though it was impossible to see in the deep darkness, Gyeong Won-ui’s gaze held her completely captive.
His thumb pried open her locked lips. The moist inner membrane of her lips wrapped around his hard fingertip. Only now could he feel the woman’s body heat, which had cooled to a chill.
“You are mine and my property, so why should I have any reason to receive a price?”
“…….”
“I can take you as I please, and discard you as I please.”
“…….”
“I look forward to the day I grow tired of your body.”
Once he grew tired of her, once he could discard her as he pleased, then this time, he would truly be able to kill the child of the enemy who had betrayed him.
Unable to withstand his rough, rummaging hands, her garments fluttered and fell to the floor.
Through their locked lips, Yoo Seo-hwa’s trembling groans scattered into the air. He tangled his tongue deeply with hers, licking and swallowing every drop of the heat coiled deep inside her.
His body, chilled by the cold night air, grew scorching hot as it greedily devoured her warmth.
A night of deep darkness.
Because it was a night without even the moon, Gyeong Won-ui failed to see the single streak of a tear flowing behind Yoo Seo-hwa’s closed eyelids.
#4

The maids of the Princess’s Palace used to secretly show her romance novels behind Court Lady Lee’s back.
It was an age full of curiosity, and she had also been curious about the wedding night she would share with Gyeong Won-ui once they married.

The palace maids had whispered secretly to Yoo Seo-hwa while engaging in such chatter.

……Therefore, the tears flowing from the corners of her eyes should have been tears of joy.
“Ah……!”
Not just their lower bodies, which were tightly locked together without a sliver of space between them, but her entire body flailed and tossed. It battered her mind relentlessly, like a crashing wave.
Whenever her body twisted, a powerful, unyielding strength pressed her down. Trapped in the man’s embrace, her flesh could not move an inch and simply accepted him.
Her consciousness was hazy. Every time the thing harboring a burning heat penetrated deeply and devoured her, a dizzying groan escaped her lips.
“Ah, ah! Ah!”
Just like in the romance novels she had read with blushing cheeks, the physical ecstasy was an intense pleasure beyond anything she could have ever imagined.
Yet, she could not find it within herself to be happy at all.

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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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