Blooming even in the mud - Chapter 50

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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 50

The beoseon received from Hong Ok-geum last winter had returned.
“Don’t misunderstand. It’s not like I’m returning it to you because it got dirty or I grew sick of it. My hands might have soiled it a bit from touching it now and then, but I’ve never worn it once. Really.”
“Did you not take it to wear it warmly in the winter?”
Upon hearing the explanation, her bewilderment only grew.
Dal-rae, who had been pouring out words at a rapid pace without even meeting her eyes, flushed bright red.
“Oh, I don’t know either! I don’t know why I didn’t wear it. I suppose I didn’t like the shape, whatever. Anyway, I gave it back!”
Before Yoo Seo-hwa could even utter a response, Dal-rae forcefully shoved the beoseon into her hands. Then, she ran off as if fleeing.
“……Thank you.”
Just before she left the area of the quarters, a quiet word drifted upon the wind. Her chest throbbed, suffused with a sincere gratitude.
“It is not something to be thanked for. I am sorry that it was not solely out of a pure desire to save you.”
Yoo Seo-hwa murmured the answer Dal-rae did not hear under her breath. She looked down at the beoseon that had barely returned to its owner before storing it away in a chest.
Click. The sound of the lid closing weighed heavily upon her heart.

* * *

Gyeong Won-ui reported the news of breaking off the marriage alliance to the Emperor.
It was an action that went against the imperial will. He had prepared himself for the Emperor to be greatly angered, but the reaction was unexpectedly casual.
“Since there was an air of reluctance every time the marriage alliance was mentioned, I anticipated that it would not go smoothly.”
“I have no face to show, having gone against your will.”
“Forget it. If I must use the marriage of a trusted minister as a hostage to seize control of the political situation despite having barely raised a restoration, future history will mock me. Rather than that…….”
The Emperor waved his hand. The eunuch who had been standing in attendance bowed his waist and stepped backward out of the room.
“What do you think of the Minister of State Affairs?”
“He is a man whose eyes for discerning the trends of the times are precise.”
He had spoken indirectly, but in the end, it meant he was a shrewd person. The Emperor also chuckled.
“Indeed. When the Deposed Emperor’s tyranny continued and I was secretly sharpening my blade in Qiheng Province, the first one to contact me was also the Minister of State Affairs.”
“I was also surprised. Since the successor of his family was the Deposed Emperor’s Baedong, did he not receive trust despite not being a member of the White Head Sect?”
“As soon as he realized it was a sinking ship, he made a decision as swiftly as flipping his palm.”
At first, he had not believed Chu Se-gu’s sincerity.
Thereupon, Chu Se-gu had even broken off Chu Na-yeon’s engagement and voluntarily sent her to Qiheng Province. Ostensibly it was for Chu Na-yeon’s recuperation, but in reality, she was a hostage.
The Emperor had also met Chu Na-yeon at that time.
“Just as the Minister of State Affairs has quick eyes for reading the trends of the times, his desire for power is also strong. However, it is not excessive. He does not demand power he cannot handle, and he keeps an appropriate line to avoid impeachment, whether in receiving bribes or coveting wealth.”
“My thoughts are the same.”
“If one is in the position of the Minister of State Affairs and even has his name listed on the roster of Second-class Meritorious Officials, his neck should naturally be stiff with pride. How do you judge him?”
“The Minister of State Affairs is indeed a greedy man, but I believe it is because that greed is for his own well-being and self-preservation.”
Gyeong Won-ui, who lightly clenched and unclenched his fist, continued with words he could not say during his father’s lifetime.
“He was a good friend to my late father, but I could not shake the thought that he was a duplicitous figure.”
“I am of the same mind as you.”
The Emperor slapped his knee and smiled. Gyeong Won-ui’s eyes for reading people were always accurate.
“However, because he is a man so adept at self-preservation, I thought that if you were bound by marriage, he would protect you and your family if only to avoid guilt by association.”
“I am plagued by guilt.”
“It is not as if I didn’t have the ulterior motive of silencing the two factions quietly through marriage before their friction intensified, so there is no need to bow your head. What will become a problem for you in the future is the Minister of State Affairs’s disposition.”
“…….”
“Setting the cause aside, it means his daughter has broken off an engagement twice. Can you handle the resentment?”
Gyeong Won-ui refined his answer inside.
To be honest, when he notified them of the broken engagement out of indignation at Chu Na-yeon’s outrageous behavior, he had not thought about how to clean up the aftermath.
Yet, even looking back after his head had cooled, he felt no regret that he had made the wrong choice. He could not keep a woman who harmed Yoo Seo-hwa—who harmed what was his—by his side. Absolutely.
“The person who cannot handle it will likely not be me alone.”
Meaning that, on the contrary, Chu Se-gu might suffer a counterattack. At the cold reply that did not match his calm tone, the Emperor laughed out loud.
“Right, indeed. If one is my man, they ought to possess at least that much spirit.”
It was something he thought from time to time, but he wondered if this was truly the same young man who used to silently guard Gyeong Baek-jong’s side years ago.
He did not know whether cruel pain had changed him, or if it had merely caused him to reveal the disposition he originally possessed.
‘It is a pity that I have no princess of an age to match with this lad.’
Even if there were a suitable princess, it seemed unlikely that Gyeong Won-ui would accept her. After all, it appeared he still had lingering attachments to Yoo Seo-hwa.
“How is Sukjeong?”
“…….”
As expected, for the first time, Gyeong Won-ui’s shoulders flinched minutely.
“She is as usual.”
“If keeping her beneath you continues to be a burden, I shall send her to the Gamban Detached Palace as a palace slave. That would be better for Sukjeong’s living conditions as well.”
“That is not necessary.”
Gyeong Won-ui, who faltered at his own words that had bounced off the tip of his tongue before his thoughts could form, clenched his fist tightly beneath the table.
“I intend to keep her entirely as my responsibility.”
“Responsibility, is it…….”
The Emperor pondered what the true meaning behind the word ‘responsibility’ might be, but soon abandoned the thought.
Whatever the true meaning was, so long as Yoo Seo-hwa was branded as a member of the White Head Sect, she would never escape the life of a slave.

The sight of Yoo Seo-hwa sitting gracefully and engrossed in needlework was somehow unfamiliar. He quietly stared at her fingers, which were folding and sewing pieces of cloth to create artificial flowers, before approaching.
Yoo Seo-hwa, who belatedly sensed a human presence, raised her head.
“You have come.”
Looking at her as she hurriedly rose from her seat, Gyeong Won-ui realized the reason for the sense of incompatibility.
“……You used to be clumsy at sewing.”
“There was nothing else for me to do.”
Yoo Seo-hwa replied upon hearing his low monologue.
“Well, that is only natural. Are you not someone who grew up preciously?”
Even at the habit-like sarcasm that leaked out reflexively, Yoo Seo-hwa closed her lips without any major change in expression.
For some reason, he did not like it. Feeling an inexplicable uneasiness, he caught Yoo Seo-hwa’s chin with his fingers.
With the tip of his thumb, he stroked the face that came up gently as he pulled it up. He could feel a sense of tension from Yoo Seo-hwa, who had been calm all along.
Slowly caressing the facial line covered in fine downy hair, his thumb descended and fumbled along the edge of her lips. Her tender flesh was pressed white against his firm fingertips, which were hardened with calluses from his training as a warrior.
Feeling her breath breaking intermittently between her lips with his fingertips, Gyeong Won-ui whispered.
“Why did you not speak?”
“About what?”
“I heard you were slapped on the cheek by Chu Na-yeon.”
Yoo Seo-hwa’s large pupils, which had been staring blankly, wavered.
Gyeong Won-ui realized the reason for his uneasy emotion. He had disliked her unvarying expression, which seemed as though she would no longer be shaken by his words and deeds.
Should it not naturally be so?
He was the master who possessed her and grasped even the right over her life and death within his hand. She ought to be driven by joy and sorrow, and be shaken by his every single word.
Yoo Seo-hwa gently closed her eyes and moved her lips slightly.
“Because it is an insignificant matter. Is she not the lady who will become the master of this body someday?”
“Who told you to change masters?”
With the hand that had been fondling her face and lips, Gyeong Won-ui covered her neck. The pulse of her neck, trapped within his large hand, beat rapidly.
A slender body, a frail physique that felt as though it would break if even a little force were applied.
“Your master is only me, Yoo Seo-hwa.”
He swallowed her narrowly parting lips.
The breath bursting sharply from the lips being ransacked by the greedily digging flesh was exceedingly sweet. The pulse trapped within his hand throbbed precariously.
Gyeong Won-ui knew that even if the Emperor commanded him to return her because he would take her back, he would end up disobeying.

It was a hard bed where no softness could be felt at all. The woodworm-eaten wooden bed made a loud creaking sound even if one twisted their body just a little.
Gyeong Won-ui did not care about the discomfort of the bed at all. Only the woman lying beside him was important.
The breathing of Yoo Seo-hwa, who was lying with her back turned toward the wall, was low.
Reaching out his arm to embrace her, he pressed his lips against her white shoulder exposed outside the blanket. Her skin, where the sweat had cooled, was soft and slightly chilly.
He had thought she was asleep, but he could feel a sense of tension.
‘At least this remains unchanged.’
A sound that could be a bitter smile or a sneer flowed lowly.
Even though they had shared bodies several times, Yoo Seo-hwa’s physique and reactions were as unfamiliar as the first time.
‘Perhaps it is only natural.’
At the thought that popped up unexpectedly, his mind cooled down frostily.
Was she not a woman who had lived as another man’s wife for as long as four years? That would also be the reason why she could not grow accustomed to his intimacy.
Strength tightly entered the forearm wrapping around Yoo Seo-hwa.
“Ugh.”
Whether it was painful, Yoo Seo-hwa groaned shallowly. Gyeong Won-ui managed the anger that surged in an instant and asked lowly.
“How did you come to know that man?”
“That man, you say?”
“I mean Park Kwon-bok.”
“…….”
Yoo Seo-hwa’s flustered breathing echoed dimly through the darkness.

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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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