Blooming even in the mud - Chapter 51

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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 51: Blooming Even in the Mud

“……Is it something you absolutely must know?”
“You must have cherished him deeply, seeing how you spare your words.”
“His Majesty…… my elder brother recommended him.”
A voice akin to resignation failed to leave any impression on Gyeong Won-ui. It only brought a hollow laugh.
He had killed that man too easily. He shouldn’t have sent him off so comfortably with a single stroke of the sword.
“The Emperor—no, he would have been the Crown Prince back then. Did the Crown Prince of a nation personally act as a matchmaker for evil cultists?”
“Though I am saying this only now, my elder brother was not a man fit for the throne.”
Yoo Seo-hwa lightly bit her lower lip.
She knew Gyeong Won-ui was being sarcastic, but she couldn’t help replying on impulse. Upon seeing her elder brother plunge into an evil cult while putting state affairs on the back burner as soon as he ascended the throne, she had occasionally harbored irreverent thoughts.
She thought that her elder brother was a person who should have been born an ordinary noble, or even a commoner, rather than a supreme emperor ruling over the world.
“Which is why he was deposed, was he not?”
“That is true…….”
“Still, he seems to possess the luck to preserved his remaining life remarkably well. He hasn’t bitten his tongue to die, and is living while wretchedly begging for his life. I heard he even has the fortune of a wife, as the Deposed Empress is serving him with utmost devotion.”
“Did my elder brother not receive Sasa?”
“He is still breathing.”
He was an emperor who had been deposed for throwing the country into chaos. It wouldn’t have been strange if he had been granted Sasa long ago.
Yoo Seo-hwa calmly pondered the fact she had just heard. Though his life was still attached, he wouldn’t be able to carry it on for very long.
‘It’s not that I like my elder brother.’
Rather, it would be closer to a feeling of aversion. Had he not forced her to marry such a terrible man, claiming it was for her husband?
Yet Yoo Seo-hwa also knew something else.
That her imperial father had always found her elder brother unsatisfactory and scolded him flagrantly. That he had even compared her, his daughter, to her elder brother who was to inherit the throne.
‘I cannot say there was no reason for my elder brother’s indulgence. Is this also the sin of my imperial father?’
Composing her heavy heart, Yoo Seo-hwa raised her body. Holding the slipping blanket to wrap around her body, she bowed to Gyeong Won-ui.
“I have a request.”
At the sudden plea, Gyeong Won-ui showed a look of surprise. The answer returned only after a period of silence was shrouded in the darkness.
“Speak.”
“May I make a suit of clothes and send it to my elder brother?”
Neither possessed a tender affection or warmth between siblings. Their mothers were also different.
Even so, they were fellow sinners who shared a father who had committed crimes both great and small. A sister who had become a slave could at least give a final gift to her exiled elder brother.
“…….”
Gyeong Won-ui did not answer right away. Realizing her mistake, Yoo Seo-hwa hurriedly continued her words.
“I don’t mean anything else by it. Nor am I daring to resent His Majesty. It is just that it will soon be the last time with my elder brother—.”
“That’s enough.”
Gyeong Won-ui waved his hand, cutting her off.
“There is no need to make excuses. Because I know you are not the kind of person to coldly turn your back on an elder brother whose death is unknown when it will come. Even if that elder brother of a human is the world’s worst scoundrel.”
What blocked Gyeong Won-ui’s lips next was a low groan mixed with frustration.
With an air of having made a slip of the tongue, he hesitated before leaping up and putting on his clothes that were scattered on the floor.
“If it is to be delivered before he receives Sasa, you will have to prepare it early.”
Then, without even waiting for Yoo Seo-hwa’s response, he walked out of the room with quick strides.
Yoo Seo-hwa let out a sigh of relief and lay down on the bed. She must have been extremely tense even while sharing a short conversation. Her shoulders and the nape of her neck ached stiffly.
‘Why do you say you understand me while treating me so coldly…….’
The voice that remained like a lingering scent hovered around her ears. It felt like a rough, chilly, and gloomy gray color.

* * *

The lawless Emperor was deposed, and winter passed.
‘Although a true spring has come under the skies of the Songyang State, perhaps the place trapped in an unchanging, desolate winter is the Chomak just beyond that path.’
The Deposed Empress, Lee Nam-seon, who had once been revered by all the people as the Emperor’s wife, thought so.
“Phew.”
The water-soaked laundry was heavy. Lee Nam-seon wiped the sweat from her forehead and lifted the basket containing the laundry once more.
The Chomak, where Nokgakseong was installed by layering thorn fences and the like, gradually drew closer. One of the soldiers standing guard unlocked the padlock.
“Please enter.”
“Thank you.”
Lee Nam-seon bowed her head. The soldier who received the polite greeting didn’t know what to do with himself.
“Damn it! Damn it!”
The noise that could be heard even outside the fence grew worse upon entering the courtyard. Lee Nam-seon glanced at the closed room with a detached gaze and connected the clothesline.
Spring had approached, but the stream water was cold. Blowing on her red, frozen hands, the shouts mixed with resentment did not disappear until she finished hanging all the laundry.
‘I cleared away everything he could hurt himself with, so it should be fine.’
He will quiet down when he gets tired like that. Just as he always did over the past few months.
When Lee Nam-seon entered the Banbitgan holding the empty basket, a Guanbi happened to be transferring side dishes into a bowl.
“Is your work all finished now?”
“Oh my, I am sorry, Your Highness. Since this servant was preparing the side dishes, I did not even realize Your Highness had arrived.”
“Do not mind it. Since it is a dish you made with such absorption, I am already looking forward to how delicious it will be.”
“Hehe. This servant’s skill is the best in the neighborhood.”
Though she was a deposition to commoner status, Lee Nam-seon was once in a position of high honor. It was an excessively rude attitude.
However, Lee Nam-seon did not point out the rudeness of the simple and ignorant Guanbi at all. Rather, she did not lose her polite etiquette to those she met at the place of exile, regardless of their high or low status.
It didn’t take long for the local commoners, who had been sick and tired of the Deposed Emperor, to begin treating Lee Nam-seon favorably.
“I brought some bean cakes here, so please eat them when you are hungry.”
“Are they not precious to you as well?”
“This servant likes meat better than cakes.”
Insisting with nonsensical words, the Guanbi forcibly handed a cake about the size of a fist to Lee Nam-seon.
“Since His Majesty might fling it into the courtyard like last time, you must eat it alone. When this servant saw you brushing the dirt off the cake and eating it, my heart ached so much.”
“It is a pity that His Majesty does not know the delicacy you gifted.”
“Oh, my. Your Highness speaks so kindly.”
After bursting into laughter, the Guanbi left a greeting to see her tomorrow and nimbly departed from the Chomak.
There were only two people allowed to enter and leave the Chomak surrounded by Nokgakseong. It was the Guanbi who came once a day to prepare meals, and Lee Nam-seon. Even the fact that their entry was permitted was due to the Emperor’s consideration.
The chores were entirely Lee Nam-seon’s responsibility.
By the time she swept the courtyard and tidied up the Banbitgan, the room had also grown quiet. Lee Nam-seon held the cake on a small table and opened the room door.
The room, where utensils tumbled across the floor and were stained with ink, was a mess. The Deposed Emperor Yoo Jeong was curled up on the bed, crying like a young child.
“The Crown Prince……. I miss the Crown Prince, Empress…….”
Lee Nam-seon gently placed her hand on the sobbing Yoo Jeong’s back.
Similarly having suffered a deposition to commoner status and exiled far away, the young Crown Prince was not of her issue.
Yoo Jeong hated Lee Nam-seon, who interfered and offered remonstrances at every turn, just as much as Yoo Seo-hwa. It was to the extent that as soon as a concubine he didn’t even cherish produced his eldest son, he immediately invested him as the Crown Prince despite the opposition of the officials.
‘Is it because he is not my child that I can speak coldbloodedly?’
Before speaking to Yoo Jeong, Lee Nam-seon pondered.
“Do you miss the Crown Prince?”
“Is that not obvious? How much must that young thing long for his father and mother alone in that harsh place…….”
“There is a person named Gaeddong-i in the village below. They say that when he was mobilized for forced labor when Your Majesty was building Taoist temples, he returned to find his children had starved to death.”
Having started that way, Lee Nam-seon’s words continued. Those whose children died, those whose parents died, those whose wives died, those whose siblings died.
Yoo Jeong leaped up in a sudden rage.
“Stop it! Are you trying to say that since everyone lost their families because of me, it is only proper for me to lose my child as well?!”
“It is so.”
“What do you mean it is proper! What! Is a mere ignorant commoner the same as me?!”
“Just because their status is low, would the pain of losing their flesh and blood be any less?”
“Argh! Shut up!”
Slap! Yoo Jeong barked out a shout and slapped Lee Nam-seon’s cheek.
“What does an Empress who couldn’t even produce a child know?! If that child had been the Empress’s child, would you have spoken so coldbloodedly?! Because your nature is wicked, you couldn’t even conceive a child……!”
Yoo Jeong, who was venting his wrath as it surged, suddenly stopped his words completely. His pupils convulsed, and his expression distorted as if he were about to cry.
“I-I am sorry, Empress. I have done wrong. I didn’t mean to do that, but since I miss the Crown Prince so much…….”
What flickered across Yoo Jeong’s face, whose attitude changed in an instant, was fear. He even trembled his hands, stammering an apology to Lee Nam-seon.
Unable to take a single step outside the fence, the anxiety that he might die tomorrow was enough to eat away at his sanity.
The only person by Yoo Jeong’s side was Lee Nam-seon. Neither the concubines, who had enjoyed gold and silver treasures thanks to him, nor the ministers he had favored, had sent him a single letter.
The only one who followed him to this distant place of exile to serve him was Lee Nam-seon.
With the fear that if even Lee Nam-seon abandoned him and left, he would truly be left alone, Yoo Jeong was completely out of his mind.
“Since it does not hurt as much as the day Your Majesty invested the Crown Prince, do not mind it.”
“I-Is that so?”
Though sarcasm was embedded in it, there was nothing he could say in reply. Yoo Jeong shrank back and sat down.
“I have wanted to ask from before, but why did the Empress volunteer to come down to the place of exile? I heard my uncle made arrangements so you could live comfortably in the Capital City.”
Lee Nam-seon did not answer right away and watched Yoo Jeong. It was obvious he was desperate to hear even a vain answer that she would not leave because she loved him.
Naturally, it was not love. Nor was it affection between husband and wife.
‘It should be fine to slowly tell him now.’
Thinking of Yoo Seo-hwa, Lee Nam-seon calmly moved her lips.

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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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