Blooming even in the mud - Chapter 55

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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 55

Looking back, it was something that happened in the spring five years ago, an occasion that felt as distantly remote as if it had occurred decades in the past.
Even though the noon sunlight was shining down warmly, a frost-like roaring fury echoed throughout the Princess’s Palace.
“Will you not confess your sin to Her Highness this instant!”
“I—I did not kn—know it was something so precious…….”
“Are you going to make excuses until the very end!”
“I—I have committed a sin worthy of death, Your Highness!”
The maidservant trembled violently at Court Lady Lee’s piercing, furious voice. Yoo Seo-hwa sat before the woman, who was prostrating herself on the floor and begging for forgiveness.
“…….”
As if she could not even hear Court Lady Lee’s scolding and the maidservant’s pleading, Yoo Seo-hwa silently looked down at the pressed flower, half-burnt and ruined.
Having only recently risen from her sickbed, her complexion was as gaunt and haggard as a withered winter branch.
After Gyeong Baek-jong was executed as a felon of high treason and even Gyeong Won-ui’s corpse was discovered, Yoo Seo-hwa had remained confined to her sickbed the entire time before finally managing to get up. Court Lady Lee had been filled with anxiety, terrified that just as she was barely recovering her vitality, she might collapse once more.
“Please k—kill this slave.”
The maidservant who had caused the commotion that shook the Princess’s Palace shook with fear.
While cleaning, she had happened to find a pressed magnolia flower. It was a pressed flower with just a single magnolia blossom sitting plainly, without any embroidery along the edges or other flowers decorating it. Even the pressing paper was just ordinary paper.
Therefore, she had not known it was a pressed flower that Yoo Seo-hwa treasured so dearly. Thinking it was merely a pressed flower made for practice and forgotten, she had gone ahead and burned it along with the other trash.
Although Court Lady Lee had discovered it and pulled the pressed flower out, it was too late. The pressed flower, half of which had burned away, could hardly be called a flower anymore.
Once she learned the reason why that simple-looking single magnolia blossom was cherished so deeply, the maidservant thought she might faint right then and there.
Because it involved a felon of high treason, people kept quiet about it, but it was public knowledge that Yoo Seo-hwa could not forget Gyeong Won-ui. Since she had damaged a pressed flower imbued with memories of a deceased lover, she would have no excuse even if she were dragged away to be executed on the spot.
After staring silently at the ruined pressed flower for a long time, Yoo Seo-hwa waved her hand.
“That is enough, you may stand up. Court Lady Lee, do not hold this child accountable any further.”
“But, Your Highness.”
“Even if a punishment is handed down, it is not as if the pressed flower will regain its original form, is it? Besides, Gyeong Won-ui would not want someone to be harmed because of his gift either.”
The day’s commotion came to an end with the maidservant weeping loudly and expressing her gratitude repeatedly. The problem was Yoo Seo-hwa’s appearance from that day forward, as she seemed to have completely lost her spirit.
“Your Highness, how about planting magnolias in the courtyard of the Princess’s Palace? If we transplant a fully grown tree, it will be difficult for this year, but starting from next year, you will be able to gaze upon beautiful magnolias.”
“I know your heart worries for me, but it is fine. Since my elder brother has also ascended the throne, I cannot remain in the Princess’s Palace forever, can I?”
“Do you truly intend to become a Buddhist nun?”
“I plan to speak to Emperor Xuanwen when the time is right.”
Thinking of Yoo Seo-hwa cutting ties with the secular world at such a young age made Court Lady Lee’s heart ache terribly. However, it was also true that it was against propriety for a woman of the Imperial Family who had reached marriageable age to remain in the palace as an unwed person.
She firmly resolved that if Yoo Seo-hwa entered a temple, she would absolutely become a nun as well to attend to her.
Just as Court Lady Lee was thinking that it might be fine to make a separate request to a temple to plant a single magnolia tree, Yoo Seo-hwa spoke slowly.
“……The dwiggoji.”
“Pardon? Forgive me, but I did not quite catch that.”
“I wish to carve a branch of magnolia wood to make a dwiggoji shaped like a magnolia.”
If it were a dwiggoji made of wood, it would not be luxurious, so she would be able to possess it even after becoming a nun. Court Lady Lee’s face brightened slightly.
“I shall inform an artisan straight away.”
A few days later, Yoo Seo-hwa received a single wooden dwiggoji carved in the shape of a magnolia.
The incense applied to the dwiggoji soon faded, and the pressed flower made from the magnolia Gyeong Won-ui had plucked was also damaged, but the memories that had fluttered her heart to the point of tears did not degrade.
Recalling the magnolia she had received from him, which had brought an end to her long waiting, Yoo Seo-hwa cradled the dwiggoji dearly to her chest.
It was truly ironical.
That five years later, in this heartless spring that had returned once again, the place Gyeong Won-ui brought her to was a hill where spring flowers were in full bloom.
‘He must have forgotten promises like going flower-viewing together every spring.’
The spring she had forgotten came rushing in, causing Yoo Seo-hwa to close her eyes.
Gyeong Won-ui, who had remained silent the entire time he drove the horse, kept his features fiercely hardened even after they arrived at a secluded place. He looked just like a man whose emotions were so tangled and entwined that he did not know where to begin untangling them.
‘He must be furious and will lash out, right?’
Yoo Seo-hwa anxiously fidgeted with the fingertips of her neatly clasped hands.
‘I have no emotions other than human goodwill toward the Byeoljang, but it might have been an action that could invite misunderstanding…….’
Thinking up to that point, her strength suddenly drained away completely.
There was no reason for him to be angry. At best, over what part of a scene where a single slave was talking with his subordinate in the street would he be furious?
A relationship where she merely shared her body with him every night, but it was barely anything more than that.
Thinking that way, she could no longer understand. Why he had brought her here.
‘……I do not know him.’
Yoo Seo-hwa slowly etched a single realization into her mind once more.
Her lover, whom she had once believed she knew better than anyone else, was now a complete stranger to her. If all he desired was her suffering, there ought to be more direct methods.
“Do you have nothing to say?”
“Pardon?”
“I will listen, so at least make an excuse.”
How many times had the spring breeze carrying fresh greenery caressed the cheeks of the two individuals? Gyeong Won-ui’s voice, which was visibly suppressed, left Yoo Seo-hwa even more confused.
‘An excuse? About what happened with Wang Byeoljang earlier?’
“That is…….”
“…….”
“I…….”
A complete sentence ultimately failed to escape her parting lips.
Was it something that required an excuse? What kind of answer did Gyeong Won-ui want to hear? She did not know. She did not know him.
However.
If he would listen to her wretched ‘excuse.’
There was a trust she had been unable to let go of, even while suffering under the gaze of her former lover who hated her. There was a sincerity she had been unable to speak of until now because she had no shame. Even so, there was a desperation wishing he would understand.
Because of that, she did not even dare to hope for a situation where her circumstances would change; she just wanted him.
To simply understand.
Just like that.
Because if it was Gyeong Won-ui, he would surely believe the truth alone, no matter how much he hated her. Because there was a time they had built up with feelings of supreme love in the past.
“……Gyeong Won-ui.”
The pooled sincerity formed upon her lips with great difficulty.
Looking up at Gyeong Won-ui, who maintained a fierce silence, Yoo Seo-hwa clenched both of her hands. Just like when she had first held the magnolia-carved dwiggoji to her chest.
“I am not trying to deny my royal father’s sins.”
“What are you talking about right now? Who said they wanted to hear about that matter?”
Before his voice could rise, Yoo Seo-hwa hurriedly continued her words.
“It is only natural that I atone in place of my royal father for what he failed to do. I do not resent it, nor am I suffering.”
“…….”
“However…… please just know this one thing.”
“…….”
“I absolutely never betrayed you. I was just…… glad that you were alive.”
She had kept it buried the entire time, but once it came out of her mouth, for some reason her chest throbbed painfully.
Was that pain because what had been buried was washed out, leaving behind a scratch?
Or else…….
The corners of Gyeong Won-ui’s lips twisted upward.
“So, what do you want me to do about it?”
Was it because she instinctively sensed it from Gyeong Won-ui’s downward gaze?
Yoo Seo-hwa knew that the despair of that night when she had hanged herself upon hearing of Gyeong Won-ui’s death was crashing over her once again.

* * *

Wang Jeong-mun waited for Yoo Seo-hwa in a corner of the servants’ quarters, feeling extremely restless. Since it was clear Gyeong Won-ui had misunderstood, he was all the more worried.
‘Why is she so late? It feels like it is already past the time she should have returned. Right after confirming Her Highness has returned home safely, I must go straight to the General and tell him that I absolutely do not have any ulterior motives toward Her Highness…….’
Wang Jeong-mun pressed his forehead with a gloomy heart.
Could he truly say he had no ulterior motives? Could he confidently declare that there were no emotions other than pity and sympathy in his gaze when looking at Yoo Seo-hwa?
“Byeoljang? Do you have business here?”
“Ah, Your Highness!”
At the sudden sound of a human presence, Wang Jeong-mun hurriedly turned his head.
With a swift gaze, he scanned Yoo Seo-hwa. Externally, she looked no different from when she had mounted the horse with Gyeong Won-ui.
“I have brought the wrapping cloth and the cotton fabric that held the food container and placed them inside your room. The food container is safe since I kept holding onto it, but the cotton fabric caught some muddy water…….”
The cotton fabric she had dropped when mounting the horse had ended up falling into a dirty puddle of water. Although he had picked it up and shaken it out, there was no way the muddy water soaked into the cotton fabric would disappear.
“Thank you.”
“Is there anything I can help you with?”
“No. It is fine.”
It was similar to usual, but somehow the color of her voice felt different. As if she were pushing him away with a firmness unusual for her.
Wang Jeong-mun hesitated.
He had a lot to say. He had a lot he wanted to ask. However, seeing Yoo Seo-hwa’s silently sunken expression, he could not bring himself to say anything and withdrew from the servants’ quarters.
Yoo Seo-hwa fetched some water and washed the cotton fabric. As she rubbed it with force and rinsed it, she was able to shake off the mud to some extent, but the dirtied traces remained patchy.
Wringing out the moisture and shaking it out, she hung it on the clothesline and returned to her room. Opening the chest, she pushed aside the scraps of leftover cloth. Then, beneath Hong Ok-geum’s letter, she pulled out the dwiggoji.
Flicking a flint, she lit a fire. The dwiggoji made of wood caught fire in no time.
The surging flames spread all the way to the white magnolia, swallowing the dwiggoji. The petals carved from wood trembled as if screaming, burning away into the flames.
Until the magnolia burned completely without leaving anything behind, becoming ash-colored powder.
Until even the ash powder blew away in the wind, scattering without a trace.
Yoo Seo-hwa watched.

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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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