Blooming even in the mud - Chapter 87

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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 Chapter 87

Chu Na-yeon, who had been riding her horse all night, stopped from sheer exhaustion.
“Pant, pant. Since I’ve fled all the way here, even Father won’t dare to track me down. I need to rest a bit.”
As she clumsily dismounted from the horse, Dal-rae, who was following behind, quickly got off her horse and rushed over.
“Young lady, shall I massage your legs?”
Dal-rae made a big fuss, massaging Chu Na-yeon’s legs and wiping away her sweat.
‘I was torn whether to bring her or not, but it was a good idea to bring her along.’
Even though she was disguised as a man, she felt anxious about fleeing as a woman alone. The slaves of the household had served Chu Se-gu for a long time, so they were hard to trust. The only slave unrelated to Chu Se-gu was Dal-rae, whom Gyeong Won-ui had sent.

The fact that she could even ride a horse was the icing on the cake.

When she added sweet words promising to take good care of her generously, the hesitating Dal-rae gave in as well.
‘Two women are also cause for anxiety, but it’s better than being alone. I need a personal maid to attend to me anyway.’
It was when Chu Na-yeon saw Chu Se-gu’s face asking her to run away together that she resolved to flee. Chu Se-gu’s face when saying those words was exactly the same as when he brought her a proposal of marriage.
A face that intended to sell off his daughter for a good price for the sake of his own desire and advancement.
Even if she succeeded in fleeing with Chu Se-gu, Chu Na-yeon’s life would never be satisfying. Given their status as fugitives, what was to stop her from being sold off as a concubine to some nouveau riche who had nothing but money, to put it bluntly?
‘The one whose Wanted Poster Portrait is posted across the country is Father, not me. As long as I hide my identity well, I’ll be safe.’
She hadn’t decided where to flee and what to do, but she had plenty of time.
“Young lady, on the way here, it seemed like there was a stream over that way. Shall I go fetch some water?”
“Fetch plenty so we can drink while traveling. And since I’m disguised as a man, I told you not to call me young lady.”
“I’ll be careful.”
Dal-rae, clutching the canteens, stepped behind the bushes. Sitting with her back against a tree, Chu Na-yeon stretched out her arms and legs to rest.
However, even after waiting for a long time, Dal-rae did not return.
“Did this foolish thing lose her way on the way back and wander off?”
While she was vowing to scold her severely upon her return, an armed force appeared from the other side of the road. Her heart dropped.
‘Calm down. They don’t look like bandits, so they might be troops heading to join Shengguang. Panicking for no reason will only invite suspicion.’
To no avail despite her efforts to calm her mind, the soldiers immediately surrounded Chu Na-yeon.
“The daughter of the treasonous rebel is here. Submissively accept your arrest.”
“The daughter of a treasonous rebel, what kind of nonsense is that?”
Chu Na-yeon, who was about to argue while altering her voice to sound like a man, widened her eyes. She saw the figure of Dal-rae standing behind the soldiers.
“You! How dare you betray me?!”
“Betrayal, that’s absurd. I have never served you from the very beginning. Why should I follow someone who tried to kill the young lady I serve?”
“Yoo Seo-hwa? Is it that woman again?! Again?!”
Receiving the order, the soldiers easily subdued Chu Na-yeon, who was shrieking shrilly, and bound her with red cords.
“You insolent fools! Where do you think you are putting your hands! Let go! If you want to arrest me, tell Gyeong Won-ui to come himself!”
Chu Na-yeon thrashed as she was dragged away, but no one listened to her words. Regret washed over her that she should have fled with Chu Se-gu if she had known it would turn out like this, but it was too late.
It was a regret born because she did not know that Gyeong Won-ui’s tracking network was so tight that she would have been caught immediately even if she had fled with Chu Se-gu.

* * *

Even the remnants of the White Head Sect that had not been identified before were revealing themselves one after another. A list of certain nobles who connected themselves to the White Head Sect was also secured.
The time was ripe. Now was the time to fully surround Shengguang and order the attack.
When Gyeong Won-ui returned from a meeting with his advisors, a soldier was waiting for him. He was a soldier who mainly ran errands for letters to Yoo Seo-hwa in the Capital City while serving Gyeong Won-ui.
“There is an item that the young lady of the General’s household told me to deliver.”
“To me?”
To think it was sent by Yoo Seo-hwa, who had only received his letters but remained silent.
He dismissed the soldier and quickly opened the wooden box. Inside, there was a letter and an Embroidered Belt Pouch.

[This is what I wished to give you five years ago.]

How could the content of the letter, which was nothing more than a single short sentence, fill his heart so completely? It was as if Yoo Seo-hwa herself were reciting this single sentence right next to his ear.
Old memories were poignantly summoned.

Yoo Seo-hwa had also not forgotten a fragment of a trivial conversation from several years ago.
He no longer had the pouch his mother made, but because he had no time to care, his current one was just as old and dirty. Gyeong Won-ui untied his pouch and fastened the new embroidered belt pouch made by Yoo Seo-hwa around his waist. The embroidery, depicting a mist surrounding a tiger with fierce eyes, was very fine.
“Even if someone brought all the treasures in the world, they could not trade them for this pouch.”
Joy and ecstasy overflowed, unable to be contained tightly within his chest. Even his fingertips stroking the pouch trembled faintly.
It was no trivial gift.
It was proof that the time of past love, beautiful and radiant like spring, which Gyeong Won-ui had once denied and Yoo Seo-hwa had turned away from—the time of supreme devotion that had almost been corrupted and punctuated by irreversible regret—had finally connected to ‘now’ after crossing winding and rugged peaks.
Yoo Seo-hwa, who had finally stood upright in life, now shared that unified time with him as well.

* * *

The Rebel Army was suppressed just half a day after surrounding and attacking Shengguang. Trapped in a watertight dragnet, the Rebel Army could not even flee. A great number died in battle, and an even greater number were taken prisoner.
“You have went through much trouble.”
Gyeong Won-ui personally released the officials who had been imprisoned by the Rebel Army. Having been locked up for a long period, their complexions were haggard, but no one was severely harmed or dead.
‘Now, is there only one thing left to do in Shengguang?’
Without rushing, he moved his steps calmly. Just as reported, the bound Chu Se-gu had been dragged and placed in the courtyard of the Government Office.
“Wo-Won-ui! It’s me!”
As soon as he saw Gyeong Won-ui, Chu Se-gu cried out urgently and crawled on his knees, only to be restrained by the soldiers.
“We caught him attempting to flee disguised as a slave.”
Wang Jeong-mun whispered in a low voice. Gyeong Won-ui knit his brows and stared at Chu Se-gu.
Somehow, unlike his luxurious nature, his clothing was shabby and foul-smelling. That he did not abandon his lingering attachment to live until the very end even after the Rebel Army was suppressed was just like Chu Se-gu.
“What kind of excuse is needed for the leader of the Rebel Army?”
“The le-leader! That is an absurd frame-up! Do you not know me? It was wrong of me to flee out of fear of the Imperial Decree, but I am unrelated to the Rebel Army! I was merely held captive by those bastards solely because I am a local influential family of Shengguang!”
The desperate appeal sounded quite plausible. However, Gyeong Won-ui’s cold voice did not have even a hair’s breadth of shaking.
“My father also appealed his innocence like that. It was precisely because of the false charge you framed him with.”
“That is nonsense! Why would I frame Baek-jong! Do you not know well what kind of friends we were!”
Schwing.
The sound of drawing a Hwando echoed sharply. The face of Chu Se-gu, who had been shamelessly denying until the very end, turned deathly pale.
Gyeong Won-ui walked over with measured steps, holding the drawn Hwando without a word. The blade, catching the light of the burning setting sun, glowed red like blood.
The blade rose above his head. Sharply honed killing intent directed toward Chu Se-gu. Oppressed by terror, a rattling groan like boiling phlegm came out of Chu Se-gu’s mouth, unable to even scream.
The tip of the sword, which seemed as if it would cleave Chu Se-gu’s neck, plunged into the ground right beside his trembling foot. Gyeong Won-ui’s eyes, harboring a bleak killing intent, pierced through him.
“The reason I do not kill you right now is because even death would be a merciful punishment for you. You will die amidst the despair of seeing everything you have built and amassed throughout your life utterly collapse and be trampled upon.”
It was the end. Chu Se-gu, who had been gripping his desire to live stubbornly until the very last moment, barely realized it.
“You greenhorn who knows nothing! What your father did to me all his life…”
“Gag that man’s mouth.”
He ordered without even listening to the words Chu Se-gu spat out like a fit. The soldiers forced a gag into the thrashing Chu Se-gu’s mouth.
“Mmph! Mmph!”
Gyeong Won-ui coldly sneered at the venomous glare directed at him as Chu Se-gu rolled on the ground.
“No one is curious about the reason for what you did. You are merely a betrayer who falsely accused his friend, a treacherous official who clouded the Emperor’s eyes, and a felon of High Treason who is nothing more than the leader of a rebellion.”
“Mmph, mmph!”
“Do not remove that man’s gag until he is escorted to the Capital City.”
The muffled roaring suppressed by the gag could be heard, but Gyeong Won-ui left the Government Office without looking back.
Left alone, Gyeong Won-ui let fall a suppressed groan and clutched his chest.
‘Father, Mother… I have captured the enemy with my own hands.’
Before the ecstasy of finally achieving vengeance, sorrow rushed in.
He had lost too much to get here. His father and mother who died brutally, the long period spent consumed only by hatred, and even the wounds he had inflicted on Yoo Seo-hwa.
At this very moment, he missed Yoo Seo-hwa so terribly it could drive him mad.
The only one who could find the answer to this sorrow was Yoo Seo-hwa.

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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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