Even If Flowers Bloom on a Broken Branch - Chapter 21

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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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21.
Lee Yeon could not bring herself to swallow any food, so she did little but drink water throughout the entire meal.
Amidst this, when the servants announced that Jinyul had arrived, Lee Yeon pushed the table away at once. Then she immediately crossed the threshold and ran out.
“My lady!”
Chohee, who had been coaxing Lee Yeon with various dishes, followed in a panicked hurry.
“My lady, you will fall! Please be careful!”
Lee Yeon let the words brush past her ears and rushed onward. The moment she opened the door, she froze in her tracks.
‘Blood…’
Blood was smeared across Jinyul’s clothes right in front of her.
Standing on the stepping stone, Lee Yeon’s gaze briefly locked with Jinyul’s. He gave a small shake of his head.
“…….”
Lee Yeon let out a long sigh and paused. She felt an overwhelming sense of relief that he was unharmed.
If a sigh possessed physical weight, it would have surely left a massive crater in this stepping stone.
‘Surely he did not hear that.’
Embarrassed, Lee Yeon turned her head away from Jinyul. Then she froze once more.
For the man who had stained Jinyul’s clothes with dark red blood was kneeling right there.
The man had a familiar face.
“You are…”
He was the very debt collector from the Marketplace who had tormented Hong Ran’s family.
Though his bruised and battered face, tattered clothes, and bleeding mouth looked quite different from before, it was undeniably him.
She had guessed that he would do something, but seeing him carry it out without a shred of deviation stirred both disappointment and rage within her.
Lee Yeon muttered with fierce determination.
“I warned you that things would not end well if we met again, yet you insisted on begging for a beating.”
Having heard the news, Hong Ran’s mother, Juhwa, and Hong Jin came rushing over in a frenzy, only to freeze like ice upon recognizing him.
The man immediately flattened his body toward Lee Yeon and cried out.
“P-Please forgive me, my lady! I didn’t intend to kill her!”
At that, Jinyul, who had taken a few steps forward, looked down at the man coldly.
“Utter another lie, and I will start by cutting out that tongue.”
“Y-Yes, I understand!”
The rogue cried out with a face pale with terror. His lips were completely torn from how severely he had been beaten.
Realizing there was nowhere left to run, he poured out his confession.
“At first, I intended to collect the girl’s ransom from you, my lady. But after seeing the Royal Decree, I thought everything had gone awry…”
“No…!”
Hong Jin’s face turned white as sheet. His legs, shaking like an aspen leaf, gave out beneath him. Hong Jin collapsed onto the dirt ground and covered his ears.
But the man’s words were not finished.
“But… since it was my first time harming a person, I was hesitating, and that was exactly when the Grand Prince appeared!”
Juhwa, who had been sobbing, snapped her head up. Lee Yeon also looked at the man with wide, startled eyes.
It was then.
“Mother…”
Hearing the faint voice calling her, Juhwa’s eyes immediately brimmed with tears.
Her face, so gaunt that her cheekbones protruded, became drenched in tears. It was the voice of the daughter she had waited for so desperately and prayed would be safe.
The moment Hong Ran came into view near the main gate, Juhwa wailed her name.
“My baby!!”
Hong Ran’s face was a mess of red and blue bruises, and the hem of her clothes was torn to shreds.
Juhwa tried to stand up, but her legs collapsed as if they had lost all strength.
At that sight, Hong Ran, who had been dragging her exhausted body into the courtyard with great difficulty, grit her teeth and forced herself forward. She threw herself into Juhwa’s arms.
“Mom!”
“Sister…!”
Hong Jin ran over and threw his arms around them, while Juhwa held her daughter tightly, weeping endlessly.
“You’re alive, my baby!”
Juhwa endlessly caressed her daughter’s face with her thin, skeletal hands. Fearing she might hurt the injuries, she could not even press firmly, stroking her with precious, aching tenderness.
“What happened to your face… How did you get all these wounds… My child, on my precious child’s face—”
Juhwa sobbed and held her daughter close once more. Hong Jin was crying too hard to say a single word.
“I’m so glad you’re alive. Thank you for coming back safely, thank you.”
Lee Yeon stood atop the stepping stone, looking down at the scene.
‘…What a relief, truly.’
She was relieved that she was alive, that they had met, and that she was safe.
As she watched the mother and children in their tearful reunion, a sudden chill settled into her dark eyes.
“Roll that scoundrel up in a straw mat.”
The servants froze at the icy voice, a tone they had never heard from her before.
Lee Yeon pointed at the man prostrated flat on the ground and continued.
“Then call every man in the estate and flog him with all their might.”
The man’s face turned completely pale. Ordering every man to be called for a flogging meant he was to be beaten to death.
With a face white with terror, he looked up at Lee Yeon and crawled forward on his knees.
“M-My lady! My lady, I was wrong. I was wrong. I am sorry. Please, just spare my life!”
Lee Yeon’s lips, pressed tight against her teeth, twisted in fury.
“If you knew it was wrong, you shouldn’t have done it! If you knew she had a family, you shouldn’t have taken her! You shouldn’t have even thought of killing her!”
Everyone gasped at Lee Yeon’s roar.
Her eyes seemed to burn like a blazing fire.
“What did I tell you when I let you go in the Marketplace? I told you never to approach again. I warned you that if you caused trouble once more, I would not let it slide.”
Lee Yeon pointed her finger at the man. It was merely a slender finger, but the man looked suffocated, as though a blade had been pressed against his throat.
“Whether it is the Euigeumbu execution ground or right here, your death will be no different. What are you all doing!”
As Lee Yeon shouted, the servants stiffened all at once.
“Execute the punishment on him this instant!”
The servants were quite literally frozen in place.
This did not feel like the lady they usually faced. Her commanding presence, as if she had become the Queen herself, made their bodies tremble involuntarily.
It was then.
“Lee Yeon.”
Lee Yeon paused and looked down at her feet.
Unnoticed, Jinyul had come to stand beneath the stepping stone. He reached out and touched Lee Yeon’s foot.
“…!”
Startled, Lee Yeon took a step back. Then she looked down at her feet.
In her rush to get out, she had stepped onto the stepping stone in her bare padded socks, having failed to put anything on.
Jinyul brushed away the dust clinging to Lee Yeon’s socks with his hand, then slowly bent his waist to pick up her Flower Shoes.
“I do not wish to have your hands stained with blood.”
Lee Yeon looked down at her foot held in his hand, then lifted it slightly. Jinyul then slipped the shoe onto her sock-covered foot.
He took Lee Yeon’s hand and placed it against his back for balance as he picked up the other shoe.
“And there is certainly no need to do so for a wretch like this.”
“I dislike the thought of your hands being dirtied.”
Having finished putting both shoes on Lee Yeon’s feet, Jinyul slowly turned his head to look down at the man.
His gaze was incomparably frigid.
“If anyone is to kill him, it will be me.”
The man, who had been pale with terror, pressed his forehead against the dirt ground. He rubbed his hands together frantically, begging for mercy.
“G-Grand Prince! Please spare me, I was wrong. Please spare my life! I was merely following the orders of Lord Chae!”
Lee Yeon froze. She slowly turned her gaze.
“What did you just say?”
“Lord Chae said he would clear a path for me to make money through usury. He said I would make a fortune, so I readily followed him, but…”
He spoke while his body trembled violently.
“I had to deliver the money to his lordship, and if I couldn’t fill the quota, I was beaten. Even when I begged to quit, he said I would be dragged to the Euigeumbu and tortured to death… and that if I wanted to shut his mouth, I had to pay a fitting price…!”
The man banged his forehead against the ground and cried out.
“That’s why I needed the money. I thought if I could just get that girl’s ransom from you, my lady, I could end it all, so I carelessly committed the deed.”
Lee Yeon bit her lip.
The man had undoubtedly committed a grave sin. That fact would not change. However, she had never imagined that Chae Mun would be the one behind him.
Lee Yeon stared intently at the man.
‘It is not a lie.’
His breathing was rapid, and his shoulders shook. His face held nothing but pure terror and a desperate desire to live.
‘Moreover, since he is entangled with Chae Mun.’
He might prove useful later on.
Yet those who had suffered at his hands were right before her eyes. Hong Ran had nearly been murdered. If Jinyul had been even a moment later, she would have been lost forever.
Lee Yeon murmured softly.
“A crime is a crime, so a punishment must be delivered.”
Jinyul turned his head to look at Lee Yeon. After a moment of thought, he spoke slowly.
“If it pleases you, would you hand over his disposition to me?”
As Lee Yeon met his eyes, the corners of Jinyul’s mouth lifted slightly. It was a cold smile.
“I need to raise the walls of my private residence anew, and I was wondering how it would be if I made him tear down all the existing ones and rebuild them from scratch.”
Hearing those words, the faces of the servants turned pale.
‘Tear down everything… and make him rebuild it all by himself?’
Instantly, Jinyul’s private residence came to their minds.
The walls surrounding the massive estate were built brick by brick, and the perimeter spanning around it was several times larger than that of an ordinary house.
The Grand Prince would hardly provide the bricks, meaning that man alone would have to make, bake, and stack the bricks layer by layer.
Yet the man was bowing repeatedly as if he were truly grateful just to have kept his life.
“T-Thank you. Thank you! I will never commit a crime again. I swear it!”
Lee Yeon pondered for a moment before nodding, and only then did Jinyul look at the man and speak coldly.
“You must know very well that this is your last chance. If you take even a single step away from my private residence, or if you attempt any foolish tricks, your head will be permanently severed from your body.”
“Yes!”
The rogue bowed his head, trembling. He bowed repeatedly, thanking them multiple times for sparing his life, before being dragged away, and only then did the courtyard fall quiet.
Hong Ran and her family also seemed to have calmed down, looking at Lee Yeon with startled expressions.
Lee Yeon slowly shifted her steps and stood before them.
“I have finally met you.”
At those words, Hong Ran lifted her head with a start, looking surprised.
Her face was blotchy from being beaten, and her eyes were swollen from crying; everything was a mess. It was quite different from the last time she had seen her.
Lee Yeon slowly reached out her hand and gently stroked Hong Ran’s face.
“My lady…”
“It is alright. —It is all over.”
At those words, tears welled up in Hong Ran’s eyes once more.
Lee Yeon lightly patted the head of the sobbing girl.
‘You were so fragile and pitiful.’
Muttering an internal apology for having turned away so coldly back then, Lee Yeon looked down at Hong Ran.
“Hong Ran.”
At the quiet call, Hong Ran slowly raised her head to look at Lee Yeon.
“Ran.”
As she spoke that name, the air seemed to tremble.
Lee Yeon smiled faintly, feeling as though tears might fall for some reason.
“Will you become my person?”
So that in this life, I can protect you, and you can protect me.
Let us do so, the two of us.

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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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