Even If Flowers Bloom on a Broken Branch - Chapter 6

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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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6.
It was early in the morning when Lee Yeon requested a tea time. Seo Yeo-ro personally selected the tea leaves suited for his daughter and boiled the water.
Rather than using many words, he preferred to quietly fulfill his daughter’s needs, and Lee Yeon likewise strove to be his pride. Though they did not share many conversations, they were an affectionate and joyful father and daughter.
Especially recently, with the submission of the Cheonyeodanja drawing near.
“Has Lee Yeon arrived?”
Although it was said that everyone submitted it uniformly, the result had already been decided.
‘We shall make the daughter of the Seo Family the hollow Queen.’
Seo Yeo-ro had been the one who most fiercely opposed it when Jinpyeong pushed Jinyul aside and ascended the throne.
‘No matter how much the late King favored his concubine, the Grand Prince Born of the Legitimate Queen is rightfully alive, so how can you place a mere Prince upon the throne?’
As the head of the Saheonbu, it was a Royal Appeal he had submitted at the risk of his life, and many scholars, including himself, had submitted appeals while carrying axes.
Chongbi felt insulted by this, took to her bed, and eventually passed away. While the late King invested her as Queen, he also guaranteed the safety of those including Seo Yeo-ro in his final will.
Consequently, both the honor of Chongbi and Jinpyeong and the safety of Seo Yeo-ro were preserved, but Jinpyeong’s rage and Jinyul’s grievance still remained.
In particular, Jinpyeong must have been waiting only for the day to punish Seo Yeo-ro, who had opposed his own ascension to the throne.
‘Beg your daughter every single day.’
For her sin of having you as a father is great.
Since that mocking occurred just yesterday, he could truly feel that not much time was left.
Seo Yeo-ro’s face twisted in agony. It was just as he was about to call his daughter’s name like a sigh.
“Father.”
Seo Yeo-ro suddenly looked at Lee Yeon. This was because Lee Yeon’s voice, as she sat across from him before he knew it, was low, as if she already knew everything.
Lee Yeon caught her breath for a moment, then slowly opened her lips.
“I pondered deeply on how I should tell you, but I speak because I believe it is right to tell you straightforwardly.”
Lee Yeon looked at Seo Yeo-ro with determination.
“I cannot submit the Cheonyeodanja.”
“……What did you say?”
Seo Yeo-ro doubted his ears. For a split second, he could not immediately comprehend what Lee Yeon was talking about.
Lee Yeon steadily continued her words.
“I am saying that I dare not step forward for the Gantaek, and that I lack the qualification to even be a candidate.”
Lee Yeon’s face was slightly flushed as she let those words out. She could not meet his eyes straight on.
Only then did Seo Yeo-ro realize what his daughter was saying. His face turned flushed and then pale in an instant.
Seo Yeo-ro could not say anything, merely parting his lips fruitlessly before barely letting out a breath.
“……What nonsense is this?”
“I am sorry to speak to you like this. I suffered in my heart for a long time because I did not know how to tell you, Father, but I…… have someone to whom I have promised betrothal.”
“Who is that?”
Seo Yeo-ro asked back, hiding his trembling hands beneath the low table.
He could not even tell what this emotion was himself. There was a sense of betrayal, disappointment, anger, and realistic denial that his daughter had promised a betrothal without a single word to him, but on the other hand, a thought that it was a bit of a relief, a faint sense of comfort, and curiosity followed one after another.
What kind of man was it that Lee Yeon had chosen, how on earth had they met, and was he a person who could be proudly revealed to the world?
“He is someone you know as well, Father.”
Lee Yeon spoke calmly.
Her face was serene as if she had already anticipated everything, yet a faint guilt lingered upon it. Even a hint of shame.
“It is Grand Prince Jinyul.”
“……!”
Seo Yeo-ro’s face froze. No, it turned white.
He half-rose before barely managing to sit back down. His fingers white-knuckled as he gripped the edge of the thick table with force.
At the unexpected name, his pupils shook wildly this way and that.
‘How…… does that name come out from here?’
Seo Yeo-ro barely managed to look at Lee Yeon. The back of his neck felt dizzy, making his vision blur.
“Do you know what kind of position His Highness holds?”
“His status is noble, but his footing is unstable, and he cannot set foot anywhere. I know it well.”
Seo Yeo-ro’s body swayed. He spoke rapidly.
“You must also know well what the position of being the King’s half-brother entails; it means foes are on all sides. A position where he can trust no one.”
“Yes.”
The corners of Seo Yeo-ro’s mouth trembled.
Yet, unlike his voice, his gaze was rapidly regaining rationality. He reasoned that there must be a cause for Lee Yeon to choose him despite knowing everything.
Lee Yeon bowed her head deeply and said,
“Since I harbor affection for another man and we have confirmed each other’s hearts, I became certain that I cannot submit the roster, which is why I requested a tea time from the very crack of dawn like this.”
Lee Yeon gathered her hands together and lowered her eyes. Her posture as she knelt properly was polite and elegant, but her lips moved without hesitation.
“I apologize for the intrusion, driven by the thought that I must settle the matter before the Geumhonlyeong is handed down. Father, please dispel your anger.”
“Sigh…….”
Seo Yeo-ro let out a deep sigh. However, it was not purely a sigh. Somehow, a bit of an exclamation was mixed into it as well.
If she did not submit the Cheonyeodanja, there was absolutely no possibility of her being selected. The chance for Lee Yeon to enter the palace would completely vanish. Of course, she would belong to the Royal Family as the wife of a Grand Prince, but a heavy burden had been lifted.
‘Perhaps that path is the best for Lee Yeon…….’
Even the world considered Lee Yeon as material for the Queen’s Palace. Though the probability was low, if she were not selected, Lee Yeon might never be able to marry for the rest of her life. Because welcoming a woman who had almost become the King’s woman as a daughter-in-law would be burdensome in many ways.
‘But how did Lee Yeon form a connection with the Grand Prince?’
Jinyul was not someone who stayed long in the Capital City, let alone the palace. There should have been no occasion for him to cross paths with Lee Yeon, so it was completely incomprehensible how they had shared affection and pledged marriage. Thus, braving the awkwardness, he inquired.
“But how did the two of you meet and promise marriage? That too, without your father’s permission?”
“That is…… I could not tell you for fear of causing you worry, Father, but I happened to receive His Highness’s help by chance in the marketplace. Afterward, I met him to express my gratitude, and our connection continued from there.”
“Hah.”
Seo Yeo-ro shook his head. It was a case of a seemingly meek cat climbing onto the stove; he had never dreamed in his wildest thoughts that Lee Yeon had been harboring an affection behind his back. And with a figure of that stature, no less.
Seo Yeo-ro snapped his head up at a sudden thought.
“Is that why your reaction was so peculiar when I spoke of the Geumhonlyeong a few days ago?”
“Pardon?”
“I did think you looked troubled and swallowed your words as if you had something to say, but hah, to think it was for such a reason. To think you had a hidden man.”
“…….”
Lee Yeon averted her gaze. It was an expression that made it difficult to offer any reply.
Seo Yeo-ro cleared his throat repeatedly as if he were both hollow and dumbfounded, then muttered abruptly.
“Then, when will His Highness be coming…….”
It was just when he was about to say, “Ask him.”
Suddenly, a scream-like sound was heard, and a servant shouted from outside the door with a trembling voice.
“Da, Daegam-manim!!”
“You must come out. A, a guest has arrived!”
Seo Yeo-ro’s eyebrows furrowed at once at the metallic sound that resembled dishes shattering noisily.
It was just as he was about to say something. The door opened, and a long shadow stretched over the tea table.
“As this person has promised marriage with Lady Seo.”
Lee Yeon narrowed her eyes against the pouring morning sunlight.
In her vision, which was gradually growing accustomed to the light, Jinyul was smiling faintly. Coincidentally, Lee Yeon was trapped inside his shadow that stretched long across the floor.
“I have come to greet my future father-in-law.”
Clatter, various items slipped from the hands of the servants and rolled across the ground. It felt as if silent screams were echoing from all directions.
It was a major incident that completely flipped not only the Seo Clan but everything in the vicinity upside down.

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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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