I Became the Eldest Daughter of a Fallen Family - Chapter 24

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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 24. Filling the Water Jar
‘Husband and wife quarrels are best left alone, after all.’
Especially when they’re the type of couple who bicker constantly about the most trivial things!
If she’d just left them be, they would have sorted it out themselves.
Instead, she’d rushed in trying to play peacemaker and only tangled her own feelings in the process.
Part envious, part inexplicably bitter, So Yeon-hui seized the excuse of fetching water and hurried out of the kitchen.
But then her father, So Jin, was waiting for her with the most pitiful look in his eyes.
“…Father? What are you doing there?”
At his daughter’s call, So Jin—who had been pacing anxiously near the kitchen entrance—started as if caught, blinking in confusion.
He reached back to smooth his hair, letting the corners of his eyes droop awkwardly as he asked.
“Your mother… is she still very upset?”
“It’s not that she’s upset, exactly. She’s just… worried. But Father—do you perhaps still have feelings for that woman from the Wi Clan? I mean, the beautiful woman?”
“What? That’s not it at all. I’ve never harbored anything you could call feelings for her.”
“You said that very firmly.”
“Because it’s the truth. She was… my older brothers’ betrothed.”
“…I’m sorry?”
Not one older brother—older brothers, plural?
A thick question mark appeared in So Yeon-hui’s eyes.
So Jin saw it coming. He smiled bitterly and began to explain.
“There’s… quite a story behind it.”
And so he launched into a lengthy account.
In brief, it amounted to this:
So Yeon-hui’s grandfather and General Wi Gyeom, the former Commander of the West, had been inseparable friends. At some point, they promised each other that if they had children, they would become in-laws.
One day, General Wi Gyeom was blessed with a late child—a daughter. Overjoyed, he intended to marry her to the So Household’s eldest son.
But when she was barely twelve years old, the So Household’s eldest son went to war at a tender age and fell in battle.
It would have been nice if the general had simply accepted this as a sign that fate was against the match. But Wi Gyeom was greedy.
“Then I’ll have my daughter marry the second son.”
He pushed through a second betrothal, noting that his daughter and the So Household’s second son were only five years apart in age.
Yet the second son, who inherited his older brother’s betrothed, died in battle just as his brother had, taken too soon.
How could the So Household not find the marriage agreement with the Wi Clan burdensome?
But General Wi refused to back down further.
The Wi Clan itself bore the weight of a daughter whose name had been branded with a cursed reputation: “A woman who devoured two men before even marrying—ill-fated and inauspicious.”
Determined to cleanse his daughter’s name, the general pressed through a third betrothal despite universal opposition, insisting that his daughter must marry the So Household’s youngest son.
He never imagined that mere days after sealing the betrothal, his daughter would catch the eye of the Crown Prince himself and commit a midnight elopement.
“Well, there certainly wasn’t anything to like or dislike about her in the first place. Really, it’s a blessing that the two of them never wed, isn’t it?”
“I think so too. The lady from the Wi Clan isn’t cursed with the ill fortune that gossip claims, but she was never meant for our household in the first place.”
After hearing her father’s account, So Yeon-hui realized anew how baseless her mother’s worries truly were.
The Wi Clan’s daughter could have become her father’s nemesis, perhaps, but never his first love.
‘I suppose the saying is true—knowledge is power.’
So Yeon-hui let out a small laugh, exhaling softly.
Then, seized by a sudden curiosity, she tugged on her father’s sleeve and asked.
“Then how did you come to marry Mother? You didn’t have any connections to the Capital City back then, did you?”
“Ah, I had business at your maternal grandfather’s residence… and I met your mother there. I didn’t want to let her slip away, so I proposed right then and there.”
“Wow. That’s bold. Did Grandfather approve?”
“No. So I went straight to see His Majesty. I told him I couldn’t marry anyone but this woman, and pleaded for an Imperial Decree of Marriage. It was for that reason too that I sent a letter to the lady from the Wi Clan—asking her to intercede with His Majesty on the matter.”
“My goodness, His Majesty must have been delighted. Especially since the woman Father chose happened to be from a powerless, humble household.”
“I imagine he was.”
So Jin smiled wryly. If the previous emperor had truly been like that, it made perfect sense.
“You didn’t choose Mother just for that reason, did you?”
“How could I?”
“Then why did you marry Mother?”
At his daughter’s mischievous question, So Jin reached out and gently tapped the bridge of her nose, pausing for a moment.
The child who looked up at him with bright eyes resembled the woman he loved so deeply.
‘For a smile like this, I’d move heaven and earth.’
So Jin thought, and then answered.
“…Because you smile beautifully.”
Just like you do.
So Yeon-hui failed to notice the paternal affection hidden in his silence.
She simply thought, vaguely:
If only the So Household had one more room, perhaps a new sibling might have been born.
‘After taxes are paid, I was planning to expand the kitchen first. Should I add a room instead?’
Just as this absurd daydream was beginning to unfold,
So Jin suddenly pointed to the Water Jar in his daughter’s arms and asked.
“By the way, what’s that jar? If it’s the water container, I could have sworn I filled it this morning.”
It wasn’t quite an interrogation, but So Yeon-hui felt a pang of conscience. She clutched the empty jar tightly and grinned sheepishly.
Since it had been mostly her father’s responsibility to fetch water, she felt awkward about inadvertently wasting what he’d provided.
But she certainly had her reasons.
“After cleaning the offal, there was only half the water left. I suppose I used more than usual to clean the meat properly.”
Especially the innards.
One had to wash out everything inside extremely thoroughly, didn’t one?
In case there were any parasites or foreign matter left behind.
Turning everything inside out and scrubbing away debris so meticulously required quite a bit of water.
So Jin had witnessed this process firsthand with his own eyes.
He nodded his head, signaling agreement with his daughter’s explanation.
“True. Given the nature of that particular task, it can’t be helped. Come, let’s fetch water together. Your father will help.”
“Oh, it’s fine if I go alone. It’s not that far.”
“You take after your mother—too fair for my peace of mind. Don’t refuse; let’s go together.”
‘What’s gotten into Father? He’s usually so taciturn.’
Startled by his uncharacteristically tender joke, she hesitated for a moment. But So Jin had already taken the water jar from her arms and walked ahead.
So Yeon-hui watched his broad back and followed slowly, her pace a little behind.
There was nothing she could do about the corners of her mouth turning up of their own accord.
* * *
Walking side by side, they were nearly at the well when—
A sharp, terrified scream from somewhere suddenly brought both father and daughter to a halt.
“P-please, let go of me! I’m serious!”
It was unmistakably a frightened woman’s voice.
So Yeon-hui’s body went rigid, her grip tightening on her skirts, while So Jin cautiously seized his daughter’s wrist and began to scan their surroundings defensively.
“Don’t stray from Father’s side.”
With that soft warning, he crept silently around the corner obscured by a thick-trunked tree.
In the shadow beside the well, a man’s face was flushed red with drunkenness as he twisted and staggered, his grip locked around a woman’s wrist.
“Aren’t those the Shim Clan women?”
At So Yeon-hui’s words, So Jin narrowed his eyes. Looking closer, he could indeed make out Yoo and Song—the two daughters-in-law of their neighbor, Shim, the Shim Clan patriarch.
“If you keep this up, I’ll report you to the magistrate! I’ll have you flogged for adultery!”
At Song’s cry, the man—Wang Chun-bae—let out a contemptuous snort.
“Hah! You women seduced me first, and now you’re playing innocent?”
“Seduced? Are we mad? Leave our husbands and children for a drunkard like you? Never!”
Song’s voice was cutting as she declared that no woman in this village would welcome him, even if you searched with your eyes wide open.
The remark clearly struck a nerve. Wang Chun-bae’s eyes began to flicker wildly as he started to bellow.
“What! A disreputable rogue? Listen here, you crazy wench! Do you know who my kinsman is? Huh? You don’t, do you!”
His raised fist looked so threatening,
That So Yeon-hui felt her chest constrict, as if violence might erupt at any second.
Then it happened.
“Release that hand at once.”
So Jin strode forward with long steps, inserted himself between the three, and blocked Wang Chun-bae’s path.
Then, in a low and heavy voice, he issued a stern warning.
“What kind of shameful deed is this, inflicted upon a defenseless woman?”
As So Jin’s large frame cast a shadow over him, Wang Chun-bae’s raised fist suddenly froze in midair.
It was the typical cowardice of a petty man—silent and cowering before someone stronger.

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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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