I Became the Eldest Daughter of a Fallen Family - Chapter 85

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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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Chapter 85. The Journey Home (2)
Ju Ha-yun said nothing for a long time.
He neither dismissed Wi Jung’s apology nor immediately threw it back in his face.
As he remained silent, the wind stirred the bare branches of the garden, and dry leaves whispered past with a faint rustling sound.
Did the knot in his chest fall away with them?
Ju Ha-yun answered with a small sigh.
“That’s enough. Get up—you look ridiculous on your knees.”
Just two sentences.
Yet they held a deep trust and an unshakeable friendship toward Wi Jung.
How could he not understand what lay beneath those words?
Wi Jung let out a soft laugh, and for once his face seemed lighter somehow, freed of its usual weight.
“I tell you, our lord is quite the shy one when you observe him carefully? Don’t worry. I forgive you completely for not being able to say those few words. Besides, that bashfulness is rather endearing.”
“Be quiet.”
“Ah ha ha. Do take a look, So Yeon-hui. Isn’t our lord terribly charming?”
“You really……!”
So Yeon-hui glanced between them both, and without meaning to, the corners of her mouth lifted.
On the surface they seemed stiff and formal—lord and retainer—but in truth they carried the unmistakable scent of people who had spent many years together. The easy banter between them was something only those comfortable with each other could afford.
“Well, they do say even married couples’ quarrels are like water cut by a blade.”
“……Pardon?”
“No, it’s nothing. I should be going. My siblings will be waiting.”
So Yeon-hui excused herself with a light bow.
At that, Wi Jung hurried after her, pressing for an explanation.
“Wait, So Yeon-hui—married couple? What are you saying? I swear by the heavens that I, Wi Jung, love only women! Men are absolutely out of the question!”
“How would I know what you prefer?”
“So Yeon-hui! Please listen to me! So Yeon-hui!”
Good heavens, was there ever such a pair of bark-ers as these two.
So Yeon-hui quickened her pace as though she heard nothing at all.
Before the sun set completely, time was already tight if she meant to leave Jinseong tonight.
* * *
Her carefully laid plan to slip out of the Wi Household alone came to nothing.
Ju Ha-yun, having at last shaken off Wi Jung, caught up with her and—on the pretext of a promise to the lady of the household—all but insisted she take the Wi carriage.
The sky was already ablaze with sunset glow, and evening was drawing near, so So Yeon-hui accepted his kindness without further protest.
After all, it was genuinely dangerous for a woman alone to cross the mountain road with two small children.
Of course, the high-quality charcoal and cotton quilts the lady of the Wi Household had pressed upon her didn’t hurt her decision either.
‘Though it did mean there was barely room left in the carriage. Still, this much should be more than enough for two young children.’
By the time she’d packed away all the generosity the Wi Household heaped upon her, the sun was already beginning its descent toward the horizon.
But So Yeon-hui’s unease had nothing to do with the late hour.
Rather, it was the fact that Ju Ha-yun—not a servant—had taken the reins himself.
‘Why do luxury carriages always have two-person driver’s benches? If it were a single seat, I could have used that as an excuse to drive alone.’
Given Ju Ha-yun’s nature, he would never have allowed her to travel by herself, but sitting beside him the entire journey, So Yeon-hui found no way to ease her discomfort.
It wasn’t merely that she’d built little rapport with him compared to Wi Jung’s openness.
‘And of all things, he had to reveal such painful memories in front of me.’
The story Ju Ha-yun had shared to convince the Wi family weighed heavily on her heart.
‘Should I say something? But what on earth do I say in a moment like this?’
His hard-won words circled through her mind.
That voice as he knelt and confessed. Those brief, sorrowful sentences about how he’d given his mother medicine in filial piety, only for her to pass away instead.
She could scarcely imagine how painful it must have been to recall such memories.
Finding no words, So Yeon-hui simply looked down at her hands folded in her lap.
In the end, it was Ju Ha-yun who broke the silence first.
“Today…… I am truly grateful.”
So Yeon-hui glanced toward him.
As if aware of her gaze, he straightened his posture before continuing.
“For saving my aunt. I am deeply indebted to you.”
His voice was slightly higher than usual and a little rough—as if holding back his emotions came with difficulty.
“Please don’t mention it. I simply had the medicine on hand and shared it. That’s all.”
“That is not so.”
Ju Ha-yun cut through her modesty cleanly.
“Without you, I would have done nothing in that moment. I would not have given the Cheonbo Pill, nor would I have found any other way. Just as before…… I would have lost family once again.”
His brutally honest self-recrimination left So Yeon-hui momentarily speechless.
It wasn’t that he was being excessively pessimistic.
Rather, there was nothing false in what he said.
She herself had once faced the same trial long ago.
“I only did what I was able to do.”
“And that is what I am grateful for.”
No further words passed between them. Ju Ha-yun gripped the reins, eyes forward.
So Yeon-hui stole a glance at his profile. Still expressionless.
Yet she had witnessed how many times that face had wavered throughout this single day.
‘How do I comfort him?’
To speak of it directly felt too heavy; to let it pass felt too callous.
After a moment’s hesitation, So Yeon-hui carefully opened her mouth.
“There’s something I want to say.”
“…….”
“About what you shared today. The matter of giving the Cheonbo Pill to Wi Mi-in and how it went wrong.”
Ju Ha-yun’s grip on the reins tightened ever so slightly.
“That…… was not your fault.”
Ju Ha-yun said nothing. Yet his gaze held hers with an emotion too complex for words.
“You gave it out of filial piety. With the hope that your mother would recover. How could that be wrong?”
“……But the outcome came to pass as it did.”
“A poor outcome doesn’t make the heart that led to it poor as well.”
So Yeon-hui continued calmly.
“You simply wanted to save your mother. There was nothing wrong with that intention. Nothing at all.”
The wind rose, and Ju Ha-yun’s hair stirred lightly.
After a long moment, he spoke quietly.
“……Why do you console me? However you dress it up with excuses, I am merely a criminal who killed his own mother.”
Perhaps it was because his self-reproach reminded her of her own past self.
So Yeon-hui suddenly grew sharp and began to admonish him sternly.
“With that kind of mindset, you can accomplish nothing. You’ll protect no one, and you’ll only repeat the same mistakes again and again.”
“What do you mean……”
“I have similar experience, so I know well.”
So Yeon-hui said.
“When my family’s house crumbled and I could not stop it. When my mother’s illness could not be cured. I blamed myself for everything. I told myself it was all because I was lacking, that I was inadequate, and that’s why things turned out this way.”
That was why she had wished her siblings would not live as she had lived.
That they would not have to bear a worthless older sister on their backs, struggling through life alongside her brokenness, only to meet the same bitter end.
“So I resolved to die quietly, alone. I thought that one like me, one piece of refuse, could disappear from this world and no one would even notice.”
Ju Ha-yun’s eyes trembled violently.
He had never imagined that So Yeon-hui, always so confident and fearless, carried such pain within her.
Regardless, So Yeon-hui’s gaze remained fixed on some distant point, lost in memories long past.
“But self-reproach is a disease too, and it is contagious. My choice left a heavy burden on my siblings.”
At an age when they should have been savoring life, her twins had worked tirelessly to clear their father’s name.
They had thought that if their sister grew weary because they, mere children, could do nothing while the family crumbled, then perhaps if they succeeded in vindicating their father and restoring the house, she would return to them.
They believed that the sister who had left them in bitterness would come back.
“We all did our very best with what we had at that time. Though none of us found a happy ending…… we still did everything we possibly could.”
And so it was settled.
It was resolved.
The revenge proved hollow, and whether Ju Ha-jin in that other world received his punishment or not—now there was no way to know.
But what of it?
“Let what is past remain in the past. What does it matter if we stumble? Even if the road winds, we will reach our destination eventually, as long as we keep walking.”
At So Yeon-hui’s words, Ju Ha-yun tightened his grip on the reins.
So Yeon-hui noticed but pretended not to. These things only grew more tangled the longer one spoke of them.
“Always cherish the present moment. Not the shadows of moments now gone, but this very moment, right now. Life is a chain of choices, and we cannot let ghosts of the past steal away the opportunity before our eyes.”
As she finished, the lights of an old butcher’s shop tucked away in the market alley came into view.
“……Thank you.”
Ju Ha-yun answered in a small voice.
But the tone was entirely different from before.
At least the hidden anxiety had finally lifted?
So Yeon-hui broke into a full, genuine smile.
“Sister! You’re late!”
Perhaps it was because of her younger sister’s voice ringing sharply through the alley, full of complaint.

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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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