The Survival Story Of A Fallen Lady - Chapter 1

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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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Chronicles of a Fallen Illegitimate Daughter — Episode 1
Heavy snow fell upon the funeral.
The death of Mok Wang, guardian of the Northern Region.
And yet the funeral rites were meager.
I stood beneath the eaves, watching the snow blanket the world with indifferent eyes.
“They say he died from a fall.”
“Impossible! A master who reached the Owhwa Ryeon stage, dead from a simple stumble?”
“Hush. Mind your words.”
The voices inside the room fell silent as they sensed my presence.
As if Mok Wang’s death had some connection to me.
I made no effort to defend myself.
I knew the truth of Mok Wang’s death, but…….
【The Emperor had poisoned Mok Wang to kill him, then pushed him into Yo Gok.】
There was no way I could reveal everything.
I bit at my parched lips.
‘If only I’d known a moment sooner…….’
Then I would have stopped him.
Watching the snow accumulate with growing anxiety, I turned away.
“Where is His Majesty?”
It had been four days since the Emperor attended Mok Wang’s funeral and was stranded here by the blizzard.
The Emperor, who had come for his brother’s rites, recited a formal eulogy and then vanished from sight entirely.
“Your Majesty, His Majesty is in his chamber with a headache. He has instructed that no one disturb him.”
A headache?
I lifted my gaze.
A hawk perched on the eaves locked eyes with me.
【The Imperial Physician has been in the medical quarters the whole time.】
A voice resonating in my mind.
I possessed the ability to understand Beast Speech.
It was this very gift that had helped the Emperor topple the Crown Prince and seize the throne.
Though he knew that well, here he was spinning an obvious lie.
Was it the bone-piercing cold of the House of Mok Wang that chilled me so?
A chill settled deep in my chest.
“I must see His Majesty.”
As I moved, a handmaid hurried after me in alarm.
Upon reaching the chamber, the guard stationed at the door stiffened.
“Tell His Majesty I have come.”
“Your Majesty, His Majesty suffers from a severe headache and has ordered that no one be admitted…….”
“Mmm, Your Majesty~ How shameful of me~”
Before the guard could finish, a coy, honeyed voice drifted from within the chamber.
The guard’s face drained of all color.
I stared silently at the closed door.
“Ha, come closer.”
“Your Majesty, after yesterday, where does this vigor come from?”
Mingled laughter—masculine and feminine—echoed through.
The sounds of passion beyond the door did not cease.
I knew the owner of that coy voice intimately.
My half-sister and the Lowest-Ranked Concubine of Mok Wang—

Jin Mok Yeon.
“Ha……!”
A hollow laugh escaped me.
I cared little that the Emperor took his pleasure with another woman.
I had never asked for his love in the first place.
But Jin Mok Yeon was different.
“Oh my, stumbling about and falling into ponds by yourself? How dim-witted.”
From childhood, she had scorned me for my status as an Illegitimate Daughter and made torment her sport.
My hands trembled as I clenched them into fists.
‘Her husband’s corpse has barely grown cold, and she dares such boldness.’
My eyes caught on a nameplate hanging in the chamber.
Hyunan Jae.
Despite its quiet name, chaos stirred within.
“Stand aside.”
“Your Majesty, but…….”
Creak—!
I shoved the guard aside and wrenched the door open.
The air hung thick with the reek of pleasure and indulgence.
Beyond the curtain, four tangled legs sprawled across the bed.
“Did I not command that no one enter?”
The Emperor rose from beneath crimson quilts, his robes disheveled.
His voice had been sharp, but the moment he saw me, he froze.
Then a smile bloomed across Emperor Seo Gon’s lips.
Jin Mok Yeon also adjusted her clothes, grinning smugly.
“Oh my. Soa? What perfect timing.”
Her brazen audacity left me speechless.
“In fact, I was just about to call for you.”
Jin Mok Yeon swept her tangled hair behind her ear, her eyes narrowing with satisfaction.
“What do you want to say?”
“His Majesty has promised to make me Empress.”
“What……?”
When I turned to face the Emperor, he swept back his sweat-dampened black hair without even bothering to fasten his disheveled robes.
“So it shall be.”
“What does that mean, Your Majesty?”
I am the Empire’s Empress.
It was I who placed the third prince Seo Gon upon the throne.
“Is not your crime grave?”
“My crime, Your Majesty?”
“They say you’ve been intimate with Mok Wang.”
What?
It made no sense whatsoever.
I had never so much as crossed paths with Mok Wang outside of formal settings.
Unless using my beasts to gather intelligence on the House of Mok Wang and presenting it to Emperor Seo Gon counted as a crossing of paths.
“Jin Mok Yeon claims she witnessed it herself. And I’m told Mok Wang took his own life for fear his affair with the Empress would be discovered?”
“Your Majesty, that is utterly false!”
It was a lie without proof, a fabrication that defied all reason.
And yet.
Clink—
Jin Mok Yeon hurled something from the bed toward me.
“Oh dear. Your Majesty! This was found in Mok Wang’s bed.”
A hairpin clattered to the floor.
The lotus-shaped ornament at its tip gleamed beneath the candlelight.
I recognized it at once.
“That’s not mine! Where did you even get that? I bought it at the market! Didn’t I?”
“Yes, Miss.”
“How dare you treat me like a thief!”
It was my mother’s keepsake—one Jin Mok Yeon had stolen from me long ago.
“Soa, how do you suppose your hairpin came to be in Mok Wang’s bed?”
“Jin Mok Yeon!”
I could no longer contain my fury.
Seo Gon could not possibly have fallen for such a crude farce.
Yet Seo Gon’s eyes had gone cold and weary as he parted his lips.
“Do not harbor resentment, Soa.”
My fingertips had gone numb with cold.
Then Seo Gon rose from the bed and donned his outer robes.
“Besides, have you not continually defended Mok Wang?”
“That was only to protect this nation from Yo Gok……!”
“How could I make an Empress of a Sorceress who understands the speech of beasts?”
Seo Gon cut me off, tilting his head to one side.
“A Sorceress, Your Majesty……?”
I lost all words.
I had surrendered every gift I possessed in service to him.
So I’ve become useless and now I’m a sorceress?
That was when Seo Gon quietly bent his waist to meet my eyes.
“If you had been less clever, I would have placed you on the empress’s throne despite your illegitimate birth and cherished you all your life.”
Seo Gon’s voice brushed softly against my ear.
“But you had to be so intelligent.”
He spoke with what seemed like genuine regret.
That was what made it so terrible.
A hollow laugh caught in my throat.
‘Humans are more worthless than beasts.’
How could I not have seen it?
The beasts had shown me humanity’s cruelty so clearly—why had I believed Seo Gon would be different?
Crack!
Unable to contain my rage, I struck his cheek, and his head snapped to the side.
Then he turned his eyes slowly back down toward me.
“You dare lay hands on the imperial person?”
“It was I who made that body imperial, and I who made you emperor. I alone achieved all of this.”
I glared at him through gritted teeth.
It wasn’t him becoming emperor that gnawed at me.
It was the past—being deceived by his tender words and smiles.
‘I was blinded by kindness I would have thrown to a dog.’
To realize it only now.
“Lock the empress away. Let no one inside until the funeral procession is complete.”
He issued the order to the soldiers waiting outside, dressed in mourning robes without a trace of sincerity.
And with his ever-gentle face, he whispered to me.
“Given all the affection between us, let us meet again after the funeral procession ends.”
As if he were granting me a few hours of mercy.
And so Seo Gon slipped calmly out of Hyunan Jae.
“How pathetic you look, Soa.”
Jin Mok Yeon rose from the bed and chuckled softly.
“You should have lived within your station.”
Jin Mok Yeon spoke as she threw on a red outer robe that clashed with the solemnity of the funeral.
But I found it only amusing.
“Don’t deceive yourself, Jin Mok Yeon. You’re being used as well.”
Soon enough, they’d replace you with a puppet that’s easier to control.
Yet Jin Mok Yeon laughed viciously.
“Is that so? We shall see.”
She looked down at me with perfect composure, filing her long nails.
I no longer wanted to be in this place.
So I tried to rise.
Sway—
My body tilted and my knees buckled against the floor.
……!
“Oh my, what’s the matter, Soa?”
My hands, braced against the ground, began to tremble violently.
‘Why…….’
My strength had drained away.
My head spun.
“Ah, I see the scent was too potent for you.”
Jin Mok Yeon squinted with a smile and gestured with her chin toward the incense burner.
Pungent white smoke coiled upward.
“Why—did your beasts not warn you of this?”
With those words, Jin Mok Yeon drew a small vial from her breast.
“What use is a few more hours clinging to such a life?”
She walked toward me barefoot and seized my chin in her grip.
Though I wanted to strike her hand away, I lacked even the strength to lift my arm.
Jin Mok Yeon smiled at my helplessness.
“The empress, upon recognizing her shame, takes her own life…….”
Jin Mok Yeon quietly uncapped the vial and, forcing open my clenched chin, poured the liquid inside.
Gag, choke……!
I tried to turn my head and clench my jaw, but her nails dug into my cheek as she wrenched my head back harder.
Liquid from the bottle poured into her mouth.
As if she’d swallowed molten lava, her throat burned with searing heat.
“Cough—!”
Blood trickled from the corners of her mouth along with the medicine.
Only then did Jin Mok Yeon release my cheek, letting it fall.
Bright crimson blood spilled across the floor.
Within my fading vision,
I saw Jin Mok Yeon’s smile as she looked down at me.
“Farewell, foolish sorceress.”
I clawed at the floor, biting my lips.
Regret flooded through me.
For my own foolish choice.
As the sounds receded into distance, I thought to myself:
‘If only I could turn back time…….’
At that moment, the world went dark.
But then—
“Get up this instant! What are you doing lying there?”
Gasp—!
Jolted by the sharp cry, I jerked awake, breathing hard.
My heart hammered against my ribs as I gulped in breath that stabbed through my lungs.
As I instinctively reached for my throat,
beyond the haze of my vision,
I saw a landscape vivid in memory.
Worn furniture, a familiar fishy stench, and the contemptuous gazes of the servants.
“Useless and lazy as always!”
The sharp voice cut through the fog of my mind.
‘I’m alive……?’
I absently touched my throat again.
The burning sensation that had felt so vivid was still fresh.
And yet, I was clearly alive and breathing.
I drew near to the mirror.
A face that seemed too young.
A body as gaunt as a withered branch.
Coarse hemp cloth so stiff it chafed raw against the skin.
Eighteen-year-old Jin Soa stood before the looking glass.
The Fallen Illegitimate Daughter’s Guide to Survival
A Full-Length Novel by Ramgle
Author
: Ramgle
Publisher
: Kwon Tae-wan, Woo Cheon-je
E-book Publication Date
: 2026-09-07
List Price
: 100 Won (Episodes 1–5 provided free)
Provided by
: CL Production
Address
: Room 203, Ace Artis Forum, 62 Digital-ro 31-gil, Guro-gu, Seoul
UCI
G720:N+A014-20260819089
This book has been published as an e-book by KWBOOKS under contract with the copyright holder.
Unauthorized reproduction or distribution of this work is prohibited by copyright law.

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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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