The Survival Story Of A Fallen Lady - Chapter 11

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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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The Fall of a Noble House: Survival Record – Episode 011
By the standard of a reduced salary, it would amount to a full fifty years.
No one had ever survived such a stretch in the inner palace.
“My lord! Please, just this once—show mercy……!”
The court ladies pressed their foreheads to the ground again, pleading for forgiveness.
Yet Seo Heon closed the ledger and turned away coldly.
“My lord! My lord!”
The screams of the court ladies being dragged away by soldiers faded into the distance.
Silence returned to the chamber.
Still, Seo Heon’s temper remained unquelled.
A tight knot twisted in his chest.
He turned his gaze quietly toward Hye Rang.
*Hiccup!*
The moment their eyes met, Hye Rang hiccupped.
‘Of all things……’
She’d grown frightened again, watching him deal so harshly with the court ladies.
As if gentleness wouldn’t have been better.
Nothing was going as he wished.
Then So A embraced Hye Rang to comfort her.
“My lord, don’t worry. His lordship is on your side.”
“*Sniff*, but……”
“It’s simply that His lordship misunderstood—thinking you prefer cucumber. Isn’t that so?”
So A smiled brightly and met Seo Heon’s eyes.
Seo Heon, standing at a distance, nodded awkwardly.
At the brief nod, Hye Rang’s eyes widened.
“Is that truly so……?”
“Of course, my lord! When His lordship asked what food you preferred, I inquired of the court ladies, and they said cucumber.”
No Chief Eunuch, who had just finished dealing with the court ladies, entered the chamber and added his word.
Hye Rang kept her arms around So A, her eyes still wary as she looked at Seo Heon.
“But our mother and father……”
At mention of the Former King, Seo Heon’s mouth tightened.
Then.
“You speak of the Former King?”
No Chief Eunuch, hearing Hye Rang’s words, grasped the whole misunderstanding.
“Goodness! Such a misunderstanding! His lordship revered the Former King as a father. The Former King felt the same way.”
Seo Heon enshrined the spirit tablets of the Former King and Former Queen in the most honored place of the Ancestral Shrine, and every year he offered prayers for them.
Seo Heon’s appointment to Muk Province owed much to the Former King’s dying request to the Emperor.
“Even His lordship’s mask was a gift from the Former King.”
“……Truly?”
For the first time, Hye Rang stared intently at Seo Heon’s mask.
The Iron Mask, which had always seemed so frightening.
Now, thinking of her father as she looked at it, the carved patterns seemed almost beautiful.
“Moreover, how happy His lordship was when you were born! He carried you about all day long through the Palace Compound, changed your swaddling clothes with his own hands, and said even the smell of your soiled diapers was sweet……!”
【No Chief Eunuch……!】
Seo Heon raised his hand hurriedly to silence the old eunuch’s foolish tongue.
Was it the cold of Muk Province? Somehow his ears seemed to flush crimson.
So he has that side to him too.
So A thought it surprising and shifted her steps slightly.
The long paper envelope she had hidden beforehand at the entrance of Hye Rang’s chamber.
‘……Since I’ve started this, after all.’
It would be good to tie it off neatly.
So A quietly retrieved the envelope and nestled into Seo Heon’s arms.
【What is this?】
Seo Heon, accepting the envelope almost reflexively, looked down at her.
So A ignored that gaze and smiled sweetly toward Hye Rang.
“My lord, it seems His lordship has brought you a gift.”
At the sudden words, the brow beneath the mask twitched.
Just as he was about to pick up his brush to demand what scheming this was.
“Is this really for me……?”
Hye Rang’s eyes, hesitant at first, now gleamed with quiet curiosity.
Seo Heon glanced back and forth between the mysterious envelope he held and Hye Rang, who gazed up at him from below.
At last, left with no choice, he extended his calloused hand and passed the envelope to her.
When Hye Rang opened it, a bright red hawthorn berry skewer, glossy with syrup, came into view.
“Oh my! A hawthorn berry skewer!”
Her fear from moments before vanished without a trace, and her round eyes sparkled like stars.
“This is my absolute favorite!”
As her face lit up brilliantly, a faint smile spread across Seo Heon’s lips.
Seo Heon’s gaze shifted toward So A.
【How did she know to prepare this?】
Just like with General Meng, it was too much of a coincidence.
As if she had orchestrated everything, knowing it all beforehand.
His suspicion deepened.
Yet it was no threat to him.
‘I’ve ordered No Chief Eunuch to investigate Jin Jae-in’s background.’
Until he knew the truth, it wouldn’t hurt to play along with her intentions to some degree.
Just then, Hye Rang, who had been eagerly reaching for the hawthorn berry skewer, hesitated and glanced at Seo Heon uncertainly.
【Am I making him uncomfortable?】
Seo Heon felt like an unwanted guest.
It was when he meant to leave for the child’s sake.
“Would… would you like some too?”
Hye Rang offered the hawthorn berry skewer hesitantly.
Seo Heon stood rooted to the spot as if nailed there, staring at her.
Was she offering it to him?
As the flustered Seo Heon remained rigid, Hye Rang glanced at So A for guidance.
“The young lord has gathered courage to present a gift. You will certainly accept it.”
So A smiled easily and signaled her understanding with a subtle nod.
Only then did Seo Heon cautiously extend his hand.
Hye Rang placed the small hawthorn berry skewer in his large palm.
The sight of a massive man in a black long coat holding a delicate hawthorn berry skewer was decidedly incongruous.
【I detest sweets, but…】
Seo Heon regarded the hawthorn berry skewer awkwardly.
It was a food he would never have eaten in his entire life.
Hye Rang’s bright, expectant eyes gazed up at him.
In the end.
Crunch—
Seo Heon forced himself to bite into the hawthorn berry skewer.
Beneath the mask, his lips contorted slightly.
【I feel like I might dissolve from the sweetness.】
His true distaste came through transparently.
But he forced the corners of his mouth upward so Hye Rang wouldn’t be frightened.
“It’s delicious, isn’t it?”
Hye Rang’s round eyes brightened.
A nod.
Seo Heon’s head bobbed once.
At that, a broad smile bloomed across Hye Rang’s face.
Upon seeing her smile, Seo Heon’s expression softened naturally.
Delighted, Hye Rang distributed one hawthorn berry skewer each to So A and No Chief Eunuch, then took a bite of her own.
“Delicious!”
Her cheeks rose in a round, happy shape.
* * *
“The remaining food was distributed to the servants and attendants as Jin Jae-in instructed. They were all delighted to receive such precious cucumbers with the Spring Hardship Period just around the corner.”
No Chief Eunuch, having returned to the Main Hall, smiled with satisfaction.
“Without Jin Jae-in, we would never have known Hye Rang was in such a state.”
He had never suspected mistreatment, since each time he visited, the young lord had been clean and dressed in fresh clothes.
He had assumed her fearful expression was merely shyness around an old man.
“…….”
Seo Heon fell into thought.
‘How did she discover that Hye Rang was being mistreated by the attendants?’
Jin Jae-in had noticed something the attendants had concealed so perfectly that even No Chief Eunuch remained ignorant—and she had been at Muk Palace for only a week.
‘Moreover, an ordinary person would have misunderstood my intentions.’
You would think Wei Wang had ordered the cucumber brought to torment Hye Rang.
Not to blame it solely on the attendants.
But So A was different.
As though she could read thoughts themselves.
‘And the hawthorn berry skewer, too……’
The skewer that had been placed in his hand as if prepared beforehand — it stayed with him, worming its way into his mind.
It had drawn him closer to Hye Rang, yes, but it had only made his suspicion deepen.
The whole situation felt deliberately arranged.
‘Has the Jin family tried to plant a spy
in his household?’

There were those who feared his command of the military was too strong.
The other princes especially, and the southern nobility, saw him as a thorn in their side.
That the Emperor, who had shown no interest in him before, suddenly commanded that Jin Jae-in be brought in……
Then.
“My lord, here is the report on the investigation you ordered.”
No Chief Eunuch presented the findings.
“The fragrant essence you asked about — it appears it came from Wei Wang’s side.”
Seo Heon’s lips curved upward, sharp as a blade.
【So elder brother was reluctant to let his younger brother go so easily.】
Then Jin Jae-in had nothing to do with it?
Of course not — she would hardly have tied it to her own carriage and invited danger upon herself.
“And here is the material you requested.”
No Chief Eunuch presented a thin dossier.
[Jin Jae-in Personal Record]
He had ordered an investigation into So A’s background some time ago.
Seo Heon opened the dossier.
His expression hardened as he read.
“She lost her mother in the Demon Chaos ten years ago, and has served the Jin household as an attendant ever since.”
No Chief Eunuch, who had reviewed it beforehand, added the details.
“She appears to have endured considerable hardship within the family.”
Seo Heon’s fingers turned rough as he turned the pages of the record.
[Known as a ‘slave-girl serving the household’ after the loss of her mother, taking on all domestic duties.]
Each incident noted below caught his eye.
Abuse and curses were everyday occurrences.
Beatings, confinement, and starvation were common.
“It makes one’s blood boil just reading it! In what household does one treat a young lady such a way……!”
No Chief Eunuch, who knew the contents, grew agitated and spattered as he spoke, then, realizing his vehemence, lowered his voice.
Seo Heon held the record and bit his lip.
She was the first to notice the attendants’ cruelty toward Hye Rang — was it perhaps because……
‘She had suffered it herself?’

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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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