The Survival Story Of A Fallen Lady - Chapter 13

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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 Fallen Noblewoman’s Survival Record Episode 13
The maidservants heading to the Se-ui Room all fixed their youngest, Young Gyeo, with icy stares.
“You told the Chief Steward, didn’t you?!”
How else would the old Chief Steward, who attended the Muk Kingdom’s ruler constantly, have learned of Jin Jae-in’s private affairs?
There was no other explanation.
“Because of your stupidity, we got thrown out to the Se-ui Room!”
The youngest had never been liked anyway.
As one maidservant rolled up her sleeves, Young Gyeo backed into a corner.
“I really didn’t say anything at all……!”
“So here you all are.”
Just as the maidservants were about to vent their fury on the defenseless Young Gyeo,
Jin Jae-in appeared at the entrance to the servants’ quarters, dressed in neat white robes, her dark eyes wide and alert.
“Ha……!”
The maidservants glared at Jin Jae-in, the architect of their misfortune, their eyes flashing with resentment.
Jin Jae-in smiled faintly as she observed them.
“I was looking for you all.”
Looking for them?
Did she come to mock them after casting them out to the Se-ui Room?
One of the maidservants, bristling with indignation, spoke sharply.
“What else do you want from us?”
What more could frighten them, now that they’d been sent to the Se-ui Room?
Jin Jae-in was nothing — not the queen, not even a concubine.
At that, Jin Jae-in feigned surprise and assumed a regretful expression.
“I came to give you a parting gift, since you’re headed to the Se-ui Room…….”
“A gift? What gift? Are you trying to humiliate us further? We need nothing from you.”
The maidservant cried out in protest, and the others turned away from Jin Jae-in.
Jin Jae-in then bowed her head as if resigned.
“But you were the first to welcome me when I arrived here. I thought I’d give you Silver Coins so I wouldn’t be sending my subordinates away empty-handed — there’s an old saying that misfortune clings to those who do.”
Silver Coins?
The maidservants’ eyes flickered with sudden interest.
Indeed, noblewomen often sent gifts with departing servants.
It was an ancient imperial custom meant to ward off bad fortune.
‘Now that I think of it, the Jin family is said to be a great noble house from the Southern Region.’
She must have brought considerable wealth when she arrived.
“Jin Jae-in, we didn’t really mean what we said…….”
“It just slipped out because we were upset!”
As the maidservants quickly bowed their heads in apology, a smile bloomed across Jin Jae-in’s lips once more.
“But if I gave the Silver Coins directly, it would damage my dignity, wouldn’t it?”
“…….”
The maidservants exchanged glances.
‘So she’s worried about appearances, even as a noblewoman?’
She seemed reluctant to become a laughingstock by giving coins to those who had tormented her.
“What is it you wish to say, then?”
“I’ll hide my Silver Coins somewhere discreet, and you may take them.”
“Of course!”
The maidservants’ eyes gleamed.
A single Silver Coin was enough for a commoner to live comfortably for a month.
“The place where I’ve hidden my Silver Coins is…….”
Jin Jae-in looked around at them, then approached one of the maidservants.
She leaned close to the girl’s ear and whispered softly.
“Remember this: if you wish to settle scores in the palace, you do it this way.”
She withdrew quietly, her smile lingering as she spoke in hushed tones.
The other maidservants stared intently at the one who had heard her words, desperate to know what had been said.
“Go find the Silver Coins where I told you and buy something delicious to share among yourselves.”
“Yes, but……what did you say?”
“I hope my gift proves useful to you.”
Jin Jae-in offered a brief farewell and turned to leave.
The maidservants immediately crowded around the one who had heard the whispered words.
“What is it? Where did she hide the coins?”
The maidservant who had heard the secret looked flustered.
“How would I know? I didn’t tell anyone!”
“I’m sure I heard you whispering something—what was that about?”
“Are you trying to keep it all to yourself?!”
“I’m telling you, I didn’t say a word!”
Behind her, the attendants’ voices rose in chaotic accusation.
Seo Gon knew them well enough.
These were shallow bonds, held together by nothing deeper than self-interest.
Even if the truth came out, they would never fully trust her.
Suspicion took root easily in such poisoned soil.
As she turned to leave, a voice called out behind her.
“Jin… Jin Jae-in…!”
She heard footsteps hurrying after her.
Wondering if one of them had come to extract some secret whispered in confidence, she stopped and turned—only to find an attendant throwing herself prostrate before her.
“Forgive me.”
“Forgive you for what?”
“For letting the room grow cold and failing to serve you properly.”
The girl’s voice trembled as her forehead touched the ground.
Seo Gon recognized her now—the one who’d been picked on by the others earlier.
She studied the girl in silence.
Was this a pang of conscience, perhaps, now that she’d accepted the silver coins?
“So you’ve come to tell me where the coins are hidden?”
At her question, the attendant shook her head firmly.
“I don’t need the coins. My heart is troubled only by not fulfilling my duty properly.”
The girl seemed to know already that the silver coin offer had been a lie.
Seo Gon found herself watching her with genuine interest.
“What’s your name, child?”
“I am called Young Gyeo.”
“Very well, Young Gyeo. Come with me.”
At least this incident seemed to have obscured the deeper matter.
* * *
Seo Heon’s eyes narrowed as he took in the overseer’s expression.
Cheeks flushed with agitation, brow creased with irritation.
Something had gone wrong outside—which explained why the work was running late.
When Seo Heon tapped the edge of his inkstone with one finger, the overseer tucked his hands into his sleeves and spoke.
“My apologies, my lord. There was a matter that needed attending to outside.”
What sort of matter?
As Seo Heon regarded him quietly, the overseer let out a frustrated sigh.
“Well, it’s Jin Jae-in…”
The overseer proceeded to relate everything that had just transpired to Seo Heon in exhaustive detail.
Seo Heon’s brow hardened.
‘The attendants have turned on Jin Jae-in in retaliation.’
It had been his decision to send the attendants to the cold quarters.
But they were taking their resentment out on the vulnerable Jin Jae-in.
“No matter how cold the room, would a noblewoman ever debase herself gathering straw with her own hands? The sight of her, fingers frozen, clutching straw bundles—it was pitiful beyond words.”
Any ordinary noblewoman would have summoned servants or given the attendants a proper dressing-down.
But Jin Jae-in had done neither.
“Another woman in her place would have found it such a humiliation that she might have ended her own life.”
The overseer sighed again, speaking of the shame it reflected on the kingdom.
“It seems what was written in her record is all quite true, after all.”
Seo Heon’s gaze returned to the sealed dossier on Jin Jae-in’s background.
This woman at the center of the sordid affair didn’t even seem to know how to resist.
That helplessness scraped against something in him.
‘The attendants despise her partly because of where she comes from.’
The friction between Muk Kingdom and the Southern Region nobility was no new thing.
They wielded grain supplies as threats; they cut aid for monster attacks on a whim.
It was only natural that the attendants, too, would harbor contempt for Jin Jae-in as a woman of the South.
And yet…
‘If this continues, Muk Kingdom will be no better than they are.’
At that moment, the edge of his brush caught on the paper, drawing a line.
“My lord, are you hurt?”
Nothing to make a fuss over.
At the Old Chamberlain’s outcry, Seo Heon turned away from him.
Very faintly, blood seeped through.
Too trivial to call it pain, yet impossible to ignore.
Jin Jae-in was precisely like that.
* * *
Deep in the night, as dawn approached.
Unable to sleep, Seo Heon left his quarters alone.
The accumulated problems of Muk Kingdom weighed heavy on his mind.
When winter ends, a season far harsher than winter arrives.
The Spring Famine Season—merciless for an agricultural kingdom like Muk.
Relief from the Imperial Court would come soon enough, but it would fall woefully short of feeding all the people of Muk Kingdom.
To ease his restless heart, he climbed to the top of the City Walls to face the cold wind.
From there, Han Province spread wide beneath his gaze.
Beyond the walls, scattered lights from houses flickered in the darkness.
‘Come to think of it, wasn’t it mentioned that Jin Jae-in’s quarters were moved?’
Suddenly, his thoughts drifted back to her again.
‘I can’t make sense of it.’
She was said to be close to Seo Gon.
So he’d assumed she’d come to Muk Kingdom with some ulterior purpose.
Then he saw it—a shadow standing in the distant Watchtower.
Seo Heon’s eyes narrowed.
Atop the Watchtower, the hem of a robe streamed long in the wind.
‘Who on earth would be out in the dead of night……’
And the face caught in the pale moonlight—
‘……Jin Jae-in?’
She stood leaning against the Watchtower’s height, her slender form fragile.
Precarious.
As if she might scatter and scatter away on the wind at any moment.
In that instant, the Old Chamberlain’s words returned to him.
“Had she been any other woman, she might have taken her own life out of shame.”
At the same moment, Jin Jae-in’s body tilted outward from the Watchtower.
Damn it——!
No sound escaped his lips.
Seo Heon rushed forward and reached out with rough hands, barely pulling her back.
Her light frame stumbled as she was drawn toward him, collapsing into his embrace.
To throw yourself from a Watchtower——are you in your right mind……!
He held her shoulders in silence.
Then Jin Jae-in looked up at him, her eyes wide with shock.
“My lord, what brings you here at this hour……?”

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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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