The Survival Story Of A Fallen Lady - Chapter 18

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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 18
The heavy sack sank to the bottom of the pond in an instant.
“We’ll need to wait at least one Double-Hour.”
So Haeng-su knew the water-resistance of straw well.
A brief time might be manageable.
After one Double-Hour, water would seep through the gaps in the straw.
By the time he pulled the sack up, the salt would have dissolved and lightened.
“One Double-Hour or one Meal Time—do as you please.”
There was no wavering in the smile at the corner of So-ah’s lips.
‘Quite composed, isn’t she.’
So Haeng-su laughed silently to himself.
It was clearly a straw sack.
What could possibly be the problem?
So one Double-Hour passed.
“Might we retrieve it now?”
Those grown weary of waiting asked the question.
So Haeng-su nodded, and a servant rushed to the water’s edge.
And as he grasped the end of the sack and began to pull it up—
“It’s—it’s so heavy!”
Sinews rose along the servant’s thick forearms.
‘Heavy? That’s impossible.’
It made no sense.
So Haeng-su’s eyes trembled as he examined the sack.
The surface of the sack was thoroughly drenched, water dripping from it, yet the sack remained full and taut.
The servant cut open the sack with a blade.
Whoosh—
Pink salt poured out like jewels.
“Not a single grain got wet!”
Pure salt crystals, not one dissolved.
The people from Cheon-sung Trading Company fell silent.
The officials of Muk Wang-bu stared at one another, mouths agape.
So-ah smiled faintly at So Haeng-su, who had gone pale as salt itself.
“How is that? Does this suffice?”
So Haeng-su’s fists tightened.
That a mere servant girl, a concubine’s daughter who played at menial work, would humiliate him like this.
And before the eyes of Muk Wang-bu’s officials and the people of Cheon-sung.
But So Haeng-su, as always, swiftly composed his expression.
“How did you manage that, Jae-in?”
At So Haeng-su’s feigned composure, So-ah broke into a light laugh.
“Ah, for you to ask, So Haeng-su. This is a ‘technique’ that puts bread on the table—surely you understand I can’t simply broadcast such methods?”
The color rose in So Haeng-su’s face as he abandoned his pretense of calm.
Behind a mask, another’s gaze turned toward So Haeng-su.
[I trust Cheon-sung Trading Company honors its promises.]
* * *
【How on earth did you manage that, So-ah?】
Un-jo asked in astonishment.
The fact that the salt hadn’t dissolved clearly fascinated him.
“I used Oil Paper, Beeswax, and Pine Resin.”
Inside the sack woven from straw.
The Oil Paper provided waterproofing, while the Beeswax and Pine Resin ensured an airtight seal should anything go wrong.
【When did you learn such a thing?】
“Experience, perhaps? The difference that living brings?”
So-ah smiled faintly.
Wi Wang-bu also conducts a major Salt Business.
In her past life, when Seo Gon begrudged the expense of leather for salt packaging, she had devised this very method to ease his concern and presented it to him.
With that single stratagem, Wi Wang-bu’s salt trade had consumed the realm, and So-ah had drawn one step closer to the empress’s throne.
‘But this time, it will serve Muk Wang-bu.’
There was one more lesson born of her past-life experience.
If left unchecked, Cheon-sung Trading Company would absorb Muk Wang-bu’s resources.
‘Muk Wang-bu must cultivate its own commerce.’
Even great power must yield before poverty.
In his past life, Seo Gon’s financial lifeline—money that had trickled steadily into Muk Wang-bu through the Cheon-sung Trading Company—played no small part in Seo Heon’s death and the clan’s decline.
‘I have to cut off that money supply.’
So-ah gazed toward the distant black-tiled roof of Muk Wang-gung.
Just then.
“This simply won’t work…….”
As they passed near the Stable, a groom was scratching his head in frustration.
It was the man who tended to Pung-roe.
‘Someone essential for getting close to the horses.’
And besides.
【So-ah, that’s No Chong-gwan over there.】
Pung-roe pointed toward the distance.
‘The timing is perfect.’
A faint smile played at So-ah’s lips.
Slowing her pace with Un-jo had paid off.
“What troubles you?”
So-ah approached the groom.
“Ah, it’s the horses, miss. I need to distribute them to each barracks…….”
The groom’s problem was straightforward enough.
Seventeen horses had arrived, but the distribution regulations posed a difficulty.
Half to the Seon-wi Corps.
A third to the Byeong-bu.
One-ninth to the Yeok-cham.
With seventeen horses, none of the divisions came out evenly.
“If I send even one extra horse to any of them, the others will complain and I’ll have a headache on my hands. But I can’t very well split a horse among them either. It’s a real puzzle…….”
As the groom finished his explanation, So-ah laughed.
“I’ve heard there’s one horse allocated to me.”
“Yes, there is, miss.”
“What if you borrowed that horse for a time?”
“Borrowed it?”
The groom’s brow furrowed deeper as he raised his eyebrows.
“Then you’d have eighteen horses.”
Half of eighteen is nine.
A third of eighteen is six.
One-ninth of eighteen is two.
“Nine to the Seon-wi Corps, six to the Byeong-bu, two to the Yeok-cham.”
It divides perfectly.
“Is that so! But my lady’s horse…….”
“Since the horses sent to the three places total seventeen, you simply return my horse afterward.”
So-ah smiled brightly.
The groom counted on his fingers, then his jaw dropped.
“How could it be so simple……!”
The groom thanked So-ah repeatedly.
“Without you, I’d have spent days tearing my hair out over this problem! My gratitude knows no bounds!”
“It was nothing at all.”
So-ah smiled warmly.
Even as she felt two distant gazes fixed upon her.
* * *
And the next day.
[Might you lend a hand with the Trading Company’s work?]
Seo Heon summoned her.
“If it’s producing Oil Paper, I’m more than willing.”
The technique itself was hardly difficult—she could teach the artisans in the workshop a little, and they’d be producing it in no time…….
“The Prince does not seek merely Oil Paper production. He wishes for your assistance with other matters in the Trading Company.”
Instead of taking up his brush, No Chong-gwan spoke.
“Other matters?”
“You seem to have a gift for numbers.”
Of course.
She’d known Seo Heon and No Chong-gwan were watching when she helped the groom.
“Does Wi Wang-bu not also prosper in commerce? I’ve heard that even the Jin Clan invests in the Trading Company.”
At No Chong-gwan’s words, So-ah’s gaze flicked toward Seo Heon for a moment.
An expressionless mask.
Eyes that revealed nothing.
There was no precedent for entrusting trading company affairs to an outsider.
‘Yet he made such a decision nonetheless…….’
So-ah studied Seo Heon’s intentions before speaking.
“You have no intention of trading with the Cheon-sung Trading Company.”
The mask did not move.
Which meant he was not denying her words.
[I’m thinking of running the salt business in Byeok-roe-gok directly.]
So-ah found Seo Heon’s intention satisfactory.
It was what she had hoped for anyway.
Commercial independence for Muk Wang-bu was essential for the future.
Since the salt from Byeok-roe-gok was quite stable, it would be suitable as a first venture into self-reliance.
Moreover.
‘It’s something we can use to compete with Seo Gon’s Wi Wang-bu.’
The larger the Byeok-roe salt business grew, the more Seo Gon’s salt operations would falter.
“If even my humble effort can be of use, I shall gladly follow your lead.”
In this way, she would gradually sever Seo Gon’s purse strings.
No Chong-gwan broke into a broad smile at So-ah’s favorable response.
Then So-ah lifted her head, which had been bowed in shallow respect, and continued.
“But I have one request.”
[A request, you say?]
“I know of a talented person necessary for operating the trading company.”
Someone vital to tightening Seo Gon’s purse strings.
In her past life, the chief manager of the trading company who had laid Seo Gon’s financial foundation.
When that youth devoured the Muk Wang-bu market and grew Seo Gon’s wealth, it was he who designed the flow of that success.
‘He must never fall into Wi Wang-bu’s hands.’
The timing was right now to bring him under her protection.
Beyond the mask, his gaze settled quietly upon So-ah.
“I would be grateful if you would lend your strength to bring him here.”
* * *
Evening, steeped in the glow of sunset.
As shadows lengthened, lights began to flicker on one by one throughout the market streets.
So-ah passed through the ornate main boulevard and turned into an alley.
A back alley where darkness deepened.
From behind the mask’s veil, Seo Heon watched So-ah move forward.
【Finding talent, she said—but where are we going?】
So-ah pretended not to hear his unspoken question and ventured deeper into the alley.
Those dressed in shabby, threadbare rags.
Those sprawled on the ground, drunk and senseless.
Occasionally, unwelcome stares clung to So-ah.
Swift as wind, Seo Heon moved close beside her.
So-ah felt the stares that had fixed upon her scatter in sudden alarm.
Though his face and station remained concealed, Seo Heon emanated an aura that forbade anyone to approach carelessly.
‘Consideration……?’
The air around him, now closer, was always clear and serene.
In the fishy stench of the darkening alley, that scent stood out with peculiar clarity.
So-ah stopped at one corner of the deep alley.
A building that looked like an old warehouse.
Two sturdy men stood before the door with their arms crossed.
Beneath the mask, Seo Heon’s brow furrowed.
【This place is……】
“I’ve come to purchase Thirteenth Month’s Time.”
As So-ah pressed silver into the doorkeeper’s hand, the door opened.
Seo Heon pressed his lips tight as he watched So-ah enter without hesitation.
‘She even knows the password.’
She had never been to Muk Wang-bu before, surely.
The darkest alley in Han-ju.
As though she had walked the deep passages of shadow countless times before.
Following her inside, he was struck by a wall of stifling heat.
Despite the weathered exterior that suggested no one had set foot in the place for years, the air within reeked of human habitation—stale, pervasive, unmistakable.
His eyes narrowed as he took in the unfamiliar scene.
People crowded on every side, packed shoulder to shoulder.
Beneath the lamplight, men slammed down cards and roared their bets.
Each table scattered with spilled cups and mounting wagers.
A gambling den.

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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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