The Survival Story Of A Fallen Lady - Chapter 19

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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 Survival Record of a Fallen Noblewoman — Episode 019
Seo Heon’s brow furrowed.
A corner of the Mugyeong Prince Manor that lay beyond the Government Office’s reach.
The poison that had festered in poverty and uncertainty was thriving here.
Seo Heon surveyed the space in silence.
One facet of the Mugyeong Prince Manor his hand could not touch.
Behind the mask, his gaze sank slowly.
【So they’re recruiting talent for the Trading Company from this place?】
Seo Heon’s voice rang out quietly.
So Ah pointed inward instead of answering.
A large table where people had gathered in unusual numbers.
Each time the cards flipped, the crowd rippled with tension.
“Again!”
“This bastard’s winning again?!”
Money slid across the table to one side.
The one sweeping it up was, remarkably, a boy who had not yet shed his youthful appearance.
Worn clothes and a gaunt frame.
Deep shadows pooled beneath his eyes, yet beyond them his gaze remained sharp and clear.
“Isn’t commerce itself nothing but one vast gambling table?”
So Ah smiled at the sight of the boy.
Each time the cards came around, the boy’s fingers tapped a steady rhythm against his knee.
‘That habit hasn’t changed.’
It was exactly as she remembered.
In her past life too, the young keeper who stood beside Seo Gon had always tapped his knee like that. Until the next move revealed itself.
Then the money turned toward the boy once more.
Just as the boy was gathering up his winnings.
“Hold on.”
A portly man sitting to one side rose to his feet.
“Kid, you’re using some dirty tricks, aren’t you?”
“Mister, you can’t just make accusations because you lost. That’s not fair.”
The boy lifted his head barely at all and let out a quiet laugh.
Slam!
The portly man seized the boy by the collar.
The gaunt frame was wrenched upright, swaying.
“You little bastard—how do you keep winning? We’ve played dozens of hands! How is it only you keep taking the pot?”
“Mister, you can’t win money by throwing a tantrum, can you? Right?”
Even in the menacing atmosphere, the boy spoke without a shred of shame.
The man’s cheeks trembled with rage.
“Drag him out!”
It happened in an instant.
At the man’s gesture, four others rushed forward.
“Let go! You’re being a coward because you lost money? And at your age……!”
The boy’s struggles were useless.
“Kid, I don’t think you understand the situation. You’re caught. That man there is Wang Daein—the owner of this place.”
“So what, spit!”
The boy spat at the man holding him, then glared at Wang Daein.
“I didn’t use any tricks. My head’s just sharper than yours. What’re you gonna do about it?”
“Is that so? Then I’ll just smash that skull in!”
“If you do that, the Government Office will……!”
“The Government Office? Kid, in here I am the law.”
Wang Daein gestured, and the men dragged the boy into the back room.
Two large men locked the door and stood guard in front of it.
Those who had briefly looked away from their cards during the commotion returned their attention to their hands.
So Ah turned back to Seo Heon.
“That boy there. The talent I mentioned to you.”
Something stirred within Seo Heon’s chest.
【……Talent from a gambling den.】
To anyone’s eye, he was nothing but a dissolute gambler.
One could certainly call it a talent—the luck to sweep up a few coins, and the nerve to stand up fearlessly to men twice his size—but.
【If she’d told me sooner, I could have stopped them before they dragged him away.】
Seo Heon regarded the men blocking the doorway with dry disapproval.
“When a person is in crisis, they grasp the hand extended to them—wouldn’t you agree that’s how talent is won?”
The words struck so close to his thoughts that the eyes beneath the mask narrowed slightly.
【……Ha.】
So the boy had waited, wearing an innocent face, until the moment became difficult for him.
He’d assumed a servant girl would lack the wit to even protect her own rice bowl.
‘Cunning.’
No—it went far beyond mere cunning.
She understood precisely where a person’s resolve could be bent and broken.
Seo Heon lifted his head, his gaze sweeping toward the men guarding the door.
It was hardly ideal for a prince to involve himself in a gambling den brawl.
But.
【Let’s hope this talent proves absolutely necessary.】
With long strides, Seo Heon cut through the chaos of the gambling den.
“Hey, you there.”
A broad-shouldered man planted himself firmly in the doorway.
“No one’s getting past this……!”
Thud.
A soft, muted sound.
The man’s body slid sideways and collapsed.
As the second man raised his fist, Seo Heon’s hand hooked his wrist.
One half-turn.
Thump.
The entire exchange took less time than a single breath.
Every eye in the room snapped toward him.
“What—what just happened?”
“Did he just fall over?”
The gamblers fell silent, muttering among themselves in bewilderment.
In that moment, others who’d been standing at a distance rushed toward him.
【He disliked resorting to violence.】
Such was his curse.
No situation could be resolved through words alone.
All he could do was demonstrate the truth with his body.
So Ah watched, taking in the scene.
‘I can leave this to him for now.’
Against ordinary men, someone wielding the Brush Sword Technique would have an easy time.
‘My work lies elsewhere.’
So Ah turned quietly and slipped away.
* * *
In the back room.
“You arrogant little bastard……!”
Wang Daein’s face had flushed a deep crimson.
The Young Boy bound to the pillar dripped blood from his nose, yet his eyes blazed with brazen defiance.
“What, ashamed your stupidity’s on full display? Dying of embarrassment?”
Smack—!
“Ugh!”
One of the men kicked at the Young Boy’s abdomen; he gasped and curled inward.
“Wherever you crawled out from, you’ll learn a lesson today. In this world, brute strength wins over cleverness, so remember that.”
The man seized the Young Boy’s hair, driving the lesson home.
Tap…… tap-tap……
Even as they beat him, the Young Boy’s fingers tapped the floor in secret rhythm.
Two on the left. One on the right.
A tall sword hung on the wall behind Wang Daein.
Six paces to the window.
As the Young Boy’s eyes—calculating escape odds—flicked toward the door,
Crash—!
the door was ripped clean from its frame.
“What! I said no one gets in……!”
Before the man could finish, one of his companions was hurled backward into the wall.
The room fell into sudden silence.
A massive shadow stood on the threshold.
At its end, a black cloth fluttered in the stillness.
Wang Daein’s pupils trembled as if convulsing.
“Y-you are…….”
The man in black did not answer.
Or rather, could not answer.
Instead, he moved forward slowly.
Step by heavy step.
With each footfall, the air in the room grew dense and suffocating.
Wang Daein found himself backing away without thinking.
The instinct of a man who had run gambling dens for years screamed a warning.
This was no common criminal.
“Stop him! Stop him now!”
At Wang Daein’s shout, three men lunged forward.
Seo Heon sidestepped with ease.
As if letting wind pass through, the first man’s arm slashed through empty air.
Whoosh!
As a second fist came from behind, fingers that flowed like water gently pressed against the man’s back.
Bang!
The two men collided and fell flat.
At once the third drew a blade and launched it.
Clang!
Seo Heon deflected the sword with a brush held at his belt.
A brush. Merely a brush.
A single brush, no more than a palm’s width, had effortlessly parried a tempered blade.
The swordsman reeled from the impact.
Then a blow landed square on his jaw.
Thud.
The man crumpled as though his knees had given way.
Silence returned.
All that remained in the room was Wang Daein gasping for breath and the young boy bound to the pillar, lips sealed shut.
Through the crack of the shattered door, wind stirred the black cloth once more.
‘That person is……!’
The boy’s eyes widened to the size of a lamp.
The Half-Face Iron Mask.
And beyond it, a half-face pale as ice, clean and unmarred.
It was but a moment.
Soon the cloth drifted down with the wind, and that face sank back into shadow.
Yet the fingers that had been tapping the floor stopped for the first time.
And Wang Daein, recognizing him, stammered his name.
“S-Seo Heon……!”
The lips that spoke the name late trembled with shock.
“Your Highness, what brings you to this place…….”
Wang Daein’s words trailed off as he again grasped that Seo Heon could not speak.
Seo Heon turned slowly in reply, his gaze shifting to the boy bound to the pillar.
A face caked with blood from a broken nose.
One eye swollen and bruised.
Yet the light in his eyes had not dimmed.
If anything, it burned brighter than before.
【……if this too could be called talent, then talent it is.】
Then Wang Daein stepped forward.
“Your Highness, this is not a matter you should involve yourself in. It is a private affair of ours…….”
A private affair.
Seo Heon gestured with a tilt of his head toward the gambling den beyond the broken door.
The Prince Manor Decree strictly forbade gambling dens.
“Ha, haha, this is merely a form of amusement enjoyed in mutual accord.”
“Amusement enjoyed in mutual accord?”
Then a soft voice cut in.
A woman stepped through the broken doorway.
“It seems rather sordid for that, does it not?”
Wang Daein’s face twisted.
A diminutive frame, pale skin.
She seemed like a slip of a woman—insignificant, unworthy of notice.
“A fool of a woman who knows nothing should stay out of this….”
“But you did keep a ledger, didn’t you?”
So Ah smiled knowingly and withdrew something thick from her sleeve.
A ledger bound in worn leather.
She opened it deliberately, displaying one page for him to see.
─Silk: 1,000 bolts delivered.
─Tea: 300 boxes, payment received.
Refined transactions utterly at odds with a gambling den were recorded in meticulous detail.
It was a dual ledger—laundering illicit funds.

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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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