The Survival Story Of A Fallen Lady - Chapter 2

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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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Fallen Illegitimate Daughter Survival Record – Episode 2
“I don’t want to go!”
An exasperated voice echoed through the main hall of the Jin Clan Estate.
Mok Yeon, dressed in silks of various colors, sat sprawled on the floor and cried out as though her heart would break.
“How could you send me to that cursed monster!”
“Mok Yeon, but he is still a prince. Moreover, he is the Regional Lord who governs Muk Kingdom!”
“What good is becoming a concubine to a crumbling kingdom?!”
Muk Kingdom was notorious for its endless winter and bitter, flesh-cutting cold.
The barren land made farming difficult, and its proximity to Monster Valley—teeming with demons—made people reluctant to go there.
The Jin Clan was not unaware of this.
But there was nothing to be done.
“What can be done about an Imperial Decree! Besides, tomorrow Muk Wang will come to fetch you—!”
A command handed down from the Emperor himself.
Moreover, the Imperial Court had promised substantial Betrothal Gifts as the condition for this betrothal.
It was an order that could not be refused.
Yet Mok Yeon shed tears like chicken droppings.
“So you’re telling me to go to a mute monster prince with an ugly face?”
They said Muk Wang had been cursed during an early battle with demons, his face twisted and his voice lost.
That was why he supposedly wore a Mask to hide that terrible visage.
Become a Concubine to such a cursed monster!
Then.
“In place of Miss Mok Yeon, I will go to Muk Kingdom.”
The door opened, and a girl in shabby clothes entered.
“Jin So-ah?”
“How dare you enter without permission!”
Lady Yang, acting as the Legal Wife, burst out at the sight of Jin So-ah, the Illegitimate Daughter.
So-ah, who would normally have knelt at once, remained standing and gazed at the clan master, Master Jin.
Master Jin fingered the tip of his beard with displeasure.
“This is a marriage arranged by His Majesty.”
“But His Majesty only seeks a presentable woman to attach to the cursed prince for appearance’s sake.”
“Hmm. But….”
“If my status brings disfavor to His Majesty, would it not suffice if you took me in as an Adopted Daughter?”
“What did you just say?”
Lady Yang, who had been listening nearby, shot to her feet.
“Do you think I would take someone like you under my roof?”
“But madam, if I do not go, then Miss Mok Yeon, whom you hold so dear, will be the one sent to Muk Wang.”
As So-ah spoke calmly, Mok Yeon clung to Lady Yang and nodded eagerly.
“Mother! I don’t want to marry that monster! I’ll hang myself the moment I arrive at Muk Kingdom!”
Mok Yeon sobbed and buried her face in her sleeve.
Lady Yang pulled her daughter into an embrace.
She too had no wish to send her daughter to Muk Wang.
In the end.
“There’s no choice.”
Fate had shifted.
* * *
So-ah sat in the room, dressed in the crimson robe that had been made for Mok Yeon.
She ran her fingers gently over the crimson sleeves.
The fine silk felt smooth, embroidered with elaborate embroidery.
‘Not even a proper wedding ceremony.’
A position at the lowest Concubine rank—neither queen nor secondary wife.
There would be no wedding rite held, and this mockery of a Wedding Robe struck her as almost laughable.
Lady Yang had forced the appearance of propriety for the sake of her beloved daughter Mok Yeon.
So-ah stripped off the robe that had been made for Mok Yeon.
Instead, she changed into the most presentable of her ordinary clothes.
The only worn silk garment she possessed.
The color had faded to a sallow yellow, and it bore no embroidered ornament, yet it was better than the elaborate Wedding Robe made for Mok Yeon.
Having changed into the comfortable clothes, she poured tea into the Tea Cup beside her, as was her habit.
Rough tea bloomed in the old, chipped Tea Cup.
One cup.
Two cups.
Jin So-ah stared at the steam rising from the tea water.
‘Habit is truly terrifying.’
It was a habit born from Seo Gon.
Jin So-ah would prepare tea for Seo Gon, who enjoyed it hot, and wait for him.
But the cooled tea always fell to her.
At first, waiting for him.
Later, it became routine.
Even when she wasn’t waiting for him, her hands would move first to brew tea whenever anxiety gripped her.
‘I knew the tea grew cold—but when did my heart grow cold?’
No. Truth be told, she’d suspected.
That Seo Gon had lost interest in her.
But she hadn’t wanted to admit it.
Jin So-ah gazed at the teacup, then swallowed both cups of tea between her own lips.
The warm tea, still hot, melted through her chest.
There was no tea left to grow cold.
Then, from outside, a crow cawed.
‘The time has come.’
Jin So-ah opened the large birdcage beside her.
A hawk with lustrous feathers perched onto her forearm.
“Un-jo, I’m counting on you.”
Take care of it for me.
The hawk inside burst through the window in one swift motion.
When Un-jo vanished beyond the compound wall, the door opened and a servant girl entered.
The servant girl’s eyes widened at the sight of the wedding robe strewn across the floor.
“Jin So-ah, what on earth are you doing?!”
“It’s Miss, not Jin So-ah.”
“You, change right now—”
Slap!
The servant girl staggered, clutching her cheek.
“You’ll call me Miss.”
Jin So-ah smiled brightly and dusted off her hands.
The servant girl stared at her with a dumbfounded expression.
She hadn’t expected an illegitimate daughter to carry herself this way.
A servant—that’s what an illegitimate daughter was.
That was Jin So-ah’s place in this household.
Even the servants had looked down on her and thrust housework upon her, and no one had thought to reprimand them for it.
Until now.
“This, this—!”
Slap!
“If your head can’t learn through words, your body will have to learn through blows.”
Jin So-ah spoke calmly, looking down at the servant girl, whose fists were clenched.
In the past, she would have taken several blows from this girl.
But everything had changed.
Her father had registered her as the adopted daughter of the legal wife so he could send her to the imperial prince.
Moreover, she would soon be sent to Muk Wang.
If even a scratch appeared on her face or body, everything could fall apart.
“You, you—!”
“Shall I teach you again?”
As her hand rose slightly, the servant girl dropped to her knees at once.
“Y-yes, Miss!”
“Good. I’m glad you understand so quickly.”
How had this girl, who possessed such easily bent knees, carried herself so boldly until now?
Jin So-ah left the trembling servant girl behind and walked away.
A sharp voice stabbed at her back.
“Miss, the clothes—!”
“You clean them up.”
That was the servant’s job.
* * *
Mok Yeon stood first before the main gate.
She intended to witness the sight of Jin So-ah being dragged away to Muk Wang in her stead.
Then, from a distance, Jin So-ah approached.
Mok Yeon’s eyes narrowed at the sight of her pallid dress.
“What’s the meaning of that shameful appearance? Didn’t your mother give you a wedding robe?”
“She did, but it reeked.”
“What?”
Mok Yeon’s brow furrowed, but So-ah paid her no mind and stood before the Main Gate.
A subtle shift in demeanor.
Where she might once have crept forward with nervous glances, her head was held high now.
Did she truly believe herself elevated simply by going to Muk Wang?
The way she scrambled to better her wretched fortune was almost amusing.
“So you wanted to cling to the imperial prince so badly? Well, I suppose even that monster prince is better than being the concubine of some aging merchant lord drowning in gold.”
Jin So-ah turned to face Mok Yeon quietly, though the latter was mocking her.
And she drew out the hairpin adorned with lotus flowers that had been pinned in Mok Yeon’s hair.
The elaborate coiffure came undone, spilling down in disarray.
“What are you doing!”
“Restoring what I foolishly lost.”
“Jin So-ah. Have you lost your mind?”
“Sister, your language is crude.”
So-ah slipped the hairpin into her own hair with perfect composure as she spoke.
“Sister? Did you just call me sister?”
Mok Yeon bristled.
So-ah had always called her “Miss” before.
The moment she’d said “sister,” she’d caught a slap.
Yet now she was saying it without hesitation.
“And.”
So-ah stepped closer to Mok Yeon and opened her mouth.
“I’ll be Imperial Court now, so it wouldn’t be proper to speak to me that way, would it, sister?”
As she smiled softly, Mok Yeon’s eyes wavered with confusion. But she quickly forced the corners of her mouth upward, trying to mask her shock with a trembling smile.
“You think you’ve become someone now that you’re going to Muk Wang? Is that it?”
Mok Yeon jabbed her finger into So-ah’s shoulder.
“Come to your senses, Jin So-ah. You’re just picking up what I discarded.”
So-ah looked down at the finger poking her shoulder, then laughed softly.
Discarded?
You discarded Muk Wang?
“How can you discard something you never had?”
“What…?”
Mok Yeon’s brow twitched.
“It’s laughable. The word ‘discard’ can only be used by someone who actually possessed something once, can’t it?”
As So-ah laughed, Mok Yeon’s face flushed hot.
It was Mok Yeon herself who had stubbornly refused to go to Muk Wang.
Yet now it felt as though Jin So-ah had snatched him away from her.
As if a fox had brazenly stolen what was hers.
‘No, that can’t be it.’
Mok Yeon bit her lip.
Muk Wang was what she had discarded.
A terrible, monstrous prince.
“You know his face was ruined by a curse, right? How does it feel to be sold off to the empire’s ugliest man?”
Mok Yeon laughed, reminding herself why she had spurned Muk Wang.
Of course—no one could live with a man like that.
And yet.
“Is that so? Then you’ve seen Muk Wang’s face?”
Jin So-ah asked calmly.
“Yes, I have—so hideously ugly I could barely stand to look at him!”
As Mok Yeon bristled, So-ah’s eyes narrowed.
A lie.
Even in her previous life, Mok Yeon had complained that she’d never seen Muk Wang’s face.
Her brazen exaggeration was almost pathetic, yet Mok Yeon pressed on.
“A human face could be so grotesque…!”
In that moment.
Creak—
The heavy gate began to move.
The air itself seemed to settle in an uncanny stillness.
As it swung open, a cool shadow swept through the widening gap.
Footfall.
With the hem of a Black Robe trailing behind, a heavy tread pressed down upon the garden.
A man clad in darkness itself, a Long Sword hung at his waist.
Beneath the black hood drawn over his head, a sharp shadow fell across his features.
He advanced like darkness swallowing the mansion whole.
“M-Muk Wang……!”
Mok Yeon’s attendant, who had been standing behind her, uttered the name in a trembling whisper.
The man of towering stature cast a dense, long shadow down upon Mok Yeon.

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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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