The Survival Story Of A Fallen Lady - Chapter 21

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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 Noblewoman’s Survival Record Episode 21
Dawn.
Woo Je stared at the empty bowl before him.
A faint flush of color had returned to his sister’s gaunt, pallid cheeks.
“It was delicious.”
Woo Hee, who could barely manage a proper meal, had emptied the entire bowl of rice gruel.
Woo Je pressed his lips together and let his head fall.
Thump.
A hot tear spilled across the back of his hand.
“Brother…?”
Woo Je quickly wiped his eyes with his sleeve.
To think it took only a handful of grass roots to make her well.
Something so simple.
He had let his sister suffer all this time.
Woo Je recalled the woman who had handed him the bundle of Shinmaek Herb.
“If you need time to think, I’ll give it to you. Come to Mookwang Palace whenever you’ve made up your mind.”
Woo Je clenched his fist beneath his sleeve.
Then Woo Hee’s thin hand wrapped around the back of his.
“Thank you, brother.”
Gratitude mingled with apology in his younger sister’s voice.
As though she believed all his suffering was her fault.
His fingertips tingled.
Woo Je shook his head.
What more could he ask for?
He could obtain medicine to heal his sister.
“Rest now. I’ll be back soon.”
He rose, taking the empty bowl with him.
As he stepped outside, dawn was already breaking.
There was no need to hesitate any longer.
His feet turned toward Mookwang Palace without a moment’s doubt.
* * *
Seo Heon gazed quietly at the blank Document Seal resting on his desk.
This morning.
“That seal was impressed on a document we sold. I never imagined it would end up in such a dangerous place.”
A man from Cheon Sung had come by.
It was a brazen excuse.
‘I could silence him this instant.’
Seo Heon quietly opened a drawer to one side.
A ledger of investigations into Cheon Sung over the past year.
The problem was how to bring it into the light.
To strike down an organization as vast as Cheon Sung, he needed to target the heart, not the tail.
Moreover, without establishing a commercial foundation to replace Cheon Sung, the people would suffer.
On this border territory where supplies were scarce.
Cheon Sung controlled the very prices within Mookwang Territory.
‘I need a way to replace Cheon Sung.’
The strength for Mookwang Territory to stand on its own, economically.
Then a familiar voice drifted through the window.
The brush that had been wandering across the paper stilled for a moment.
Lifting his gaze to the window, he saw Seo A approaching along the corridor.
She was with that boy from yesterday.
‘…So she’s brought him after all.’
Seo Heon watched her in silence.
The image of yesterday played across her face.
In the midst of the gambling den.
Eyes that never wavered once, standing amid the chaos of clashing blades.
‘What manner of nerves does she possess.’
One thing was certain: she was no delicately raised young lady.
Seo Heon opened his lips to speak as she drew near, then closed them again.
In truth, there was much he wanted to ask her.
How she had come to know of the gambling den.
How he’d found the ledger.
How he’d anticipated the connection to Cheon Sung.
But.
[Sixth. Ask nothing of anything.]
Hadn’t he sworn an oath?
Seo Heon kept his eyes on Seo A, absently tidying his brush.
Beneath the sunlight that had grown warm without notice.
Seo A broke into laughter.
The corners of her mouth, hidden behind the mask, lifted faintly.
“Your Highness.”
It was then that Steward Noh entered.
“Seo A and Woo Je have arrived.”
Seo Heon nodded and rose from his seat.
* * *
Ledgers sprawled across every table.
Scrolls piled high as mountains.
The air itself hung bleak and parched beneath the weight of fatigue.
This was the Ministry of Household—the bureau that oversaw taxation and treasury for Mookwang Territory.
“You honor us with your presence, Your Highness.”
As Seo Heon entered, the officials who had been buried in their ledgers straightened with a courtesy as rigid and lifeless as the air around them.
Seo Heon’s gaze swept past them all and fell upon the most senior figure.
Baek Ui Seop, Minister of Household.
Deep creases between his brows—the very map of his obstinacy.
A man who had devoted decades to Mookwang Territory since the reign of the previous king.
The moment Baek Ui Seop felt Seo Heon’s eyes upon him, he spoke.
“If this is about the budget for the Heir, save yourself the trouble. I’ve given the same answer four times over, and it won’t change.”
Baek Ui Seop, renowned for his stringency and stubbornness, was as sharp-edged even before the prince.
“Minister, the prince has not come to discuss—”
Steward Noh was responding when the officials, alert to every nuance, suddenly surged to their feet.
“Heavens! Is that not Seo A?”
The moment they spotted Seo A behind Seo Heon, the bureaucrats’ faces flushed with color none had shown before.
“A seat for her at once!”
“Tea! Bring the finest Geum Sari Tea!”
In moments, these men who had been drowning in their duties, drained of all vitality, moved with sudden bustle, their faces alight.
“……?”
While Seo Heon and Steward Noh exchanged bewildered glances, the officials dragged over their own chairs to receive her.
Steward Noh’s brows drew together as he watched.
These Ministry officials—always brisk, always cold.
Yet here they were, welcoming someone with such warmth?
“Minister, what is the meaning of this?”
“The treasure of Mookwang Territory, the pillar upon which it stands—how could we show her anything less than honor?”
“Pardon?”
“Do you know how much our territorial finances have flourished because Seo A discovered the salt mines of Byeokrae Valley?”
“I am aware, but—”
“No. You are not. If you understood, you would never treat Seo A so carelessly.”
At Baek Ui Seop’s stern response, Steward Noh stood confused.
Seo A had hardly been neglected—why were these rigid bureaucrats making such a fuss?
Yet the Ministry officials turned sharp eyes upon Steward Noh.
“Do you know the sum that was confiscated at the gambling dens yesterday?”
“I cannot say with certainty.”
“Six months’ worth of the entire territory’s finances!”
“I—what?!”
Steward Noh’s jaw fell slack.
He’d known it was no small sum, but to that degree?
“Every person in this territory would be justified in bowing and scraping before Seo A’s feet.”
Baek Ui Seop spoke with the force of a thunderclap.
Resolution of the Spring Shortage Period relief efforts.
Repairs to the collapsed fortifications along the northwest border.
Support for the displaced persons who lost their homes to Yokai attacks.
Problems that had been festering were solved all at once.
It was Seo A who had finally given the Ministry of Household officials the chance to go home after sleepless nights and actually rest!
She was the one who had restored a human life to them.
“To think you would bring such an esteemed person to this shabby place so carelessly.”
At Baek Ui Seop’s words, the chief administrator let out a hollow laugh.
He understood that Seo A was remarkable, certainly.
“But even so, the Prince is standing right before us……!”
What was the meaning of this treatment, placing Seo A ahead of Seo Heon?
Just as the chief administrator was about to bristle, Seo Heon seized his shoulder.
【This is the first time I’ve seen the Minister of Household so delighted.】
Baek Ui Seop, who ordinarily complained about being worn down by figures and money, about his hair turning white from the strain.
The perpetually strained finances.
Insufficient tax revenues.
He had submitted his resignation multiple times, citing the difficulty of the work.
Yet because there was no one else to trust with the Ministry’s affairs, he still hadn’t retired and continued to hold the position of Minister.
When such a man showed such joy, it could not be stopped.
Though he had a stubborn side, he was one who devoted himself wholly to the Mookwang Territory.
“Come now, Seo A. This way, please.”
The officials offered her a fine chair.
At that, Seo A smiled and shook her head.
“The Prince came to this place today for a different reason.”
Seo A changed the subject and gestured toward the back.
A boy stood there, awkwardly shifting his weight from foot to foot.
“That boy is……?”
“The Prince wishes to entrust the management of Byeokrae Valley’s trading post to that boy.”
When the chief administrator spoke on Seo Heon’s behalf, the officials all turned their gaze to Woo Je.
Clothes hanging awkwardly, newly acquired.
Bruises darkening his face, his lips cracked and swollen.
A gaunt frame like some bedraggled colt.
One could tell at a glance that he’d been rolled through the streets.
“You intend to let such a person handle the ledgers?”
“The soldiers were said to have visited the gambling dens—surely you didn’t bring this one from such a place?”
The quick-witted officials recognized Woo Je’s origins at once and, clearly displeased, let their mouths droop.
It was the opposite of the goodwill they’d shown Seo A mere moments before.
Then Seo A stepped forward.
“The boy has a gift for arithmetic—judge for yourselves.”
At that, the stubborn officials hemmed and hawed.
“Forgive us, but management and accounting are hardly simple arithmetic.”
The officials spoke in a fastidious tone.
Then Seo A looked at them with bright eyes.
“Is there truly no way?”
“Ahem, if Seo A asks so earnestly…….”
Their firm attitude crumbled beneath the light in her eyes.
Watching this unfold, the chief administrator adjusted his spectacles in bewilderment.
Men so sharp about a single digit, and yet they softened so easily!
Baek Ui Seop turned his gaze to Woo Je as if offering him a chance.
“Answer me. Do you know how to use an abacus?”
“……I don’t know how to use an abacus.”
At this, the officials chuckled mockingly.
“Ha! He doesn’t know. How could we possibly entrust the trading post to such a person…….”
“But, sir.”
“What? Ah—sir……?!”
Woo Je pointed to the ledger spread open on the lean official’s desk.
“That ledger, the thirteenth line. The number is wrong.”
“What?”
“You applied a one-tenth tax rate, but it says 1,081,799. That’s not a multiple of eleven.”
Woo Je pointed out the discrepancy as if it were nothing.
The lean official quickly worked the abacus.
Woo Je was right.
Baek Ui Seop’s whiskers trembled almost imperceptibly as he watched him.
“And you’re checking all of those by adding them up one by one……?”
Woo Je examined the abacus and the verification records, his brow deepening into a furrow.
“Then how exactly do you verify it?”
“You just compare the remainder when you divide the sum of each column’s digits by nine.”
The Gugeup Method.
It was a useful arithmetic technique for confirming whether totals matched at a glance.
The administrators’ eyes widened at Woo Je’s explanation.
“Where did you learn such a thing?”
“……Isn’t it just obvious?”
Was there anything to learn about it?
Woo Je tilted his head in puzzlement.

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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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