The Survival Story Of A Fallen Lady - Chapter 22

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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 22
The sun rising in the east.
A seed sprouting.
Numbers followed their principles as naturally as such things, unchanging and inevitable.
At least, to him they did.
Ui Seop, who had been watching him, burst into hearty laughter.
“The boy may not have learned manners, but he’s got talent!”
Since when did meticulous Ui Seop approve of anything so readily?
No Chief Eunuch had known him for many years, yet he’d never seen him glow with such pride.
The look of a grandfather watching his grandson.
“Who in the world brought such a gem here?”
At that, Seo Heon’s gaze shifted past Oo Je and settled on So Ah.
“Surely you didn’t bring another one like this, So Ah?”
The administrators, reading Seo Heon’s eyes, widened theirs in astonishment.
As every gaze converged on her, So Ah let out an awkward laugh.
“Well, yes, but—”
No Chief Eunuch scratched his cheek and answered in her stead.
Sudden grip.
Ui Seop abruptly seized Seo Heon’s hand.
Then he drew him away to a corner.
【What on earth…?】
“Your Highness.”
Standing alone with Seo Heon in that corner, Ui Seop’s face held a gravity deeper than even year-end accounting audits, and he began to speak.
“Until now, I have made no personal requests of Your Highness. But this time, I cannot remain silent.”
Cannot remain silent?
“I must entreat you—you must secure So Ah for yourself.”
Beneath the mask, his lips trembled ever so slightly.
What in the world was this man saying?
“I do not speak of womanly desire. This is for the future of the Wang-bu itself.”
Ui Seop’s expression bore more weight than when he’d discovered a discrepancy in the ledgers.
【The Minister of Treasury seems more agitated than usual today.】
Seo Heon turned his head, as though to dismiss it.
But Ui Seop gripped him tightly with his weathered hand.
“Consider it—where will you find a princess consort finer than she?”
Ui Seop gestured with his eyes toward So Ah, standing at a distance.
Seo Heon’s gaze followed.
A finer princess consort.
Perhaps Ui Seop was right.
『But such a thing cannot be.』
He himself had proposed the covenant first.
That she not seek his favor.
That she depart when she reached twenty-three, as the rules demanded.
“I ask not for Your Highness’s affection or attention. Merely a place to remain would suffice.”
He touched the mask at his face with his fingertips.
The cold, metallic sensation was unmistakable.
A sensation that recalled his curse.
A reminder of his place, lest he forget.
Seo Heon withdrew his hand from Ui Seop’s grasp.
『I intend to pass the throne to Hye Rang.』
He had only ever held the position temporarily, in place of the young Hye Rang.
Should he take a princess consort and produce an heir, the internal affairs of Muk Wang-bu would fall into even greater chaos.
There were already conservative nobles who questioned Seo Heon’s legitimacy in favor of Hye Rang’s claim.
【Such a thing will not come to pass.】
Seo Heon turned away.
Besides.
There was something far more pressing at hand.
* * *
A map of the Lyu Empire lay spread across the center of a great round table.
And.
The Byeok Roe Merchant Guild
A scroll detailing the new business ventures of Muk Wang-bu lay alongside the documents.
And the first step of that enterprise was…….
“Ye Wang-bu, you say?”
So Ah’s fingertip traced the location on the map.
“Yes, Ye Wang-bu to the southwest seems ideal for launching Byeok Roe Merchant Guild’s first trade route.”
Both Muk Wang-bu and Ye Wang-bu would become the guild’s inaugural clients.
“Of course, Muk Wang-bu borders Wi Wang-bu to the southeast, but Cheon Sung commands that territory.”
Yet the officials exchanged glances and shook their heads in unison.
Even the mouth beneath the mask had gone rigid and cold.
[Ye Wang-bu is impossible.]
So Ah heard his voice before the words could be carved into the slate.
“May I ask why it is impossible?”
【It is that……】
Before Seo Heon could speak, Ui Seop broke the silence first.
“Jae-in, do you understand the political situation in Ye Wang-bu?”
Even Ui Seop, who had shown her favor, could not accept this proposal.
The other officials added their voices one by one.
“The Prince of Ye reigns through tyranny. He has long since surrendered to debauchery, indulgence, and greed beyond all measure.”
“Wi Wang-bu would be far preferable!”
The titles attached to the Prince of Ye were horrifying.
The tyrant of the sunset lands.
Envoys and messengers who ventured to the Prince of Ye returned with their heads severed.
They said the reek of wine, flesh, and blood never left Ye Wang Palace.
Forced confiscation. Extortionate tariffs.
Corrupt officials seized goods under pretexts so absurd they scarcely deserved the name.
Some whispered that Ye Wang-bu was more fearsome than bandits themselves.
“Even Cheon Sung, vast as it is, has abandoned dealings with Ye Wang-bu.”
So Ah, who had listened in silence to their words, parted her lips.
“That is precisely why Ye Wang-bu is ideal.”
“Pardon?”
“Because no other merchant house has taken root there, we as newcomers have an opening to establish ourselves.”
“But how do we contend with such a prince!”
One cannot reason with a madman!
Yet So Ah smiled, closing her eyes.
“We will have to bring him to his senses.”
“I beg your pardon?!”
Among the gasps of astonishment, even Seo Heon’s brush trembled, steady as it had been.
* * *
Clatter, clatter…….
The carriage swayed with the rumbling of wheels upon the road.
So Ah inscribed a single line into her small notebook.
─
Road improvement
The jostling of the carriage made her handwriting crooked, as though penned by a child.
Yet So Ah pressed on, systematically recording the essential elements of the infrastructure project below.
Knowledge she had once acquired for Seo Gon in her past life.
But this time it would serve a different purpose.
‘Ye Wang-bu extends southward and encompasses a great river, making it rich in mountain and field produce.’
Once the empire’s granary and apothecary, before tyranny laid it to waste.
‘There will be no shortage of goods to refill the carts after we’ve sold our salt.’
Her thoughts organized, So Ah lifted her gaze.
Through the carriage window, Seo Heon came into view.
As always when venturing beyond the palace, he wore the black Black Veil drawn low.
At that moment, Young Gyeo, seated upon the driver’s bench, released a sigh.
“Jae-in, are we truly certain about going to Ye Wang-bu?”
The Prince of Ye’s infamy ran deep.
Young Gyeo too had heard terrible rumors of him.
“They say if the food lacks flavor, he beheads the cook, and if one misspeak, he cuts out the tongue.”
Young Gyeo shuddered at the thought of such tales.
No Chief Eunuch, who had been listening quietly beside her, opened his mouth with bitter resignation.
“The truth is, Ye Wang wasn’t always like this.”
No Chief Eunuch stole a glance at Seo Heon’s expression.
“Even a year ago, he was someone worthy of respect.”
Ye Wang’s tyranny had begun only last year.
Before that, he had been nearly a sage-king.
“The fiefdom title of Ye Wang was bestowed by the Emperor himself.”
From childhood, he had shown exceptional mastery of the arts and music, and his nature was gentle and temperate.
His Pipa Performance, in particular, was said to be the finest in the Lyu Empire.
Moreover, he was attentive to the welfare of his people.
“He maintained considerable relations with Muk Wang-bu as well.”
Seo Heon and Muk Wang-bu—cast aside by the imperial court as the monstrous prince.
Ye Wang-bu was the only place that extended a hand to them.
“Ye Wang also spent his childhood in Muk Wang-bu, didn’t he?”
Ye Wang and Muk Wang—neither born of the Empress.
As children, the two had been sent to distant Muk Wang-bu and raised together.
To Seo Heon, they were as near as a brother.
“Brother, what do you think would happen if we just ran away like this?”
“We’d be caught again.”
“But I still want to go.”
“…Well, it’d be fun until we were caught.”
The older brother who would embrace his own swollen calves—the ones beaten in Seo Heon’s place—and still smile, caring for his younger sibling.
“Teach me the pipa too! Why do you keep telling me to take up the sword?”
“For the time when I’m not there.”
It was Ye Wang, Seo Baek, who first placed a wooden sword in Seo Heon’s hands.
Looking back now, the reason he—lacking all talent and interest in Swordsmanship—had wielded the blade so diligently was likely for survival.
But now….
“After he fell gravely ill, he suddenly became a different person entirely.”
The brother that Seo Heon remembered was gone.
Seo Heon had sent letters several times, but not only did he receive no reply—even the messengers who delivered them barely escaped with their lives.
His tyranny deepened with each passing day.
“Wang Ya was deeply troubled by it as well. But with the imperial court remaining silent, there was no way for him to intervene directly in the affairs of Ye Wang-bu.”
As No Chief Eunuch spoke, So Ah turned her gaze toward the window.
The man sat in quiet silence, speaking not a word.
What expression lay hidden beneath the Black Veil, she could not fathom at all.
Yet So Ah knew.
Before the Regression.
Seo Heon had ultimately been forced to stain his hands with the blood of the brother he trusted and cherished most.
“The one who cannot speak roared like a beast and wept in anguish, they say.”
Seo Gon had spoken thus while eating sweet grapes, upon hearing the news of Ye Wang’s death.
How Seo Heon had embraced the severed head and wailed.
So Ah was determined to prevent that tragedy.

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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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