The Survival Story Of A Fallen Lady - Chapter 23

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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 Downfall of a Noble Daughter: Survival 023
The Main Hall of Ye Wang Palace.
The air reeked of blood, raw flesh, and sharp spirits.
Despite the daylight, the Main Hall hung with crimson silk drapes lay shrouded in darkness.
A banquet hall where hundreds of candles burned.
Golden ornaments caught the flickering light and gleamed.
Spilled wine and broken flower stems littered the floor.
And among it all.
A corpse lay sprawled.
A dancer who had been spinning through the night only moments before.
Beside her, a maidservant trembled as she wiped blood from a candlestick.
Not a single breath could be heard among them.
Only the sound of a single pipa string rang out.
That melody flowing through this chaos was flawless and beautiful.
Between fragments of slaughter and the remnants of revelry, only that music remained untouched by joy.
The officials kept their heads bowed, stealing glances with darting eyes.
At the highest seat.
A man sat sprawled on the steps before the wine-drenched throne.
His face pale enough to cast a blue pallor.
Long hair loosened carelessly.
A crimson robe, profligate and disheveled, stretched down the length of the steps.
Seo Baek, the Ye Wang.
As though nothing had happened, slender, elegant fingers slid nonchalantly across the pipa strings.
His eyelids, drowsy with music, remained gently lowered.
Then.
Creak—
A sharp hinge screeched, cutting through the melody.
The banquet hall froze in an instant.
The Ye Wang, still playing the pipa, slowly lifted his gaze.
Eyes half-lidded with drunkenness.
Beneath them, a chilling stare swept slowly across the hall.
The maidservants and officials prostrated themselves, holding their breath.
And at the end of that gaze.
A woman in white stood.
Seo Baek’s eyes narrowed.
“Who let her in?”
His voice came low and hushed.
The soldier guarding the door immediately fell to his knees, pressing his head to the floor.
“I could not interrupt the King’s performance, so by the time I noticed, this woman suddenly—”
“I was not let in. I came of my own accord.”
Calmly.
The woman spoke with a clear, ringing voice as she walked into the hall.
At that, a spark of interest flickered in Seo Baek’s otherwise vacant eyes.
He regarded the woman with a penetrating gaze.
Eyes steady and untroubled.
A head held upright, unbowed.
A bearing unmarred by fear.
Among those sprawled flat upon the ground, this woman alone stood with quiet dignity.
Seo Baek’s lips curved upward with interest as he set the pipa aside.
“Come closer.”
At his gesture, the woman stepped onto the crimson carpet and crossed the hall.
She stopped before the steps.
Looking directly up at the king, fearless.
A faint smile played at Seo Baek’s lips.
He rose slowly to his feet.
His long robes trailed through the blood that stained the floor.
Barefoot, he descended the steps with an unsteady gait.
His movements were perilous, yet beautiful in a way that seemed to herald something sinister.
His drunken steps came to a halt before the woman.
At the end of his chilling gaze, pale fingers lifted her chin.
“How dare you venture this far.”
His fingertips were ice-cold.
Then the woman opened her mouth with perfect composure.
“I heard that the Ye Wang enjoys music, so I came seeking an audience.”
At the unwavering tone of her voice, Seo Baek’s eyes curved into crescents.
“And?”
“I can teach a dog to sing.”
“A dog that sings?”
“Grant me one day, and I will make the dog sing before you tomorrow.”
Seo Baek’s lips trembled for an instant before bursting into laughter.
“Something amusing has rolled in.”
A keen interest sparked in Seo Baek’s eyes.
Walking in uninvited to teach a dog to sing?
It was preposterous, and yet it intrigued him.
Killing the woman would be easy.
A diversion he could indulge in at any time.
Waiting one day was a trifle.
“If the dog does not sing, you will not die a pleasant death.”
“Would I have come this far without resolve?”
At her audacious reply, laughter spilled from Seo Baek’s lips once more.
It had been a long while.
Since anything had been this entertaining.
“Well-timed, given my boredom.”
Seo Baek flicked his fingers.
“Bring Cheon Gang.”
At his command, a soldier soon appeared, dragging a massive hunting dog.
The red-furred beast drooled between the bars of its muzzle, its hunger palpable.
“To teach it to sing, you’ll need to remove that muzzle first.”
Seo Baek gestured toward the famished Cheon Gang.
A beast reduced to instinct by hunger.
“Lock this woman in the Bottomless Prison with Cheon Gang.”
The soldiers immediately surrounded her.
Seo Baek smiled at the woman as the soldiers led her away.
“Until tomorrow, then.”
* * *
A labyrinthine prison, twisting in on itself.
Iron bars reeking of rust hung locked and secured.
So Ah watched as the torchlight receded down the corridor.
Bang.
As the door to the surface sealed shut, the prison plunged into absolute darkness.
The Bottomless Prison lay as silent as a tomb.
Growl—
The beast’s low rumble shattered the stillness.
So Ah turned her head into the darkness.
In the same cell.
Within the pitch-black gloom, feral eyes gleamed with an eerie light.
Yellow eyes, bloodshot from hunger, fixed on her with savage intent.
Saliva dripped from the edge of the muzzle.
So Ah steadied her breathing.
“You’re starving, aren’t you.”
So Ah took a step toward the famished Cheon Gang.
Growl—
Red fur bristled along the beast’s neck.
“Easy now—”
So Ah extended her hand slowly, without tremor.
Sharp fangs gleamed once more beneath leather.
The yellow eyes tracked her hand.
“It’s alright.”
So Ah’s fingers brushed against Cheon Gang’s muzzle.
A flinch; the starving beast shuddered.
Click.
The leather cord binding the muzzle came loose.
But the starved creature did not lunge at her.
Only the cage of ribs beneath its hollow chest heaved faintly with each breath.
【……Why did you free me?】
The voice that emerged was parched and thin.
“Because you won’t eat me.”
So Ah knew this much.
Cheon Gang was a loyal hound.
His starvation was not the Ye Wang’s doing.
He had chosen not to eat.
And the reason was…….
“The grief of losing a master must be great.”
Hearing So Ah’s words, Cheon Gang lifted his head.
【Do you know, human……?】
Yes, she knew.
The man outside, enjoying himself at the banquet.
Everyone believed him to be Ye Wang Seo Baek.
But he was…….
“A demon masquerading as human.”
Merely a monster wearing the Ye Wang’s outward form.
Cheon Gang’s golden eyes wavered.
【How could you possibly……?】
Even the loyal retainers of the Ye Wang Estate had not seen through the deception.
They had only thought the Ye Wang had gone mad.
It never occurred to them that a demon might have taken root in the heart of the Estate.
Yet this woman…….
【You came into a demon’s lair knowing this?】
Not fleeing, but stepping willingly into the den.
Then So Ah nodded and pushed herself to her feet.
“I need to find your true master.”
【My master……?】
“Yes. I’m trying to find the real Ye Wang. Will you help me?”
Click.
So Ah smiled and drew a cell key from her sleeve.
【I won’t ask what you intend. Only—come back alive.】
Before she left, he had pressed it into her hand in silence.
* * *
“But, is it truly wise to send Jin Jae-in alone like this……!”
Butler Noh shifted his weight anxiously.
Lady-in-waiting Yeong Gyo was also worrying her lip.
Seo Heon said nothing.
Yet even his fingertips trembled with unease.
“The Prince must feel it as well?”
As they drew near Ye Wang Palace, Seo Heon sensed it.
This land was saturated with a thick demonic aura.
‘He was so adamant about refusing a visit to the Ye Wang Estate…….’
Ordinary people would not perceive it, but to one trained in Seon-gi as he was, the stench was acrid and unmistakable.
‘This is no ordinary demon.’
The creatures he had encountered on his return from the Imperial Capital were merely minor demons, unable even to speak.
But the demon that had nested in the Ye Wang Estate was of a different order.
An upper-tier demon, uncommonly seen.
“Do you know of the Blood-Drinking Demon, my lord?”
The Blood-Drinking Demon.
A creature that drank human blood and thereafter assumed that person’s form.
That very demon was now masquerading as the Ye Wang in this place.
‘I thought it a creature of legend, one that had vanished into history.’
Seo Heon pressed his lips together.
The saving grace was that the Blood-Drinking Demon did not kill the humans from whom it fed.
Once it ceased to drink their blood, it could no longer maintain their guise.
‘If he’s still posing as Ye Wang, then that means my brother is alive.’
It was good news, at least.
But.
[Those who have had their blood drunk by a Blood-Drinking Demon grow tainted by demonic aura over time, until madness consumes them.]
He couldn’t be certain that the Seo Baek he remembered was the same Seo Baek he would find.

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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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