The Survival Story Of A Fallen Lady - Chapter 27

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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 Chronicles – Episode 27
The spilled wine and bloodstains on the floor were wiped away.
The crimson curtains were drawn back, and spring light poured into the Throne Hall, which had long been shrouded in shadow.
“So all of that was the work of a demon?”
“That’s what I’ve been saying! How could such a gentle man change overnight?”
The common people, long crushed under tyranny, lifted their heads at last.
The loyal retainers who had waited in the Bottomless Prison for death now stood in their official robes, shoulder to shoulder.
And before the throne.
A single man, dressed with meticulous care, occupied the seat.
His gaunt frame could not be hidden, yet he bore willingly the weight of a sovereign’s duty.
It was Seo Baek, ruler of Yewang Province.
“Ruler of Mugwang.”
He who sat upon the throne turned his gaze toward Seo Heon.
“Without you, I and all of Yewang Province would have been lost.”
A gentle smile played at the corners of Seo Baek’s mouth.
And then.
“I, Seo Baek of Yewang Province, express my deepest gratitude to you, Ruler of Mugwang.”
He bowed deeply toward Seo Heon.
At that, countless figures gathered in the Throne Hall bowed toward Seo Heon as well.
A shadow that had long hung over Seo Heon’s face trembled.
It was bewilderment.
It was strange.
A cursed monster.
A mute prince.
Since bearing these epithets, had there ever been a place that treated him so?
It felt uncomfortable, as though he wore clothes that did not fit him.
So all he could do was follow their lead and bow his head in turn.
Then Seo Baek’s gaze shifted to the side.
“And Jin Jaein.”
At Seo Baek’s call, every official’s attention snapped toward one direction at once.
A woman standing with perfect composure behind Seo Heon.
“I owe you a great debt as well.”
Seo Baek smiled as he looked at her.
“I will grant you one thing that you desire. Speak freely.”
Though he had cautioned Seo Heon to beware of Jin Jaein, he was not a man to forget gratitude.
At that, the corners of Woo Hui’s lips rose gently.
And as though she had been waiting, she parted her lips to speak.
“I ask that you exempt Mugwang Province and Yewang Province from the Transit Tax for the next five years.”
The Throne Hall stirred.
“An exemption from taxes…!”
It was a wish no one expected to hear from the lips of a mere concubine.
But Woo Hui continued.
“In return, Mugwang Province shall also spend the next five years assisting Yewang Province in repairing its damaged roads and supplying Byeokroe Salt at the lowest possible price.”
The hall stirred once more.
“Is she proposing to conduct business here and now?”
The officials muttered among themselves, dismissing her as the tongue of a common merchant.
Then Woo Hui opened her lips, surveying those assembled.
“This is not commerce—it is the welfare of the people we speak of.”
The nobility disdains trade.
Yet the foundation that moves the people’s livelihood rests upon coin.
“I have heard that Yewang Province also suffers greatly from unstable salt supplies.”
“Well, that is…”
No one ventured to contradict her.
Yewang Province, being inland, had long faced a shortage of salt.
Seo Heon observed the scene in silence.
Woo Hui’s voice, standing before so many high officials, did not waver.
Rather, it carried an ease as though she held them all in the palm of her hand.
And her small lips parted with words he himself could not speak.
Because the demon’s tyranny has left much of Yewang Province in ruin…
“Because the demon’s tyranny has left many places in Yewang Province requiring reconstruction, I believe.”
Yes, exactly like this.
A year of Bixuehlang’s tyranny.
In that time, mountains and fields burned, villages emptied, and roads crumbled.
Because of it, Yewang Province—once prosperous thanks to its rich lands—had lost its former standing.
And Wiyang Province was slowly devouring that space.
【But if Mugwang Province and Yewang Province were to thrive together…】
“If Mugwang Province and Yewang Province were to thrive together, wouldn’t that be all the more desirable?”
Seo Heon turned to look at Jin Jaein, who had just spoken words so strikingly aligned with his own thoughts.
As the words he’d been unable to voice poured from her lips, it felt as though a breath he’d been holding finally escaped him.
At that moment, Seo Baek, who had been listening quietly, rose slowly from the throne.
“Jin Jaein.”
“Yes, Your Majesty.”
“I sought merely to repay a debt to you.”
Seo Baek’s eyes deepened.
“Yet you wish to extract not a debt repaid, but a promise.”
His rebuke settled a hush over the hall.
But Jin Jaein’s gaze remained unchanged.
“Repaying a debt ends in a single act, but a promise is the path to keeping both provinces alive.”
Seo Baek smiled faintly.
It was an answer ill-suited to a woman named Jaein.
‘I suspected as much—she is no woman to desire jewels or silk.’
She was indeed a perilous woman.
But.
“Very well.”
Yewang Province needed someone with such dangerous thoughts.
“Yewang Province will permit mutual prosperity with Mugwang Province.”
Seo Baek nodded readily.
* * *
As carts rolled into the Market Square of Yewang Province in procession, crowds gathered.
“Is that the Byeokroe Salt, the one we’ve heard about?”
“That’s right! The precious rosy salt.”
When the merchant cracked open a sack of salt, pink crystals glimmered like jewels.
“How much per measure?”
“Three coins.”
“Three coins?!”
Everyone’s mouths fell open.
Bixuehlang’s tyranny and Wiyang Province’s salt blockade.
Because of them, salt had lately commanded prices equal to silk.
Yet here one could buy a measure of salt for the price of a few dumplings.
“One measure—no, three measures for me!”
People rushed forward, thrusting coins and sacks at the merchants.
And so days passed.
As salt became available, the Market Square’s countenance transformed.
“Dear, let’s buy some salted fish!”
“After so long, shall we pile fresh pickles high on our thin noodles?”
Materials that had been rotting and discarded began circulating in the market once more.
Fewer people suffered from spoiled food, and farmers and fishermen who had fled began trickling home one by one.
“Your Majesty, in mere days the Market Square has come alive.”
“At last, doesn’t it smell like a place where people actually live?”
The Yewang Province officials’ expressions brightened along with it.
The wounds trampled by the demon were healing far faster than expected.
Seo Baek, witnessing all these changes, turned his gaze northward.
‘I promised to grant her one thing she desired.’
It had been a proposal to repay a kindness.
Yet instead, it seemed the debt owed to the north only grew.
‘I wonder if my brother returned safely.’
Seo Baek could only hope that the modest gift he’d sent on the carts would prove of use.
* * *
Before the gates of Hanju, on a day when the cold had broken.
“Why did you have us stand outside like this?”
The court physicians waiting for Mugwang’s return grew restless, murmuring with anxiety.
“There’s only one reason to have physicians standing by in advance. There must be a serious casualty!”
Yewang’s violent temperament was already the subject of rumor.
Something grave must have happened in Yewang Province.
Those who sensed misfortune felt their faces darken.
Then.
“They’re coming!”
Woo Je, who had been watching the horizon from atop the wall, spotted the procession and hurried down.
The first thing everyone who had come to greet them examined was the flag hanging on the procession.
“Thankfully, no Severed Head Flag is displayed!”
“I was worried someone’s head might have come back dangling, but it seems that’s not the case.”
Ui Seop and the physicians exhaled in relief.
As Seo Heon reached the city gates, everyone bowed their heads.
“Welcome, my lord.”
They observed the carts that followed behind, laden and full, and nodded inwardly to themselves.
‘Just as I thought. In the end, he couldn’t sell a single measure of salt.’
The carts had left heavily laden with salt, yet the amount appeared not to have diminished at all.
Yet no one felt disappointed.
No one had truly expected a transaction with Yewang Province to succeed.
They had simply pinned their hopes on a gossamer thread of possibility.
As the mood grew heavy, Woo Je spoke up in a deliberately bright voice.
“It’s all right. Surely Yewang Province isn’t the only place to sell salt? His Imperial Majesty himself praised Byeokroe Salt as the finest, didn’t he?”
“Though Tiansheng may attempt to obstruct us, there should be a way to sell in Wiyang Province as well.”
The ministers offered their own words of consolation.
Then the old chief steward standing at the back gave a deliberate cough.
And then.
Snap—!
He pointedly pulled away the cloth covering the cart.
“This… this is…!”
A dense herbal aroma spread through the air.
The physicians’ jaws dropped.
Woo Je too recognized the dried herbs piled high in the cart.
“Is all of this… Sinmaekcho…?”
The herb desperately needed to cure his sister Woo Hui’s ailment.
The very herb that could scarcely be obtained even through Tiansheng’s connections—yet here the cart was overflowing with it!
The astonished physicians quickly examined the carts behind.
“Sinmaekcho, of course, and Jaanran, Sasaeng Root, and Geum Chang Medicine too…!”
“My lord, with this much, the wounded soldiers can take up their swords again within a month!”
“And we were just running short of herbs to send to the Northwest Border!”
The physicians spoke excitedly, one after another.
Among them, Jin Jaein met Woo Je’s eyes and smiled.
“I promised you, didn’t I? That I’d find a way to purchase herbs directly. That’s why I said I needed your talent.”
The proposal she had made when she brought him from the gambling den.
Woo Je had thought it mere fantasy.
Even if possible, he believed it would take years.
Yet to see it resolved so swiftly…
“So here’s the thing—I need you to manage the records for these herbs.”
Jin Jaein spoke to him warmly.
There was a place for him here.
Woo Je nodded, his eyes growing hot.

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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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