The Survival Story Of A Fallen Lady - Chapter 30

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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 30
Seo Heon quietly lowered his bow amid the murmur of voices.
“Your Highness.”
He turned, and So Ah offered a shallow bow.
“I have you to thank.”
Seo Heon gazed at her bright smile.
At the slight nod, a lock of hair slipped from behind her ear.
Her hair, loosened from a day spent moving through the work site, caught the river wind and fell across her cheek.
Without thinking, Seo Heon reached out his hand.
Then he stopped.
His fingertips froze in empty air.
‘Why am I….’
Perhaps he’d simply been too exhausted of late.
To be moved by a single strand of hair.
His raised hand curled back into his sleeve.
【I have merely done my duty as one who leads the Royal Residence.】
He turned and walked away swiftly.
Following the line Seo Heon had sent across, the bridge began to extend rapidly.
“We need only finish the remaining footboards.”
The workers wiped their sweat as they spoke.
The next day, the Suspension Bridge stood revealed in its completed form.
‘Fortunately, it’s finished faster than I expected.’
I’d thought it would take the full five days.
It was thanks to everyone’s efforts, particularly Woo Je’s.
Above all, Seo Heon’s assistance had been invaluable.
Without him, it would have taken days just to pull the lines across to the other side.
But if there remained any problem…….
“When the wind blows, it sways; when someone climbs it, it’ll snap.”
There lingered a fundamental doubt.
“You expect us to trust a bridge built by a woman who’s never constructed so much as a doghouse and a commoner?”
Chamberlain Dan Mok Heum held forth as though the words were for all to hear.
The other chamberlains felt the same.
“That thing is certain to kill someone, Your Highness!”
At this, people exchanged wary glances, and unease rippled through the crowd.
Since the Suspension Bridge’s construction began, Dan Mok Heum had submitted several memorials to Seo Heon.
Though Seo Heon had prevented them from gaining traction and the bridge was built without hindrance, it was now clear no one would be willing to cross.
“Then perhaps if I were to demonstrate its safety?”
“How?”
How, he asks — well, the method is simple enough.
So Ah stepped onto the bridge.
“Jin Jae-in!”
Woo Je cried out in surprise.
Certainly, I’m confident in its safety.
I’ve calculated everything with precision and added multiple redundant safety mechanisms.
But theory and practice are not the same.
Woo Je fidgeted anxiously with his fingers like a man awaiting a crucial test.
So Ah’s figure as she walked the bridge looked precarious, as though treading through empty air.
With each step, the bridge swayed delicately.
When wind rose from the Gorge, the sight was so unstable that even onlookers felt dizzy.
Then the bridge lurched in a rhythm different from So Ah’s footfalls.
So Ah turned to look back.
Seo Heon had stepped onto the Suspension Bridge beside her.
“Your Highness……?”
【Walk with me. You’re too light to serve as proof.】
He crossed the Suspension Bridge without hesitation.
So Ah blinked once, then smiled and resumed her steps.
Seo Heon followed behind her.
Beneath their feet was nothing but empty space.
A thousand-fathom chasm crossed only by rope.
A long gust of wind swept through, scattering the hair of the woman walking ahead.
With each step So Ah took, the sensation of fine trembling rippled through Seo Heon’s fingertips.
The vibration traveled from his feet up through his entire body, leaving him trembling imperceptibly.
Seo Heon matched his pace to hers.
Just then, a gust of wind swept down the gorge.
As the bridge swayed in the wind, Seo Heon quickly reached out and caught hold of So Ah.
So Ah turned to look at him, still gripping his arm, and broke into laughter.
“Are you frightened?”
At her laughter, Seo Heon furrowed his brow.
‘Frightened, indeed.’
It was only that she looked perilously unsteady.
“Shall I hold your hand?”
So Ah asked this in a teasing tone.
Seo Heon’s lips pressed firmly shut.
He wasn’t frightened.
But……
He nodded.
There was something about her standing on the rope that seemed so fragile.
He couldn’t find peace of mind unless he held on.
Each time the bridge swayed, his heart swayed with it as he watched her.
“There is nothing to fear. Woo Je fretted so much over safety that even armored soldiers could climb it in file without risk.”
So Ah spoke as if to reassure him, unaware of what truly lay behind his concern.
‘It’s not fear, as it happens.’
Seo Heon muttered dryly to himself.
Not that she would hear him anyway.
Reaching the middle of the long bridge, So Ah came to a stop.
“This should be far enough, don’t you think?”
She waved her hand at the people standing beyond the bridge as if to prove her point.
Her long robes fluttered behind her in the wind with the gesture.
The crowd watching erupted in murmurs.
“She’s perfectly fine, isn’t she……?”
“Two people on it and it doesn’t even sway.”
Woo Je also breathed easy and smiled at last.
“The heavier the load on the rope, the more taut and secure it becomes.”
He explained the bridge’s tension to convince the onlookers.
As the mood shifted, Dan Mok Heum crossed his arms with a stubborn, displeased expression.
“Your Highness, Master Jin! Come back now!”
Woo Je waved toward the two of them.
“Your Highness.”
So Ah also met Seo Heon’s eyes and nodded.
Then.
Kree-owwk!
The cry of a hawk tore through the sky.
So Ah looked up.
‘So Ah, danger! The water is coming down!’
Un Jo’s piercing call screamed down at them.
At the same moment.
Rumble-!!
A deafening sound rolled up from far upstream.
Every head turned toward the upper gorge.
An ominous tremor.
The Secondary Thaw.
“Flood! Everyone back-!”
Before the words were even finished.
A searing torrent of muddy water came pouring down the gorge.
“Your Highness!”
“Master Jin!”
No Chong Gwan and Woo Je cried out, their faces draining of color.
It was already far too late to turn back.
Dan Mok Heum, watching, squeezed his eyes shut.
‘Again, again someone dies……!’
Roooaaarrr!
In the blink of an eye, the raging current poured into the gorge.
Like a dragon, the fierce torrent writhed and twisted, its roar shaking heaven and earth.
A thick mist of spray shot skyward.
“Your Majesty!”
The officials screamed.
The suspension bridge vanished beneath the spray.
“God… have mercy……”
No Chong Gwan crumpled where he stood.
Everyone fell silent before the spectacle.
Woo Je’s mind went white, his body frozen as ice.
A prince of the realm, swept away like this.
A man dying in such a manner.
“Didn’t I tell you the bridge wouldn’t hold!”
Dan Mok Heum roared as if he’d foreseen it all.
He’d seen it coming from the moment they’d insisted on rushing the construction.
A disaster born of folly—Dan Mok Heum’s fists trembled with rage.
Then.
“There… there!”
Beyond the churning current, a pale form emerged from the spray.
“Wait… Your Majesty!”
“Jin Jae In!”
Two figures stood on the bridge, rocking in the wind and water.
“The… the bridge is still standing?!”
“It wasn’t swept away?”
Even Dan Mok Heum, Minister of Works, found himself speechless.
The raging current had not devoured the bridge.
It had only rushed beneath it.
With no foundation pillars fixed to the riverbed, there was nothing for the waters to tear away.
‘Could that woman have been right all along……?’
Meanwhile, So Ah lifted her head, wiping away the water droplets that soaked her cheeks with the back of her hand.
【Are you all right?】
Seo Heon held her shoulders firmly, bracing against the violent surge.
The bridge swayed dramatically beneath the wind and vibration driven by the fierce current.
“I am unharmed.”
As the heavy spray began to subside, So Ah quickly stepped back.
【I’m relieved… though our troubles may not be over yet.】
Seo Heon turned his head sharply at the sight of her retreating.
So Ah was drenched, her body glistening with water.
Black strands of hair clung to her wet cheeks.
Her white robes, clinging to her form, revealed the silhouette of her undergarments and skin beneath.
“Ah……!”line>
So Ah glanced down at herself and hastily drew her arms across her front.

At that moment, a black cloak draped over her shoulders.
【We should return at once.】
Seo Heon grasped her hand and quickly led her across the suspension bridge.
The moment their feet touched solid ground, those who’d been waiting rushed forward.
“Your Majesty! Are you injured?”
“I thought my heart would stop……!”
Amid the chaos, So Ah’s gaze fixed on one figure.
Through her wet hair, her dark, unwavering eyes locked upon the Minister of Works.
Dan Mok Heum stared back at her with fierce intensity, then.
“I was wrong.”
Thud.
He knelt.
Woo Je’s eyes went wide.
Those around them stirred with shock.
The Minister of Works kneeling before a mere attendant?
The same man who had treated Jin Jae In with contempt, as though she were his enemy?
Then Dan Mok Heum slowly raised his left hand.
A hand with one ring finger bluntly severed.
Only then did So Ah realize he had always kept his hands hidden beneath his sleeves.
“When I was young, building a bridge—a chain snapped and whipped away.”
Dan Mok Heum’s voice dropped low.
“I was fortunate it cost me only a finger.”
Silence fell for a moment.
“Five men died that day.”
The room grew still at his words.
“It was shoddy construction, a framework that couldn’t bear the strain we forced upon it. Since then, I’ve carried that day with me my entire life.”
That was why he feared it.
Sending a person across ropes strung between gorge walls.
Who else might perish for the whim of a woman of the inner chambers.
That was why he had tried to stop her.
“But… I was mistaken.”
Dan Mok Heum’s gaze turned to the Suspension Bridge that spanned the narrow gorge above.
The bridge that remained whole and unbending even after the raging current had swept past it.
He had always believed that to make a bridge that would not collapse, one must build it thicker, more solid.
But this bridge had abandoned the very idea of being broken.
A solution he could never have conceived.
A hand with a blunt ring finger touched the ground.
“Please forgive my ignorance.”
Dan Mok Heum bowed deeply.

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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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