The Survival Story Of A Fallen Lady - Chapter 46

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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 46
A small child dragged to an unfamiliar place.
Though he might have cowered, the boy’s eyes shone with light.
“Your sword is so wonderful! May I touch it?”
That bright, ringing laughter—Go Sak remembered it.
【He was a radiant child. His smile had the power to lighten the hearts of all who beheld it.】
Laughter that was rare in Muk Wang-bu rippled through the halls.
Yet those who watched him could not laugh along.
“The Imperial Palace sent him to check the Fourth Prince’s power.”
“A boy who wields Seon-gi at such a tender age? The Empress will hardly view him kindly.”
His talent burned too brightly, too soon.
And the times were far too cruel.
【Don’t you remember those days?】
In the wake of the Yo-ran.
When the empire convulsed in chaos.
Demons surged past Yo-gok and into the Imperial Capital itself, and countless fell or were wounded.
Even afterward, monsters rampaged across the realm.
So-a remembered those days as well.
She too had lost her mother to the Yo-ran.
【That child took up the sword every single day.】
Because he knew how to wield the Seon-geom, the boy was sent to the battlefield.
In the hands of a nine-year-old, the blade was as long as his own frame.
“My youngest is that age. He complains that even a wooden sword is too heavy for him…….”
“Is it right to send a prince who hasn’t even lost his milk teeth to war?”
“What choice do we have? It is the Emperor’s command.”
The child grew up amid the stench of blood.
The innocent face that had laughed so freely became smeared with crimson.
“Your hands are torn to shreds.”
“It doesn’t hurt much at all.”
The boy tucked his hands behind his back and offered a sheepish smile.
His tender skin blistered and split again and again from gripping the blade.
“But Father, today I was faster than my brothers. Did you see?”
He did not cry.
As though weeping were forbidden.
As though he were desperate to conceal it all behind innocent words and smiles.
The Seon-wang could not rejoice to see him.
“Forgive me. I have raised you as a sword, not as a son.”
At an age when a scraped knee draws tears, Seo Heon bore countless scars and endured.
Before demons that sent even grown men trembling with dread, he had to stand on two small feet and hold his ground.
Yet the boy only grew brighter with his smile.
“It’s all right, Father. If I become strong, I can protect the people.”
And then the child took up his blade again.
The boy who should have been sheltered instead comforted the adults and sought to protect them all.
Unaware that his small hands trembled with barely suppressed tears.
And then.
【By the age of twelve, he had reached the Sa-hwa-ryeon level.】
The stages of Seon-gi ascend to five.
They are measured by the number of lotus petals that bloom upon the back of one’s hand.
Five petals signify the highest stage, O-hwa-ryeon.
Most who wielded the Seon-geom remained at the Il-hwa-ryeon or I-hwa-ryeon stages, with only one or two petals blooming.
“Sa-hwa-ryeon at twelve years old—what fortune from heaven!”
“Even the King, who has reached O-hwa-ryeon, did not bloom so swiftly.”
“A Sword Immortal has been born to our realm……!”
The people cheered.
All placed tremendous hope upon the young Sword Immortal.
【But the demons knew it too.】
Before the young Sword Immortal could grow into an even greater threat, the demons sought to devour him.
【Yet without question, that child was a true prodigy.】
Not a single demon ever managed to claim his life.
Seo Heon grew ever stronger amidst the tempest of blood, and the aftermath of the Yo-ran was gradually brought to heel.
And at the end of it all.
【It was time to settle accounts with Yo-ma.】
Yo-ma—king of the demons who had led the Yo-ran.
The Sword King had sought to cut him down completely, to uproot the very source of the demon plague.
Seo Heon was fourteen years old then.
【The fate of the realm hung in the balance. Every soul who could wield Seon-gi gathered at Yo-gok.】
The Sword King led the main force, while Seo Heon was given a contingent of the Seon-wi Battalion to seal off the entrance to Yo-gok.
“Did it succeed?”
【Half-measures, at best.】
Go Sak’s voice grew quieter.
【We repelled Yo-ma.】
But the cost was steep.
Many who wielded the Seon-geom fell.
And then.
【Yo-ma laid a curse upon that boy.】
“What manner of curse…?”
【The details, I confess, elude me. But I know well the fate of those who met that curse face to face.】
Seo Heon returned to his unit bearing the curse, having confronted Yo-ma.
The soldiers of his battalion who led him came to meet him, and…….
【They looked upon his face.】
Even Go Sak could not say what transpired afterward.
But when Go Sak arrived with the Sword King at Seo Heon’s battalion…….
【Seo Heon stood alone. In the middle of Shisan Hyeol-hae.】
The boy stood amid death itself, drenched in blood, solitary.
His face covered with both hands.
Unable to utter a sound, screaming silently.
“What in the name of—what happened here…….”
【Only one witness remained. A young stable hand who had tended to us.】
The stable hand crouched trembling in a corner, drained pale with terror.
And he muttered like a man whose soul had fled his body.
“It was madness…….”
It began with those who received the crown prince Seo Heon and stood near him.
The people beside him suddenly drew their blades and rushed at him.
They thrashed about like madmen, and some tried to stop them.
【They could not even speak sense, he said.】
The frenzy spread.
More fell into delirium, and more had to step forward to contain them.
【The longer someone gazed upon Seo Heon up close, the deeper the madness took root.】
Those of the Seon-wi Battalion who stood closest to him, loyal soldiers who trusted him—they became his enemies.
【In the end, that boy had no choice but to cut down his own subordinates and comrades with his own hands.】
Mercilessly.
He could neither cry out for them to stop nor plead with them to regain their senses.
Robbed of his voice by the curse, the fourteen-year-old boy was forced to cut down his own people in silence.
So-a suddenly recalled the image of the man who had gripped her throat.
Now she began to understand what that silence had been—the anguish of something that could not break free, that he could not contain.
【After that, the boy had to wear a mask.】
Go Sak said it flatly.
【People spread rumors that the face hidden beneath that mask was hideous…… but the boy paid them no mind.】
Seo Heon had allowed all manner of gossip and scorn to persist unchecked.
The reason being…….
【It was easier to be called ugly than to bear the truth.】
He had abandoned himself, letting the world name him a monster.
Her fist clenched beneath her sleeve.
【Do not come near.】
That trembling form, like a frightened beast.
When he ventured out, the way he veiled himself in layers—mask and hood pulled low—concealing every inch.
Now she understood all of it.
Yet one question lingered.
‘I looked upon his face and felt nothing amiss.’
Jin Mok-yeon, too, had not rushed forward to strike him down.
“Does everyone who sees his face fall into such madness?”
【No.】
Go Sak shook his head.
【It’s not the same each time.】
Even after he’d taken to wearing the mask, there were those who had glimpsed his bare face by chance.
One of them.
【There was a court lady who attended Seo Heon.】
While serving him, she had seen Seo Heon’s unmasked face.
But unlike the men who’d drawn their swords and rushed at him, that court lady was different.
【She fell in love with him.】
“In love……?”
【It was more like an obsession so fierce it bordered on terror.】
She clung to Seo Heon with the desperation of someone willing to stake her own life to possess him.
She would visit his quarters in the dead of night, steal his belongings, and resort to every trick she could imagine to seduce him.
In the end, that court lady was consumed by her own madness.
【Perhaps the curse that clings to him amplifies a person’s deepest desire.】
For those on the battlefield, it awakens the urge to draw steel.
For those harboring affection, it becomes obsession.
And at that thought, So-a found herself picturing Seo Heon’s face.
‘Desire…….’
Whether bloodlust or carnal hunger.
She had never felt any such impulse toward him.
‘They said the madness deepens the longer one looks. I only glimpsed him for a moment, so perhaps I’m safe?’
It would be a mercy, if that were true.
‘But what of Jin Mok-yeon?’
A chill wind swept through So-a’s chest.

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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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