The Survival Story Of A Fallen Lady - Chapter 47

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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 47
Early morning.
Seo Heon came to the Study Chamber early and took up his brush.
Yet his mind churned in disorder.
‘Fortunately, it was only a fleeting moment—Jin Mok Yeon’s frenzy didn’t seem to take hold too severely.’
But unwelcome memories kept surfacing unbidden, and he found them difficult to bear.
He loosened the collar of his robe against the tightness in his chest.
Taking slow, deliberate breaths, he steadied his ragged pulse.
Just as he began to recover some semblance of composure.
Another ripple disturbed the silence.
“Which is why I believe Your Highness’s face should not continue to be shrouded in such ominous rumors.”
So Ah’s voice echoed in his mind.
Her words had struck at the very heart of him.
He had deliberately allowed all the whispers to persist.
On the day he severed the neck of the one closest to him.
That sensation was still etched vividly into his hands.
“Heon, that is not your fault.”
Seo Heon recalled the words of the late king.
‘Is it truly so?’
If I had covered my face sooner.
If I had been more careful.
If I had been strong enough to sever that neck before the Demon King’s curse took hold.
Then perhaps I could have prevented that tragedy.
Countless counterfactuals.
Regret buried beneath the words ‘what if.’
A profound guilt weighed upon him.
The gossip that pointed fingers at him was infinitely lighter, more trivial, than the weight of his own culpability.
Perhaps he had even wished people would point at him more—
So that he might lighten the burden of his heart, if only by a fraction.
But then.
“Your Highness’s mask and curse have become an obstacle to the development of Mugwang Territory.”
The moment So Ah spoke those words.
Seo Heon came to his senses.
Held captive by guilt, he had been hiding behind that mask.
Shirking the responsibilities he bore as lord of Mugwang Territory.
So Ah’s clear, straightforward eyes had pointed directly at his evasion, condemning it with precision.
As things stood, Mugwang Territory could advance no further.
It would remain isolated as before—a border land, hemmed in by Yo Valley, going nowhere.
A great wind seemed to blow through his mind.
Then.
“Your Highness.”
From beyond the Study Chamber, a low, familiar voice called out.
Seo Heon straightened his disordered collar and lifted his head.
The door opened, and a man entered behind the old chamberlain.
Deeply bronze skin.
Long hair bundled roughly into a half-knot, and a mole beneath his eye.
It was Mu Jin, the commander leading the Seonwidae.
“I apologize for my tardiness.”
Mu Jin dropped to one knee.
Having guarded the northwestern border all winter, his return had been delayed by the collapse of Yeon Bing Bridge.
[Fortunate that you are unharmed.]
Mu Jin stared at those dark characters for a moment.
“But Your Highness—the collapse of Yeon Bing Bridge does not appear to have been caused by flooding alone.”
Seo Heon’s brush came to a halt.
“Of late, the aura emanating from Yo Valley has been most unseemly.”
Mu Jin’s voice grew grave.
Incursions by minor demons had grown markedly frequent, and their spillage beyond the barrier was increasing.
Seo Heon was aware of much of this already.
Demon attacks on the northwestern border had grown frequent enough to swell the ranks of displaced persons, and he had been receiving regular reports on the matter.
‘When I returned from the Imperial City as well…’
Minor demons had crossed the river.
Moreover, after the Demon War, Bi Hyeol Lang—who had never shown his face in Lyo’s mainland—was now openly playing the role of a feudal lord.
After slaying the Demon King, Yo Valley had remained quiet for a long time.
The demonic aura that had begun to stir recently was not something to ignore.
Seo Heon was silent for a while before picking up his brush.
[What is the realm of the Seonwidae?]
Faced with the terse question, Mu Jin fell silent.
There was nothing to say.
The subjugation of the Demon King.
In that great battle, more than half of Lyo’s Sword Specialists had been lost.
Masters of the sword art fell at the entrance to Yo Valley, and their absence was never truly filled in the years that followed.
Aside from Seo Heon, the highest realm in Lyo was Mu Jin’s Three Flower Lotus.
Beyond that, the line had broken.
【If only there had been a voice……】
Seo Heon swallowed the burning ache in his chest.
For how many years had he tried to transmit the Sword Path?
Yet despite the efforts of the Seonwidae members, their realm had remained at a standstill for years.
【My teachings must be insufficient.】
He had always longed for the edge that could be conveyed through sound.
Then, breaking the long silence, Mu Jin carefully opened his mouth.
“Your Highness, there is something I wish to ask.”
Seo Heon raised his eyes.
“I heard you’ve brought in an advisor.”
Unusually for Mu Jin, an edge had crept into his voice.
“I’ve heard rumors that a certain Jin advisor has been meddling in Mugwang Territory’s affairs of late.”
News that had filtered in from his post on the northwestern frontier.
A woman of southern origin who controlled a merchant company and extended her reach even into court matters, they said.
Seo Heon did not deny Mu Jin’s question.
At that, tension hardened Mu Jin’s brow.
“How far have you entrusted matters to this woman’s hands?”
She was not even from Mugwang Territory—a stranger from abroad.
Worse, she was said to be from Wi Wang Territory, which had poor relations with Mugwang.
“An advisor should remain in an advisor’s place, Your Highness.”
It was sincere counsel, unbound to any political faction.
* * *
The red sunset streamed through the window of the Archives.
‘Still nothing today.’
It had been quite some time since she’d been coming to the Archives in search of records on Double Soul, yet she had found nothing of note.
As she was leaving the Archives.
A dazzling white light flashed from the distant Training Grounds.
Like sunlight shattered between dust and earth—that brilliant radiance.
‘Sword Qi……’
Her steps halted of their own accord.
There, in the center of the Training Grounds, was Seo Heon.
Brilliant light poured down like a meteor shower, tracing the path of his blade.
Every movement was flawless.
His dark hair, restrained and precise, scattered on the wind, and his robes flowed along the clean lines of his upright form.
That figure was achingly beautiful.
The world called that man a monster.
But what she saw was someone so dazzling it took her breath away.
Sword Immortal.
So Ah recalled the old name by which he was once called.
‘That day, too—he was trying to confirm whether I’d seen his face……’
So Ah remembered how he had suddenly approached her, observing her reaction.
He must have been afraid.
Afraid that an unwanted thing might repeat itself.
So Ah held the image of Seo Heon, blade in hand, in her eyes.
Then, the Seonwidae warriors in the Training Grounds traced the same pattern as he did.
But it fell short.
The light at the blade’s edge was dim and uneven, wavering precariously.
On the back of the hand of a warrior whose skin gleamed bronze.
Three lotus petals bloomed and withered, bloomed and withered again.
‘The Three Flower Lotus,’ he thought.
White light unfurled three petals on the back of his hand, then faded.
When that alone did not suffice, Seo Heon took the warrior’s sword and corrected its trajectory.
Finding even that inadequate, he picked up a brush and wrote the Script in swift strokes.
[What you see is only the surface. Empty your mind and pour the entirety of the sword at your fingertips into yourself.]
The warrior nodded and grasped the sword again.
Yet his petals continued to tremble.
【Empty yourself.】
A low voice reached So Ah’s ear.
A voice that captured an instant far too precious to capture in writing.
【Do not oppose it. Make that force your own.】
Seo Heon was transmitting.
In a voice that reached no one else.
The fullness of the lotus that bloomed within his chest.
That sensation rising like wind from the very center of his heart, not from his sword.
Yet nothing issued from his lips but silence.
The warrior’s sword still wandered, finding no answer.
‘Empty your mind. Not the sword, but your fingertips….’
So Ah found her lips moving of their own accord.
In that perilous, fleeting instant.
If only she could seize that sensation in a single word….
‘What am I thinking? What am I doing?’
So Ah pressed her lips firmly shut.
She could not reveal the secret of hearing Seo Heon’s voice—not over something as small as a trembling petal.
So Ah deliberately averted her gaze and walked away.
* * *
A Garden overflowing with blossoms.
Clouds hung low in the sky as if rain were approaching.
Beneath them.
“…Your Highness.”
A woman wearing a linen head covering knelt on the ground.
Seo Gon held his teacup aloft, gazing down at her.
Her face was drawn, more so than when she had left.
“Remove the covering.”
“Your Highness.”
“I said remove it.”
At last, Jin Mok Yeon’s hand slowly lifted the covering away.
Beneath the white linen, hair hung in ragged, chopped lengths.
The black hair once brushed smooth and oiled to a lustrous shine now could not reach even to her nape.
The attendants who saw it held their breath.
Seo Gon was silent for a long moment.
Then.
“Ha.”
A low laugh echoed.
At that sound, Jin Mok Yeon’s eyes grew red.
“How can you laugh! I have returned in such a state…!”
A tear slipped from the corner of Jin Mok Yeon’s eye.
Seo Gon then set down his teacup and ran his finger gently along the shorn ends of her hair.
“Do not weep.”
His touch was infinitely tender.
“I shall see that you are properly repaid for every strand.”
“Is that truly so?”
“You are the favored daughter of the Jin Clan, my betrothed.”
A soft smile played at the corners of Seo Gon’s mouth.
“In cutting your hair, has not Mugwang drawn a blade across my own face?”
Jin Mok Yeon’s eyes widened.
Now she understood.
Seo Gon was not angry—he was pleased.
Seo Gon took her hand and helped her to her feet.
The gold ring on Jin Mok Yeon’s ring finger caught against his fingertips.
Seo Gon pulled her close, drawing her into his embrace.
“But Mok Yeon.”
Seo Gon spoke as he always did, his voice tender.
“Did you see the face of the fourth?”

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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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