The Survival Story Of A Fallen Lady - Chapter 49

—————
This chapter was translated by Lunox Novels. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
—————

The Fall of a Noblewoman’s Survival – Episode 49
Mu-jin’s jaw tightened at So-ah’s response.
“I was discourteous before.”
“But there was reason for suspicion.”
Mu-jin’s eyes wavered for a moment.
Then a chill swept across the backs of both of them.
‘Surely the demon isn’t still—!’
In the instant a sharp force descended upon them without sound or warning,
a clear, crystalline wind wrapped around the two and swept past.
When So-ah spun around in alarm, a handful of dust was scattering behind her back.
And beyond that dust,
a long shadow loomed, veiled by a mask.
* * *
After the signal drum sounded, Seo-hun seized his sword and ran.
His was the position to lead the forces from the front.
Yet even in this urgent moment, he could not issue commands with his voice.
All he could do was show written orders inscribed as his feet carried him from place to place.
Striking the war drum, ringing the bell, sending messengers so his commands would spread—this was the best he could manage.
【Damn it. If only I had a voice.】
If he could shout orders to the soldiers, deploy them swiftly—
His chest tightened again.
‘Why have demons breached Muk-wang Fortress?’
Never before had demons swarmed all the way to the fortress gates.
More troubling still, demons ordinarily knew nothing of cooperation; to see them advancing in such organized numbers was rare.
‘At least they’re lesser demons.’
He steadied his breathing and swung his blade.
In the same moment, a bloom of lotus flowers unfolded across his vision, sweeping away every demon in sight.
“Your Highness!”
[Check the wounded, and search thoroughly for any demons lurking in hiding.]
“Yes!”
After relaying the order, he hurried toward the Northern Training Ground.
The one place the Seonwidae had not yet reached.
There he found two people surrounded by demons.
And in the moment he raised his sword again,
—a sharp burst of light—
from the tips of Mu-jin’s fingers, pure white radiance bloomed forth.
Spiritual Energy unlike anything before.
Far clearer, far more lucid than before.
‘How is this possible—!’
Seo-hun had spent years trying to transmit his Spiritual Energy to Mu-jin.
Correcting the arc of his blade.
Transcribing his Core Method and Incantations.
Even flowing his own Spiritual Energy to aid Mu-jin’s Qi Circulation.
Yet still the barrier—thin as a single sheet of paper—remained unbroken.
And now, as though those long winters meant nothing, a single petal had bloomed so simply.
And there,
“From the hand to the sword’s tip once more.”
before that Awakening, stood So-ah.
‘How did she know the Incantation I meant to teach him—’
Beneath his mask, a strange question took shape.
Then, from a place unseen, a demon that had crept in seized its opportunity.
‘Fool—’
He cut the demon down in a single stroke.
The demon that had lunged at So-ah and Mu-jin became nothing but scattered dust.
Recognizing him, Mu-jin quickly knelt.
“Your Highness!”
Seo-hun approached the two of them.
He stopped before So-ah and looked down at her in silence.
Questions burned in his throat, pressing to overflow.
But then—
“Your Highness.”
Before So-ah could even ask what she wanted to know, Seo-hun’s brow furrowed.
Something was wrong.
【Jin Jae-in.】
Her shoulders, which had always been so straight, trembled faintly.
The smile that had graced her face drained away, leaving her deathly pale.
As she lifted her head, her body swayed.
“……!”
Seo-hun released the sword from his grip as though hurling it aside and thrust out his arms to catch her roughly as she collapsed.
She tumbled into his embrace—a weight so slight it seemed to pour into him.
Her thin shoulders trembled in his hands as if they might shatter.
In that moment, heat and dampness touched the tips of his fingers.
The instant his gaze dropped.
Blood was spreading across her shoulder.
* * *
“What—what in the world has happened!”
No Chong-gwan hurried after Seo-hun, who had returned carrying So-ah.
【Call for the physician at once!】
Cursed be it.
His voice still would not come.
“Fetch the physician!”
It was Mu-jin, following close behind, who spoke.
No Chong-gwan hurried away to summon the physician.
Seo-hun laid So-ah upon the bed and examined her wound.
A deep gash, the flesh beneath laid bare.
Blood had soaked into his bedding.
‘Demonic energy had seeped in.’
The demonic toxin spread like poison, gnawing at So-ah’s body.
“This is my failure.”
Mu-jin bowed his head as though he were a condemned man.
When they had been surrounded by demons, he had failed to protect her in time.
Seo-hun said nothing.
Mu-jin had held the Northern wall alone.
It would have been just to call it a miracle that the damage extended no further.
Yet Seo-hun found not the slightest inclination to offer him words of encouragement.
Instead, he waved his hand, dismissing him.
“Your Highness, I should tend to Jin Jae-in’s wounds myself…….”
Mu-jin wished to bear direct responsibility for the one he had failed to protect.
But the moment their eyes met, he could only fall silent.
“Check that no demons remain, and assess the full extent of the damage.”
Mu-jin quietly withdrew.
* * *
“So-ah, run—!”
A torn scream pierced her ears.
Her mother’s face, always so gentle, was wet with tears.
She reached out her small hands.
She wanted to seize even the hem of her mother’s sleeve, smudged with ash and dust.
But large hands seized her mother instead.
And blood, bright red, flooded her vision.
“Mother!”
The world spun.
Roofing burning crimson.
Acrid smoke choking her nostrils.
In the dizziness, her sight grew dim.
Then a pure white light enfolded her.
“It’s all right.”
A warm embrace.
A gentle voice.
She could feel it even as her vision faded.
“Your Highness—!”
Someone’s cry jolted her awake.
So-ah pried open her heavy eyelids.
‘Why that dream of all things…….’
Her head still throbbed with heat and vertigo.
Was it the demons?
She had not dreamed in so long, yet now the memories came flooding back.
The day she first met Seo-gon.
Those childhood moments when she had first opened her heart to him.
When she woke again after losing her mother, Seo-gon was there, keeping vigil at her side.
He held her close, cradling her loneliness.
How he had come with the Seonwidae members to hold back the demons.
Once a memory she treasured, but now it left only bitterness in her throat.
So-ah began to rise, then paused, opening her eyes to slits.
Above her on the bed, thick and downy Bedding draped over her body.
Black silk, immaculate and luminous, without a single faded spot.
Moonlight drew thin lines across the high, shadowed ceiling.
An unfamiliar place.
No.
She had been here once before.
Then it had reeked of wine and debauchery instead of ink and the scent of dark wood…….
The inner chamber of Muk-wang, where in her past life she had faced death.
Hyun-an-jae.
‘Why am I…….’
The searing heat radiating from her shoulder brought understanding a heartbeat too late.
‘Ah, right. The demon clawed me.’
Her shoulder throbbed as though it might tear apart.
It was then.
From the darkness came a low, raspy voice.
【You’re awake.】
So-ah turned her head toward the sound.
A figure sat in a chair, silhouetted against the moonlight.
The edge of a mask caught the lunar glow in a thin gleam.
“Your Highness.”
The mask turned slowly toward her.
So-ah started to sit up straight, then hesitated.
It was not merely the pain climbing across her shoulder that stopped her.
Her gaze drifted, unbidden, to a single spot on the floor.
The cold stone beneath the bed.
And on the very mattress where she now lay…….
A phantom sensation crawled up her throat, her face flushing with heat.
From the dream, unwelcome memories came rushing in succession.
Her stomach churned.
An urgent need to flee this place seized her.
“Forgive my intrusion. I should take my leave…….”
As she hurried to rise.
The fever made the world spin before her eyes.
A large hand caught hold of her.
At the grip of that firm hand steadying her, she was seized by a flash—Seo-gon’s hand holding her down, pouring poison into her mouth.
So-ah flinched instinctively.
【……Do you fear me?】
His voice, low and weighted.
So-ah nearly shook her head without thinking.
But that would have been a truth she could not speak.
“……It was only the darkness that startled me.”
She wrapped her shoulders and laughed, embarrassed.
Then Seo-hun carefully released her and lit the oil lamp.
Warm firelight bloomed across the chamber.
“Thank you. But this is Your Highness’s private chamber…….”
As So-ah continued speaking, Seo-hun picked up his brush.
[The wound is infected with demonic toxin.]
The dark characters wavered in the lamplight.
The wound, though staunched, still burned with pain and heat.
[The physician’s medicine won’t suffice—I’ll have to drive it out with Spiritual Energy.]
In ordinary circumstances, So-ah would have questioned Seo-hun’s words.
After all, she wasn’t the only one capable of wielding Spiritual Energy.
She could have asked Mu-jin or any of the other Seonwidae members to do it.
But the fever had left her thoughts muddled, and she lacked the clarity to raise such trifling objections.
[Demonic Energy and Spiritual Energy are antithetical—the pain will be severe.]
Concern colored Seo-hun’s voice.
She had already witnessed it at Ye-wang Manor.
How much agony Seo-baek had endured when Spiritual Energy touched him.
Compared to Seo-baek, So-ah’s wound was trivial, a scratch.
“Is it worse than death?”
So-ah smiled, remembering the time she had lain dying in this very place.
At that, Seo-hun’s mouth tightened.
【How utterly fearless. Better fortitude than most generals.】
At his murmur, So-ah felt laughter threatening to escape and pressed her lips firm.
He picked up the brush again, as though her answer still didn’t sit right with him.
[If it hurts, you must tell me.]
He held the characters he’d written up to her face, making sure she saw them clearly.
“Yes, Your Highness.”
As So-ah nodded again, Seo-hun furrowed his brow and drew an underline beneath the word “must”.

—————
This chapter was translated by Lunox Novels. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
—————