The Survival Story Of A Fallen Lady - Chapter 51

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

The Survival of a Fallen Noble’s Daughter — Episode 51
Seo Heon could not hide his bewilderment.
【Surely she hasn’t gotten the wrong idea…!】
He straightened his disheveled collar.
His black sleeve was wrinkled beyond measure.
It was only that So Ah had been groaning as though caught in nightmares all night and sweating through the fever, so he’d merely wanted to stay by her side.
But then So Ah had seized his sleeve in a tight grip and would not let go.
He could have forced her hand away if he’d truly tried.
But he could not bring himself to pry away fingers so pale and trembling.
With his sleeve held fast, his clothes had gradually come undone.
Unable to escape the situation, he’d spent the night by her side, and just as he was reaching out with his free arm to brush away the sweat from Jin Jae-in’s hair—
the old steward had walked in.
Clearly, he’d drawn quite the wrong conclusion.
【But I was simply wiping away her sweat, wasn’t I…!】
Of course, because his one sleeve had been held fast, he’d had to lean in rather close to Jin Jae-in to reach her with his other arm—
but the old steward’s gaze, colored by suspicion, apparently had seen nothing of such circumstances.
【…I do hope he doesn’t spread word of this.】
Seo Heon grew deeply anxious.
The old steward’s tongue was usually heavy, but it had a tendency to become loose in the most unfortunate places.
* * *
“Is that true!”
Baek Ui Seop bolted upright so suddenly that the abacus on the table clattered across the surface in a cascade.
“Hush, keep your voice down!”
The old steward glanced about frantically.
But Ui Seop paid no mind to the scattered beads and his eyes gleamed with interest.
“The Wang Ya spent the entire night with Jin Jae-in?”
“So it would seem.”
“With his sleeve being held?”
“Now really, I asked you to lower your voice!”
The two men abandoned all pretense of formality, gossiping like washerwomen at the riverside.
“So then, is that all?”
Ui Seop’s eyes narrowed to slits.
A gaze as sharp as when scanning numbers in a ledger.
“You’re hiding something, aren’t you.”
Perhaps that was why he could catch even the smallest discrepancy.
His eye for detail was uncanny.
“There’s certainly something more you haven’t told me.”
“What, what do you mean!”
“Old Steward.”
Ui Seop’s piercing gaze bore down upon him.
Unable to resist the pressure—and already itching to speak—the old steward cleared his throat and lowered his voice to a whisper.
“…There were sounds coming from her room last night, or so I heard.”
“Sounds? What kind of sounds?”
“The groaning of Jin Jae-in, you understand. A patient crying out in pain—!”
The old steward said this and then, uncertain what else to do, unnecessarily adjusted his spectacles.
At that, Ui Seop’s eyes flashed with sudden brilliance.
“So the day has finally come!”
“Hush now! Don’t let your mind wander! He was simply caring for her through the night.”
As the old steward redirected the conversation, Ui Seop’s white beard twitched with knowing amusement.
In his mind’s eye, a magnificent future for the Wang Territory was already unfolding.
* * *
Early morning.
The ceremony had stretched longer than expected due to the Yo Gwe’s sudden assault.
Fortunately, thanks to the blades of Mu Jin and the other Seonwidae members who had returned, there was no great damage.
Upon reaching the Study Chamber, Seo Heon found a Memorial awaiting him.
It was from Baek Ui Seop, the Minister of Revenue.
‘Is it about recovery costs for the damage?’
The ceremony had noted that thanks to the funds Jin Jae-in had earned, there would be no shortage for repairs.
Seo Heon hastily unrolled the scroll to read it.
And as his eyes traced the characters, his brow furrowed.
[Wang Ya, appoint Jin, the Chamberlain, to Chuk Bi so that the Wang Territory may be set upon its proper course.]
Baek Ui Seop’s argument was this.
First, his merit in reviving the Wang Territory’s finances.
Second, his virtue in winning the hearts of the people.
Third, his devotion in standing at Wang Ya’s side.
【What on earth is Baek thinking?】
Seo Heon pressed hard against his throbbing temple.
“Ha, it seems our distinguished guest was rather pressed for time,” the elderly chamberlain beside him said with an awkward smile.
He had made a show of objecting yesterday.
Only a show.
Having read through the memorial, Seo Heon raised his brush.
[Chamberlain Jin’s appointment to Chuk Bi is approved.]
The elderly chamberlain, watching Seo Heon’s answer over his spectacles, carefully opened his mouth.
“Then, after the approval, perhaps…….”
Behind the mask, his gaze turned quietly toward the chamberlain.
“This humble servant shall go at once to convey Wang Ya’s decree!”
The elderly chamberlain seized the memorial and vanished in haste.
The door closed, and silence descended upon the Study Chamber.
Seo Heon gazed wordlessly at the brush with which he had written his response.
Denied.
Two characters would have sufficed.
Yet somehow, his answer had grown longer.
Seo Heon quietly opened the drawer of his desk.
Within, tucked deep, lay a single Covenant Document.
His Official Seal and a small Red Seal were stamped side by side.
[Third: The Chamberlain shall depart the Wang Territory at twenty-three, in accordance with the prescribed rules.]
Back then, he had deemed this clause a consideration for them both.
A cold and proper courtesy he could offer to one drawn here against her will.
To neither expect nor allow expectations to form.
It had been the best answer he could give to a woman married to an accursed, monstrous prince.
But now…….
Seo Heon gently traced the dry ink marks with his fingertips.
【It cannot be.】
The image of So Ah willingly affixing the Red Seal to the Covenant Document came before him.
She had voiced no objection to this merciless agreement from the very beginning.
As if it were precisely what she had always wished for.
‘Had it not been Mugwang Territory, what greater wings she might have spread.’
Her ability to dwell here at ease rested upon this agreement.
Seo Heon understood it now.
That she was a woman of uncommon freedom.
Like still water, yet capable of flowing to wherever she wished to go.
A woman who paid no heed to others’ regard, who gladly pursued her own designs.
Too precious to bind in a small well and let rot.
‘Only…….’
There was so much he wished to ask.
Then.
“Have you called for me, Wang Ya?”
The Study Chamber door opened, and Mu Jin entered.
It was to report on the aftermath of the Yo Seup incident.
“Fortunately, thanks to the abundant medicinal herbs brought from Ye Wang Territory, the treatment of the wounded proceeds without hindrance.”
A blessing amid misfortune.
Had it not been for the herbs brought from Ye Wang Territory, the damage would have been catastrophic.
Once Mu Jin’s report concluded.
Seo Heon raised his brush again.
[Furthermore, we celebrate the blooming of Sa Hwa Ryeon.]
“It is thanks to Wang Ya’s guidance,” Mu Jin said, bowing his head.
The fourth petal to bloom in Ryeon in years.
Welcome news in these uncertain days for Yo Valley.

But Mu Jin’s jaw remained set as he lifted his gaze.
“Forgive me, but I must ask you something.”
His voice dropped low.
“Did you perhaps instruct Jin Jae-in about the Seon Sword?”
Seo Heon shook his head.
“She read the flow of Qi and understood the Gugyeol script—despite never having trained in Sword Qi.”
Seo Heon’s brush tip froze mid-air, unmoving in the void.
He, too, had swallowed that question and spent the night sleepless.
The woman who had taught him the sword understood everything.
Her depth of comprehension ran deeper than that of any Seonwidae member.
He wanted to ask.
More than anyone.
But between them lay a covenant.
[Sixth: Do not be curious about anything.]
The vow he had once dismissed lightly now held him captive in ways he had not foreseen.
At first, he had believed he would feel no interest in her at all.
She was from Wi Wang Territory—they would never become entangled.
She would spend a few years in the palace, then be sent away.
Yet in recent days, she had not left his mind for a moment.
What kind of woman was she?
What did she know, and what did she see?
“I hear you spent all night purifying Jin Jae-in’s Demonic Qi. Could it be that she has trained in Sword Qi?”
Mu Jin’s question was careful.
He was asking whether Seo Heon had discerned anything while channeling So Ah’s Qi during the purification.
Seo Heon began to shake his head, then hesitated.
He had not sensed Sword Qi in So Ah.
But—
‘The flow of her Demonic Qi was strange.’
Yet he did not wish to speak of this to Mu Jin.
Seo Heon shook his head, a beat too late.
“When Jin Jae-in wakes, I intend to ask her about the Seon Sword.”
At Mu Jin’s request, Seo Heon fell silent for a moment.
He, too, wanted to ask.
But it was a question he could not voice himself.
[Do so.]
He wrote out the answer at last.
A small rationalization.
To keep his covenant unbroken by borrowing Mu Jin’s voice instead.
Yet—
[She is a benefactor of Wang Territory. Do not treat her as a criminal.]
His brush gave voice to what weighed upon his heart.
* * *
When So Ah opened her eyes, bright sunlight streamed through the window.
‘What in the world…’
She grasped her throbbing shoulder and turned over yesterday’s events in her mind.
The hazy memories grew clearer by degrees.
And when they all came rushing back, her face burned with heat.
‘I said I could endure it, and then lost consciousness.’
She felt a belated shame at her own bold words spoken before Seo Heon.
The pain that had wrung her heart like a vice was gone as if it had never been.
‘The Demonic Qi must have been completely purged.’
It seemed Seo Heon had tended to her while she lay unconscious.
Thanks to that, aside from a dull ache in her shoulder, her body actually felt more vital than usual.
‘He gave up his sleep for the whole night…’
So where had Seo Heon rested his own weary head?
At that moment, a sheet of paper on the pillow beside her caught her eye.
In handwriting she recognized, a brief line was written.
[When you wake, eat first.]
Eight characters—whether command or concern, she could not tell.
And on a small table beside it—
A bowl still warm to the touch sat on the table.

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