The Survival Story Of A Fallen Lady - Chapter 54

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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 Noble’s Survival Records — Episode 54
Seo Heon despised himself for even conceiving of such a stratagem.
Yet there was no other way.
He could not take a single step forward while trapped in this uncertainty.
It was cowardly and crude, perhaps, but he had decided to verify it.
【I may as well leave now.】
He rose slowly from his seat.
From the corner of his eye, he caught So Ah’s gaze trailing after him.
Seo Heon moved slowly toward the window.
His back to her, his face hidden.
Every motion restrained, his voice barely audible as he murmured to himself.
【Damn it—the wound at my waist has opened.】
Words spoken so softly no one could hear.
Words left unwritten.
【I’ll need to change the bandage before moving to the Seonwidae.】
His eyes drifted loosely beneath the mask.
Surely no one could overhear this.
* * *
His silhouette showed against the window.
So Ah’s trembling eyes fixed on his waist.
‘The wound has opened……?’
A horde of demons had surged like black waves.
As the king and sole practitioner of the O Hwa Ryeon, Seo Heon had to defend the entire palace.
It would have been strange if he’d emerged from that chaos unscathed.
‘Yet with that body, he tended to me through the night……?’
It had been four days now.
Even if he’d nursed his wounds alone, he couldn’t rest comfortably in his chamber while attending to state affairs—such exertion would have been reckless.
So Ah’s lips pressed tight.
From the atmosphere, it seemed even Mu Jin or the Chief Steward were unaware of his injuries.
Her heart sank heavy within her chest.
‘Why, for someone as insignificant as me……’
So Ah found this feeling strange.
She had spent her whole life among people who paid no heed to her wounds.
Jin Mok Yeon had delighted in inflicting them.
Before Seo Gon, she had scrambled to hide her wounds, terrified of being cast aside.
But Seo Heon……
He had tended to her before his own injuries.
So Ah gazed at his back.
The way he concealed his wounds without a flicker of expression overlapped with her own reflection from long ago.
Her lowered eyes fell upon a small medicine box.
It was the Gold Wound Medicine that Yeong Gyo had left behind.
So Ah reached for the box that lay at the head of her bed.
“Your Majesty.”
The figure by the window shifted faintly.
“I heard there were many wounded from the sudden demon attack. I trust Your Majesty is unharmed?”
She spoke as though she knew nothing, her question carefully indirect.
Then Seo Heon, his back still turned, slowly faced her.
So Ah placed the medicine box respectfully at his side.
“It is Gold Wound Medicine. Should you have need of it, please use it.”
So Ah continued as if merely mentioning it in passing.
A small repayment of kindness to the one who had tended to her body these four days.
She supposed that much could be forgiven.
Then Seo Heon gazed down at the medicine box resting on the low table before him.
Beneath the mask, his gaze held a hint of premonition.
‘Medicine, of all things, now……?’
There was no visible wound on the surface.
And yet, by a strange twist of fate, Jin So Ah had offered medicine precisely when his concern grew most acute.
Another piece of circumstantial evidence fell into place.
【Thank you.】
He reached toward the medicine box and took a step forward.
And then.
Thud.
Her lower back struck lightly against the edge of the table.
【A sound trapped in her throat.】
A gasp that never escaped her lips.
Her expression unchanged.
But.
“Your Highness…!”
So Ah rushed toward him in alarm.
An urgent motion that burst forward before thought could catch it.
“Are you hurt? Is there a wound…?”
Her words died midstream.
【A wound?】
The air in Hyeon An Jae froze.
Seo Heon turned his gaze down toward So Ah, slowly.
It was the first time.
The first time he had ever seen her so flustered.
Yet she masked that flicker of panic in an instant, opening her mouth again.
“Your movements have seemed constrained since earlier.”
That couldn’t be.
How could there be strain from a wound that didn’t exist?
Tap.
Seo Heon set down the brush he’d been holding, quiet and deliberate.
That small sound rang unnaturally loud in the still chamber.
He moved toward So Ah, slowly.
“Your Highness…?”
So Ah stepped back half a pace, without meaning to.
Pad.
As Seo Heon drew nearer, she retreated once more.
The edge of the bed met the back of her calf.
Deep shadow fell across her.
The Wun Chul Mask, backlit, gazed down at her coldly.
【How strange.】
His voice descended from above, soft and low.
【I have revealed nothing, yet you somehow perceived a wound that isn’t there.】
His words tightened around her like a noose.
For a moment, So Ah’s breath caught.
This was the exact spot.
Where Seo Gon had loomed over her, drawing near.
And on this very bed where her calf now touched, Jin Mok Yeon had been smiling.
“How could I take a demon woman who understands the speech of beasts as empress?”
Seo Gon had seized upon her unique gift as a weapon, crushing her throat in his grip.
‘No. Not again.’
So Ah lowered her head and shut her eyes tight.
In her past life, she had revealed her ability for Seo Gon’s sake.
So naively.
“What a curious power you possess…?”
She had believed it would earn her his love.
“So Ah, surely you could command the beasts to discover things for us, couldn’t you? Hmm?”
She had poured every ounce of her power into raising him to the throne.
Certain that it would make him happy.
But instead.
“Do not resent me, So Ah.”
Only death had come in return.
So Ah forced strength into her legs, fighting not to collapse.
She could not let her ability be discovered.
If he learned she could understand his voice, then after that…
So Ah clenched her trembling fingers into fists.
And.
“Your Highness, might there be a problem with my Qi Meridians…?”
She steadied her cracking voice and asked with a calm that seemed effortless.
Throwing out a topic entirely unrelated to their current conversation.
But.
[‘An evasion?’]
At Seo Heon’s words, her heart plummeted.
Then his large hand wrapped around her wrist.
The trembling of her hand was laid bare before him without reserve.
[‘Your Qi meridians show no irregularity, yet your pulse is far too rapid and coarse.’]
As he pressed his fingers to her pulse with a gripping touch, the tips of So Ah’s fingers turned cold.
He did not reach for his brush again.
As though testing how much longer her performance could hold.
But So Ah wrenched her wrist free from his grasp.
“If my presumptuous concern has caused you displeasure, I beg your pardon, Your Highness.”
With her wrist hidden behind her back, So Ah spoke in a trembling voice, her head bowed.
“Even through the mask, your complexion seemed poor, and so I made an ill-considered assumption.”
From beneath the mask, his gaze descended upon her in silence.
To have glimpsed his complexion beyond the Wun Chul Mask.
So Ah would know it too.
That it was an excuse that made no sense.
[‘What on earth…’]
Every minute movement of So Ah caught Seo Heon’s eye.
The fine trembling of her lashes.
Her shoulders hunched as though wishing to conceal herself.
Her fingertips gripping the hem of her skirt until it blanched white.
She who had not trembled before demons was trembling now.
[‘As though she would die if discovered…’]
The moment that thought touched his mind, Seo Heon suddenly understood.
The fear reflected on So Ah’s face was familiar.
That desperate concealment for fear of being discovered by someone—wasn’t it something he had always confronted?
Hiding his face beneath a mask. Pushing away the curiosity, the interest, the people that drew near to him…
He too lived that way.
Seo Heon recalled the small, careful hand that had offered him the mask.
The touch that had retied the mask’s cord without a single question.
He adjusted the white cord caught at his ear.
And the shadow that had hung over So Ah drew back a step.
[‘It seems I was mistaken.’]
Seo Heon turned and walked away.

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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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