The Survival Story Of A Fallen Lady - Chapter 60

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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 Survival of a Fallen Noblewoman — Episode 60
“Had the blade gone even a hair’s breadth further, Jin Jae In’s life would have been forfeit!”
“Then you believe the captain stopped the sword?”
“Of course!”
“Then why did the petals fall first?”
Her gaze dropped to Wi Pyeong’s hand.
Wi Pyeong instinctively looked down at his own knuckles.
The two lotus petals had already withered without a trace.
‘Why…….’
Wi Pyeong’s throat went dry.
He had definitely brought the blade down.
But the strength draining from his arm had not been his doing.
Then So Ah turned her body with deliberate ease.
Beyond the Training Grounds’ wall.
A single branch of the Peach Blossom Tree, laden with pale pink blossoms, swayed in the spring breeze.
“Could you knock a petal from that flower at this distance?”
“A petal?”
“But the branch and stamen must remain unharmed.”
Not the flower itself—only a single petal.
“I’ll give you three chances.”
At So Ah’s provocative words, the warriors in the Training Grounds stirred.
Veins rose visibly at Wi Pyeong’s temples.
He had poured a decade into the blade.
There was no reason he couldn’t cut a single flower branch.
Wi Pyeong planted his feet with practiced ease and drew his sword in a sweeping arc.
Crack!
A sheet of white light slashed across the wall.
And with a soft snap, the tip of the Peach Blossom branch fell cleanly to the ground.
Yet the petals clung to the branch, unmoved.
“…….”
The muscles in Wi Pyeong’s jaw hardened.
So Ah said nothing, merely tilting her head slightly to gesture toward the adjacent branch.
Wi Pyeong clenched his teeth and gripped the sword again.
‘I need to pull back the force.’
He released the tension from his shoulders.
He steadied his breathing and loosened his grip.
Then, with deliberate slowness and care, he traced the blade.
But this time, no Sword Qi manifested, and not even the sound of air parting reached his ears.
A power that could not fell even a single petal.
“Ha.”
Wi Pyeong’s mouth trembled with bewilderment.
Then So Ah stepped quietly beside him and spoke.
“When you mean to kill, the branch is severed. When you mean to spare, nothing falls.”
So Ah turned her gaze from the flower branch toward Wi Pyeong.
“What do you think of when you cut down a Demon King?”
“……The resolve to end its life.”
He answered through gritted teeth.
As a veteran, he had served in the Seonwidae even during the Demon War.
And in the Yo Ma War, he had lost seventeen comrades.
How could he draw his blade with any other intention?
“That is your wall.”
Wi Pyeong’s fingertips quivered slightly.
Then So Ah turned her gaze back toward the flower branch.
And from her sleeve, she withdrew a Jeop Seon, white paper affixed, and unfolded it.
“Seon Ryeon scatters in the face of negative emotion.”
Rage, vengeance, hatred, killing intent, fear, revulsion.
All of it a barrier to the Sword Specialist’s path.
So Ah spoke thus, and fanned the flower branch in a slow, sweeping motion.
A ribbon of wind stretched forth and stirred the branch.
And with it, the petal clinging to the flower fluttered down to the ground.
“…!”
“Nothing can be accomplished through force alone.”
So Ah withdrew the Jeop Seon, and Wi Pyeong’s eyes flickered.
Stripping away the petals was not a matter of strength, but simply a single, natural gust of wind.
So Ah stepped back one pace, as if inviting him to try once more.
Wi Pyeong was displeased.
The thought of receiving instruction from such a woman was difficult to accept.
Yet remaining in the I Hwa Ryeon for more than a decade was far harder to bear.
He drew a deep breath, sword still in hand.
The names of comrades he remembered flashed through his mind.
‘I must forget.’
While holding the blade, he had to concentrate entirely on the sword.
But the harder he tried to erase that name, the more tension seized his grip.
Then.
“Do not deliberately try to forget.”
A low voice whispered from behind him.
“Simply open the hand you are clenching and let it go.”
To erase and to release—they were not the same.
He slowly closed his eyes.
Tension drained from his shoulders.
It had been ten years.
Since he had breathed so deeply while holding a blade.
And then.
Whoosh—
The blade traced a slow and gentle arc.
Like a single breeze passing through, a white light bloomed outward.
At the same moment.
Flutter—
The petals hanging from the branch drifted down.
Riding the white wind he had created, they fluttered lightly.
And those petals came to rest upon the back of his hand.
“Three… three petals…!”
Beyond the swirling petals.
A third lotus petal was quietly blooming on the back of Wi Pyeong’s hand.
Wi Pyeong stared down at his own hand in astonishment.
‘It was not as though I had never undergone such training.’
He had read everything—Seo Heon’s teachings, the theories written in books, all the scripts and Gugyeol.
He had been steadily practicing the art of cutting things as delicate as petals.
For ten years.
Yet why today, from only a few words of instruction from Jin Jae In….”
“If you work so hard, Wi Pyeong, one day you’ll reach the O Hwa Ryeon and lead the Seonwidae.”
“That’s right. How remarkable our Pyeong is!”
A single tear fell from the corner of Wi Pyeong’s eye.
He seemed to hear the laughter of fallen comrades ringing in his ears.
“Damn it.”
Wi Pyeong buried his face in his sleeve.
He felt so helplessly wronged and furious that he could hardly speak.
Yet he could feel it too.
His heart, as he gripped the sword, had grown lighter.
* * *
So Ah remembered Wi Pyeong.
She had seen Seo Heon stop him several times while passing through the Archives, conveying his will to him.
Moreover, according to Seo Heon’s words, Wi Pyeong’s realm had risen to the very brink of advancement.
He had remained at a standstill, unable to break through that wall, for several years.
‘It was fortunate that it was Wi Pyeong who came forward to provoke me.’
Fortune had favored them.
Without even needing to hear Seo Heon’s voice, she knew well enough what to teach him.
But the problem was.
“Jin Jae In, my blade is…!”
The other members of the Seonwidae.
“I’ve been stuck here for five years now…….”
“Please, take a look at me too!”
The trainees crowded forward before So Ah.
‘I know nothing about these people.’
So Ah looked up at the empty seat of honor.
Seo Heon was not there.
And even if he were to come.
‘He’s decided not to speak in front of me anymore.’
Since the incident at Hyeonanjae.
He had not uttered a single word in her presence.
Yet in the midst of this, he had sent her a summons to train with the Seonwidae.
‘……Does he mean to make things difficult for me?’
Because it offended him that she pretended not to hear his words?
So Ah bit her lip.
But already the Seonwidae members stood in a line before her.
There was no retreat.
“Seok Woo is my name.”
She examined each of their swords one by one.
“Draw for me, if you would.”
When the sword he’d introduced as Seok Woo was unsheathed, a brief, meager white gleam flashed and faded.
It was the First Flower Lotus.
But So Ah’s eyes perceived nothing.
“Jin Jae In……?”
The man lowered his sword awkwardly.
“Release the tension in your wrist…….”
So Ah recalled the familiar advice she had often heard and corrected his posture several times.
But his Sword Qi showed no sign of improvement.
She felt the gazes of the other members.
In their eyes too, the insufficiency of her teaching would be plain.
Perhaps she should use illness as an excuse and leave.
In the instant that this uncharacteristic evasion crossed her mind.
“We greet the King!”
The warriors in the Training Grounds bowed in unison and cried out.
When So Ah turned late to look, the Un Chul Mask he wore caught the morning sunlight as he entered through the entrance of the Training Grounds, flashing brilliantly.
“Your Majesty…….”
So Ah bowed her head, letting her gaze fall to her feet once more.
Then his shadow stretched long across the ground, reaching the hem of her skirt.
Watching it, her throat suddenly dried.
The shadow that had passed beside her rose slowly onto the platform.
【…….】
Without a word, without the slightest sound.
And he gazed down at So Ah in silence.
He tilted his head once—a gesture to continue.
So Ah’s hands curled into fists beneath her sleeves.
And as habit dictated, she feigned composure and turned back to observe the trainee’s posture.
“Release the tension in your wrist…….”
But the words did not come easily.
She felt his gaze upon her, and her mind went blank.
He remained silent, watching everything.
So So Ah had to say something, anything, as she looked at the trainee’s feeble Sword Qi.
“You’re too hasty.”
And then.
“Ha, Seok Woo hasty……?”
“How much slower do you need to be before you’re slow enough?”
“That man takes half an hour just to eat a meal—does he need to be slower than that?”
Laughter erupted across the Training Grounds.
At the jibes around him, Seok Woo’s face flushed crimson.
At that, So Ah’s throat tightened shallowly.
Then.
【Though you cannot hear me.】
A low voice echoed through her mind.
So Ah’s head snapped up in surprise.
【Seok Woo’s eyes move before his feet.】
The voice, heard for the first time in days, carried no trace of hesitation.
As if nothing had happened at all.
So Ah turned her head to look at him.
The mask remained still and silent, facing toward the Training Grounds.
【Certainly, his gaze is impatient.】
Seo Heon rested his chin slowly against his hand.
【Of course, there’s no way you could hear this.】

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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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