The Survival Story Of A Fallen Lady - Chapter 61

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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 Downfall Noblewoman’s Survival Record — Episode 61
Beneath her sleeve, So Ah’s fingertips went rigid.
His voice spoke as though he meant for her to hear it plainly.
Behind the Unchen Mask, his gaze was fixed squarely on her.
Chin tilted at an angle, shameless in his attention.
A moment of confusion.
But So Ah quickly pressed her lips tight and turned her eyes back to Seok Woo.
His words were meant for ears that couldn’t hear.
Still, even without hearing, meanings could coincide by chance.
“It’s not that the sword is impatient. When the body is slow, the mind grows restless naturally.”
So Ah indicated his feet with a glance.
The laughter of those who’d been mocking Seok Woo died away.
“Your vision and spirit move before your feet advance, don’t they?”
So Ah slowly recalled what she’d read in the Archives.
Things she’d learned and kept after Mu Jin sought help from Seonwidae.
And records that Seo Heon had written down.
The eyes are the window to the heart.
When sight leads the body, the body’s center lags half a beat behind the blade.
“Try wielding the sword with your eyes closed.”
“I’m sorry—close my eyes……?”
“A sword isn’t wielded through the eyes alone, after all.”
So Ah added quietly.
When Seok Woo hesitated, So Ah nodded and urged him forward once more.
Finally, Seok Woo closed his eyes.
He regrasped the blade and awkwardly slashed the empty air, recalling the basic form he’d drilled.
Whoosh—
His body was stiff with tension, making the movement rigid.
The First Petal Bloom, no different from before.
‘Wasn’t it this passage…….’
So Ah retraced the Secret Formula she’d seen in the Archives.
【Seok Woo can trust his body and let it move—you need to wait until his tension eases.】
A low voice reached her.
So Ah watched Seok Woo’s movements without a flicker of acknowledgment.
Swish—
On the second swing, his rigid shoulders settled into softness.
And the third.
Smooth—
His waist and shoulders moved fluidly.
At the same time.
Flash—!
A clearer, brighter light spread like mist across the blade.
“……!”
“The Second Petal Bloom……!”
Those watching him fell silent, mouths open.
Startled by the unfamiliar sensation, Seok Woo opened his eyes.
In doing so, the second petal that had briefly bloomed scattered.
But it was unmistakably a glimpse of what might bloom.
Seok Woo stared at the back of his own hand in a daze.
“That’s amazing! Blooming with eyes closed!”
“How does it feel, the threshold of the Second Petal Bloom?”
Those gathered around rushed toward Seok Woo.
The Training Grounds erupted into cheerful chaos.
In their midst, Seok Woo looked at So Ah with flushed cheeks.
“Th-thank you, Master Jin!”
Seok Woo folded himself into a right angle at the waist.
One step away, Mu Jin watched her in silence.
So Ah felt the temperature of that gaze shift from what it had been.
‘Not quite complete trust, it seems.’
Eyes that said: I won’t trust the person, but I’ll trust the skill.
For now, that was enough.
So Ah stepped back with measured deference.
“It is all the work of our commander.”
What she had done was trivial.
It had only been possible because Seo Heon had led them and built so much over this time.
【Impressive technique.】
A low voice drifted down from the platform behind her.
【My voice shouldn’t reach them at all, yet you lead the members so well.】
His distant voice carried a note of pleasure unlike anything she had heard from him before.
At his smooth tone, So Ah clenched her fists beneath her sleeves.
She nearly spun around to snap back at him.
‘……Not yet.’
She lacked the courage.
The courage to tell him she could hear his voice.
Because she was afraid.
Because memories from her past life kept surfacing.
Because she wanted to hide behind any flimsy excuse.
It was the beginning of a ridiculous performance—knowing the truth while pretending ignorance.
* * *
After that day.
The mornings at the Training Grounds changed.
They began lining up before the sun rose.
“The man who was twentieth yesterday—how is he first today!”
“Spent the night at the Training Grounds, sir.”
Administrator No adjusted his spectacles several times at the sight.
“Wasn’t that member always late to morning assembly?”
At Administrator No’s words, Seo Heon simply gazed down at the Training Grounds.
A vitality unlike anything before had awakened in the Seonwidae.
Five days after So Ah first came to the Training Grounds.
Another member opened their third petal.
On the seventh day, another bloomed; on the tenth, another.
Now, after a fortnight.
“Nine petals, sir.”
Mu Jin too was greatly shaken.
In the years since the Demon War, only five new petals had opened in the Seonwidae.
And even those had been limited to the First Petal Bloom and Second Petal Bloom.
It had been quite some time since anyone achieved the Third Flower Lotus.
Yet in half a month, the petals that had opened surpassed years of progress.
‘She truly is different.’
Seo Heon watched So Ah standing in the Training Grounds.
It was true that he had taught her the Secret Formula from behind.
But she was not simply parroting his words like a mechanical parrot.
‘She understands.’
She translated what he said into language and training methods suited to the Seonwidae members.
Like someone who truly understood the Sword Specialist.
At times, she conveyed his intention with such precision that even he was caught off guard.
‘Perhaps she has more talent for teaching than I do.’
By now, the Seonwidae members trusted her above anyone else.
Even those who had been deeply suspicious at first.
“They all said since she’s from the Wi Wang Territory and doesn’t understand the Sword Specialist, she’s just a woman—but now they can’t even train without Instructor Jin here.”
Administrator No laughed warmly.
Seo Heon nodded without taking his eyes from So Ah.
She stood surrounded by Seonwidae members, explaining something with great earnestness.
“What is this?”
“Hand Signal Communication. Since our commander cannot always hold a brush on the battlefield, this should prove somewhat helpful if you master it.”
So Ah distributed papers one to each of the members as she spoke.
Drawn upon them in simple diagrams were finger and arm movements.
“I heard that Instructor Jin could communicate in ways other than voice.”
It was the same as what had been sent to him through Administrator No not long ago.
‘Not only the Sword Path, but to think of such things as well.’
How could he possibly doubt her.
More than anyone, she moves with genuine heart for the Mugwang Territory.
As she taught Hand Signal Communication to the Seonwidae members, her eyes sparkled in the warm sunlight.
Seo Heon couldn’t tear his gaze away.
【She avoids me without a single word, yet she fits so well with the Seonwidae members.】
It should be something to rejoice over.
Yet his chest tilted uncomfortably, as though something had shifted inside him.
Then.
“Even her robes dancing in the breeze look like a painting—isn’t she herself a Celestial Lotus?”
“That’s exactly why she has us blooming like this!”
The voices of the Seonwidae members talking nearby grated against his ears.
Seo Heon’s attention shifted from So Ah to the Seonwidae members.
……
Why did such words keep bothering him?
They were clearly praise directed at So Ah.
He tried to ignore the strange feeling.
“You should hold it like this.”
When So Ah, who had been watching a member’s stance, grasped his wrist to correct it, the member’s face flushed crimson in an instant.
Without hesitation.
He seized her hand.
“My lady……?”
Seo Heon pulled So Ah’s hand away from the member.
【Jae-in must not place her hands on the members’ bodies.】
Seo Heon wedged himself between So Ah and the member.
Yet So Ah merely looked up at him with a puzzled expression, as if she hadn’t heard.
‘Such stubborn resolve.’
Still pretending not to hear?
Seo Heon gestured to Noh, the chief steward, and grasped a brush.
[Jae-in, who does not understand Martial Arts, must not place her hands on the members’ bodies. Let them awaken through their own effort.]
Seo Heon wrote it out deliberately, showing the command to both So Ah and the Seonwidae members.
After reading the order, So Ah looked up at him, then quietly lowered her head.
“I shall obey.”
Her voice now was calm and subdued, entirely different from moments before with the Seonwidae members.
So Ah considered it carefully.
The Seonwidae were the core military force of the Mugwang Territory.
‘He must be concerned that I, a stranger from outside, am gaining too much of the soldiers’ trust.’
She had felt it herself.
The way the Seonwidae members had begun to follow her lately.
Because Seo Heon could not speak and Mu Jin was severe in his manner, the soldiers opened their words and hearts more easily to So Ah.
‘I must be more careful.’
So Ah reached this conclusion and nodded to herself.
* * *
Late in the night, when the moon hung low in the sky.
After handling all the accumulated duties, Seo Heon made his way alone to the Archives.
【What a foolish thing to do.……】
As he walked through the night air, he turned over the day’s events in his mind.
It had been impulse.
Separating So Ah from the Seonwidae members.
He himself couldn’t understand why he had done it.
Simply…… because he felt a vague displeasure.
‘What exactly is this?’
Holding fast to the unanswered question, he drew in the night air.
‘What’s already happened—I shouldn’t dwell on it.’
He cast off the tangled thoughts and arrived at the Archives.
There was only one reason he had come to the Archives.
‘Jae-in’s Qi Meridians are different, and she possesses the power to hear my voice……..’
He hoped to find related information in the old texts and records.
But then.
【Why is there light…….】
Light was seeping out from beyond the Archive doors.
‘Someone has come to the Archives at this late hour?’

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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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