The Survival Story Of A Fallen Lady - Chapter 65

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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 Fall of a Noble Daughter’s Survival 065
【Did you really offer them the merchant house’s private chamber?】
“Are you truly so angered by their rudeness?”
【They treated you as though you were a courtesan.】
So Ah smiled at the wounded note in Seo Heon’s voice and answered as if speaking to herself.
“Efficiency matters more than fleeting emotion.”
【Efficiency?】
“You should reflect once more on the teachings of the Sword Path.”
Empty the mind, shed emotion, clarify the spirit.
So Ah retraced the foundational wisdom of the Sword Path.
【So, even at the Five Flower Rank, you receive instruction.】
Below the armrest, a breathless laugh escaped him.
Had it not been for him, there was no telling what humiliation she might have endured.
“Of course—had I been alone, I would never have dared speak.”
So Ah bowed her head toward him in gratitude.
【You have sharp intuition. Though I cannot hear your voice, you read my heart as if I spoke aloud.】
“Your intention is clear even without words.”
When So Ah replied with such composure, Seo Heon gave a short, involuntary laugh.
Strangely, the resentment that had been simmering in him moments before began to recede.
“And that man—I’ve seen him before in the Imperial City.”
No, not just in the Imperial City.
A face she had brushed past several times in her previous life.
A merchant the people called a “silver tongue”—one who never stopped talking.
His tongue ran loose, and So Ah had always kept her distance from him.
Yet a single honeyed word from his lips sent the neighborhood women scrambling to buy his wares.
Even nobles considered his wine the finest available.
“Men like that earn their living by the power of their words. What they say will become the reputation of Mugwang Territory.”
So Ah placed her trust in that tongue of theirs.
Looking at the realm as a whole, those who sought out Mugwang Territory were still precious few.
The people of the capital regarded it as little more than a remote frontier.
“A single word from their lips could turn people away—or draw them in greater numbers.”
They would wander the length and breadth of the realm, spreading tales of their journey to Mugwang Territory.
“Woo Je will handle it with discretion.”
So Ah turned with a slight smile, ready to move on.
“Let’s go find Hye Rang.”
Seo Heon watched the figure moving ahead of him.
The simmering anger that had consumed him moments before had undoubtedly cooled.
Yet something else ignited, burning hot.
An evening hung with lanterns.
Market Street, shoulders brushing.
So Ah dissolved into the crowd of countless people.
Seo Heon’s gaze followed her, never losing sight.
Each time passersby brushed against her, the hem of her long robe rippled like water.
Suddenly, her receding figure seemed to him like a phantom, distant and unreal.
Just as she had come here for reasons he could not fathom.
As if she might vanish from this place for reasons equally incomprehensible.
As if she would scatter like a ghost into the crowd and disappear entirely.
Then the sound of drums rang out, loud and chaotic.
At once, crowds who had come to see the lantern procession surged forward.
So Ah’s small frame seemed about to be swept away and lost in that tide.
In a single heartbeat, Seo Heon’s cold hand reached out.
【So Ah……!】
Her phantom-like wrist was caught in his grip.
The footsteps of the woman ahead halted.
“Your Highness……?”
So Ah turned her head back, startled by his sudden motion.
The dizzying light of the lanterns fell across her face.
In that moment, Seo Heon felt something tingle through him.
An unfamiliar, overwhelming rush in his chest—yet at the same time, an anxiety, an urgency he could not name.
【There are too many people. Stay close.】
He kept hold of So Ah’s wrist as he began walking, half a step ahead of her.
But then—
“That’s why the broth has to be made with roasted pine nuts, I’m telling you!”
Across the street, in front of a vendor’s stall.
Both Seo Heon and So Ah’s eyes turned toward the commotion at once.
A round-faced woman stood with her sleeves rolled up, peering into a pot at one of the street stalls.
“How can you add the salt only now? You have to put it in from the beginning to draw out the proper flavor!”
“Goodness, miss. You seem like a refined person—why do you keep interfering with my pot……?”
“Because such fine ingredients shouldn’t go to waste!”
A smile bloomed slowly across So Ah’s lips as she watched her.
“Seol Hong Ok.”
The woman holding the ladle turned, and her face flushed crimson in an instant.
“Y-you! I mean—this is just passing by……!”
“Did you make that Mutton Soup yourself, miss?”
“N-no! That’s not possible……!”
“It is, miss,” the stall owner interjected, cutting off Seol Hong Ok’s protest.
She was waving her hands in denial, but the vendor behind her had already stepped in.
“She just waltzed over here, rolled up her sleeves, and started meddling!”
The stall had two pots hanging over the fire.
One was the original owner’s Mutton Soup.
The other was the one Seol Hong Ok had stuck her hands into.
So Ah then glanced up at Seo Heon beside her.
“Do you like Mutton Soup?”
Seo Heon nodded at the question.
Wait—did I like it?
Worrying over his preferences came after that.
But what else was there to decide?
She was asking with her eyes so wide and round.
“Could you give us one of each? One made by you, the owner, and one made by that miss.”
After placing that order, So Ah sat down at a corner table under the canvas awning at the back of the stall.
‘……’
Seo Heon sat beside her without a word.
He didn’t need to ask to understand.
That So Ah had deliberately chosen this spot, and moreover had given him the seat furthest back, was to shield them from wandering eyes.
She always grasped what he could not say.
And yet—
Creak. The old bench groaned under their weight.
So Ah pressed her lips together.
Seo Heon’s knees, bent awkwardly because the bench was so narrow, were crumpled against the underside of the table.
His large frame and broad shoulders were folded forcibly into the cramped corner of the stall.
‘I shouldn’t laugh.’
Watching him, So Ah felt something strange stir inside her.
He was always sitting in a high place, wearing the crown of the Mugwang Territory.
Most days he wore masks and ceremonial robes.
But now, seeing him squeezed onto this Market Street bench—
‘He’s so large.’
It struck her anew.
His shoulder span seemed to match the width of the table itself.
The mere turn of his body blocked out the entire street behind them.
Now that she thought of it, even when walking through Market Street, she didn’t have to strain to find him.
His head rose distinctly above the throng of people around them.
Just then the owner set two bowls of soup down side by side.
“This one here is what I made, and that one is what the young lady had her hand in.”
Same pot, same ingredients.
Yet the color was entirely different.
The owner’s was cloudy and pale, while Seol Hong Ok’s gleamed with a soft, lustrous sheen.
“Please, taste it.”
Seo Heon carefully drew a spoonful from beneath the surface.
So Ah tasted hers as well, without comment.
Made from the same mutton, yet the flavor existed in an entirely different realm.
There was no need to ask Seo Heon directly.
Clink.
The bowl he’d set down had broth left in only one half.
【…….】
No question needed—the answer was unmistakable.
“They’re different, aren’t they?”
A nod.
His black sleeve lifted slightly.
Not even a connoisseur was needed to sense such a stark difference.
【So that’s why. Why she had me sit here.】
She’d suddenly insisted on having Mutton Soup.
Food becomes the symbol of a region.
People will travel far for a memorable meal.
And now Mugwang Territory was beginning to attract visitors.
It needed proper places to lodge and proper places to eat.
Yet So Ah’s gaze remained fixed in one direction.
Following her eyes, he spotted a grimy child standing before the cauldron.
So Ah watched the child for a long moment, then called the proprietor.
“Proprietor. Would you give that child a bowl?”
As So Ah pressed coins into his hand, the proprietor’s eyes widened.
“This is far too much, Miss.”
“Call it advance payment. If such a situation arises again, you’ll simply do the same, won’t you?”
“…I understand.”
The proprietor pocketed the money and returned with a generous bowl of mutton soup for the child.
Steaming, milky broth thick with lamb.
The child took the bowl and crouched right there, eating ravenously.
A smile played at the corners of So Ah’s mouth as she watched.
Seo Heon observed the smile on her lips.
【Is this, too, a choice made for efficiency rather than sentiment?】
Then So Ah, still watching the child, spoke as if to herself.
“If a single bowl of Mutton Soup can change someone’s entire day, could there be anything more efficient than that?”

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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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