The Survival Story Of A Fallen Lady - Chapter 67

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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 Noblewoman’s Survival Record, Episode 67
“Sister! Brother!”
Hye Rang came running from across the way, waving a small toy drum.
Jingle-jingle—the drum’s rhythm was utterly unmetered and loud.
“Look at this! Old Overseer gave it to me!”
“Ah, my dear child. These old legs of mine are too short to keep pace….”
The elderly overseer who had scrambled after her adjusted his spectacles, catching his breath.
“Now then, let us make haste to the river. We mustn’t delay if we’re to float the lanterns.”
“Floating lanterns! The children at the academy wouldn’t stop boasting about it!”
The Lantern-Floating Ceremony was the crowning glory of the Yuanxiao Festival.
Urged on by Hye Rang, three full-grown adults found themselves drawn toward the riverbank.
As they neared the water, the crowd grew so thick that finding space to set foot became nearly impossible.
Then.
“Move aside, will you!”
A hot-tempered group shoved through the throng with little regard.
At the harshness in their voices, So Ah felt herself shrinking back.
In a smooth motion, Seo Heon slipped his arm lightly around her shoulders, positioning himself between her and the rough crowd.
Even those charging forward like wild boar hesitated at the sight of him.
Tall, with a frame carved from strength itself.
Push as they might, he held firm as stone, immovable.
……
When Seo Heon turned to face them in silence, they made not a sound before turning away in another direction entirely.
So Ah lifted her gaze to look up at him, and Seo Heon looked away.
Her shoulder still hadn’t fully healed, had it.
Ah—so he had been looking after it all along.
Though it was nearly mended, some discomfort lingered.
‘Come to think of it, we haven’t collided once even in the marketplace.’
He had been watching over details she herself had scarcely noticed.
Then.
“Sister! Over here!”
Hye Rang, who had somehow already lined up at the lantern vendor’s stall, called out.
“I want the biggest one! The very biggest!”
Hye Rang picked out one as large as her own torso and, without hesitation, seized the brush.
“What shall I inscribe for you, young lady?”
“Make me grow tall!”
“Tall? You’ll shoot up in no time.”
“I want to be taller than the academy children! They tease me, saying I’m the size of a mouse bell.”
With brush in hand, Hye Rang’s face grew taut with concentration, her tongue poking out as she scrawled uneven characters across the paper.
“Now, do come and write yours as well. The lanterns must be sent out, after all.”
The old overseer urged So Ah and Seo Heon, who stood holding their lanterns without writing.
So Ah took the brush the overseer offered and steadied her grip.
A wish.
She had never believed in wishes or blessings.
She had already prayed countless times in her past life.
There were many nights when she had huddled sleepless, curled up, praying and wishing.
So she would not pray again.
She already knew the heavens would not answer.
She held the brush for a moment, then wrote out a single, brief line.
Peace and well-being.
It was an ordinary sentiment that anyone might write.
‘…Peace and well-being, then.’
The moment Seo Heon saw her wish, his expression hardened beneath his calm exterior.
That single line wishing for peace felt like a farewell.
Like those lanterns drifting downstream on the river current.
As though she too would one day flow away, serene and without regret.
Then.
“What did you inscribe?”
So Ah, having sent her lantern drifting, turned to look at Seo Heon.
Seo Heon gazed at her for a moment, then, without answering, sent his own lantern out into the water.
His lantern floated quietly across the surface of the waves.
The neat handwriting written above it caught her eye.
[May every day be like today.]
So Ah gazed at the man who had let down his guard.
He was the one called a monster, who had cut down his own people with his hands, who had lived in suffocating silence.
Yet this man’s prayer to heaven was nothing more than days like today.
So Ah watched his Yuanxiao Lantern drift farther away.
She didn’t believe in heaven, but she found herself hoping his wish would come true.
“Your Highness!”
An urgent cry rang out from the riverbank.
It was Mu Jin, pushing through the crowd and running toward them.
Those releasing lanterns murmured and made way.
“What is it?”
Director Noh stepped forward in alarm.
“A message has come down from the Imperial Household.”
Mu Jin lowered his voice and handed Seo Heon a letter sealed in a silk envelope.
“The Northwest Inspector is said to be coming.”
The Northwest Inspector was a special envoy appointed by Imperial Decree to conduct a comprehensive inspection of the frontier’s condition.
‘The Northwest Inspector, all of a sudden.’
Seo Heon’s expression hardened.
“But the one appointed as Northwest Inspector is Prince Wei.”
At Mu Jin’s quiet report, So Ah looked toward the river where the lanterns floated.
Mocking Seo Heon’s wish, his lantern drifted away with the current.
* * *
A few days before that.
Spring in the Imperial Capital already carried a warm heat.
And in the midst of it.
Crack.
A single branch jutting from a small bonsai pot fell to the ground.
Before the pot stood a man whose hair was swept back with perfect precision, not a single strand out of place.
Straight brows, composed eyes.
His features were immaculate, without the slightest flaw—yet refined with a coldness that seemed utterly devoid of warmth.
A face carved from cold jade.
A chill radiated from him as if not a trace of heat would ever seep out.
“You remain unchanged, Your Highness.”
Then a hoarse voice came from the entrance of the garden.
As the man’s eyes moved quietly, turning his gaze, Seo Gon, Prince Wei, bowed formally in greeting.
The Crown Prince of Lye, Seo Ryul.
Seo Gon’s older brother by the same mother, and the second most powerful figure in Lye after the Emperor.
“You prune without mercy anything that grows even slightly crooked.”
Seo Ryul did not answer Seo Gon’s remark.
He merely glanced at Seo Gon once more before turning his attention back to the bonsai.
Within the pot, a fifty-year-old pine tree had taken root and grown in a small container.
“To tend a single small tree for decades on end. Does it not weary you?”
“Perhaps that is why your garden holds not a single ancient tree.”
“There is wisdom in the saying that flowers bloom no more than ten days. Once the most beautiful moment of full bloom has passed, one simply replaces it with another flower.”
Though he spoke thus, Seo Gon believed the bonsai suited Prince Wei’s tastes quite well.
For within that small pot lay a world constructed with flawless precision according to his will.
“And yet, Your Highness, there is another branch you truly wish to prune, is there not? In the north, I mean.”
Seo Ryul’s blade paused for a moment.
“Recently, a vagrant from the north has been trying to slip into my chambers and lie down.”
The news of Mugwang had been an irritant at court of late.
“What is it you mean to say?”
“If Your Highness wishes to drive out that vagrant, I too would be pleased to lend my hand.”
At Seo Gon’s words, Seo Ryul turned to face him, his eyes utterly unchanged.
And then.
Thwack!
The Folding Blade flew toward Seo Gon in an instant.
The small blade, barely a hand’s breadth long, grazed Seo Gon’s cheek and lodged itself in the arborvitae behind him.
Seo Gon froze where he stood.
“You dare command me with that three-inch tongue as though I were your inferior?”
Seo Ryul’s gaze turned glacial as he fixed Seo Gon with an icy stare.
The expression was identical to the one he’d worn while carelessly pruning a wayward branch.
That madman.
His cheek throbbed with pain.
But from the moment he’d entered the East Palace, he’d braced himself for something like this.
It wasn’t as though he’d only just met Seo Ryul.
All things considered, he’d gotten off cheaply.
“How could such a thing be?”
Seo Gon smiled as he always did, even as blood bloomed from the raw wound on his cheek, and bowed deeply.
“I merely wish to be of service to Your Highness.”
Then.
“Cough.”
A dry cough echoed from one corner of the East Palace.
“How convenient that is.”
As Seo Gon turned his gaze toward the sound, a pallid man emerged from behind a stone lantern.
Though the man covering his mouth with a white handkerchief appeared sickly, his eyes held a keenness unmarred by any cloudiness.
‘That man…’
The one being toward whom Seo Ryul alone softened.
Sa Gyeom—the strategist who bore the weight of everything at the Crown Prince’s side.
Sa Gyeom withdrew a sheet of paper from his sleeve.
“Just this morning, a letter arrived from the Mugwang Territory.”
At the mention of Mugwang Territory, Seo Gon’s eyes shifted.
Seo Ryul too turned his gaze elsewhere, cool and distant.
“From Mugwang Territory?”
“A memorial from Geum Seo Ak, Vice Chancellor of Mugwang Territory.”
Seo Ryul took the paper and unfolded it.
[Jae In has reached the point of meddling in the territory’s affairs, leveraging imperial favor.]
“Jae In?”
Seo Ryul’s eyes narrowed as he read.
News from the north concerning nothing but a single woman.
He couldn’t deal with one woman, yet here she was robbing him of his time with such drivel.
Seo Ryul was about to set the memorial aside with contempt when—
“Your Highness, might I see it?”
Seo Gon, having heard the name Jae In, reached out and received it.
As Seo Gon read Geum Seo Ak’s memorial, the corners of his mouth tightened.
So the fourth prince was letting himself be utterly distracted by So Ah, to the point of neglecting his duties?
‘That monster truly has taken So Ah to heart.’
Reading the memorial, his fingers tensed with force.
The strategist Sa Gyeom smiled then, his eyes narrowing.
“As it happens, the Yadalok People to the north have grown restless, and His Majesty the Emperor is greatly troubled. Would this not be an opportune moment to examine the affairs of Mugwang Territory, which borders the frontier?”
At this, Seo Gon straightened and bowed with proper ceremony.
“Your Highness, might I be entrusted with this northwestern matter?”

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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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