If You Claim the Fallen Heiress - Chapter 17

The uneasy feeling that she wouldn’t get Geon back so easily made Yuseol restless. If she lost Geon on top of having her status stripped away and being separated from her family, how could she possibly go on living?

“If you’re keeping him detained because that dog might threaten people….”

“…….”

“I’ll take him and leave this place.”

Yuseol pressed her lips together resolutely. Though her chest felt hollow, she reminded herself that she had once lived with just Geon before and could do so again. Just like eight years ago, when she had just turned twelve….

Even back then, when she had come for physical training with her master, Museolwon’s mountains had been treacherous. Yuseol, caught in the worst possible weather—thick fog and a blizzard—lost sight of her master, who had been walking ahead.

Though she knew how to start a fire in the woods or find her way, neither was easy. The trees in Museolwon were too damp to ignite, and the dense fog made it impossible to walk straight in any direction.

For three days, she melted snow to quench her thirst, but the gnawing hunger grew unbearable. Eventually, exhausted, she stopped near the snowy peak.

She remembered the snowfield as blindingly bright under the midday sun. For some reason, it felt like the threshold to paradise, the afterlife. Not a single human footprint marked the pristine white expanse.

Instead of people, a wolfhound as large as a man stood at the edge of the snowfield. It paced warily, as if hungry.

Despite her urge to flee, Yuseol’s body refused to move. She stared at the wolfhound for a long time. She wanted to see something alive—it made her feel less utterly disconnected from the world.

How much time passed like that?

When the sun set, the wolfhound approached. She thought it would devour her.

But once it reached her, it simply sniffed her and lay down beside her. The warmth of its fur against her hand was comforting. Without thinking, she hugged the wolfhound, too numb to feel fear.

They say that in life, you inevitably encounter something called fate—something so powerful and absolute that you can neither choose nor defy it.

At that moment, she felt she had finally met what she had been searching for all along. For the first time in her life, Yuseol felt bound to something so deeply that sharing its warmth brought her to tears. She fell asleep like that.

When she woke again, a pile of fresh berries lay beside her head. Though everything around her was barren and desolate, the gifts the wolfhound brought were beautiful and sweet.

In the palace, they called such things presents. She happily tucked the beast’s offerings into her arms and began eating them as she admired the snowfield. It felt like a dream.

For the next three days, she and Geon wandered together, moving wherever the weather allowed.

All that time, Geon tried to show her only the safest and most beautiful parts of the world. Every path he led her down proved it.

From then on, Yuseol began dreading the thought of returning. Though she missed the sisters she had grown close to, she couldn’t bring herself to turn back. Going home meant proving, over and over, that Han Yuseol was someone who could protect the Han family. And the more she proved it, the more she feared the next failure.

Living like this was far happier. Because she had met Geon—like fate.

A few more days passed. As the snow melted in the warmer weather, they descended to the mountainside for water.

Then, she heard someone calling her name. It sounded like Jung-woon, her father’s retainer, had come searching for her.

Cupping the stream water in her hands, she looked at Geon. He watched her from atop a distant rock.

“Young lady! Young lady! Where are you?”

Yuseol didn’t answer. She truly didn’t want to go back.

Her father hadn’t even asked for her consent before bringing her into this world. Since she hadn’t been born by her own will, she had always thought she should at least choose where she died. And if that place couldn’t be a battlefield, then Museolwon would do. It was as beautiful as paradise, and Geon was by her side. That was reason enough.

She quickly drank the water and tried to slip away. But Jung-woon’s voice grew closer, and soon his face appeared between the trees.

“Young lady? Young lady! I’ve found Lady Yuseol!”