If You Claim the Fallen Heiress - Chapter 35

It was the first time Yuseol had worn flower shoes since the people from the government office had appeared. It was because she had been saving them, not wanting to dirty the fine red silk.

No… but how does he remember that she had been wearing straw sandals all this time?

Yuseol’s eyes, filled with doubt, examined Mu-yeong. Then he opened the lid of a small jar on the table and asked.

“Do you like sweet things?”

It was clearly a cold voice, but somehow it sounded like coaxing a child who liked snacks. Though she had loved honey to the point of tears, she became calm in the face of what felt like a wolf’s den.

“I neither particularly like nor dislike them.”

Quite some time passed like that.

He took out Geon’s earring as if showing off and held it between his index finger and thumb.

“This?”

In some ways he seemed like a man with proper aspects, but in other ways, no one could be more shameless than him. She had received a similar feeling at their first meeting, so he was probably closer to the latter.

She raised her guard and entered his room.

For some reason, a very pleasant fragrance brushed her nose. It seemed like various flower scents that couldn’t be identified as just one type. It was a fragrance she could often smell from Geon when he came back from napping in a flower field full of sunlight. Her mood became strange at the garden fragrance that evoked memories.

Yuseol sat facing him with her lower lip firmly bitten. Three soft cushions were laid out. She had definitely had something to say, but immediately forgot it. She had been in this kind of confused state lately.

Yuseol let out her tense breath all at once and opened her mouth.

“Please return the earring.”

He put the earring in his palm and answered as if asking what she was talking about.

“I think I asked if you liked it.”

“…….”

“Did I say I’d give it to you?”

Yuseol swallowed her desire to protest about where such logic existed. Then she looked around the room from the corner of her eye to try to understand him.

Unlike the simple outer quarters, it was a splendid room. Celadon pieces rarely seen even in the palace were shining on a mother-of-pearl chest of five colors, and ink paintings that gave glimpses of ancient times were displayed in the cabinet. It seemed to show the power of the Choi family, who had maintained their status as a prestigious family for thousands of years.

Yuseol naturally opened her mouth.

“You must be very close friends with the head of this house. Thank you for inviting me to such a wonderful place.”

Yuseol, who had made small talk as greeting, looked at the dark reddish-brown table. It was made exactly the same as the table in the outer quarters.

But though it had seemed like it was for two or more people, was it this small? It was strange that it felt like a single-person table just because he was in front of her.

Then a servant brought freshly baked and thinly sliced rice cake and honey as snacks.

Though she had just finished eating a little while ago, Yuseol couldn’t take her eyes off the snacks. Rice cake and honey were her favorite snacks.

Though her heart wanted to immediately dip the warm rice cake in honey and fill her mouth with it, she felt like she wouldn’t be able to swallow it at all because of the person in front of her. She just looked at him like someone in a standoff with the snacks placed in the center.

Since it was evening, the room had darkened and the oil lamp shone. His eyes, which she looked at carefully beyond the light, appeared ordinarily black.

She felt puzzled.

Previously, they had definitely been a mysterious green color….

Had she seen wrong because she was distracted?

He scooped honey with a communal spoon and served it on her plate. Next to it, he neatly placed rice cake. As his hand with protruding veins moved in front of her eyes while holding chopsticks, Yuseol deliberately turned her attention elsewhere. It seemed good to gather information about Mu-yeong.

“I heard you’re unmarried.”

Hearing those words, he seemed to feel suspicious about the intentions of the woman who had suddenly come to visit. He didn’t particularly answer anything, but his expression when they looked at each other was like that.

Feeling his gaze, she looked down at the small flower vase on the table and then met his eyes.

“You have what seems like a woman’s norigae, so I had misunderstood.”

Then she examined his camellia norigae. She was curious what meaning the norigae held for an unmarried man with no lover.

But there was no way the taciturn man would tell her about the norigae. Yuseol casually poured water into a cup and asked.

“I’d like to ask if you ever really intend to return Geon someday.”

It was an answer that could be given right away without much difficulty. But he seemed to have no intention of answering, and Yuseol sadly felt a premonition that she might never see Geon again.

Her dry voice subtly revealed anxious emotion.

“Please answer me. It’s truly an important matter to me.”

She probably had an expression like she was about to cry. Because her emotions had been welling up since earlier.

Watching that face, he seemed determined to make Yuseol cry as he calmly put the earring on his own ear and answered.

“We’ll see how you do.”