If You Claim the Fallen Heiress - Chapter 41

Swoosh. The changho door with the clear breath of pine trees opened. Myoyeon, who followed Mu-yeong out, headed toward the back passage first.

Mu-yeong walked out through the corridor where darkness was beginning to fall. His slow steps stopped in front of his first-floor bedchamber.

Yanghui, who had been guarding his back, bowed her head and asked.

“The lady hasn’t awakened yet. Would you like to check her condition?”

Mu-yeong’s index finger rested on the changho door of the bedchamber. For a moment there was no movement. Yanghui, who had been waiting, slightly raised her head to gauge the atmosphere.

Then his lips revealed under the gat moved belatedly.

“Let’s do that.”

The sunset light inside the wooden floor, softened by evening, illuminated his smooth face. It would be the light of the last season he would experience at Museolwon. Light and darkness seeped into his beautifully colored pupils.

Yanghui, who had been hesitating, opened the door.

“Then please call me when you need anything.”

He nodded and moved his steps into the bedchamber. His thick, long fingers smoothly traced the door.

Thud. As the door closed, he looked around the room in the silence that returned.

On one side, silk blankets were laid out softly. She was sleeping on a gold-embroidered coverlet. Because her face was buried in the square pillow, it was impossible to know what dreams she was having.

Mu-yeong stood in front of the wide-open window and turned his body.

His face with his back to the sunset was particularly dark. From within, slowly glinting pupils watched Yuseol. For a gaze looking at an unmoving subject, it had a persistent quality.

Yuseol was the first person he had brought to Museolwon, which he had visited alone every year. It was because of a connection with her from very long ago.

Of course, it was a connection that Mu-yeong remembered but she didn’t. People of the world didn’t count such things as connections, and he agreed with that view.

He had shown vague kindness. Whatever he shared with her, he had enough possessions not to be affected.

He had thought it would be a connection that would end while maintaining such appropriate distance. That had been the case until he accidentally met her.

“I am Han Yuseol, staying at the mountain lodge. I’m looking for my dog, who went missing this morning. He’s a wolfdog with thick gray fur, have you seen him by any chance?”

“That dog, do you think you can find it?”

“I have to find him.”

“How long do you plan to search?”

“Until I find him.”

The sky that day was purple. The red camellia flowers by the river and she sparkled purple.

Then the humid wind from the riverside had touched Mu-yeong’s cheek. When he tried to rub away the sensation that was always unpleasantly annoying, what he saw was her again. He could see her face restraining the desire to run away in front of a man of unclear status. She was concentrating while blinking eyes that seemed quite sad.

So everything was for that dog.

Mu-yeong forgot about rubbing his cheek and colored his pupils with interest.

“More than that, I’m curious. You said you felt like you’d seen me somewhere, right?”

“Yes. Did I?”

“I’d like you to answer that.”

“…….”

“Then I’ll return that dog to you. Alive.”

Her face gradually became colored with despair. Soon her lower lip, not knowing what to do, was firmly pressed together. A fine-colored blush appeared on her cheeks.

Taking that sight into his eyes, Mu-yeong turned around. His gaze, colored with pleasure, swept over the fragile shadow on the ground. The stride he had been taking with long legs gradually shortened. Even knowing this, he deliberately didn’t stop it.

He needed something interesting. He had liked this world for extremely little time and had been bored with it much longer. A life without attachments was probably originally like that.

Several days passed like that, and he could hear news of her situation. She was said to be still looking for the dog unchanged.

Mu-yeong felt quite unpleasant. So he had only stimulated her a little.

“Warm my bed. Give up the dog.”

“…….”

“Or live as if dead.”

He was curious. What choice would she ultimately make? It was one of Mu-yeong’s few interests lately.

Time passed in the bedchamber. The brilliant sunset faded and moonlight revealed its subtle form.

She remained in the same position lying on her side with one hand on the square pillow throughout. She seemed not even to be breathing.

An unstable light appeared in Mu-yeong’s pupils of subtle color. Those eyes began searching for traces that she was breathing now. They passed over her pale, delicate hands and headed toward her nape. There was only the feeling that she would break if grasped even slightly, with no sense of vitality.

Suddenly Mu-yeong recalled a flower that grew only in Museolwon. Its name was hongyeon, a red lotus that bloomed by the riverside in summer. Its characteristic was the audacity of drooping while withered, then catching and eating flying prey. The survival methods of small, fragile things were originally similar.

He was thinking of heading to the study. If there had been a health problem with her, Yanghui would have known already.

Step by step. His footsteps headed toward the door. Then they suddenly stopped in front of the mother-of-pearl chest in the center of the room.

His cool gaze moved to the area around Yuseol’s legs. Her shins visible at the edge of her socks were pale without blood. It wouldn’t be strange to say she was in a dead state.

Time continued to pass.

He who had wiped his mouth with the back of his hand walked to the window again. Soon he closed the window that he usually kept mostly open.

Bang. A rough sound rang through the room.