If You Claim the Fallen Heiress - Chapter 44

Yuseol slid down from the coverlet and urgently grasped the rod.

Mu-yeong’s eyes followed the end of the rod. Then he suddenly saw the black mirror on the side of the folding screen.

In the black mirror, a tall man was kneeling on both knees facing a small woman. The man’s face, where satisfaction and craving coexisted, stood out prominently. He was satisfied with his first taste of predation while craving more.

However, regrettably, this was as far as it would go.

“If you don’t stop right now, I won’t stay still, ah, let go, let me go!”

Mu-yeong calmly lifted Yuseol’s skirt and looked down at the area around her thighs. Then he rubbed her lower abdomen, which had not an ounce of flesh, with his palm and swept upward toward her chest as if searching.

At such close distance, she couldn’t properly resist and gripped Mu-yeong’s wrist. Her nails dug into his wrist with small thuds.

Without any particular reaction, he found something finger-length and hard at her jeogori’s chest area and pulled it out. A silver dagger showing traces of time revealed its cool appearance.

The silver dagger was something that women of respectable yangban families naturally carried. Though it was sometimes used to detect suspicious food, it was more commonly used when losing one’s chastity and taking one’s own life.

However, Mu-yeong thought that was the result of brainwashing by men who didn’t want to take responsibility and didn’t want to be killed by women.

Soon he put Yuseol’s silver dagger into his waist pouch and said.

“Possessing a silver dagger in Museolwon is illegal.”

She seemed to have intended to use the silver dagger. Her cheeks flushed red with frustration, resentment, and shame. Then she became forlorn as if engulfed in despair. She resembled dew that would disappear at an unknown moment.

Mu-yeong’s pupils, with teeth clenched, trembled strangely.

“Soon Myoyeon will bring your family’s servants.”

“…….”

“How troubled would they be if you weren’t here?”

Yuseol’s gaze that had been drifting on the floor turned toward Mu-yeong. Her eyes full of sorrow were rippling. She seemed to be enduring the grief that was already surging at the mention that the Han family’s servants would come.

Should I just make her cry now?

A different kind of light spread in the pupils of the man who had lived ascetically until now. He seemed to be completely overtaken by a strange desire rising for the first time. It was the moment when his heated lips were about to move toward her again.

Then a woman’s shadow appeared on the changho door that had been pure white in the corridor’s light.

“Are you inside? I’ve finished preparations for going to see Sahwa.”

In the frozen scene, Yuseol only looked at the floor with her head lowered. Breathing mixed with shame and sighs of relief rang out.

He picked up the gat he had taken off moments before and stood up. His eyes looking down at her were utterly arrogant.

“What just happened,”

“…….”

“Consider it repayment for saving your life.”

Mu-yeong’s footsteps, which had always stridden boldly with long legs, were particularly slow today alone.

***

Night had fallen. The golden lamplight illuminated the room more luxuriously.

Yuseol sat blankly in the center of the disheveled room, staring only at the door. She was like someone whose soul had been stolen by an unknown beast.

How much time had passed?

Footsteps rang out from the corridor that had been quiet without any signs of people. A slow and leisurely feeling was conveyed.

Yuseol’s eyes hardened with tension. Soon she began searching for the bamboo rod, feeling around the floor desperately.

The rod that had been rolling around until just before was nowhere to be seen. The cushions that had been pushed to the center of the room moved toward the wall as Yuseol’s hands brushed against them.

Looking at the scattered cushions, Yuseol recalled the man again. Even after doing such things, he seemed to have no remorse whatsoever. He had only the leisure of one who bestows charity.

Did he lack the humanity that people should naturally possess?

Her bitten lips trembled.

She found and grasped the bamboo rod that had been caught between the square pillow and coverlet.

Then the approaching footsteps stopped in front of the door. A huge shadow was cast on the door.

Yuseol, who had been looking toward the door, urgently stood up. Even though she stood supporting herself on her healthy right leg, pain surged from her left ankle. She endured the sharp, piercing agony and made an indifferent face.

Swoosh. The door opened.

Myoyeon saw her and raised both eyebrows in surprise. A happy smile quickly appeared on his lips.

“Lady? You’ve awakened!”