If You Claim the Fallen Heiress - Chapter 61

Yuseol, with an empty expression, looked around the study. It was a quiet and secretive space befitting the taste of a cold and taciturn man.

She felt like she had fled from a tumultuous death and hidden in a life where no light entered. Yuseol’s sunken voice filled the study.

“I think His Majesty has come to collect my corpse.”

Myoyeon didn’t deny those words while revealing his firm thoughts.

“Even if that’s so, our position is that we won’t hand you over, my lady.”

Yuseol’s eyes looking at Myoyeon wavered, tinged with anxiety. If they were discovered while hiding helplessly like this… Wouldn’t trying to preserve her life be driving the people here into a deadly situation?

Yuseol’s pale lips moved urgently.

“The more I think about it, I don’t think I can continue receiving help from the Choi family like this. I’ll leave this place before it’s too late and find a place to hide. If Geon returns, please protect him well.”

She tried to leave the study urgently, just as she had before. She had lost her composure due to anxiety about being discovered.

Myoyeon calmly approached such a Yuseol. Then he met her gaze to reassure her and said.

“Lady Yuseol, you must stay calm especially at times like this. We will protect you here.”

When seen from a distance, he was a delicate and gentle-feeling boy. However, looking up at him from right in front, his unsmiling eyes looked sharp and solid. His thin body felt reassuring because it was all bone and muscle.

Such words from Myoyeon were trustworthy, but Yuseol didn’t want to share her danger with others. Yuseol’s eyes, which seemed about to cry from being unable to bear the anxiety, looked up at Myoyeon.

“But I can’t let people become endangered because of me.”

After deep consideration, Myoyeon answered.

“I understand your feelings, my lady… but if you, who had been processed as dead, were discovered, Museolwon wouldn’t be able to avoid responsibility no matter where that place is.”

Yuseol couldn’t deny those words and lowered her head. Her eyes were dark as if trapped in a pitch-black prison.

“…I see.”

Myoyeon, who had been observing her, offered a small cloth ornament with strings attached.

“Oh, I came to give you this but almost had a disaster.”

Yuseol received the cloth ornament and examined it.

“What is this?”

“Preparing for any emergency, I asked the women here to wear ornaments on their heads that cover their eyes. Everyone except servants who need to work are wearing them, so it won’t be easy for the soldiers to pick out the women’s faces.”

Yuseol nodded.

Whoosh. The sound of wind seeping through the door gap filled the silence. Myoyeon lightly clenched his fist, cleared his throat, and smoothly changed the subject.

“But I was a bit surprised that you were in an unexpected place today. How did you come to be at the quarters in front of Sahwa?”

“That’s… the child I met in the forest before came in urgently, so I followed and it happened that way.”

Myoyeon looked down at Yuseol with puzzled eyes.

“Such a thing happened. But that place is where Lord Mu-yeong spends time alone, and no child has ever entered there before.”

“…….”

“Did you also meet Lord Mu-yeong there?”

She suddenly pressed her heated cheeks with the back of her hand and avoided Myoyeon’s gaze. Her lips, unable to find a proper answer, just kept moving helplessly. It felt like the sensations and body temperature that had swept over her frantically earlier were wrapping around her entire body again. She rubbed her nape with trembling hands and answered.

“Yes, and Lord Mu-yeong left that place when there was a report that His Majesty’s palanquin was visible.”

Jingle jingle. The wind that seeped through the slightly open door gap touched the bell hanging on the window. Suddenly Yuseol’s gaze examined the door gap.

The yard of the outer quarters where she was staying was visible first. This seemed to be the second floor where he had been drinking tea.

Yuseol became curious. What thoughts had he been thinking while looking at the yard? And what thoughts had he been thinking while coveting the lips of a woman who had nothing? Had he been expecting her to suffer from shame and self-reproach?

Yuseol, whose chest somewhere had become tingling, bit her lower lip.

As always, dawn departed without lingering. The sun that began to rise tinted Museolwon in a dim golden light.

In Yuseol’s eyes directed toward the door gap, the scene of court officials carrying a palanquin up appeared. It seemed Kim Seon had finally arrived. She had waited for him so much until receiving the poison…. Why did it have to be now?

The procession continued. The court officials who entered through the gate of the lower village hastily cleared away the tables and leveled the ground. The king’s luxurious palanquin was approaching the gate. Dragons, phoenixes, and clouds carved in gold shone under the gentle sun.

With just the colors that overwhelmed her vision, Yuseol clasped her hands together and lowered her head. Her thin body trembled visibly.

Myoyeon looked down at her with pity.

“Your complexion is pale. How about calming your mind a bit in the bedroom?”

He poured tea from the kettle on the brazier and handed it to Yuseol. She received the teacup with both hands and warmed her hands with the warmth.

She didn’t feel like hiding in the bedroom right now. She wanted to see clearly. She had to see the face of the man who had given her poison and destroyed her family. Yuseol’s sharp gaze looked toward the window gap.

Right on cue, the king’s palanquin began climbing past the lower village. Boom boom, when the bell sound announcing the king’s procession rang out, a villager who had been heading to the lower village carrying a water jar on their head stepped aside and bowed their head.