Even If Flowers Bloom on a Broken Branch - Chapter 100

—————
This chapter was translated by Lunox Novels. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
—————

100.
Jinpyeong found this entire situation amusing.
It was a sadistic mood, bordering on delight.
The woman who had once arrogantly held her head high as if the whole world belonged to her was now kneeling on the ground, infinitely wretched; the anticipation of completely ending her life in a few moments, and even thinking about how to handle her corpse—all of it was enjoyable.
Thus, he generously granted her request.
‘She won’t even be in this world in a few moments anyway.’
What was so difficult about listening to a single word from her?
With a smirk bordering on sarcasm playing on his lips, Jinpyeong nodded his head slightly.
“I grant it.”
At Jinpyeong’s gesture, the Imperial Guards stepped back. Sangseon also bowed his head slightly and took a step back.
Even so, a person who was once the Queen was now standing at the final crossroad to the afterlife.
Some said that compared to her crimes, the Poisonous Drink was a generous treatment, but since she had plunged to the dirt floor from the high Jade Throne, her misery must be beyond description.
After all, it always hurt more to fall from a high place.
“Very well, what are your final words?”
Jinpyeong tilted his head as if granting a final mercy.
Eun-oh looked up at Jinpyeong, who leaned toward her. His lips, laced with a sharp sneer, were close by. Close enough to feel his breath.
“……Your Majesty.”
Eun-oh slowly raised her knees.
It was a very minor movement. It looked as if she were merely adjusting her posture. No one thought it strange.
Eun-oh lifted her head and brought her lips close to Jinpyeong’s ear. It was a distance so close that their breaths almost brushed. It was a very brief, fleeting moment in which everyone believed she would whisper her final testament.
But Eun-oh did not say anything. Instead of her lips, she moved her hand.
“……!”
Watching them with a sharp gaze, Jinyul’s eyes widened.
Eun-oh grabbed the Silver Hairpin that was holding her hair in place. The moment she pulled the hairpin out at once, her long, long hair that reached her waist rolled like a wave over her white mourning clothes.
“Your Majesty!”
Jinyul moved his body immediately. At his movement, the Commander of the Royal Guard and Sangseon stepped forward at the same time.
It was before Jinyul’s tongue could even form the next words. It was just when the Imperial Guards standing behind Jinpyeong were about to rush forward. However, Eun-oh moved faster than any of them.
“To the afterlife at least, we must go together!”
There was no hesitation. There was no reluctance. Harnessing all her strength into the rebound of the motion that pulled out the hairpin, Eun-oh plunged the dagger in her hand toward Jinpyeong’s neck.
“……!”
The sharp tip of the hairpin, thrust home in a single breath, stabbed through the flesh and pierced the muscle to lodge itself firmly.
Jinpyeong’s eyes bulged as if they were about to pop out. Blood sprouted from his wound and his mouth, from which he couldn’t even squeeze out a death rattle. His hands flailed in the air as if groping blindly.
“Your Majesty!”
Someone’s, or perhaps several people’s screams tangled together, shaking the air belatedly.
It was surreal.
The Imperial Guards froze on the spot, Sangseon’s legs gave out and he dropped to his knees, and Jinyul moved reflexively to pull Lee Yeon around into his embrace.
Without a shred of hesitation, he blocked the view in front of Lee Yeon.
“Don’t look yet.”
Jinyul pressed the back of Lee Yeon’s head with his thick arm to stop her from seeing or hearing anything.
Even so, because the exact nature of the horrific scene was vividly pictured in her mind, Lee Yeon’s body stiffened rigidly as she was held tightly by Jinyul.
Jinyul whispered into Lee Yeon’s ear.
“Never turn around. Don’t even open your eyes, and cover your ears tightly with these hands.”
Turning his head, Jinyul’s eyes met Sangseon’s. Standing right next to Jinpyeong, he looked utterly shocked.
But that was only for a moment; the instant he saw Lee Yeon held in Jinyul’s arms, his heavily wrinkled face hardened tightly. He moved immediately.
“I shall escort the Grand Princess Consort.”
Reading the shape of his mouth, Jinyul nodded with a hardened face.
All Officials were frozen to the spot as if nailed down by the event that occurred in the blink of an eye. Even the Three State Councillors turned pale, unable to even let out a scream. It was a gruesome thing that happened in an instant, a truly fleeting moment like the blink of an eye.
And Eun-oh,
“…….”
She was smiling.
From her slightly parted lips, a short laugh escaped soon after.
Eun-oh looked down at Jinpyeong, who was trembling as he lay collapsed on the ground. The red blood flowing from his neck was staining the dirt floor black.
‘I…… did it.’
It was the first time.
This overwhelming feeling as if something had tightly filled the depths of her chest, and this thrilling ecstasy that made her hands tremble violently, were sensations she had never felt before in her life.
At the bizarre sense of fulfillment that seemed to fill up her empty insides, Eun-oh laughed out loud.
‘I finally did it.’
It was a sense of achievement that she had definitely accomplished something before being dragged into the mire. It was the feeling of a victor who had killed someone else before herself. Eun-oh laughed like a maniac in the ecstasy that she had finally ended with her own hands the enemy who had tormented her so much.
Because her appearance, laughing wildly as if she didn’t even fear her own impending end, was so strangely gruesome and horrific, no one could say a single word at that moment.
“……Whew.”
After laughing like a madwoman, Eun-oh looked down at the dagger held in her hand. Horrifyingly, the silver hairpin was drenched in blood. She tossed it onto the ground carelessly.
Clang—
It was at that moment. As if everyone had awoken from a dream, as if they were finally released after being pressed down by a terrible nightmare, they snapped back to their senses.
Eun-oh turned around. And she ran without hesitation. Grabbing the hem of her skirt, she scaled the wall and dashed frantically between the graves.
Belatedly snapping back to his senses, someone shouted from behind.
“Capture her! She is a traitor who assassinated His Majesty!”
The Commander of the Royal Guard grit his teeth and scaled the wall. Following behind him, the Imperial Guards dashed forward. The sin of failing to prevent the disaster that had just occurred was something they couldn’t repay even with death.
Yet Eun-oh was truly fleeing with all her might. Although she knew herself that she would be caught before long, she was running with her absolute best, really with all her dying strength.
It was a time when everyone was in utter confusion over the shock of the King’s death, on top of never having even imagined that the deposed Queen would commit such an act. Jinyul moved.
“Give that to me.”
He snatched the bow of an Imperial Guard standing next to him. There was no hesitation in his motion of drawing the bowstring. Down below, only Eun-oh’s back, flashing white between the graves, entered his vision.
The bowstring grew taut. And the moment he released the bow with a twang, Jinyul muttered.
“……Got you.”
Leaving the string, the arrow flew at high speed. Slicing and tearing through the air, the swiftly shot arrow struck the back of the murderer who had committed high treason,
Thud!
And pierced right through.

—————
This chapter was translated by Lunox Novels. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
—————