Even If Flowers Bloom on a Broken Branch - Chapter 15

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This chapter was translated by Lunox Novels. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
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15.
Lee Yeon bit her lip hard.
The moment she met Jinyul, the memories of the past that had vanished like smoke returned to her mind like a nightmare.
‘That voice, that intonation, that manner of speaking.’
In Jinyul’s message, the King’s manner of speaking and Jinpyeong’s voice could be heard vividly.
At that moment, Lee Yeon’s entire body went cold. Her spine stiffened and her fingertips felt paralyzed.
She choked up. The air felt frozen solid.
“Lee Yeon?”
Even before Jinyul’s voice could reach her, another voice was echoing inside Lee Yeon’s head.
‘Tear the corpse of the sinner Seo Yeo-ro to pieces and scatter it in the animal cages.’
The smell of that moment, the stench of blood, came back vividly. The voice of the man she hated with all her heart spread like an echo.
Jinpyeong had deliberately given that cruel command right in front of the Cold Palace where she was confined.
The thought of hearing that voice again made her hands and feet turn as cold as ice.
“Lee Yeon.”
She thought she had escaped that fiendish man through death. She believed she had fled from the King’s clutches, from the shackles named fate.
‘But it was a miscalculation.’
A single sentence sent Lee Yeon right back to the past.
Forcing her to sink helplessly into the swamp of despair.
‘As the Grand Princess Consort, it is only natural to meet the King.’
She knew it.
She knew it, but it terrified her all over again. She was scared. The thought of facing those cold eyes made her entire body tremble.
Lee Yeon clutched her head with her shivering hands.
The sound of her pounding heart thudded against her ears. Her breath came in short gasps, and her vision blurred.
‘I want to escape. I want to stop hearing it. From the memories of the past, from the nightmares filling this head—.’
“Grand Princess Consort!”
At the sharp cry ringing in her ears, Lee Yeon snapped her eyes open.
She couldn’t even remember when she had closed them. She thought she was just being dragged helplessly into the darkness, but without realizing it, she had closed her eyes and curled her body up.
And before her stood Jinyul. He was facing her, holding both of her shoulders firmly with his hands.
“Are you conscious now?”
Lee Yeon slowly inhaled.
The man in front of her was not Jinpyeong.
Only after confirming that Lee Yeon’s eyes had refocused did Jinyul finally exhale a sigh of relief.
‘Grand Prince…… Jinyul.’
Lee Yeon stared at his face, then slowly shifted her gaze downward. Jinyul was kneeling on both knees. On the floor, right in front of her.
‘Those knees, which would never kneel even before the King even if he were to die…….’
Staring blankly at Jinyul, Lee Yeon parted her lips.
Along with her ragged breathing, a slender voice spilled out fitfully.
“I vowed…… revenge…….”
But because I am this weak, I am deeply ashamed.
With those final words, Lee Yeon leaned her cheek against Jinyul’s hand, which was holding her shoulder firmly, and lost consciousness.
* * *
“Lee Yeon!”
Jinyul firmly caught Lee Yeon as she lost consciousness. And he was slightly flustered.
‘Was she always this small?’
The body that had tumbled into his arms was exceedingly light and small.
Because she was someone who held her head high and proposed a contract marriage to him, he had implicitly thought of her as a large and sturdy person. He had deemed her no ordinary person.
But seeing her lose consciousness like this, she was merely a fragile woman. She looked just like a tired, wounded bird.
“…….”
Jinyul stared down at Lee Yeon, whose head was drooping while her cheek rested against his hand, and then slowly sat down.
Then, he carefully placed Lee Yeon’s head on his lap and let out a soft sigh.
‘What words shocked her so much?’
Jinyul recalled the words he had spoken.
‘The intention of the person who wishes to marry the Grand Prince, tell her to state it with her own mouth.’
Those were the King’s words. He had merely delivered them.
Yet the moment she heard them, Lee Yeon’s face turned deathly pale. As if she had seen a ghost, or heard something she shouldn’t have.
The emotion filling that face was clear.
‘Terror.’
It was pure terror.
However, in the voice she mumbled right before losing consciousness, an even deeper and thicker emotion was laced.
‘……It was hatred.’
It was a murderous aura that no one would believe could emanate from a body that looked as if it had never faced even a single gust of cold wind.
The kind of murderous aura one would only encounter on a battlefield at the border of life and death erupted for an instant.
And at that moment, he felt it instinctively.
‘This person is not simply trying to survive, she is someone who must destroy something.’
Jinyul looked down anew at Lee Yeon, who was unconscious with her eyes closed.
“……What on earth are you thinking?”
Jinyul also knew that Lee Yeon had been discussed as the foremost candidate for Queen. He had no choice but to know.
Because there were many rumors calling Lee Yeon foolish for throwing away the position of Queen alongside the news that she was to marry him.
Both in the Royal Court and among the public.
‘Ignoring the position of Queen that every daughter of a powerful family desires, and requesting marriage from me, who has a blade at my neck, just to avoid the Gantaek.’
It was not easy to understand.
What thoughts were contained in this small, fragile head, and exactly what was so terrifying that it made her faint.
And—
‘I vowed…… revenge…….’
For whom was that hatred-filled revenge, and who was the opponent?
It was just as he was thinking this, reaching out his hand toward the hair that had fallen over Lee Yeon’s brow.
“Lady Lee Yeon, it is Lady Han. I am coming in.”
“……!”
Jinyul flinched and withdrew his hand. But he could not get up. Because his thighs were still occupied by Lee Yeon.
Fortunately, she seemed to have transitioned from fainting to sleeping, but because he didn’t want to wake her from that either, Jinyul couldn’t even bring himself to answer.
“Lady…… Oh my!”
Lady Han, who was about to enter while cradling a dark brown wooden box in her arms, turned her head away with a sharp gasp.
What entered her vision was the sight of Jinyul sitting with Lee Yeon’s head resting on his lap.
Lady Han’s ears turned bright red in an instant.
“I, I’m sorry, I apologize! I just……!”
Toward the rambling Lady Han, Jinyul shouted in a low voice.
“Do not misunderstand. This person is…….”
“Please don’t mind me and keep doing what you were doing!”
Bang!
A brief silence ensued.
Jinyul closed his lips, then let out a soft sigh.
“What should I say to her when she wakes up?”
A small murmur could be heard from beyond the immediately closed door, but nothing reached the ears of the flushed Lady Han.
Alternately pressing her hands against her burning ears, she quickened her steps toward her own quarters while holding the box tightly in her arms.
“They are newlyweds indeed…….”
To be precise, they hadn’t held the ceremony yet, but the rumor that the two had pledged themselves to each other over a bowl of pure water had already spread far and wide.
Because of that, the people of the Seo Clan already thought of the Grand Prince as their lady’s husband.
Just then, Lady Han’s steps came to a sudden halt on her way to her quarters.
“Hold on, I must give a warning in advance so no one else interrupts their good time.”
Leaving the box carefully in her quarters, Lady Han went straight to the Side-dish Kitchen and strictly instructed everyone.
“The Grand Prince is with our lady in her room, so do not go anywhere near there.”
The sun was setting into early evening, and the new bride and her husband were together in the room.
It was just a single sentence, but the same scene flashed through everyone’s minds, and the servants nodded in unison.
Thus, the misunderstanding only deepened.

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