Even If Flowers Bloom on a Broken Branch - Chapter 18

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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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18.
People gathered early in the morning to read the Royal Edict that the King’s soldiers had posted throughout the Capital City.
The King’s announcement that he would not recognize the Grand Prince’s marriage spread across the Capital City in an instant, and people hovered outside the main gate of the Seo Family, whispering among themselves.
“If the Royal Family does not approve of Grand Prince-manim’s marriage, what will become of the young lady of this house?”
“What else? She will become a concubine. Grand Prince-manim’s concubine, I say.”
“How could…! What a disgrace. She must have firmly believed she would become the Grand Princess Consort, yet to be a concubine!”
The people standing by the gate bustled with noise.
“If only she had entered the Gantaek, she surely would have become the mother of the nation, but she made the wrong choice and incured His Majesty’s wrath. Otherwise, how could such an unprecedented declaration not to recognize a marriage ever be made?”
“Still, I cannot understand it. Has there not been a single precedent of the Royal Family refusing to recognize a wedding?”
“What does precedent matter? When it is a command from heaven, one must obey; she will have no choice but to enter his household as a concubine.”
“They call it a concubine, but in truth, it is practically…”
The muttering man barely swallowed his next words, but the exact same word sprang to everyone’s mind.
‘Is she not practically a mistress?’
The precious only daughter of a Sadaebu family, and a prestigious one at that, which had held high-ranking official posts for generations, had become a concubine in a single moment.
While everyone felt pity for that fact, they were also intrigued by it, and Lee Yeon, who had once drawn the ultimate envy of the world with an endless Nabchae procession, became an object of ridicule and gossip overnight.
The Seo Clan knew this truth as well.
“How could such a thing happen?”
Lady Han wept the entire time.
She had dismissed the servants to prevent the clamor outside the gate from reaching Lee Yeon’s ears, but there was no way the rumors would fail to reach her.
Seo Yeo-ro could not hide his shock either.
“Daegam-manim, this cannot be. Lady Lee Yeon as a concubine!”
Yet even Seo Yeo-ro had no way to resolve this.
The King’s intent to refuse recognition of the Grand Prince’s wedding was firm, and since the entire world now knew of her relationship with him, Lee Yeon was now completely the Grand Prince’s woman, no matter what.
Seo Yeo-ro gulped down cold water, feeling a burning torment inside. His gaze fell upon his daughter’s face, who sat across from him.
“……Lee Yeon.”
Her face, having heard the news together when she came for the morning greeting, was pale and expressionless.
‘She must be completely unable to think straight.’
Seo Yeo-ro understood.
It was only natural. No, it could not be helped. It must be a shock akin to the heavens collapsing.
Jinyul, who sat beside her, was also keeping silent. However, his eyes were deeply sunken with rage and bewilderment.
But Lee Yeon was thinking of something entirely different from him.
‘How like him.’
It was truly a move worthy of Jinpyeong, that man.
If it were him, a man so vicious, petty, and base, she knew he would surely do something. She had deemed that he would block her path ahead by any means necessary. Thus, she had firmly steeled her heart.
‘That I will not be shaken by anything.’
Yet, such a spiteful obstacle had been laid down.
‘To block it using the King’s authority.’
He used his head quite a bit for a man like him, Lee Yeon murmured inwardly, swallowing a sigh.
“Go and bring more cold water.”
At Seo Yeo-ro’s command, the servants withdrew with somber faces.
Lee Yeon retraced the contents of the Royal Edict in her mind.
‘The Royal Family does not recognize the marriage…… I see.’
It was a mere sixteen characters. Yet the content was cruel.
Without the Royal Family’s sanction, she could not become Jinyul’s wife. In other words, it meant the range within which she could move would inevitably be extremely limited.
‘I will likely face plenty of humiliation and mockery.’
He was venting his malice for her evading the Gantaek in this manner. Utilizing his power so malevolently.
Chae Eun-oh must have heard this news as well; it felt as though she could hear her cackling with mocking laughter.
“…….”
A faint smile graced the corners of Lee Yeon’s lips. The first one to notice it was Jinyul.
“Lee Yeon?”
“Grand Prince, you originally resided in a Private Residence, not the palace, did you not?”
“Yes.”
Jinyul nodded. Since he was always away from the Capital City, it remained vacant for more than ten months out of the year, but he did possess a Private Residence in name.
“Then there will be no reason for me to enter the palace. Since you reside in a Private Residence, I will not dwell in the palace alone,”
Lee Yeon murmured, then looked at Jinyul squarely.
“Do you perhaps have any intention of taking another woman as your wife?”
“……What?”
Having frozen for a few seconds, Jinyul looked at Lee Yeon with an expression as if doubting his own ears.
“I am asking if I will have to suffer hardships because of a wife who enters as the legal wife.”
“Lee Yeon, what on earth are you— no, do you truly think such a thing would happen?”
“If not, I do not mind the contents of the Royal Edict. I did not desire the status of Grand Princess Consort in the first place, and I also decline entering the palace.”
However, Jinyul looked as if he had a great deal he wanted to say.
With a face that possessed so much to say, he closed and opened his mouth several times before speaking in a suppressed voice.
“In my life, there is only you, one woman. I am deeply hurt.”
At those words, Lee Yeon opened her eyes wide. It was because she had not anticipated this kind of reaction.
But Jinyul turned his head away sharply, looking genuinely upset.
A faint bewilderment flickered in Lee Yeon’s eyes.
‘Oh dear…… did I make a mistake?’
She had merely wanted confirmation, but it seemed her method had been wrong.
Lee Yeon tilted her head slightly and looked up at Jinyul.
“Are you perhaps pouting?”
“Pout—.”
Jinyul’s lips, which had been tightly shut like a clam, opened immediately.
“I am hurt. We spent our first night together just yesterday, yet where in the world is there a bride who asks such a question to her new groom?”
“……!”
This time, Lee Yeon could say nothing. Because upon hearing the words ‘first night’ so openly, she did not know how to react.
The memory of last night flashed through her mind like a bolt of lightning.
It was then.
“Ahem, hem…….”
An awkward sound of clearing a throat was heard.
It was a small protest from Seo Yeo-ro, signaling that he was still here as well.
Lee Yeon hid her reddened face behind her completely cooled teacup, cooling her heated lips.
“……I am also equally surprised by the Royal Edict.”
Lee Yeon said calmly as she set the teacup down.
“Its purpose must be to punish me and my father. It is no different from publicly stating that I am unqualified to stand by the Grand Prince’s side. However.”
Lee Yeon smiled faintly.
“It does not matter.”
She meant it.
“As long as there is love, it is enough. If only there is a promise that you will not abandon me, and that you will not make me suffer, I will not be shaken.”
Before her regression, she had lived such a life.
Jinpyeong had poured out hatred instead of love, and Chae Eun-oh had tormented Lee Yeon in various ways while simultaneously driving her into a dreadful loneliness.
‘Status does not matter.’
Who was by her side, whether that person was her man, and whether he would remain unchanging; those were far more important to Lee Yeon.
And she believed this man would surely do so. Because he had promised, setting aside their contract.
Perhaps thanks to Lee Yeon’s expression, a bit of warmth began to circulate in the room that had been filled with gloom.
Seo Yeo-ro looked at his daughter with slightly surprised eyes.
‘That child…….’
Was she always this resolute?
He had surmised she would fall into great shock and be at a loss for what to do, but instead, she was calmly comforting Jinyul and himself.
Because it was surprising, and on the other hand, heartbreaking, Seo Yeo-ro could not say anything for a long while.
What caught his eye then was the box left behind by Lady Han.
‘It is an item that the late mistress entrusted to me. Since it is precious, she told me to absolutely give it to the young lady when she gets married.’
Lady Han was one of the few people who had read that Royal Edict first.
Having been in a fit of tears since the moment she brought the news, she had wailed as if her heart were breaking, saying:
‘My heart aches so much that I do not think I can even face the young lady. It is disgraceful, but please deliver it to her, Daegam-manim.’
Lady Han’s mistress and Lee Yeon’s mother had drawn her last breath while bringing Lee Yeon into the world. On the same day, at the same hour, in the same room, birth and death had occurred simultaneously.
Seo Yeo-ro had respected and cherished his wife, and although he felt the loss and sorrow of losing her deeply, he had never shown it to Lee Yeon.
‘To think that such an item existed.’
Lady Han had said through her tears:
‘As if she divined that she would not live long, the mistress entrusted this to me a few days before giving birth.’
What could it be? What was inside?
Since she had asked to deliver it to Lee Yeon, it was not an object meant for him. He did not feel hurt by that. Rather, he was merely amazed by his wife’s preparedness.
“Lee Yeon.”
Seo Yeo-ro grasped the small Wooden Box. When he lifted it lightly, a clicking sound was heard from within.
“Take it.”
Lee Yeon looked doubtfully at the small Wooden Box that slid toward her.
“It is an item your mother left behind for you.”
Lee Yeon looked down at the box with a startled face.
‘Mother……? Suddenly?’
It was not that she had never thought about the existence of her mother. In fact, she thought of her every day, every moment.
Lady Han and Seo Yeo-ro had not spared their love for her, yet there was still a thirst that could not be quenched.
Lest they feel hurt and sad if she revealed it, she had not shown it, but she always longed for the presence of a mother.
“They say Lady Han has kept it safely until now.”
Drip.
A tear, which she did not even realize had flowed, fell atop the Wooden Box.
Lee Yeon hurriedly rubbed the top of the box with her palm. It was a sorrowful hand, worried that the moisture might damage the box.
Jinyul rubbed the top of the box with his sleeve and lightly wiped Lee Yeon’s cheek with his finger.
Lee Yeon bit her lip and nodded. Her tears dried against the warmth of his finger.
‘I will not cry.’
Vowing that she would become strong and that she would not be shaken, Lee Yeon opened the lid of the box.
The moment the box, which had been closed for over twenty years, opened smoothly without even a small noise, the gazes of all three people directed inside simultaneously.

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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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