Even If Flowers Bloom on a Broken Branch - Chapter 22

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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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22.
Upon hearing later that Lee Yeon had taken in her mother and younger sibling and that her mother’s illness was nearly cured, Hong Ran wept so hard she almost fainted.
‘I, all this time, how much…….’
She wept as she thanked Lee Yeon over and over, bowing repeatedly, crying out that it had been so hard, so painful, and that she could not rest easy for even a single hour of the day because she was so worried about her mother.
‘Many times more than when I learned I no longer had to be chased by debt.’
Her mother’s illness had been a far heavier burden to Hong Ran than financial matters.
Sitting by the head of Hong Ran, who had fallen asleep from exhaustion after weeping, Lee Yeon quietly looked down at her.
‘I will entrust my life to you, My Lady. Please use me. I will do whatever you command.’
Back then, Lee Yeon had covered Hong Ran’s chapped lips—lips that declared she would not shrink even from death—with her palm.
Death, one’s life, was not something to be spoken of so lightly.
‘So that was how you ended up entering the palace.’
Lacking the money to pay for her mother’s medicine, she had chosen the path of a palace maid to reduce the number of mouths to feed and to earn money for the medicine.
‘And then, you caught Jinpyeong’s eye.’
Before the Regression, the time Hong Ran received Royal Grace was several years after she herself had become Queen, so during that period, Hong Ran must have spent a lonely time all by herself in an unfamiliar palace with no one to rely on.
A time of tears that must have been lonely and arduous.
‘……You must have suffered greatly.’
Lee Yeon slowly stroked Hong Ran’s hair.
‘It must have been deeply exhausting.’
She was the one who had entered as a concubine.
She had received Royal Grace but had not even received a Cheopji, and she herself had resented the girl truly deeply back then.
Though what was more terrifying than hatred was indifference.
‘It wasn’t that you did nothing back then…… it was that you could do nothing.’
She must have been holding her breath, terrified lest a stray spark fly her way.
‘Since the only weapon you possessed would have been the King’s seed quickening in your womb.’
Stroking Hong Ran’s disheveled hair, Lee Yeon turned her head. It was because she sensed Jinyul’s strange gaze.
When his eyes met Lee Yeon’s, Jinyul slightly curved his eyes, but he looked as though he had a great deal to say.
“Why do you look at me so?”
“Because my feelings are quite complicated.”
Lee Yeon tilted her head.
‘Is there something weighing on his mind?’
If so, she had a guess of her own.
“Could it be Chae Mun, whom that man spoke of during the day…….”
“Am I allowed to be jealous of a woman?”
“……Pardon?”
“Hmm?”
Lee Yeon blinked.
After staring at Jinyul for a moment, Lee Yeon looked at Hong Ran, and then looked back at Jinyul.
Her ears turned a little red.
“J-Jealousy, you say?”
“When you stroke her hair with such tender eyes, how could I, as your lover, not feel jealous? You look at her as if you have found a lover from whom you were parted.”
Part of it was right, and part of it was wrong.
It was true she had found someone she lost, but she was not a lover.
Turning his head, Jinyul said,
“There is no reward at all for the one who went through the trouble of rescuing her…….”
Jinyul trailed off.
He froze for a moment, then slowly raised his head.
Before he knew it, Lee Yeon was standing right in front of him. Meeting his gaze, Lee Yeon spoke awkwardly.
“B-Because you said you were jealous.”
Jinyul slowly raised his hand and touched his own head. It brushed against Lee Yeon’s hand, which had been resting on his blue-black hair.
With a startled expression, Lee Yeon belatedly tried to pull her hand away.
“If peradventure I have offended you—”
In that instant, Lee Yeon let out a short gasp. It was because Jinyul had suddenly reached out and snatched her by the waist.
When she came to her senses, she was sitting upon his knees.
Lee Yeon’s face flushed crimson.
“G-Grand Prince!”
“I believe I told you to call me Yul.”
At the low voice heard from such close proximity, Lee Yeon froze, unable to move. She felt that if she raised her head even a fraction, her lips would bump into his.
Jinyul wrapped his arms around Lee Yeon as she sat upon his thighs. The body that fit so completely within his embrace shrank back, making her seem even smaller.
Utterly trapped against his body, Lee Yeon offered a small protest.
“Th-This posture is far too unseemly.”
“Unseemly? It is intimate.”
When you have taken far more extreme postures than this—at the teasingly added words, Lee Yeon did not know what to do.
Looking down at her, Jinyul slowly rested his chin upon her tender shoulder.
“You are truly mysterious, My Lady.”
Every time he spoke, a rumbling vibration transmitted through Lee Yeon’s body.
“At times like this, you seem like an infinitely innocent maiden, yet the glimpses I catch of you occasionally surprise me greatly.”
Jinyul recalled Lee Yeon commanding the man earlier.
‘If you knew it was wrong, you should not have done it. If you knew he had a family, you should not have taken him away. You should not have even thought of killing him!’
He had not known Lee Yeon for long, but it was his first time seeing such a side to her.
If described by color, it was not bright red, but deep blue. Lee Yeon had been burning with a rage so fierce that it conversely appeared cold.
What was even more astonishing came after.
‘Whether at the Euigeumbu Execution Ground or here, there is no difference in the fact that you will meet your death. What are you all doing! Execute that man at once!’
For a split second, he felt as though he were in the palace at that moment. He fell into the illusion that he was truly standing at the Euigeumbu Execution Ground.
Lee Yeon, standing upon the stone step, felt just like a Queen. It was truly that kind of spirit.
“Which one is the real you?”
Jinyul looked down at Lee Yeon. His gaze collided with Lee Yeon’s, who had been listening intently while held in his embrace.
‘That thought occurred to me then.’
For the first time, such a desire had arisen.
He had never once imagined himself sitting upon the throne, yet—.
“You…….”
I want to make you Queen. I want to see Lee Yeon adorned in the robes of a Queen.
Just then, Lee Yeon shifted slightly.
“……!”
Jinyul’s eyes widened.
It was because Lee Yeon had placed Jinyul’s hand against her own cheek.
“I, too, find myself unfamiliar.”
Lee Yeon spoke as she buried her face into his hand. Her ears were as red as cherries.
“Every day, I discover a side of myself I never knew my whole life. It is always like that when I am with you. Because it feels so foreign, there are times I want to stop, but…….”
In truth, she did not want to stop. She was afraid that if she applied the brakes, she might never burn like this again.
It was just as Lee Yeon was about to part her lips again.
“……!”
Hot lips overlapped hers.
It was not like last time, an assault like a crashing wave, a tempestuous kiss that swept her away until she lost her senses.
Lee Yeon slowly accepted Jinyul’s lips, which approached softly and touched down as carefully as a seal. The two pairs of lips pressed together without an atom of space between them.
“Do not stop.”
Jinyul whispered while their lips were still joined. Following that movement, Lee Yeon’s lips moved in tandem.
“Not even for a brief moment, do not stop.”
Saliva flowed between the repeatedly overlapping lips. As if even that were too precious to waste, Jinyul sweetly licked it away with the tip of his tongue and lifted Lee Yeon’s chin.
And he hotly sought the lips of Lee Yeon, who had wrapped both her arms around his neck.
It was the reward he truly desired.

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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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