Even If Flowers Bloom on a Broken Branch - Chapter 40

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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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40.
The very day after the Gantaek Celebration Banquet, rumors spread like wildfire throughout the palace that the Queen had smashed all the furniture and laid hands on a palace maid, and that the King had been furiously enraged with the Queen and ordered her to be confined.
And along with that, there was one more rumor that spread in secret.
“They say His Majesty hasn’t spent a single night waking up at the Queen’s Palace since the Gantaek?”
“Day or night, they say he hasn’t even stopped by for a brief moment.”
“Then that means the two of them have never once experienced consummation.”
The rumor that the Queen had been scolded by the King spread faster than the news that a palace attendant had been struck by the Queen. And what spread even faster than that was the rumor that the Queen was still a virgin.
The rumors bred more rumors, and it took only a few days for the tail of those rumors to reach her own ears.
“What did you say?”
Eun-oh clenched her fists tightly. Her face was flushed crimson with humiliation.
Eun-oh asked sharply.
“Say that again. What did you just say?”
“His Majesty…….”
The palace maids of the Queen’s Palace, who had been summoned immediately, kept their heads bowed low while trembling violently.
“The King has never once visited this place…….”
Before she could even finish that sentence, the maid’s cheek was violently slapped sideways. Eun-oh swung her palm and struck the opposite cheek of the spinning maid with all her might. A terrifying sound erupted from the cheek that was battered by the hand wearing a ring.
Ever since the Queen had slapped Court Lady Shin’s cheek the day after the banquet, corporal punishment had become a daily routine in the Queen’s Palace. The palace attendants watched Eun-oh’s mood in every single matter and stayed out of trouble to avoid upsetting her feelings.
This time as well, no one could step forward, and they could only watch the maid being beaten.
Just then, Court Lady Shin, who had briefly stepped away, rushed over.
“Your Highness!”
Court Lady Shin went to the side of the maid who was being beaten by Eun-oh and bowed her waist deeply. A long, red scar was left on her face.
Supporting the maid who had collapsed on the floor, Court Lady Shin said.
“Please forgive them. If you show mercy, this will never happen again.”
The maids trembled and apologized with tears.
However, despite Court Lady Shin’s deterrence, Eun-oh’s rage did not stop, like an erupting volcano.
“I will weed out those who let this matter leak outside. Everyone step back, except for those who spread the rumor that the King has not visited me!”
At those words, the scanning maids slunk backward, and in the end, only six maids were left standing in the front row.
They looked back with deathly pale faces. Everyone avoided their gaze.
“Yo-Your Highness!”
The six maids standing in the front row plopped down on their knees. They clasped their hands together and begged.
“We were wrong! Please forgive us!”
“We will make sure this never happens again. We will definitely watch our mouths. Please spare our lives!”
“What are you all doing!”
Eun-oh glared at Court Lady Shin and shrieked sharply.
“Take all of these wretches away, give them eighty strokes of the paddle, and kick them out of this place to assign them to the stables!”
“Your Highness!”
The maids burst into tears and prostrated themselves on the spot.
They reached out their hands and pitifully begged for mercy, but Eun-oh ruthlessly kicked those hands away.
“I told you to take them away right now! Hurry!”
“Yes, Your Highness.”
The maids, who were terrified that the sparks might fly toward them, quickly pulled them up. Then they dragged them outside.
Soon, the punishment rack was set up, and along with screams and wails, the sound of brutal flogging could be heard.
“Aaagh!”
“Your Highness!”
Eighty strokes of the paddle was an order to be beaten to death. Screams and shrieks ran rampant at the thumping sound of the strikes.
Yet Eun-oh did not even bat an eye.
‘How dare they.’
A surge of fury and humiliation rushed up from the fact that everyone had come to know her shame. And her resentment toward Jinpyeong swirled violently.
‘How could he do this to me?’
Jinpyeong had never called for her nor visited her even once since the day he brought down his thunderous wrath upon Eun-oh. Far from visiting her quarters, he had never even shared a meal with her.
This was not simple indifference; it was blatant abandonment, neglect, and a denial of her very existence.
And this led Eun-oh to an incredibly clear conclusion.
‘Lee Yeon.’
It was because of that woman.
When she found out that the King had tried to find a way to make the Grand Prince and the Grand Princess Consort live inside the palace, she felt as if all the blood had drained from her body.
If Lee Yeon entered the palace, it was certain that she would truly be pushed into the back room.
‘It will become just like the banquet that day.’
It was obvious that everyone would look only at her. She would truly become a Queen who was nothing but an empty shell.
‘No.’
She might not even be able to maintain that much.
Eun-oh recalled what kind of eyes Jinpyeong had looked at Lee Yeon with at that banquet.
‘They were passionate eyes.’
He did not take his eyes off her for a single moment.
At the end of a gaze that he had never once given to her, that woman was always there.
But if Lee Yeon entered the palace, and if she continued to receive that gaze, what would become of her own position?
‘That can absolutely never happen.’
It was something that should not happen even in a dream. Eun-oh grit her teeth at the rising fury and anxiety.
‘I must crush that wench.’
She had to make her realize her place.
Everyone had to see her overpowering that woman. She had to make everyone see clearly that she was above her, and that she had defeated that woman.
“Court Lady Shin.”
At the cold summons, Court Lady Shin bowed her waist. Her face brightened, thinking that she was issuing an order to stop the punishment.
“Please speak.”
“Send someone to the Grand Princess Consort and have her enter the Queen’s Palace.”
However, the order Eun-oh gave was entirely different from that.
Court Lady Shin looked at Eun-oh with a shocked face at an order that might bring about yet another storm of blood.
The maids, whose faces were growing pale by the minute as they listened to the sound of the flogging, were also looking at Eun-oh with expressions of disbelief.
The corners of Eun-oh’s red lips curled up slightly.
“Today, right now.”
She intended to make that person submit to her in front of everyone.
Today, of all days, without fail.

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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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