Even If Flowers Bloom on a Broken Branch - Chapter 53

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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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53.
It was a long time after that when the moonlight pouring over her thin clothing changed into sunlight.
Cold sweat broke out on Eun-oh’s forehead, like dew forming thick on leaves.
“Your Highness.”
Court Lady Shin called out to Eun-oh in a cracked voice.
“I think it would be best for you to return for today.”
Eun-oh was not the only one who had stayed up all night. Court Lady Shin was also standing behind Eun-oh, watching the dawn break.
That was why Sangseon had looked at them with pity. If Eun-oh held out, Court Lady Shin also had to keep her place.
“More and more eyes are watching us.”
At those words, Eun-oh, who had been standing as rigid as a pillar of salt, slowly raised her head. Revealed in the early morning sunlight, her face looked like faded Hanji paper.
“Is he truly…… not coming out?”
Inwardly, she had called out and cried names countless times. She had tried pleading, protesting, and even venting her anger.
Why are you being so cruel to me, and why do you mistreat me so?
However, the person she wished would listen to those words never showed himself even after the sun rose, and only the faces she did not want to see appeared one after another.
“Your Highness.”
The palace attendants preparing for the morning at the Grand Hall were glancing over here. The eunuchs also seemed to be whispering something among themselves.
Only after Court Lady Shin urged her once more did Eun-oh finally turn around.
“I shall return.”
The time Lee Yeon had knelt in the Queen’s Courtyard was two Shijin. The Queen stood for exactly that long before returning.
It was four hours during which her adoration turned into love-hate.
* * *
Sangseon stood by the bed and reported the events of last night.
“I am told the Queen has turned back.”
“Must you deliver that news first thing in the morning?”
Jinpyeong muttered structural irritation. Perhaps because he had slept deeply last night, his voice was somewhat hoarse.
Sangseon continued speaking with his head bowed while the King adjusted his disheveled attire.
“My apologies. However, I hope you will consider Queen Eun-oh’s sincerity as well…….”
“Sincerity or whatever.”
Jinpyeong replied with a displeased face.
“Has the Queen herself ever listened to a single word of mine?”
As he rose with an angry face, the palace attendants who had been waiting outside the door with washing water entered cautiously.
Jinpyeong waited for them to wipe every corner of his face with a warm cloth before continuing.
“It was not long ago that I told her not to leave her place. Yet she deliberately defied it and wandered around the palace in the middle of the night. What is this if not a blatant disregard for me?”
“Perhaps the Queen did so because her heart was simply too suffocated. Is there not a single person in this palace for her to lean on?”
“That is for her to handle on her own.”
Jinpyeong muttered dismissively, as if it were of no consequence.
“She should be satisfied with gaining power and status. It brings glory to her family for generations and leaves her name in the Royal Family. Therefore, she must endure at least that much.”
Jinpyeong glanced at Sangseon and spoke.
“So do not defend the Queen before me anymore. Do you understand?”
It meant he should no longer speak up for Eun-oh. At the clear warning, Sangseon held his tongue and bowed his head.
In truth, Sangseon had pitied Eun-oh. He thought she must be very lonely and solitary, having to enter the palace alone and adapt to it. Furthermore, since her only husband did not show her affection even once, he believed her sense of loss must be immense.
But that did not last long.
‘Lord Sangseon!’
A few days ago, the news delivered by an urgently running eunuch was utterly shocking.
‘Six palace maids of the Queen’s Palace are being flogged!’
He thought it would be a mere lashing at most, but it was not at that level. It was a staggering eighty strokes of the heavy paddle. It was a punishment that even a grown man could not endure with his senses intact.
‘They say they are pouring cold water over them whenever they lose consciousness to keep striking them. What should we do!’
Sensing that it was no ordinary matter, he hurried over there, but it was already too late.
The wooden execution frame was so blood-stained that it was hard to see its original color, and with the flesh torn from their bodies, it was a scene of unspeakable cruelty and horror.
Yet how did the Queen behave?
‘Roll them up in straw mats and bury them. I cannot bear to look at them.’
It was a treatment hard to believe was directed at people who had served her until just a few hours ago.
‘Besides, what about that wound on Court Lady Shin’s face?’
Court Lady Shin was originally a palace attendant at the Grand Hall. She had been sent to take charge of that side after the Queen was received, and her face had ended up like that.
Sangseon’s expression grew complicated.
‘If only that lady had been here as intended.’
The person who came to Sangseon’s mind was the Grand Princess Consort whom he had met not long ago.
The only daughter of Daejehak Seo Yeo-ro and the one counted as the finest in the Royal Court and the world, that woman was truly noble and elegant.
‘So distinctly different from the woman last night.’
Sangseon bowed deeply, erasing the lingering regret that had risen in his mind.
“I shall engrave it deeply in my heart, Your Highness.”
* * *
Eun-oh was lying on a sickbed.
It was only natural, as she had endured the freezing wind all night wearing clothes too thin even for the daytime.
As soon as she returned to the Queen’s Palace, she collapsed with a high fever, leaving the palace attendants utterly bewildered and at a loss for what to do.
Normally, Court Lady Shin should have directed them to nurse Eun-oh, but she was also bedridden, having caught a severe cold.
“Lady Shin……!”
With two patients groaning with burning fevers in both rooms, the palace attendants were in a state of absolute emergency.
Court Lady Shin’s condition was even worse than Eun-oh’s. Given her age and the severe emotional distress she had suffered recently, she was barely regaining consciousness.
“Please wake up…….”
The expressions of the palace attendants nursing her grew worried.
Court Lady Shin was their greatest shield and pillar of support. Seeing such a senior figure bedridden like this made their hearts ache terribly.
Naturally, resentment toward the Queen began to creep up.
“I heard that Court Lady Shin tried so hard to stop Queen Eun-oh yesterday.”
“I heard that too. She earnestly begged her, saying it was a late hour and the King’s command was solemn, but Queen Eun-oh stubbornly insisted.”
“So in the end, didn’t this disaster happen? She herself is bedridden, and Lady Shin ended up like that too.”
The palace attendants whispered among themselves. They lowered their voices even further.
“Queen Eun-oh was also the one who made Lady Shin’s face like that. That…… scar, I mean.”
Court Lady Shin did not possess a strikingly beautiful appearance, but she was still quite a comely person. And while she was not overly affectionate, she was not an unreasonable person either.
She was fair to everyone, and though not warm, she was someone who quietly looked after them.
Since such a person was suffering hardships one after another, the palace attendants’ hearts were uneasy.
It was then.
“T-This is trouble!”
A palace attendant who had been sweeping the courtyard in front of the Queen’s Palace ran over with a pale face. Having just recently become a palace maid, she was so frantic that she still held the broom in her hand.
“Gukgu has come to visit Queen Eun-oh!”
Upon hearing those words, blood drained from the faces of the other palace attendants as well.
They looked at each other. Their gazes turned toward the rooms where Eun-oh and Court Lady Shin lay respectively.
It was the sudden visit of Gukgu, the Queen’s father.

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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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