Even If Flowers Bloom on a Broken Branch - Chapter 56

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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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56.
Chae Eun-oh clenched her fists. Her sharp fingernails dug into her palms, drawing blood, but she paid it no mind.
Her heart ached far worse than her body right now. A suffocating tightness choked her.
‘Not even once…….’
He had not worried about her. He had not even asked if she was alright.
Why are you sick, why did you catch a cold, why were you wandering around at night because of that. He had only blamed her and shown no concern.
‘If it were Lee Yeon who was sick.’
If that were the case, a completely different scene would have unfolded. She did not want to admit it, but it painted itself before her eyes. It floated into her mind.
Her father would have cast aside all public duties to rush over, pushing every kind of fine medicine on her, and her beloved would have guarded her bedside, nursing her.
Everyone would have worried about her and wished only for her swift recovery.
‘Unlike me.’
What is so different about her? Eun-oh muttered.
‘What is so different about her and me.’
It felt as though Lee Yeon did not have to do anything, yet everyone around her did everything for her. Even when she just stood still, they fussed over how lovely she was, and even when she merely spoke to the servants, they talked nonsense about her graceful nature.
She was truly utterly spoiled by luxury.
“……Ha!”
A short, sharp breath burst from Eun-oh’s throat.
A crimson drop of blood fell plop onto the back of her hand. She could not tell if it was from her lips, which she had been biting down on until just now, or if it flowed from her palm crushed by her fingernails.
“Your, Your Majesty the Queen…….”
A loud slap echoed sharply.
The hand of the palace maid, who had been offering a cloth to wipe it while worrying over her wound, swelled red in an instant.
Eun-oh glared at the palace attendants with bloodshot eyes.
“His Majesty has abandoned me too…… Father has turned his back on me too…….”
Her face contorted.
“There is not a single thing I can trust.”
Muttering those words, Eun-oh bolted up from her seat. She trampled recklessly all over the red quilt.
“Everyone, kneel in the main courtyard.”
Eun-oh took a stomping step forward and flung the door wide open.
“Where is Court Lady Shin? Court Lady Shin!”
Eun-oh’s voice cracked into pieces. Because she screamed with a swollen throat, a succession of coughs burst out.
The palace attendants stomped their feet, completely at a loss for what to do.
“Your, Your Majesty……!”
“We worry your royal body will be harmed. Please step inside quickly…….”
“I told you to kneel!”
Eun-oh screamed shrilly and clenched her fists tightly.
“Who! Which tongue dared to leak the matters of the Queen’s Palace outside again? Even after seeing someone beaten to death last time, you still could not shut your gaping mouths?”
Eun-oh swept her glaring, bloodshot eyes over the kneeling palace attendants.
At that, the palace attendants turned their heads in unison to look at someone. It was the young palace maid who had guided Chae Mun to this place.
The palace maid’s face turned deathly pale.
“I, I am-.”
“Is it you?”
As Eun-oh took a step forward, the trembling palace maid prostrated herself flat. Her small body shuddered so hard the floor seemed to vibrate.
“Your Majesty. I, I am-.”
“Shall I cut out your tongue, or shall I rip off your ears?”
Eun-oh muttered in a low voice. Her eyes gleamed viciously.
“If I do that, you will no longer be able to deliver words, nor hear them. Is that not a most fitting punishment to bestow upon you?”
“Your Majesty……!”
It was just as the palace maids prostrated themselves on the ground all at once.
Boom—
The sound of a large drum echoed. It was a drumbeat so thunderous it made the ground vibrate.
And then, the sound of many footsteps could be heard. It was the sound of footsteps walking in from outside the palace gates.
Turning her head sharply, a procession carrying red flags entered Eun-oh’s view. Seeing the person standing at the very front, Eun-oh’s eyes widened dramatically.
“The Grand Prince……?”
Jinyul, who had not returned to the Capital City for a while since receiving orders from the King—
“Lee Yeon.”
And the Grand Princess Consort.
* * *
If Court Lady Shin had been there, she would have stopped her.
Since it was just dawn this morning that she had broken the strict command not to leave the Queen’s Palace, she would have urged her to behave with discretion for now.
However, with Court Lady Shin also bedridden, there was no one who could control Eun-oh except for herself.
“Your Majesty……!”
“If you utter any nonsense, I will cut out that tongue.”
The palace maids could say nothing.
To be honest, it was a great relief and something to be thankful for that they were getting past this without a beating. They were infinitely grateful to the Grand Prince and the Grand Princess Consort who entered the palace at just the right time.
“Answer only what I ask.”
Eun-oh asked coldly of the palace maid who was hurrying her preparations.
“Why are they entering the palace together?”
Are they planning to flaunt their marital affection all over the place, she thought to herself, biting her lip, when an unexpected answer came back.
“According to what I quickly found out, the Grand Prince finished the task assigned to him by His Majesty the King, so he entered the palace to report it.”
“If it is a report, the Grand Prince could have come alone, so does that mean the Grand Princess Consort tag-along without any sense of propriety?”
Not knowing where to go and where not to go is truly vulgar, she was about to say.
But Eun-oh’s mouth was stopped this time as well.
“I am told the Grand Princess Consort entered the palace by Royal Decree.”
Eun-oh’s breath hitched instantly. She froze for a moment as if forgetting how to breathe, then slowly blinked her eyes.
“His Majesty…… summoned her?”
Last time, he had snatched away the person she herself had brought into the palace, and this time, he had summoned her directly by Royal Decree.
The fact that he had called another woman by name while not even looking back at her as she stood all night long left her utterly dumbfounded. Shame and humiliation rushed over her all at once.
Eun-oh bolted up from her seat before her preparations were even finished. Whether because she stood up too suddenly, she felt a wave of dizziness and swayed for an instant.
“Your Majesty……!”
But Eun-oh shook her head and opened her eyes wide.
“Everyone, follow me.”
Venom seeped into her resolute steps as she walked, acting as if this trivial dizziness was nothing.
“I am going to the Grand Hall.”
The palace maids’ faces turned pale. It was truly a succession of storms.
* * *
Lee Yeon tried her best to look straight ahead. However, it was a problem because she kept looking to the side.
If a stranger had seen her, they might have wondered if her neck was originally twisted that way.
“We have a problem.”
“……Pardon?”
When Lee Yeon replied a bit late, Jinyul, who was walking while looking forward, chuckled.
“Because my wife’s gaze looking at me is so hot. My face is going to get completely burned at this rate.”
As he spoke with a wink, the palace attendants who were glancing at them covered their mouths.
Lee Yeon replied while looking ahead gracefully as if she had never done such a thing.
“You have already returned quite tanned by the sun, so if you burn any more, you will not be visible at all in the middle of the night.”
“Haha!”
Jinyul laughed out loud and nodded his head.
“That is true. In the middle of the night, I must absolutely stay inside the room with my wife. Right?”
At the conversation that seemed sweet yet somewhat embarrassing, the palace attendants could not lift their faces and only strained their ears.
Lee Yeon deliberately flicked Jinyul’s fingers away as if she were miffed when he subtly tried to hold her hand, but in the end, she gripped it lightly before letting go. Just that alone made her earlobes feel scorching hot.
‘To think he would return like this.’
She had waited every single day for his return. Every single day, she had hoped and prayed that he would return safely with a healthy body, without any incidents, without any sickness, injuries, or danger.
And this morning, the front gate of the Seo Family Residence had grown noisy.
‘His Majesty the King……?’
The one who arrived first was a messenger from the Royal Palace.
He conveyed that His Majesty had summoned the Grand Prince and his wife, and just like last time, told her to make her Palace Entry accompanied by an attendant.
It was not surprising. She was not scared either. She just felt a tinge of sorrow.
‘What was bound to come has come.’
That was what she thought. Her heart only twinged at the thought that the day to send that child away, the time to part, had finally come.
Therefore, she prepared for the Palace Entry. This time, not only Lee Yeon herself but she also dressed Hong Ran as beautifully and elegantly as possible in fine clothes so that no one would view her as merely a servant, generously giving her rings, a norigae, and even ornamental hairpins to stick in her hair.
As she was preparing to step out like that, the front gate opened once more. And outside that door, the man she had awaited so desperately was standing like a picture.
‘I have come, my wife.’
His face was a bit darker due to being tanned by the sun, but his tender gaze and playful tone were exactly the same.
‘I am back, Lee Yeon.’
The start of the day was brilliant. It was a morning that could not be any better.

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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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