Even If Flowers Bloom on a Broken Branch - Chapter 57

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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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57.
Jinyul was not surprised to see Lee Yeon dressed and ready. His expression suggested he had already guessed where she was headed. However, when he saw Hong Ran standing behind her, a look of slight surprise crossed his face.
“Were you not heading to the palace?”
“That is correct.”
“Then why…”
As Jinyul tilted his head in confusion, Hong Ran lowered her gaze.
Lee Yeon opened her mouth to reply, but caught herself and glanced at her surroundings. There were too many eyes watching, and too many ears listening.
“I am sure you already know the story.”
There was no need to speak of it in front of all these people.
“We are on our way to the palace now. Perhaps you would also…”
“Of course.”
With those words, Jinyul fluidly vaulted onto his horse. He looked exactly as he had when he first opened the gate and rode in.
“I shall escort you to the palace, my wife.”
As they traveled toward the palace together, she caught him up on everything that had transpired.
Jinyul rode alongside the palanquin, listening to Lee Yeon’s story in silence, before falling into deep thought when she mentioned that Jinpyeong had demanded Hong Ran.
And now.
“Is that not Sangseon?”
Jinyul, who had been strolling leisurely through the palace grounds with Lee Yeon, slowly came to a halt. Sangseon was waiting there, his hands clasped politely in front of him.
He bowed respectfully.
“I greet the Grand Prince. Have you returned in good health?”
“I doubt Sangseon came all this way just to greet me.”
Jinyul cast a side-glance.
“Did you come to welcome the Grand Princess Consort, or did you come to escort the King’s guest?”
Sangseon hesitated for a moment before bowing his head to speak.
“By order of His Majesty, I have come to escort the Grand Princess Consort and the King’s guest. I did not realize the Grand Prince would be accompanying them.”
“I suppose not. Since I did not submit a report of my return.”
Jinyul let out a soft chuckle and looked at Lee Yeon.
“My wife’s health has been frail ever since her last palace entry, so I would be filled with worry if I sent her in alone. I must also report this matter to His Majesty myself, so please inform him to see if we may enter together.”
Sangseon nodded. He was already well aware of the incidents where Lee Yeon had collapsed in the Queen’s Palace courtyard and the Grand Hall.
Under Jinpyeong’s strict command, he was the very person who had brought out the King’s Palanquin to carry the unconscious Lee Yeon.
Sangseon stated that he would immediately go and report this before stepping away, and Lee Yeon leaned slightly toward Jinyul.
“Do you think His Majesty will allow it? Is it not a state secret that you have returned from inspecting the government office, one that I am not supposed to know?”
“It is hardly a secret. It was merely an excuse to send me out of the Capital City.”
“But…”
“And it is a fact that you have collapsed twice, so it will be difficult for him to refuse. Especially since this is an audience meant to take that woman away according to his own wishes.”
Jinyul said, glancing toward Hong Ran.
“If the two of you were to enter alone and history repeated itself, your attendant would be taken away and you would have to leave the Grand Hall by yourself. His Majesty would not want to hear rumors that someone collapsed yet again upon meeting him.”
By the time Jinyul finished speaking, Sangseon approached them. Though his expression was somewhat stiff, he spoke calmly.
“His Majesty has granted permission for both of you to attend the audience together. Please step inside.”
As Sangseon turned to lead the way, he paused briefly and gave a polite bow to Hong Ran as well.
“He has requested that the King’s guest enter together as well.”
Jinyul and Lee Yeon slowly shifted their gazes toward her.
Her glossy hair was neatly braided down her back and tied with a red silk daenggi. Near her ear pinned the ornament Lee Yeon had given her as a gift. It was an obsidian hairpin that brought out Hong Ran’s eyes.
Hong Ran stood rigidly like a doll before bowing gracefully in greeting. To Lee Yeon’s eyes, it looked exactly like,
‘Goodbye.’
It felt like a farewell.
A farewell to herself, to the people outside the palace, and to her own self.
Lee Yeon recalled the conversation she had shared with Hong Ran this morning, before they came to the palace.
‘Ran.’
She had realized that once they boarded the palanquin, there would be too many listening ears and too many distractions to find the right moment to speak.
So, as she fixed the hairpin ornament by her ear, she had spoken.
She shared the thoughts she had agonized over and pondered deeply all through the night.
‘I harbor hatred for Jinpyeong.’
Blasphemously, she had spoken the King’s name directly, addressing him neither as His Majesty nor as the King.
Furthermore, the word that followed was ‘hatred’. Even for Hong Ran, whose devotion to Lee Yeon was absolute, it was a shocking statement that should have frightened her out of her wits.
Though Lee Yeon expected her to be flustered, the girl surprisingly showed no signs of shock. Her expression remained entirely serene. It was Lee Yeon who ended up surprised instead.
‘Are you not shocked?’
‘You see, my lady.’
In the end, she had given up. She allowed the girl to keep using that title after all. She had given her permission to use the term ‘mistress’ only in front of others, and to call her ‘my lady’ when they were alone.
Hong Ran addressed her as my lady once more and continued.
‘I am remarkably good at distinguishing between people who dislike me and people who like me. I can read the emotions of others well, not just those directed at me.’
‘The emotions of others…’
‘For instance… how that man called Sangseon does not like His Majesty, and how that woman called Court Lady Shin does not like Her Majesty.’
Hong Ran gazed quietly at Lee Yeon as she spoke.
‘I already knew that you disliked His Majesty, my lady.’
Lee Yeon found herself momentarily speechless. For a brief second, she simply could not find any words to say.
Hong Ran offered her a bright smile.
‘It is likely because I have seen all sorts of people in the marketplace. When you live in a place like that, you have no choice but to read others’ emotions to avoid trouble. I must have picked it up that way.’
When those pitch-black eyes implicitly asked what the reason was, Lee Yeon hesitated again and again, but ultimately revealed her secret.
It was because she felt a profound certainty that she could trust this child. She believed that if it were Hong Ran, she would carry whatever secret she was told straight to her grave. There was a steadfast loyalty within her.
‘You might not believe me, and it might sound impossible, but I have died once before.’
And she revealed that the ones who killed her were Jinpyeong and Chae Eun-oh.
Hong Ran, who had remained calm before all other emotions, could not conceal her shock at those words.
‘Was it… a dream?’
‘No, it was real.’
It was no mere nightmare. It was an event that had actually happened, and she had come back to life after enduring horrific agony.
Lee Yeon tightly clutched her mother’s mirror hidden within her robes as she spoke.
‘Therefore, I… for you…’
The words failed her. Her lips refused to open.
‘I am afraid… that you might get hurt, and be placed in a dangerous position.’
‘Then I shall hate both of their Majesties as well.’
Lee Yeon froze. She doubted her own ears. Yet Hong Ran was looking up at her without a single flicker of change in her expression.
‘The one who saved me, took me in, and rescued me is you, my lady. If you had not delivered me, I would have had no reason to go to the palace, nor would I have received any grace before His Majesty. My savior is none other than you. Therefore,’
Hong Ran gently took hold of Lee Yeon’s hand.
‘Your enemy is my enemy. Only now do I finally understand your reactions inside the palace, my lady. That expression of pure revulsion makes sense to me now.’
Had she really been that bad at concealing her expressions?
As Lee Yeon reflexively touched her own face, the corners of Hong Ran’s eyes crinkled slightly.
‘I shall hate them so that I do not get hurt. I shall pretend to be grateful so that my hatred does not show.’
‘Do not do anything dangerous. Your safety is the utmost priority, so do not provoke the Queen’s temper either.’
‘You must have been suffering all alone, so how did you keep it all locked up inside?’
Tears welled in Hong Ran’s eyes as she squeezed Lee Yeon’s hand. At that sight, the tip of Lee Yeon’s nose grew red. She felt immensely grateful that the only person to learn her secret was warmly soothing her aching heart.
Stroking Lee Yeon’s hand, Hong Ran bowed her head.
‘I entrust my family into your hands, my lady.’
‘They are already my people. Do not worry.’
I am sorry, thank you.
Hong Ran wept softly as she tightly held the hand of Lee Yeon, who could only repeat those words over and over. Yet, the moment she stepped out of the room, she put on a brilliant smile.
She acted as though entering the palace after being chosen by the King was a matter of utmost joy and overwhelming honor.
“Grand Princess Consort.”
Lee Yeon snapped out of her thoughts and raised her head.
Jinyul and Hong Ran had already stepped into the Grand Hall and were looking back at her through the open doors.
Lee Yeon stared silently at the threshold that rose up to her ankles, before slowly gathering her skirt and stepping over it. Only then did Sangseon close the outer doors and announce their presence toward the inner doors.
“Your Majesty. I have brought the Grand Prince, the Grand Princess Consort, and your guest.”
It was right at that moment. The area outside the doors suddenly fell into commotion. The sound of heavy, hurried footsteps and frantic rushing blended together.
And then,
“Your Majesty the Queen!”
At the sound echoing loudly from outside, the footsteps of the three individuals—and four, including Sangseon—came to an abrupt halt.
The eyes of the three met.

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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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