Even If Flowers Bloom on a Broken Branch - Chapter 99

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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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99.
From the moment the King referred to her as ‘Chae,’ Chae Eun-oh’s world ended.
Although she had prepared herself for the inevitability of being dragged down from the position of Queen, she had never imagined it would happen in such a wretched, humiliating manner.
‘Depose Chae and banish her to Yeonghangung.’
Yeonghangung—she had heard of that place before, spoken to her as a warning. The King’s threat that her residence would become just that if she ever laid a hand on Hong Ran again had indeed become reality.
Compounded by the confession of her closest confidant that she had sliced the back of Hong Ran’s hand to draw blood and had attempted to feed her the Infertility Drug, Chae Eun-oh was locked away that very day in the Cold Palace known as Yeonghangung.
It was a place where graves lay beyond the walls, and within them, broken bricks, torn paper windows, and a collapsing main ridgepole awaited.
‘Is anyone there!’
When she was first trapped here, Eun-oh screamed out of sheer terror. She shrieked in horror at the sight of large, scratching rats and the carcasses of insects caught in cobwebs that choked every corner.
She could not endure even a single moment in a room teeming with such repulsive creatures, things she had never once laid eyes on in her entire life. She could not breathe.
Thus, she kicked open the door, its torn paper windows fluttering raggedly, and rushed out into the courtyard, only to be greeted by the eerie sounds drifting from the gravesite.
‘It’s a lie. It’s all a lie! There’s no such thing as ghosts. It’s nonsense!’
So she thought. But the desolate howling of the wind, the swaying branches, and the rustling of beasts severed Eun-oh’s nerves strand by strand.
The terror could not be suppressed, even when she covered her ears and closed her eyes. No, it only amplified. It felt as though spiders were crawling up her instep, and centipedes were slithering up her arms.
So Eun-oh abandoned all her dignity, screaming as she unraveled her hair and shook her entire body wildly.
“Aaaah, aaaagh!!!”
Once dignity was cast aside, sorrow welled up. As the sorrow surged, spite rose to cover it. A toxic slurry of resentment, bitterness, grief, and malice blended together, relentlessly consuming her ruined body.
‘I!’
Eun-oh shrieked. A cry steeped in venom echoed through the empty Cold Palace.
‘What could I have possibly done so wrong!’
It was a feeling any human could naturally possess. It was a jealousy and envy any woman could harbor.
‘I just wanted to be loved, to be recognized, and to stand above everyone else—I only entered the palace with that single desire!’
It was a candid truth she had never dared to voice before anyone else. It was her pure, unadulterated heart, mixed with nothing else.
Only in this place where no one could hear did Eun-oh spew out her inner thoughts through her screams.
‘How is that a crime!’
If everyone hadn’t constantly compared her to Lee Yeon at every turn, and if Hong Ran hadn’t entered the palace as a Royal Concubine, things would never have reached this desperate pass.
Eun-oh resented the world. She cursed it. The entire world refused to leave her in peace for even a moment.
As that thought took hold, one person sprang to mind, one link leading to the next.
‘Lee Yeon.’
You wouldn’t know. This is something you could never even imagine. You wouldn’t know this heart-rending agony, this utterly shattered dignity, this abyss of despair where not a soul will offer help.
Having met a good father and grown up comfortable and lacking for nothing her entire life, she would absolutely never understand. She wouldn’t have the faintest inkling of a heart so filled with this deep-seated grudge.
‘You should have suffered too.’
You should have known at least half the pain I feel. I wished for her to experience this misery as well.
This situation, where Lee Yeon possessed everything while she lost everything, was profoundly unfair. It was absurd. It shouldn’t be like this.
‘I will kill her.’
No matter what it took, by whatever means necessary, even if she had to shed her own blood to enact a curse, she desperately wanted to erase that woman from this world.
She spent the night murmuring that single, solitary thought, when suddenly, the woman appeared right before her eyes.
“Lee…… Yeon?”
Eun-oh blinked. It was not a dream. It was no illusion either. The very person she had spent the entire night cursing stood serenely before her.
As she slowly turned her head, she saw the Grand Prince, the Ministers standing beside her, and the King.
But they did not matter.
Rustle.
As Eun-oh took a step, a cobweb that had stuck to her shoe stretched down to the ground.
Clutching a decaying wooden pillar as she stood atop the stepping stone, a bizarre, creaking sound rang out.
“Deposed Queen Chae, step down and receive His Majesty the King’s Royal Decree.”
When Sangseon spoke, Eun-oh flinched at the word ‘Queen.’ Then, the corner of her mouth soon collapsed into a smirk.
It was a smile as pale as ash.
‘Do they still call me Queen.’
If so, that Royal Edict must contain the words that will hurl me into the dirt.
Meanwhile, Sangseon was gazing at Eun-oh with sunken eyes. She looked starkly different from her arrogantly grand appearance of just a few days ago.
Her hair, which cascaded down to her thighs, was completely unraveled and tangled, and her skirt was caked with filth and dust, making it hard to tell if it had ever been white.
If she would at least twist that hair up into a bun with a hairpin, the manner in which she approached to receive the Royal Decree would look entirely different.
Just then, Eun-oh slowly turned around and bent her waist toward the inside of the room.
“……?”
The gazes of the onlookers turned data-less with bewilderment all at once. A moment later, seeing what was held in her hand, their expressions shifted to comprehension.
As if she had read Sangseon’s mind, Eun-oh had grasped a hairpin that had been rolling around the floor of the room.
Eun-oh calmly twisted her hair up and secured it with the hairpin.
“I am sorry to have kept you waiting.”
Sweeping her hair back cleanly, Eun-oh walked forward with slow paces.
Rustle, rustle.
As if she already knew her end, as if she would meekly accept and bear everything, her compliant approach left the Imperial Guards and Ministers—who had been somewhat tense—feeling rather bewildered instead.
They had anticipated that Chae would shriek and kick up a furious struggle in the face of death, but the situation unfolding before them was heading in an entirely different direction.
Under the watchful eyes of everyone, Eun-oh stepped down into the courtyard and slowly knelt upon the dirt ground.
“I receive the words of His Majesty the King.”
The sunlight struck her pitch-black hair and shattered into fragments. Wearing her white mourning dress and kneeling demurely, Eun-oh’s figure appeared somewhat surreal. Though everyone knew of her misdeeds, their tension momentarily slackened at her sorrowful appearance.
And Eun-oh.
‘…….’
She was measuring the distance. It was none other than the distance between herself and Lee Yeon.
Eun-oh was watching for an opportunity to lung at Lee Yeon and kick her in the stomach. Unfortunately, Jinyul’s eyes were gleaming sharply beside her, making approach seem difficult. Moreover, the distance was considerable, ensuring her actions would surely be thwarted the moment she attempted to spring forward.
‘If that’s the case.’
Lee Yeon was not the sole enemy present in this place. The one who had reduced her to this miserable state, the man who could be called the root of all evil in this matter, was right before her eyes.
‘If only you had loved me, if only you had looked back at me, if only you hadn’t…… left me so lonely.’
Things would never have come to this pass.
Eun-oh slowly lifted her head. Sangseon was unfurling the scroll and reading the Royal Decree, but not a single word properly entered her ears.
Though she could hear the words stripping her of her title as Queen and taking away this and that, it felt as though it was all flowing right through her ears and out of her head.
“This handmaiden has one final request.”
As Eun-oh spoke, Sangseon, who was reading the Royal Decree, those who stood listening to it, and even Jinpyeong, who had been watching the entire situation unfold as if it were a mere spectacle, all paused.
As though there was no further need to listen, Eun-oh turned her head away from Sangseon and looked up at Jinpyeong.
“I wish to convey my true heart to Your Majesty, just once, for the last time.”
Jinpyeong’s inorganic eyes met Eun-oh’s pitch-black pupils.
The arrogant corner of the mouth belonging to the man who bore the heavens upon his head curved upward.
It was permission.

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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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