I Became My Ex-Boyfriend’s Concubine - Chapter 15

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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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Episode 15

Dan-bi strode through the palace grounds with her skirts gathered in her hands.
She walked with a breezy, springy gait that showed utter disregard for court etiquette, and the palace attendants parted before her like the Red Sea, whispering behind their sleeves.
“Goodness, would you look at her.”
She felt the sharp prick of their stares boring into the back of her head, but right now, that was the least of Dan-bi’s concerns.
Sol caught up to her, alarm written across her face.
“Miss, where are you—”
“Where am I going? I’m going to have this out, that’s where.”
“This out? What do you mean, miss?”
“A concubine, they’re calling me? Some shameful label like that, and I’m just supposed to swallow it? They’ve got me all wrong—very, very wrong.”
Dan-bi bit down hard on her lip.
“If she won’t come to me, then I’ll go to her. I have no choice.”
But finding Ha-rin proved far harder than she’d expected. She was supposedly in one place, only to arrive and learn she’d moved somewhere else entirely.
For every step Dan-bi took, she was one step behind, and her movements grew increasingly desperate.
Darting this way and that like some child playing hide-and-seek, her patience had already worn through to nothing.
After wandering the palace grounds in circles, her skirts crumpled and wrinkled in her fists, Dan-bi finally collapsed onto the middle of the stone path.
“Miss, are you all right?”
“Ugh, I can’t walk anymore. Where is that woman running off to all the time?”
“Shall I call for a palanquin?”
When Sol asked with concern, Dan-bi waved her off and sprawled backward onto the grass.
“Never mind. I’m just going to lie here for a bit.”
“Miss, you shouldn’t lie on the ground—it will soil your dress.”
Dan-bi gazed up at the sky, her expression blank.
“Why is the sky so clear? It only makes me angrier.”
White clouds drifted overhead like grazing sheep against the blue expanse. Dan-bi closed her eyes slowly, feeling the gentle brush of wind against the tip of her nose.
It felt like that day, a year ago.

“Is this yours?”

Beneath the shade of a tree where she and Ha-rin had been lying side by side, something brushed past her feet.
Dan-bi lifted her head slightly. A small ball was rolling near her feet.
A short distance away, a child stared at the ball intently. When Dan-bi asked if it was theirs, the child nodded.

“Here.”

Dan-bi smiled and tossed the ball back. The child caught it cleanly and bowed their head in thanks.
Then there came a sound behind her. Ha-rin was already sitting against the tree, watching.

“You’re awake?”
“I was only resting.”

As she turned her gaze forward again, she could see the child in the distance, walking hand in hand with a man and a woman.

“When we have children, they’ll be so adorable, don’t you think?”
“Out of nowhere?”
“Haven’t you ever thought about it?”
“You never liked children.”
“……My mind’s changed.”

Dan-bi let out a soft laugh.

“Am I getting old?”
“They say two children are better than one—they play together and grow up happier that way.”

Ha-rin murmured under her breath. When Dan-bi turned to look, she saw only an expression of studied indifference.

“You’ve already planned that far ahead?”
“Imagination? No, I’m just saying it’s how things are.”

Dan-bi laughed brightly and nestled into his embrace.

“……Oh.”
“What’s wrong?”
“Just some unpleasant memory came to mind for no reason.”
A fleeting shadow from the past made Dan-bi jolt upright. Every second wasted on the thought of that cursed man felt like a loss.
Let it go. Forget it.
As she brushed the dirt from her clothes, voices approached nearby. Dan-bi quickly pulled Som’s arm behind the undergrowth.
“Young mistress? What—”
“Shh!”
Dan-bi pressed a finger to her lips, signaling silence.
Three figures in the distance came into view, walking hand in hand. They were familiar faces.
One was Hyun, another was Ha-rin. Between them walked a small child Dan-bi had never seen before.
“Who is that child?”
“It appears to be the Crown Prince, young mistress.”
“The Crown Prince? As in—”
“The son of the King and the Consort, yes.”
Dan-bi sank to the ground. Her heart seemed to plummet into her stomach.
“Oh, young mistress!”
“There was… a child……?”

***

“Young mistress, young mistress!”
The two feet running across the bridge suddenly came to a halt. Som, trailing behind, barely managed to stop before colliding with her back.
From over her shoulder came a voice cold as ice.
“When did he get a child?”
“When did he? The Crown Prince is already six years old.”
Dan-bi staggered and gripped the railing. Som steadied her, placing a supportive arm across her shoulders.
“Young mistress! Are you all right?”
Dan-bi bit down hard on her lower lip. The image of those three figures holding hands kept replaying in her mind like a scene from a film.
“So he can smile like that in front of others too.”
“Pardon? What do you mean—”
Wait. No, hold on.
Dan-bi’s head snapped up.
“This is just a game anyway. Right? Just a game…”

“I didn’t steal it. I simply picked up something that had no owner.”

A few days prior, the image of Hyun and Ha-rin walking side by side, arms linked, suddenly flickered through her mind. A dark shadow settled over Dan-bi’s face.
She reached into her garments and withdrew something.
A palm-sized object with a floral pattern engraved upon it. It was the Short Sword she had received as a Reward Item not long ago.
Dan-bi slowly drew the blade from its sheath. The steel caught the sunlight and gleamed.
Som looked up at the glistening blade, her face going pale.

***

Rang hurried through the undergrowth, running on Hyun’s errand. She was on her way back from the Consort Palace.
It happened that the King, the Consort, and the Crown Prince were spending time together for once.
But because the Lunch Box meant for the Pavilion had been forgotten, the midday meal service had fallen considerably behind schedule.
Rang pressed forward, keeping all her concentration on keeping the Lunch Box steady in her grip.
Then she sensed a commotion nearby. On the bridge leading to the Pavilion, two women appeared to be quarreling.
‘Who are they?’
Rang narrowed her eyes. Something about them seemed familiar—then she remembered. It was the noble family’s daughter she had glimpsed outside the Inner Palace a few days ago.
In the instant the object in that woman’s hand caught the sunlight and flashed, Rang’s heart lurched into her throat.

At that same moment, on the bridge.
Dan-bi gazed at the Short Sword and let out a low, inexplicable laugh.
“Now I understand. Why they gave me this as a reward item.”
“What do you mean—!”
“They must have given it to me to kill that wretch. How dare he toy with me all this time?!”
“No, please! It’s dangerous!”
Som and Dan-bi grappled with the short sword between them, crashing and struggling wildly.
‘Wait. Something’s not right.’
As the short sword passed endlessly between their four hands, Dan-bi’s eyes drifted down to the sword sheath gripped in her other palm.
By her recollection, Hyun had possessed the sword sheath in the last game—this very one with its profusion of floral engravings, received as a reward item.
“How on earth did she have it?”
Dan-bi alternated her gaze between the sword sheath and short sword held in both her hands.
A gentle breeze swept past.
Then someone tapped her on the back.
When she turned, two palace attendants appeared, their arms stacked so high with cloth that their faces were completely hidden.
“Please step aside for a moment!”
“Oh!”
And in that brief moment of distraction,
Splash—
the short sword slipped from her hand and tumbled into the lake.
“No! My reward item!”
Dan-bi didn’t hesitate. She hurled herself over the railing, and in that instant, a shout tangled together with Som’s voice—someone’s cry pierced the air.
“Miss!”
“…self!!”
A splash, and then the surroundings fell silent at once.

Beneath the water’s surface, Dan-bi blinked. Something far below glimmered in the light.
The short sword.
Dan-bi thrashed her arms frantically, pushing deeper. The current surged against her, but she kept her eyes fixed on the blade.
Suppressing the bursting pressure in her chest, she stretched her hand down, down further still. By the narrowest margin, her fingertips caught the cold hilt of the sword.
The moment she seized it, as if the blade had been waiting for its master, a brilliant blue light rippled and exploded around her.
‘Got it!’
Dan-bi pushed off with her bent legs, relieved. Now she only had to swim upward toward the light and it would be over.
But her body sank lower, defying her will. The hem of her wet skirt kept dragging her down, pulling at her entire frame.
‘No… I can’t… breathe…’
Dan-bi reached weakly toward the distant light above. Just as her eyes were beginning to close, a splash sounded and someone plunged in after her.
Silhouetted against the light, a figure grasped her hand.
Dan-bi slowly closed her eyes.

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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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