I Became My Ex-Boyfriend’s Concubine - Chapter 19

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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 19

It was a kind of gamble, plain and simple.
“……a game?”
“Yes. A game.”
Danbi met Hyun’s gaze directly, noting how his brows drew together. She echoed his words back to him.
In that horrific moment when the Golden Guard’s blade took her head, the first thing that flashed before her eyes was the blinking “Game Over” window.
In most games, losing a life plays out in one of two ways.
Either you restart from the point of death, or the game sends you all the way back to where it began.
Unfortunately, this game clearly belonged to the second category.
Which meant if she hit Game Over here again, she’d most likely wake up outside the palace on Market Street, where everything had started in the first place.
That couldn’t happen. She had to prevent it, no matter what.
Her heart dropped. A sickening premonition swept through her—all the time she’d clawed her way through, everything she’d built so tenaciously, could unravel in an instant.
But in truth, there was an even more decisive reason.
“You see that?”
Danbi pointed into empty air, her finger flicking. Hyun’s gaze followed where she indicated, his expression darkening slightly.
He studied the space carefully, his eyes sweeping the area for a long moment, before turning back to face her.
Still, he said nothing. But in that brief silence, Danbi understood with certainty.
‘He can’t see the Status Window at all.’
The blue windows filled with detailed information meant to guide the Player’s progress.
What users commonly called the Status Window had directed Danbi through her quest and ultimately brought her to this very place.
From what she’d observed so far, everyone but herself seemed entirely oblivious to these blue windows—couldn’t even sense a hint of their presence.
Which meant the Status Window was an exclusive privilege granted only to the Player.
‘But then how does he remember the Reset?’
In normal games, Reset cycles exist only in the memory of the Player who governs the game.
Especially in RPGs where the Player becomes a virtual character, fulfilling a role assigned by the world’s setting, this held true even more strictly.
Under ordinary circumstances, all the NPCs except the Player should retain no memory of previous cycles. Just as Sol had proven.
But Hyun—Hyun was different. Unmistakably so.

“A few days back, I had a very vivid dream. A dream so clear it lingered after I woke—so vivid it didn’t feel like a dream at all.”

The dream he described wasn’t mere fantasy. It matched exactly with what had happened in the previous cycle.
Even if the memory came to him in the form of a dream, if Danbi was receiving it, then she could only draw one conclusion.
‘Could he be a Player too?’
Danbi immediately pointed to the blue window and asked him directly.
Even if his own Status Window remained invisible to him, if he knew of its existence, he should be able to guess what she was indicating.
But Hyun’s eyes slid past where she pointed. He couldn’t see it at all. Instead, he simply seemed puzzled by her action.
With his brows narrowed to thin lines, Hyun regarded her quietly, then slowly spoke.
“What are you doing?”
“Checking something.”
“Checking?”
“Unfortunately, I didn’t get the result I was hoping for.”
The fact that Hyun was not a Player could only work against her. It wasn’t merely that she couldn’t strategize with him to escape this game together.

“There, I called you a noblewoman, and……I killed you.”

Hyun remembered the Reset clearly, down to every detail. And that was precisely what troubled Danbi most.
She’d begun the game outside the palace, on Market Street. Her first quest had been simple: “Palace Entry.”
If the game reset now, she might never even set foot near the palace.
Because Hyun would remember this cycle just as he remembered the last one.
No—the probability of that was very, very high.
Danbi turned her head slightly and looked up at the Status Window. Above the message “Cannot exit the game,” a new Main Quest had appeared.
The content was simple: she was an assassin who’d infiltrated the palace to kill the king, and only by ending his life could she escape this game.
After experiencing death once, Danbi had reached a conclusion. The only way out of this hellish game was to complete every quest.
Now that she knew Hyun was an anomalous NPC who retained memories across Resets, she couldn’t afford to let the game reset unchallenged.
Approaching him was the beginning of every plan. If she failed to close the distance between them, her chances of escape would plummet.
So Danbi decided to make her move here. A desperate gambit.
“Like I said before—we’re inside a game. So there’s no point in us fighting like this.”
Hyeon’s eyebrows twitched. He stared at Danbi for a long moment, then bit down on the hand holding his sword.
“Your Highness!”
“Speak.”
“You must not listen! She clearly intends to bewitch Your Highness with outlandish falsehoods and deceptions!”
What? Outlandish?
Danbi cast a sidelong glare at the officer trying to silence her, then turned her gaze back to Hyeon.
His eyes remained fixed solely on her. That look of expectation—*speak*—made Danbi open her mouth without hesitation.
“This place is inside a game. In other words, a virtual world that doesn’t exist in reality.”
“Virtual?”
“Right. I know it’s hard to believe.”
At her words about something not existing in reality, the Golden Guard soldiers around them exchanged glances and began murmuring nervously among themselves.
But Hyeon seemed deaf to their commotion. After a long moment of studying Danbi, he finally spoke, his voice slow and deliberate.
“Your tone suggests you have nothing whatsoever to do with this world.”
“That’s right. I came from reality.”
“How dare you!”
The officer standing beside Hyeon pointed his blade at Danbi and cried out.
“What sort of wretch are you, attempting to deceive His Highness with such lies!”
In that same instant, the Golden Guard soldiers arrayed on both sides turned their blades toward her in perfect unison.
It was a disciplined movement, yet their eyes betrayed uncertainty—pupils darting wildly without direction.
Danbi held their gaze for a moment, then shifted her eyes back to Hyeon.
“It’s not a lie. You know that, don’t you?”
“What do you mean?”
“That dream you had. It wasn’t just a dream, was it?”
Hyeon’s brow furrowed in discomfort. Danbi gave a light shrug.
“Are you saying that dream was real?”
“Exactly. Isn’t that why you came all the way here?”
Hyeon fell silent, pressing his lips together. Danbi exhaled softly in relief.
It was fortunate. If things continued this way, she might actually convince him.
For now, preventing the Reset would be enough. It would give her a chance to figure out what came next.
But her relief was short-lived. Another obstacle materialized before her.
“Then… you also truly intended to harm me in the past?”
“That’s…”
The moment she revealed that all of this was a game, she would have no choice but to admit that her previous actions were her own doing.
At first, she’d considered making excuses—claiming her will was not her own, that the game character had acted of its own accord.
But that excuse crossed the line from risky to branding herself a living time bomb.
When the very notion of a virtual world sounded absurd, who would believe an explanation about two consciousnesses dwelling in a single body?
And if they did believe it, the problem only deepened.
It would mean a murderer capable of striking him down at any moment lived inside her. She would never escape the label of danger.
This would become a fatal obstacle in any future quest.
Which meant only one path remained.
She had to deny that she’d tried to kill him.
She had to claim that what looked like an attack had actually harbored a different purpose.
‘What do I do? What can I say?’
But she had pitifully little information to construct even a plausible excuse.
She cursed herself for not gathering more intelligence about her surroundings, a regret that crashed over her just as—

“So you already knew. That the Jade Seal was a forgery.”

A memory from the previous cycle flickered across her mind, and Danbi’s lips curved into the faintest of smiles.
Narrowing her gaze, she met Hyeon’s watching eyes unflinching.
“You’re right. I did try to kill you.”

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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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