I Became My Ex-Boyfriend’s Concubine - Chapter 24

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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 24

Dan Bi opened her eyes slowly.
The first thing to enter her vision was an ornate latticed ceiling.
The bone-deep chill that had wracked her moments before had vanished, replaced by a gentle warmth that wrapped her entire body in comfort.
‘Where am I?’
As she lay there blinking quietly, lacking even the strength to open her mouth, she caught sight of a shadow standing beside her.
When she turned her head carefully, the face she had longed to see came slowly into focus.
“Hyeon……?”
As Dan Bi whispered the name, her eyes fell on the crimson Dragon Robe he wore. Then she saw his face—sharper, colder than she remembered.
Dan Bi’s eyes narrowed.
It wasn’t him. Not the Hyeon she knew in reality.
“You…….”
“You speak my name far too freely for one in your position.”
“Where exactly is this…….”
Dan Bi labored to look around her.
Until moments ago, this had been the Cold Palace—a place where even touching the floor sent shivers down her spine. But when had she been brought here?
“This is my chamber.”
“Your chamber means…….”
The king’s bedchamber?
It made no sense.
Just moments ago, he had locked her in the Cold Palace as though he meant to execute her on the spot. Now, having suddenly shifted his stance, his behavior was nothing but bewildering.
Yet Hyeon continued speaking without apparent concern.
“I ordered it myself, so rest assured.”
“But why…….”
“Your life is of little consequence to me, but we have a conversation left unfinished, do we not?”
Hyeon leaned his head closer, his brow narrowing. The sharp intensity in his eyes made Dan Bi flinch and pull her face back.
Then, as though scrutinizing every detail of her expression, he spoke in a low voice.
“That matter about this place not being reality. You haven’t forgotten what you said, have you?”
Of course not.
Dan Bi met his gaze directly—those eyes that seemed to see right through her.
Could I have misspoken? Did I back myself into an even worse corner with a blunder?
During all those days locked in the Cold Palace, she had turned that moment over in her mind countless times.
But no matter how much she thought about it, that had been her best option.
She couldn’t forever pretend ignorance of this man’s strange nature—the way he retained memories of every Reset, every cycle. Not without eventually being caught.
It was a problem that would trip her up sooner or later. Better to take the blow on her own terms.
The only difference now was that she possessed far more information about this Game-world than she had then.
“I haven’t forgotten. And I won’t deny it. Every word was true.”
“Then I suppose Woo Sang stands equally guilty of Treason alongside you?”
At Hyeon’s bitter laugh, Dan Bi pressed her lips together.
It was as she’d expected.
He was binding her and her father Woo Sang together as conspirators in Treason.
In truth, there was nothing strange about it. The moment she’d set foot in the palace, she’d drawn a blade to the king’s throat—an act for which even the extermination of three generations would be justified.
It was undeniable high treason.
Had she still been the Dan Bi of before, armed with no information, she might have been cowed into silence by that terrifying momentum.
But now she knew everything that occurred in secret behind Hyeon’s back.
The missing Royal Seal, and the shadowy figures tracking its whereabouts.
As Dan Bi understood it, Hyeon had lost the true Royal Seal for some reason, and Woo Sang was desperate to seize it.
Woo Sang had sought to use his daughter—Dan Bi—to locate the Seal, while Hyeon stubbornly believed she already knew where it was.
The problem was that Dan Bi herself had no idea whether this character had ever actually found the Seal, or possessed any knowledge of its location whatsoever.

“I do know where the true Royal Seal is.”

That confession—that she knew the Seal’s location—had been words this character had spoken of her own accord when Dan Bi had logged out of the Game.
If those words were true, she must have obtained the information either during the time Dan Bi was offline, or even before the Game began.
To uncover what secrets this character might be hiding, Dan Bi had desperately retraced fragments of the past, hoping that even a fleeting memory might surface—as it had when she’d crossed swords with Hyeon.
But nothing came. Not a scrap of foreign memory, not even the faintest hint.
In the end, Dan Bi remained entirely ignorant of the Royal Seal’s location.
But fortunately, whether or not that was true didn’t matter. What mattered was that Hyeon believed it—and that worked entirely in my favor.
Dan Bi swallowed hard and spoke without hesitation.
“Treason? I’ve never done such a thing.”
“You drew a blade against me. No matter what reason you give, that fact doesn’t change.”
“What if it was all to protect you?”
“What?”
Hyeon let out a hollow laugh as if the very suggestion were absurd. Dan Bi forced herself to control her expression, suppressing the tension crawling up her throat.
Show the slightest crack here, and everything falls apart.
“You said you remember the last cycle.”
…!
The moment Dan Bi brought up the Reset cycle, Hyeon’s face contorted visibly.
She was certain now.
The only reason Hyeon watched her so vigilantly—neither killing her nor letting her go entirely—was one thing alone.
The word “Game” that she had spoken and the strange phenomenon of “Reset” that Hyeon was experiencing fit together perfectly.
Just watching how he couldn’t hide his discomfort the moment she touched on the truth—how he clamped his mouth shut—told her everything.
“I wasn’t trying to kill you. I was trying to protect you.”
Hyeon’s eyebrows twitched at those words.
“You damaged the ceremonial robes for the Rain Prayer Ceremony that I was about to conduct, and you drew a blade against me in the Costume Chamber. How could that possibly be protecting me?”
“Because that’s the only way to know. To know who your enemies are—the ones targeting your life.”
“What does that even—”
“You already know, don’t you? That Woo Sang—that my father stole the Royal Seal.”
…!
Dan Bi caught the momentary flicker in Hyeon’s eyes without missing a beat.
That was why the conversation she and Hyeon had shared while she was logged out kept nagging at her.
Hyeon already knew his Royal Seal was a fake. Which meant he was already considering the possibility that someone had stolen the real one.
The question was whether Hyeon had identified the culprit exactly.
He had been tracking the seal’s whereabouts all along, showing outright hostility toward her as Woo Sang’s daughter, and surprisingly easily falling for her absurd offer that she knew where the seal was.
Synthesizing all these circumstances, Dan Bi reached a conclusion.
‘Perhaps Hyeon is convinced that Woo Sang stole the Royal Seal.’
If she assumed that, then everything Woo Sang had said to her fell into place like puzzle pieces.

“If the real Royal Seal ever falls into that bastard Hyeon’s hands, we’re all as good as dead!”

Woo Sang had even tried to frighten her, saying that the day the real seal reached Hyeon’s hands would be the end for all of them.
Paradoxically, that meant the real seal had never been in Hyeon’s possession until now.
Just looking at how dismissively Woo Sang treated the solemn king made the situation obvious.
Nothing was certain yet, but Dan Bi intuited it.
Perhaps Hyeon was waging a lonely, solitary battle to reclaim complete royal authority while the real Royal Seal slipped through his fingers.
Then he would trust no one right now.
That he had tried to sabotage the Rain Prayer Ceremony meant he was certain she was in league with the faction that had stolen the seal.
But Dan Bi decided to turn that vicious distrust to her advantage instead.
“In the last cycle, there was only one reason I damaged the ceremonial robes. So I could find out how far the enemy’s reach extended.”
“…Enemies? Do you really think I’d believe that?”
In a flash, Hyeon hauled himself onto the bed. He planted both hands by her pillow and leaned his face down toward hers.
His sharp gaze swept across her face ruthlessly, as if he wouldn’t miss a single moment of hesitation.
“Yes, you’re right. I’ve known for some time that Woo Sang stole the Royal Seal. But that’s something Woo Sang doesn’t yet know I know.”
Hyeon drew out a Short Sword from behind his back, its scabbard adorned with delicate floral patterns and emanating cold steel. It was the very blade Dan Bi had held in the Costume Chamber.
Swish—!
The blade plunged mercilessly into the bedding just beside her head. The quilting tore apart without mercy, but Dan Bi didn’t so much as blink.
Hyeon’s eyes bore a lethal gleam.
“My patience isn’t generous enough to be swayed by such honeyed words. Nor do I have reason to let you live and invite disaster.”
“No. You can’t kill me.”
Dan Bi covered Hyeon’s hand gripping the blade that had pierced beside her. His gaze dropped downward, then returned to her face.
Dan Bi spoke each word deliberately, with force.
“If I die, this world will repeat itself all over again.”

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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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