I Became My Ex-Boyfriend’s Concubine - Chapter 25

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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 25

“What are you talking about?”
Feeling the tremor in his palm, Dan-bi gripped his hand more tightly. The Short Sword that Hyeon was holding stilled at once.
“You must already know. What happened after I died.”
Following Hyeon’s direction, Dan-bi recalled that moment—her neck being severed by the royal guard’s blade. In an instant, her vision went black and the words “Game Over” flashed before her eyes.
When she opened her eyes again, she was back at the point where the game had first begun.
“You must have gone back to some earlier moment and time flowed normally again.”
Dan-bi was certain of it.
If Hyeon truly remembered the reset cycle as she did, then he too must have been sent back to some point in the past from that moment onward.
Looking at Hyeon’s expression, everything was as she’d suspected.
“If you kill me here, you’ll return to that point once more.”
“How can you be so sure?”
“I told you. This is a Game.”
At those words, Hyeon fell silent, his lips pressed shut. Watching his reaction, Dan-bi felt a quiet relief wash over her.
If another reset occurred in the same state as before, what worried her most was Hyeon’s response.
He could have blocked her from ever entering the palace in the first place, and if that happened, completing the Main Quest itself might become impossible.
But now Hyeon seemed to understand her words to some degree.
More than that, he might be feeling a strange sense of connection in the fact that they shared this bizarre phenomenon.
Either way, it was to Dan-bi’s advantage. Even if this world repeated in loops, Hyeon would always find her again in the end.
She had secured at least one escape route from the Game.
If things continued this way, she could take some comfort even if the Game reset again.
“An Outsider, then. A convenient excuse. But if you thought everything would be resolved by that alone, you’ve underestimated me.”
“What?”
Hyeon drew the Short Sword from where it lay buried in the bedding, then pressed the cool blade against the nape of Dan-bi’s neck.
Dan-bi tilted her chin up involuntarily.
Her body trembled at the sharp edge grazing her jawline, but Hyeon’s gaze never wavered from her eyes.
“That does not absolve you of the fact that you sought to harm me.”
Just as Hyeon’s hand began to move, Dan-bi bit her lip.
“Killing me alone won’t solve any of this.”
His hand froze. Dan-bi seized the moment and continued.
“If I die like this, time will reset to the beginning again. But nothing will change.”
“True. I have no intention of killing you outright.”
“Then what—”
“There are countless ways to twist a situation besides death.”
Hyeon leaned his face close. His breath felt almost near enough to touch hers.
“You need only sit still. I will arrange the board as I see fit. Of course—”
Hyeon let out a low, bitter laugh.
“Whether you can endure what comes, I cannot say.”
Dan-bi met his gaze and pressed her lips shut.
This man’s eyes had gone completely cold.
He was planning to use torture and pressure those around her to create circumstances favorable to him—but that was a grave miscalculation.
If Hyeon kept her bound like this, Oo-sang would undoubtedly cut his own ties and flee.
The way he’d pushed his own son into a desperate situation without a second thought, the way he’d anxiously fretted over his own safety even while that son was locked in the Cold Palace—it was already clear what answer awaited.
She’d thought some strange bond had formed between them, but his hostility remained just as sharp as before.
Dan-bi’s mind raced, and finally she opened her mouth.
“I told you earlier. There was a reason for damaging the Rain Prayer Ceremony Robes.”
Catching the briefest flicker of surprise, Dan-bi pressed on at once.
“I needed confirmation. Whether there was another force trying to stop the Rain Prayer Ceremony.”
“That makes no sense. You’re the one who tore the robes to ruin the ceremony. How would doing that confirm anything?”
“That’s exactly why I began making new Rain Prayer Ceremony Robes the very next day.”
Dan-bi recalled the competition with Ha-rin over the Rain Prayer Ceremony Robes from the previous cycle.
There had been one detail that bothered her: the torn robes had remained in the Wardrobe Chamber even the next day.
As if someone were testing to see who the culprit was.
“You saw me cutting the robes in the Wardrobe Chamber the day before. Yet you neither removed them nor arrested me immediately—you left everything as it was. The robes and me both. There had to be a reason.”
Hyeon said nothing.
Dan-bi guessed that Hyeon had left the torn robes untouched precisely to gauge reactions around him. Without doing so, he would certainly have arrested her as a threat long before now.
But he had waited. That meant he wanted something.
“It was me who tried to reopen the Rain Prayer Ceremony. It’s true that a new current was created in that process. If it were you, you would have certainly noticed something suspicious in all of this. Am I wrong?”
In truth, all of this was merely Dan-bi’s improvisation.
The notion that another faction besides Oo-sang was targeting the county, or that they were trying to stop the Rain Prayer Ceremony—that too was pure speculation without foundation.
But if she didn’t act this way, there would be no way to gloss over the contradictory fact that she’d suddenly asked for the Rain Prayer Ceremony to be opened and then destroyed the ceremonial robes.
Her status as Oo-sang’s daughter meant she could never fully escape suspicion of his schemes.
In other words, there was only one path forward.
To make clear that she and Oo-sang were bound by blood alone, and to appeal to him that her suspicious actions had actually been driven by other intentions.
For now, she had to convince him with whatever plausible words she could muster.
Dan-bi kept her gaze steady on Ha-rin, who remained silent. Ha-rin gazed down at her in turn, unblinking.
After a heavy silence, he slowly opened his mouth.
“You said this place isn’t all reality.”
“W-well, yes.”
Dan-bi answered hastily at his unexpected question. Just as she was wondering why he’d suddenly brought up the Game again, Ha-rin continued.
“If you are an Outsider, then… you were never Oo-sang’s daughter from the start?”
“Ah, that is…”
In terms of the game’s setting, she was Oo-sang’s daughter, but the real Dan-bi was not.
How was she supposed to explain this?
She couldn’t exactly tell him that another soul had entered the original character’s body.
If she wasn’t careful, she might reveal that two consciousnesses existed within one body, and that her other self still harbored murderous intent toward him.
Dan-bi hesitated for a moment before speaking carefully.
“It’s just the setting, you know. So it’s a bit hard to explain, but the truth is that I myself came from outside…”
“Does Oo-sang know this fact?”
“Huh? Oh, no. He doesn’t know.”
“I see.”
The conversation was flowing in an unexpected direction, and Dan-bi found herself unable to get her bearings.
‘Why is he suddenly asking this?’
Then Ha-rin spoke again.
“Then, what is your reason for coming to this place?”
Your reason for coming to this place.
Dan-bi understood from Ha-rin’s question.
It seemed Ha-rin didn’t properly grasp the concept of “Game.” He appeared to accept her merely as an existence that had crossed over from elsewhere, just as she was called an “Outsider.”
He had no idea this was essentially a kind of ‘play’ in the terms of this era. As she was pondering how to explain it, something suddenly flashed in her mind.
‘Wait—isn’t this an incredible opportunity?’
There was no need to tell him the full truth as it stood.
All she needed to do was arrange things favorably so that she could safely escape this game.
Dan-bi gazed quietly at the flickering ‘Main Quest’ window in the empty air. After a moment of thought, she slowly began to speak.
“I have a mission.”
“…A mission?”
“Yes. A task I must complete here.”
“What is it?”
Ha-rin asked, and Dan-bi hesitated briefly before answering.
“To be loved by you here. That’s my task. Only then can I leave this place.”

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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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