I Became My Ex-Boyfriend’s Concubine - Chapter 28

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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 28

Hyeon set down his utensils and studied Danbi in silence, his chin resting on his palm. It was his low voice that finally broke the heavy quiet.
“Taste it.”
The shoulders of the Royal Kitchen attendants visibly tensed. Yun took a step forward, his face grave.
“Your Highness! Tasting is the duty of the chief attendant. Surely a mere concubine cannot—”
“Quiet.”
Hyeon cut him off with a glacial look, his gaze never leaving Danbi.
He drew her gently toward him, then leaned close and spoke low at her ear.
“Who knows whether the Minister’s devotion to me extends as far as the Royal Table itself? So test it directly.”
After an act tantamount to treason, Hyeon had simply buried the matter. He’d erased all trace that Danbi had ever been confined in the Cold Palace, dismissing Yun’s concerns that she shouldn’t be kept at his side with casual indifference.
He knew well enough what vicious rumors would circulate through the palace.
Yet for all his forgiveness, his tone carried a sharp edge.
It was no mere command.
On the surface, it looked like he was treating her as a favored concubine—but the truth was a warning: he could tighten the leash whenever he pleased.
Danbi swallowed hard. His pupils gleamed with cold light.
‘This bastard. Pretends he’s buried the whole thing, then uses me like a ghost whenever it suits him.’
She hid her trembling hands and reached for the chopsticks on the tasting table. But even that he wouldn’t permit without interference.
He gestured lightly toward the ornate Royal Table before him.
“Not that one. Taste from here.”
“Your Highness!”
Even Yun’s protests left him unmoved. Danbi hesitated a moment, then shifted her hand toward his table.
The instant she placed the Pheasant Meat Sliced he’d indicated into her mouth, every eye in the hall fixed on her lips.
The moment of chewing and swallowing stretched out like an eternity. Mercifully, her tongue didn’t tingle, nor did numbness creep across her palate.
If anything, the fragrant juices that released with each bite stirred her empty stomach. She met his gaze directly, leaving only the plain, delicate aftertaste behind.
“There is no poison, Your Highness.”
“Is that so?”
Hyeon’s lip quirked to one side as he deftly snatched the chopsticks from her grasp. Then, deliberately, he brought the same meat she’d eaten to his own mouth.
“Your Highness! That is forbidden!”
“The flavor is excellent.”
Unmoved by Yun’s cry of alarm, Hyeon chewed and swallowed with perfect composure. Then he set down the chopsticks and leaned his face close to hers.
“So you do protect me, as you claim.”
How can he be like this?
Danbi barely suppressed the heat rising in her chest, forcing her mouth into a strained smile.
“A lie, Your Highness? How could I dare deceive you?”
“……”
She dismissed the puzzlement in his eyes and turned her attention back to the table.
The feast spread before her in five brilliant hues assaulted her senses. Without meaning to, she swallowed.
No matter how appetizing it looked, this was no time to eat carelessly.
So long as she couldn’t read his true intent, this table could become her tomb at any moment.
The closer she grew to him, the more opportunities she’d have to carry out her mission—but the cost was that she’d become a piece in his palm.
Yet there was no backing away now. Show fear before a tiger, and it would devour you on the spot.
Danbi deliberately seized her utensils.
She took a spoonful of Seaweed Soup. Once, twice, three times. As the broth slid down her throat, a hunger she could barely suppress awakened.
She scooped a generous portion of rice and soaked it in the broth, then crowned it with a gleaming piece of Napa Cabbage Kimchi.
She pushed a full mouthful past her lips, and a smile bloomed unbidden. Her brow furrowed, her eyes closed, and she nodded to herself.
This was the true taste of fortune—no, the taste of the palace itself.
A deep, complex flavor bloomed across her tongue, untouched by any modern seasoning.
“……What exactly are you doing?”
“You told me to taste, didn’t you? I’m tasting.”
“Ha.”
Despite his tone of exasperated disbelief, Danbi took no notice and scooped another generous spoonful of rice.
As she swallowed a full mouthful crowned with fresh green vegetables, the anxious knot that had weighed on her mind seemed to dissolve.
Yes. This was it.
Whether now or before, this life was about eating to survive—so how could she stay shackled forever to thoughts of death?
For days she’d shadowed him like his own ghost, barely glimpsing a proper meal.
Perhaps he’d deliberately starved her, waiting for this moment. The feast before her was sweet, and dangerous.
But hunger had left her past the point of caution.
In any case, Hyun would eventually have no choice but to find me—I’d already prepared a loophole for that.
Even if everything reset, if he truly remembered the previous cycle, he would have no choice but to reach for me again in the end.
Because he could never pretend not to know that absurd claim about this place being a ‘game.’
Danbi gazed down at the Royal Table, now half-emptied, and gave her belly a light pat. Only now did her mind feel sharp again.
The moment she turned her head with a satisfied expression, the alarmed gazes of the court ladies pricked at her like needles.
‘Did I eat too much?’
Only then did the thought strike her.
Danbi let out a short breath and subtly bit her lip. Then, without a trace of shame, she gestured toward the table in Hyun’s direction.
“The tasting is complete, Your Majesty. You may dine now.”
Hyun’s gaze lowered. Most of the dishes that had been arranged on the Royal Table had already vanished.
Hyun’s eyes swept across the devastated table, and his brow furrowed. Danbi merely shrugged her shoulders as if she knew nothing at all, offering him a bright smile.
Soon, a long sigh poured from Hyun’s lips.
“……Clear the table.”
“But Your Majesty, you have not yet finished your meal―.”
“Clear it.”
At Hyun’s icy command, the court ladies, including the head of tasting, hurried to lift the Royal Table and withdraw.
The heavy door closed, and the room held only Danbi and Hyun.
“Well then, Sukhwon. Was the meal to your liking?”
“I beg your pardon.”
Hyun’s brow twitched with discomfort. Danbi, unbothered, raised the corners of her mouth even higher.
An audacity so brazen that the very air in the room grew cold and still.
“Thanks to you, I ate quite my fill, Your Majesty.”
Danbi lowered her head with proper courtesy, yet the smile lingering at her lips never wavered.
Here she stood, having scraped clean the royal table as if it were her own dinner bowl, conducting herself as though she’d received the most exquisite hospitality.
The sharpness in Hyun’s eyes deepened.
“It seems my tasting role suits you exceedingly well.”
“Is it not my duty to be loved, after all?”
Danbi glanced down once more at the empty space where the food had been, then continued with perfect composure.
“That I taste Your Majesty’s food first—I consider this too a part of fulfilling my duty. And so it hardly seems a burden at all.”
Had there been poison, I alone would have died, and Your Majesty would have been safe.
Since there was no poison, I’ve eaten my fill of such rare delicacies—a bargain for me, I’d say.
Danbi narrowed her eyes slightly, fixing Hyun with an unwavering stare.
“What does Your Majesty think?”
No answer came.
A woman who treated the trial that weighed her very life as though it were merely ‘a free meal,’ whose eyes never so much as flickered—Hyun found he could not comprehend her at all.
“Should you require tasting again in the future, please call upon me anytime.”
Danbi added this as if delivering a finishing blow.
“If it is to protect Your Majesty, I can indulge in such luxury without hesitation.”

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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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