I Became My Ex-Boyfriend’s Concubine - Chapter 33

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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 33

“Sub-quest completed.
You have received an item as a reward.
Check the box.”

Ever since she’d finished the Audience quest with Hyeon not long ago, the Status Window had refused to leave her sight.
The moment Dan-bi stepped out of Naeng-gung, she made straight for So-gung without delay.
There, waiting for her once again, was the white box embroidered with blue patterns—the same one where she’d found the short sword before.
The instant her hand touched the box, blue light burst forth and a cheerful notification chimed.

“Item found.”

Click.
The locked box swung open, revealing a small brown glass vial the size of her palm.
Inside, an unknown liquid sloshed with a dull gleam.
“What on earth is this?”
At that moment, a Status Window popup appeared beneath the vial.

“Antidote”

“…Antidote?”
Dan-bi tilted her head in bewilderment.
Didn’t game items typically give players whatever they needed right away?
Yet an antidote was utterly useless to her now.
It had been the same when the short sword appeared—she’d nearly died when Hyeon mistook her for an assassin because of that wretched blade.
More than anything, it didn’t fit the Main Quest at all.
How could she need an antidote when she had to kill Hyeon to finish this game? If anything, a deadly poison would’ve made sense.
At the time, unable to make sense of it, she’d simply tucked it away in her sleeve.
But as time passed and she watched events unfold, she was beginning to suspect the item might have its uses after all.
“Ja-ga, what are you doing?”
Startled by the sudden call, Dan-bi jolted upright from where she’d been lying on the floor studying the vial, quickly tucking it into her breast.
Once she confirmed it was Som peering through the gap in the door, the sigh she’d been holding finally escaped.
“What is it?”
“I’ve brought some refreshments.”
At that, Dan-bi sprang to her feet—only for a sharp pain to lance through her lower back.
“Ow, my back…”
“Ja-ga! If you get up so suddenly, what will happen!”
Despite Som’s reproach, Dan-bi gingerly shuffled toward the refreshment table, pressing a hand to her sore back.
The table was laden with the sweet pastries Dan-bi loved. The savory aroma of hot oil and the cloying scent of syrup tickled her nose.
Dan-bi plucked one of the pastries and popped it into her mouth. As the sweet-savory flavor spread across her tongue, her dulled senses finally seemed to sharpen a little.
Just then, Som, who had been examining Dan-bi’s hands, frowned sharply.
“Ja-ga, how are your hands? Are they all right?”
“My hands?”
Dan-bi followed Som’s gaze and looked down at her own.
Her fingertips were a mangled mess from drawing the bowstring. Where calluses hadn’t yet formed, the skin had split, exposing raw flesh beneath.
Yet Dan-bi merely gazed at her hands as though they belonged to someone else, then reached for another pastry.
“It’s fine.”
“No matter what you say, you’re the King’s Consort—how can His Majesty allow your hands to come to such a state? Already the palace is full of whispers.”
Som’s voice was laced with reproach and concern, her expression as pained as if it were her own hands that had split open.
“Whispers?”
Som glanced furtively around, then leaned in close and lowered her voice.
“They’re saying perhaps His Majesty has truly lost his mind.”
When Dan-bi made no reply and simply chewed her pastry, Som continued with a sullen expression.
“Ever since he confined you to Naeng-gung the other day, something’s felt wrong. Everyone was in an uproar, saying he was drawing his blade against the Yeo Clan.”
Just as she’d expected.
She’d heard that Hyeon had issued a Gag Order regarding the incident where he and Dan-bi had crossed swords, but he apparently hadn’t been able to keep the fact that he’d banished her to Naeng-gung entirely under wraps.
The palace walls were lower than one might think, and people’s gossip traveled faster than the wind.
But for Dan-bi, there was nothing to lose.
Because her status as the Prime Minister’s daughter had become a sturdy shield, it was actually only Hyeon’s public opinion that was crumbling. His infamously dark reputation had certainly played its part.
“Lately, since he keeps you by his side at all times, I thought things might have improved between you. But now he’s taking you hunting too. I really can’t fathom His Highness’s mind.”
“……Are you worried?”
At the question laden with something like bone, Dan-bi glanced at Solm.
By then, Solm’s eyes had already reddened at the rims. She wiped away her tears with the back of her hand and spoke in a low voice.
“Are you truly planning to go hunting?”
“It’s not a choice I can make. If he says come, I come. If he says go, I go.”
Faced with Solm, who could not find the words to continue, Dan-bi smiled as if nothing were amiss.
After that day, Hyeon had Rang relentlessly drill Dan-bi in Horseback Riding and Archery without respite.
As a result, Dan-bi—who had spent two whole days rolling on horseback—found her fingers and backside utterly bruised.
The one mercy was that her adaptation came faster than expected. Her body, which had once refused to approach a horse at all, now gripped the reins with considerable grace.
Dan-bi suspected that all of this sprang from some innate skill carved into her very being. Just as her strength had suddenly burst forth in that moment of crisis when she’d crossed blades with Hyeon.
At last, once Mounted Archery became reasonably possible, Hyeon granted her a brief respite on the eve of the hunt.
For Dan-bi, who had spent all that time glued to Hyeon’s side and hadn’t even glimpsed a refreshment tray, it was as sweet as honey.
“But what were you looking at earlier?”
“……Nothing much.”
Dan-bi recalled the small glass vial hidden in her bosom.
At first, she couldn’t understand why an Antidote would be given as a reward, but gradually the pieces were beginning to fall into place.
When she thought about it, this system had always worked that way. Rather than giving what was needed “right now,” it always threw ahead what would be needed “later.”
For instance, the Short Sword she’d received last time had saved her life in a moment when she nearly lost her head to Hyeon’s blade.
Crisis always struck without warning, and every Item fulfilled its purpose when the moment came.
And tomorrow, she would have to go hunting.
As long as she didn’t know Hyeon’s purpose in dragging her to the Sa-nyang-teo, she couldn’t predict even an inch ahead.
If this Antidote truly was a safeguard against what would come to pass, then that hunting ground might be far from an ordinary place.
‘It’s actually worked out well.’
An opportunity.
This time, a chance to seize the crisis that was hurtling toward her and turn it back against Hyeon, cornering him.
Dan-bi recalled those days when she couldn’t even draw the bowstring with Hyeon so near, and bit her lip firmly.
Resolving that this time, come what may, she would plant an arrow in him.
But that resolve was destined never to be fulfilled.

***

The next morning, just before dawn.
The moment the sky began to lighten, Dan-bi followed an attendant toward the entrance of Hu-won.
The dawn air was so sharp it bit into her skin, and thick mist had already settled over Yeon-mu-jang.
Through that hazy vision, the Geum-gun soldiers in crimson uniforms stood pressed shoulder to shoulder.
Each time the sharp end of a Long Spear glinted through the fog, a chill ran down her neck.
And at the exact center of that solemn scene.
There was Hyeon.
His form, cutting through the mist, was itself like a great mountain.
Dan-bi approached him atop the horse Rang had given her.
Hyeon’s Black Horse, reins in hand, snorted roughly and scraped the ground. The sound of hooves striking the earth drummed like timpani against her heart.
Amid the taut tension, he gazed down at Dan-bi without a word. As she tried to meet his gaze, she belatedly realized her hands felt empty.
While Hyeon’s flank was firmly furnished with a Quiver and a Bow, she carried nothing but the reins.
Dan-bi glanced between Hyeon’s Quiver and his face in turn, then tilted her head in confusion.
“Won’t you give me one?”
“What do you mean.”
“The bow.”
Hyeon regarded the question as though it amused him, studied Dan-bi for a moment, then answered plainly.
“There is no bow for the Prince’s Concubine.”
Dan-bi doubted her own ears for an instant.
He’d spent two days drilling her in Archery until her fingers were raw, and now he claimed there was no bow?
“……What do you mean by that?”
“The Prince’s Concubine cannot take up a bow.”

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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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