I Became My Ex-Boyfriend’s Concubine - Chapter 35

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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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Chapter 35

The forest reeked of blood and crushed grass—a stench indistinguishable from hell itself.
While Rang marshaled the Gold Guards with crisp efficiency, herding the boar carcasses into a single heap, Hyun descended from his horse with deliberate slowness. The hem of his crimson jeogori dragged across blood-soaked earth.
Danbi remained mounted, her trembling fingers gripping the reins.
The phantom arc of arrows that moments before had pierced the beasts’ brows with merciless precision lingered in her vision. Almost without thinking, she bit down on her lip.
There was something unsettling about the way Hyun had drawn his bow in that reek of blood without so much as a blink.
“Rang.”
His voice, soft and measured, cut through the silence.
“Yes, Your Highness.”
“Dig there. Beneath the shield wall where they first charged.”
Rang turned to signal the guards standing nearby. They rushed forward, clawing at the earth with brutal haste.
Before long, something surfaced through the churned dust—crushed pulp of berries, their scarlet skin still dimly visible, their surface rough and stippled.
Rang lifted a fragment carefully to his nose, his brow darkening. He turned to Hyun and spoke with grave deliberation.
“What is it?”
“Frenzy Herb, Your Highness.”
“Frenzy Herb…”
“The juice of the berries appears to have been scattered about. The beasts, intoxicated by its scent, charged without regard for their own lives.”
Frenzy Herb.
A plant that rendered those who consumed it mad, as its name suggested.
In humans, the effect was temporary derangement; in beasts, it was said to strip away all reason, driving them into a frenzy.
Hyun fixed his gaze on the residue clinging to Rang’s palm, then turned slowly away.
He moved toward the mountain of boar carcasses. A nearby guard stiffened, bowing his head at once.
Hyun pointed, without ceremony, to one of the bodies.
“Open it.”
“…Your Highness?”
At the guard’s confusion, Hyun’s eyes flashed.
“Does the Prince need repeat himself?”
“No, no—I understand, Your Highness!”
Terror-stricken, the guard drew his sword and split the beast’s belly. Its entrails spilled forth, releasing a stench so vile the air itself seemed to recoil.
Among partially digested scraps, several large seeds remained intact, their forms preserved.
Rang stepped forward to examine them, then nodded slowly.
“Unmistakable. Frenzy Herb seeds.”
Hyun studied the seeds, their surfaces dark with blood, before turning away. A brief glance toward Rang was all it took—he understood at once and assembled the guards in formation.
Hyun’s gaze swept across the soldiers with a chill that cut like winter wind. After a silence heavy as stone, he spoke.
“Frenzy Herb has been found within the boar carcasses.”
“F-Frenzy Herb…!”
A murmur rippled through the ranks; every guard’s face turned ash-pale. Hyun pressed on without pause.
“It is a poisonous plant, common enough in these mountains. Yet the difficulty lies—”
Hyun’s eyes narrowed as they swept the assembled men.
“—in the fact that it does not grow naturally in these particular peaks.”
“…!”
The conclusion was inevitable.
Someone had deliberately fed the poison to the beasts and driven them toward this place.
In the glacial quiet, only the soft crunch of fallen leaves beneath his military boots echoed through the woods.
“A substance that should exist only in the palace’s medicinal stores—I cannot fathom how it came to rest in these creatures’ bellies.”
The mockery lacing his tone sent the temperature plummeting further.
Hyun’s footsteps halted before one of the guards. He fixed the man with an unblinking stare.
“Two days past, I informed you all of the hunting grounds. Where were you told to go? Speak.”
The soldier bowed low at once, his voice firm and immediate.
“Below the second ridge of Taewoong Mountain, Your Highness!”
“And that was correct?”
At Hyun’s final question, the guard’s complexion drained to the color of ash. No one dared answer; only lips trembled in silence.
Of course they did. The hunting ground beneath their feet was no second ridge of Taewoong Mountain.
Hyun’s gaze shifted to another guard standing nearby.
“Your turn now. Where were you instructed the hunting grounds would be?”
“…Below the approach to the first ridge of Taewoong Mountain, Your Highness.”
With his words, the very air of the forest grew heavy and still.
Danbi watched in silence, swallowing hard. Each unit of the Gold Guards seemed to have been assigned a different hunting ground.
Only then did she recall the words Hyun had let slip past her weeks ago.
What she’d dismissed at the time while absorbed in Archery practice now clicked into place like puzzle pieces.
Surely not.
“Indeed. I assigned each commander a different hunting ground before we set out today. And among all those gathered here, only one person knew I would arrive at this location.”
Hyun’s footsteps fell heavily on the dry leaves. Her heart quickened to match his pace.
He came to a stop at the very rear of the procession, before one of the Gold Guards.
The man’s shoulders shuddered visibly. Hyun lifted his chin slowly with the end of the bow he held.
As the cold weapon traced his throat, the man’s breathing grew ragged and hurried.
“What orders were you given regarding the hunting ground? Speak.”
“Your Highness, that is… I…”
The world fell silent as a tomb.
Hyun scanned his face without missing even a moment, reading every detail.
When their eyes met at last, the man’s complexion drained of all color. His entire body trembled before he collapsed to his knees.
“Please, Your Highness—kill me!”
Hyun gazed down at him in silence as the man pressed his head to the ground, pleading desperately like an aspen leaf quivering in wind.
“I have committed a crime worthy of death. Please, spare my life—!”
The moment the man lifted his head with eyes full of despair, he met Hyun’s cold gaze directly.
Rang twisted the man’s arm behind his back without hesitation. The man’s face pressed into the dirt, he cried out his innocence.
“Your Highness! I only…!”
“Speak.”
A moment of silence fell, and a low voice constricted the man’s breathing.
“Who is the one behind me being driven to destruction? Tell me now.”
His voice was unnervingly calm—as though he had already foreseen everything. That composure was far more chilling than anger.
Hyun paid no attention to the commotion around him, merely staring down at the man pinned before him.
This was only the beginning. He needed to drag out the truth hiding behind this insignificant life.
He glanced sideways, catching Danbi in his gaze—her face pale as she held the reins, watching this unfold.
Yes. Finding the man behind this wretch. That was where it started.
Hyun moved one step closer to the man, who was opening his mouth to confess something—
Whistle—!
A sharp whistling sound pierced Danbi’s ears.
Splurt!
“…!”
The man’s head snapped back at an unnatural angle. At the same instant, a drop of blood flew across Hyun’s cheek.
Hyun immediately drew his sword and spun around. Before he could even exhale, an arrow was already buried deep in the man’s forehead.
“Your Highness! There—!”
As Rang threw himself after the trajectory, a masked figure in black slipped away through the dense brush.
Hyun was about to dash after him—
Whoosh, whoosh—!
The fleeing figure suddenly twisted around and fired arrows upward. The arrows released from the bowstring were not aimed at Hyun.
Whinny!
The horses shrieked in pain and reared in panic at the incoming arrows.
The Gold Guards scrambled to seize the reins, but the maddened thrashing of a wounded beast would not quickly subside.
“What—what is this—!”
At the voice from behind, Hyun turned his head. The horse carrying Danbi was rearing up, its front hooves striking at the air.
A clear line of blood streaked across the beast’s foreleg.
It must have been torn by the arrow just fired.
Shrill whinny!
“No, no! Settle down—ugh!”
The panicked horse bolted forward without direction, charging toward the forest.
Rang cried out urgently as he watched Danbi’s receding form disappearing through the soldiers’ ranks and into the distance.
“Danbi!”
In the same moment, Hyun vaulted onto his horse. He grabbed the reins savagely, and the beast reared with a fierce snarl.
Without hesitation, Hyun kicked the horse’s flank and surged into the darkness where Danbi had vanished.
“Your Highness!”
Rang was rushing to follow when—
Whoosh—!
Arrows flew from all directions, blocking the path ahead. Rang drew his sword by instinct.
Masked figures in black poured into his line of sight as he parried the arrows.
They emerged through the darkening forest and surrounded the Gold Guards in overlapping layers in an instant.
“Not a single one gets away!”
Rang ground his teeth together, adjusting his grip on the sword hilt.

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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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