I Became My Ex-Boyfriend’s Concubine - Chapter 38

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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 38

“What?”
Dan Bi met Hyeon’s gaze, sweat-soaked and piercing. Those eyes were unflinchingly direct.
“Leave the baggage behind.”
“What are you talking about right now?”
It was infuriating.
When every moment counted, what was he saying?
Unable to fathom his intention, she pressed for clarification, and he hesitated before looking away.
“Why did you help me carry it?”
He closed his mouth without finding words to continue.
When Dan Bi didn’t answer, Hyeon turned his head back to regard her. Each word seemed to cost him effort, his ragged breathing breaking up the sentences.
He narrowed his brow and went on.
“What are your true intentions?”
“Is this really the time to question that?”
Even now, suspicion. Dan Bi didn’t shy away from those piercing eyes that seemed to dissect her face. She met them steadily.
“If I abandoned you now, the assassins would take my head long before any beast got a chance. Is that the picture you want?”
“……I know you were after my life.”
Her breath caught.
The certainty in his tone made her face stiffen.
Even as her mind spiraled into chaos, she forced her expression into careful blankness.
She couldn’t afford to slip now.
“I don’t know what you’re talking ab—”
“Why did you hesitate?”
In that single phrase, the moment flashed back: the Short Sword leveled at Hyeon, her hand trembling.
Had he already guessed everything?
When Dan Bi fell silent, his gaze sank lower.
“It’s not too late even now. You have no reason to help me any longer.”
Cold sweat traced down her neck. Hyeon was grievously wounded, barely able to move a finger, yet those keen eyes never wavered.
He was right.
In the air before her, the Status Window pulsed relentlessly: Main Quest — Complete. One decision, and she could kill him now and end it all.
Of course, killing Hyeon was no guarantee the game would end.
But he possessed something unique she shared: memory of the reset Cycles. If she seized this moment, something would shift. She was certain of it.
Yet her fingers kept hesitating.
Why couldn’t she move? Was she really still trapped by some pathetic lingering attachment?
‘Get it together. It’s only a game.’
Even as she steeled herself, her mind kept returning to that broad back, taking an arrow meant for her.
Dan Bi clenched her throbbing fingers and slipped her arm between his shoulders.
“What are you doing—!”
“Unless you want to become carrion, stop your whining and just follow me. I don’t have the strength to coddle Your Highness’s pride right now.”
“This has nothing to do with the Bloodstone.”
Of all the stubborn—
His complexion was wrecked from the wound, yet his stubbornness remained intact.
But in Dan Bi’s eyes, it was nothing more than the obstinacy of a patient too broken to even hold himself together.
Without hesitation, she reached out and grabbed Hyeon by the collar of his court robes.
“Does that matter right now? Hyeon, snap out of it. If you die here, it’s over!”
“How dare you speak the king’s name so freely—!”
At the audacity of uttering the royal name so carelessly, Hyeon’s pupils dilated.
Dan Bi seized that moment and hooked his arm, forcing it across her own shoulders.
“That’s right, I’m insane. So shut up and put some weight on it. If you keep this stubborn act, you’re dragging us both down.”
Gritting her teeth, she hauled him upright against her frame. The movement tore at his wound; a suppressed gasp leaked between his lips.
But Dan Bi didn’t flinch, keeping a firm arm around his waist as she took the first staggering steps.
Hyeon stumbled for a moment, then found his footing against her shoulder, each step an agony. Fallen leaves crackled far too loudly beneath their feet.
That was when—
The Status Window in the air began to flicker more violently.

「Main Quest: Assassinate the King — In Progress
※Alert: Target has sustained injury. Optimal window for mission completion is now.

Dan Bi forced herself to ignore the window looming before her eyes and tightened her grip on Hyun’s shoulder. He immediately furrowed his brow and opened his mouth again.
“Are you truly refusing my command? I ordered you to leave me behind……!”
“Oh, will you please just be quiet!”
……!
Frustrated by the relentless notification blaring in her ears, she’d snapped without thinking. Now she turned back to face Hyun, whose complexion had cycled from red to purple in a most amusing fashion.
A moment later, realizing her mistake, she simply turned her head away without comment.
“That wasn’t directed at Your Highness, I assure you.”
“What? You dare mock me?”
“No, it’s just that…….”
She was at a loss for words.
There was no point trying to explain that it was his Status Window making all that noise, not him—he’d never understand.
Besides, he couldn’t even see it. If she tried to explain, she’d only get branded a madwoman again.
Dan Bi simply played dumb and pressed forward with determination.
“It’s not wrong, though, is it? Your Highness, just follow along quietly. You can barely take a single step—why keep draining what little strength you have left by talking?”
“Hah……! So you truly wish to die!”
“I’ll go whether you like it or not. Even if it kills me, I’ll die on my own terms—not his.”
At that, Hyun swallowed his words and closed his mouth. Finally, with silence restored, Dan Bi resumed walking, supporting his weight.
That’s right—he’d die by her hand, not anyone else’s. If she let him fall into an assassin’s clutches, the mission would simply fail.
Her duty was singular: to kill Hyun. She couldn’t allow his life to be stolen by hired killers.
‘That’s all it is. The Main Quest.’
Not some hollow sense of obligation. A purely self-interested choice, nothing more. Dan Bi repeated this to herself, pressing onward in silence.
Hyun looked down at her small shoulders bearing his weight. Then his gaze shifted to the back of the hand draped across them.
Dirt was wedged beneath her small nails, and tiny cuts scarred each knuckle.
Crunch, crunch.
Only the sound of fallen leaves underfoot filled the heavy silence. Dan Bi gritted her teeth, leaving his gaze behind her.
With each step, the muscles in her thighs screamed in protest, and her aching ankle felt precarious enough to snap at any moment.
But she couldn’t stop.
A bead of sweat rolled down her forehead and dripped onto the back of his hand. The instant warmth made contact, Hyun’s eyes flicker with deep emotion.
“……This must be heavy for you.”
His voice, now soft and stripped of its earlier edge, drew no response—instead, Dan Bi pulled him closer, her arms wrapping firmly around his waist.
She didn’t have the strength to speak. The moment she relaxed even slightly, she’d collapse entirely. So she focused all her effort on her legs, driving herself forward.
How long had they been walking like this?
The forest deepened around them, and a chill that even moonlight couldn’t penetrate clamped around her ankles. The stagnant air gnawed at the depths of her lungs.
Every time a mountain beast’s cry echoed in the distance, her heart sank with dread.
The assassins seemed to have abandoned pursuit, but his condition was far too precarious to survive the night like this.
His breathing had grown increasingly ragged. The heat radiating from his body was alarming.
‘Please, anywhere—just somewhere to rest…….’
Then, pushing through the dense undergrowth, a single dilapidated thatched cottage appeared before her eyes.
Weeds choked the yard, and the outer wall had crumbled away.
An eerie, desolate atmosphere hung heavy over the place—as if no human warmth had touched it in years.
“Your Highness, look! There’s a house!”
At Dan Bi’s cry, Hyun managed to lift his head with difficulty. His half-closed eyes fixed on the ramshackle structure before his lips parted weakly.
“……An abandoned place, it seems.”
“We’re going inside anyway.”
Dan Bi pulled him toward the house. Her footsteps dragging across the dirt floor seemed to stretch on forever.

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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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