I Became My Ex-Boyfriend’s Concubine - Chapter 45

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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 45

The moment Usang appeared, the situation resolved itself in an instant.
Nearly twenty members of the Golden Army, still brimming with strength, surged forward as one, and the assassins, backed into a corner, were driven back helplessly.
In the end, they scattered in perfect formation, fleeing into the forest without a backward glance.
“Your Highness! Are you unharmed?”
The moment the assassins retreated, Usang rushed to Hyeon. Hyeon, precariously perched against the outer wall of the Thatched Cottage, asked quietly.
“What became of them?”
“They’ve all fled, Your Highness. We’re keeping watch for any movement, but pursuit seems difficult at the moment. The Golden Army is at its limit as well…….”
“Prioritize the safety of the Golden Army above all else. Investigation can wait.”
“Yes, I understand, Your Highness.”
Hyeon barely managed to lift his head and look at Usang.
“But how did you know to find us here?”
“Well, Your Highness—while searching, I discovered something peculiar.”
Usang produced something from his possession and held it up. Danbi recognized it instantly.
“Oh? That’s mine!”
“……Pardon?”
Danbi snatched the yellow Ornamental Pendant from Usang’s bewildered hand. She held it up against the front of her jacket.
“Ah, I wondered where this had gone. It must have fallen here.”
“It belonged to you, then?”
“Yes. Is that how you found us?”
Usang hesitated for a moment, then nodded.
“I found it lying in the forest and searched the surrounding area thoroughly.”
Danbi gazed down at the Ornamental Pendant in her palm. She recalled how Sol had insisted she keep it safe, as if it were a talisman.
It was chance, certainly, but it had truly served its purpose. Thanks to it, Usang had found her and Hyeon.
Danbi smiled faintly and clenched the pendant tightly when, from a distance, a Golden Army soldier came running up breathlessly and dropped to his knees before Usang.
“We’ve captured one of the assassins who fled into the forest.”
“……!”
At those words, Hyeon’s eyes blazed.
“Is this true?”
At his question, the soldier bowed deeply.
“Yes, Your Highness.”
“Bring him here at once.”
“As you command, Your Highness.”
The soldier wheeled about and hurried away. Danbi, watching his departing figure, finally exhaled in relief.
Seeing the Golden Army soldiers encircling the area made it feel real.
Until Usang arrived, she’d been certain she would die here, but now, having narrowly escaped, her tension suddenly shattered.
“He’s been brought, Your Highness!”
At the shout from a distance, the eyes of Danbi, Hyeon, and Usang snapped toward a single point.
An assassin dressed in black was dragged forward, his mouth gagged, and thrown to the ground.
Usang strode forward and pressed his boot heavily against the man’s back.
“Ugh!”
Without heeding the low moan, Usang increased the pressure on his foot. Then he turned to the soldiers who had brought the captive and demanded an answer.
“What is it?”
“Well, that is…….”
The soldiers hesitated, gauging Usang’s expression. Then, as if by agreement, they shifted their gaze slightly to look at Danbi.
At the blatant stares fixed on her, Danbi tilted her head in confusion.
‘Why are they all looking at me like that?’
An inexplicable chill ran down her spine.
Presently, Usang accepted an object from the soldiers and held it in his grasp. As he examined it carefully, his gaze followed the soldiers’ eyes to Danbi.
He then approached her slowly, and without warning, he drew his sword from its sheath.
Whoosh—
With a sharp whistle, the cold blade came to a stop mere inches from Danbi’s face. She flinched in alarm and jerked her body backward.
“Wh-what are you doing?”
Hyeon, too, stared at Usang in shock.
“The Evidence.”
“It was hidden inside his molar, Your Highness.”
“……!”
Hyun’s lips parted briefly before closing. Danbi, unable to make sense of the situation, darted her eyes between the two men and cried out.
“What are you talking about? What evidence? What was in his teeth—?!”
“Your Highness, grant me your command!”
Rang ignored Danbi’s question and drove the blade deeper.
Danbi lifted her head to look at him. His eyes cut through her like shards of ice. He looked ready to cut her down without hesitation.
In an instant, the Golden Army soldiers surrounding them drew their blades as one. Steel rang against steel as dozens of sword tips leveled toward her.
Danbi’s breath caught in her throat under the crushing weight of their presence, and she clamped her mouth shut.
Panic flooded through her. No—shouldn’t I at least understand what’s happening here?
“It belonged to Usang.”
“Yes. It is Usang’s Mark.”
Usang’s Mark?
Wait—before that.
Danbi turned her head sharply. Hyun was staring at her intently.
Usang—her father in this game. The conversation alone painted the picture well enough in her mind.
So those assassins were sent by Usang?
It made perfect sense. Usang had clearly ordered Hyun’s death if he failed to find the Royal Seal before the Rain Prayer Ritual.
After hearing that command, she’d torn her quarters apart looking for it, but nothing resembling the Royal Seal had turned up. That meant it was likely she—the original her—hadn’t found it either.
But there was more.
Though she didn’t know why, the way Usang was so fixated on the Rain Prayer Ritual suggested that if the real Royal Seal ever reached Hyun’s hands before that moment, some crucial scheme would unravel entirely.
Yet no opportunity to kill Hyun had presented itself since then.
Hyun had kept her constantly at his side, but the guards only grew more watchful because of it.
Perhaps that was even his reason for keeping her close—trapped, she could neither plan an assassination nor mount a direct assault.
Eventually, Usang would never have patience for time simply trickling away.
A father in name only. No help whatsoever.
Rather than come to retrieve his daughter from the Cold Palace, he’d only rushed her along, demanding she complete the task.
Was she even truly his daughter to begin with?
Danbi retreated as the Golden Army soldiers crept closer, their momentum inexorable.
Damn it. Was this really how she’d die?
She’d only just grasped the reason to go back, and now she was being cornered—the injustice of it made her want to scream.
Danbi glanced back at Hyun. This was the man she’d saved at the cost of her own life, and this was his answer.
“Wait, please! I think there’s been some misunderstanding—!”
She couldn’t give up so shamefully. Danbi arranged her face into the most pitiful expression she could manage and looked up at Rang.
Then, a low voice sounded from beside her.
“She is not the conspirator.”
At those words, both Danbi’s and Rang’s gazes snapped sideways.
Hyun had risen and was walking slowly toward Rang. He placed his own hand over the hilt of Rang’s sword, pressing it down gently as he spoke.
“I say she is not the conspirator.”
“Your Highness, what do you mean? That assassin was clearly—!”
To Rang’s bewildered protest, Hyun answered not with words but by slowly unwinding the crimson jacket draped across his shoulders.
As it fell away, Danbi’s blue garment beneath came into view—the cloth bound tightly across her chest. Hyun stared down at that torn fabric and pressed Rang’s blade downward with force.
When Rang saw the bloodstained mark, his lips pressed into a thin line. Hyun glanced at Danbi, then spoke again.
“When my life hung by a thread, she saved me.”
“…Your Highness!”
“Do you require further proof? You yourself found this place by following her Ornamental Pendant.”
Under the chill of Hyun’s tone, Rang fell silent. When Hyun’s hand lifted from the blade, Rang hesitated a moment before sheathing his sword.
Only then did Danbi let out the breath she’d been holding.
“I have confirmed it myself. She is not in league with them.”
Hyun turned away without heeding the doubt in Rang’s eyes, his footsteps receding. Following his departing figure, Rang cast one glance back at Danbi.
When their eyes met, his brow furrowed sharply before he sheathed his sword and followed Hyun.
Danbi’s legs nearly gave out beneath her, but she managed to catch herself, breathing heavily.
Beyond where Hyun had vanished, the sky was beginning to pale with a faint blue at the horizon. Watching the steadily brightening dawn light, Danbi tilted her head in confusion.
‘He confirmed I wasn’t involved?’
There was no real basis for such a conclusion.
At most, she had only just saved his life.
Even so, now that it was revealed that the assassins had been sent by her father, her own survival should have been in question.
Yet he turned a blind eye so openly.
Danbi stared blankly at the yellow Ornamental Pendant resting in her palm.
What on earth was he thinking?

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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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