I Became My Ex-Boyfriend’s Concubine - Chapter 51

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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 51

For a moment Dan-bi lost her words. She narrowed her brows and looked up at Hyun directly.
“Do you haggle over love as well?”
“What?”
Hyun laughed as if amused, then couldn’t help himself and broke into full laughter.
“Hahahaha!”
“What’s so funny about that?”
Hyun released the arm that held Dan-bi and leaned his body back. His shoulders shook with such delight.
Dan-bi’s brows drew together as she watched him.
From his teasing tone to that impertinent laughter—it was clear he was toying with her, playing with her like she sat in the palm of his hand.
“Amusing indeed. That you dare to haggle over my heart.”
“I’ll love you, so you love me just as much first. Isn’t that what haggling is?”
As Dan-bi fired back with crisp clarity, Hyun’s laughter gradually subsided. Then, without warning, he grabbed her waist with one arm and pulled her close.
“Ugh!”
Dan-bi let out a strange yelp and found herself helplessly drawn into his embrace. Still holding her, Hyun spoke in a low voice toward the palace attendants standing behind them.
“You there.”
“Yes, Your Majesty.”
Yun hurried over. Without so much as looking at him, Hyun led Dan-bi forward and stepped inside Un-cheong-gak.
“I have matters to attend to with the Gui-in. You may all withdraw.”
“M-matters to attend to?”
Dan-bi asked in bewilderment, but Hyun simply offered a sly smile.
“That’s right. I’ve been foolish to haggle over a heart I cannot hold.”
Hyun gripped Dan-bi’s hand so tightly it seemed it might shatter, and pulled her toward him.
Then, tilting his head at an angle, he gazed intently into her eyes. His lips drew near—so near they almost touched.
“So let us exchange freely with the body instead, not the heart.”
“W-what? No, wait—!”
Dan-bi urgently reached toward the door. But mercilessly, the heavy doors of Un-cheong-gak began to close.

***

At that moment, in the Inner Palace.
Clang—
The sound of a teacup rolling across the floor rang loudly through the chamber. Soon the Queen rose abruptly from her seat, her lips trembling.
“Is this truly the case?”
“Your Majesty, I am deeply sorry.”
Young Ui-jeong, seated across from her, bowed deeply.
“I asked if it were truly so!”
The Queen cried out urgently, but Young Ui-jeong remained silent.
Unable to contain her anger, she strode swiftly toward the door.
At that moment, his quiet voice from behind caught at her heels.
“Compose yourself.”
“Do I appear composed to you?”
The Queen spun around and shouted at him. Young Ui-jeong then lifted his head and looked directly at her.
“You must be. You are now nothing less than the Queen Mother of this realm. Should you rush out barefoot like this, there is nothing you can accomplish.”
“Then what have you done, Father?”
The Queen stepped forward and sat down again across from Young Ui-jeong. She bore down on her father with eyes that seemed ready to swallow him whole.
“You should have stopped it! How could you stand idle and do nothing!”
As the Queen’s sharp voice rang through the Inner Palace, from beyond the tightly closed door, the attendant spoke hesitantly.
“Your Majesty, the Second State Counselor has arrived.”
The Queen’s eyes flickered. Before she could even answer, the doors swung open and Woo Ui-jeong appeared.
With his face flushed crimson, he hurried breathlessly into the chamber.
“This humble servant pays respects to Your Majesty.”
“Is this a time for idle courtesies!”
The Queen barked at him, and Woo Ui-jeong’s shoulders flinched.
Young Ui-jeong, who had been silent all along, lifted his teacup and took a sip. Without even looking at Woo Ui-jeong, he spoke with grave weight.
“How stands the matter?”
“That is… well…”
Woo Ui-jeong hesitated for a moment, then slowly opened his mouth.
“Your Majesty has gone to Un-cheong-gak to visit the Gui-in—that is, Dan-bi—we are told, Sire.”
“What did you just say?”
The Queen Consort’s face twisted in an instant. Woo Ui-jeong could not bear to meet that gaze and hastily bowed low.
“I beg your pardon, Your Majesty!”
The Queen Consort bit her lip hard, struggling to contain the fury that threatened to boil over.
Dan-bi had petitioned for the rank of Gui-in only moments before.
The King had granted the petition, and news had just arrived that Dan-bi had moved her residence to Un-cheong-gak—news that had already turned the Queen Consort’s stomach.
But for His Majesty to go seek her out in person the moment she relocated was beyond bearing.
“How could he do this! If His Majesty truly harbors affection for that woman……!”
“What could be better than that?”
At Young Ui-jeong’s smooth voice, the Queen Consort’s head snapped around to glare at him. Young Ui-jeong set down his teacup with composure and continued in an even tone.
“Surely you have not forgotten, Your Majesty, why we placed that woman at His Majesty’s side.”
“……!”
The Queen Consort closed her mouth, as if at a loss for words. Young Ui-jeong turned his cold gaze upon Woo Ui-jeong and asked.
“What has become of the Okse?”
“I am sorry to say, Sire. Its whereabouts remain unknown.”
As Woo Ui-jeong bowed his head in alarm, Young Ui-jeong’s eyes bored into him relentlessly.
A heavy silence fell. Woo Ui-jeong began to speak in self-defense.
“There was not a single minister opposed to the Gi-u-je. Had someone truly stolen the Okse, surely they would have revealed it during this occasion…….”
Young Ui-jeong swallowed a sigh inwardly.
It had been years since they had stolen the real Okse and replaced it with a fake.
The real Okse that Woo Ui-jeong had been keeping had vanished without a trace not long ago. Despite searching everywhere, they had not found so much as a clue.
The reason they had allowed the Gi-u-je to proceed according to the King’s wishes was singular: to track down the whereabouts of the Okse.
At first, Young Ui-jeong had suspected that one of the ministers had noticed Woo Ui-jeong’s betrayal and stolen the Okse.
He had believed that if anyone possessed it, they would certainly use it to prevent the Gi-u-je, filing memorials to stop it at all costs.
And so they had allowed the Gi-u-je to proceed—yet the court remained silent.
In the end, Young Ui-jeong had conspired with Woo Ui-jeong to place his daughter, Dan-bi, at the King’s side.
The purpose was clear.
Recover the missing Okse before the Gi-u-je was held.
If that proved impossible, the King would have to be eliminated beforehand by any means.
On the day the ritual was performed, the moment the real Okse came into the King’s hands, the entire game would be overturned.
But events had begun to unfold in unexpected ways—starting from the moment Dan-bi was confined to Naeng-gung.

“Is it truly so? That strange rumor about crossing swords with His Majesty?”
“……It would appear to be true, Sire.”

As Woo Ui-jeong bowed his head, Young Ui-jeong clicked his tongue openly.
The situation had become dangerously tangled. The assassination attempt they had originally planned had come to nothing, and there was a risk of their involvement being exposed.
But after that, events had taken an even stranger turn.
The King had begun keeping Dan-bi at his side, and news came that he had even taken her to Sa-nyang-teo.
According to the original plan, the assassin sent by Woo Ui-jeong should have cut off the King’s breath at Sa-nyang-teo.
But Dan-bi had staked her own life to save the King and returned. It was infuriating.
Though Woo Ui-jeong had escaped punishment and preserved his life thanks to that, if Dan-bi had foreseen this entire scheme and acted accordingly, she was no ordinary schemer.
‘Whose side does she truly stand on?’
Young Ui-jeong could not fathom Dan-bi’s true intentions.
The King kept her so close at hand that communication with her had long since been cut off.
Whether she had deliberately saved the King seeing ahead to the future, or whether she had genuinely turned her affections toward him—there was no way to know.
Even if that were the case, if she still remained his ally, the situation was far from entirely unfavorable.
The turmoil at Sa-nyang-teo had already delayed the Gi-u-je by roughly a month.
If Dan-bi had won the King’s favor in the meantime, there would be ample opportunity to strike the dagger from the closest place of all.
“It appears we have weathered the crisis well enough, Sire.”
“……Weathered it well?”
Young Ui-jeong immediately questioned Woo Ui-jeong’s complacent reply.
“Surely you do not truly believe that.”
At that sharp, keen gaze, Woo Ui-jeong’s shoulders trembled. Young Ui-jeong fixed him with a steady stare and gripped his teacup tightly.
The King was not a man to be trifled with.
The deliberate rift he had driven between himself and Woo Ui-jeong before the other ministers was proof of that.
Someone had to stand with the King and read the current—otherwise, when they plotted their next move, obstacles would arise.
This subtle antagonism, kept so carefully hidden until now, the King might well have seen through during this very incident.
That would be problematic.
“Your Majesty is a perceptive man.”
He had navigated the recent crises with remarkable skill, yes—but it was hard to believe he had truly known nothing and simply endured it all passively.
More troubling still was the odd way he kept Dan-bi close by his side.
Since his true intentions were utterly inscrutable, he was surely hiding something beneath that placid exterior.
“Your Majesty? That cannot be.”
At that moment, Woo Ui-jeong tilted his head and spoke up.
“Not long ago, I hear my daughter called herself a Yi-bang-in, and His Majesty let it pass without question. If one considers that—”
“A Yi-bang-in?”
The Queen Consort echoed the words in bewilderment. As Young Ui-jeong’s gaze sharpened, Woo Ui-jeong continued.
“He truly said such a thing?”
“Yes. The fact that His Majesty was deceived by such an absurd claim—that she had come from a foreign land—suggests that you may be overestimating him, sir.”
Young Ui-jeong did not answer; instead, he stroked his beard slowly.
“A Yi-bang-in, then…….”

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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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