I Became My Ex-Boyfriend’s Concubine - Chapter 54

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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 54

Deep within the Royal Chamber, where even the lamplight seemed to hold its breath, three pairs of eyes converged on the table before them.
Rang, observing the suffocating tension that flowed between Hyun and Dan-bi, carefully broke the silence, glancing between them.
“Your Highness, what is this?”
“…A stone.”
“I can see that much, Your Highness. But why on earth would you bring this—”
The unfinished question dissolved unspoken on his tongue.
Hyun swallowed a quiet sigh at Rang’s expression, as if the latter had read his very thoughts.
Truth be told, Hyun himself could make no sense of this moment.
Only moments ago, he had sought out Dan-bi’s quarters resolved to end everything.
He’d moved forward believing that if necessary, he might have to take her life—and that such a choice, however brutal, was unavoidable.
All the way back from Sa-nyang-teo, doubt had gnawed at him without pause.
The assassins Woo-sang had sent. The Antidote that Dan-bi possessed. It all felt orchestrated with meticulous precision.
That Woo-sang’s poison arrows had been countered by an Antidote the woman carried—could such a coincidence truly be dismissed as mere chance?
It made far more sense to believe they were conspiring together.
That was why, upon reaching the palace, Hyun had entrusted the empty Glass Bottle to Rang—to investigate the residue and uncover a connection between Dan-bi and Woo-sang.
But the report that greeted him as he left the Great Hall was unexpected.
“The composition cannot be identified?”
“Yes, Your Highness.”
“Perhaps you simply lacked time to analyze it?”
Rang shook his head emphatically at the question.
“It is an herb unknown to us, Your Highness.”
That meant more time would yield nothing. His attempt to trace a connection to Woo-sang had come to nothing.
In the end, Hyun’s feet carried him to Uncheonggak.
It was not a visit born of lightness of heart. He already knew that Dan-bi was no ordinary person.
She was the only one who remembered his dream.
So Hyun had decided to grant her one final chance.
He meant to ask her directly: was she truly complicit with Woo-sang, or had she dared keep him alive through deception to drive the dagger home at the decisive moment?
In truth, there was no need for such tedious formality. If something troubled him, he could simply sweep it away and be done.
‘Yet why does my heart cling to this?’
That he would offer her even a chance to speak in her own defense was mere temperament—he was not so lawless as to turn away from one to whom he owed his life.
He had already surmised from Woo-sang’s attempt to kill him just before the Rain-calling Ceremony that she possessed no Royal Seal.
A simple confirmation that she knew nothing of the true Seal’s whereabouts, and in the worst case, he could dispose of her quietly without consequence.
“If rain falls, will you believe my words?”
But that audacious claim—that she would summon rain—could not fail to astound him.
At first, he’d dismissed it as mere improvisation to escape crisis.
Yet in the moment those four syllables fell from her lips, Hyun sensed with sudden clarity that this was no simple lie.
Moon’s Tears Become Rain.
The tears of the moon fall as rain.
It was a legend of the Dohwa Kingdom, known only to the king and passed down in secret from the previous reign.
A Secret Technique meant to save the realm only when the nation itself teetered on the brink of destruction.
And Dan-bi knew this secret, which only a king should bear.
“I told you. Here is a game… no, I come from another world.”
That such a legend circulated in another world was, by reason, absurd—yet no means of verification existed.
There was no assurance that the Dohwa Kingdom’s legend belonged to this land alone.
Most of all, if Dan-bi spoke truth, she might well be the only person who held a thread leading to rain.
Hyun needed it desperately. A single stream of rain to wet the parched earth was that precious.
When he first ascended the throne, fortifying his power had seemed the paramount concern.
He believed he needed the true Royal Seal—that symbol of Royal Authority—to crush the ministers who dared show him contempt from the shadows.
But as time passed, his convictions shifted.
Nearly a year had passed since rain last fell.
Public Opinion grew restless, and cries of mourning rose above the walls.
Each time he heard the harrowing news that an entire village had vanished, his chest sank with unbearable weight.
If this summer too saw the Drought continue, the realm would face extinction.
When he thought of those ministers prioritizing their own gain, sabotaging the Rain-calling Ceremony, fury rose in his throat.
“So be it. Do you have a way?”
In the end, asking for a way was something close to reckless impulse. Regret flooded him the moment the words left his lips.
A king who bore the weight of all his subjects was now begging another for counsel. Shame washed over him.
But she had rushed from the room only to thrust something unexpected into his hands.
“This is… not a stone, is it?”
“Yes, it is a stone.”
“This is the solution?”
“Yes!”
Entranced by her confident reply, he found himself wrapping the lump of stone in cloth and returning with it all the way to the Royal Chamber.
When the attendant insisted he and Dan-bi could not remain alone together, the three of them finally sat with their heads bowed, yet the situation remained absurd.
Watching the attendant swallow his questions, unable to make sense of this impossible turn of events, Hyeon pressed his throbbing temples.
He had stared at that stone for so long that now even the sight of anything resembling it made him feel ill.
“So then, what exactly is the reason this stone is meant to be a solution?”
In the first place, was this thing truly a solution? Hyeon suppressed the suspicion threatening to burst forth and asked.
At that, Dan-bi nodded, her gaze still fixed on the stone.
“It’s definitely a solution.”
“How can you be so certain?”
“That is…”
Seeing her hesitation, Hyeon’s brow furrowed.
Every time he asked for a reason, she faltered like this and then clamped her mouth shut. Clearly she was hiding something more.
“Are you saying this lump of stone will somehow bring rain?”
The attendant beside her looked bewildered. Dan-bi straightened her head as if stung.
“It’s not just an ordinary stone. There’s definitely something hidden in it—”
“Then what is it? Why won’t you simply tell me?”
“Because I don’t know.”
“…You don’t know?”
She claimed it was the means to bring rain, insisted it was no ordinary stone, and now she was saying she didn’t even know what it was.
Unable to grasp any logic in her answers, Hyeon’s eyes turned cold.
“Are you making a fool of me?”
“I’m just as frustrated as you are!”
The way she mumbled incomprehensibly made Hyeon’s brow twist.
“Do you truly think I cannot see through you?”
It was obvious. This time too, she was clearly trying to deceive him with absurd words.
Bringing this lump of stone to delude him—the thought that he, a king, was being treated with such contempt kindled his fury.
“Yes, you truly do not—!”
“Then what do you even know?”
Dan-bi shot to her feet and strode toward him, hand planted at her waist, her words sharp as a blade.
“You don’t know the first thing about me!”
“Are you raising your voice to me?”
“Why can’t I? When in Rome, do as the Romans do, but I didn’t ask to come to Rome!”
Ro… what?
“What do you…!”
Hyeon stepped forward, bewildered by her words.
Crack!
At the sound of something shattering, both their heads snapped toward the table. Stone fragments were cascading across its surface.
The attendant stood gripping his sword by the hilt, having split the stone in two. As both turned their gaze upon him, he offered an awkward smile.
“If one is curious about what lies within, one need only look.”
…
Their eyes turned back to the table. Through the crack running down the center of the split stone, a brilliant light blazed forth.

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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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