I Became My Ex-Boyfriend’s Concubine - Chapter 57

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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 57

Something was wrong.
She’d never plugged in the Game Device to charge it once, yet its light showed no sign of fading.
On a whim, she’d tried connecting it to a company adapter to peer inside the System, but that too had ended in dismal failure.
When she’d taken it apart, the components were identical to her company’s own products, and yet the device refused to respond to anything—as though blocked by an invisible wall.
“The Game Device is still running?”
Hyun didn’t look away from the device as she spoke quietly. Som nodded, her expression grave.
“For now, yes. The problem is, we don’t know when it started running in the first place.”
“The Game Device was right under the sofa.”
Hyun tightened her grip on the device as she cut herself off.
“Dan-bi always played there, and she was the only one in the house at that time. No one else entered the place for quite a while.”
“No one entered? How do you know that?”
“I checked the CCTV.”
“What?”
Som exclaimed in disbelief, but Hyun pressed on regardless.
“A few days ago, I found a strange delivery box suddenly sitting in front of the Entrance.”
“Suddenly? What do you mean, a delivery box?”
“Exactly what it sounds like.”
Hyun pulled out her phone and played a video. It was a recording of the CCTV footage played back on a monitor.
Som was confused. One moment they were talking about the Game Device, and now this strange tangent about a delivery box?
But as the video began, Som’s expression hardened rapidly.
The situation on the screen was far too bizarre to dismiss as idle chatter.
As though the footage had been crudely spliced, a box that hadn’t been there before suddenly appeared in front of the Entrance with a soft pop.
Then the door opened and Dan-bi walked in carrying the box.
Now Som understood what Hyun had been about to say.
“You don’t mean to say…”
Hyun nodded as Som narrowed her eyes.
“That’s what I think too. If the thing inside that box really was this Game Device…”
A chill ran down her spine.
But if this footage hadn’t been doctored—or even if it had been, there was nothing strange about it anymore.
The fact that a beta test device, company-classified and identical to this one, had been in Dan-bi’s home in the first place was already beyond belief.
“So you’re saying Dan-bi received this Game Device beforehand and played it?”
“There’s no other way to interpret it.”
“Wait, now that you mention it…”
Som recalled the first day she’d entered Dan-bi’s house searching for her after losing contact. Dan-bi had been lying on the sofa, this Game Device strapped to her head.
From the circumstances, it seemed certain that this was the last thing she’d been holding onto before losing consciousness.
“That doesn’t make sense no matter how you look at it.”
Som turned to look at Dan-bi, her eyes wavering.
The sleeping face was no different from usual, but that solitary glimmering light beside her felt utterly unreal.
A red dot, relentlessly illuminating the dark Hospital Room without even a charger connected.
Som stared at the device in Hyun’s hand and barely managed to force out words she could scarcely believe.
“Then you’re saying Dan-bi is… still inside the game right now?”

***

“The System? What do you mean by that?”
“Ah, well, you see…”
The word “System” had tumbled out of her mouth unbidden, and Dan-bi found herself at a momentary loss for words.
But she quickly regained her composure and pointed to the table. On it sat a mixture of Luminescent Stone Powder and water, hovering suspended in an ethereal glow.
“If we use this, we should be able to make it rain.”
“…I’m sorry?”
Rang looked back at her as though she’d said something absurd.
It was a natural reaction. Even Dan-bi, thinking it over, recognized that what she was about to attempt bordered on pure gambling.
The System of this world would have to respond to her intentions for the rain to fall at all.
Before she could attempt that, there was something she needed to verify first.
“Your Highness, you said the moon symbolizes the Jade Seal, correct?”
At Dan-bi’s question, Hyun paused for a moment before nodding.
“That’s right. I am the sun, and the Jade Seal is the moon.”
“Is that also a story that comes down with the Wolru Sungwu Legend?”
Hyeon’s face flickered with confusion, but he soon shook his head.
“No. It was merely the previous king’s own reasoning.”
“Was there a reason for it?”
Hyeon fell silent in thought for a moment before speaking.
“Do you know when the drought in Dohwa Kingdom began?”
At those words, concern settled across Rang’s face as well. Hyeon turned to meet Dan-bi’s eyes before continuing.
“Around the time the previous king passed away. I was ten years old then, so many years have already gone by.”
“It’s been that long?”
It was astonishing.
Now she understood why the merchants in the streets had frowned at news of Dan-bi entering the palace, and why public opinion grew restless at the mere mention of Hyeon’s name.

“Of course. The country can barely feed itself, and it’s been months since the rains came. The more it drags on, the more Your Majesty hides away inside the palace.”

Was that why Solm had spoken those words back then?
Now Dan-bi was beginning to understand why Hyeon had been so obsessed with the Jade Seal and had hastened the Rain Prayer Ceremony.
On most days he was just a temperamental handful, but the fact that he’d ventured into the Sa-nyang-teo—where those who sought his life lay in wait—to procure a ritual offering was ultimately born of his sense of duty as king.
The will to end this terrible drought by any means necessary.
Yet that was precisely why her doubts deepened.
“Then, is this the first time you’ve performed the Rain Prayer Ceremony?”
At Dan-bi’s question, Hyeon’s lips sealed. Instead, Rang, standing beside him, answered carefully.
“This is already the third time.”
“And how did the first two go?”
Before the question had even finished, a heavy silence descended between the two of them.
Rang shook his head, his expression darkening.
“……No rain came.”
“That’s why the Jade Seal is necessary.”
Hyeon murmured low, as if picking up Rang’s thread.
“The drought began when the previous king passed away. In other words, it coincides with the moment the Jade Seal was switched for a counterfeit.”
Dan-bi’s brow furrowed.
“The drought started the moment the Jade Seal was replaced?”
“Some would dismiss it as mere coincidence, but the truth is otherwise.”
It was a tale that would seem like absurd superstition to most ears.
But to Dan-bi, it sounded entirely different.
This was not reality—it was a world inside a game.
In a world where Luminescent Stone Powder, which should never exist in this era, appeared as a reward Item, such a scenario setup was entirely plausible.
The question was whether Hyeon’s conjecture was the system-correct answer.
Dan-bi examined the System window floating in the air before her.
There, alongside a hint about the “Wolru Sungwu Legend,” sat the Sub-quest commanding her to make rain fall.
But nowhere in the entire window was there a single mention of the Jade Seal. Even that the Jade Seal symbolized the moon was ultimately nothing but someone’s guess.
Dan-bi could not say with certainty whether the Jade Seal was truly an essential key to bringing rain, or whether Hyeon was simply barking up the wrong tree.
“Is it because of that legend—the Wolru Sungwu—that you believe the Jade Seal must be the moon?”
“……Yes.”
Rang spoke up from beside him.
“The legend states that the moon’s tears become rain. Before and after the rains fell, the only thing that changed was the presence or absence of the Jade Seal, so the moon in the legend must surely refer to the Jade Seal.”
Dan-bi fell into thought again.
Rang’s reasoning made sense. But if it truly were an essential key to the quest, why hadn’t the System mentioned the Jade Seal in the Status Window alongside the “Wolru Sungwu Legend”?
If the quest description as written was the complete guide, then perhaps the Jade Seal wasn’t necessary to bring rain at all.
“Perhaps that moon isn’t the Jade Seal at all.”
“What do you—”
Leaving Hyeon’s doubtful voice behind, Dan-bi pressed forward with her next question.
“Your Majesty. Is there a place in the palace where clothing can be made?”
Taken aback by the sudden question, Hyeon’s brow narrowed. After a moment’s pause, he answered.
“If you speak of garments, all such matters are handled by the Sangyiwon. But why do you ask?”
“Because I’ve figured out how to make it rain.”
Dan-bi’s mind was already fully composed.
The essence was to create the “moon.”
If the real moon from the legend couldn’t possibly shed tears, then all she needed to do was artificially satisfy that condition instead.
Dan-bi fixed Hyeon with a gaze full of certainty.
“Please, let me work at the Sangyiwon for a while.”

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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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