I Became My Ex-Boyfriend’s Concubine - Chapter 80

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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 80

One month prior, within Sang-ui-won.
“I’m going to deceive the heavens themselves.”
“……The heavens?”
At Dan-bi’s words, Myeong-i tilted her head in bewilderment.
“I’ll force the sky to have no choice but to send down rain.”
With that, Dan-bi immediately began teaching her how to grind Luminescent Stone, dye cloth with it, and coax forth its radiant glow.
And so the enormous Moon-Shaped Cloth, which would have required a dozen or more workers to carry, was completed far more swiftly than expected.
The great fabric, which held the moonlight itself and released it in turn, conjured an almost uncanny illusion—as though a moon had descended to earth.
Myeong-i, entranced by the sight, spoke at last.
“But my lady, is that truly all?”
“Why do you ask?”
“There is still much Luminescent Stone powder remaining unused, is there not?”
Myeong-i nodded toward the pile of powder heaped to one side.
“And it took far less than the month you said it would, my lady. You told us it would be labor-intensive work, yet…….”
“As expected—you notice everything, Myeong-i.”
Dan-bi smiled, reaching over to gently stroke the girl’s hair.
“You’re right. The work doesn’t end here.”
“My lady? What else must be made?”
Gang Sang-sik, who had been lying half-prone on the floor, lifted his head, while the man who had been standing askew crossed his arms and cocked his head in confusion.
Dan-bi met their gaze and spoke softly.
“I’ll create another moon.”
“You mean to make another cloth identical to the first, my lady?”
“No. This time will be different.”
“Then……?”
“I’ll sew dancer’s robes. Not one or two—many of them.”
At Dan-bi’s firm response, the three exchanged wide-eyed glances.
“Dancer’s robes, my lady? To be more specific……?”
“The ceremonial garments the dancers will wear during the Rain Prayer Ritual.”
Dan-bi’s lips curved with clear certainty.
Everyone was frantic preparing the King’s formal robes and the countless vestments needed for the various rites. The dancers’ garments had already been made and were ready.
Yet she meant to remake them all from scratch.
There was barely a month left until the Rain Prayer Ritual.
There was woefully insufficient time to stitch dozens of new garments. Just looking at the pile of work stacked beside the old brazier was enough to draw an involuntary sigh.
“But what bearing does that have on the moon, my lady?”
At his question, Dan-bi turned her head. Myeong-i also nodded vigorously, equally perplexed.
“Surely you don’t mean to embroider moons onto the dancers’ robes?”
“Hmm, that would be one approach.”
Dan-bi retrieved a bolt of fabric that lay near the brazier—a dancer’s robe nearly complete.
She examined it closely, then nodded to herself.
“The cloth is as I imagined. We won’t need to remake it from the start. A new dyeing should suffice.”
“Surely you don’t mean to dye all those dancer’s robes with the Luminescent dye, my lady?”
“That’s precisely what I mean.”
“But why ever would you……?”
Their faces reflected disbelief at such precious pigment being lavished on dancers’ garments.
Dan-bi looked at Myeong-i and held out the robe in her hands.
“Myeong-i, have you ever seen how the dancers move during the Rain Prayer Ritual?”
“I once glimpsed it from over my shoulder in the rear courtyard. They form a circle around the White Jade Basin and dance round and round…….”
At that, Myeong-i’s eyes suddenly widened with comprehension. Dan-bi met her gaze and nodded gently.
“Yes. The moon is not only round. In whatever form we create it, we can shape the moon with our own hands.”
Dan-bi held the fabric tightly in her grip.
It would be nearly impossible to completely evade the stringent surveillance tracking her every movement. So she had to lay out as many contingencies as possible, woven as tightly as she could manage.
And now, this was all that remained.
No matter what came to pass, the rain would have to fall this time. It had to.

As if to mock that resolve, time flowed with cruel swiftness, and the Rain Prayer Ritual itself now loomed just ahead.
“My lady! No, Dan-bi! You mustn’t go on like this. Please, I’m begging you.”
“Come now, hold my arm, won’t you?”
“Miss…!”
Dan-bi soothed the tear-stained Seom and extended her arm.
The physicians gathered about stood frozen, plainly at a loss.
The Inner Chamber, in the present moment.
Her skin burned from prolonged exposure to the demon fire’s heat, yet unlike moments ago when she could scarcely move a finger, she now possessed enough command of her body to rise and move about.
She had to reach Sa-jik-dan as swiftly as possible.
When Dan-bi moved decisively forward despite Seom’s attempts to hold her back, the physicians’ faces drained of all color.
If the Noblewoman left before her treatment was complete and something went wrong, the blame would fall squarely upon their shoulders.
Yet none of them dared forcibly restrain a woman who commanded the King’s singular favor.
Dan-bi ignored their stares and, slipping her arm about Seom’s shoulder, hastened her pace.
She had to see with her own eyes whether the ceremony was proceeding without incident, whether the “moon” they had labored so carefully to prepare revealed itself at the proper moment.
It was just as they reached the outskirts of Sa-jik-dan that it happened.
“Miss! What in the world is…!”
“…!”
They had scarcely left the rear courtyard before the radiance surrounding Sa-jik-dan proved utterly overwhelming.
Intense light poured forth from the White Jade Basin at its center, undulating with such ferocity it seemed to devour the entire world.
Dan-bi narrowed her eyes.
Through the brilliant curtain of light, dozens of Han-sam fluttered like butterfly wings.
The dancers.
At last her tension released, and relief burst from her lips in a held breath.
They had finally completed the moon of the earth.
Yet there was no room for complacency yet.
Dan-bi lifted her gaze to the sky. The full moon, veiled by clouds, cast only the faintest light.
The Luminescent Robes of the dancers blazed with light so intense it seemed to drink in even that meager moonlight entirely.
It was as though the moon itself had descended from heaven to the earth below.
‘Please, please let it reach…!’
Had her fervent prayer touched the heavens?
In the moment the light streaming from the Luminescent Robes touched the purified waters where the Royal Seal lay, the moonlight inscribed itself with startling clarity upon the still surface.
It was that instant.
Crack!
The light held within the basin became a towering pillar, shooting straight upward.
Its force was as though it would tear through the very ceiling of heaven itself.
The moment the light pierced through the clouds, a deafening roar shook heaven and earth with a tremor that made the ground itself quake.
Rumble-rumble-rumble-rumble…!
“Ahhh!”
“What… what is this…!”
At the earth-shaking roar, courtiers and concubines screamed and scattered in panic.
Some cried out that they must flee this place at once, while others clapped their hands over their ears and prostrated themselves on the ground, unable to bear the deafening sound.
It was then, amid the chaos that had erupted, that someone pointed skyward with a voice trembling in awe.
“Look, look there!”
“Is it truly… Heaven’s Gate opening?”
Even those who had been fleeing stopped in their tracks and looked up in unison.
The edge of the sky where the pillar of light from the White Jade Basin touched began to split open with startling clarity, as though carved by some immense blade.
The thick veil of cloud that had surrounded the moon scattered to either side.
“Self!”
As Seom turned with an expression overflowing with emotion, Dan-bi nodded and gazed into the widening rift.
“The gate truly opened.”
The records of the previous king that Park Dae-yeong had recounted came to mind.
That legendary tale of how rain poured down and the heavens opened when the true Royal Seal awakened.
The sight unfolding before her eyes now differed in nothing from that account.
The system must certainly have recognized the moon of the earth, wrought from Luminescent Stone, as befitting the Moon-Vessel Completion Rite.
If so, then only one thing remained.
Patter, pitter-patter.
A cold droplet fell upon the bridge of her nose. Soon dark spots began to spread one by one upon the parched ground.
In that moment, the commotion that had filled the space fell utterly silent as though it had never been.
All reached trembling hands toward the empty sky as though entranced.
One courtier, gazing upward with vacant eyes, swallowed dryly and uttered softly:
“Rain……”
That whispered word became the spark.
The gathered crowd at Sa-jik-dan cried out in unison, as though bound by a shared oath.
“Rain! The rain is coming!”
As if answering their desperate cry, the scattered droplets swiftly grew heavy and thick.
Before long, a fierce and torrential downpour swept across the earth, drowning out even the clamor of the crowd.

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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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