I Became My Ex-Boyfriend’s Concubine - Chapter 85

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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 85

Dan-bi’s eyes widened with confusion.
There was no doubt about it. The pattern matched exactly the design she had once created herself.
At her reaction, Hyun and Rang exchanged glances before studying Dan-bi with puzzled expressions.
“You made it? What do you mean by that?”
“It’s identical to a pattern I created in reality.”
Dan-bi found herself recalling the fashion show she had prepared in the real world.
The silk hems that should have glowed beneath the lights, the nights spent hunched over needle and thread—all those memories swept past her like a panorama.
Though Ha-rin had stolen her credit and Dan-bi’s own mistakes had sabotaged the finale, leaving the ending gown unseen, it remained the fruit of months of sleepless labor.
What had demanded the most care was the pattern embroidered on the garment.
That intricate weave of traditional color and modern technique—rendered not only in thread but also as a norigae beneath the jacket—was a design Dan-bi had treasured so dearly she felt she had poured her very soul into it.
Yet that pattern, born solely from her fingertips, now lay embedded in this norigae before her.
“This can’t be happening.”
It was impossible.
She had never crafted a norigae in this place, and more baffling still was the fact that Som had been the one to give it to her.
“You there.”
When Hyun raised his voice, Yun stepped through the doorway.
“Yes, Your Highness.”
“Bring the Consort’s attendant at once.”
“I shall obey your command.”
After Yun withdrew, Hyun spoke softly to Dan-bi, his gaze lingering briefly on her trembling hands.
“Stewing over it alone won’t yield answers. You’ll have to ask directly.”
Shortly after, Som entered under Yun’s guidance, having waited outside.
Visibly startled, she threw herself prostrate the moment she recognized Hyun.
Som’s shoulders trembled noticeably, caught off guard by the sudden summons.
“Y-Your Highness, I bow before you!”
“Raise your head.”
As Som lifted her head, the heavy door closed behind her. Hyun broke the weighty silence and spoke.
“I summoned you because I have pressing questions.”
“Som.”
At Dan-bi’s call, Som glanced up hesitantly.
Dan-bi stepped forward and held out the yellow norigae before her. The tassel swayed limply in the air.
Som gazed at it quietly, then tilted her head. Dan-bi asked in a shaking voice.
“Do you remember giving this to me?”
“I presented it to you the day you said you were going hunting, madam.”
“Right. Where did you get it?”
“You mean the norigae, madam?”
All eyes fixed on Som. She swallowed dryly and continued.
“The young mistress gave it to me directly before, madam.”
“I gave it to you?”
Dan-bi’s brow furrowed at this unexpected answer. She had no memory of any such thing.
Som nodded matter-of-factly.
“Yes, madam.”
“When was that?”
“Before you entered the palace, at the Sa-ga, madam.”
Sa-ga—that would be Woo-sang’s house, where she had lived before entering the palace.
If that were true, the situation made even less sense.
‘That can’t be right.’
The first scene she had witnessed upon logging into the Game was inside a palanquin passing through a marketplace on the way to the palace.
The Game had begun there. That meant anything before couldn’t concern her.
Of course, she understood this world had its own narrative and backstory before her arrival—character Prehistory, as it were, something she could simply file away and move on.
Yet a troubling question remained unresolved.
How could a Game character, before she had even logged in, have known about and crafted this pattern she had designed in Reality?
More so—this design she had never even shown at the fashion show, known only to herself?
“I gave you this back then? Why?”
“That, I cannot say, madam…”
Som hesitated, as if searching her memory.
“He instructed me to hide it away where no one could ever find it.”
“Me?”
“Yes.”
Dan-bi tilted her head at words whose meaning she couldn’t discern.
“Then why did you give it to me before we went hunting?”
“That is…… the Norigae that had been hidden at Sa-ga suddenly appeared in the palace.”
“What?”
What came from Solm’s mouth was utterly unexpected.
Following Dan-bi’s own request that it be hidden where no one could find it, Solm had buried the Norigae deep in the front yard of Sa-ga when no one was watching.
She added that she had checked her surroundings several times even as she was burying it in the earth.
But upon entering the palace and inspecting the interior of So-gung, she had been stunned to discover that the very same Norigae she had buried was lying inside a box.
Though she threw it away several times, seized by an uncanny feeling, the Norigae kept returning to the box as if to spite her.
Solm had grown convinced that it was a lucky charm protecting its owner, after seeing Dan-bi wearing this very Norigae when she hurriedly stopped by Ui-sang-go the night before, after being imprisoned in Naeng-gung and finally released.
She had given the Norigae to Dan-bi specifically because she was going out hunting, and her belief in its power had only deepened upon witnessing her safe return—all for that reason.
“A lucky charm, you say…….”
An object that returned to its place no matter how many times you removed it—it wasn’t unreasonable to think of it that way.
Yet even after hearing Solm’s explanation, Dan-bi’s question about why her own handiwork existed here remained unanswered.
Then Hyeon spoke, his voice heavy.
“Did you already know about this Norigae?”
“That is…….”
Dan-bi hesitated for a moment, then opened her eyes wide and met Hyeon’s gaze directly. There was nowhere left to hide now, no room left to retreat.
“I believe I made this Norigae myself, outside this place.”
“If you made it outside, are you perhaps speaking of the Foreign Land?”
“……No.”
Dan-bi moved her lips for a long moment before finally seeming to reach a decision and continuing.
“In the real world, not in this Game world.”
“Reality?”
Hyeon’s brow furrowed as if he couldn’t comprehend. His expression was that of someone listening to a tale from an unreachable distance.
Dan-bi gazed at him and nodded slowly.
“Before, you understood it as the Foreign Land, but my position hasn’t changed. This place is Virtual Reality……in other words, a world inside a Game.”
The air in the room settled heavily.
Rang and Solm’s eyes wavered as if they could not possibly comprehend Dan-bi’s words. Only Hyeon kept his gaze fixed steadily upon her.
Dan-bi endured that suffocating silence without flinching.
It was too late now to cover everything with the vague term “Foreign Land.”
From the countless memories she shared with Hyeon to this mysterious pattern, there were too many threads waiting to be unraveled.
If this riddle were to be solved, Hyeon—who was surely experiencing the same Reset as she was—would undoubtedly be the key.
After a long silence, Hyeon finally spoke.
“Then I cannot help but ask.”
His eyes grew sharp.
“You once spoke of having a mission.”
At those words, both Rang and Solm suddenly raised their heads. But Dan-bi did not look away from Hyeon.
He continued in a low voice.
“That you must receive my love—was that all a lie?”
“…….”
Dan-bi steadied her breathing for a moment, then finally opened her mouth. Her throat was parched, and her voice emerged hoarse.
“Everything I did to kill Your Highness was true.”
At that confession, Rang’s eyes widened in shock as he stared at Dan-bi. But Hyeon simply gazed at her in silence.
She continued speaking.
“To be precise, it was the work of another version of myself that exists within my body.”

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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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