I Became My Ex-Boyfriend’s Concubine - Chapter 87

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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 87

It was a night when even the moonlight hid behind the clouds, holding its breath.
Four shadows slipped silently through a narrow side gate behind Hyeon’s Bedchamber, deep within the palace’s innermost reaches.
“Just a little further, and we’ll reach the water passage that leads outside the Marketplace District.”
Rang led the way, whispering softly.
Dan-bi gripped the yellow ornament hanging from her waist. In the air above, the Status Window still flickered with “Jade Seal Creation in Progress.”
“You’re truly certain that if we go to that lake, there’s a way to find the Jade Seal?”
Hyeon slowed his pace to match Dan-bi’s stride, his voice measured. Even in plain clothes, an inherent dignity shone through the darkness—unmistakable, luminous.
Dan-bi turned to him and gave a small nod.
“I can’t be certain. But if the Jade Seal has vanished and taken its color with it, we need to return to where it all began.”
The origin point of color.
Dan-bi recalled the Three Primary Colors—something she’d heard relentlessly back when she attended art academy long ago.
Red, blue, and yellow.
The primordial colors that form the foundation of all the world.
After the fire incident, as the red began appearing in patches throughout the world, Dan-bi had thought about it.
Perhaps the moment she recovered all three primary colors, all the hues that had vanished from the world would return.
So she’d asked Hyeon to go where blue was most concentrated.
Just as she’d found red within fire, now it was time to reclaim blue from water.
“If I may be so bold as to ask one question, Mistress.”
Rang, walking ahead, ventured to speak. When Dan-bi looked up, he hesitated before asking.
“What you said this morning… was it truly the truth?”
Dan-bi paused for a moment, then nodded.
“Yes, it was.”
“Then…”
Som’s eyes trembled beside her. Dan-bi grasped her cold hand and spoke with conviction.
“The fact that this world is a virtual game remains unchanged.”
Rang and Som drew in sharp breaths of shock, but Hyeon simply gazed into the darkness in silence.
Just an hour before, Dan-bi had made the proposal to recover the colors and, in the same breath, revealed once more that this entire world was nothing but a lie.
Hyeon had remained unmoved at those words, while Rang and Som had seemed far more shaken.
After guiding them in silence for a long while and only asking the question once they’d left the palace, Dan-bi had answered readily enough.
After all, how could one not be curious when told that the entire world one had lived in was false?
“So this ‘game’ you speak of—is it akin to play, then?”
“Play, yes, you could see it that way. Though it’s somewhat different from the play here.”
Play in this world meant only simple things like arrow-tossing games or string games with fixed rules.
A Role-Playing Game, where one assumes a role within a predetermined world, could only be bewildering to them.
“To put it simply, it’s like… role-play.”
“Role-play?”
“Yes. You assume the role of someone in a created world and act within it.”
“You mean like a theatrical performance?”
Seeing Som nod as if she finally understood, Dan-bi trailed off uncertainly.
“Well, it’s a bit different from that. But I suppose close enough.”
“Then… you’re not truly Dan-bi?”
At Som’s dejected question, Dan-bi’s lips pressed shut.
Som had been at Dan-bi’s side since earliest childhood, so it must have been confusing to learn that the person before her was a stranger.
Just as Dan-bi’s mouth began to move in discomfort, a quiet voice came from ahead.
“Dan-bi is still Dan-bi.”
Hyeon stopped and turned, his gaze fixed on Som.
“Has the Dan-bi you’ve seen all this time changed from before?”
Som hunched her shoulders and hesitated before shaking her head.
“No, she has not changed.”
“Then that is all that matters. You need only look into your own heart—why ask such needless questions?”
His tone, sharper than usual, made Dan-bi’s brow furrow slightly. The girl was already downcast; why press her further into her shell?
“But why did Your Majesty insist on coming all the way here? I clearly told you I could go alone.”
“You always ask me the same thing. Is there somewhere I cannot reach?”
“That’s not what I meant. I only wondered if leaving the palace unattended might cause complications.”
At that, Hyeon’s expression turned almost contemptuous as he regarded Dan-bi.
“You concern yourself with trivial matters. Do you think there’s something I wouldn’t have thought of?”
Even my worrying drives you to complain.
Dan-bi huffed and turned her head away. Hyeon narrowed his brow in response, turning his back as well.
Dan-bi had been about to grumble further, but the sight of his straight back moving forward in its usual manner made her fall silent. It was the same posture as always—unbending, resolute.
There was, however, one thing that nagged at her about him.
Before, when she’d mentioned coming from outside, Hyeon had simply understood it as coming from the Other Realm.
But now, faced with her torrent of words about virtual reality and games, he was accepting them with a composure that seemed oddly unshaken.
Where once he would have drawn his sword without hesitation, he now merely took it in stride. It felt strange.
‘Does this mean his trust in me has grown more than before?’
Dan-bi swallowed the thought quietly.
In any case, it wasn’t a bad thing for her. If he believed in her, completing the Quests ahead would become far easier.
Dan-bi pushed the troubling feeling aside and quickened her pace.
After climbing the steep hillside and running through the Forest Path for a good while.
A chill began to seep through the dense trees. Soon the view opened wide, and an enormous lake revealed itself.
Cheongbing Lake.
Like its name, the clear, cold water cradled the moonlight and shimmered with a gentle glow.
Yet unlike usual, the lake bore not the blue one would expect, but an achromatic color—an eerie blend of white and black.
“It is as though night itself has descended upon the lake,” Sang murmured softly.
Dan-bi nodded at the words.
It was exactly as he said. The landscape seemed as if the pitch-black night hanging in the sky had melted directly into the water.
The rippling surface, dark as pitch, appeared less a lake and more like some vast abyss.
Realizing how deeply this colorless world was submerged in darkness, her heart ached.
“Then, what do you intend now?” Hyeon asked, standing with his hands clasped behind his back.
He turned to Dan-bi with the question.
“Is there truly a way?”
The piercing gaze that seemed to bore through her face told Dan-bi why he had followed her all the way here.
He wanted to see with his own eyes—to witness that impossible ‘color’ return to life.
Dan-bi examined the lake quietly and spotted a small Raft moored on the far side.
“Shall we head toward the middle of the lake?”
At Dan-bi’s words, the three of them climbed onto the Raft in turn.
Rang, gripping the oar, gave a gentle push against the ground, and the Raft began to drift slowly away from the shore, gliding smoothly into the tranquil depths of the lake.
Hyeon asked, as if puzzled.
“Why go so deep?”
“There are several things I want to test.”
“Several things?”
Without answering Hyeon’s question, Dan-bi gripped the railing tightly with both hands and examined the depths below her feet.
They had already reached the center, where the water ran quite deep.
Dan-bi reached down and touched the lake’s surface. She brushed away the dark water trickling between her fingers, then nodded as if resolved.
“This should be enough.”
Then she drew something from her bosom. All eyes fixed on it as it caught the moonlight with a cold gleam.
What Dan-bi held was a Floral-Patterned Short Sword with a sharp, keen edge.
“What are you—”
Rang hadn’t even finished speaking.
Dan-bi bit her lip hard, gripped the Short Sword firmly, and without hesitation drove the blade down into her opposite arm.

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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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