I Became My Ex-Boyfriend’s Concubine - Chapter 88

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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 88

Squelch.
The blade bit into flesh, and bright blood streamed down her arm in rivulets. Sol lurched to his feet in alarm.
“Ah—my lady! What are you—!”
“What are you doing!”
Rang’s face went pale as he seized the oar he’d nearly dropped, his hands trembling.
But Dan-bi paid no mind to the wound on her own flesh, letting blood drip freely as she extended her arm toward the lake without hesitation.
Crimson droplets fell onto the dark water’s surface.
Yet contrary to her expectations, the blood simply vanished into the pitch-black depths, swallowed whole. The surface remained unchanged.
Dan-bi gazed down at the motionless lake, her head tilting slightly.
‘That’s… not it?’
The doubt had barely flickered through her mind when—
Snap.
Her wrist was seized in a iron grip, and her body wrenched around roughly.
Hyeon’s face loomed before her, burning with fury. His voice dropped to a dangerous murmur.
“What do you think you’re doing?”
“What do you mean? To find the color, I need to—”
Before she could finish, Hyeon bit his lower lip.
He dragged Dan-bi to the center of the raft, then without hesitation tore away the hem of his robe with both hands, ripping it with savage force.
“Your Highness!”
Ignoring Rang’s protests, Hyeon wound the torn silk firmly around Dan-bi’s arm.
Caught off guard, Dan-bi stared at him with bewildered eyes.
“Wait, if you do this—”
“Not another word.”
At his cutting tone, her mouth sealed shut of its own accord.
Perhaps it was the moonlight, but Hyeon’s complexion seemed unusually pale.
Was he… genuinely frightened?
She almost wished she’d warned him beforehand, though he would certainly have dismissed it as nonsense had she tried. That was the kind of man he was.
Dan-bi hesitated for a moment, then spoke carefully.
“Your Highness saw it yourself—how I recovered the red color from within the burning pavilion.”
Dan-bi had taken her cue from the method she’d used before to restore red.
Then, when her blood had touched the flames after she’d pricked her thigh, the fire had reclaimed its true hue.
Crude though the method was, she’d thought it might work the same way to restore the blue—though it seemed now that wasn’t the answer.
Still, she didn’t know what else to try.
‘Then why am I explaining myself now?’
The words had tumbled out unbidden, and she didn’t quite understand them herself.
Dan-bi watched in silence as Hyeon tied off the robe hem around her arm.
Was she… actually trying to gauge his mood?
No, that couldn’t be it. What would she even be watching for? His sudden anger was the strange part. Wasn’t it?
“So that’s the method you devised? Merely this?”
“Merely? It may be simplistic, but it’s the most fundamental approach—”
“Turn the boat around.”
“Yes, Your Highness.”
At his command, Rang immediately began rowing in the opposite direction. Dan-bi stared at Hyeon in disbelief.
“Your Highness! There’s still much to try—”
“Enough.”
“But we haven’t found the color yet. If we leave now—”
“I said enough!”
At his sharp rebuke, Dan-bi’s mouth clamped shut. He stared at her for a long moment, then slowly turned away.
With his back now turned, Dan-bi let out an exasperated breath.
What was his problem? Why was he so angry all of a sudden?
The boat drifting back toward the dock was filled with nothing but heavy silence.
Only the rhythmic sound of the oar cutting through water broke the quiet—no one spoke first.
At last they reached the shore.
Dan-bi was about to climb out when a hand suddenly extended toward her. She stared at it, confused.
When she looked up, Hyeon was watching her intently.
“Well? Take it.”
Dan-bi averted her gaze from him, and somehow their hands found each other. He drew her gently inward.
At the same moment, Hyeon’s firm hand wrapped around Dan-bi’s back. The cool scent of grass brushed against her nose.
When she lifted her head, their eyes met directly. Dan-bi found herself holding that gaze before she suddenly pulled away from his embrace.
“Miss, is your arm all right?”
Unaware that Som had approached, Dan-bi stared blankly ahead.
In the distance, she could make out Rang and Hyeon walking away. She watched his retreating figure, and without thinking, her hand clenched against her chest.
Thump, thump.
Her heart raced. Dan-bi pressed her palm against it and forced herself to move forward.
He must have been startled by how suddenly she closed the distance, she told herself, patting her own shoulder for reassurance.

Crunch, crunch.
As she followed Hyeon and Rang, Dan-bi called out to the man ahead of her.
“Are you truly all right?”
“Are you treating me like an infant now?”
“No, that’s not what I meant—”
Dan-bi glanced quietly around them.
In the thick darkness, only moonlight filtered through, illuminating faintly.
The cave that Rang and Hyeon had entered sat beside Cheong-bing Lake.
Rang too asked Hyeon with an uneasy expression.
“Your Highness, would it not be wise to return now? The moonlight is still bright enough—”
“Have we finished what we came to do?”
“What we came to do—?”
Hyeon glanced at Dan-bi and continued.
“When the sun rises, I will examine Cheong-bing Lake again tomorrow. So we will spend the night here.”
Hyeon settled himself on a flat section of the cave with casual ease.
Dan-bi and Som exchanged looks, then helplessly sat down across from him.
Rang soon stepped out of the cave with an embarrassed expression.
“Then I shall go find materials to make a fire.”
“I’ll help.”
At those words, Som grew visibly restless and stood. She hurried after Rang, who was heading out of the cave.
Dan-bi watched their figures recede, then turned her head. She found herself staring directly into Hyeon’s gaze, which had been fixed on her.
Dan-bi quickly looked away, muttering to herself.
What is it? Why does he have to stare like that?
“How is your wound?”
At his quiet question, Dan-bi glanced down at her arm. His blue robe wrapped around the injury securely.
Dan-bi nodded slowly.
“It’s fine.”
The scent lingered at the tip of her nose—the fragrance emanating from his robe.
That cool, grassy scent she had felt when he held her in his arms.
Dan-bi tore her gaze away from her fluttering chest. As she tried to hide the heat rising in her ears, she fixed her eyes on the cave entrance beyond.
“Reckless.”
“Pardon?”
“Your head was given to you to think with.”
At his sudden reproach, Dan-bi turned sharply. He still regarded her with that calm face.
Though plainly sarcastic, his tone remained eerily composed.
Dan-bi’s voice sharpened.
“What do you mean?”
“Just what I said. Don’t throw yourself into danger so thoughtlessly.”
“Are you saying I acted without thinking?”
“Do you truly mean to ask? Where in this world would you find someone mad enough to draw a blade against their own arm?”
His patronizing tone made Dan-bi’s eyebrows twitch.
“Your Highness knows why I did that—it was all to find the color—”
“Then your life means nothing to you?”
“No, this isn’t even a matter of life and death—”
“Speak.”
At his coldly clipped words, Dan-bi fell silent. He continued, his gaze bearing down on her.
“You yourself said this is a game. And you told me that when you die, this place returns to the beginning. Is that not so?”
“Well, that is—”
As Dan-bi hesitated, Hyeon spoke.
“Then do not treat your body so carelessly.”
Dan-bi watched as he turned his head away, then lowered her own gaze.
The blue robe draped around his arm caught her eye with unusual clarity. Was she simply unsettled by the way circumstances were unraveling?
When she thought about it, his words held no flaw.
This whole thing had begun as a means to escape the game, after all.
But what on earth had startled her so? She feared her racing heart might echo too loudly through the cave for him to ignore.
Dan-bi gripped her chest and swallowed a dry breath.
“You said you wanted to find the Jade Seal and check something once you did.”
He remained fixed on the cave’s entrance, his question directed at the darkness beyond.
“What is it?”
Dan-bi looked up. The blue Status Window still rippled in the empty air before her.

「Sub-quest completed.
Successfully brought forth rain.
Jade Seal 50% generated.」

Looking at the Status Window that had just appeared, Dan-bi felt a question take shape.
It concerned the Quest she had been following without much thought until now.
She lowered her head again, studying Hyun. His eyes stared straight ahead at her.

“Now you remember, it seems. All those countless lives you’ve sought to end without fail, not once stopping yourself.”

His words circled through her mind.
Retracing all that had transpired, Dan-bi found herself wondering.
Perhaps the System had been guiding her all along down a path entirely different from what she believed.

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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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