I Became My Ex-Boyfriend’s Concubine - Chapter 94

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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 94

A few days later, in the rear courtyard of Sang-ui-won.
“Your Highness’s birthday……?”
“You didn’t know, Dan-bi?”
Dan-bi’s eyes widened in surprise, and Myeong-i tilted her head with a quizzical expression.
“In two months’ time, it will be Her Highness’s birthday. It’s practically upon us.”
“That’s why Sang-ui-won has been in such a frenzy?”
Dan-bi watched the seamstresses hurrying back and forth, their arms laden with bolts of fabric. From deeper inside the workshop came the relentless sound of craftsmen’s hammers striking without pause.
The atmosphere was busier than usual, which had puzzled her until now—all of it, it seemed, was on account of the Princess’s approaching birthday.
With her mind so thoroughly consumed by other concerns, she hadn’t even heard the news.
‘Now that I think of it…’
Not long ago, word had come through the Nae-ui-won from the Queen herself, inviting her to attend a Tea Ceremony Gathering in two days’ time. Could that be related to this as well?
Under ordinary circumstances, she would never have answered the Queen’s summons, but this time she found herself thinking she ought to attend.
“Here we go.”
Just then, Myeong-i began draping the wet fabric onto the wooden frame, piece by piece.
Dan-bi reached down to the basket to help lift the cloth, but Myeong-i startled and quickly caught her hand, guiding it back down.
“Dan-bi! Please, you needn’t do this―.”
“It’s fine. I want to help.”
Paying no mind to Myeong-i’s protests, Dan-bi withdrew a length of fabric from the basket and shook it out into the air. With each flick of her wrists, droplets scattered in all directions.
Once she’d smoothed the cloth and draped it neatly across the frame, she felt her troubled mind settle a little.
“Dan-bi, is something troubling you?”
“Troubling me?”
“You always come here when something weighs on your heart.”
Myeong-i’s perceptiveness was keen. Dan-bi gazed at her for a moment, then gently stroked her hair.
“That’s not it. I came to see you. How are you feeling?”
“I’m perfectly well now!”
Myeong-i flexed her slender arm with spirited confidence, and Dan-bi let out a quiet laugh.
Myeong-i laughed along, bright and clear. As Dan-bi watched her, she asked carefully,
“You still haven’t recovered any memories?”
“No, not yet.”
Myeong-i glanced away hesitantly and shook her head.
Dan-bi brushed back her hair, revealing the small ribbon clip adorned with red cloth at its end.
On the day she’d found Myeong-i in that burning palace, she’d sent her immediately to Nae-ui-won on the Princess’s orders.
The physicians had begun treatment at once, but as they examined Myeong-i, they shook their heads gravely.

“She has inhaled far too much smoke.”

The suggestion that she might have suffered damage to her mind had worried Dan-bi deeply.
Unable to leave Oon-cheong-gak for some time after the rain came, she had summoned Solm repeatedly to check on Myeong-i’s condition daily. The one saving grace was that outwardly, there seemed to be no significant change.
But the moment Dan-bi had met with Myeong-i and spoken with her, the difference became apparent.

“A fire? I was there?”

Myeong-i remembered nothing of what had happened that day.
At first, Dan-bi had been confused, but then she’d come to see it as a mercy. For a child to endure such cruelty—to be trapped alone in the Pye-jeon-gak and face the flames—was too much.
But the trouble was that not everyone would see it the same way.
“Myeong-i.”
“Yes, Dan-bi.”
“Has anyone suspicious come to see you since then?”
“Suspicious? How so?”
“Strangers. Anyone unfamiliar.”
“……I’m not sure.”
Myeong-i paused to consider, then shook her head.
Dan-bi finally released the breath she’d been holding. It was a mixed blessing that Myeong-i had lost her memories, but that didn’t mean the situation was entirely safe.

“It’s Moon. She’s told me everything, Dan-bi.”

That day, Myeong-i had said she was led by So the Court Lady to Pye-jeon-gak.
Right after the Giuoje ended, Dan-bi searched for So the Court Lady at once, only to find she had already vanished without a trace.
Only then did Dan-bi understand why her every move had been reaching Park Dae-young’s ears. The spy had been in the closest place all along.
She’d suspected as much, but because So the Court Lady had stayed by her side from the very start of the game, Dan-bi had let her guard down without realizing it—and that carelessness had been her undoing.
Late memory surfaced: in the previous round, the Giuoje vestments she’d made had suddenly disappeared. It was this woman who’d blocked her from attending the Giuoje.
She should have caught on sooner, but her nature—one that didn’t readily suspect those around her—had cost her the chance.
Yet Dan-bi was certain this wasn’t So the Court Lady’s work alone.
The face that came to mind at once was Park Dae-young’s.

“In exchange, there’s one condition.”
“What is it……?”
“Don’t lay a hand on Sang-ui-won until the Giuoje is over.”

That was the condition she’d driven home firmly when making her deal with Park Dae-young.
The plan had been to deceive him into thinking something was hidden at Sang-ui-won, to lure him down the wrong path.
She’d thought he might tear Sang-ui-won apart in a frenzy, but she hadn’t imagined he’d reach out so openly—toward a child, no less.
Only he would commit such cruelty toward an innocent child. This deed had to be connected to Park Dae-young.
The problem was that she had suspicion but no proof.
Even Myeong-i, the victim herself, couldn’t remember anything from the fire, so Dan-bi couldn’t confront him directly.
If Park Dae-young thought for even a moment that the child had glimpsed his face, he might target her life again at any time.
At first, Dan-bi had considered bringing Myeong-i to Oon-cheong-gak immediately, but excessive protection could backfire.
Suddenly surrounding a child who’d lost her memory would only provoke Park Dae-young needlessly.
So instead, Dan-bi sent Sol to Sang-ui-won daily to watch over Myeong-i’s condition. Fortunately, no suspicious movements had been detected yet.
“Self, do you think Master Kang really has left this place?”
Then Myeong-i posed an unexpected question.
Turning her head, Dan-bi saw the girl gazing up at the bolts of fabric scattered across the shelf, her voice wistful.
“I miss Master Kang.”
Dan-bi looked down at Myeong-i and gently squeezed her shoulder.
“There must be a reason for it all.”
“Is something the matter with him?”
At the worried question, Dan-bi lightly stroked Myeong-i’s face.
“It’s all right, Myeong-i. You don’t need to worry. Even if something were wrong, would Master Kang simply sit still about it?”
“That’s true.”
At last, a bright smile bloomed across Myeong-i’s face. Dan-bi looked at it and swallowed a deep sigh.
After the Giuoje, another variable had emerged at Sang-ui-won: Kang Sang-shik, the master of this place, had absented himself.
From the day the first rain fell, he’d disappeared without a trace, or so they said.
The seamstresses and craftsmen, Myeong-i among them, seemed greatly flustered by the sudden absence of their master, but to Dan-bi, it was something she’d already foreseen.

“You want me to apply this Luminescent Pigment to the hem of the Queen’s sleeve?”
“That’s right.”

The day she’d caught Kang Sang-shik slipping out of Jung-gung-jeon.
Dan-bi had seized his secret in exchange for her silence, but on one condition: that he apply the Luminescent Pigment to the underside of the hem of the Queen’s vestments beforehand, on the day of the Giuoje.
Since Sang-ui-won was responsible for making the final inspection of the Queen’s garments before she wore them that day, it was entirely within his means.
At first, Kang Sang-shik had vehemently refused, ranting that she’d lost her mind. If he committed such an act, his head would surely roll—there was no doubt about it.
He wasn’t wrong.
But precisely speaking, from Dan-bi’s perspective, whether he accepted her proposal or not, his neck was forfeit either way.

“Tell me honestly. Park Dae-young had you do something, didn’t he?”
“That is…….”

The information Dan-bi had wrung from Kang Sang-shik through prolonged coercion was unexpected.
Park Dae-young had ordered him to custom-make an identical second bolt of silk to wrap the Seal Box.
The moment Dan-bi heard this, she was certain: Park Dae-young was no fool.
He wasn’t the sort to simply sit obediently and wait, trusting only her bargain that she’d tell him the Royal Seal’s location just before the Giuoje.
The fact that he’d tried to duplicate the silk wrapping the Seal Box meant he had other designs in mind entirely.

“From the moment you accepted that proposal, you had no choice but to leave this place. You know that, don’t you?”

And Kang Sang-shik was equally ensnared in that vile conspiracy.
There was no chance that Park Dae-young, that brutal man, would let a craftsman who had made a counterfeit Royal Seal meant to symbolize the king’s authority live without complications.
Kang Sang-shik had already felt it bone-deep—that his remaining days were like a candle before a hurricane.
It was swallowing one’s tears and biting into mustard, but Kang Sang-shik, who clung fiercely to life itself, took Dan-bi’s hand.
On that final day he granted Dan-bi’s request, and even tucked away the precious Jade Ring she pressed into his grip before leaving the Sang-ui-won for good.
Since fleeing in the dead of night was the only path left to preserve his life, it was hardly a losing proposition for him either.
‘Wherever it is, I’ll have to hide and live in such a way that neither rat nor bird knows.’
All Dan-bi could wish for him now was that he had escaped safely.
“But Dan-bi.”
Myeong-i, standing beside her, looked up at the crystalline sky and asked. The blue expanse dotted with puffy white clouds was so clear it hurt the eyes.
“Won’t you tell that story today?”
“What story?”
Myeong-i turned to Dan-bi with a radiant smile.
“The one about the strange girl who tumbled down from the outside world into this place!”

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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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