Chapter 144
Translator: RaidenTL
Chapter 144
Jeok Ah-yun froze where he stood.
For a fleeting moment, he thought he was seeing things.
He hadn't been sleeping well lately. It had been that way ever since he arrived at the Imperial Palace. He told himself he was just tired, that his body was reaching its limit...
With that thought, he slowly closed and opened his eyes.
Blink, blink...
But even after several blinks, Ri-ri’s hair and eyes remained a dull, murky gray.
“...”
His lips parted soundlessly.
“What is it, Father?”
Ri-ri asked in a small voice, her brow furrowing at Jeok Ah-yun’s inexplicable behavior.
But her father gave no response.
“...?”
Her mood was already sour, and her father’s stifling silence was beginning to irritate her. It was then that Ri-ri noticed the people around her were staring with bizarre expressions. She instinctively faltered.
Some were pointing at her while whispering to those beside them, while others wore looks of shock, much like Jeok Ah-yun.
What is it? Why is everyone...
Thud.
At that moment, Jeok Ah-yun’s hand let go of hers and dropped to his side.
The moment the cool air brushed against her empty palm, Ri-ri felt that something had gone terribly wrong. An instinctive dread crawled up her skin, starting from her toes.
Why? Why are they doing this? Why is everyone looking at Ri-ri like that...
The gazes fixed upon her were strange and foreign, yet at the same time, hauntingly familiar.
It was from a time so long ago she could barely remember... those hazy days before she had crossed the threshold of the Vermilion Bird Mansion, back when she lived on the streets, stealing from others...
Those hostile, contemptuous glares directed at her...
She flinched.
As the thought took hold, Ri-ri’s heart sank. A chilling sensation washed over her, making her whole body tremble.
No. No, that’s impossible. I’m not the cuckoo from those days anymore. There’s no way people would look at me with those eyes.
She repeated the mantra in her head, but she could do nothing to stop the trembling in her hands and feet.
“F-Father.”
Ri-ri forced an awkward smile and tried to grab Jeok Ah-yun’s hand.
Twitch.
The moment she touched him, his fingertips reflexively recoiled.
Simultaneously, his dazed, frozen face began to turn deathly pale as the realization dawned on him.
“Surely... No, it can’t be...”
He muttered in a faint, whispering voice before suddenly snapping his head up. At the end of his shaking gaze stood the two facing statues of the Yellow Dragon that he had just passed through while holding the child’s hand.
“It can’t... be...”
His Adam’s apple bobbed as he let out a ragged, swallowed breath.
As Ri-ri stood stiffly, paralyzed by her father’s strange behavior and unsure of what to do, a voice rang out.
“The Altar of the Yellow Dragon is the most sacred place in the Imperial Palace, where the Son of Heaven, who rules the Earthly Realm, offers sacrifices to the Yellow Dragon.”
Yi-rim’s voice, which had been quietly observing the situation, resonated lowly through the tension-filled air.
“The first Emperor erected two statues before this altar so that all who stand before the Yellow Dragon, the Judge of the Earth, would be truthful.”
Yi-rim cast a cold, indifferent gaze down at Jeok Ah-yun and Ri-ri.
“Thus, when beastkin ascend this path, their supernatural abilities are nullified.”
Supernatural ability...? Why would that...
Ri-ri didn’t immediately understand his words and wore a bewildered expression.
When passing between the facing Yellow Dragon statues to ascend the altar, a beastkin’s supernatural ability is deactivated, revealing their true form. This was common knowledge among the high-ranking beastkin families of the Taehwa Empire.
However, Ri-ri had come to the Vermilion Bird Clan late, at the age of nine, and had neglected her studies of history and etiquette under the pretext of being frail.
Thus, she did not know.
She did not know that the cuckoo’s supernatural ability, which had allowed her to live as the lady of the Vermilion Bird Clan for so long, could be stripped away so instantly in front of so many people.
More than anything, having lived as the lady of the Vermilion Bird Clan for the past five years, Ri-ri had eventually forgotten her true self. She had even lost the awareness that her appearance was being maintained by a 'supernatural ability.'
Inadvertently glancing down, Ri-ri noticed the hair draped over her chest. The dull, gray strands looked utterly alien, as if they had lost all their light.
As the reality of the situation finally sank in, horror etched itself onto her face.
“W-Why is this...!”
Startled, Ri-ri looked up, only to freeze at the expression on Jeok Ah-yun’s face.
The vivid, naked emotion written across his features was none other than terror. Her father was looking at her as if he were staring at something hideous and frightening.
“F-Father, th-this is...”
“...”
“I mean, this... how this happened is...”
“...”
Ri-ri opened her mouth to make an excuse, then closed it again. Slowly turning her head, she saw the members of the Vermilion Bird Clan standing among the curious onlookers, their faces masks of pure shock.
She saw Jeok San-yu, his face set in a hard line, and Jeok Hwa-yu, whose expression had vanished as he turned ghostly pale.
No one spoke, but they all knew.
The truth was... she was not the real daughter of the Vermilion Bird Clan.
Sshhh—
Her face turning the color of ash, Ri-ri stammered in a low murmur.
“N-No...”
Though no one was cornering her, Ri-ri hunched her shoulders defensively like a trapped rat.
“I-I don’t know anything about this! I, I...!”
Her voice shrieked through the air.
The more she reacted, the more the crowd’s attention focused on her. Unable to withstand the atmosphere, Ri-ri burst into tears and grabbed Jeok Ah-yun’s sleeve.
“F-Father...”
“...”
But Jeok Ah-yun could not bring himself to look at her. Avoiding her gaze, he looked up and paused when he spotted So-ya standing beside Sa-eon.
So-ya was watching them with an unreadable expression.
The moment he realized So-ya’s eyes were fixed on his sleeve—the one Ri-ri was clutching—he reacted.
Rip!
Flinching as if he had committed a grave sin, Jeok Ah-yun wrenched his arm away, shaking off Ri-ri’s hand.
“Father...?”
Ri-ri called out to him, her voice trembling with disbelief. She was so shocked that he had cast her aside that her sobbing stopped instantly.
Jeok Ah-yun’s red eyes shook violently as they took in Ri-ri, who now lacked any trace of the Vermilion Bird’s characteristics.
Who on earth was this child?
This child, whom he had held and cherished as his own daughter for the past five years... who was she?
“What will the Head of the Jeok Clan do with the cuckoo that flew into the Vermilion Bird’s nest?”
Yi-rim asked in a somewhat bored tone, breaking the stagnant confrontation.
Cuckoo...
As Jeok Ah-yun blankly repeated the word the Yellow Dragon had uttered, someone else spoke up.
“This is impossible!”
The one who dared to shout in the presence of the Yellow Dragon was none other than Jeok Hwa-yu.
“There is no way. How could a cuckoo... How could a mere cuckoo deceive the Vermilion Bird?”
However, despite his repeated denials, Hwa-yu’s face looked as though his entire world had collapsed.
So-ya watched them with calm eyes.
[It is an old tale from before you or I were even born. There was a race of gray feathers that was driven out of the Southern Land.]
While talking with Yi-rim not long ago, So-ya had recalled the cuckoo beastkin, who were said to possess a very peculiar supernatural ability called 'brood parasitism.'
Originally, brood parasitism referred to the act of a parent bird laying its eggs in another bird's nest to have them raised in its stead. In the world of beastkin, this natural phenomenon manifested as a more unique form of supernatural ability.
Before their First Growth, a young cuckoo beastkin manifests this ability from birth, taking on physical characteristics similar to their false parents.
It is impossible for them to deceive a beastkin stronger than themselves.
However, Ri-ri had used the power of evil arts.
And So-ya suspected that the Peril Beast Do-cheol might have given her that power.
But what if this wasn't the first time Ri-ri had conspired with a Peril Beast?
What if she had been in league with one for a very long time?
What if she had already arrived with some sinister power the moment she first crossed the threshold of the Vermilion Bird Mansion at the age of nine?
If a cuckoo deceiving the Vermilion Bird is an 'impossible' feat, then she might have made it possible.
If Ri-ri truly was a cuckoo, and if she was using that ability to deceive everyone...
I have to forcibly deactivate that ability.
Fortunately, there was one place in the Imperial Palace that made such a thing possible. That was why she had asked Yi-rim to gather everyone here.
“Stop it, Hwa-yu.”
San-yu, the first of the three Vermilion Bird men to regain his composure, spoke to Hwa-yu in a cold, sharp voice.
“You already know. You know that girl is a cuckoo.”
At those words, Hwa-yu’s knees buckled, and he collapsed onto the floor.
His brother was right.
The moment Ri-ri’s supernatural ability was nullified and her true form was exposed, he, as a direct descendant of the Vermilion Bird, could instinctively sense her true identity. He had simply been denying reality because he couldn't bring himself to accept it.
Staring at the ground with gritted teeth, he suddenly snapped his head toward Ri-ri and screamed.
“Why? Why did you deceive us...!”
His bloodshot eyes, filled with a sense of profound betrayal, glared at Ri-ri.
“We truly cherished you as our sister! Why did you deceive us and tell us such lies!”
At his outburst, Ri-ri’s expression contorted. She couldn't believe that the man she thought would always be on her side was turning against her.
“...When did I! When did I ever lie!”
Ri-ri bit her lower lip hard and shrieked back at him.
“I just brought the red feather! You were the ones who welcomed me, saying I was your lost daughter!”