Chapter 145
Translator: RaidenTL
Chapter 145
“Did I ever once say with my own mouth that I was the daughter of this house? I only said I came to find my family! You were the ones who hugged me and cried, calling me your long-lost daughter!”
Ri-ri’s huffing, high-pitched screams echoed through the air.
“Shouldn’t you actually be thanking me? You didn’t even know that girl was a fake who’d been swapped with the real one until I showed up, did you?”
Ri-ri suddenly pointed at So-ya, her eyes bulging.
“Thanks to me, you found out she was a fake! I played the part of the real daughter you lost! And yet, instead of being grateful…! Ugh…!”
Mid-screech, Ri-ri suddenly clutched her chest and let out a pained groan.
Her spirit core, already pushed to its limit, had been overwhelmed by her volatile emotions.
“Kh… hugh…!”
If she tried to endure any longer, her spirit core would shatter.
“N-no, not like this…”
Ri-ri trembled, her face turning deathly pale.
Finally unable to hold on, her body collapsed inward.
Poof!
Where Ri-ri had stood just a moment ago, a single cuckoo chick remained.
Cuckoo. Cuckoo.
A brief silence followed the bird’s cry.
“She really was… a cuckoo…”
An anonymous murmur drifted through the cold silence.
“Must I continue to witness this pathetic display?”
At that moment, Yi-rim spoke, his voice chillingly cold.
“I apologize, Your Majesty…”
Jeok Ah-yun managed to squeeze the words out of his constricted throat.
“The ritual scheduled for today is postponed until tomorrow. As for that daughter of the Jeok Clan with the gray feathers…”
Yi-rim’s gaze flicked toward the cuckoo.
“For the crime of attempting to poison the daughter of the White Tiger Clan, and for the crime of impersonating the Bride of the Yellow Dragon by using the name of a Divine Beast.”
He recited Ri-ri’s crimes one by one.
“And for the crime of disturbing the Imperial Palace with false powers of purification—interrogate her and hold her strictly accountable for all of it. Take her away and imprison her.”
“Yes, Your Majesty.”
The palace guards seized the cuckoo, which flapped its wings in a frantic, futile struggle.
Ri-ri chirped and beat her wings toward Jeok Ah-yun and Jeok Hwa-yu, begging for help, but they could only watch her being dragged away with hollow, devastated expressions.
Once Yi-rim settled the situation, the gathered crowd began to disperse.
However, Jeok Ah-yun remained rooted to the spot, unable to leave.
If Ri-ri wasn’t the real daughter…
If she was just a cuckoo…
Then where was the real daughter Ri-ri had been imitating?
No.
Did a ‘real daughter swapped by a greedy servant girl’ even exist in the first place?
The only evidence that the youngest daughter of the Vermilion Bird Clan had been swapped was the token of direct lineage Ri-ri had brought with her.
But that had all been proven a lie.
Suddenly, a sensation that something had gone terribly wrong pierced through his mind.
As he blankly lifted his gaze, his eyes met So-ya’s.
He flinched.
The situation from moments ago, which he had briefly forgotten in the chaos, came rushing back.
[Ri-ri tried to kill me. If it had been the real me standing there instead of a phantom beast, I would truly be dead.]
[…]
[And yet, you’re still protecting Ri-ri in front of me?]
Ri-ri had tried to kill So-ya.
And yet, he had shielded Ri-ri right in front of So-ya.
He had said Ri-ri was his everything, and begged for her to be forgiven.
He had said those things to So-ya—the very person who had almost been killed by Ri-ri.
“What have I… done…?”
What on earth had he done?
The last bit of color drained from his already pale face.
Dragged back into the cold reality in an instant, his lips trembled as he looked at the child.
“So-ya…”
He felt he had to say something immediately.
Whether it was a shameless apology or a cowardly excuse, he felt he had to do something.
But So-ya, after giving him a single, frigid look…
Step—
She simply walked past him, still holding Sa-eon’s hand.
“Ah…”
A low groan escaped through his teeth.
Left behind, Jeok Ah-yun had to stand there for a long time, dazed amidst a reality he still couldn’t believe.
*
On the way back to their quarters, holding Sa-eon’s hand.
So-ya was not in a particularly pleasant mood.
Seeing Jeok Ah-yun let go of Ri-ri’s hand reminded her of how he had coldly rejected her when she ran to him after her first beast transformation.
Seeing Hwa-yu defend Ri-ri, saying it was impossible for her to be a cuckoo, reminded her of how he had turned his back on her instantly back then, unlike today.
And when she saw them raising their voices and arguing amongst themselves at the end…
She wondered why they felt so wronged.
She had known it would be like this.
Whether they cast Ri-ri aside or held onto her until the end, she knew neither outcome would bring her any joy.
‘This is why I didn’t want to get involved in their business…’
It was while So-ya was thinking this, her mood sinking into gloom.
Whoosh—
Suddenly, her body was lifted high into the air. Sa-eon had picked her up.
Startled, So-ya grabbed Sa-eon’s shoulders and spoke.
“Father. I’m not nine years old anymore.”
“But it looked like my baby missed her daddy’s arms.”
Sa-eon spoke with a voice laced with a gentle smile.
“But my baby has grown so much. Back then, you fit perfectly in one arm when I held you like this.”
“…”
So-ya fell silent for a moment, and then…
Poof!
Her body instantly shrank, and she tucked herself perfectly into Sa-eon’s embrace.
Sa-eon patted So-ya’s back as she took the form of a small bird.
The little bird let out a soft “Peep, peep,” and a tiny, bead-like tear fell from her eye.
Sa-eon stopped walking and looked down at her.
“My baby, why are you crying so sorrowfully?”
His thick finger wiped away the heavy teardrop hanging from the corner of her eye.
“Peep…”
Instead of answering, So-ya let out another bird-like cry and buried her head against his broad chest, her tiny body trembling.
Sa-eon waited patiently, patting her until the trembling stopped.
“…You know, Dad,” So-ya said, finally looking up at him. “I’m really, really glad you’re my dad.”
“Me too.”
Sa-eon grinned and stroked So-ya’s head.
“I’m really glad my little Cotton Ball is my daughter.”
At those tender words, So-ya’s eyes crinkled into a beautiful smile.
A pleasant, chirping trill escaped from her small, dainty beak.
In truth, those words were preceded by the hidden thought, ‘Instead of that man,’ but…
“Pyu-reureu, pyu-re.”
Feeling much better, So-ya rubbed her head against Sa-eon’s palm.
Sa-eon let out a small laugh at So-ya’s rare display of affection.
*
Meanwhile, at the same time.
Ga-yul was tending to a sparrow.
It was the same sparrow with the injured leg he had rescued not long ago.
That day, Ga-yul and So-ya had disinfected the sparrow’s festering leg, applied ointment, and wrapped it in a bandage.
So-ya possessed a special power to heal wounds.
However, because the first young lord of the Vermilion Bird Clan had visited that day, she hadn’t used her power and had treated it using normal methods instead.
Ga-yul didn’t quite understand why, but So-ya had told him her special power was a secret.
Wasn’t that why they had kept it a secret for two years that she had instantly purified the people poisoned by demonic insects?
Regardless, thanks to that, Ga-yul was able to experience treating another animal for the first time.
He felt proud every time he saw the bandage he had personally wrapped around the sparrow’s thin leg.
But the sparrow had been acting a bit strange since this morning.
It kept biting Ga-yul’s hand with its beak and scratching him aggressively with its claws.
“Why are you so angry? Are you hungry?”
Ga-yul tilted his head as he watched the baby sparrow peck fiercely at his palm.
The young sparrow’s attacks didn’t hurt; they only tickled.
“Cotton Ball used to peck at me like this when she was angry as a baby, too…”
Ga-yul’s thoughts naturally drifted to So-ya.
“I wonder if Cotton Ball is okay.”
Today, So-ya had gone to the Altar of the Yellow Dragon with their father.
She said she was going to expose the misdeeds of that wicked cuckoo from the Vermilion Bird Clan.
“I wanted to go with her.”
But because So-ya said she wanted to go with only their father, the rest of the family hadn't followed.
Even as the sparrow chick nipped at his hand, Ga-yul’s mind was filled with worry for So-ya.
Then, suddenly, his ears perked up.
He heard the sound of So-ya returning!
Ga-yul immediately leaped out through the open window.
“Cotton Ball!”
“Brother Yul!”
So-ya, in her bird form, was chirping and laughing along with Ga-hyeon and Seol-yo.
However, the White Tiger’s superior sense of smell picked up the scent of tears lingering on So-ya.
‘They said you’re supposed to pretend not to notice at times like this.’
Though he often lacked tact, Ga-yul had an extraordinary memory and clearly recalled something Cheong-ha had once told him.
She said that a tiger who points it out when a girl is hiding her tears behind a smile is a tactless, ignorant brute.
But a tiger who pretends not to notice the scent of tears and makes her laugh with funny words and stories is a gallant and cool tiger.
Recalling his mother’s teachings, Ga-yul transformed into a tiger and began to perform a ridiculous dance while singing a song in a bizarre, off-key melody to cheer So-ya up.
So-ya burst into laughter and joined in, chirping along to the song.
That day, Ga-yul was so focused on So-ya that he failed to notice.
He didn't see that the young sparrow in his room had become very, very strange…
“Grrr, grrrr…”
The sparrow was threatening the other birds on the windowsill, looking much like a miniature demonic beast.
The dozing birds, startled by the threat, took flight and scattered in a flurry of wings.