Chapter 177
Translator: RaidenTL
Chapter 177
So-ya was dead.
He had killed her.
The sheer force of that shock jolted Seol-yo’s consciousness awake.
Before him lay the lifeless So-ya.
‘I… I killed So-ya… I….’
Thump. Thump. Thump. Thump.
Seol-yo’s heart hammered wildly against his ribs.
‘No. This is a dream.’
As he tried to deny it, the members of the White Tiger Clan unleashed a barrage of attacks upon him.
Seol-yo’s body began to flee of its own accord.
‘Right. This can’t be reality.’
He didn’t want to run; he had to go back to So-ya. Yet, his legs continued to kick off the ground, sprinting away against his will.
‘I’m the one who protects So-ya. There’s no way I could have killed her…!’
Seol-yo’s desperate howl shook the entire mountain.
Before long, he was cornered and captured by the White Tiger Clan.
“…You… to So-ya…”
Ga-hyeon muttered, his face devoid of all emotion as he looked down at Seol-yo.
“Bind him.”
He commanded, his teeth clenched tight.
It was the moment the White Tiger Clan members lunged at Seol-yo all at once.
Rumble, crash—!
With a sudden, earth-shattering roar, Seol-yo was once again swallowed by a rift, just as he had been when he first arrived here.
Dropped into another timeline, Seol-yo found So-ya immediately.
‘So-ya…! You’re alive…!’
But his words were cut short.
So-ya was pointing a sword at him.
“Your Highness! Please, be careful!”
Behind her, people dressed as palace attendants cried out, their faces pale with terror.
Seol-yo blinked in confusion, but then the scent of blood brushed against the tip of his nose.
A chilling sense of foreboding washed over him. When he looked down, he saw a blood-soaked person pinned beneath him.
He knew instinctively.
He was the one who had done this.
Seol-yo tried to scramble backward, but once again, his body wouldn't move. That same repulsive sensation he felt earlier was dominating his physical form.
In the end, Seol-yo was repeatedly possessed by ‘it,’ harming So-ya and falling into different timelines over and over again.
How many times had this gruesome slaughter repeated?
‘How many times… have I killed So-ya?’
His stomach churned.
He felt like he was going to vomit. It was horrific.
But what was even more horrific was…
‘No… please stop….’
Even as he felt the horror of the situation, his body faithfully continued to crush the life out of her.
He wanted to escape this nightmare cycle, but he couldn't.
‘I want to stop killing her… I don’t want to hurt So-ya….’
Drip, drip.
His fallen tears formed a shallow puddle.
—This way!
A voice called out from across the water.
He flinched.
Had that hideous thing that made him kill So-ya come for him again?
Even though he knew he couldn't escape it, Seol-yo stumbled backward in hesitation.
—Release your power! Unless you want to stay trapped in the Veil of Time and be lost forever, hurry!
‘Wait. This… this isn’t that energy.’
Seol-yo gulped and looked down. The water in the puddle rose up, taking the shape of a translucent snake.
“My power…?”
—Yes. The power of the Black Tortoise passed down to you from your father!
“F-father? I don’t have anyone like—”
—Do not deny who you are.
“…….”
Seol-yo bit his lower lip hard. His body trembled violently.
“I… I am absolutely not the blood of that man who killed So-ya….”
At that moment, a question sprouted in Seol-yo’s mind.
‘Am I really not?’
In the end, just like that man, hadn't he also killed So-ya?
As a powerful tremor shook Seol-yo’s heart—the heart that had so desperately denied being that man’s kin—the tightly sealed power of water was unleashed.
It was the Authority of Water, a power passed down only to the head of the Black Tortoise Tribe.
Whoosh—!
The water, which had surged in an instant, swept over Seol-yo’s body.
As he floated within the water, Seol-yo realized with greater certainty:
This water was his power.
No, not just this water covering him, but all the water in the world flowed under his authority.
Splash—
With the sound of cold water, Seol-yo’s body was pulled out of the depths.
“Ha… haaa….”
Seol-yo gasped for breath.
—Hey! Are you okay?
The black snake asked, circling around him.
Looking around with a dazed expression, Seol-yo realized he was in the back garden of the White Tiger Palace.
He had finally escaped that horrific cycle.
“What I just saw….”
—Those are moments covered by the Veil of Time. Times that have been forgotten by everyone, times that have vanished.
“Vanished… times? Then, are you saying all of that actually happened?”
Unable to believe it, Seol-yo’s large eyes filled with tears as his body shook.
Drip. Plop.
Soon, thick teardrops fell to the ground.
“I killed So-ya…. I did….”
His body had moved against his will.
He remembered the sensation of the moment he killed So-ya. He remembered her face as she looked at him, paralyzed with fear. He remembered her body growing cold, and his own cold gaze as he looked down at her.
—It wasn't you who killed her. It was the work of the Evil.
“The one who controlled me to kill So-ya… was the Evil?”
Seol-yo knew the name ‘Evil.’ It was the Evil that had dwelled within his biological father’s spirit core, and it was the Evil that had fled from So-ya.
“But the Evil ran far away. So So-ya is safe now….”
—No. The Evil is here.
“If you mean here… in the White Tiger Palace?”
—To be precise, inside your body.
“…….”
Seol-yo’s body went rigid at those words.
The moment he recognized it, he could feel the Evil swallowed within his own body.
Though it was currently unconscious and dormant inside him, it felt as if that hideous thing could wake up at any moment, seize control of his body, and harm So-ya.
“N-no. I can’t.”
Seol-yo muttered, biting his pale lower lip.
In the timelines he had seen, the Evil had invariably harmed So-ya. No matter the method, no matter how long it took, it harmed her. It harmed her, and eventually, it killed her.
He couldn't let that horrific thing happen again.
Reaching that conclusion, Seol-yo grabbed the black snake and pleaded.
“Please. I have to protect So-ya. Tell me how.”
The eyes that had been sobbing just a moment ago were now filled with a desperate resolve.
The black snake stared into those eyes for a long time before slowly opening its mouth.
—…There is one way.
Seol-yo’s body froze in shock at the words that followed.
*
That night.
Seol-yo trudged back to his room, curled up in the middle of the floor, and whimpered for a long time.
Then, as the moon slowly set and dawn began to break, he stood up again with a grim, determined face, as if he had made a final decision.
* * *
Early morning.
When So-ya woke up, rubbing her eyes as sunlight poured through the window.
—Baby bird!
—Baby bird!
—Are you awake!
The three divine beasts rushed toward So-ya all at once.
“Oh, Divine Beasts?”
So-ya, unaware of the previous night’s events, tilted her head in confusion.
She giggled as the divine beasts clung to her, refusing to let go.
When she leaned her nose toward the flowers in the vase, a fragrant floral scent filled her lungs.
Feeling good, So-ya hummed a tune as she got out of bed.
She felt like something wonderful was going to happen today.
“Oh, right. I have to thank Brother Ga-ya.”
So-ya went to find Ga-ya.
“Flowers?”
However, Ga-ya looked completely clueless.
‘Huh? Then who brought those flowers?’
As So-ya tilted her head in thought, Ga-ya spoke up.
“More importantly, Som-som. About that gift you got from that Jeok Clan brat yesterday.”
“Oh, the bow Brother San-yu sent?”
“Yeah, that. Want your big brother to teach you how to use it?”
So-ya was a bit tempted by Ga-ya’s offer.
But she couldn't today. Because today was the day she was supposed to go up Mt. Horim with Lady Ah-rang and Seol-yo.
“Later, Brother. Today is a very important day. It’s a promise we made five years ago.”
“Our So-ya, I wondered why you were up so early. Today is that day.”
Ga-hyeon, who happened to be passing by, gave a small smile of recognition.
“Oh, Brother Hyeon. If someone heard you, they’d think I usually wake up late.”
“What kind of day is it? Tell me too, Som-som.”
“We all wrote letters five years ago. We promised to find and read them when we turned fourteen.”
So-ya, Ah-rang, Seol-yo, Ga-yul, and Su-ri—the five children of the White Tiger Palace—had written letters to each other five years ago and hidden them in a secret hideout on Mt. Horim.
Of course, Ga-yul, unable to overcome his curiosity, and Su-ri, who followed him, had already found and read them before turning fourteen.
The thought of finally being able to find and read the letters today made her heart flutter with excitement.
What had everyone written?
Before she knew it, So-ya was finished getting ready.
Ah-rang, who had burst into So-ya’s room a moment ago, urged her to hurry.
“But I don’t see Seol-yo?”
Yeon-jeong, who was tidying So-ya’s clothes, asked with a tilted head.
Normally, Seol-yo would have arrived and been waiting at least half an hour before their scheduled meeting time, but he was nowhere to be seen.
“You’re right. I guess Seol-yo is a little late.”
Having finished her preparations, So-ya went out to look for Seol-yo, feeling curious.
“Excuse me, Su-ri. Have you seen Seol-yo?”
She stopped everyone she saw to ask, but no one had seen him.
“That brat Seol-yo, did he forget the promise? Let’s just go ahead without him, So-ya,” Ah-rang said grumpily.
But for some reason, So-ya felt an strange intuition that she shouldn't do that.
“Wait a moment. Just a moment, Lady Ah-rang.”
So-ya ran all over the White Tiger Palace looking for Seol-yo.
“Seol-yo! Seol-yo, where are you!”
But no matter how much she searched, Seol-yo was nowhere to be found.
Ah-rang, who had been grumbling at first, gradually became serious and joined the search.
Just then, Sa-eon, who was walking down the hallway talking with Jeok Yeong, spotted So-ya running back and forth.
“Cotton Ball. Didn't you say you were going up Mt. Horim early this morning? Why haven't you left yet….”
He trailed off.
Realizing something was wrong, the smile vanished from Sa-eon’s face.
“What’s wrong, Cotton Ball? What happened?”
“Oh, Father….”
So-ya buried her face in Sa-eon’s chest and let out a whimpering sound.
“I can’t find Seol-yo.”
So-ya’s small shoulders shook.
“What…?”
“Seol-yo is…”
So-ya, her eyes turning red, looked up and spoke in a sorrowful voice.
“Seol-yo is gone.”
Finally, the tears burst forth.
The summer of her fourteenth year, when she sobbed like a child in her father’s arms.
With the disappearance of Seol-yo, So-ya’s childhood departed.
It was the end of childhood, accompanied by painful growing pains.
<The Baby Cotton Ball of the White Tiger Clan> Part 1, End.