Chapter 26
Translator: RaidenTL
Chapter 26
“Young Master...!”
As So-ya raised her voice, Ga-yul hopped down from the tree and began to bolt away.
So-ya immediately gave chase.
“Kyahat!”
In no time at all, Ga-yul was caught.
He had momentarily forgotten that So-ya had received the Wind Bead from San-ho.
Being highly competitive, Ga-yul felt a bit indignant about being overtaken.
“Rawr! Rawr, rawr! (That’s cheating, Cotton Ball!)”
Ga-yul expressed his frustration by thumping the ground with his front paws.
It was then that So-ya tucked a flower snugly behind Ga-yul’s round ear.
“Grrr? (W-what’s this?)”
Seeing Ga-yul’s bewildered expression, So-ya burst into a fit of giggles.
“It’s a penalty. Since you were caught by me, Young Master.”
“Rawr! Rawr, rawr! (I don’t want to! I am the third son of the great White Tiger Clan...)”
Ga-yul hopped about, flailing his short front paws in an attempt to remove the flower.
“Oh? You can’t do that! A penalty is a penalty!”
So-ya firmly grabbed his front paws to stop him.
“Grrr...! (Who decided it was a penalty!)”
So-ya gave the huffing Ga-yul a bright smile and made a suggestion.
“Then this time, you be ‘it,’ Young Master. If you catch me, I’ll let you take the flower off.”
“Roar? Grrr... Rawr! (What? No—Cotton Ball! Where are you going!)”
Before Ga-yul could even finish his sentence, So-ya began sprinting in the opposite direction.
As she ran, a radiant smile blossomed across her face.
It was a clear, bright laugh—one that So-ya herself had forgotten how to make for a very long time.
* * *
Thanks to the Wind Bead, So-ya was able to hop and skip across the uneven slopes without much effort, but she was no match for Ga-yul when it came to endurance.
With the balance between speed and stamina leveled out, their game of tag became a neck-and-neck competition, unlike their usual ball games in the garden.
After running and playing for a long while, the two eventually collapsed, panting for breath.
They had played so vigorously that even Ga-yul, whose physical strength was second to none, felt a bit exhausted.
After sharing the lunch box Yeon-jeong had prepared, Ga-yul returned to his human form and lay down on the grass for a purring nap.
While playing with flowers beside him, So-ya noticed that Su-ri’s expression didn’t look good.
“Sir Su-ri, is something the matter?”
“I think I might have an upset stomach,” Su-ri replied, breaking into a cold sweat.
“A-are you alright? Shouldn’t you head back down immediately?”
“I can’t let my condition ruin the Young Lady’s first outing. I’ll make a quick trip back to the White Tiger Palace, so please stay right by the Young Master’s side and don’t go anywhere. Understood, My Lady?”
Su-ri gave a faint smile to the anxious So-ya. His smile looked so strained that So-ya couldn’t help but worry.
“Yes, yes! I’ll stay right next to the Young Master, so please hurry back, Sir Su-ri!”
As soon as So-ya finished speaking, Su-ri transformed into a large wolf with a poof!
Perhaps because he was in a hurry, Su-ri bounded down the mountain and vanished in the blink of an eye.
‘Sir Su-ri is so fast even without a Wind Bead.’
She had heard that the beastkin of the Indigo Wolf Clan, who boasted wind-like speed, had served as warriors protecting the direct lineage of the White Tiger for generations because of that very ability.
‘I wish I had a cool supernatural ability like that.’
So-ya thought the Indigo Wolves, who used their powers to protect others, were incredibly admirable.
A supernatural ability.
It was a unique power possessed by beastkin, usually passed down through the bloodline.
While it was natural for a beastkin to awaken their Spirit Core and manifest an ability, it was an impossible feat for So-ya, whose Spirit Core had been stolen for three years following her first beast transformation.
Even though she had recovered it now, her Spirit Core didn’t function properly; in fact, its condition was so poor that it threatened her very physical well-being if left alone.
Hadn’t she collapsed just recently because her Spirit Core caused trouble, worrying everyone?
Though she was diligently taking the restorative medicine Sa-ra had sent every morning and evening, So-ya knew deep down.
She would likely live her whole life as a half-baked beastkin with a broken Spirit Core.
[Take the child’s Spirit Core and lock her in the Cold Palace.]
[If that child upsets you, I’ll remove her from your sight forever. So don’t cry, Ri-ri.]
Thinking of her father and Brother Hwa-yu still made her heart feel heavy.
However, So-ya realized that thinking of them didn’t hurt as much as it used to.
It was because she knew the truth all too well now.
They were never her family to begin with.
Her broken Spirit Core was the price for stealing Lady Ri-ri’s place and causing them grief and pain.
Thinking that way allowed So-ya to swallow at least a little bit of her sadness.
Besides, there had been a warm hand that comforted her when she was weeping sorrowfully.
‘And it’s okay even if I don’t have an ability. I’ve protected people too.’
So-ya thought of the stone amulets she had completed by coloring them vibrantly with the help of Yeon-jeong and San-ho.
Thinking of them made her gloomy mood feel much better.
‘When I go down this evening, I’ll use these flowers to make an amulet and give it to the Second Young Master as a gift. I hope he likes it this time.’
So-ya was smiling softly while looking at the Sky Flowers in her basket when—
“Huh...?”
Suddenly, So-ya’s ears perked up.
Grrr...
An unfamiliar growl echoed from the bushes.
“...!”
Instinctively, So-ya bolted upright and stared toward the source of the sound.
She froze in her tracks, startled.
A wild beast was glaring at her, its eyes glowing with a menacing light as saliva dripped from its jaws.
‘Why...?’
So-ya thought, her eyes trembling as she stood paralyzed with tension.
‘Yeon-jeong definitely said the beasts of Mt. Horim don’t attack people.’
But now was not the time to wonder why.
‘I have to run...!’
Her hands and feet began to shake uncontrollably.
So-ya remembered when she had felt this sensation before.
The day she left the Vermilion Bird Mansion—the energy she felt when she was left alone after the summer festival and encountered the black-masked man.
This was unmistakable bloodlust.
‘I can run. Last time I was stupid and tripped, almost dying, but this time I have the Wind Bead San-ho lent me.’
So-ya clenched her fists tight and glanced at the Youngest Young Master.
He was fast asleep a short distance away.
The beast in front of her seemed so focused on her that it hadn't noticed him yet.
Dash!
So-ya kicked off the ground and sprinted in the opposite direction of where Ga-yul was sleeping.
Immediately, the beast began to chase after her.
Thud! Thud, thud, thud!
Urgent footsteps echoed through the mountain.
As the sound rang out, the number of beasts pursuing So-ya began to increase one by one.
To avoid the beasts, So-ya was forced deeper and deeper into the forest.
After running for a long time, she reached a dead end. A massive, towering black rock blocked her path.
So-ya stole a glance behind her.
Realizing she had nowhere left to run, the beasts began to leisurely surround her.
Grrr...
Grrr...
Grrr...
So-ya gulped and turned her head back to look at the rock.
The black rock blocking her way was far too large and high.
After a moment’s hesitation, she began to climb it.
Normally, she wouldn't have even dreamed of climbing such a rock.
But So-ya had the Wind Bead, which strengthened her ankles and legs.
Moving her hands and feet rapidly, she scrambled up the rock.
Though she almost slipped a few times, she successfully reached the top.
Just as the bewildered beasts gathered at the base of the rock—
Rumble—!
The sky suddenly turned pitch black, and the very earth began to shake.
The impact caused So-ya, who had been clinging to the rock, to slide off and land hard on her backside.
“No...!”
So-ya scrambled to her feet, but then she froze.
The beasts that had been baring their sharp teeth at her just moments ago were now whimpering in fear.
‘Huh...?’
As she blinked in confusion at the sight of the beasts losing their will to fight and backing away, a massive shadow suddenly fell over her head.
So-ya slowly tilted her head back and froze solid.
She finally understood what the beasts were so afraid of.
The thing she had thought was a large rock was standing up.
In an instant, a chilling terror, incomparable to what she had felt before, washed over her.
‘It’s not a rock! That’s...!’
So-ya’s pupils shook violently.
Glinting grey eyes beneath a hard, black shell. Four thick legs supporting a body as massive as a boulder.
It was a Demonic Beast.
“Grrrrrrrrr!”
As a savage roar erupted, the ground vibrated once more.
Crash!
The Demonic Beast slammed its thick front paw down, and the ground split open.
“Yelp...!”
“Whine...!”
Before the hesitating beasts could even think of fleeing, they plummeted into the fissure.
In an instant, So-ya was left alone in the empty clearing with the Demonic Beast.
“Grrrrrr...”
“...”
So-ya froze, unable to let out even the smallest breath.
She had to run.
She had to get away quickly.
But the terror from the scene she had just witnessed bound her body tight.
“Grrrrrr...”
The Demonic Beast stared at So-ya with its glinting grey eyes.
Just as tears were about to spill from her eyes out of primal fear—
Crumble—
The hard, black, bark-like outer skin began to peel away. The Demonic Beast’s body melted and undulated like mud, until...
“Pya!”
It became a small, black fluffball.
“Pee?”
The black fluffball tilted its head as it looked at So-ya.