Chapter 7
Translator: RaidenTL
Chapter 7
At that moment, Jeok Hwa-yu instinctively faltered and looked at So-ya.
Brother…
He had thought it an unfitting title for a little thing who had deceived his family, yet for some reason, it stirred a subtle emotion within him.
“I have somewhere to go for a moment, so wait here.”
Jeok Hwa-yu hid his inner thoughts and forced an awkward smile.
It happened then.
“What happened to that child?”
“She is dead.”
Suddenly, a scene of Jeok Hwa-yu talking to a black-masked man flashed before So-ya’s eyes.
She flinched.
‘What was that…?’
The scene scattered and vanished in an instant, like a fading dream.
A single bead of cold sweat rolled down So-ya’s forehead. She must have been seeing things.
“So-ya?”
Jeok Hwa-yu called out to her as she stood there dazed. So-ya snapped back to her senses and looked at him.
“I’ll be back in a moment, so if you wait here…”
He looked strangely anxious, as if he were afraid she might refuse.
‘It’s a lie.’
So-ya knew it instinctively.
She knew his words telling her to wait were a lie. She knew that if he left, he wouldn’t return. She knew that this was the very moment she was being abandoned.
And yet, even knowing all that…
“Yes, Young Master.”
So-ya clutched the beaded bracelet he had given her and nodded with a bright smile.
Only then did Jeok Hwa-yu turn away, looking relieved.
So-ya stood in the same spot for a long time, watching his retreating back. The fresh smile that had graced her face slowly blurred and faded away.
Gradually, the sun set and night fell.
The festival ended, and So-ya was left alone on the now-deserted street.
Her brother did not come. He wouldn’t come, no matter how long she waited.
Nevertheless, So-ya remained in the same spot, fiddling with the beaded bracelet she had received as a gift. Even though she knew he wouldn’t return, she wanted to savor the feeling of waiting for him.
‘Still… it was nice.’
So-ya truly felt that way.
She was a wicked baby bird who had deceived and saddened her family. Yet, they had taken her in—someone who deserved to be beaten and cast out—and raised her until she was nine years old.
To her, today’s brief outing was a magnificent luxury. It felt as wonderful as receiving the most precious gift in the world.
So, she decided she would never resent them. Even if they had abandoned her…
* * *
A slow fever began to rise, and her throat felt scratchy. Her movements grew somewhat sluggish.
So-ya knew what these symptoms meant. It was because she had eaten the peach.
She had suffered from this a few times when she was very young. After her circumstances changed, the maidservants, knowing she couldn’t eat peaches, had often forced them on her just to torment her.
It would pass after a few hours of suffering, just as it always did.
More than that, she was worried about what to do next. She had nowhere to go and nothing to her name…
“Run!”
Suddenly, an urgent voice echoed in her head.
‘What was that?’
It was the exact moment So-ya whipped her head around.
Swish—!
A short dagger grazed her hair. A few strands of hair, white as snowflakes, fell to the ground.
“…!”
So-ya’s eyes widened in shock.
If she hadn’t turned her head, it wouldn’t have been her hair falling where that dagger passed—it would have been her head.
A chilling sensation crawled over her skin. Frozen by the sudden, piercing murderous intent, So-ya spotted a man wearing a black mask in the bushes across from where the dagger had flown.
Her eyes met the man’s.
She flinched.
Suddenly, the scene that had flashed before her eyes earlier that day came back to her. That mysterious vision of Brother Hwa-yu talking to the black-masked man…
“What happened to that child?”
“She is dead.”
Her heart sank with a cold thud.
‘It wasn’t a hallucination. Perhaps that scene was showing me the future.’
So-ya finally realized who “that child” in the conversation referred to.
“That child” was So-ya herself.
When he said he would clear her away for Lady Ri-ri, she thought it just meant being kicked out of the family. She thought he was just moving her far away so she wouldn’t be an eyesore to the young lady.
But she was wrong.
‘Brother… is trying to…’
So-ya’s pupils trembled violently. She wanted to deny it, but she couldn’t.
‘He intends to kill me.’
Her toes shook. A chill that didn’t belong in the heat of summer washed over her.
‘I have to run… I have to run, but…’
Her body, sluggish from the peach, felt as if it were rooted to the spot. The murderous aura she felt nearby was slowly closing in on her.
“You can’t just stay there! Run, So-ya! Hurry!”
The voice echoed in her head again. She didn’t have time to wonder what the voice was or what the vision of the future meant.
So-ya began to run in the opposite direction from where the dagger had come. At the same time, she heard the footsteps of an adult man chasing after her.
Thud, thud, thud, thud.
Patter, thud, thud, thud.
Her body felt weak and chilly, and her legs kept threatening to give out, but she kept running.
Until, finally…
“Ow!”
She tripped over a stone and fell.
Clatter—!
The beaded bracelet she was holding snapped, and colorful beads rolled across the ground. At the same time, the pouch So-ya had tucked inside her jeogori tumbled out.
“Ah…!”
And at that very moment.
“You little rat.”
A large shadow fell over So-ya.
She froze in place and looked up. A man with his face hidden by a black mask stood before her.
The man raised his sword toward So-ya.
‘No. I’m going to die.’
Perhaps it had been impossible from the start for a small girl to escape an adult man.
Just as So-ya closed her eyes tight, sensing her impending death…
Swish!
Clang—!
With a sharp sound, the assassin’s sword was sent flying.
So-ya cautiously opened her eyes.
The first thing she saw was the broad, solid back of a man.
‘Father…?’
No, it wasn’t her father.
A man as tall as her father stood before her, his long, snow-white hair fluttering down to his waist. On the silk draped over his shoulders, there was a valiant mountain beast with white fur and blue eyes, along with a blue insignia.
So-ya knew what that blue insignia represented.
The Divine Beast who guarded the West and the Lord of the Earth who ruled the land. The leader of the beasts, possessing teeth and claws harder than steel and a powerful body that surpassed the limits of all other beastkin.
‘The Western Divine Beast, the White Tiger…’
The head of the Baek Clan, whom she had only heard of through rumors, stood blocking her path, elegantly wielding his sword.
* * *
Baek Sa-eon, the Lord of the West and head of the White Tiger Clan, had set foot in the Southern Land by order of the Prince.
[Go to the South, the land of the Vermilion Bird. Steal the most precious thing from there.]
It was a sudden, riddle-like command, but he couldn't refuse. Because…
[If you do, Baek Sa-eon, I will give you the Dragon Blood Herb you have been searching for so desperately.]
The Prince had seen right through what he needed. Therefore, to be precise, he was moving based on a deal, not a command.
He hadn't expected to end up playing thief in the land of those bird-brained Vermilion Bird bastards.
Then, he had moved instinctively upon sensing a murky murderous intent nearby.
There was not a shred of mercy in his blade as it gracefully sliced through the air.
Swish!
The snow-white longsword drew a long gash across the body of the black-masked assassin.
Baek Sa-eon looked down at the fallen assassin with cold eyes. He elegantly flicked the tip of his sword toward the man, who was on the verge of death.
The black mask covering the assassin’s face was sliced away.
Beneath the removed mask, a tattoo of a three-legged crow was revealed, stretching from his cheek to his neck. It was the mark of the ‘Three-Legged Crow,’ a group of warriors serving the Vermilion Bird Clan.
As Sa-eon frowned while looking at it, he suddenly sensed something trembling beside him.
Whish—!
The moment he turned his head, his eyes met something small and white.
“…?”
With a face pale with terror and trembling all over, yet wearing an expression strangely serene for her age…
“What is this? A cotton ball?”
It was a young girl, as small and white as a ball of cotton.