Chapter 18
The next morning.
Sa-eon was taken aback to realize that he had slept deeply without any pain.
Clearly, last night had been the full moon night when yin energy was at its strongest in the month.
Yet he had slept so soundly without even a single tiny nightmare.
Then he spotted a small stone sitting on his desk.
“This is a talisman to ward off evil spirits that Cotton Ball Young Lady left behind for you.”
“Evil spirits?”
Sa-eon echoed in puzzlement at the sudden talk of ghosts.
Jeokyeong then recounted the story of what had happened between Soya and Gayul.
“So Cotton Ball left this here to protect me?”
Sa-eon picked up the stone and let out a chuckle.
Now that he knew the full story, this ordinary-looking stone seemed incredibly smooth and pretty.
“Hmm. Seeing as I didn’t have any nightmares all night, it does seem like it might actually work…”
Above all, the thought that she had tried to protect him with her tiny body made him feel proud of her.
“Cute.”
Sa-eon murmured as he rubbed at the corners of his mouth, which had stealthily curled up.
“You’ve received a nice gift, so how about returning the favor?”
“That’s a rare good idea from you.”
Sa-eon pondered what gift would make a good return for Soya, then said,
“Didn’t His Majesty bestow a sword upon me last winter? I don’t need it, so if I gave that to her…”
“Oh dear, Patriarch! Tiger young masters might like that, but young ladies her age don’t.”
“Tch, how narrow-minded. Drop that prejudice that girls don’t like swords.”
“But it’s a real sword! It’s heavy and sharp! What if Cotton Ball Young Lady hurts herself playing with it! Ordinary beastkin don’t have thick hides like tigers!”
Sa-eon paused at those words. It was a valid point.
“Cotton Ball getting hurt? That absolutely can’t happen.”
Ugh… Sa-eon furrowed his brows and sank into contemplation.
* * *
The Empire’s south, the land of the Zhuque Clan.
Riri’s laughter rang out bright and clear.
Jeok Ayun watched his daughter frolic about happily, a soft smile on his lips.
Riri had seemed in especially high spirits these past few days.
Her good mood lifted Jeok Ayun’s spirits as well.
‘Good thing. I was worried she’d been hurt by that incident.’
Riri learning Soya’s secret had been unintentional.
Perhaps it had been a mistake to keep trying to hide it from her in the first place.
But fortunately, Riri had quickly shaken off her hurt feelings and shown her bright self again.
It was while he was enjoying time with Riri like this.
Jeok Hwayu came to see him.
“Father, I need a word with you.”
“What is it?”
Jeok Ayun raised one eyebrow, expressing his displeasure at the interruption of his time with Riri.
“Could we move somewhere else?”
He was about to tell him to just speak here, but his son’s expression was grave.
So Jeok Ayun left Riri behind and moved to another place.
Jeok Hwayu hesitated for a long moment before finally managing to speak.
“That child is dead.”
“…What?”
Jeok Ayun’s face hardened in an instant.
For a brief moment, he stood there with a blank expression, unable to comprehend his son’s words.
In the cold silence, he slowly realized that the “that child” Hwayu was referring to was none other than Soya.
“I was planning to give her some money and send her far away. It would be hard on Riri if she stayed here.”
“…”
It was true. Jeok Hwayu had never truly intended to kill the child.
He had only planned to give her enough wealth to live on and send her off to a distant place.
“But by the time Samjok-o arrived, the child was gone, and only bloodstains remained.”
“…”
Jeok Ayun clamped his lips shut, his face devoid of expression.
“This was found at the scene.”
Jeok Hwayu held out a pouch to his father.
A pause.
Jeok Ayun’s fingertips trembled faintly.
This pouch… was the one he had personally attached to the child’s jeogori on the morning of her sixth birthday.
[Father, do you think Soya can do it? What if she fails? What if she can’t become a magnificent firebird like you and my brothers…]
[Don’t worry, Soya. So what if you fail? You’ll always be my daughter.]
[But…]
[It’s fine even if you’re a little slow. If you fail today, try again tomorrow. Even if you fail tomorrow, there’s the day after. So don’t be too nervous—just do your very best.]
He recalled the child’s voice, full of worry about failing her Beast Transformation.
In a way that made her worries seem unfounded, the child had performed her Beast Transformation perfectly.
If only she had failed—if only he had never seen that form.
Would things have been different then?
Jeok Ayun carefully opened the bloodstained pouch. Inside it was…
“Ah…”
A short sigh slipped through Jeok Ayun’s clenched teeth.
A red feather.
Once, the child had picked up one of his feathers from the floor and asked if she could have it.
When he told her to do as she liked, she clutched it tightly and grinned from ear to ear.
“…She kept this all this time.”
The thought that she had taken it with her on her final journey away from the estate made his chest feel strangely tight.
He had loved his wife dearly, and he had loved their youngest daughter just as much—the one she had given her life to bear.
Everyone had suspected his wife of infidelity upon seeing Soya, who bore no resemblance to him, but he had turned a deaf ear.
With his own hands, he had fed her, clothed her, put her to sleep, and given her all the love he could muster.
He had held her so constantly that she never even had a chance to touch the floor, to the point that she walked later than her peers.
Then, when he learned that Soya was not his daughter.
It felt as if the world he had believed in came crashing down.
The child his wife had given her life to bear was not his.
The woman he loved had deceived him, borne another man’s child, and died?
It was horrifying, and utterly wretched.
To turn away from it, he had ordered her Spirit Core removed.
He couldn’t bear to look at that form, which showed not a single trait of the Zhuque Clan.
He knew the child was blameless, yet he resented her all the same.
If only it weren’t for Soya—if only it weren’t for that child… his wife wouldn’t have died. His family wouldn’t have fallen apart.
Soya, that child, was the root of all tragedy.
Jeok Ayun was tormented and wretched with regret for having believed her to be his daughter and raised her in his arms.
In the three years since sending her to the Cold Palace and neglecting her, he had not been in his right mind for a single moment.
Unworthy of his title as a sage of the Southern Region, he had passed every night drunk, living like a madman.
It was only thanks to his second son Hwayu, who had shouldered the clan in place of his deranged father, that the family had endured without crumbling.
Then Riri had appeared.
He had been right. His wife had never committed any infidelity.
He was overjoyed to have that confirmed through Riri.
Jeok Ayun vowed to give the entire world to his pitiful true daughter, who had wandered the outside world until the age of nine.
At that time, with all his attention fixed on Riri, his thoughts hadn’t extended to Soya, who had been neglected during those three years he wasn’t in his right mind.
When he came face-to-face with Soya again after three years, at Riri’s insistence, that was when he truly registered the child’s existence anew.
Yet Jeok Ayun had turned away from her once more.
That pitiful yet resented child—he turned away even more, as if to compensate Riri.
He believed he had to do it for Riri’s sake.
However, that didn’t mean he had wished for the child to die.
Hwayu said even her body couldn’t be found.
Jeok Ayun slowly closed his eyes and opened them again, then issued a low command.
“Find the child.”
“But Father…!”
“There’s no body, isn’t there?”
“Even if she didn’t die, she won’t live long. Because…”
Jeok Hwayu clenched his fist hard, as if it was too horrific to say with his own mouth, and reported.
“Her Spirit Core was already badly damaged.”
Three years ago, when he had retrieved her Spirit Core to return it, Jeok Hwayu had discovered that Soya’s long-neglected Spirit Core was ruined.
Beastkin with a damaged Spirit Core don’t live long.
So he had used the summer festival as an excuse to cast her out of the estate and ordered Samjok-o.
To take that child, left alone outside the estate, far away and care for her.
Someday, until the day her breath stopped.
“…”
Jeok Ayun gazed silently at his son with an inscrutable expression.
A long while later.
He finally parted lips that had seemed forever sealed.
“…Then at least bring back her body. That way, I can believe it. Her death.”
