Chapter 3
Soya looked up at her father with a tense face.
That day…… the day of her first Beast Transformation when it was revealed that she wasn’t his real daughter…… it had been three years since she last faced her father.
Yet Jeok Ayun’s gaze upon Soya was utterly dry.
Tap, tap, tap.
His fingertips drummed rhythmically on the desk.
It was a habit he often showed when deep in thought.
Soya stole a glance at his fingertips.
She remembered how gentle those hands had been just moments ago, stroking Young Lady Riri’s hair.
And she also remembered how cold and icy they had been three years ago, when they had cast her aside.
[Take out the child’s Spirit Core and confine her to the Cold Palace.]
The memories of that day—the biting air, the sharp gazes, the terrifying horrors too much for a six-year-old to bear—revived and wrapped around Soya like chains.
“You know your position. I won’t waste words.”
His voice, stripped of emotion and utterly calm, pierced sharply into her skin.
“Because of your mother’s greed, Riri had to wander the streets at a young age, too young even to awaken her Spirit Core. All the things that child should have rightfully enjoyed were stolen by the daughter of a maid.”
“…….”
Soya felt like a criminal. Her eyelashes trembled, heat rising to her eyes.
“So now, I intend to give my reclaimed daughter anything and everything she wants. Even if it’s something everyone else shakes their heads at and calls impossible.”
My daughter……
The moment she heard those words, Soya realized it once more.
Ah…… Father’s only daughter is Young Lady Riri.
I can never be a daughter to him, or anything at all.
In truth, from that day three years ago, she and her father could no longer share any bond.
Even knowing that, Soya had clung to the foolish hope that he might seek her out again someday, waiting for him all the while.
Left alone in that cold, frigid Cold Palace, waiting and waiting for a father who never came.
Soya had lost her mother from a young age.
Yet despite her mother’s absence, the young Soya had grown up bright and cheerful because of her father’s love.
Her kind and gentle brothers, who vied for her attention, had been wonderful too, but even so, Soya had loved her father most of all.
To her as a child, her father had been her whole world.
Even if he no longer saw her as his daughter……
So when Young Lady Riri’s stubbornness had dragged her obstinately into this room just moments ago.
In truth, she had felt a flutter of excitement.
Facing her father, whom she had felt guilty even peeking at from afar, had made her heart race with anticipation.
‘What a foolish thing to do.’
It was the moment when her lingering, foolish attachment finally snapped.
“See to it that Riri never learns your true identity. And if she should ever be hurt because of you……”
Jeok Ayun narrowed his eyes slightly as he added,
“I will not forgive you.”
Soya’s throat ached as it bobbed painfully.
‘……But Father. Haven’t I already become a child who can never be forgiven?’
Soya swallowed down the inner thoughts that kept trying to spill out.
Because she was no longer a daughter to her father, or anything at all.
Even the love he had once given her as a child had ultimately been something she stole from Young Lady Riri.
Such a realization was cruel.
“Yes, Patriarch.”
Soya bowed her head deeply and answered in a voice that crawled like a worm.
Jeok Ayun silently looked down at her, and faint cracks like fissures appeared on his face.
He could faintly sense sadness, loss, and even resignation from Soya.
Such deep, lonely, negative emotions that didn’t suit a nine-year-old.
Only then did Jeok Ayun finally raise his deliberately averted gaze to properly observe the child he faced after three years.
Her pale complexion and hunched shoulders, her two hands fidgeting helplessly inside her sleeves, her feet twitching anxiously. And her voice, drained of any vitality……
She was very different from the Soya he remembered. The Soya of the past had been……
‘Useless sentiment.’
Jeok Ayun coldly severed the needless thoughts trying to bloom and issued his order to leave.
“Out.”
Soya retreated, muffling her footsteps.
Had that child always walked like that?
Like a criminal, holding her breath like that……
“…….”
Jeok Ayun’s expression twisted sharply.
If he felt no pity, it would be a lie.
But he tried not to dwell on it deeply.
He had raised the maid’s daughter this far, and even though she had stolen his daughter’s place, he hadn’t punished her. He hadn’t cast her out or whipped her.
Compared to the guilt he felt toward Riri, it wasn’t enough to warrant pity for this child.
Riri—his real daughter Riri—had grown up on those freezing streets without proper food, without seeing a doctor when she fell ill, pointed at and mocked as a child without a father.
The maid who had swapped the babies and fled had raised Riri as her own daughter, but she hadn’t been a proper protector to the child.
Riri’s darkening expression whenever he asked about that woman tore at his heart.
He wanted to capture that damned criminal and pry every detail out of her, but she had died three years ago.
So Riri had to grow up alone for three years without father or mother.
She had even failed to awaken her Spirit Core, which others did at five or six, only managing her first Beast Transformation at nine.
Even that had been imperfect because her Spirit Core had weakened from a serious childhood illness.
Such a child had forced herself to attempt Beast Transformation before them, enduring her pain to meet her “real family.”
Just thinking of Riri made his heart ache, filling him with guilt toward his late wife.
Thus, not a single speck of pity for Soya remained in his heart.
Making the daughter of the maid who once served his wife atone by serving the clan’s Young Lady was already a generous judgment.
Even knowing the young Soya bore no fault, Jeok Ayun deliberately brainwashed himself into believing so.
It wasn’t right to pay any more attention to that pitiful yet impudent child.
He was already busy every day just repaying the love he hadn’t been able to give Riri all this time.
* * *
The “fake” who had stolen the real Young Lady’s place had become the real Young Lady’s body servant.
An absurd farce unfolded within the Zhuque Clan, but Patriarch Jeok Ayun had firmly sealed the mouths of the household.
“Father!”
Jeok Ayun scooped up Riri, who came running with a cackle of laughter, in one arm.
Riri clung to her father’s neck with both arms, chattering away and acting cute.
Soya stared fixedly at the warm sight of the Patriarch and the Young Lady.
“Oh dear, Riri. Your hair’s all messy.”
Jeok Ayun gently scolded her in a tender voice as he undid Riri’s hair ribbon.
“We’ll have to tie it up again.”
He handed the undone ribbon to Soya, who followed behind.
His demeanor was utterly indifferent, treating her like any other maid in the clan, yet it felt so cruel, as if reminding Soya not to forget her place.
‘It’s okay.’
Soya gazed down at the Young Lady’s ribbon and murmured inwardly to herself, like a mantra.
‘Yes, it’s okay.’
She closed her eyes tightly and opened them again, seeing the Patriarch smiling warmly as he combed the Young Lady’s tangled hair with his fingers.
Just like he used to do for her when she was very young……
“Eek, that tickles, Father.”
As Riri burst into laughter, Jeok Ayun smiled along with her.
A single cuckoo flew around the peaceful father and daughter, as if blessing their moment, before vanishing.
‘……It’s okay. It’s really okay.’
Soya was okay.
It hurt that she could no longer be her father’s daughter, but she was okay.
Her skin stung under her brothers’ contemptuous gazes, but she was okay.
The servants’ sharp whispers whenever they saw her, the real Young Lady Riri receiving everyone’s love, and becoming the Young Lady’s body servant to witness it all—it was okay.
Because she…… was a bad little chick who had deceived and hurt her father and brothers.
A criminal who had stolen Young Lady Riri’s place and caused everyone pain.
So she was truly okay.
Really……
* * *
Young Lady Riri’s ninth birthday.
It was her first birthday since being reclaimed.
Patriarch Jeok Ayun had announced he would hold a grand celebration.
And amid it all, word arrived that the Fifth Prince from the capital would be visiting the estate.
