Chapter 52
Soya, who had lifted her head at that voice, spotted Irim looking down at her drawing and jumped in surprise.
“Your Majesty…?”
With a gentle smile playing on his lips, Irim asked,
“I failed to keep my promise to return soon, Soya. Will you forgive me?”
“Forgive you? What are you talking about?”
Soya hurriedly waved both her hands.
“Well, I thought you might be angry with me.”
Straightening his back slowly, Irim added in a deliberately wistful tone,
“You’re not calling me like you used to anymore.”
“Now I have to address you as Your Majesty.”
“This isn’t the Imperial Palace, so while I’m staying here, won’t you call me older brother?”
“But…”
Under his gaze, which fixed on her steadily, Soya hesitated before speaking.
“Then just while you’re staying here… older brother.”
“That sounds nice.”
“…?”
“I missed hearing you call me ‘older brother’ so much.”
It had only been one season since she’d last seen him, yet he spoke as if it had been decades.
Feeling somehow embarrassed, Soya flushed red and quickly changed the subject.
“O-older brother, have you been well this whole time?”
No sooner had she asked than Soya wanted to bite her own tongue. She’d heard about what had happened around him, and yet here she was asking that.
‘I must be an idiot. How could he have been well with all those hardships?’
It was while Soya was pulling a long face and berating herself.
“Yeah, I’ve been well, Soya.”
At that moment, he chuckled softly and spoke in a tender voice.
“I ate well, dressed well. Ah, but I didn’t sleep well. I was a bit busy. Still, now that I’ve become the emperor of Taehwa Kingdom like this, I guess it hasn’t been too bad.”
At his playfully teasing tone, the self-reproach in Soya’s heart scattered like mist.
Only a little later did she realize he’d said it that way on purpose, for her sake.
He gave off a slightly more mature air than before, but he was still as kind and warm as ever.
‘Why does someone so gentle have rumors attached to him saying he’s a fearsome tyrant like a yaksha?’
Soya felt a pang of inexplicable sadness.
Meanwhile, from behind the bushes, a pair of eyes watched Soya and Irim’s conversation.
‘Who is that person? Why is Soya smiling like that at him?’
It was Seolyo.
Seolyo clutched handfuls of ginkgo leaves tightly in both hands as he peeked at the two of them.
‘It’s weird. I don’t want Soya to smile at that kid.’
Seolyo vividly remembered the feeling he’d had on the day he first met Soya.
The place where he had originally lived was the cold, dry Northern Land.
From the moment his memories began, he had always been alone.
His earliest memory was the day he witnessed his mother’s death.
Her face and scent were no longer remembered, but Seolyo had once had a mother who gave birth to him.
To save him, she had hidden him in a wardrobe, and ‘that man’ had killed her before setting the mansion ablaze.
He didn’t clearly remember how he had escaped the blazing flames.
It had happened when he was too young, and his memories were fragmented and spotty.
When Seolyo came back to his senses, he had become a baby beast with pitch-black fur.
People called him a ‘demon beast.’
A hideous, terrifying demon beast that harmed good people.
‘I’m not a demon beast. I haven’t hurt anyone. So why does everyone call me that?’
Seolyo had tried hard to tell them he wouldn’t hurt anyone, so they shouldn’t hate him.
Whine… whimper…!
But all that came out of his mouth were pitiful whimpers like those of a demon beast.
People didn’t listen to him. Instead, they picked up clubs, calling him a disgusting demon beast, and chased him away.
Seolyo had to hide in remote places to avoid people.
As a result, the days he starved outnumbered the days he ate properly.
He wandered cold, lonely streets, and when night fell and hunger gnawed at him, he would sneak down to villages and rummage through piles of discarded food.
If he was ever caught by the rustling sounds, he’d flee whimpering under a hail of stones from the people.
Even at night, he couldn’t sleep freely. If he was sleeping in a hiding spot and encountered demon beast hunters, he had to run for his life with all his strength.
That day had been particularly unlucky.
Seolyo, who had barely escaped with a limp after being hit by an arrow from a demon beast hunter, ran into Sa-eon while walking a mountain path.
What’s this? A baby demon beast? Looks like it’ll starve to death soon without even tasting baby food.
Whine…! Whimper! Whine!
So young, and baring your teeth at an adult like that.
Grrr…!
Baby demon beast, want to come with me? I’ll give you three warm meals a day.
Whimper…?
Without even asking his consent, he had taken Seolyo to Baekho Palace.
But clever Seolyo seized a moment when Sa-eon let his guard down and fled back to the mountains.
‘Hmph, acting all reassuring to catch me and hand me over to the demon beast hunters. As if I wouldn’t see through that.’
He’d promised three warm meals a day, but took him to a fierce-looking woman—obvious what the plan was.
Seolyo didn’t trust Sa-eon.
Not just Sa-eon, but anyone.
Fortunately, Sa-eon didn’t come chasing after him again, but once more alone, Seolyo felt terribly lonely.
He spent several years alone on Horim Mountain, sometimes picking fruit from the trees and other times sneaking down to Baekho Palace to steal food.
Then one day, by chance, he learned about Soya.
Seolyo remembered the moment he first saw Soya as if it were yesterday.
After being lonely alone for so very long, Seolyo followed the clear voice echoing through Horim Mountain and found her.
Soya was playing tag with the tiger beastkin from Baekho Palace.
He watched the scene as if entranced.
‘I could do that well too. Tag…’
When he’d lived in the Northern Land, Seolyo had once approached a group of children his age playing tag, wanting to join them.
But the boys threw stones and sticks at him, and the girls screamed and burst into tears.
Their cries and the stones hurt more than the arrow from the demon beast hunter.
After that day, Seolyo shrank in fear whenever he saw human children his age.
But Soya was different from the others.
Unlike the other children who screamed that he was a hideous demon beast when they saw him, she always spoke to him in a soft, gentle voice.
She even protected him from the mean beastkin who tried to bully him.
She praised him, saying he was a kind and gentle child, a smart demon beast who knew how to write his name.
Being by Soya’s side made Seolyo’s heart pound.
‘I want to be friends with her.’
So Seolyo lingered around Soya, wanting to get close to her.
Being near Soya felt warm and cozy.
Just like being held in his mother’s arms, even though he no longer remembered her face or scent.
And Soya had even helped him regain his true form.
The moment the warm white light from her fingertips enveloped his body, he was able to shed his black hide.
The stern-faced woman from Baekho Palace long ago had told him he was a beastkin with a Spirit Core.
‘I’m a beastkin?’
Seolyo was overjoyed to become a beastkin like Soya, no longer a demon beast pointed at by fingers.
Even if he himself didn’t know what kind of beastkin he was.
Having become a beastkin, Seolyo became Soya’s bodyguard.
Sa-eon had said it was a nominal bodyguard role for staying at Baekho Palace, so he didn’t really need to do anything, but Seolyo felt so proud to be her protector.
He wanted to protect Soya.
He wanted to keep her from getting even the tiniest scratch, from ever feeling sad enough to cry, to always stay right by her side and watch over her.
But…
‘That kid stole my place.’
Seolyo stared fixedly at Soya and the unfamiliar boy beside her.
Just moments ago, it had been his role to stay by Soya’s side, but this boy who appeared out of nowhere had taken his spot.
Soya kept smiling in front of the unfamiliar boy and speaking to him in that soft voice.
Seolyo really liked it when Soya smiled with her eyes curved into pretty crescent moons like that.
Yet he couldn’t understand why, at this moment, even her smile made his mood sink so gloomily.
