Chapter 62
Soya flapped her two wings vigorously and cried out.
“Bird……?”
The woman who had just been pressing a spear to Sa-eon’s throat froze upon discovering Soya.
Above the cloth mask covering her face, her pale purple eyes widened roundly.
Soya cried out angrily in shrill chirps. “Go away! Go away, you bad villain!”
Her tiny bean-like eyes brimmed with thick teardrops that plopped down one after another with every outburst.
Startled by this, the woman fidgeted anxiously and asked,
“Sorry, sorry, little birdie. Did I scare you badly?”
“Chiiip!!! (Put that spear away!)”
“Ah. Got it. I’ll put it away.”
At Soya’s cry, the woman quickly lowered her spear.
‘Huh?’
Soya, who had been puffing up her feathers in fury, was instead taken aback by the woman’s ready compliance and abruptly stopped crying.
???
As Soya stared at the woman with a head full of question marks floating above her,
“Haah…….”
Sa-eon let out a short sigh and pulled the baby bird’s body toward him.
“That habit of coming at me spear-first without warning hasn’t changed, I see.”
He spoke casually, as if he knew her well, then looked down at Soya.
“You okay, fluffball? Did she scare you?”
He gently wiped away the tears lingering at the corners of her eyes with his fingertip and asked tenderly.
“Piiip……! (Daddy……!)”
At the sound of his gentle voice, tears welled up in her eyes once more, and Soya flew straight into Sa-eon’s embrace.
“It’s okay, Daddy’s right here, so don’t cry, little fluffball.”
Sa-eon soothed her, patting her head until she calmed down.
“Chiiip, chiiiip…… (But snivel, sniff, that person……)”
Soya buried herself in Sa-eon’s chest but peeked back over her shoulder.
Then, upon spotting the woman leaning forward with keen interest sparkling in her eyes, she freaked out with a “Queeek!” and slammed her head back into Sa-eon’s embrace.
“You’re scaring the fluffball.”
Sa-eon said to the woman in a somewhat displeased tone.
“Oh my goodness, she really is a baby bird?”
But the woman couldn’t tear her eyes away from Soya as she murmured.
“Yeah. She’s still a baby fluffball. What if you come at her with an attack right in front of a child?”
“But why is a baby bird, not even a tiger, calling you Daddy?”
“Because she’s my daughter.”
Sa-eon replied with a face that said it was the most obvious thing in the world.
“No way, is she the child you adopted last fall?”
Sa-eon nodded in response instead of answering.
Surprise spread across the woman’s face at that.
“But then……!”
She trailed off upon seeing Sa-eon raise one eyebrow.
Instead, she turned her sparkling eyes back to Soya nestled in his arms.
“Oh my. Where did you pick up such an adorable baby bird?”
“Don’t get attached. The fluffball is my daughter and has nothing to do with you.”
Sa-eon warned as he tucked Soya snugly into his embrace.
“She’s your daughter—how could she have nothing to do with me?”
Soya’s ears perked up from where her head was buried in Sa-eon’s broad chest.
The two of them had been talking as if they knew each other well for a while now.
Soya sneakily turned her head and stole a glance at the woman’s face, who was still watching her with fascination.
‘Huh?’
Soya felt the woman’s face looked a bit familiar.
‘That’s weird. I’m sure I’ve never seen her before.’
The blue hair and pale purple eyes were all completely new to her. And yet, she had this strange sense of having seen her somewhere before.
As Soya blinked and tilted her head in puzzlement, the woman exclaimed dramatically.
“Oh no, what do I do? She just tilted her head while looking at me! She must like me!”
Soya flinched at the somewhat overwhelming reaction and clung back to Sa-eon.
The woman then pulled down her face mask and addressed Soya directly.
“Hey, little birdie. I’m not a bad person. What you saw earlier was just me greeting your daddy.”
“Chii? (Greeting……?)”
“Yeah, yeah. Sa-eon and I have greeted each other like that since we were young.”
The woman explained with a beaming smile.
“What are you talking about? You’ve always been the one attacking me out of nowhere.”
“Piiip? (So you weren’t trying to kill my daddy?)”
“Oh dear, don’t say such scary things. If I tried that, my head would roll first.”
The woman waved her hands frantically at Soya’s question.
“Chiiip…… (But just a moment ago……)”
“Well, that’s because Baek Sa-eon went easy on me. I could never beat your daddy.”
The woman burst into hearty laughter.
Soya turned to Sa-eon with an expression asking if it was true.
Sa-eon pressed his temples as if he had a headache and sighed.
“Yeah, it’s true. So relax now, little fluffball.”
Only then did Soya deflate her puffed-up body and plop down onto the ground.
Poof!
Soya’s beast transformation released.
“Her name is Fluffball? That’s unusual.”
“I’m not Fluffball—I’m Soya. Baek Soya of the Baekho Clan.”
With her wariness somewhat eased, Soya introduced herself to the woman.
“I’m Cheongha. Nice to meet you, little fluffball.”
“Are you Father’s friend?”
“Um, well. Friend…… Yeah, sure.”
Soya turned to Sa-eon with renewed wonder on her face.
‘Daddy has friends too, huh.’
Until now, the only person close to Sa-eon that Soya had seen was Jeokyeong.
But even Jeokyeong didn’t quite fit as a friend.
“Fluffball, what kind of look is that on your face?”
“What do you think? It’s the look of someone amazed that even a nasty-tempered tiger like you has friends.”
Cheongha answered with a peal of laughter.
“No!”
Soya raised her voice at that.
“Daddy is a really, really good person!”
“Oh my.”
At Soya’s vehement claim, Cheongha’s eyes widened before she burst into laughter.
“You’ve got yourself a very staunch youngest daughter now, Baek Sa-eon. What do I do? I’m so jealous my stomach hurts.”
Soya had expected her to scold her for raising her voice in front of an adult, but instead, Cheongha smiled and patted her head, leaving Soya to tilt her head in confusion.
* * *
Soya clutched the namcheon tree branch laden with clusters of red berries—her original goal—and returned to Baekho Palace with Sa-eon and Cheongha.
As they crunched through the fresh white snow, chatting along the way, Soya learned that Cheongha was the mother of her big brothers.
“You’re the mother who gave birth to my big brothers?”
Soya asked in surprise.
“That’s right.”
Soya gazed at Cheongha with curious eyes.
‘The mother of my big brothers……’
No one had ever told her about Cheongha until now.
Now that she looked closely, Cheongha did resemble the brothers a bit—especially Gahyeon.
‘I always thought Gahyeon big brother looked like Father, but seeing this, he resembles Lady Cheongha more.’
Gahyeon’s white hair and blue eyes clearly took after Sa-eon, but everything else favored Cheongha.
In particular, the elongated eye corners, the straight nose tip, and the smile when they laughed—they looked so alike.
“Ah! Then Lady Cheongha is Father’s……?”
A sudden thought struck her, and Soya alternated her gaze between Sa-eon and Cheongha with a face full of questions.
“She was my wife. Once upon a time.”
“……”
Sa-eon’s eyes hardened tensely at Cheongha’s wistful reply.
“……?”
Just as Soya was about to ask if that meant she wasn’t anymore, sensing the subtle tension between them,
“Milady……! No, Lady Cheongha! Have you come?”
Jeokyeong and the others from Baekho Palace rushed out in surprise.
“Hello, it’s been a while, everyone.”
Cheongha greeted them with a bright smile.
