Chapter 7
In that instant, Jeok Hwayu froze without realizing it and looked at Soya.
Oppa…
He had thought it was an utterly undeserved title for a child who had deceived his family.
Yet somehow, it stirred a subtle feeling in him.
“I have somewhere to go for a bit, so wait here.”
Jeok Hwayu masked his inner thoughts with an awkward smile.
It was then.
“What happened to that kid?”
“She’s dead.”
Suddenly, a scene flashed before Soya’s eyes: Jeok Hwayu conversing with a man in a black mask.
She flinched.
‘What was that…?’
The image scattered and vanished in an instant, like a dream…
A bead of cold sweat trickled down Soya’s forehead. It seemed she had seen something illusory.
“Soya?”
Jeok Hwayu called out to Soya, who stood there dazed. She snapped back to reality and looked at him.
“I’ll be back soon, so wait here…”
He seemed somehow anxious. As if he feared she might refuse…
‘It’s a lie.’
Soya knew it instinctively.
That his words telling her to wait were false.
That he wouldn’t return once he left.
That this was the moment she was being abandoned.
And yet, even knowing that…
“Yes, Young Master.”
Soya clutched the beaded bracelet he had given her, flashed a bright smile, and nodded.
Only then did Jeok Hwayu turn away with a look of relief.
Soya stood in the same spot, watching his retreating back for a long while.
The fresh smile that had lingered on her face gradually faded into a blur.
The sun slowly set, and night fell.
As the festival ended and the streets grew deserted, Soya was left alone.
Oppa didn’t come. He wouldn’t come, no matter how long she waited.
Yet Soya remained in the same place, fiddling with the beaded bracelet he had given her, waiting.
Even though she knew he wouldn’t come. Because she wanted to feel what it was like to wait for him.
‘Still… it was nice.’
Soya truly thought so from the bottom of her heart.
She was a bad little bird who had deceived her family and made them sad.
But they had taken her in until she turned nine, even though they should have beaten her and cast her out.
For someone like her, today’s brief outing had been an incredible luxury. It had felt just like receiving the most precious gift in the world.
So she mustn’t resent them.
Even if they abandoned her…
* * *
A slight fever crept in, her throat prickled, and her movements grew sluggish.
Soya knew what these symptoms meant. It was because she had eaten the peach.
She had fallen ill from it a few times when she was very young, and after her circumstances changed, the maids who knew she couldn’t eat peaches had sometimes forced her to do so just to torment her.
It would pass after suffering for a few hours, just like always.
What worried her more was what to do from now on.
She had nowhere to go right away, and nothing to her name…
“Run away!”
Suddenly, an urgent voice echoed in her mind.
‘What’s this?’
It was the very moment Soya whipped her head around.
Whoosh—
A short dagger sliced past Soya’s hair.
A few strands of snow-white hair drifted to the ground like snowflakes.
“…!”
Soya’s eyes widened round.
If she hadn’t turned her head, what had fallen in the dagger’s path wouldn’t have been her hair—it would have been her neck.
A chilling sensation prickled across her skin.
Soya froze at the sudden, piercing intent to kill, and spotted a man in a black mask emerging from the bushes opposite where the dagger had come from.
Their eyes met.
She flinched.
Suddenly, she recalled the scene that had flashed before her eyes earlier that day.
The mysterious vision of Hwayu oppa talking with the man in the black mask…
“What happened to that kid?”
“She’s dead.”
Her heart sank coldly.
‘It wasn’t a vision. That scene might have been showing me the future.’
Soya now felt she understood who the “that kid” in the conversation referred to.
“That kid” was her—Soya herself.
She had thought it meant they would remove her for Miss Riri’s sake by simply chasing her out of the clan.
That they would just banish her far away so she wouldn’t catch the young lady’s eye.
But no.
‘Oppa… was going to…’
Soya’s pupils shook violently.
She wanted to deny it, but she couldn’t.
‘He intended to kill me.’
Her toes trembled uncontrollably. A chill swept over her, unfit for the hot summer.
‘I have to run… I have to run away…’
Her body, dulled by the peach, felt as rigid as stone and wouldn’t move.
The killing intent emanating from so close was slowly drawing nearer toward her.
“You can’t just stay still! Hurry and run, Soya!”
At that moment, the voice rang in her mind once more.
She had no time to ponder what the voice was or what the future she had glimpsed meant.
Soya bolted in the direction opposite from where the dagger had flown.
At the same time, the footsteps of a pursuing adult man echoed behind her.
Thud, thud, thud, thud.
Thump, thud, thud, thud.
Her body felt weak and listless, her legs kept buckling, but she kept running.
Then, suddenly.
“Ow!”
She tripped over a stone and fell.
Clatter—
The beaded bracelet she clutched snapped, scattering colorful beads across the ground. At the same time, the pouch she had tucked inside her jacket dropped out with a thud.
“Ah…!”
And right then.
“Rat of a girl.”
A massive shadow loomed over Soya’s head.
Soya looked up, frozen stiff in place.
A man with his face hidden by a black mask stood before her.
The man raised his sword toward Soya.
‘No. I’m going to die.’
Perhaps from the start, it had been impossible for a tiny girl to escape an adult man.
It was the very moment Soya sensed death and squeezed her eyes shut.
Whoosh!
Clang—!
With a sharp sound, the assassin’s sword flew far away.
Soya cautiously lifted her eyelids.
The first thing she saw was the broad, solid back of an adult man.
‘Father…?’
No, it wasn’t her father.
A man as tall as her father stood before her, his long, snow-white hair whipping to his waist.
On the fluttering silk over the man’s shoulders was embroidered a valiant mountain beast with white fur and blue eyes, along with a blue emblem.
Soya knew what that blue emblem on the silk signified.
The divine beast that guarded the West, the master of the earth.
The leader of the wild beasts possessing teeth and claws harder than steel, and bodies surpassing the limits of all beastkin.
‘The Western Divine Beast, White Tiger…’
The master of the Baek Clan (白家), whom she had only heard of through others’ tales, stood blocking her path, elegantly wielding his sword.
* * *
The lord of the West, Baek Sa-eon, head of the White Tiger Clan, had set foot in the southern lands on the crown prince’s orders.
[Go to the South, the land of the Vermilion Bird. Steal the most precious thing there.]
It had been an abrupt, riddle-like command, but he couldn’t refuse. Because…
[Do so, and I will give you the Dragon Blood Grass you’ve been searching so desperately for, Baek Sa-eon.]
The crown prince had seen through exactly what he needed.
Thus, it was not precisely an order, but a transaction that moved him.
He hadn’t expected to resort to thievery in the land of those chicken-headed Vermilion Bird fools, though.
Then, he had instinctively acted on the dull killing intent felt so nearby.
His blade sliced through the air with graceful precision, showing not a shred of mercy.
Whoosh!
The snow-white sword carved a long gash across the body of the assassin in the black mask.
Baek Sa-eon looked down at the fallen assassin with cold eyes.
He elegantly flicked the tip of his sword toward the man on the verge of death.
The black mask covering the assassin’s face was sliced away.
Beneath the removed mask, a three-legged crow tattoo stretched from his cheek to his nape.
It was the mark of the Samjok-o (三足烏), the warrior group under the Vermilion Bird Clan.
It was then, as Sa-eon narrowed his eyes at it.
He suddenly sensed something trembling beside him.
He whipped his head around—
His gaze met a small, white something.
“…?”
A face pale with fear, trembling all over, yet wearing an expression far too composed for her age…
“What is this. This cotton ball.”
It was a tiny girl, white as a cotton ball.
