Ch#76
“Jjakjjagi!”
Soya cried out in surprise and snatched up Jjakjjagi.
“Peep?”
Jjakjjagi tilted its head.
It wore a completely innocent expression, utterly unaware of the mischief it had caused.
“Jjakjjagi, are you okay?”
“What’s wrong, miss?”
“Oh, Lady Sanho. What should we do? Jjakjjagi ate a poison bug.”
“A poison bug?”
At Sanho’s shout, people gathered around Jjakjjagi.
“It swallowed a poison bug and seems totally fine?”
“From the outside, there doesn’t appear to be anything unusual…….”
“Jjakjjagi, are you really okay?”
Soya asked with a worried face.
“……This won’t do.”
Sa-eon looked at Jjakjjagi with a deliberately serious expression, then undid the tie from his hair and bound the bird’s body with it.
“Squeak!”
Jjakjjagi thrashed around, trying to escape.
“I’ll have to keep you with me today.”
Sa-eon easily subdued Jjakjjagi and tucked it into his arms.
“Cheep! Peek! Peep-peek!”
“No, Jjakjjagi. You have to listen to your father.”
Jjakjjagi flapped its wings at Soya, its eyes glistening with tears, but even Soya spoke in a deliberately firm tone.
“P…….”
In the end, Jjakjjagi drooped its head limply and settled obediently into Sa-eon’s arms.
* * *
Once the incident was settled and they descended to the village, Gayul came running up in a rush and demanded to know.
“Cottonball! Where have you been! I’ve been looking everywhere for you!”
“Gayul oppa, are you mad?”
At his over-the-top reaction, Soya blinked.
“Mad? Why would I be mad…….”
Gayul immediately softened his voice and cleared his throat awkwardly.
When she stared at him openly, he slyly averted his gaze, which was suspicious as ever.
‘Oppa seems to be hiding something from me…….’
Though Soya felt dubious, she soon followed after her father.
Sa-eon informed the villagers that all the poison bugs in the mountains had been exterminated, so there would be no more plague victims.
However, even after defeating Gungki and the poison bugs, the people whose spirit cores were contaminated were still wracked with pain.
Ordinary medicine offered no proper way to treat them.
Soya approached Sa-eon and tugged at his clothes.
“Father. We’ve found all the causes making people sick now, right? So…….”
“Cottonball.”
Sa-eon cut off Soya’s words and crouched down to her level.
“The pale blue wolf left for Baekho Palace a little while ago to bring Aunt Sara.”
“Aunt Sara?”
“Yes. So tomorrow morning when she arrives, she’ll check on everyone’s conditions, and if there’s still no other way, then. We’ll talk about your idea again then.”
“But earlier you said we’d think about it once we found the cause.”
“Yes, I did.”
“Then why……!”
Without realizing it, Soya raised her voice.
When Gayul, who had completed his first growth, was learning about the duties of the direct line, Soya had studied alongside him.
She knew how much weight the title of “direct line” of the Four Great Clans carried.
They enjoyed many privileges as the ruling clan, but they also bore equally great responsibilities.
Though Soya wasn’t connected to her father by blood, she still considered herself part of Baekho Clan’s direct line.
She had vowed that if she could help the clan and protect people, she would step forward.
Hadn’t her eldest brother, whom she’d never even met, left Baekho Palace at a young age for the battlefield to fulfill his clan duties?
‘Then why am I exempt from the direct line’s obligations?’
This was land under Baekho Clan’s influence, so if she could help the people through her own sacrifice, that was precisely what the direct line’s duty demanded.
“It’s because I’m not a tiger…….”
Soya gripped Sa-eon’s clothes tightly in her fist and looked up at him.
“Is that why? Because I’m not a tiger like you and the oppas?”
“That’s not it, Cottonball.”
Sa-eon, who seemed to read her mind like a ghost, warmly clasped her hand and said.
“Father told you long ago that it doesn’t matter if you’re a tiger or a baby bird.”
“…….”
“This is because Daddy’s a bad adult. A selfish adult who hates seeing baby Cottonball get hurt, who can’t stand even the tiniest scratch on baby Cottonball’s hand. That’s why.”
“……!”
Soya’s hand clutching Sa-eon’s clothes trembled faintly.
“I didn’t realize baby Cottonball was thinking like that. Daddy’s sorry. I didn’t consider baby Cottonball’s feelings.”
“…….”
The warmth stroking her hand and Sa-eon’s conveyed emotions made Soya feel ashamed and sorry for her earlier outburst.
‘He’s right. I knew Father was worried about me, but I acted like a child and threw a tantrum.’
“I’m sorry, Father. I was throwing a tantrum.”
As Soya blushed slightly and apologized, Sa-eon let out a soft chuckle and ruffled her hair.
“Tomorrow when Aunt arrives, let’s have her check everyone’s spirit cores and make sure Jjakjjagi’s okay too. And if that’s the only way to treat the people, then Daddy will do whatever baby Cottonball wants.”
“Yes.”
Soya nodded obediently and turned away.
Yet even though she’d gotten the answer she wanted, Soya’s face was somehow still pensive.
She wanted to help the people, but she hated making her father sad.
‘If I get hurt, Father will be really upset, won’t he?’
Soya remembered three years ago, when she’d hurt herself to use that power.
Her father’s reaction—the first time he’d shown a scary face and scary voice in front of her.
Soya slowly spread her hands open.
Then she squeezed her eyes shut and focused on her spirit core, but…….
‘No. I can’t hear anything.’
Soya let out a soft sigh and walked on.
That was when she spotted Jjakjjagi tied to the torch post in front of Sa-eon’s lodgings.
“Jjakjjagi!”
Soya ran toward Jjakjjagi.
The thoroughly peeved bunting turned its head away in a huff.
“I’m sorry, Jjakjjagi. Just hold on a little until Aunt comes.”
“Cheep-cheep!”
“What am I supposed to do if you go eating random things like that? Be more careful from now on, Jjakjjagi. You’re not a baby any…….”
As Soya chatted with Jjakjjagi, a young sparrow beastkin passing by saw them and asked in wonder.
“Sister, how can you talk to a bunting?”
“Huh? Don’t all bird beastkin communicate with birds?”
Soya tilted her head, and the sparrow beastkin waved their hands frantically.
“No way. Even my parents can’t do that.”
At those words, Soya blinked.
‘Come to think of it…….’
Even when she’d lived in Jujak Clan, she didn’t remember seeing beastkin talking with birds……
* * *
That evening, during the quiet hour when everyone had gone to prepare for bed.
Sa-eon stood by the window, unable to sleep, gazing up at the dark sky.
He was thinking of Soya.
‘Baby Cottonball seemed really upset.’
It made his heart ache.
Cottonball was right.
She was Baekho Clan’s direct line, already twelve years old, so it was proper for her to fulfill those duties.
But Soya hadn’t undergone her first growth yet.
He knew it upset her, so he’d deliberately avoided mentioning it……
In beastkin society, that tiny child was still in her infancy, and Sa-eon couldn’t stomach her volunteering to sacrifice herself for others.
And yet……
‘I never imagined my overprotectiveness would lead her to think like that.’
Sa-eon recalled Soya asking if it was because she wasn’t a tiger, and his eyes crinkled in pained distress.
Cottonball. Do you know?
How much this daddy worries about you and loves you.
How his heart races at even your smallest scratch.
How it hurts him even more, like his chest is being torn, when something upsets you and you sniffle.
How sometimes he even imagines violently destroying everything in the world that makes you cry.
‘And this time, it seems I was the one who upset you. Baby Cottonball.’
Sa-eon shook his head with a wry chuckle.
The child keeps growing, and she’s not someone he can cradle and wrap up tightly forever.
Yet his heart keeps weakening whenever he sees her……
It was then.
Flutter! Flap, flap—!
At the sound of bunting wings from outside, the faint smile on Sa-eon’s face vanished in an instant.
“Jjakjjagi!”
At Soya’s following scream, Sa-eon dashed outside.
