Translator: Nox

Ch#78

78화

—A long time ago, an oracle came down. On the night the red moon rises, the bride of the Imperial Dragon will awaken the Four Divine Beasts that slumber and sweep away the darkness scattered across this land, bringing peace.

“The night the red moon rises…….”

—And you, born on that night, broke my seal.

“…….”

Listening quietly to the Vermilion Bird’s story, Soya slowly followed the man.

The place he headed to was the inner quarters of Jujak Mansion.

“Not yet?”

“Family Head, you can’t. Please wait just a little longer outside…….”

It was then.

Waaah. Waaah—!

The robust cry of a baby rang out.

“Family Head! It’s your daughter! A beautiful little girl who takes after Madam!”

Jeok Ayun flung the door open and rushed inside.

“My lady!”

A frail woman with reddish-brown hair cradled a newborn baby wrapped in swaddling clothes.

The woman slowly raised her head.

“Ayun…….”

Calling to Jeok Ayun, the woman managed a strained smile despite her pallid face.

‘That’s the madam of the Jujak Clan…….’

Having grown up hearing stories about this woman since she was very young, Soya recognized her at once.

Ah, so that’s ‘Mother.’

The woman who had embodied ‘mother’ in Soya’s mind for so long.

The madam of the Jujak Clan.

When Family Head Jeok Ayun sought to marry her, there had been many who opposed it.

The retainers insisted that a humble red-haired, dark-eyed woman from outside the clan could never become the wife of the Jujak Clan’s master.

Yet Jeok Ayun had taken her as his wife despite the overwhelming opposition.

And to ensure no one could look down on her, he had entrusted her with the position of bow keeper for the Vermilion Bird’s Divine Bow.

Soya glanced briefly at the Vermilion Bird’s Divine Bow hanging on the wall.

She had seen it once as a child, preserved in the shrine after the woman’s passing.

Jeok Ayun approached the woman and gently brushed aside the sweat-dampened hair from her forehead.

“Would you like to hold the baby?”

He took the infant from her.

His hands trembled faintly as he did.

“The baby… she looks just like you.”

Gazing at the child, he murmured in a voice thick with emotion.

When I was born. No, when Riri was born.

He had such a happy look on his face……

Soya stared at Jeok Ayun’s face for a moment before lowering her gaze to the newborn swaddled in the blanket.

The baby’s sparse newborn hair was so pale it looked almost white in places, and faintly reddish in others.

Is that baby me? Or Riri?

When was I switched?

It was said that the madam’s handmaiden had swapped the babies, but no one knew when or how she had done it.

To the people of the Jujak Clan, the only thing that mattered was that the babies had been ‘switched.’

Red feathers were the mark of the direct line.

An eternal truth unchanged since ancient times.

The one undeniable fact, beyond doubt or question.

Moreover, the madam’s handmaiden—suspected of the switch—had died long ago, making it even more impossible to uncover the timing or method.

Above all, whenever that woman’s story came up, Riri would darken her face and clamp her mouth shut.

So the Family Head had chosen not to dig into the matter.

All that mattered to him was that the ‘true child’ with the red feathers had returned.

That fact alone held meaning for him.

But sometimes Soya wondered.

‘When was I switched with Riri……? How could it have been done so seamlessly?’

Soya clenched her fist painfully tight.

The Family Head of the Jujak Clan and his family looked utterly happy.

Even the two young princes came by and lingered by the baby’s side for a long while, unable to tear themselves away.

‘But that happiness will soon shatter.’

Soya squeezed her eyes shut against the tragedy to come.

Two days later, the mansion was plunged into gloom as the madam’s postpartum fever began.

The blood-red moonlight that had bathed the estate just days before now felt especially ominous.

Jeok Ayun never left his wife’s bedside, where she lay unable to even open her eyes properly.

“The baby…….”

The madam pleaded in a voice hoarse and raw.

“I want to hold our baby one last time, Ayun.”

At the Family Head’s command, the maids brought the infant and placed her in the madam’s arms.

“Baby…….”

A faint smile bloomed over the madam’s pale face.

“Mother… loves you so much, baby……. My baby, Soya…….”

“Waaah—!”

At those words, the baby burst into tears.

As if she somehow understood it was time to part from her mother.

At the baby’s cries, the madam shed tears, her face contorted in heartbreak.

Jeok Ayun, watching it all, let out a pained groan through gritted teeth.

The madam soothed the crying baby for a long while before drifting into sleep herself.

And that night, while everyone else slumbered.

The baby, who had fallen asleep in her mother’s arms, awoke alone.

Ngh, ngh……

Just as a whimpering cry leaked from the baby’s tiny lips.

Flash!

The Vermilion Bird’s Divine Bow on the wall blazed with light, and red flames bloomed from the baby’s fingertips.

The baby startled, her whimpers ceasing abruptly.

Soon, the flames at her fingertips seeped gently into her mother’s body.

At the same moment, the cold sweat beading on the madam’s forehead began to subside, her breathing steadying into a calm rhythm.

—My other name is the Purifier of the South.

The Vermilion Bird’s voice seeped into Soya’s mind once more, like a telepathic whisper.

—Your desire to save your mother, the blood of the direct line, and the essence of the Vermilion Bird came together to awaken me.

‘From that moment… I had…… the Vermilion Bird…….’

—But what awakened me was a newborn lump of flesh whose spirit core had yet to mature fully, so you and I could not connect completely.

‘…….’

Soya blinked vacantly before suddenly realizing something felt off.

“Wait a moment, Vermilion Bird. This seems a little strange.”

Soya spoke to the invisible Vermilion Bird.

“I…… I’m a fake, aren’t I? I’m not the real daughter of the Jujak Clan. And that lady…….”

Trailing off, Soya looked at the ‘mother’ who held her with a faint smile.

Even on the brink of death, she smiled with such warmth and happiness.

Soya squeezed her eyes shut and cried out in a trembling voice.

“She’s not my mother!”

—…….

“You said she’s Riri’s mother. I’m not even of the Vermilion Bird’s direct line. I don’t have red feathers either…….”

The Vermilion Bird spoke to the rambling Soya in a sorrowful voice.

—Little bird, you are a noble child of the Vermilion Bird, inheritor of my blood.

“But then why……!”

Soya remembered. Her sixth birthday, when she had attempted her first beast transformation in front of everyone.

Unlike the splendid Vermilion Bird and its radiant red flames depicted before her, she had become a pitiful baby bird with only shabby white down.

—The time you awakened me was when your spirit core was still immature and unformed.

“…….”

—The dormant young spirit core was startled by the overwhelming power it couldn’t handle yet, and to protect itself, it sealed away the Vermilion Bird’s blood.

The Vermilion Bird explained.

That was why Soya had no red feathers, why she hadn’t even undergone her first growth stage.

It was all because the direct line’s blood in her spirit core had been sealed.

But just recently, Gungki’s poison had touched Soya’s spirit core, breaking that seal.

Soya’s eyes shook violently as she heard the explanation.

So, I really am the daughter of the Jujak Clan?

Connected by blood to those people—a true family?

“But, but……!”

Soya’s lips parted and pressed together repeatedly, as if struggling to speak.

Suddenly, a wave of grief surged up.

“Then why…… why did I have to go through all that?”