Chapter 8
Sa-eon’s eyes hardened at the sight of the child’s pale face, which looked like it might collapse at any moment.
“Hey, cotton ball. You okay?”
At the voice directed at her once more, Soya snapped back to her senses and lifted her head.
The unfamiliar man who had just saved her from the assassin stood before her eyes.
He was tall, with a clear and handsome appearance, but he gave off a somewhat cold and intimidating impression.
He exuded the complete opposite aura from her father, who had always smiled gently.
“Ah……”
Soya let out a small sigh.
For a moment, the back that had shielded her from the assassin had seemed like her father’s.
Because no one else was as big and sturdy as him.
It was a foolish thought.
Her father’s back no longer protected her.
Soya recalled her father’s back as he turned away from her to go to Lady Riri.
The warm, solid back that had always protected her long ago now left only cold, lonely memories.
Swallowing her sadness, Soya opened her mouth.
“I’m not a cotton ball. I am……”
She paused for a moment.
She used to introduce herself as Jeok Soya of the Zhuque Clan long ago, but now she realized she could no longer do so.
“……I’m Soya.”
“Your name’s cotton ball-like too.”
Baek Sa-eon chuckled as he looked at Soya, who had a particularly small frame and round facial features.
But the smile on his face soon vanished.
‘Is this child the target of the Zhuque Clan’s assassin?’
Baek Sa-eon’s eyes narrowed as he observed the child.
To send an assassin to eliminate such a tiny girl.
And from the Samjok-o, known as the Zhuque Clan’s finest warriors.
He could sense the instigator’s petty determination to remove the child at any cost.
With a somewhat serious expression, Sa-eon asked,
“You, what grudge do you have against the chicken heads of the Southern Region?”
“Chickens……?”
“Yeah.”
Baek Sa-eon pointed to the fallen assassin and explained to Soya, who was blinking her eyes.
“It’s the Samjok-o under the Zhuque bastards.”
“Ah……”
She couldn’t make sense of the sudden talk about chickens, but Soya knew what Samjok-o was.
Composed of warriors from the black crow families that had served the Zhuque direct line for generations, the Samjok-o moved only on the direct line’s orders.
Soya’s face fell into sadness, and soon large teardrops welled up in her eyes.
“So I…… almost died? To people from…… the Zhuque Clan……”
It was as if she were confirming something she had already suspected.
“If I hadn’t been here, probably?”
At Baek Sa-eon’s insensitive words, that did it.
Plop.
The shimmering teardrop fell.
Plop. Then they poured down like rain.
One drop, two drops began to fall, turning into a torrent like a downpour.
Baek Sa-eon paused and looked down at the child.
Death was something even elderly people feared, so it wasn’t strange for a child to cry like this.
Yet this tiny child hadn’t cried when she had truly been on the brink of death, but the moment she learned it was people from the Zhuque Clan who sent the assassin, she began to sob pitifully.
It was heartbreaking how she held back her sobs without a sound, only thick teardrops falling steadily.
Even though he wasn’t one to hesitate at others’ tears usually, it nagged at him persistently.
“Hic, sob, heup……”
“……”
Sa-eon had no talent for comforting children. His own sons rarely cried, after all.
Even when they were very young, they only cried from hunger or fussing over food.
So facing a crying child felt a bit unfamiliar, but he silently stared at the quivering little shoulders before awkwardly extending his hand.
His rough fingertips gently patted the child’s delicate shoulder.
Because she was trying so hard to hold it in, her sobs didn’t grow louder, but the heaving of her shoulders and the trembling of her body intensified.
Once her crying subsided, he stayed quietly by her side before speaking in a gruff but kind voice.
“It’s too late for a cotton ball like you to be wandering alone. I’ll take you back to your family.”
Soya wiped her eyes with the back of her hand and shook her head.
“I’m fine.”
“A runaway cotton ball? Then your family will worry……”
“I don’t have any.”
Soya said in a calm voice.
“I have no family.”
“……”
Baek Sa-eon shut his mouth.
He stared intently at Soya, who was trying to swallow her tears.
‘Definitely a child connected to the Zhuque Clan……’
The enigmatic prince’s order came back to mind. Steal the most precious thing from the Zhuque’s lands.
‘The most precious thing……’
He had originally planned to steal the Treasure Bow, said to be handed down through generations to the patriarch of the Jeok family, but he had suddenly changed his mind.
Perhaps it was just a whim……
Whoosh—
Soya’s body was suddenly lifted into the air.
Soya’s eyes widened in surprise. With her reddened eyes, the pale child looked just like a rabbit.
“Then.”
Baek Sa-eon met Soya’s eyes and grinned.
“I’ll have to steal you, cotton ball.”
“Y-Yes……?”
Soya panicked, her tears drying up in an instant.
Steal? Me?
Stealing was an expression used for secretly taking away something precious.
But she wasn’t precious at all; she was a worthless criminal with no value.
“Why me……?”
“Out of everything I’ve seen in the Southern Region, you’re the one I like most.”
Baek Sa-eon explained in a voice that seemed indifferent yet affectionate.
He was curious why the Zhuque Clan’s assassin was after this little child, and she seemed to have nowhere to go anyway.
Above all, this small child had been nagging at him since earlier.
So he thought he’d give stealing her a try.
She felt more precious than some boring Treasure Bow anyway.
“No family waiting for you, right? For real?”
He asked, staring piercingly into Soya’s eyes.
“……Yes.”
Soya nodded, answering in a sad voice.
There had once been people she thought were family and loved, but they had tried to kill her. They could never be called family.
In truth, she had never been able to become their family for a very long time, yet she had foolishly clung to them alone.
But now it was time to let go.
“I really have no family.”
Reading the truth in Soya’s answer, Baek Sa-eon grinned once more as if confirming again and asked,
“Then, will you let me steal you?”
“……”
At Sa-eon’s question, Soya’s throat ached as it bobbed.
Soya was fine. She was always fine.
She could no longer be her father’s daughter, but even the stinging gaze of her brother who despised her was fine.
The household servants’ sharp looks, Lady Riri receiving everyone’s love while she watched forlornly—it was all fine.
But……
‘I don’t want to die.’
Even death wasn’t fine.
‘Dying is too scary and sad.’
It might be shameless to think this way as a sinner who had deceived and hurt her family, but even so, Soya didn’t want to die.
Soya glanced at Baek Sa-eon.
A man as big as her father, as strong as her father.
‘If I follow this man, I can escape the Zhuque’s lands.’
His face was a bit scary, his speech rough, and he had suddenly said something weird about stealing her.
‘If I follow this man, I can live.’
Soya nodded toward the man.
“Yes. Please take me with you.”
“Good.”
Baek Sa-eon grinned, gently brushing away the puffy, red area around Soya’s eyes with his fingertip.
“You made the right choice, cotton ball. I’m Baek Sa-eon, lord of the Western Region.”
“Yes, Sa-eon-nim. I’m Soya. I’m nine years old.”
As Sa-eon introduced himself, Soya stated her name once more.
“Yeah, cotton ball.”
Though it didn’t seem to have much effect.
“Since this is by mutual agreement, you can’t go reporting it later.”
“R-Reporting?”
“Yeah. That I stole you.”
Baek Sa-eon nodded and said in a deliberately serious voice.
“It’d be a problem. If word gets out that I sneaked into the chicken heads’ Southern Region territory like a thieving cat and stole something.”
“I-I won’t! I absolutely won’t report it!”
Soya answered quickly.
No one would care about taking away a useless child like her.
But in case he felt it was a hassle to take her, she hurriedly added,
“And, uh, no one will care anyway. They might even be happy. If I disappear……”
As Soya rambled on, her throat suddenly tightened.
“Cotton ball?”
The moment Sa-eon called out to the child, whose complexion had worsened after suddenly stopping mid-sentence.
Flop.
Soya’s head drooped limply.
“Cotton ball, why……”
Sa-eon, who had absentmindedly reached out toward the child’s face, startled.
“……!”
The child’s body was burning hot like a fireball.
