A Baby Cat Who Commands the Dog Clan - Chapter 19

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This chapter was translated by Lunox Novels. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
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Chapter 19
Yet my worry was fleeting—a smile bloomed across Nam Goong Heuk’s lips.
“I like it!”
What a relief!
At those words, Hong Seol’s face brightened considerably. Nam Goong Heuk tied a knot at his waist and turned this way and that, constantly checking his appearance.
Just then, Nam Goong Jeok, his expression downcast, asked a question.
“Sister! What about me?”
“Young Master, here—”
Hong Seol finished loosening one side of her own hair, then carefully brought her hands to Nam Goong Jeok’s shaggy bangs.
Nam Goong Jeok remained perfectly still, obedient as a well-trained puppy.
“All done!”
Before long, his bangs were bound with a length of blue silk ribbon.
“There—now your beautiful eyes show even more beautifully.”
At Hong Seol’s words, Nam Goong Jeok brushed his smooth forehead and broke into a wide grin.
“Thank you, Sister!”
Watching Nam Goong Heuk and Nam Goong Jeok beam at her with such warmth, Hong Seol found herself thinking of someone.
‘If their older brother is this kind to them, then Nam Goong Baek must surely be a good person too.’
Older brother… there it was.
I’d only called him that in my mind, yet somehow I felt terribly embarrassed. Without realizing it, I twisted my body and tapped the ground with my toes.
“Brother!”
Nam Goong Heuk, who had been proudly straightening his shoulders before Hong Seol, suddenly looked startled.
‘Brother…?’
Hong Seol, caught off guard, turned around.
Between the apricot trees, brilliant silver hair danced in the breeze.
It was Nam Goong Baek, the eldest young master of the Nam Goong Family.
Though still bearing traces of youth, his refined features framed eyes of an empty blue that shone with an otherworldly clarity.
It wasn’t as though I was seeing him for the first time.
Yet before that crystalline presence, my gaze was drawn away without my consent.
“Nam Goong Baek… older brother?”
In that instant, Nam Goong Baek lifted his handsome brows.
“Older brother?”
Oh no.
The title I’d rolled around in my mouth so many times had tumbled out without my permission.
Hong Seol’s face flushed crimson as she stammered an explanation.
“Ah, I, well, that is… the Changcheon Master said calling you ‘senior brother’ sounded a bit awkward…”
Perhaps it was thanks to having made a new friend.
A small courage welled up in me—something the old Hong Seol would have fled from in panic.
Lifting my eyes from my toes, I raised them just slightly, meeting his gaze with innocent determination.
“Is it… not acceptable?”
“…Do as you wish.”
“…!”
My eyes widened at his words. Warmth bloomed in my chest, spreading like soft cotton through my heart.
‘As expected, my older brother is truly a good person!’
“What are you doing here, brother?”
Nam Goong Heuk asked with evident confusion.
“Shouldn’t you be at the Training Ground by now? Earlier, I saw the Changcheon Master looking for you, wondering where you’d gone during your private cultivation.”
At Nam Goong Heuk’s words, Nam Goong Baek let out a cold laugh.
“As if mastering martial arts matters….”
Hearing this, I tilted my head in confusion. I couldn’t understand Nam Goong Baek’s perspective.
‘If I could only use inner energy, I’d gladly live my entire life without a single side dish of meat.’
Meanwhile, the affable Nam Goong Heuk asked his older brother a question.
“I was about to play a mouse-catching game with Hong Seol. Will you join us, brother?”
At that moment, Nam Goong Baek’s gaze fixed upon his younger siblings.
He had noticed the knot hanging from Heuk’s waist sash and the silk ribbon tied in Jeok’s bangs.
And even my hair, which appeared to have just been loosened, still held traces of the styling.
It was easy to guess where the blue ribbon his younger siblings were proudly displaying had come from.
But Nam Goong Baek simply turned his gaze away.
“Will you play with us or not?”
“….”
Despite Heuk’s repeated question, Nam Goong Baek turned without answering and disappeared.
As always, he had appeared suddenly and left just as arbitrarily.
“Seriously, brother.”
Nam Goong Heuk pouted, then gently patted my shoulder with his fingertip in a comforting gesture.
“Don’t mind him. That guy’s personality is just a bit odd. He has an illness that makes him sensitive.”
“An illness? What kind of illness?”
My heart sank heavily.
‘Could his unusual hair and eye color be because he’s physically ill?’
I suddenly felt guilty for having found his appearance beautiful.
“Our older brother was poisoned by some unknown toxin when he was about eight years old. I don’t know all the details, but apparently it’s quite serious.”
“But….”
He looked healthy on the surface. I swallowed the rest of my words.
“The adults say that when he turns twenty, the poisoning will worsen and he’ll die.”
“What?!”
My eyes widened as round as apricot pits.
How could he say something like that so casually?
Nam Goong Heuk spoke as if reading my heart, his tone reassuring.
“Don’t worry. Our mother, the director of the Medical Pharmacy of the Nam Goong Family, possesses the finest medical skills under heaven. If it’s mother, she’ll save our brother no matter what.”
The youngest, Nam Goong Jeok, added his own words.
“And if all else fails, grandfather said he’d even scrape together the inner elixir of the snake grandfather to save him.”
“I see.”
Hong Seol nodded, recalling the enormous serpent that dwelt atop Dae Chuk Mountain.
Her racing heart gradually returned to its normal rhythm.
‘How reassuring it would be to have a family like this.’
A grandfather willing to bring her inner elixir, a mother who was the finest physician in the realm, and younger siblings whose warmth belied their occasional excess.
Hong Seol found herself envying Nam Goong Baek.
“Anyway, with circumstances like these, my older brother has quite the temperament. Firstborns tend to be a bit prickly, you know. You’ve heard that saying, haven’t you?”
“What saying?”
“Among three brothers, the second is usually the most agreeable.”
At those words, Nam Goong Jeok, who had been quietly crouching, suddenly sprang to his feet with his hand raised.
“Brother, what about the youngest?”
“The youngest isn’t bad either, but he’s known for being rather spoiled.”
Upon hearing Nam Goong Heuk’s words, the youngest’s face clouded over instantly.
“Whimper.”
The innocent Nam Goong Jeok gazed at Hong Seol with eyes that seemed to ask, “Is that really true?” Hong Seol broke into a bright smile.
Though he had seemed frightening before, now he appeared to be a mischievous little thing worth teasing.
“It’s true. Youngest children are usually quite spoiled, they say.”
“Waaaah!”
Nam Goong Jeok burst into tears. Hong Seol was taken aback.
“Don’t cry, young master! I was only joking!”
Beside Hong Seol, who flailed her hands helplessly, Nam Goong Heuk scratched his head with evident annoyance.
“Miss! I’ve brought the parasol! Huh?”
Mae Ran, the maidservant, emerged belatedly from between the trees of the Apricot Tree Grove and froze in place.
Her gaze settled upon the youngest young master crying and the others comforting him, though she could not fathom the reason.
“My, they look just like affectionate siblings, don’t they?”
A warm smile spread across Mae Ran’s lips.
* * *
In the dead of night when all slept.
Hong Seol, who had fallen asleep with her blanket drawn up to her neck, suddenly opened her eyes.
The Inner Chamber, dimly lit by a faint lantern, was empty. Mae Ran, the maidservant, had returned to her quarters after confirming Hong Seol was asleep.
Under ordinary circumstances, she might have been startled by the leaf shadows cast upon the wall, but not now.
There was something far more pressing on her mind.
‘My claws are itching.’
If I had to name the most bothersome aspect of living as a cat-human, it would be “claw maintenance.” Once a month without fail, I had to revert to my feline form and trim my claws.
‘Come to think of it, when was the last time I trimmed them?’
I couldn’t remember. A chill of dread seized me.
There was something the caretakers at the Myo Ga Jang always said to young kittens who resisted claw trimming.
“If you keep running away, your claws will grow curved and pierce through the pads of your feet!”
‘That cannot happen!’
I quickly peered out the window. Outside was pitch black.
‘Everyone should be asleep by now, so if I quickly sharpen my claws and resume my human form, it should be fine, right?’
It was decided that Hong Seol being a cat-human would remain a secret known only to the direct lineage of the Nam Goong Family.
“If word were to spread, it could create problems with the Myo Ga Jang.”
As Hong Seol recalled Nam Goong Ho’s warning, she remained completely oblivious to the unfamiliar shadow stirring beside the table.
Quietly lifting the blanket and descending from the bed, the moment I executed a graceful somersault through the air—
‘Oh!’
Perhaps it was the tension. My front paws slipped upon landing.
“Meow!”
Of course, Hong Seol was not one to let such a moment pass.
With feline instinct, I swiftly bounded upward and regained balance mid-air.
It was the moment I landed gracefully on the table, my shoulders shrugging with satisfaction at the rather impressive landing.
“Squeak?”
My eyes locked directly with those of a pure white mouse that had been scurrying atop the table.
The mouse, suddenly finding itself face-to-face with feline eyes, staggered backward.
Thump.
It collapsed flat on its back atop the table.

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This chapter was translated by Lunox Novels. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
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