A Baby Cat Who Commands the Dog Clan - Chapter 212

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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 212
* * *
Whoooosh—
A sudden downpour drummed against the window outside.
The silver-haired young master, sprawled listlessly by the window of the Golden Coin Inn, extended one hand beyond the sill.
Tap, tap-tap.
Raindrops fell upon a delicate palm, fair as a woman’s hand. A fresh wound marked its surface.
It was an injury sustained while trailing Hong Seol toward the Kiln Site not long ago.
‘Rats that slipped through Shaolin’s encirclement.’
They must have emerged in the Market District and heard news of Taehwa Trading Company’s assault by Shaolin.
Fortunately, their number had been merely three.
‘I was fortunate.’
My body remained incomplete from the recent seizure.
Disposing of more than three quietly would have proven difficult.
I might have been discovered by Hong Seol.
‘Still, Seol Ah, why do you continue to….’
Nam Goong Baek sighed, gazing out at the rain-soaked landscape.
With each falling drop, the verdant green of summer seemed only to sharpen and intensify.
No matter how much I pushed her away and turned my face, Hong Seol continued to throw herself into danger for my sake.
‘In the end, I chased Seol Ah all the way to Deng Peak, so I have no right to reproach another.’
The moment Nam Goong Baek heard that a Demonic Cult member had infiltrated Shaolin, he and Nam Goong Ho set out for Deng Peak.
Several nimble Changcheon Sword Masters followed in their wake.
Upon arriving at Deng Peak, Nam Goong Ho filled his belly at an Inn before hastening toward Shaolin.
Then, as I followed anxiously behind him, something seized my vision with startling intensity.
The silhouette of a young girl passing in the distance.
Thump.
In that instant, an indescribable thrill coursed through me.
‘To be captivated by another woman, when I have Seol Ah…?’
Self-reproach washed over me.
After taking only a few more steps, I stopped abruptly in place.
‘There is no possibility I would carelessly let my gaze be stolen by a woman other than Seol Ah.’
It was certainty.
Certainty that the girl could be none other than Seol Ah.
Yet I had no desire to recklessly trail after her alongside Grandfather.
‘If I do, I will surely be discovered, and Seol Ah will harbor unnecessary concerns.’
The thought that she had come all this way out of worry for me, and that I would brave any danger to heal Baek Elder Brother’s body.
My silver eyebrows, which had drooped downward, rose sharply upward with resolve.
“Grandfather, there is somewhere I must visit.”
“Is there something more important to you than finding Seol Ah?”
Nam Goong Ho, speaking in a tone of surprise, fell silent.
Nam Goong Baek’s expression was quite resolute.
He had been silent the entire journey to Deng Peak.
Seeing such a child speak this way meant it must be something quite important.
“…Once you finish your business, come to Shaolin.”
Nam Goong Baek parted ways with Nam Goong Ho right then and there, following Hong Seol’s trail.
‘Just as I thought—Seol was right!’
Relief washed over me that the object of my excitement was indeed Hong Seol, though only briefly.
The movements of the kitten that Nam Goong Baek observed were truly peculiar.
She entered the Pawnshop with Dang Yi Woon, then emerged alone.
She even picked up a puppy that had been caught in the rain on the street.
‘Why on earth that filthy mutt?’
Nam Goong Baek couldn’t comprehend it.
That wasn’t even the end of it.
Hong Seol fearlessly ventured out of the bustling district alone.
And then she actually climbed all the way up to the Kiln Site, nestled deep in the mountains, by herself with such ease.
‘I made the right choice suppressing my presence and following her.’
Thanks to that, Nam Goong Baek was able to protect Seol from the Demonic Cult’s vermin.
Hong Seol’s first outing after being cooped up in the Inn for a while since leaving the Kiln Site was just yesterday.
Nam Goong Baek naturally followed Hong Seol’s trail.
And what he witnessed was Dang Yi Woon returning from the Pawnshop.
Perhaps it was due to his weight loss.
Standing before Hong Seol, he appeared far more mature and composed than usual.
Yes. Honestly, the two of them made a good pair.
To a certain degree.
Nam Goong Baek unconsciously clenched his fists.
“Tell me your entire day… completely.”
Though he was at a distance, Nam Goong Baek could make out Dang Yi Woon’s words in fragments.
The moment he saw Hong Seol nod slightly with a hint of tension.
“Seol….”
Nam Goong Baek, unable to restrain himself, took a step forward.
No—he nearly stepped forward.
A sudden thought that surfaced in his mind bound his feet in place.
So what.
What would I accomplish by stepping forward now?
Coming all the way to Deng Peak was to protect Hong Seol from the Demonic Cult, I could tell myself that much.
But after that?
Was I planning to ask her to remain by my side forever?
Nam Goong Baek lowered his gaze and clenched his teeth.
“Ahaha!”
At that moment, Hong Seol’s bright laughter rang out in response to Dang Yi Woon’s words.
‘Seol Ah laughs so freely when she’s with that fellow.’
Nam Goong Baek watched Dang Yi Woon and Hong Seol for a moment, then silently returned to the Gold Thread Inn.
And the next day.
Nam Goong Baek leaned quietly against the rain-streaked window, lost in thought.
‘I made a promise to myself not to reveal my feelings to Seol Ah.’
Ever since that day when I witnessed ‘that scene’ while training the Bright Mirror Sword.
Nam Goong Baek closed his eyes as if to relive that moment.
* * *
It was the tail end of winter.
Spring was just around the corner, yet the atmosphere of the Nam Goong Family Estate remained heavy.
Recalling that scene, the present Nam Goong Baek could immediately discern the reason.
‘It must be Grandmother’s death anniversary.’
Three years had passed since Lady Wi fell to the hands of the vicious beasts that descended upon the Nam Goong Family Estate.
This day also marked exactly three years since young Nam Goong Baek had been poisoned by the Weak Spirit Toxin.
The ten-year-old Nam Goong Baek appeared to spend the entire day confined to his quarters in a daze.
The present Nam Goong Baek, observing that figure, felt a bitter taste in his mouth.
‘Back then, it was common for me to lie without eating anything all day long.’
Though now, thanks to a small cat, I live an entirely different life.
At that moment, the young Nam Goong Baek lying down muttered toward the empty air.
“…If I’m destined to die when I turn twenty anyway, wouldn’t it be better to just die now?”
‘I was truly a mess back then.’
The present Nam Goong Baek smiled bitterly.
It would have been better if he had only muttered about wanting to die alone.
But young Nam Goong Baek could not manage that.
There were times when he wept openly before his mother and father, crying out that he would die right then and there.
But after seeing his mother’s tears, he never spoke such words again.
“…I’m tired of this.”
Lying in the depths of blankets that sagged heavily, waiting for death day after day—it was tedious.
When the water seemed to rise all the way to the tip of his nose, he would go to the empty Training Ground and swing his sword.
‘Because then, just for a moment, it felt like I could breathe.’
This day was no different.
As young Nam Goong Baek quietly made his way toward the Training Ground, he suddenly sensed an unusual atmosphere.
“…Bring him here!”
The Patriarch Nam Goong Ho, who had left the Estate Grounds that morning, was issuing some command to a Servant with a resounding voice.
“What is happening?”
Curiosity flickered in young Nam Goong Baek’s blue eyes.
It seemed like an emotion he had not felt in a very long time.
Young Nam Goong Baek turned and headed toward Chang Cheon Pavilion, which was guarded tightly by the Wi Sa.
“Grandfather instructed me to wait for you in the Tea Room.”
Since being poisoned by the Weak Spirit Toxin, his visits to Chang Cheon Pavilion had been few and far between.
For this reason, there was no one in the Nam Goong Family with the audacity to stand against the eldest young master—no one but Wi Sa.
Thanks to him, young Nam Goong Baek was able to slip easily into the Tea Room of Chang Cheon Pavilion.
That was when I noticed Grandfather’s blue martial robes draped across the center of the tea table.
“Those are definitely the clothes Grandfather wore when he left this morning….”
Looking closer, the fabric seemed slightly puffed out, as if something modest like a sticky rice cake were hidden beneath it.
“…How tedious.”
As young Nam Goong Baek turned to leave, I witnessed something astonishing.
The blue martial robes, which had appeared carelessly crumpled, suddenly swelled as if possessed by a lie itself.
From beneath them, tiny fingers and a skeletal wrist suddenly jutted out.
“…A beast-human?”
Young Baek had heard a story once before.
Beast-humans like those of the Nam Goong Family, even if they died in their transformed state, would return to human form after enough time had passed.
Yet to Nam Goong Baek as he is now, those fingers were familiar.
Small fingers I had seen before, fingers that had often brushed against mine.
Once I realized this, my heart raced violently every time this scene came to mind.
“….”
After hesitating for a long while, young Baek gathered his courage and lifted the martial robes.
Beneath them lay a tiny girl.
‘…What?’
When this scene first surfaced in my memory, I did not recognize her as Hong Seol.
The child before me looked so different from the Hong Seol I knew.
Her clothes were tattered beyond measure, and her hands, feet, and lips had turned a deathly blue from the cold.
Her once-plump cheeks had withered away, and dried tears clung in long streaks beneath her eyes.
That was not all.
Her limbs were twisted in places as if broken, and her entire body was covered in bruises and scabs.
It was impossible to imagine that this small child was the Seol I knew.
‘Why…why was Seol like this….’
Though I had recalled this scene countless times in my memories, each viewing brought fresh anguish.
The body of young Hong Seol, eyes closed, seemed to contain every misfortune in the world compressed into one small form.
“Baek, you shouldn’t be looking at that.”
At the heavy voice, young Nam Goong Baek startled and stepped back.
It was the family patriarch, Nam Goong Ho.
He stood beside an unfamiliar man.
Judging by the cloth wrapped around his nose and mouth, he was clearly someone who prepared the dead for burial.
Young Nam Goong Baek turned and bolted from Chang Cheon Pavilion without another word.
“Baek!”
I did not even know why I was running.
Was it guilt for stealing a glimpse of that child without Grandfather’s knowledge?
Or was it the realization that the life I had declared I would discard so readily had been so desperately precious to her?
Or perhaps it was the discovery that I was bound to this nameless child by some connection I could not fathom.
My heart felt inexplicably heavy, and tears kept threatening to spill.
“Haah, haah….”
The young Baek Elder Brother, who had been running, pressed his forehead against the cold wall of the Training Ground and came to a halt.
His heart was pounding fiercely from the exertion of running after so long.
Thump, thump.
Meanwhile, in the inner chamber of the Golden Sand Inn, Baek Elder Brother’s heart was racing just as rapidly as he recalled that scene.
But the reason his heart was racing was entirely different.
He found himself reconsidering the true nature of the scene he had just remembered.
‘The snowflake-shaped mole on the wrist of the dead Seol Ah—there were definitely three of them.’

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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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