A Baby Cat Who Commands the Dog Clan - Chapter 251

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

Chapter 251
I wanted to nuzzle against that embrace as I pleased, to breathe in the scent of her flesh deeply, to indulge in childish affection without restraint.
For Hong Seol, all of this was happening for the first time.
“Hong Seol! Let me see, show me your face!”
Bing Xiao Yue placed her hands on both of Hong Seol’s cheeks and spoke in a trembling voice.
“…Yes, Mother.”
Only then did Hong Seol finally stop her sobs and lift her head.
The two facing each other bore a striking resemblance.
Though Bing Xiao Yue’s hair was a dazzling silver and her eyes were blue.
“How beautifully you’ve grown—when I saw you before, you were just an eight-year-old child.”
Bing Xiao Yue spoke with admiration, her voice wavering with emotion.
Hong Seol’s eyes widened.
“You saw me when I was eight? How?”
“My, you don’t remember?”
“No…”
“Ah, so memories of this place vanish the moment you regress.”
Bing Xiao Yue explained carefully.
“We met before. When you fell from the cliff and… died…”
Bing Xiao Yue bit her lip.
Even now, the memory overwhelmed her.
Yet Hong Seol felt more astonishment than sorrow.
“I met you then too?”
“Yes.”
“And I held you and spoke with you like this?”
“You did.”
“Whimper!”
Hong Seol wrapped her arms tightly around Bing Xiao Yue’s waist.
“Our Hong Seol has grown into an adult, yet still acts like a child?”
“I’m not… an adult…”
Hong Seol murmured. She wanted to continue her childish affection for much longer.
“You certainly are an adult. You’ve even taken a husband, haven’t you?”
Bing Xiao Yue gently poked the bridge of Hong Seol’s soft nose.
“How did you… know that?”
Hong Seol’s eyes widened in surprise.
“Hehe, I can tell by looking at your arms.”
Bing Xiao Yue tickled Hong Seol’s wrist.
The two snowflake-shaped marks that had remained there had vanished without a trace.
“I suppose our Hong Seol has found a man she loves as much as her own life. Well, that’s something of a tradition among the women of the Northern Sea Ice Palace, wouldn’t you say?”
At Bing Xiao Yue’s half-joking remark, Hong Seol broke into a bright smile.
“Now then, shall we talk? We don’t have much time left.”
Now that I thought about it, the flowers that had bloomed with each of Hong Seol’s steps were rapidly withering away.
“Last time, I spoke with your mother and returned to the moment just before death.”
“I see. So that’s how you met Grandfather Nam Goong Ho again.”
“Yes. You didn’t have many choices, did you?”
No matter which point in time between when the mark was inscribed and the moment of death I returned to,
it would have been difficult for a young Hong Seol to change her fate.
“That’s why your mother told you to go back to just before death.”
“Mother did?”
“Yes. I don’t know much about the Sword King Nam Goong Ho, but in that final moment, he treated you with such warmth.”
That was the only opportunity to change fate.
And that judgment was correct.
Recalling what happened at Dae Chuk Mountain, Hong Seol’s eyes grew hot with tears.
“Mother’s thinking was right. Grandfather Nam Goong Ho was truly a man full of love.”
“And you found the man you love at the Nam Goong Family Estate, didn’t you?”
Hong Seol nodded at those words.
“Did you come back to save that man?”
“Yes.”
“Then how old were you when you need to go back to?”
“Around four years old. But what if….”
Hong Seol’s words trailed off, but Bing Xiao Yue shook her head.
“You asked the same thing before. My Hong Seol, you really haven’t changed at all.”
There was a hint of laughter in her voice.
“The only time you can go to is after this mark is inscribed.”
This time, there was a touch of regret in Bing Xiao Yue’s voice.
“I inscribed this mark on your body at the moment I met death by Je Gal Seon’s hand. So no matter how much you turn back time, you cannot save your mother or father.”
If she returned to that point, Hong Seol would only witness Bing Xiao Yue’s death once more.
There were some things in this world that could not be undone.
But there were still things Hong Seol could resolve.
Namely, saving Nam Goong Baek.
Turning back time to before he became addicted to the Poison of Medicinal Spirits.
“I’ve decided. I’m going back. To when I was four years old.”
When Hong Seol was four, Nam Goong Baek was seven.
And Nam Goong Baek’s poisoning by the Poison of Medicinal Spirits happened when he was eight.
‘Elder Brother will have the memories of his past life, so a year should be more than enough time for him to escape.’
Bing Xiao Yue’s voice continued hesitantly, as if with regret.
“But my child, if you do that, then you will probably….”
“Yes, I know. I’ll probably suffer abuse at the Myo Ga Jang again.”
“Won’t you regret it, my child?”
Instead of answering, Hong Seol posed a question in return.
“Mother, do you regret leaving the Northern Sea Ice Palace to follow Father?”
“My, that can’t be right!”
Bing Xiao Yue laughed brightly.
“Even now, you’re thrilled at the thought of rushing through that door to see Father again?”
Hong Seol finally broke into a gentle smile.
“I feel the same way, Mother. No matter what happens, I will never regret choosing my own destiny.”
“That’s my girl.”
By then, all the flowers and grass around us had completely withered.
Bing Xiao Yue held Hong Seol tightly in her embrace one last time before speaking.
“Then I’ll see you again, my dear. I love you. In every life, just the same. Forever.”
“I love you too, Mother.”
Tears quietly gathered at Hong Seol’s eyes as she held Bing Xiao Yue close.
In the next moment, Hong Seol’s vision flickered white.
* * *
Two years had passed since Hong Seol returned to the Myo Ga Jang.
Once again, her body was deemed incapable of learning martial arts, and she was promptly cast into the Storage Room.
At least this time, I never clung desperately to Je Gal Seon.
I had long since realized she was not my true mother.
Perhaps my composed demeanor had only invited her hatred instead.
The Myo Ga Jang tormented me far more cruelly than in my previous life.
Splash!
Five-year-old Hong Seol was once again soaked from head to toe in filthy water.
“Wh… what…?”
Startled, I trembled with my hands clasped at my chest, blinking my eyes.
“Why are you so distracted, young lady?”
A sharp, cutting voice.
It was Chung Ok.
The insolent servant of the Myo Ga Jang, true to form in this life as well.
“That’s what happens when you’re so careless!”
Behind Chung Ok came the sound of servants laughing mockingly.
They had deliberately spilled the filthy water on me, pretending it was an accident for the others to see.
“This is the only water we have for washing. Use this if you must.”
What Chung Ok pointed to was a stone jar filled with rainwater.
Thanks to the rain that had fallen not long ago, the water filled the container generously to the brim.
The problem was that it was now early winter.
The kind of weather where each breath released a white mist without fail.
But there was no choice.
Hong Seol struggled to scoop rainwater with a small wooden bucket beside the stone jar.
Then I poured it calmly over my own head.
“Gasp!”
The bitterly cold water, piercing to the bone, soaked my tiny frame.
But Chung Ok hadn’t prepared a single change of clothes for me, let alone a dry cloth to wipe myself with.
“Now that you’re clean, why aren’t you going inside? What are you doing?”
Chung Ok’s rebuke gave me no moment to breathe.
I quietly entered the Storage Room as Chung Ok instructed and wrapped my arms around my knees.
‘What is Baek Elder Brother doing right now?’
Since being confined to the Storage Room in the Myo Ga Jang, I had no way of knowing what was happening outside.
My greatest worry was whether Elder Brother had safely avoided the poison of the Toxic Plague Elixir.
More than the torment I was enduring myself.
‘Just a little longer, just a little longer. When I turn eight, I’ll have reason to go to Dae Chuk Mountain. And then perhaps….’
I would meet Grandfather Nam Goong Ho there.
‘But what if Grandfather doesn’t come?’
My small chest filled with anxiety.
‘If Baek Elder Brother safely avoided the poison, then the Nam Goong Family wouldn’t need someone with Yin-Yang Severed Meridians like me…?’
Perhaps I had already become unnecessary.
“Cough, cough.”
A sudden fit of coughing erupted. Barely composing myself, I buried my head in my knees.
The sensation of returning once more to those young, unhappy days felt strangely peculiar.
Surely I retained vivid memories of my previous life up until seventeen years old.
Yet being treated as a child in this place made me feel as though I were truly becoming one.
And the more I was despised and mistreated, the more pathetic I felt about myself.
‘Why do tears keep coming so strangely?’
I rubbed my burning eyes hard with my small fists.
Each time, I barely managed to steady my heart.
‘No, I am a loved child. No one else will remember it, but I surely have memories of being loved.’
Even if I alone possessed those memories.
Then, a thought struck me as I crouched quietly in the darkness.
‘Come to think of it, this was around that time.’
When I was deceived by Myo Geum Myung and Myo Eun Myung and drank rotten weed water, getting a stomachache.
This time, at least I wouldn’t drink something like that of my own accord.
‘But if I refuse to eat, they might beat me.’
Thinking of Myo Geum Myung and Myo Eun Myung, who were twice my size, my body trembled.
I remembered the forms of martial techniques I had learned before regression, but now I lacked both the physical strength and inner energy to execute them.
I gazed quietly at my small palms.
‘Could I fight those brothers and win?’
Perhaps I would be beaten soundly.
My heart filled with dread for what tomorrow would bring.
* * *
In the corner of the Storage Room without even a blanket, I barely managed to fall asleep.
Perhaps from worry, it was an extremely shallow sleep.
“…Ahhh!”
In the darkness, my ears perked up.
“Seize them!”
Outside was in complete chaos.
The sound of galloping hooves and the light footsteps of martial artists.
The clang of weapons colliding echoed through the air.
But the loudest voice of all was this one.
“Capture Je Gal Seon, who conspired with the Demonic Cult! She’s over there!”
That voice—I knew it far too well.
‘The Changcheon Master!’
It was Nam Goong Ui Gyeol, the Thousand-Weight Sword Swordmaster.

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