Looking for the Runaway Heavenly Maiden - Chapter 20

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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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20.

* * *

Yeonhwa gazed at Cheonhaerang’s pallid face, her trembling hands clenching into fists at her sides.
The moment she discovered him collapsing, her heart seemed to stop. She thought she was losing this child all over again.
She still remembered the warmth of the small infant she had held in her arms.
Though she hadn’t spent much time with Cheonhaerang due to her duties in the Human Realm following the Patriarch’s orders, she could never forget the moment she first held him.
He was born after that incident.
Suho had been too young to know of it. But she remembered it clearly.
Despite inflicting such a wound upon their mother, the Patriarch would visit her as if offering compensation.
It seemed there had been some transaction between their mother and father. Something was given, and something was received.
Holding the child no larger than her own forearm, consumed by indescribable emotion, her mother had told her:

“Yeonhwa.”

“I am sorry, my child.”

The mother who had raised both her and Suho with her own hands gave birth to Cheonhaerang and left Baekokgyeong.
Unable to remain away for long, she had to return to the Human Realm, leaving Cheonhaerang behind.
She visited him occasionally, but that was all. She learned too late that Gihyeongrang had become Cheonhaerang’s master.
That he followed Gihyeongrang so closely he called him “brother.”
The Patriarch would not heed her counsel. He brought her disappointment and despair once more.
Thus the peace of the Heavenly Realm was shattered, and the small child became as he was.
That small, young child had lain like this before. With a pallid face as if his breath would cease at any moment.
So she could not forgive the Patriarch.
Yet she endured, and endured still, trying to bury it. After all, the Patriarch’s blood flowed through her veins.
She had inherited the greatest power from him.

“Help me, sister.”

“I don’t want to follow Father’s will.”

It was ironic. That child had grown to rebel like this.
Yet powerless as she was, she became nothing but a bystander.
Because she could not kill the Patriarch with her own hands.
…Because he had once been her only love.

“….”

I reached out and carefully took the child’s hand. His hand had grown large enough to cover mine, yet to me he remained nothing more than the newborn from that day.
I should have protected such a child.
Yet I failed to protect him again.

“…I’m sorry.”

In the end, it was all my fault. Consumed by an indelible sense of self-reproach, I curled my body inward.
Cheonhaerang’s hand was cold.

* * *

Jiho set down her pencil with a sharp tap.
Her gaze shifted toward her phone. The screen was dark.
Hours had passed since she returned home, yet her phone had not chimed with any notifications.
Which meant, in other words, that Cheonhaerang had not sent her a single message all this time.
Of course, it wasn’t as though they had to contact each other every single day….
Cheonhaerang had been subtly off since morning, and it was no different when they parted ways.
During the drive home, he hadn’t spared her a glance, his eyes fixed only on the window outside.
Curious about what could possibly be so interesting beyond the car window, she had taken a discreet look herself, but all she saw was the ordinary scenery of the passing road.
His behavior was distinctly different from usual, so naturally her mind couldn’t help but dwell on it.
She had resolved not to pry, not to worry—but that determination was gradually fading.
Finally, Jiho picked up her phone. The only exchange with Cheonhaerang was a message from this morning.
As she stared at the conversation window, her thumb trembled. She found herself caught in an enormous dilemma.
Whether to send a message first, and if she did, how exactly to word it.

How much time had passed? At last, Jiho emerged from her deep contemplation.

‘…Right. Either way, we’re dating, aren’t we? Or even if we were just friends, I could send something like this.’

Jiho finally sent the message.

What are you doing?

I thought my heart would burst. Those few minutes after sending the message felt like an eternity itself. I even considered deleting the text.
But I decided against it, fearing it would only look more suspicious.
My eyes were fixed on the problem set, but my attention was entirely on my phone. I went through the motions of solving problems before finally closing the book.
Then I checked my phone again. I had enabled notifications, but there was still that slim possibility I might have missed something.
Wondering if he would call like yesterday, my heart raced continuously.
Yet despite considerable time passing, the unread indicator never disappeared.
Not even when deep night fell and I finally drifted to sleep.
No message came from Cheonhaerang.

* * *

I jolted awake without an alarm and immediately checked my phone.
But the message I’d been waiting for never came. Not even a call, and the unread indicator on the text remained. My worry about what I’d do if he called turned out to be completely unfounded.

‘…Wait, what am I waiting for? I was probably just concerned because he seemed off yesterday.’

I tried hard to deny that I appeared to be disappointed.
Yet I couldn’t erase the image of Cheonhaerang that kept surfacing in my mind.

‘What on earth happened? What did Princess Yeonhwa say to him?’

I had resolved to simply focus on returning home, but that determination had long since faded away.
I fell into deep contemplation. Sending another text seemed pointless—he wouldn’t read it anyway.
That left only one option: a phone call.
In a sense, it was just a single call, but it required tremendous courage from me.
Time passed aimlessly as I stared at the dark screen. There wasn’t much time left before Yerim would call me for a meal. I had to make a decision.
Taking a shallow breath, I finally touched the screen. I didn’t think I had memorized the number, yet my fingers moved across it with surprising ease.
After the dial tone rang, the voice I anxiously awaited never came through.

—I cannot take your call at the moment. Please leave a message after the tone….
“….”

Hearing the unfamiliar automated voice through the phone, disappointment washed over me. Despite my considerable courage, he hadn’t answered.
But disappointment quickly transformed into worry.
Something was wrong. Both his behavior yesterday and this refusal to answer the phone were strange.

‘…Should I go find his place?’

But I only knew we lived in the same apartment complex—I didn’t even know which building he lived in.
Come to think of it, I knew so little about Cheonhaerang.
After we parted ways in childhood, how had he lived?
How had I come to know that man?
Who exactly was that man?
If my reason for coming to the Human Realm was because of him, what had happened between us?
…What did he like, and what did he want to do?
I set down the phone I’d been gripping tightly onto the desk. That was the moment. Buzz—it vibrated.
I quickly picked up the phone again. I thought it was a message from Cheonhaerang.
But the contact was from an unfamiliar number, and the owner of that number was someone I knew well.

-Jiho. It’s me, Cheonuyhua. Can you come to the Principal’s Office in the morning?

Princess Yeonhwa.
Perhaps she was someone who could provide me with many answers.

* * *

This was a dream.
He stood within an old memory.
Gihyeongrang and his younger self.
The first time he met Gihyeongrang.
A man who was audacious, even presumptuous, standing before the next Supreme Deity.
The man who faced him under the title of mentor spoke coldly, daring to meet his eyes directly.

“Your Highness, you must remember this. Had Your Highness not been of His Majesty’s bloodline. Had even a trace of impurity mixed in.”

How could I have forgotten this? It hadn’t been that long ago.

“Your Highness would be nothing. For nothing you have achieved has been accomplished by your own hand.”

That man who had become my brother instead of my mentor, Gihyeongrang who was the head of the Heavenly Realm, had truly disliked me from the beginning.
Foolish Cheonhaerang only now recalled this long-buried memory.
And only then did he awaken from the long dream.

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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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