The Beloved Baby Deer of the Hwangryong Family - Chapter 125

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This chapter was translated by Lunox Team. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
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“…Hey.”

“….”

“Seo-yu.”

Father?

Seo-yu hesitated.

She had thought the gentle low voice calling her name belonged to her father, but it was the Qilin Family Head, not her father, looking down at her.

“Are you alright?”

Gi Tae-ha took out a handkerchief from his belongings and gently wiped the corners of Seo-yu’s eyes.

Watching the child standing there blankly, tears streaming down her face, made his heart strangely restless.

Why on earth was the child shedding tears?

Could it be that she was truly his daughter, recognizing the mother she was separated from at birth?

However, no matter how intelligent a child might be, a newborn couldn’t possibly have such cognitive abilities.

Gi Tae-ha was a physician and medical scholar. He never believed in coincidences that couldn’t be proven.

Therefore, it was more likely that the child simply had a naturally compassionate nature and empathized with others’ pain. It was a rare temperament in the Qilin Family.

Trickle.

Despite having just wiped them away, another stream of tears flowed down Seo-yu’s cheek.

Gi Tae-ha felt uncharacteristically frustrated and anxious as he peered into the child’s eyes.

“Do you perhaps suffer from excessive tearing? If so, there’s an improved variety of chrysanthemum in the Heavenly Medicine Forest. I’ll go dig some up right now….”

“No, no. I’m fine, Family Head.”

Seo-yu, having completely regained her composure, shook her head vigorously. Gi Tae-ha handed her the handkerchief. Seo-yu pressed the herb-scented handkerchief firmly against her eyes to wipe away the tears as she spoke.

“My eyes are very healthy. Just now I was simply… sad.”

Looking down quietly, she could see the Qilin Family Mother lying peacefully on the bed.

“It really looks like the Family Matriarch has just fallen asleep.”

What was that scene she had just witnessed? Had she been dreaming while standing, since it was well past bedtime?

But for a dream, each scene had been far too vivid. It felt as if she had directly experienced those events herself.

That’s why the reality of seeing the Qilin Family Mother lying there with her eyes closed felt even more sorrowful.

It seemed like she might wake up any moment and call out “My dear child.”

“In terms of her condition, it’s no different from sleeping. It’s all thanks to the Snow Scale Flower.”

Gi Tae-ha answered in a subdued voice.

As he said, the Qilin Family Mother indeed looked so peaceful that it was hard to believe she was someone who had fallen into a comatose state.

Her complexion had a subtle healthy color, and her chest rose and fell regularly. It meant she was in a stable condition. So stable that it was incomprehensible why she couldn’t open her eyes.

‘Come to think of it, back then….’

Seo-yu suddenly recalled the moment when the Qilin Family Mother had called out “Child” and kissed the pure white orb.

The golden glowing orb had lost its brilliant color after fighting the black shadow, but when the Qilin Family Mother breathed into it, it emitted a white light.

‘Could it be that the Qilin Family Mother passed something to the child at that moment?’

Physician Ho had definitely said during the first lesson.

That the ancient qilin was a spirit symbolizing life.

‘Also, that the qilin breathed life into dying beings to save them.’

She couldn’t understand why a formless orb was called a child, but if what was passed on then was truly the breath of life.

‘Wouldn’t the Family Matriarch regain consciousness if we could just get that back?’

“Um… Family Head. I heard that the Family Matriarch’s health deteriorated while giving birth to the child.”

Seo-yu asked cautiously.

“Then where is that child now?”

A pause.

For a moment, Gi Tae-ha’s movements stopped. He had never imagined that Seo-yu would ask directly about that matter.

Gi Tae-ha gazed quietly at Seo-yu’s face, filled with worry.

Then, when the child seemed puzzled by his unusually long stare, he reluctantly looked away and slowly murmured.

“…Left.”

It was something he had said dozens of times already. To the household members who asked about the child’s well-being, to the branch family relatives who worried about him, and to the palace officials and other family heads.

Conveying the truth wasn’t difficult at all, so Gi Tae-ha had always spoken calmly of the child’s death. He had done so for the past ten years.

But now, looking at Seo-yu like this, the words wouldn’t come easily. It felt like something weighing on his chest kept pressing down on his voice, preventing the words from emerging.

“To a very distant place…”

At the words that squeezed out through his heavy heart, Seo-yu’s eyes widened.

“A distant place?”

Soon she closed her mouth and fell silent. The golden eyes that had felt familiar from their first meeting trembled with sorrow.

“…”

Seo-yu said nothing at all. She simply covered her face with the handkerchief he had given her. Her small shoulders shook quietly.

Beside his wife who couldn’t open her eyes, a child who resembled his wife shed tears.

“I’m sorry. I didn’t bring you here to make you cry…”

Gi Tae-ha truly hated himself for only being able to say those words.

* * *

The sad night passed, and Seo-yu awoke from deep sleep. When she got up, a welcome guest had come to visit. It was Cho-ok.

“Young Miss, was everything alright last night? I should have come a bit earlier, I’m sorry.”

“Sorry for what. I heard you had other business to attend to, and you must be tired coming all the way here without even resting. You’ve been traveling too much lately.”

Cho-ok’s heart warmed at the affectionate words.

If it had been Su-jeong, she would have gotten angry first, saying ‘What were you doing that you’re only crawling here now?’ But this kind young miss was busy worrying about a mere maid.

“Not at all. This Cho-ok only has a sturdy body, so don’t worry. Though riding the dragon was a bit scary.”

“You felt that way too, Cho-ok? I did too! I was so scared of falling that I just held onto Young Master Li-han’s mane.”

“Exactly. It was scary even to look down.”

“I thought I was the only cowardly one, but you felt the same way, Cho-ok. That’s somehow reassuring.”

Seo-yu let out a sigh of relief. Cho-ok smiled slightly, finding the honest and unaffected Seo-yu quite endearing.

“Still, it’s definitely fast. Even after stopping by the Medical Academy, it took less than a day to get here from the Golden Dragon Family.”

“Huh? Why the Medical Academy?”

“There was some luggage left to bring.”

Cho-ok had actually gone to the Medical Academy to retrieve Su-jeong’s belongings.

She had worried that perhaps the Great Antlered Deer Family or the maid introduced by Cho-a might have already taken all of Su-jeong’s things, but fortunately Su-jeong’s quarters remained as they were.

There, Cho-ok gathered all the items Su-jeong had purchased from Cho-a of the Feather Trading Company and sent them to the Golden Dragon Family.

She had done this remembering Hwang Hyeon-rang’s words that it would be good to find anything related to that child named Cho-a.

‘The Qilin Family also had a room where Miss Su-jeong stayed. Since it hasn’t been long, they might have packed her luggage separately.’

Since she was already at the Qilin Family, it seemed she should take all those things back with her. Who knows, they might provide some kind of clue.

‘I’ll do anything if it helps Miss Seo-yu!’

With firm resolve, Cho-ok prepared to leave the room.

“Young Miss, you must be hungry, right? I’ll go ask them to prepare a meal since you’ve awakened.”

“Thank you. Then ask for yours too. Let’s have lunch together!”

“Thank you. I’ll mention it to them.”

Cho-ok closed the door and went outside. In the now quiet room, Seo-yu fell into thought.

‘Who on earth was that man?’

The scene she had witnessed at dawn, whether it was a dream or a vision, kept refusing to fade from her memory.

Perhaps it was because she was concerned about the Family Matriarch, who lay sleeping with a more peaceful expression than anyone.

‘Who could it have been to attack the Family Matriarch and the child? Why did that person do such a thing?’

As she recalled the memory, the moment when a black shadow fell over the Family Matriarch’s head unfolded vividly before her eyes as if she had just experienced it.

Seo-yu unconsciously spoke aloud.

“A beast with a dragon’s head and a turtle’s body…”

[That’s Yeong-gwi!]

Seollin suddenly appeared and shouted loudly. She must have been in such a hurry that even after tumbling through the air with a crash, she didn’t let out a single groan.

[Did you encounter Yeong-gwi?]

Dragon Spirit also popped out and asked. His short throat bobbed with a gulp, his face unusually tense compared to usual.

“That was Yeong-gwi? Oh, it really is!”

She had only seen it in writing and had never encountered its appearance before, so she hadn’t realized it.

Especially since it was a shadow, she couldn’t get a proper sense of it, but now that she heard it, it was indeed Yeong-gwi.

[Where, where did you see Yeong-gwi?]

[That’s right. Tell us before this Seollin breathes her last.]

“Ah… I’m not really sure. I followed the Qilin Family Head to visit the Family Matriarch who was bedridden, and suddenly the surroundings turned white and I saw that scene.”

Seo-yu quickly added, worried that the spirits might dismiss it as nonsensical talk.

“But it was so vivid that it didn’t seem like I saw it wrong. Of course, it could have been my mistake.”

She gradually lost confidence and her voice grew smaller toward the end, but surprisingly, Dragon Spirit answered seriously.

[You saw a spiritual vision.]

“Spiritual vision?”

[It’s a memory left behind by strong desire and will.]

“Then you’re saying that really happened?”

Seo-yu’s eyes sparkled. But she soon became dejected.

“Ah, but the Qilin Family Head said the child died as soon as it was born.”

If that were true, then the situation of the Qilin Family Mother holding a child didn’t make sense. She must have seen an illusion after all.

However, Dragon Spirit shook his head in denial.

[Spiritual vision isn’t formed only from events that happened in reality. It remembers everything, even the realm of the unconscious that cannot be seen with the eyes.]

“Then you’re saying Yeong-gwi attacked the Family Matriarch…”

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