The Beloved Baby Deer of the Hwangryong Family - Chapter 44

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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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Meanwhile, Seo-yu climbed the mountain alone. She was looking for a rock that was a little higher than yesterday’s.

‘I’m glad I laid everything out in advance.’

These days, Seo-yu was practicing cliff jumping by moving to increasingly higher rocks.

Thanks to the help of Yi-ryeong and Li-gon, who were strong, they had stacked fluffy straw bundles several layers high, so there was no worry of getting hurt.

Moreover, the twins usually stayed close by in their beast transformation, always watching over Seo-yu to make sure nothing went wrong.

‘Now I need to try doing it alone.’

Seo-yu, who had climbed up onto the rock, took a deep breath.

Though she called it a rock, it was so large that it towered well above Seo-yu’s height, making the view below look dizzying.

‘…I’m scared.’

No matter how much she steeled her heart, she couldn’t stop her body from trembling. Standing in a high place, her legs kept losing strength and she just wanted to collapse.

But Seo-yu didn’t want to give up.

‘I just need to endure a little. If I do this, I can go to the Dragon Palace.’

I can save the Jeongdam Herb and help Madam too.

There were so many things she could do if she went to the Dragon Palace.

‘Then Young Master would be happy too, right?’

Suddenly, she remembered that day when they went to the village together.

Actually, Seo-yu had always been afraid of Li-han. Just meeting his cold gaze, which clearly showed he disliked her, made her feel frozen to the bone.

But now she knew.

‘Young Master is a good person.’

Seo-yu thought of the beautiful water-colored hair ribbon she kept treasured deep in her wardrobe.

The moment she received that gift from Li-han, Seo-yu felt as if a knot that had been tied in her heart for a very long time was gently unraveling.

She had always felt like being born was a mistake, but at that moment, she felt comforted as if she had been born well.

‘So I really hope Young Master will be happy. I hope Hwang Hyeon-rang, Yi-ryeong, and Li-gon will all smile together too.’

That single thought gave her courage.

‘I can do it. I will succeed.’

Seo-yu swallowed her dry saliva and courageously took one step forward.

Step by step, as she approached the edge of the rock, her toes soon touched the empty air. Goosebumps rose all over her body and her lips trembled violently.

After taking several deep breaths, Seo-yu squeezed her eyes shut and threw her body into the air.

No, she definitely thought she had thrown herself.

‘Huh?’

This soft fur texture touching her hands was definitely something she had felt before…

“What are you doing!”

At the suddenly heard voice, Seo-yu opened her eyes in surprise.

Amazingly, her body was floating in the air.

Seo-yu’s widened eyes were filled with a golden mane fluttering in the wind. The familiar back belonged to Li-han.

“Li, Young Master Li-han?”

“How exactly do you see people!”

Li-han’s voice trembled violently. It seemed closer to fear than anger.

Soon, having climbed back up to the rock and set foot on safe ground, Seo-yu looked up at Li-han with surprised eyes.

“You should have said something! That you’re scared of cliffs, that you absolutely can’t do it!”

“Th, that’s…”

Flustered, Seo-yu stammered her words.

‘How does he know about the cliff?’

Seeing Seo-yu unable to speak properly, Li-han took a rough breath.

He was angry. Not at Seo-yu, but at himself.

He knew this wasn’t the child’s fault. He also knew well that he hadn’t been a good enough Young Family Head for the child to comfortably confide in him.

So how could she have spoken up?

Seo-yu must have already sensed that whatever she said wouldn’t be listened to sincerely.

“I’m sorry.”

Li-han’s head dropped down. His tightly clenched fists were trembling slightly.

“I suspected you. I was afraid that someday you would betray our family clan and hurt the twins again… So I wanted to keep you separated from the children.”

His heart felt heavy as he confessed the truth. After letting it out, he felt even more how terrible his actions had been, deepening his guilt.

“…Something like that happened a few years ago.”

Seo-yu’s eyes widened. Li-han hurriedly added his next words.

“I’m not asking you to understand me because I had my circumstances. I just…”

Li-han didn’t want to make excuses for his wrongdoing.

There was no room for excuses anyway. This entire matter was Li-han’s fault from beginning to end.

Even so, Li-han thought he needed to tell her the facts.

“I wanted to tell you that you’re not a child who deserves to be hated.”

If he didn’t explain the reason, this child wouldn’t know why she had been hated.

‘A child who has never properly left the manor, doesn’t know her birthday, and of course has never received birthday gifts…’

Li-han wasn’t oblivious.

He easily realized what all those facts meant.

Moreover.

‘…She never once questioned me about why I hated her.’

Just from that alone, he could tell how Seo-yu must have grown up.

Li-han suddenly realized that he had never once seen Seo-yu as she truly was.

‘This child isn’t Cho-ah.’

All this time, he had arbitrarily decided that Seo-yu would betray the family clan and had overlaid Cho-ah’s shadow onto her.

When he removed the layers of accumulated prejudice, he finally saw that the child before him wasn’t an unwelcome guest but an individual named ‘Seo-yu.’

Li-han felt so pathetic that his mind went completely blank.

“I’m sorry. For forcing you to do something painful. I’m truly sorry.”

How could he be so terrible?

Li-han apologized again, feeling self-loathing.

The fact that such words couldn’t make up for the wounds he had inflicted on Seo-yu tormented Li-han even more.

“Um, Young Master.”

Then Seo-yu very carefully tapped Li-han’s arm.

Li-han, who hadn’t dared to meet her eyes out of shame, looked up with a bitter smile.

“Yes. Say anything.”

Li-han was prepared to listen to everything Seo-yu had to say.

Whether it was cursing or pleading, whatever it might be.

However, Seo-yu said something Li-han hadn’t expected at all.

“I didn’t do it against my will.”

“…What?”

Li-han’s eyes wavered. Seo-yu spoke again with an innocent face.

“It’s true. I did it because I wanted to.”

“That can’t… be. There’s no reason for that. Why on earth would you…?”

Seo-yu looked around and then crouched down in place.

Then she carefully wrote characters stroke by stroke with her finger on the dirt ground.

“I learned to write from Master Hyeon-ya. Master Hyeon-ya is a very kind teacher. So he explained each character to me one by one.”

The character Seo-yu wrote on the ground was ‘love ‘.

It was a very basic character that would be written in a beginner’s vocabulary book, a word she had learned not long after she started learning to read and write.

“This character is made up of claw , cover , heart , and slow walk . Of course, you already know this, Young Master…”

Seo-yu felt a little embarrassed as if she had shown off to the smart young master, but she didn’t stop speaking.

“Love is like walking while holding a heart in your hands.”

When Seo-yu first heard the explanation from Hyeon-ya, she couldn’t understand what it meant at all.

Only after remembering that people cannot live without their hearts did she understand the meaning.

“Since the heart is very important and precious, to keep it from getting hurt, you have to hold it carefully with both hands and walk slowly. That feeling is love.”

Seo-yu came to understand the meaning of love thanks to the people of the Golden Dragon Family.

What it meant to truly wish that another person wouldn’t get hurt – Seo-yu came to understand this precisely after receiving that love herself.

If she hadn’t known what love was, she wouldn’t have even thought of climbing up to the cliff that made her legs tremble with fear just from looking at it.

“Yi-ryeong and Li-gon, Hyeon-rang… and Master too, they all love you, Li-han.”

So Seo-yu wanted to willingly share the love she had received with Li-han as well.

“Everyone wishes that your heart won’t get hurt, so I wanted to do the same.”

Seo-yu, who had finished drawing the last stroke of ‘love’, looked up at Li-han with drooping eyebrows.

“Li-han, you were very upset because Madam was sick, weren’t you? I hope your heart doesn’t hurt any more.”

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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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