The Beloved Baby Priestess of the Twelve Zodiac Gods - Chapter 10

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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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Episode 10
At Do Gyeong’s question, Arin shook her head vigorously.
Then she set about eating with great enthusiasm, filling her empty belly.
After polishing off two bowls, Arin patted her distended stomach and giggled.
“Thank you so much, sir. You’ll be blessed for your kindness.”
Arin was neat and endearing, even remembering to offer her gratitude.
When Do Gyeong handed her an Egg Candy he’d been saving, she broke into a bright smile and popped it into her mouth.
The sight of her working the large sweet around in her cheek was impossibly charming.
“Do you like it?”
“Yes!”
“If you come with me, I’ll make sure you eat delicious things every day.”
“……Yes?”
Arin blinked in surprise. The drowsiness that had settled over her after the satisfying meal vanished in an instant.
Catching the wariness that flickered across the child’s eyes, Do Gyeong drew an Identity Plaque from his chest.
“I’m not a suspicious person.”
He meant to demonstrate that his credentials were legitimate.
“Geumho… -ga?”
Arin’s mouth fell open as she stared at the plaque, upon which a golden tiger had been drawn.
In that moment, Soso’s warning echoed through her mind.
‘Someone from Geumho-ga will be coming soon! And by then it’ll be too late to run!’
It seemed she had walked into the Tiger’s Den of her own volition.
‘Rest easy. I won’t eat you.’
Remembering those words—the same man had said them while offering her a pastry—Arin’s face drained of color.
‘Oh no. He’s fattening me up before he eats me!’
Well, it would certainly be inconvenient if the Junga carrying the precious soul meant for his son turned out to be weak and frail.
Arin trembled as she stared fixedly at the man.
Golden hair like safflower, eyes blazing like the sun itself.
How had she not noticed?
That gold was the symbol of Geumho-ga.
When Arin locked eyes with him, Do Gyeong offered her a smile—meant to look like the expression of a kind man.
‘Eek!’
Arin gasped at the sight of his fangs gleaming between his parted lips.
Her shoulders hunched and trembled as she shrank back, prompting Do Gyeong to ask with concern.
“What’s the matter?”
“N-no, I’m just… so s-sleepy.”
“You’ve eaten your fill, so it’s natural you’d feel drowsy. We’ll talk later—rest now. You’ll recover faster if you eat well and sleep well.”
So you can recover quickly and present me to your young master?
Arin swallowed the words that rose in her throat and hurried beneath the blanket without another word.
At the same time, she located her bundle. Fortunately, it lay untouched in one corner of the room.
“Sleep well.”
Do Gyeong extinguished the light in Arin’s room and left.
Just as she was beginning to relax.
Do Gyeong settled himself right outside her door. As if to ensure she couldn’t escape.
That night, Arin resolved: she would slip away from this place at dawn.
Arin gathered her bundle close to her chest and squeezed her eyes shut.
To escape from a tiger, she would need to conserve her strength.
* * *
Hemmed in on all sides, Hong Ijin acknowledged the existence of Hong Arin.
“It was unavoidable. A Junga who cannot Transform—surely that’s impossible? How could I simply abandon a soul I worked so hard to obtain? I cannot give up now, can I?”
Yet he could never fully admit his own fault.
“Still, I did not cast her out but kept her at the estate, so surely I have fulfilled my duty as a parent.”
“You call abandoning a child alone in the Byeolgwan—which is barely more than a ruin—’keeping her at the estate’?”
“That was… only temporary, while you were present.”
Believing Yeoryeong knew nothing, Hong Ijin resorted to lies.
His habit of spinning plausible falsehoods to escape a momentary crisis seemed unchanged.
Though in his younger years, he might at least have felt some twinge of guilt.
Yeoryeong found Hong Ijin’s expressionless face deeply disappointing.
Yet because she had already gathered sufficient evidence, her words came forth without hesitation.
“I have confirmed that the child has been staying in the Byeolgwan for the past three months. Spare me your excuses.”
At the cold edge in her voice, Hong Ijin swallowed a groan.
Who on earth would tattle on Arin like this?
Hong Ijin had just resolved to find the spy when Yeoryeong added her thought.
“Don’t think of questioning the servants. Geumgeum-i discovered this.”
At the mention of Geumgeum-i, Hong Ijin’s eyes fixed on the golden rat in Yeoryeong’s lap, contentedly cracking acorns.
So that creature still had the habit of sneaking into other people’s homes and eavesdropping, just as always.
“I see now that you came with purpose. Did Baekryong-ga send you?”
Yeoryeong regarded Hong Ijin without answering.
Caught in his mistake, Hong Ijin only grew bolder.
A family head’s commanding presence was admirable enough, yet even that required knowing the time and place for it.
His expression betrayed no awareness that Arin was suffering.
“Even now that everything’s been laid bare, you haven’t once asked after the child’s condition.”
“Soso is well cared for by my wife.”
“No—I’m speaking of your real daughter.”
“……If it’s that child, there’s no need for concern. The servants will see to her needs.”
He’d left his own daughter in the servants’ hands without so much as a glance.
When parents showed no interest, the servants’ attention naturally withered as well.
After all, it was far more profitable to lavish care on the adopted daughter than to win favor with the legitimate one.
‘You shouldn’t have done this. At the very least, you should have shielded that child.’
Yeoryeong, who knew Hong Ijin’s past, found his intentions transparent.
He had deliberately abandoned the girl.
Wanting to hide an embarrassing daughter, to let her waste away in another’s keeping.
Yeoryeong had no wish now to pick over his failures.
Her anger might well make her refuse to send Arin away.
Fortunately, because Soso had committed theft, it became easier to say she would take Arin with her.
“I’ll not hold Soso accountable for her theft. In return, I will take Arin with me.”
“That child, you mean?”
Hong Ijin looked at her as though taken aback.
True enough—to claim a daughter he deemed worthless was bound to seem suspicious.
He spoke with obvious reluctance.
“As you know, she cannot even Transform. She’s too young to be of use as a servant…….”
“That is not your concern.”
Drawing a firm line, Hong Ijin swallowed hard.
If the matter could be settled so neatly, it was a mercy—yet one problem remained unresolved.
“Then Baekryong-ga…….”
At his tentative opening, Yeoryeong’s smile turned thin and cold.
“Even now, that’s what troubles you? I’ll give you the chance to tell Baekryong-ga yourself.”
“……Could you not simply let the matter drop?”
“You ask me to lie to Baekryong-ga?”
“Soso is a legitimate branch daughter of the Hong Family. Taking in an adopted daughter is no disgrace.”
“Then you understand. Tell them plainly as it stands.”
“Yeoryeong.”
At Ijin’s protestative tone, Yeoryeong raised her hand to silence him.
“Do you truly not grasp what a great resolve it is for me to overlook what happened to Arin?”
At the stern edge in Yeoryeong’s voice, Hong Ijin clenched his fists.
He understood well. All children of the Junga were the children of the High Priestess.
To leave one neglected for being simple-minded was rank abuse, a matter for which the family elders would hold him accountable.
Yeoryeong had essentially counseled him to confess Soso’s crime in exchange for burying Arin’s.
Confession looked far better than denunciation.
“I will do as you say.”
In the end, Hong Ijin accepted Yeoryeong’s proposal.
* * *
The next morning, Yeoryeong summoned Do Gyeong.
Do Gyeong had kept watch outside Arin’s door all night, fearing someone might come to harm her.
Thanks to the power of the Junga, he’d managed two days without sleep with no difficulty.
When Do Gyeong quietly opened the door, Arin was still lost in dreams.
Do Gyeong stood watching the sleeping child for a long moment, her belly full and her face at peace, before turning toward the adjoining room.
The instant the door shut behind him, Arin’s eyes snapped open, bright and alert.

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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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