The Beloved Baby Priestess of the Twelve Zodiac Gods - Chapter 19

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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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Chapter 19
Arin stared at Do-yeong with a vacant expression.
It wasn’t the reaction she’d anticipated. Usually when Arin extended kindness, people were quick to exploit it—but Do-yeong had done the opposite.
Instead of taking advantage, he’d snapped at her not to mind his feelings, leaving Arin utterly bewildered.
Arin’s voice trembled as she asked.
“Then what should I do?”
“Do what?”
“How do I make you stop disliking me?”
Do-yeong felt his conscience prick sharply at the directness of her question. He hadn’t expected anything like it.
“What do you mean, I dislike you? I never said that.”
Truth be told, Arin bore no fault. Even if she were born of their father’s indiscretion, that was his sin alone.
The thought that he’d been tormenting a girl for merely existing gnawed at him.
“I’m sorry. I’ve just been bitter toward our father. It’s not you I dislike—I didn’t know how to treat you, that’s all.”
The moment Do-yeong said he didn’t dislike her, Arin’s shoulders relaxed with relief.
The tension drained from her frame, and she asked innocently.
“But why don’t you like that man?”
“That man? Why don’t you call him Father?”
“Huh?”
“Huh?”
Their heads tilted toward each other in confusion. After a moment, Do-yeong blinked and spoke.
“You’re not his child from outside the family?”
“No. That man just picked me up.”
Arin’s casual reply made Do-yeong’s eyes widen as if they might burst from his head.
“Wait, what?”
“That man is my savior. A daughter? I never wanted such a thing.”
Arin shook her head vigorously in denial, and Do-yeong’s mouth fell open.
Cho-ryeong, who had been waiting for the misunderstanding to dissolve, could no longer hold back her laughter.
“Aha! I knew it’d turn out like this!”
She set down green tea before them both, then planted a hand on her hip.
“Really now, young master. You shouldn’t believe every word the servants whisper.”
“Well, she has the Sipiji, so—”
“The Sipiji doesn’t only manifest in direct bloodlines. You still don’t understand the head of the family that well?”
At Cho-ryeong’s rebuke, Do-yeong flushed with embarrassment.
He realized he’d let himself be blinded and had simply believed what the servants said.
“Ugh, this is mortifying.”
Do-yeong mussed his own hair in distress, and Cho-ryeong’s laughter only grew.
Arin, who had been watching the two of them in bewilderment, spoke up.
“So you don’t dislike me?”
“Are you messing with me?”
……
“My, young master. You shouldn’t speak so harshly to a girl. What if Miss Arin starts crying?”
At Cho-ryeong’s chiding, Do-yeong’s brow furrowed—then he extended his hand to Arin.
“I don’t dislike you.”
……
“So from now on, call me Brother Do-yeong. It feels strange when you use such formal speech for someone so small.”
Do-yeong looked away, a touch self-conscious. Watching him, Arin broke into a gentle smile.
“All right. Brother Do-yeong.”
* * *
Geom Do-gyeong recalled what Yeo-ryeong had said days earlier.
“Arin will be the next Shenü after me. I hope you will protect her.”
It was a reason he’d never foreseen—something he couldn’t have imagined when he first decided to bring Arin into the household.
‘So that’s why you had Hong Yi-jin sign an oath—to prevent him from ever claiming to be her true parent.’
‘Exactly. I witnessed all the abuse the child suffered. We can’t afford complications later.’
‘…I’ll probably catch some grief from Hong Yi-jin over this.’
‘I fear I’ve been using you as a scapegoat too often.’
‘That’s precisely why I became head of the Geumho Family, isn’t it? Now that it’s come to this, we must Register Arin as soon as possible.’
By now, the Council of Elders would surely have heard of Arin’s arrival.
‘Those old men know exactly what they’re thinking.’
They must have assumed she was brought to be a match for Do-hun.
So they would turn over every stone trying to uncover which family she belonged to.
‘I’m Arin.’
A child who had resolved to shed the Hong surname.
And so Do-yeong decided he would keep her secret, for her sake if nothing else.
First, he summoned Do-hun, his eldest who was then away on retreat, and promptly convened the Council of Elders.
Geom Hui-taek, the head among the seven elders, opened with smooth pleasantries.
“Welcome back safely, Head of House. It must have been quite the outing after so long away—I trust you found it enjoyable?”
“Enjoyable? I wasn’t out gallivanting.”
Do-yeong’s flat reply made Geom Hui-taek’s narrow eyes narrow further still.
‘He means to brush past this so carelessly?’
Word had already spread that Geom Do-gyeong had brought back some girl.
Young as she was, if the Shenü Yeo-ryeong vouched for her, she posed a threat to him.
As one who had already marked his own granddaughter as a match for Do-hun, Hui-taek could not let the matter rest.
“Though I hear there is a guest staying at Maehwa Hall…….”
The moment Hui-taek singled out Maehwa Hall by name, Do-yeong burst into hearty laughter.
So transparent.
Do-yeong shifted his posture, settling back with an air of ease as he spoke.
“Come now, no need to dance around it. You’re simply curious who our Arin is, aren’t you?”
The elders held their breath at the phrase “our Arin”—the intimacy in it seemed far deeper than they had anticipated.
Do-yeong pressed further.
“Should you all see Arin for yourselves, you’d understand at once why I brought her back.”
To anyone watching, he clearly doted on the child.
Hui-taek cleared his throat nervously, unsettled, and continued.
“Then I shall ask directly: why have you brought her?”
“To raise her.”
“By raising her, you don’t mean to make her a match for young Do-hun, surely?”
When Geom Hui-taek pressed more directly, Do-yeong’s expression turned cold.
“And why should I need Elder Hui-taek’s permission for that?”
He straightened his posture, and the pressure that descended upon Geom Hui-taek was immense.
Of all the Heads of House in the Geumho Family’s history, he was the one who wielded the Sipiji most masterfully.
The gap in skill was so vast and fathomless that cold sweat began to stream down Hui-taek’s forehead.
Yet Hui-taek did not yield.
“I merely wished to know if she would be a suitable match for young Do-hun.”
Seeing that Hui-taek held firm to his curiosity about Do-yeong’s intentions, Do-yeong withdrew his killing intent as though bored.
“Doesn’t ‘daughter’ sound more intimate than ‘match’? Which wouldn’t you prefer?”
“A daughter, not a daughter-in-law? Gasp!”
One of the elders who had been listening quietly let out an involuntary exclamation before clamping his mouth shut.
Some seemed relieved at the news she would not be a daughter-in-law, but Hui-taek grew only more uneasy.
‘Could that rumor have been true after all?’
Hui-taek asked with a chilling expression.
“Surely she is not your own child?”
“Have I lost my mind? I can almost hear dead Jin-gyeong visiting my dreams to slit my throat for even saying such a thing.”
Do-yeong flinched at the very thought, as though horrified, and touched his suddenly cold neck.
That unmistakable rejection took the wind from Hui-taek’s sails.
If he meant neither to make her a daughter-in-law nor to claim her as his own, there was no need to stand against Do-yeong.
Hui-taek recovered his usual composure and smiled thinly.
“Then she must be a daughter of the Collateral Line? If you would tell me which family she comes from, I could verify her lineage.”
As Hui-taek subtly retreated while attempting to probe Arin’s origins, Do-yeong drew a hard line.
“I have verified everything already. So do not attempt to uncover Arin’s identity further. Should I discover that anyone is prying into that child’s background…….”
Do-yeong paused a moment, then swept his gaze across the elders and made a cutting gesture across his throat with his thumb.
“You’ll all answer to me.”
In the wake of his harsh warning, it was only a matter of time before the elders’ faces turned ashen.

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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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