The Beloved Baby Priestess of the Twelve Zodiac Gods - Chapter 2

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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 2
The moment So So confirmed that even the new mother treated the girl as if she didn’t exist, she cornered a servant for answers.
What she learned was startling.
‘Oh, that’s Miss Arin. She used to live in this room, but she’s one of the Twelve Zodiac Deities who cannot awaken to Hwansu.’
That was when So So understood: she had come to this place as a substitute for that girl.
And if that girl ever succeeded in awakening to Hwansu, she would have to return to her former life at any moment.
How had she come to possess such a comfortable existence?
She couldn’t allow it to be stolen from her like this.
And so So So made up her mind to drive Arin out of this household.
For the sake of her own security alone.
* * *
After the encounter with her mother, Arin spent every night crying away the hours until dawn.
The cold gaze of her mother—so devoid of warmth—tormented Arin night after night.
‘Who was that girl beside her?’
The unfamiliar girl her own age called Arin’s mother ‘Mother.’
Wearing Arin’s ornaments and clothes.
What this meant, Arin could not fathom.
Days passed as she lived in quiet despair in the Annex.
One afternoon, while she sat listlessly in the courtyard counting leaves as she always did, something fell from the tree with a soft thud.
“Oh?”
Startled, Arin turned toward the tree and found a golden rat lying on the ground, bleeding.
Squeak.
Whether its leg was sprained, the golden rat couldn’t rise easily. One ear was torn by something sharp, blood dripping from the wound.
Seeing the whimpering golden rat, Arin felt pity stir in her chest.
‘It must have been chased by a cat.’
The golden rat was a mutation of some kind—its fur had a golden sheen.
Such a distinctive color made it an easy target for predators.
In some ways, the mutant creature’s plight mirrored Arin’s own—she too was the Hong Sa Family’s oddity, their burden.
‘They say beasts of the Twelve Zodiac Deities should be treasured.’
Unable to leave the golden rat as it was, Arin wrapped it in her handkerchief and carried it into her room.
She rinsed away the blood with clean water and applied ointment to its wounds.
It had been one of the necessities her nursemaid had given her when she was first confined to the Annex.
Once the treatment was done, Arin laid the golden rat on a soft cushion and covered its body with the handkerchief.
She worried the golden rat might be cold because of the chill in the bedroom.
A little sigh escaped her.
Arin lay down beside the golden rat. The golden rat was extraordinarily warm.
For someone who had always been alone, that heat was almost unbearably precious.
Leaning into that warmth, Arin drifted off to sleep, and when she woke, a hollow ache filled her.
“It’s gone.”
The golden rat she had tended so carefully had vanished without a trace.
“You could’ve said goodbye at least. You shouldn’t have moved so soon.”
Arin swept her hand across the cushion, searching for the lingering warmth.
But the cushion had long since grown cold.
* * *
Strange things had begun to happen in Arin’s daily life.
Snacks had started appearing, one by one, on the small table beside her bed.
They looked as though they’d been pilfered from the kitchen each day—always different.
At first she thought it mere coincidence, but when it continued for a full week, her curiosity became unbearable.
So she pretended to fall asleep early, keeping her eyes shut in bed.
The night when the moon hung bright and full—the Zi Hour
(the hour between eleven at night and one in the morning)
—arrived.
A rustling sound, and an unfamiliar shadow stole quietly into her room.
Arin opened her eyes just a sliver to see who it was.
The fluffy rear end caught the moonlight and gleamed golden.
Arin recognized the small creature with its bushy golden fur and bolted upright.
“It was you!”
Squeak!
Startled, the golden rat tumbled over, and a yakgwa rolled across the small tray with a soft clatter.
The golden rat, eyes wide with surprise, looked far healthier than before—and utterly adorable.
‘Did she come to see me?’
Arin’s eyes sparkled with delight.
“Your ears have healed! Thank goodness.”
She lit a candle to check on the Golden Rat’s condition, breaking into a wide smile.
The Golden Rat twitched its whiskers and straightened its spine, looking up at Arin.
Today, the Golden Rat seemed to shimmer more brightly than usual.
“You didn’t need to repay any debt. You’ve been looking after my snacks this whole time, haven’t you?”
Squeak, squeak.
The Golden Rat shook its head as though it understood her words perfectly.
When it then bowed its head as if to say thank you, Arin couldn’t help but be astonished.
“You actually understand what I’m saying?”
She wondered if her loneliness had reached such a point that she now imagined the rat comprehending human speech.
Just then, the Golden Rat turned toward the window.
The night was still cold, and frost had formed on the glass.
The Golden Rat, whom she thought had been leaving, suddenly used its front paws to write something on the condensation.
[Why are you still here?]
“Wow, you can write too? You’re really clever!”
Arin’s bright smile faded almost at once.
“I’m being punished because I’m a half-breed.”
That’s right. If she had only succeeded at Hwansu, she wouldn’t have been cast aside like this.
As she recalled her circumstances once more, Arin’s eyebrows knitted together in a frown.
“A member of the Twelve Zodiac Deities who can’t perform Hwansu isn’t truly one of them, they say. Father, Mother, my brother—they’ve all forgotten me.”
The moment she admitted to being abandoned, tears welled up in her eyes.
Arin wiped them away with her sleeve and forced herself to speak in an even tone.
“At least I’m grateful someone feeds and shelters a half-breed like me, aren’t I?”
The Golden Rat’s expression turned incredulous. Those were not words that should have come from a child’s mouth.
‘The Baek Yong Family asked me to look into the daughter of the Hong Sa Family. Go and observe her character, then report back to me.’
In truth, the Golden Rat was a spiritual creature raised by Yeoryeong, the priestess of the Twelve Zodiac Deities, and mainly ran errands for her.
Yeoryeong was both an elder of the Twelve Zodiac Deities and the sole priestess who oversaw all matters great and small in the Yeon Ha Kingdom.
This priestess, whose birth and age none could determine, had become the master of all twelve families through sheer spiritual power alone.
Every heir of the Twelve Zodiac Deities had to go through her, and without her approval, one could never become the official patriarch of a twelve-family house.
Under this priestess’s command, the Golden Rat had entered the Hong Sa Family home.
The Golden Rat had heard that the Hong Sa Family had only one daughter, yet strangely there were two young girls in the mansion.
One was unmistakably a precious young lady, while the other was kept confined in the Annex like an exile.
And from piecing together the household servants’ gossip, the true daughter was none other than Hong Arin before her now.
One who had failed at Hwansu.
‘Strange. This child radiates an incredible aura, yet she failed Hwansu? How?’
To the Golden Rat’s eyes, Arin’s aura far surpassed that of the newly adopted stepdaughter.
One might say her presence itself was energizing.
Of course, the power of the Twelve Zodiac Deities couldn’t be judged by aura alone.
If a Spirit Core hadn’t awakened, all that excess energy would be worthless.
What was certain was that the Hong Sa Family had deceived the Baek Yong Family, hidden their true daughter, and meant to marry off a distant relation instead.
If this were reported as is, the betrothal between the Hong Sa Family and the Baek Yong Family would be as good as broken.
A week ago, the Golden Rat had intended to complete its investigation and return.
If only it hadn’t been caught by Hong Ahyeon, the son of this house, and pressed into service as a target.
The Golden Rat barely escaped and collapsed the moment it reached the deserted Annex.
And it was Arin who had cared for it.
‘What a pity. If only she could perform Hwansu, she would make an excellent mistress of the Baek Yong Family.’
The lovely Arin stayed with the Golden Rat, impossible to forget.
So it had come back one last time to see her face, only to be discovered, and so it had revealed its true identity.
[I’m going back to my master now.]
“So you do have an owner. I have to say, this is the first time in my life I’ve ever seen a rat with fur as beautiful and golden as yours.”
At that moment, the Golden Rat’s eyes went wide as saucers.
The truth was, it had used Magic Technique to disguise its fur color as that of an ordinary rat.
Yet Arin’s eyes saw through to its true golden coat.
The Golden Rat had never encountered a human whose perception could pierce illusion, and it was thrown into confusion.
Then Arin said something even more astonishing.

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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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