The Beloved Baby Priestess of the Twelve Zodiac Gods - Chapter 6

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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 6
Geum Do-gyeong, who had been fussing with the child’s cheeks, discovered the girl sitting quietly with yakgwa in her mouth because of his interference.
They said even a dog wouldn’t be disturbed while eating, yet this small child’s cheeks were like treasure itself—his hands simply wouldn’t leave them.
“Ahem!”
Geum Do-gyeong finally released the child so she could eat her yakgwa in peace.
It was then, his gaze lingering on her with regret, that something caught his attention.
Suddenly the color of the child’s eyes entered his field of vision.
Now that he looked closely, the girl’s eyes were a golden hue.
‘Could she be from the Twelve Zodiac Clan?’
Children born to the Twelve Zodiac Clan inherited golden irises.
It was evidence of the Yeong-haek.
‘That’s strange. I was certain the Hong Sa patriarch had only one daughter.’
Moreover, it made no sense that the child before him could be that daughter.
The girl bore every sign of having seen almost no human touch.
“Are you a child of this household?”
Arin’s shoulders stiffened at the question.
She could neither confirm nor deny it.
Geum Do-gyeong noticed her distress and shifted his approach.
“Why were you alone just now? If you’ve lost your way, I can show you back.”
But this question too was one Arin could not answer.
She had been locked in the Annex for quite some time now, and it seemed she had nowhere left to return to.
‘Should I go back to the Annex?’
With the Geumho Family here today, she ought to leave.
If she stayed, they might extract her Yeong-haek while she still drew breath.
Arin carefully set down the yakgwa in her hand and rose from her seat.
“Why aren’t you eating anymore?”
“I, I should be going now.”
“You find my company so disagreeable?”
……
“Then take that with you. I brought plenty anyway.”
Geum Do-gyeong pressed the box of yakgwa the girl had been eating into her arms.
“Thank you.”
Arin hesitated for a moment, then bowed deeply and fled the room as though escaping.
“Hmm. Perhaps she has secrets she cannot speak of.”
He felt uneasy, as though his thoughtless question had driven the child away.
Just as the girl’s presence began to fade from his mind—
Yeo-ryeong returned from tea with the Hong Sa patriarch and his wife.
She noticed her belongings had been rummaged through and asked with irritation:
“Has a thief been here?”
Geum Do-gyeong, belatedly recalling that he’d taken the daengi from her bundle, offered an excuse:
“Ah, I needed something and borrowed it. I’ll buy you a new one.”
“There shouldn’t have been anything in there you’d need.”
That bundle held only women’s ornaments and clothing. Nothing he would use.
Geum Do-gyeong scratched his cheek sheepishly.
“I gave it to a girl instead.”
“A girl?”
At Yeo-ryeong’s question, Geum-geum emerged from the pocket where it had been hiding.
– A girl? Could it be that girl with hair the color of trumpet vine flowers—such a pretty reddish hue?
Of course, Geum Do-gyeong’s ears perceived only the squeaking of a rat.
“What are you saying? It sounds like you’re speaking to me.”
“You’re asking whether the girl you mentioned didn’t have hair of that reddish tone, correct?”
“Oh. How did you know? Are you using Mind Reading now too?”
Geum Do-gyeong’s surprise caused Geum-geum and Yeo-ryeong’s gazes to meet.
They had thought the Annex empty and their search fruitless.
Yet Geum Do-gyeong had been there all along.
Yeo-ryeong asked gravely:
“So where did the girl go?”
“She said she was leaving, so I sent her on her way.”
“When?”
“About an hour ago.”
At Geum Do-gyeong’s words, Yeo-ryeong gave Geum-geum a knowing look.
– I’ll be back!
Geum-geum landed on the floor like an arrow and vanished.
Geum Do-gyeong tilted his head, watching the rat disappear in haste.
“Off to the privy, perhaps?”
“The truth is, I came here because of that child.”
“Pardon?”
“The Hong Sa Family is hiding their true daughter and planning to marry off a false one to the Baekryong Family.”
As Yeo-ryeong lowered her voice, Geum Do-gyeong’s expression hardened visibly.
“Surely the Hong Sa Family hasn’t discovered something?”
Currently, the Baekryong Family’s only son was temporarily staying in the Twelve Zodiac Divine Village due to a Yeong-haek matter.
This was something only the Geumho Family and Baekryong Family knew.
Had the Hong Sa Family obtained information and decided not to send their daughter after all?
But Yeo-ryeong’s answer came as a surprise.
“At first I thought the same, but hearing Geum-geum’s account, it seems there’s another reason entirely.”
“Another reason?”
“The child cannot perform Transformation. I hurried here when I learned she’s confined to the Annex, living alone.”
“What? They cast out their daughter merely for that?”
Geum Do-gyeong found himself recalling the girl’s appearance.
Her clothes were threadbare from countless washings, and her frail body bore the marks of someone underfed and sleep-deprived.
It was painfully clear she had received no proper care from adults.
Geum Do-gyeong, now regretting that he hadn’t intervened when he had the chance, spoke forcefully.
“This is abuse. Where in all this world is there anyone who treats a young child so? And to deceive the Baekryong Family on top of it—this must be reported at once and punished severely.”
“The Baekryong Family has its own faults in this matter. I cannot condemn the Hong Sa Family alone.”
“But surely it’s too dangerous to leave things as they are? ……She’s still just a child.”
Yeo-ryeong met Geum Do-gyeong’s stubborn insistence with a measured gaze.
“You believe I mean to abandon the child, don’t you?”
At Yeo-ryeong’s observation, Geum Do-gyeong fell silent.
Do-gyeong had always been weak to things small and harmless.
Having seen Arin herself, it was only natural she would stay with him.
Yeo-ryeong brought him here precisely because she understood his nature.
So that Arin could be registered with the Geumho Family.
“If you’re so troubled, then take her with you.”
“What?”
“I have no intention of leaving the child in the Annex like this. But since she is the Hong Sa Family’s daughter, you’ll need Hong I-jin’s permission.”
Yeo-ryeong’s voice flowed like water—natural, assured, as if she had already understood and decided everything.
Do-gyeong could not immediately discern her intention.
He merely gazed at her from a distance until she drove her point home in a low voice.
“Did I not tell you? That I would make you a daughter.”
* * *
The moment Arin arrived at the Annex, she began packing her things.
The bundle contained only a spare set of clothes and a wooden squirrel doll she had played with as a child.
Her feet would not move away; she unpacked and repacked the bundle two or three times until, before she knew it, the sky had begun to darken with the approaching evening.
‘I have to leave before the sun sets.’
Now that she had resolved to leave home, her heart felt strange.
‘Have you no shame?’
So-so’s words had been right. She had lingered here, oblivious and unwelcome, all this time.
Arin did not want to be a burden to her family any longer, nor did she want the Geumho Family to take her Yeong-haek away.
Arin held close the yakgwa box the man she’d met that afternoon had given her.
In that kindness from another person, felt for the first time in so long, she found the strength to leave.
Just as she was tying the bundle and slipping her feet into her shoes.
– Squeak squeak! (Hey, are you there?!)
At the clamorous cry, Arin’s footsteps froze.
Her eyes turned instinctively toward the sound and brightened.
“Geum-geum!”
The golden rat, who hadn’t come in days, stood before her.
Geum-geum bounded up onto Arin’s lap in one leap.
Arin opened her arms and embraced the rat.
She had thought Geum-geum had abandoned her for good, and now, finding her again, Arin’s heart swelled with joy.
“I thought you weren’t coming back.”
– Squeak-squeak. (Phew, didn’t miss her this time!)
Geum-geum clutched Arin tightly, his breath coming in sharp gasps.
From the look of her clothes, she’d been heading somewhere—he’d nearly lost her again.
As he steadied his breathing, Geum-geum suddenly noticed how fevered Arin’s body felt and cried out.
– Squeak-squeak. (Why are you like this?)
Up close, Arin’s cheeks were far too flushed.
Geum-geum leaped onto her shoulder and felt behind her ear.
– Squeak-squeak-squeak! (You’re burning up, you fool!)
“Mmm.”
Arin stumbled as Geum-geum suddenly clung to her.
Had she been unwell since morning?
A dizzying spin seized her vision, and she collapsed face-down onto the floor.

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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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