The Beloved Baby Priestess of the Twelve Zodiac Gods - Chapter 90

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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 90
Fortunately the silk remained undamaged, but crafting the garment had consumed far more time than expected.
Mu Je arrived empty-handed, his heart heavy with disappointment.
He’d taken such care to wait outside the Gold Tiger Clan so Arin wouldn’t catch wind of it—only to have the whole gift fall to pieces.
“I’m sorry. I’d prepared something for you, but something came up suddenly.”
Mu Je drew something from his pocket and held it out.
“What is this?”
“I’d wanted to bring it to you myself, ideally.”
What Mu Je offered was an order form for a garment commission.
Unable to meet Arin’s eyes, he pressed on with his explanation.
“I thought you’d need something fine when you’re formally presented as the next Priestess. Silk dyed with Lotus Flower has the virtue of repelling malevolent energies.”
“You commissioned it yourself?”
“Yes. Though I’ve completely botched it now.”
Knowing he was someone who’d never set foot in a clothing shop alone.
Arin could guess how much effort he’d poured into preparing this gift.
Arin buried her face in her knees, a soft smile playing at her lips.
“Thank you.”
“I hope you like it.”
“Of course I will. It’s Lotus Flower Silk, after all.”
Lotus Flower Silk wasn’t something one could simply acquire on a whim.
Production was limited each year, and the White Dragon Palace wouldn’t sell it to anyone without their approval.
“I feel like you’ve given me something far too precious.”
“Don’t burden yourself with that. It’s allocated to me annually.”
“Still.”
“Then……”
Mu Je leaned closer to Arin’s face.
As the distance suddenly closed, Arin flinched, her shoulders stiffening.
He spoke softly against her ear.
“Show me first. Before anyone else.”
“……Why does that have to be whispered?”
Arin touched her ear with her hand as though tickled.
Mu Je glanced around, then leaned back to whisper again.
“Just in case someone hears.”
“It seems like it’s just us two here.”
At Arin’s embarrassment, Mu Je smiled softly.
“Happy birthday again, Arin.”
“Thank you. It means even more coming from you last. It feels like we’ve gone back to how things used to be.”
“Does it?”
“Yes. So you have to stay up late and play with me today.”
At Arin’s petulant words, Mu Je’s lips curved with a faint smile.
He tilted his body toward her and spoke quietly.
“Understood. I’ll stay with you until your birthday ends.”
* * *
While Arin and Mu Je spent time at the Night Tree.
Woo Hyun had left a gift at the Plum Blossom Hall without Arin’s knowledge.
Originally he’d planned to hand it over himself and upbraid her for abandoning him.
‘Mu Je!’
The sight of Arin’s delighted face the moment she saw Mu Je twisted Woo Hyun’s expression.
Mu Je showed no signs of releasing Arin before her birthday ended, having taken her all the way to the Night Tree late into the evening.
As Woo Hyun recalled Mu Je shamelessly flirting while Arin was defenseless, his fists clenched.
“The bastard did it on purpose.”
The way he’d made eye contact deliberately and whispered in her ear had left a foul taste in Woo Hyun’s mouth.
But Woo Hyun was bound to maintain distance from Arin and had no right to insert himself into that moment.
So he’d simply withdrawn.
Back at his lodgings, Woo Hyun gazed at the moon through the window and murmured softly.
“Happy birthday.”
Though the day itself had long since passed.
Still, he’d offered the final birthday greeting through his gift.
Clinging to that logic, Woo Hyun tossed and turned through the night.
* * *
After spending time with Mu Je for the first time in ages, talking without a care for the hours, Arin arrived at Plum Blossom Hall past midnight.
Just as she emerged from washing, Arin noticed something.
“Hm?”
There was an object she hadn’t seen before she left the bedroom.
It was a pink ribbon, the sort one might buy at a market stall—and it bore a pattern she adored.
“Who could have left this?”
Arin glanced around the room, alert for any presence, but sensed no one nearby.
“Did Cho Ryeong bring it?”
Thinking nothing of it, Arin held the ribbon up to the light.
“It’s lovely.”
* * *
A few days later, an unusual tension settled over the Geumho Clan.
Yeo Ryeong, who had fallen asleep the night before, would not wake.
She was hastily moved to the main hall of the Geumho Clan and examined under strict guard.
Eun Baek, who was checking Yeo Ryeong’s pulse, furrowed his brow.
“Her pulse is far too slow and irregular. It appears she has been poisoned by something.”
“Poisoned? By what, exactly?”
“That is…”
When Eun Baek faltered, Do Hoon, who had been listening nearby, spoke up.
“Has Yeo Ryeong been sleeping more than usual of late?”
“Yes. She kept dozing off.”
As Geumgeum confirmed this, Do Hoon’s expression grew darker still.
“The symptoms are similar to those Mother displayed. She too slept more and more, until she was bedridden for half the day, wasn’t she?”
…
Do Gyeong’s face grew grave at the mention of symptoms matching Jin Gyeong’s.
Why had this illness—which Do Hoon and Baek Ga Ram had pursued for years without discovering—suddenly afflicted Yeo Ryeong?
“Is it truly that poison?”
Do Gyeong asked as if seeking confirmation, and Eun Baek nodded solemnly.
“Yes. It appears to be that poison.”
“This cannot be!”
Do Gyeong, who had been powerless to prevent Jin Gyeong’s death, now found the path ahead blocked once more.
He could dispatch enemies by force, but a disease was not something one could guard against.
“But wasn’t Jin Gyeong’s illness contracted shortly after contact with Hyeok Gwang?”
So they had suspected on circumstantial evidence that the Black Horse Clan was the source of the poison.
“The Priestess hasn’t encountered the Black Horse Clan in years.”
Moreover, since beginning the succession work with Arin, she had withdrawn even further from active duty.
“Was the hypothesis flawed from the start?”
Do Gyeong murmured quietly, sinking into bewilderment, when Do Hoon, who had been deep in thought, spoke.
“When did the Priestess’s sleep troubles begin?”
“Hmm…”
Geumgeum couldn’t quite recall and let out a soft groan.
“Or when was Yeo Ryeong behaving strangely?”
“…Ah! Now that I think of it, Yeo Ryeong collapsed on Arin’s birthday!”
“What? Why are you only mentioning this now?”
Do Gyeong bristled, and Geumgeum flinched.
“But she was walking around fine when I brought Arin! I thought she was all right!”
“And yet you’re the spiritual creature meant to guard the Priestess?”
“Is this really my fault?”
Geumgeum’s fur bristled fully, and she growled back.
The atmosphere was turning harsh when it happened.
“Mm…”
A faint moan escaped Yeo Ryeong’s lips, and her eyelids trembled slightly.
Moments later, Yeo Ryeong’s eyes opened, and she stared blankly at the ceiling.
“Why am I here?”
“Yeo Ryeong!”
Geumgeum called out to her, her voice wavering.
“You’ve been lying here for more than a day! I thought you weren’t going to wake up!”
“I slept that much?”
Yeo Ryeong murmured quietly and pushed herself upright.

“Are you all right?”
“Yes. My body feels rather heavy, but it will do.”
Yeo Ryeong had also noticed over these past few days that her body’s condition wasn’t what it should be.
She had assumed it was merely the course of aging.
But hearing their entire conversation clearly while unable to rise from where she lay, she had no choice but to face the truth.
“It seems I’ve been afflicted after all.”
“Do you have some notion of what it might be?”
“The Black Demon must have tampered with that tree.”
“The tree, you say……”
“The one we discovered in the forest. I can’t fathom why it eluded me until now, but that day, as the branches turned black, something crawled into my body through them.”
Yeo Ryeong’s brow furrowed as a headache bloomed behind her eyes.
The moment she acknowledged the tree’s presence, she felt the connection between them snap into clarity.
“I must go to that tree.”

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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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