The Blue Dragon Clan’s Very Suspicious Little Chick - Chapter 18

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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 18

Suryeon transferred Aran to his hands without ceremony, running his fingertips over the spirit’s round head.
“See you at the palace later, little one.”
“Chirp? Chirp-chirp?!”
(Wait, excuse me? Brother! Hey, Suryeon!)
When Suryeon pretended not to hear and whistled instead, servants came hurrying with the horses.
Before mounting, Suryeon carefully settled Aran on his shoulder.
“So… you’ll need to be good? I’ll keep it slow.”

***

Slow, he’d said.
With Aran perched on his thigh, Suryeon barely urged the horse forward at all.
The Cheong Guard Squad members leading with their lanterns moved at the same sluggish pace.
Aran, riding atop a horse that moved no faster than a walking human, didn’t know what to do with herself.
“Chirp……”
(Hey, Suryeon… if you hate me, you shouldn’t push yourself like this.)
As she tilted her head this way and that in discomfort, he let out a soft laugh and asked the same question.
“You hate me, don’t you?”
Aran’s movements stilled abruptly.
Hate him?
After all the kindness Cheongryong Palace had shown her, how could she possibly hate the young master of the Cheong Clan?
Aran swore she did not hate Suryeon.
It was true that he sometimes spoke carelessly, but in Aran’s view, everyone in Cheongryong Palace was like that.
Rather, she had no trouble at all understanding why Suryeon disliked her.
Aran found it far stranger that Cheongun and Suryeon’s brother accepted her as family without any reason at all.
“Chirp-squawk.”
(I don’t hate you.)
She shook her head belatedly, but Suryeon couldn’t understand her words.
Or rather, even if he had understood, he wouldn’t have believed her.
“It makes sense that you’d hate me.”
His voice came soft and low as the horse swayed gently beneath them.
“You never chose any of this, but I hated you first.”
Aran swallowed a sigh.
Perhaps this child needed an opportunity to speak like this.
So Aran decided to stop with her denials and excuses that Suryeon couldn’t even understand anyway.
And so his story spiraled backward through time.
“I thought Mother was getting better. Everyone said so. But now I can’t even tell if that was just hope or the truth.”
Aran listened to the boy in silence.
“If I’d been uncertain, I could’ve pushed Ability Training to next year without any problem. But my heart was impatient. My younger siblings would be born someday, and I couldn’t keep being the only son who served a purpose. I had to be more than that.”
Unable to hold back any longer, Aran interjected.
“…Chirp-chirp.”
(You are your brother’s wings. Perhaps only you didn’t know that’s what you would become.)
“And because of that eagerness, I wasn’t there at the end……”
His free hand, the one not holding the reins, drew Aran’s small body gently close.
“I blamed you. Before you came, there was only myself to blame. Hating you instead made things easier somehow.”
By now the horse had come to a complete stop.
Aran’s heart ached at the sight of Suryeon’s wet, sand-colored eyes.
She understood what it meant to hate oneself.
When her family cast her out, when she lost the Jade Pearl so pointlessly, when her master betrayed her.
In every moment of that misery, she’d had only herself to blame.
If her suffering wasn’t her fault, if there was no reason for it at all—that was so much harder to bear.
“…Cowardly as I was, I ran from my own guilt.”
Aran, who had endured all of that suffering and ultimately forgiven herself, who had risen to touch the sky itself as the Phoenix Immortal, reached across to comfort the child.
“Chirp-chirp.”
(It’s all right. You’re just a wounded child. If I could be even a moment’s rest for you, then that too was reason enough for me to exist.)
Without hearing Aran’s words, Suryeon went on with his story.
“I’m glad you’re safe. It gave me the chance to apologize like this. If something had happened to you too…….”
Suryeon shuddered as though sickened, his words tumbling on.
“I would have been so ashamed before Mother. For not honoring her final wish, I could never have faced her forgiveness in the afterlife.”
“Chirp.”
(No—Mother would always forgive you.)
Only those who have been loved know how to give love in return.
Aran believed this truth without a shadow of doubt.
“Aran, one last time—can I be a coward?”
When Suryeon asked with glistening eyes, Aran understood.
She would never see a cowardly Suryeon again, not for the rest of her life.
He continued without waiting for her nod.
“From now on, I’ll protect you.”
It was exactly the kind of thing he would say—not a trace of cowardice in it.
As Aran looked up at him, Suryeon smiled through tears.
“Of course, this is so I can stand tall before Mother when we meet in the Eastern Sky someday. So really, you’re just being used without knowing anything.”
Watching the Azure Dragon chuckle as though he’d made a brilliant joke, Aran felt exasperated.
She shook her head firmly and spoke.
“Squawk.”
(I’m sorry too.)
“What?”
Suryeon tapped her head lightly with a fingertip, not understanding her words.
“You don’t want to be used?”
“Chirp……, chirp-chirp.”
(That’s not it…… I never knew you would search for me like that. Even though you treated me so well…… I’m the one who didn’t think of you as family.)
“Come on, Aran. Don’t say that.”
Suryeon continued to talk past her meaning.
“This doesn’t come every day, does it? Truth is, your brother here inherited the Storm-Wind Ability—pretty cool for an Azure Dragon, right? But what my power does is…….”
Was he always this talkative?
By the end of Suryeon’s self-praise, Aran could only suppress a laugh and nod along.
“Chirp!”
(Have it your way, then. Go on and protect this great Phoenix with all your might!)
Suddenly a cold, jealous wind whistled in from somewhere.
Suryeon startled and tucked Aran into his robes.
“Brrr, it’s chilly for autumn. Come on, let’s head home, Aran.”
Right. Why was there such a desolate winter wind in autumn?
Aran, who had burrowed into his clothes, poked her head out and smiled silently to herself.
Well, even if winter came now, she wouldn’t have to worry.
She had a home to return to and a family waiting for her.

***

“Squawk.”
(Goodness, it’s cold.)
But as the weather grew colder, Aran found herself confined to the palace.
Having spent her early years in Jujak Territory, she hadn’t known that winter was merciless to a young Phoenix unfamiliar with regulating her own body heat.
Even staying in Medicine Storage, she could feel the wind seeping through the cracks now and then.
While Aran drowsed against Sorim’s warm embrace, Heerim arrived carrying an enormous wooden chest.
“What’s that?”
Sorim asked without even a greeting, but Heerim answered as though accustomed to it.
“A gift for the young mistress.”
Aran barely managed to lift her sleepy eyelids.
“Another gift from Hyeonmu Palace, I see.”
Heerim set the wooden chest on the floor where Aran could see it clearly and opened the lid.
“This one is quite precious.”
“Peep?”
(What is it?)
“Ta-da!”
What he drew from the chest was fluffy wool.
Sorim asked on Aran’s behalf, her expression puzzled.
“Wool? Is this wool really so precious, brother?”
“Oh, look at this.”
Heerim spread the wool flat and showed it to his sister and Aran.
As Heerim had claimed, looking closely at it, this was no ordinary wool. The edges of the white fleece were flecked with black in places.
“This is Black Wool, a specialty of Hyeonmu Territory.”
“Black Wool?”
“Yes. Black sheep live only in the Northern Region, so I’ve never actually seen one myself. They’re so rare even in Hyeonmu Territory that only the Hyeonmu Clan uses their wool, and it’s hardly ever presented even to the Royal House.”
Sorim gasped and reached out to touch the wool.
“My goodness, they sent something this precious to our young lady? And it’s so incredibly soft.”
Heerim then laughed and pulled a letter from inside the wooden chest.
“Oh, there’s a letter too. Allow me to read it for you, young lady.”
By then Aran had woken and fluttered up to peer down at the letter Heerim was unfolding.
“To the youngest of Cheongryong Palace. Wool I received as a gift to mark your first winter — since I don’t feel the cold, I’m sending it to you. From Taeoh.”
The Cheong Clan’s Peculiar Chirping Spirit — Episode 18
E-book Publication Date | August 5, 2026

Author | Ravioli
Publisher | Odd Eye
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UCI | G720:N+A101-20260722065.0018
Retail Price | 100 Won

© Ravioli 2026

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This e-book is published by contract with the author, and reproduction, duplication, distribution, or sharing without written consent from both parties is prohibited.

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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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