The Blue Dragon Clan’s Very Suspicious Little Chick - Chapter 26

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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 26

“Oh dear, how could that be? From where I’m standing, Yeon is far prettier and more adorable than Tae-o.”
“Even… even without an Innate Ability?”
“Yeon is an Azure Dragon. The Innate Ability comes in time, that’s all. Who knows—Yeon might develop several far more magnificent abilities than Tae-o possesses.”
Only after Cheong-un had managed to soothe his son’s tears did he venture to speak again.
“But Yeon, you know what Aran said—Tae-o is a guest, and he’ll be leaving soon. Your older brothers have agreed to take him with them on the way to the Imperial Capital, so couldn’t you spare Aran to him for just a few more days?”
“But… but then…!”
Yeon’s face crumpled with fresh grievance, tears spilling down his cheeks as he let out a piercing wail.
“Don’t let that boy say Aran belongs to him…!”
“…What?”
Cheong-un’s bewildered expression only made Yeon burst into tears again.
“What if he puts Aran in his pocket and rides off on that turtle demon? Aran isn’t his…!”
Goodness.
If he’d known it would come to this, he should have squeezed something more out of the Xuanwu Lord, Cheong-un thought ruefully.
He was regretting it too late now.

***

Meanwhile, Aran had her own designs.
“Chirp?”
(Tae-o, did you perhaps hear anything special about me before?)
She wanted to extract information about the Xuanwu god before Tae-o left, no matter what.
So whenever she and Tae-o found themselves alone, Aran seized the opportunity to bombard him with questions.
Yet Tae-o seemed to know surprisingly little.
“Hear something? That there’s a feathered youngest at the Azure Dragon Palace?”
“Chirp.”
(Yes, but I mean something other than what people say at the Azure Dragon Palace…)
“Other than the Azure Dragon Palace? From where?”
Frustrated by his circular replies, Aran finally abandoned caution and confessed the truth.
“Tweet.”
(Well… like, from a god or something?)
“A god?”
“Chirp…?”
(Or maybe leaves with characters carved on them appeared, or you heard a strange voice…?)
But Tae-o simply shook his head, as if he understood nothing at all.
“Carved leaves? I’ve never seen anything like that.”
Then did Tae-o feel close to Aran without any divine sign at all?
How was that possible when they were of different species and had never laid eyes on each other before?
Or had the god secretly planted something in this boy without leaving a trace?
Having thought this far, Aran asked again.
“Chirp?”
(Did you ever imagine what I looked like before? Before coming to the Azure Dragon Palace?)
“Well, in my imagination, you were a very small and beautiful baby Vermillion Bird. Just like you are now.”
At Tae-o’s immediate answer, Aran went very still.
“Peep?”
(You imagined me as a Vermillion Bird? Did my father tell your palace that I was a Vermillion Bird?)
“Well, that’s not quite how it was…”
As Aran’s eyes widened in surprise, Tae-o answered with unmistakable clarity.
“The moment I received your feather, I knew. You are the Vermillion Bird, and you will become a truly great Vermillion Bird, and you are the one and only match for me in this world.”
Aran was so delighted at the words “Vermillion Bird” that she leapt into the air, paying little mind to what came after.
“I’m going to become a great Vermillion Bird?”
Tae-o smiled broadly.
“Of course. So what did you think you’d become?”
The boy’s question reached Aran’s ears like this:
Who else but you would dare become a great Vermillion Bird?
Aran felt tears prick her eyes, overcome with emotion.
It was like that day in her past life when Ok-dan first accepted her.
“Chirp?”
(But my feather is just white, so it doesn’t look like the Vermillion Bird’s at all, does it?)
Even so, when she asked doubtfully, Tae-o tilted his head instead.
“What? It looks exactly like a Vermillion Bird’s.”
Aran was moved by Tae-o’s faith in her.
In her past life, even her family at the Vermillion Bird Palace had never been certain of Aran’s existence.
Tae-o smiled beautifully and stroked Aran’s head.
“Don’t worry, Aran. You’re going to become a great Vermillion Bird. I’ll always be by your side until then.”
Don’t worry, Aran.
The name Tae-o spoke overlapped with a divine voice she had heard somewhere beneath the Heavenly Gate long ago.

—Aran, that is enough. Come now to the Heavenly Realm.

This boy must have certainly received some hint from the divine.
But he is still so young that he cannot tell whether the thought was planted by the god or arose from his own heart.
In any case, it seems the will of the divine has brought a descendant of Xuanwu’s line to me, and things should unfold without complication from here.
Aran was overjoyed.
Thinking back on the past year spent in constant anxiety over breaking her promise to the divine, it was only natural.
“Chirp, chirp!”
(Yes! You’re going to become a great Xuanwu too. I’ll protect you until that day!)

***

“Ha! It tickles, Aran.”
Yeon, who had come to Aran’s room unable to resist Cheong-un’s persuasion, flinched at the sound of laughter leaking through the door crack.
“……Aran?”
Why was she calling her something different on her own?
It’s Arani, Arani. Not just Arani—Cheong-aran!
I’m……, I’m her closest friend and little sister!
“So why did you two make a nickname just for each other……?”
Yeon was so sad she tried to return to her room, but bitter tears blurred her vision and she stumbled for a moment.
In doing so, she accidentally brushed the door, and it made a dull thud.
Yeon startled and quickly wiped her eyes with the back of her hand.
If she stood here like a fool crying, it would be so shameful that Aran might leave forever with the youngest Xuanwu to the north.
Tae-o was tall and looked strong and even had several Innate Abilities, so of course Arani liked him…….
“Chirp?”
Then Aran’s voice came from inside, harder to make out now, and the hateful Xuanwu pushed the door open and stepped out.
The moment Yeon saw Tae-o’s face, the sadness she had been holding back surged up again.
But seeing Yeon’s expression twisted from suppressing her tears, Tae-o spoke sharply to her.
“Why do you look worse every day?”
“I, I, I—gh……!”
When she thought about it, Aran had told her every single day that she was pretty!
Our Yeon is kind, she’s the best.
She said Yeon was the prettiest, always said so!
Ever since she stopped being able to understand sign language, she couldn’t hear those words anymore.
What if Aran had come to think Tae-o was prettier than Yeon now?
Observing Tae-o with a critical eye, Yeon had to acknowledge that Hyeon Tae-o was not unattractive.
His eyes—one like a gleaming black jewel, the other like translucent jade—were beyond description.
His lustrous black hair that shone bright, his lips like round cherries……, wasn’t he pretty enough to make her blood boil?
Yeon really, truly could not hold it in any longer.
If he had to have Innate Abilities, he should at least have been ugly……!
“Ugh, you, you……! Go back to your house right now! Get out……!”
The moment the words poured out like bile, a shocking silence fell over the hallway.
Father said Yeon had to be patient too……!
Overwhelmed, she had made a terrible mistake in front of a guest.
With Tae-o neither angry nor responding, and Aran fluttering about in bewilderment, Yeon froze like stone.
Mortified, tears finally burst forth.
“Waah, I hate you……! Yeon doesn’t like you……!”
The youngest Azure Dragon’s sobs continued until Cheong-hui, startled in the next room, came running.

***

Gathering the little ones for mediation, Cheong-hui found them adorable and ridiculous in equal measure—it was almost absurd.
Cheong-hui had corralled them together in one room: Yeon with her puffy cheeks, Min bewildered and lost, Tae-o indifferent as stone, and Aran looking thoroughly uncomfortable. He let out a dry cough.
“Well, it’s true that children squabble as they grow, but…….”
It was a lie, really.
Even for children, it was rare for the young of the Four Sacred Beasts Clans to fight one another.
The Clans kept their distance from one another and maintained propriety in all dealings.
Fortunately, none of the children gathered here possessed such sense.
So Cheong-hui pressed on, undaunted.
“You’re both descendants of the proud Azure Dragon and Xuanwu, so you can’t very well carry on like street urchins, can you? Wouldn’t you agree, Yeon?”
Yeon nodded, her voice trembling.
“Yes, I’m sorry. I was wrong…….”
Our dear sweet Yeon.
Cheong-hui praised her silently to himself, then turned his gaze to Tae-o.
Unlike Yeon, whose spirits had collapsed so thoroughly she looked ready to dig a hole and disappear into it, Tae-o sat ramrod straight with perfect composure.
Though he was in someone else’s home, facing an older brother fourteen years his senior, he showed not the slightest hint of fear—nor even a glimmer of remorse.
When Cheong-hui thought of Hyeon Tae-su, the somber young master of Xuanwu Palace, he could certainly see it: like elder, like younger…….
Still, if he scolded Tae-o too harshly here, he’d hear only that he was bending his own arm the wrong way.
He might even draw the resentment of Xuanwu Palace.
With that thought weighing on him, Cheong-hui made a deliberate effort to soften his expression.
“So what do you have to say for yourself, Tae-o?”
The Remarkably Suspicious Chick of the Azure Dragon Clan, Episode 26
E-book Release Date | August 5, 2026

Author | Ravioli
Publisher | Odd Eye
Submissions / Inquiries | [email protected]

UCI | G720:N+A101-20260722065.0026
Price | 100 won

© Ravioli 2026

This e-book is protected by copyright law.
This e-book is published under contract with the author and may not be reproduced, distributed, shared, or transmitted in any form without the written consent of both parties.

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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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