The Blue Dragon Clan’s Very Suspicious Little Chick - Chapter 40

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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 40

“What?”
Hong Bi’s startled expression flushed crimson with embarrassment.
Her small, delicate hands fumbled as she set down the cup she’d been holding, and it clattered against the table.
“What did you just say? Don’t you dare talk to me like that — you’re younger than I am!”
Aran glanced toward the upper seats, worried the adults might overhear.
Fortunately, they were too absorbed in their own conversation to pay attention to the younger guests.
Hyeon Tae-o tilted his head to one side and asked flatly, “Are you older than me?”

Hyeon Tae-o’s birth had been announced so loudly throughout the Northern Great Region that there was hardly a soul in the empire who didn’t know of it.
And so Hong Bi answered with perfect confidence.
“Yes! I’m two years older than you! And my brother is three years older!”
Given that different Beastfolk races developed at different rates, it was an absurd comparison to make.
Even setting aside Hyeon Tae-o’s exceptional case, a four-year-old Xuanwu Beastfolk typically developed at the same pace as a seven-year-old Vermilion Bird Beastfolk.
Yet Hyeon Tae-o simply swept his gaze over the Vermilion Bird Beastfolk around him and spoke without emotion.
“By the natural order of things, you’ll die before me.”
Well… that wasn’t entirely wrong, was it?
Xuanwu Beastfolk lived for an exceptionally long time.
Aran thought as much, but Aran’s expression fell as if struck by lightning.
The revelation came crashing down: Hyeon Tae-o had been *kind* back at the Azure Dragon Palace.
Even Hong Woo, who’d just heard himself insulted, found nothing to say in retort, so Hong Bi abandoned the subject of age and moved on to something else.
“Well, well — I don’t know how close you two are, but—”
The problem was that she’d chosen Aran, the easiest target, as her new subject.
“She’s not even of the Four Celestial Clan bloodline! She’s hardly in a position to sit here at the same table as us. It’s simply not—”
“Not what?”
Hyeon Tae-o cut in with a question, and Hong Bi, flustered, tried to soften her words.
“I mean, her circumstances are… somewhat different.”
“Do not worry about having no position; worry instead about whether you deserve the one you hold.”
Hyeon Tae-o spoke the words flatly, as if reciting them.
“You, who are two years his elder — do you know what that means? It means one should be concerned not with rank, but with the qualifications to stand in that rank.”
Considering the difference in their races, even that became meaningless; being two years older than Hyeon Tae-o made her nothing more than a six-year-old child.
“Uh…?”
Hong Bi’s face went blank with confusion.
Of course, Hyeon Tae-o was not one to let it pass.
“Well then — as the saying goes, a frog in a well cannot comprehend the sea.”
“Are you… saying I’m that frog in the well?”
The moment Hong Bi grasped the meaning, someone else interjected nonsensically.
“But she’s not a frog — she’s a vermilion bird!”
Aran stifled a laugh and intervened gently, “That’s enough, Hyeon Tae-o.”

Hyeon Tae-o finally turned his gaze away from Hong Bi and looked back at Aran.
Then his expression softened into something almost angelic, and he nodded.
“All right.”
As if that wasn’t enough, he picked up a delicate dumpling and handed it directly to Aran.
“Have this, Aran.”
“Sure. You eat plenty too.”
Aran bit into the dumpling Hyeon Tae-o had given her, all while feeling Hong Bi’s sharp glare boring into her.
For some reason, the flavor was exquisite.
Almost richer than being struck on the back of the head in the dead of night.

***

That same night, after So Rim had fallen asleep, Aran quietly transformed into the shape of a young bird.
She poked her beak through the window that had been left slightly ajar and slipped out, whereupon two swallows called out softly as if they’d been waiting.
“Chirp-chirp-chirp!”
(We’ve been waiting for you, elder!)
They were swallows that Crow had sent to assist Aran.
“Chirp?”
(Aren’t you growing drowsy in the dead of night?)
“Chirp-chirp!”
(Not at all! Leave this place to us and go about your business!)
Aran repeated the instructions she’d already given that morning.
“Squawk.”
(If the one sleeping inside wakes and calls for me, you must fly to me at once before the entire palace turns upside down. Understood?)
“Cheep-cheep-cheep!”
(Of course!)
Only then did Aran feel assured enough to slip out of the eastern pavilion of the Guest Hall assigned to Azure Dragon Palace.
Her destination lay northward—Hyeon Tae-o’s chambers.
Finding the room proved simple.
Hyeon Tae-o now slept alone, without a nursemaid, and had left his window wide open.
The moment she fluttered through the window, Hyeon Tae-o greeted her eagerly in the darkness, his arms spread wide.
“I’ve been waiting. You came.”
“Chirp.”
(First, I need that thing.)
Oblivious to Aran’s urgency, Hyeon Tae-o pouted.
“That’s cold. You didn’t come to see me—just to get that?”
“Shush! Chirp-squawk.”
(Hush! I told you this was important, Tae-o.)
With a sullen expression, Hyeon Tae-o then carefully removed the Bead Bracelet from his wrist and fastened it around Aran’s neck.
“You have to be very careful. It’s fine if it touches your skin, but you absolutely cannot swallow it. Do you understand?”
In truth, Aran had asked Hyeon Tae-o months ago to bring her the secret poison from Xuanwu Palace—Jeolmaeksan.
Jeolmaeksan suppressed the Divine Vein in much the same way as the imperial Ability Regulation Device, and at its core it was not a poison meant to harm people.
Yet for those of divine descent, the Divine Vein is ultimately bound to life force itself.
In other words, if the Divine Vein were suppressed too strongly, even a small wound could prove fatal.
This would be even more true for a child.
After learning that Hyeon Tae-o was using the Obsidian Necklace to store a single drop of her blood for tracking purposes, Aran had conceived this plan based on that knowledge.
She had Hyeon Tae-o freeze the Jeolmaeksan with his Supernatural Ability and transform it into beads.
That way it wouldn’t look suspicious, and she could pass through the Imperial Dragon Gate.
When she’d asked him to secretly obtain his clan’s secret poison, Hyeon Tae-o had never hesitated—he’d promised at once to bring her the Jeolmaeksan, concerned only for her safety.
Though guilt gnawed at her for exploiting the devotion of a child who trusted her, Hyeon Tae-o was ultimately a being she had to protect and care for.
Then perhaps preventing the world he would inherit from burning to ash was also the will of the heavens.
“Chirp-squawk.”
(Don’t worry. I’ll see you tomorrow.)
Though the rehearsal for the Four Celestial Ceremony was scheduled to begin the next morning, Hyeon Tae-o clung to Aran’s wings reluctantly, pouting.
“Already? Can’t you stay a little longer?”
Such childishness.
Aran chuckled softly and settled on the head of his bed.
“Chirp-chirp.”
(Why not. Now lie down. I’ll watch until you fall asleep.)

***

Two days later, the day of the Four Celestial Ceremony.
The direct bloodlines of the Four Celestial Palace gathered in succession before the Inner Palace.
The ceremony would proceed now that even the rehearsal had been completed the night before.
On a round altar wreathed in incense, the Emperor stood towering in his Golden Dragon Robe.
As he spread his arms wide, a master standing to the side of the altar began to beat the drum.
Boom, boom.
The ritual attendants lined up and filled the space on either side of the Emperor, and at last the direct bloodlines of the Four Celestial Palace entered.
Azure Dragon Palace came first.
Cheong-un, dressed in his Jade Ceremonial Robe, moved forward with his deep-blue hair dancing in the breeze.
Behind Cheong-un, who drifted as though ascending on clouds, the twins and Aran followed in quick succession.
Yeon appeared far more tense than her rehearsal the day before, as though she could barely breathe properly.
“Yeon, breathe,” Aran whispered, glancing at Min.
She was anxious that Min, who normally careened about recklessly and tripped over everything, might stumble.

“Min, watch your step.”
In my past life, I had never attended a formal ceremony like this as the Vermillion Bird, so Aran felt a touch of unfamiliarity, her steps faltering slightly.
Her gaze drifted by chance toward the space behind the altar.
In an instant, Aran’s feet went rigid.
Seated in the place of honor behind the dais was a small child dressed in the same golden ceremonial robe as the Emperor.
The Crown Prince—Je Geon-u!
Whereas he had continued to make excuses about his health and had not even appeared at the rehearsals, the Crown Prince now sat with remarkably dignified posture.
Though she knew what his future held, those golden eyes blazing with an otherworldly light sent a chill down her spine even from a distance.
“Mm.”
Yes, he was far too dangerous to leave as he is.
After the direct line of the Azure Dragon Palace took their places along the right edge of the altar, it was the White Tiger Palace’s turn.
Behind Baek Hee-jae, whose build already set him apart as clearly from the Western Great Region, came Baek Sa-heum, the most guileless of the Four Celestial Clan’s heirs, following in his footsteps.
In truth, Baek Sa-heum had been demure throughout both yesterday’s rehearsal and the banquet the day before, as if he could not speak at all—which struck Aran as profoundly unexpected.
In the previous life she remembered, it was none other than Baek Sa-heum who had served as the right hand of the tyrant Je Geon-u.
Yet Baek Sa-heum had been merely the Emperor’s puppet, so if Je Geon-u were to vanish, there might be no great problem.
And so Aran had not been paying Sa-heum much attention.
It was the very moment the White Tiger Beastfolk lined up in a row on the opposite side of the Azure Dragon contingent began to raise their heads.
Baek Sa-heum flinched suddenly at something, his body trembling. It was a gesture of unmistakable terror.
Aran’s keen eyes studied Sa-heum.
What was he so frightened of?
He had seen the Emperor at the banquet too—surely this wasn’t because of Je Geon-u?
Just then, Sa-heum’s trembling body began to convulse violently, as if seized by a fit.
“What—?”
Every eye in the chamber snapped toward him.
“Aaaahhh!”
Sa-heum let out a death cry and promptly collapsed.
The Azure Dragon House’s Rather Suspicious Chick – Episode 40
E-book Release Date | August 5, 2026

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

UCI | G720:N+A101-20260722065.0040
Retail Price | 100 won

ⓒ Ravioli 2026

This e-book is protected by copyright law.
This e-book has been published under contract with the author and may not be reproduced, distributed, or shared 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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