The Blue Dragon Clan’s Very Suspicious Little Chick - Chapter 49
—————
This chapter was translated by Lunox Novels. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
—————
Chapter 49
When she unfolded the letter, Tae-o’s neat handwriting appeared just as it always did.
Dear Aran,
Today I’m writing with happy news.
I’ve started my Martial Arts Training.
I thought you’d be glad to hear it.
I want to see you soon.
Tae-o
Though she ought to have praised Tae-o for beginning his training already, Aran found her stomach knotted with an ache she couldn’t quite name.
She ached for the Crimson Flame Twin Blades, still sleeping somewhere in a hidden corner of Hyeonmugung…….
She sprang up and caught her reflection in the mirror, only to sigh.
“Sigh.”
What good would it do to find the Crimson Flame Twin Blades?
At this height, she wouldn’t even reach the length of the blades themselves.
Sorim, unaware of what churned beneath Aran’s surface, widened her eyes and asked.
“What? Why the heavy sigh, Miss?”
“Oh, it’s not so much a sigh as…….”
Aran started to make an excuse, then spoke plainly instead.
“I’m just hungry.”
“Already? It hasn’t been long since your midday meal.”
“Is there perhaps something nutritious to snack on?”
“Pfft, n-nutritious snack……!”
Sorim burst into laughter, oblivious to the wish driving Aran’s hunger—the longing to grow tall.
“Our Miss does say the most old-fashioned things sometimes.”
Aran felt a prick of embarrassment but pressed on.
“I’ll ask the kitchen for some milk or jerky. Or perhaps some ginseng preserve.”
“Ginseng preserve?”
As if ginseng weren’t a fine thing……!
Aran bristled at Sorim’s teasing tone, but Sorim only clutched her belly and laughed harder.
“I knew something was up when you started asking for cornel fruit pickle.”
As if she hadn’t warned me……!
Yet before Aran could snap at her, Sorim fortunately rose from her seat and brushed off her skirts.
She seemed intent on heading straight to the kitchen to hunt for snacks.
About time, too.
It was only days later that Sorim, having glimpsed Tae-o’s letter, would mistake Aran’s longing for envy of his Martial Arts Training and surreptitiously wipe away tears.
***
Meanwhile, at Hyeonmugung.
Tae-o stood barefoot on the dirt floor of the outdoor Training Ground.
“Bend your knees lower. Your waist needs to drop further.”
The Lord of Hyeonmugung had entrusted Tae-o’s Martial Arts Training to the Secondary Lord Tae-su, commanding him to pass down the teachings of Hyeonmu just as they were traditionally begun at age seven.
Though Tae-su had observed his youngest brother’s remarkable growth and felt his father’s ambitions might be excessive, the reality proved otherwise.
In merely a week of training, the four-year-old prodigy Tae-o had progressed beyond measure, already standing with feet planted to the earth in a stance so startlingly solid it seemed unbelievable.
“Hold it.”
Tae-su’s low, measured voice cut across the Training Ground.
“Don’t move.”
Obeying the command, Tae-o held himself as though petrified.
His center never wavered.
Tae-su was about to issue his next order, satisfied that Tae-o could maintain this ironclad posture for a good while longer, when—
Bang!
A heavy, percussive blast erupted very close by.
In the same instant, Tae-su threw himself over his youngest brother, shielding him, as acrid smoke began to pour in.
Alarmed by the stinging smell, Tae-su reached out and pinched Tae-o’s nose shut while shouting urgently.
“Everyone, take cover—it’s Toxic Smoke!”
The Medicine House was the building closest to the Training Ground.
Given Hyeonmugung’s specialty in the study of poisons and antidotes, any accident that occurred in the Medicine House would be catastrophic.
Members of Hyeonmugung’s direct lineage drank trace amounts of poison from childhood, gaining poison immunity by adulthood, but such tolerance applied only to adults of the direct line.
For the servants and guards who knew nothing of it, the toxic smoke that billowed from the Medicine House was far too dangerous.
The shattered building erupted in flames, and thick black smoke engulfed the Training Ground entirely.
“Cough!”
The first to stagger was a guard standing at the edge of the Training Ground.
Starting with him, the fleeing guards collapsed within mere steps, one after another.
In protecting his youngest brother, Tae-su inhaled enough toxic smoke to make his head spin.
Yet Tae-su pressed forward through the smoke, his unsteady gait hampered by the weight of Tae-o in his arms.
“Just hold on a little longer.”
Even as his breath came ragged and his vision blurred, he moved forward, step by step, toward clear air.
Tae-o was the youngest they all spoke of with such reverence—whispers of a god’s return, and more.
Should he lose the child this way, right here in his own arms, there would be no living down such shame.
Even if Tae-o might one day challenge him for the position of Lord of Hyeonmugung, he could not afford to lose him now—not like this.
Tae-su finally set the child down only once he had cleared the smoke.
He caught his breath with a stifled cough, and his gaze finally found Tae-o.
Yet something was terribly wrong.
The boy was not gasping for air at all. Those distinctive jade-green eyes remained as calm as ever.
A chill ran down Tae-su’s spine despite himself.
“Tae-o, are you all right?”
“Yes, thanks to you.”
Tae-o answered as though nothing had happened. Only Tae-su’s throat was parched, his voice cracking with strain.
In that moment, a possibility crystallized in Tae-su’s mind.
A hypothesis that had set Hyeonmugung ablaze with speculation years ago.
Unlike previous Breeding Seasons, when his parents had borne multiple direct lineage members, Tae-o had climbed the stairs of Amcheon alone—and the question of why had never been answered.
The court had theorized that the elder guardian’s toxins must have flooded and contaminated Amcheon.
No one could venture into Amcheon before the next Breeding Season arrived, so the rumor had remained mere speculation, unconfirmed…….
But Tae-o—born with his gift already awakened, who had crossed Amcheon on two feet and had never shown his family his true form—what if the impossible were true?
What if the child had been born with poison immunity as well?
As the acting Lord of Hyeonmugung watched in bewilderment, Tae-o slowly raised one hand and extended it toward the Medicine House with a gesture of utter indifference.
A high-pitched whistle cut through the air.
The sound of wind came first.
And then, from the direction the child’s fingertips pointed, a sudden blizzard erupted.
Tae-su watched as that Snow Wind Technique scattered the black smoke and extinguished the roaring flames in an instant, as if enchanted.
The chaos died away far too easily.
With a single gesture from the youngest, as though it had never been permitted to exist in the first place.
Tae-su swallowed hard.
He could no longer bring himself to speak of Tae-o’s talent.
This was not mere talent—it was something beyond, a realm that transcended such a word entirely.
It was then that Tae-o’s plaintive voice broke through Tae-su’s reverie.
“My feet hurt.”
Indeed, the child had been barefoot throughout the Martial Arts Training in the Training Ground.
“Ah, of course.”
Tae-su knelt on one knee and gathered the youngest carefully into his arms again.
He did not yet realize that his manner had become as reverent as if addressing a sovereign lord.
***
That same year, autumn arrived.
The youngest members of the Sajin Family gathered once more in the Imperial Capital for the Sajin Ceremonial Gathering.
Since the ceremony was an annual event, the lords could not abandon their territories to attend in person.
Cheong Yun likewise had to see off the youngest members while remaining behind with Sorim and his retinue.
Aran, who had once again entered the Imperial Palace without needing an Imperial Pass, was eager to confirm Je Geon-u’s condition, but the ceremonial proceedings proved far more demanding than she had anticipated.
The moment the Opening Ceremony ended, room assignments began.
“We shall now proceed with room assignments.”
A stern-looking palace official stepped forward to address them all.
“We are grateful to the Sajin Family for sending us such distinguished young members. However, fostering bonds between the various Sajin branches is equally vital to this ceremony’s purpose, and we ask that you adhere to our guidelines.”
Following this somewhat ominous explanation, the assignments began immediately.
“First, we shall assign a single room to our two young ladies: Ju Hong-bi and Aran—the Northern Pavilion.”
The moment those words left her lips, Ju Hong-bi’s eyes flared.
“That girl and I are hardly the same! I’m of direct lineage, and she’s an adopted daughter!”
Aran found herself wondering what Ju Hong-bi had been eating for the past two seasons.
It seemed to all go straight to her tongue. The woman’s capacity for spite had grown remarkably.
I wouldn’t mind a bit of growth myself, actually.
Still, sharing a room with her of all people.
This was a gift she’d never dared to hope for.
Last time at the Sajin Ceremonial Gathering, she’d been too occupied with Je Geon-u’s affairs to properly settle her business with the cousins from the Jongjak Family — and how she’d regretted that.
Perhaps she should subtitle this Sajin Ceremonial Gathering as “A Week of Nightmares”?
Catching sight of the official’s troubled expression and worried he might cancel the room assignment, Aran flashed a bright smile and spoke quickly.
“Thank you for giving me the opportunity to learn well from the senior of the Jongjak Family for a week.”
The Cheong Yun Family’s Suspicious Little Sparrow — Chapter 49
E-book Release Date | August 5, 2026
Author | Ravioli
Publisher | Odd Eye
Submissions/Inquiries | [email protected]
UCI | G720:N+A101-20260722065.0049
List Price | 100 Won
© Ravioli 2026
This e-book is protected under copyright law.
This e-book has been published under contract with the author and may not be reprinted, reproduced, distributed, or shared in any form without the written consent of both parties.
—————
This chapter was translated by Lunox Novels. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
—————