The Blue Dragon Clan’s Very Suspicious Little Chick - Chapter 68

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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 68

Instead, he cooled Aran’s fevered body with hands that had turned to ice.
With each breath he exhaled into her lungs, the sickness seemed to recede.
Aran drifted into pleasant dreams.
When the long night passed and the next sun rose, the heaviness that had weighed upon her eyelids had lifted considerably.
She knew she had not ascended to the Celestial Realm by the sight of those too-familiar jade-green eyes watching over her with concern.

“Hyeon Tae-o…?”

She could not tell whether this was a dream or waking.
Aran had been isolated, and Tae-o had not caught the plague—there was no reason for him to be here like this.
The Tae-o who had wept and raged each time Aran had brushed against death now smiled, unexpectedly gentle.

“Hello, Aran.”

It was a greeting she had heard countless times, yet somehow it sounded different today.
Her heart dropped.

“Not yet.”

It was like hearing the voice of a god in the dead of night.
Even as exhaustion clung to her, Aran pushed him back slightly and asked.

“Why are you here? What if you catch this from me?”

Tae-o laughed, responding as if he’d heard something absurd.

“I’m not going to catch some plague like that.”

Then he pulled her into a tight embrace again.
A cool embrace, just as it had been that night.
When had he come?
Had it been a god who visited her in the darkness?
As Aran’s confused mind turned these questions over, a soft voice reached her ears.

“…There’s no way I’d send you ahead alone. We go together.”

Aran could not steady her wildly racing heart any longer, and she closed her eyes.
Suddenly, the time she had spent with Tae-o flashed before her like scenes in a lantern play.
Xuanwu, the only one to walk out of Dark Heaven on his own two feet. The descendant the gods had asked for.
In her past life, she had never even heard his name, yet he was impossibly talented beyond measure.
There were countless moments she had let pass, telling herself that the god must have taught him, that the god must have guided him—and now each of those moments blazed before her eyes.
Hyeon Tae-o, who exactly are you?
Aran recovered completely.
After the less-severely-afflicted twins recovered, the wave of plague began to subside as well.
Though she had returned safely to the Azure Dragon Palace, Aran could no longer write letters to Tae-o.
Once doubt had taken root, it became unbearably difficult to face him.
Normally he would have been furious and come all the way to Azure Dragon Palace anyway, but Tae-o pretended not to notice her coldness.
He simply sent word two or three times a week, asking how she was.
To Aran, each letter felt like the answer to a question she dared not ask.
Who he was.

***

Meanwhile, in the Imperial City.
Crown Prince Je Geon-u waited in anticipation for his friends from the Four Celestial Palace to arrive.
When the Chief Court Lady noticed him pacing back and forth along the wall for no apparent reason, she smiled and asked.
“Do you long for it so much?”
In truth, autumn—the season of the Four Celestial Ceremony—was the one Lady Nam anticipated above all others.
The Crown Prince would sometimes lose his senses and grow savage, yet only during the Four Celestial Ceremony did he return to his most lucid, brilliant self.
Indeed, the Crown Prince’s health had been remarkably sound of late.
Merely thinking of the ceremony seemed to fortify him; his face grew brighter with each passing day as autumn drew near.
“Yes, everyone may well have set out by now.”
“Last year, everyone suffered terribly, but I’m grateful the final ceremony was able to proceed.”
As Lady Nam said, last year many of his companions had fallen gravely ill with the plague.
Je Geon-u, known as the frailest among them, had somehow escaped the sickness, yet he had kept vigil through countless sleepless nights, beside himself with worry over Aran, who hovered at death’s door.
Aran seemed cursed with an almost unnatural lack of fortune.
She was perpetually drawn into accidents both large and small, and more than once Je Geon-u had wondered if his presence was the cause, so he had deliberately kept his distance from her.
There were rumors that certain noble houses were already vying for the position of Crown Princess.
He had feared they might target Aran.
Yet even when he had deliberately withdrawn, Aran had continued to fall into misfortune regardless.
Calamity had pursued her even within the Azure Dragon Palace, and again during a brief visit to White Tiger Ridge.
So Je Geon-u had eventually abandoned such pointless efforts.
Along with Baek Sa-heum, Aran was one of the few friends he could truly rely upon.
In childhood, he thought he had caught a scent like that of a white bird from her—so distinctive that he had privately begun to piece together the nature of their connection.
But when he finally found the courage to ask her about it, she had simply shaken her head, saying she knew of no such bird.
Had he been so desperate for his mother that he had sought her in all things, and thus fallen prey to his own delusion?
Yet it seemed strange that the bird appeared only during the ceremony, if Aran truly knew nothing of it.
Still, if she wished not to speak of it, he could not press her.
“I hope nothing goes wrong during this ceremony.”
Je Geon-u replied softly to Lady Nam.
The Four Celestial Ceremony—where he could see Aran and Baek Sa-heum, and the white bird as well—meant everything to him.
He could only pray that the final ceremony would pass without incident, that it might live on as a cherished memory.

***

That same night, at Scholar Hwa’s residence.
Hwa Gyeom sat alone before his desk, having dismissed all attendants, with only a single candle illuminating the space.
On the meticulously arranged desk stood only a mirror, which Hwa Gyeom studied intently from very close range while muttering to himself.
“The ceremony must not stop. That girl is no ordinary human……! She must be destroyed!”
A shadow without a name.
The entity he had called by voice alone—or simply “it”—for years, had failed to properly attach itself to the Crown Prince some years ago and had returned to torment Hwa Gyeom relentlessly.
Hwa Gyeom was exhausted by the words that spilled from his lips against his own will.
This was why he had begun setting up the mirror to converse with it.
Though he called it conversation, it was half recrimination and half curse—nothing but an unpleasant quarrel.
After ten years of hearing the same accusations, Hwa Gyeom himself had grown weary.
How many problems had the creature caused under the pretext of killing the girl?
Hwa Gyeom had been overwhelmed, dealing with protests from each of the Four Celestial Palaces and rebukes from the Emperor—so busy he felt ten bodies would not suffice.
“Merely sustaining the ceremony through this year has already been a tremendous strain.”
The creature’s voice turned sharp.
“What?”
The Emperor had accepted Hwa Gyeom’s assertions despite finding the succession of incidents suspicious, largely because the Crown Prince appeared to genuinely recover his health through the ceremony.
Yet the Azure Dragon Clan’s resistance had grown so fierce that the ceremony could not continue.
Hwa Gyeom sighed as he explained.
“Since the plague spread last year, drought has followed, and we have even required the assistance of the Azure Dragon Clan’s patriarch.”
Immediately after witnessing Cheong-un perform the Rain Summoning Ritual to bring rain, his fame had spread throughout the Imperial City.
In such circumstances, the feeble Emperor would never dare to cross Cheong-un further.
“You worthless fool……!”
Hwa Gyeom rarely allowed himself to retort to the creature.
“You blame me? You boasted so confidently, yet it is you who has failed time and again!”
Before the words had even finished, his hand moved of its own accord, crashing down upon the desk as if to shatter it.
Bang!
“Your failures are your doing……! That girl undoubtedly possesses a Supernatural Ability, yet you cannot even determine the child’s true nature—how dare you……!”
Yet he could not afford to remain cowed and retreating.
Hwa Gyeom, too, had waited far too long.
“You boasted that through the umbilical cord, with blood bound to it, you could manipulate the Crown Prince at will! Yet you sit idle without lifting a finger!”
Then both his palms began striking the desk in rapid succession, as if beating a drum.
“Ahahahahaha! Ahahahahahahaha!”
A laugh wild with madness rang through the manor in the depths of night.
Hwa Gyeom whimpered, raising his palms to cover his mouth.
Then, as though the lips belonged to someone else, he forced them open and bitterly reproached himself.
“Have I gone mad? If rumors spread that I’ve lost my mind, I’ll lose my position as the Emperor’s advisor……!”
Each word was agony to speak, and sweat streamed down his spine.
Yet in the Mirror, Hwa Gyeom’s reflection wore a grin so wide his mouth seemed to tear.
Seeing his impossible visage, Hwa Gyeom clenched his teeth.
“I never consented to this……! Because of you, I……!”
Even as he spoke, his facial muscles disobeyed, the lips twitching upward in an involuntary smile.
It laughed mockingly, as if toying with him.
“Your status as advisor! Your power! Everything you possess, I gave to you……!”
At the sight of that grotesque grin in the Mirror, Hwa Gyeom shut his eyes instead.
“What in blazes are you doing?”
It splayed his lips and spoke its contempt.
“Get out of this body!”
“What……?”
Hwa Gyeom’s eyes flew wide in shock.
“Get out? That’s rich! There are limits to audacity! This body is mine……!”
Then it laughed even louder.
“No — it’s mine!”
The Azure Dragon Clan’s Many Suspicious Mischiefs — Episode 68
E-book Release Date | August 5, 2026

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

UCI | G720:N+A101-20260722065.0068
Price | 100 KRW

ⓒ Ravioli 2026

This e-book is protected under copyright law.
This e-book is published by agreement 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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