The Dragon Family’s Beloved Baby Cat - Chapter 18

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This chapter was translated by Lunox Team. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
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Chapter 18

“Ah….”

Dowoon let out a small groan.

Mother.

He had hoped against hope, but to think that at the end of this chain of pain that bound him was his mother.

“Could it be… that I’m also contributing to Mother’s suffering….”

Dowoon muttered with a pained expression.

“I don’t know about that, but you’re definitely connected to over there.”

Moa answered while glancing at Dowoon and Yeongang’s reactions in the somehow heavy atmosphere.

At Moa’s words, Dowoon squeezed his eyes shut.

He had to go and check before the medicine’s effects wore off further.

Whether it was really his mother, and if it was, what condition she was in.

From the moment he lost his emotions three years ago, Jin Dowoon had never once visited his mother’s quarters.

Of course, the same was true for Yeongang, who had been suffering from his own illness.

“I have to… go. I need to check.”

Dowoon looked at Yeongang with difficulty.

“Don’t worry, hyung-nim. I’ve got you.”

Yeongang nodded while putting more strength into the hand supporting Dowoon’s left side.

When they had taken a few more steps.

“Stop right there!”

With a booming shout, an elderly man accompanied by servants walked out quickly. It was the Elder Chairman.

Having rushed over upon hearing the commotion, he looked at Dowoon with a disapproving expression.

“Elder Chairman.”

Dowoon looked at him with dry eyes.

“Do not approach Jakyeongjeon, Young Master.”

“Why is that?”

“I fear that the Madam’s illness might harm the Young Master. We cannot let the future of the family be ruined.”

“How would visiting my sick mother harm me?”

As the conversation continued, Dowoon’s face, mixed with frustration and pain, grew increasingly furrowed.

“The Madam is….”

After briefly looking behind him, the Chairman gestured and the servants stepped back a few more paces.

Having dismissed the servants and come closer, the Chairman spoke to Dowoon in a low voice.

“The Madam is currently suspected of being under some kind of unusual curse. Strange black energy keeps swirling around her body.”

At the mention of black energy similar to the black chains Moa had told him about, Dowoon’s face completely contorted with shock.

“Then all the more reason to hurry-“

“We don’t know what might happen to the Young Master and Lord Imun if you get close!”

The Chairman spoke with firm eyes.

“Haven’t you learned well the virtue of a ruler not to be swayed by personal feelings? Do not approach until we find the cause of the curse, Young Master.”

He was completely convinced that he was protecting the Young Master of Jinryongseoga.

The Elder Chairman judged that Jin Dowoon’s emotionless state was more suitable as a successor.

“That’s strange! Oppa has been sick all this time, so why are you saying he did well?”

Moa, who had been listening from the side, couldn’t hold back and burst out.

Then the Chairman’s gaze fixed on Moa hanging by Dowoon’s side.

“Moreover, bringing an outsider deep into Naedan….”

It was a look as if viewing a young swindler.

“I received a report from the Vice Chairman, but it’s clear that the Young Master has been bewitched by this child and lost his judgment.”

Dowoon’s eyebrows twitched.

“This child has already been permitted by the Master. He allowed her to stay after accepting Bihui’s will, so are you now denying the Master’s decision, Elder Chairman?”

When Dowoon pointed this out sharply, the Chairman’s face turned red and blue.

It was already absurd enough that some elders had been persuaded after the Vice Chairman returned, moved by the claim that Bihui had accepted her.

The Chairman’s gaze fell coldly on the small Moa. She was a young child who didn’t seem likely to help the family.

“The Master’s judgment was temporarily clouded! To believe such nonsense about a spirit creature reacting to a child of unknown origins… the Council of Elders must correct this.”

At those words, the pained expression completely disappeared from Dowoon’s face.

Toward the Chairman who had committed clear overreach, trying to judge even the Master’s will according to his own taste under the pretext of maintaining family discipline-

Imun prevented him from approaching further with sharp waves.

Dowoon, who had been staggering just moments before, was now standing like a mountain blocking Moa and Yeongang.

His pale face, drenched in cold sweat, looked precarious as if he might collapse at any moment, but his eyes alone burned fiercely blue.

“You have denied a guest recognized by the Master and blocked the path of me, the Young Master. Even as Elder Chairman, insubordination cannot be forgiven.”

Feeling Dowoon’s intensity, Imun’s scales stood on end one by one, truly intending to attack the Elder Chairman.

-Kuuuuu!

Imun roared and struck the ground.

Kwang-!

A chilling wave instantly extended right up to the Chairman’s feet.

“…!”

The Elder Chairman, realizing that he had gotten excited and committed insubordination, and that the Young Master was truly enraged, turned pale and hesitated.

“Move aside. I won’t warn you again.”

Leaving the frozen Chairman behind, Dowoon received support from Moa and Yeongang again and threw open the doors of Jakyeongjeon.

Creeak-

As the heavy door opened, eerily cool air poured out from within.

Inside the door was as quiet as if time had stopped.

Moa followed Dowoon and Yeongang inside.

As the three children entered, the door closed with a thud.

‘This is strange….’

Moa shivered and tilted her head.

Despite the warm air that filled the room from the fire, she somehow felt a coolness on her skin.

Like when entering a place that had been an empty room for a long time.

Moa looked around and then opened her mouth wide upon discovering a large bed placed in the center of the room.

A woman lay there with long ash-tinged dark brown hair tied loosely below one shoulder.

Her pale skin clearly showed poor health.

It was Jaseonghwa, the matriarch of Jinryongseoga.

“Mother….”

Dowoon’s voice trembled.

His mother’s appearance after three years was much more gaunt than he remembered.

A face so bloodless it didn’t look like a living person.

But even that frailty was beautiful, making it more surreal.

Above Jaseonghwa’s chest was a tightly stretched chain pierced through.

As Moa had predicted, the end of the chain connected to Dowoon’s heart was pierced through Jaseonghwa’s chest.

“Urgh…!”

Dowoon, who had been approaching his mother, suddenly clutched his chest and staggered.

As the chain drew closer and resonated, the anesthetic jelly he had fed to Imun rapidly lost its effectiveness.

Tearing pain crawled up Dowoon’s blood vessels again.

“Oppa!”

“Hyung-nim!”

Moa and Yeongang urgently supported Dowoon. Dowoon barely managed to lift his head while breaking out in cold sweat.

He couldn’t see anything like chains in his eyes. However, he could clearly feel that something became more difficult the closer he was to his mother.

‘At this rate… Oppa will get sick again!’

Moa urgently glared at the chain.

However, she wasn’t confident whether she could cut this chain, or whether Jaseonghwa and Jin Dowoon would be safe even after cutting it.

“Kid, do something…!”

Yeongang turned to look at Moa and cried out desperately.

Moa gripped the safety goggles’ temples tightly with her thumb and index finger, observing the chain hanging between the hat.

‘Huh…?’

Every time the black smoke moved along the swaying chain, Dowoon’s body flinched in pain.

‘If I can stop that smoke from moving…?’

If she couldn’t pull out the chain right away, wouldn’t it work to block the chain’s function itself?

Moa’s eyes lit up cleverly as she touched her bracelet.

‘Something to grip tight and stop the flow!’

The bracelet vibrated in response to Moa’s earnestness and spat something into the air.

The words ‘Tight-Grip Forceps’ appeared above Moa’s safety goggles.

Moa held the forceps in her hand and examined them from all angles.

The yellow plastic forceps shaped like scissors had blunt, bumpy grips instead of sharp blades.

“Yeongang oppa, now it’s your turn to help me!”

While Moa was taking out the forceps, Dowoon had collapsed again with one knee bent on the floor, half-fallen.

Yeongang, who had been supporting his brother, looked up in surprise when his name was called.

He couldn’t let his brother fall to the floor, but he had to help Moa too.

“What should I help with?”

Yeongang asked in confusion, looking back and forth.

“I can’t reach. Lift me up.”

Moa said, glaring at the tall bed where Jaseonghwa was lying.

“I’m fine, so go…”

Dowoon, noticing his hesitant fingertips, pushed his younger brother’s back.

“I’ll be back quickly, hyung-nim.”

Knowing that helping Moa was the only way to solve the root cause, Yeongang ran to the bedside with a tearful expression.

“Here, step on me and climb up.”

Yeongang knew well his own condition – short and weak from insomnia.

Rather than risk dropping Moa while trying to lift her, he knelt on the floor and curved his back like a step.

“Ugh…”

Moa, who had expected to be carried up, frowned briefly before carefully stepping on Yeongang’s back.

Yeongang’s back trembled slightly as he supported all of Moa’s weight.

His thin wrists pressed against the floor also shook.

“You, eat less from now on. Are you a pig?”

While secretly thinking he wanted to grow taller quickly, Yeongang scolded Moa for no reason.

Honestly, Moa was far too small and cute to call a pig, but his pride was hurt that he couldn’t easily lift such a small Moa.

“Hmph, oink oink!”

Moa puffed out her cheeks and pouted as she crawled up onto the bed.

‘Wow, she’s beautiful…’

With her eyes closed and completely still, Jaseonghwa looked so young and beautiful it was hard to believe she had given birth to two sons.

Moa mumbled to herself before gripping the forceps tightly and focusing.

She planned to clamp the innermost part of the chain where the black energy was gushing out, right in front of Jaseonghwa’s heart.

“…Here goes!”

Please work!

Moa put all her strength into both hands, opened the grips to bite onto the black chain, then squeezed the handles with all her might.

Click-!

A crisp friction sound rang out.

Then a miraculous thing happened.

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This chapter was translated by Lunox Team. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
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