The Dragon Family’s Beloved Baby Cat - Chapter 24

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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 24

“Ha! This is ridiculous. How is that any help!”

Yehui scowled and shouted.

[That young female human is really strange! She has weird threads wrapped tightly around her neck! Every time she talks to you, the threads keep choking her!]

Somi was in an uproar too.

Moa wasn’t wearing the security glasses right now so she couldn’t tell, but something seemed to be visible to Somi’s eyes.

Hearing those words, Moa’s face darkened again.

‘Even though her neck gets choked every time she talks to me, she still tries to give me advice.’

Why on earth would she do that?

Moa couldn’t understand Yehui and felt bewildered.

“Sister.”

“What now!”

“Doesn’t it hurt? You’re being choked.”

Moa’s eyes shone with worry.

Moa’s eyes narrowed as she searched for the invisible threads.

“What nonsense are you talking about. This is all because you’re getting on my nerves… Ugh!”

Yehui’s body staggered as she spoke rapidly in denial.

But she forcibly reached out and grabbed Moa.

“Come here. It’s unsightly, so at least wipe the dirt off your face. Really, so undignified…”

It was the moment she was about to roughly wipe Moa’s cheek.

Thwack.

“…Lady Bukgung.”

Jin Dowoon, who had appeared at some point, grabbed the girl’s arm with a cold voice.

He hid Moa, who had been playing in the dirt, behind his back and looked down at her coldly.

“What are you doing?”

“M-Master?”

One hand roughly grabbing Moa.

The other hand extended to wipe her cheek – she was startled in this position.

Only then did she seem to realize how her actions must look.

“You misunderstand. This child is so slovenly that I was worried she might lower the clan’s dignity… I was just helping with a little discipline.”

She tried to explain that she had only been trying to wipe Moa’s cheek.

“Discipline.”

“Yes, shouldn’t a guest prove their worth? I was concerned that a dependent who doesn’t know their place might damage the host’s reputation…”

“Prove their worth.”

Dowoon released Yehui’s wrist with a flick and asked.

“Lady Bukgung. This child is my life’s savior. She saved not only me but also the Master and my younger brother’s lives.”

“…!”

“So this child doesn’t need to prove anything. We should be the ones proving our gratitude to this child.”

Dowoon looked at Moa and added affectionately.

“So Moa, you don’t have to do anything. Just eat, sleep, play, and get dirty if you want.”

‘…Huh.’

Dowoon’s words were certainly well-intentioned.

However, Moa’s pupils shook as if an earthquake had struck.

Though she was a somewhat rough sister, Moa thought Yehui’s words were quite reasonable.

The idea that one must prove their worth was exactly the same as Moa’s thinking!

‘I don’t have to do anything? That’s ridiculous!’

Dowoon’s words were like a bolt from the blue to Moa.

Just play around? Didn’t that mean ‘you’re no longer needed’ or ‘you’re just a parasite eating our food’!

‘No way! I have to show something too! Even if I can’t greet people as prettily as that sister…’

Moa clenched her fists tightly.

Dowoon’s overprotectiveness had instead ignited Moa’s ‘desire to prove her usefulness.’

“Brother! I can do well! I eat well, I poop well, and… I can brush my teeth by myself?”

“…Yes, yes. Good bowel movements are also an excellent ability.”

Dowoon just laughed because he found it cute, but Yehui was shocked.

She couldn’t believe he would smile so brightly at such trivial things.

Yehui clutched her chest and staggered.

“I will treat you as a guest deserves. However, do not try to control this child as you please.”

Regardless, Dowoon picked up Moa in his arms, left only a quiet warning, and disappeared into the distance.

Meanwhile, Yehui, who was left behind, stared blankly at Moa being carried away in Dowoon’s arms.

And when the two figures completely disappeared from view.

“Urgh…”

The restraint of the threads that had been pulled taut was released, and Yehui collapsed to the ground.

She sat down on the dirt floor and roughly clutched her chest.

-I am a failure.

-To mess up from the start because of just one little child.

Hallucinations boiled in her ears.

Her neck, wrapped with threads, heated up as if burned by fire.

It was the price for not properly carrying out her orders.

“Ahhh, hnngh…”

Yehui swallowed her screams and curled up her body.

More painful than the agony piercing her brain was the words Moa had thrown at her earlier.

‘Sister, doesn’t it hurt? You’re being choked.’

No one knew.

Neither the bruises hidden beneath the gorgeous silk clothes, nor the screams hidden behind the elegant smile.

It was pain that even she herself had tried to forget and live with.

But for a mere five-year-old child to see through that terrible snare.

“Does it hurt, she asks…”

Self-deprecating laughter burst from Yehui’s mouth.

“Of course it hurts…”

How could it not hurt?

When the threads choke her with every breath, and devour her brain with every thought.

The sole survivor of the Bukgung Clan, the protagonist of tragedy.

The girl, only fifteen years old, was indeed the last survivor of the Bukgung Clan.

Although her family’s downfall wasn’t recent, but had happened long ago.

After her family fell, she was pushed around, kidnapped and sold, and had to undergo all kinds of assassin and spy training.

-Burn frustration, fear, and anger as more fuel!

If she didn’t do it properly, the threads would dig into her neck, preventing her from breathing until she was on the verge of death.

Even when she wanted to die from all the pain, her life wouldn’t easily fade away.

-This useless failure.

Unable to let go of the curiosity and humanity that a spy shouldn’t have until the end, her final grade within the organization was defective.

When the brainwashing was working well, she performed missions more excellently than anyone, but the problem was that her original nature would occasionally break through.

If they hadn’t needed to use her bloodline to infiltrate the Jinryong Clan, she would have been disposed of long ago.

-You must gain the Master’s trust.

The one who sent her said that when she got there, she would naturally learn what to do when the time came.

‘I wish that child would at least run away.’

Yehui had no desire to torment Moa.

She just wanted to say bad things so that Moa wouldn’t come near her.

Since she couldn’t have been sent to the Jinryong Clan with good intentions.

Surely calamity would strike… it would be good if she left before then.

-Weak heart! You must eliminate that heart!

“Ugh… ugh…”

Blood slowly trickled down from Yehui’s nose as she lay prostrate on the floor.

As the hallucinatory voices of brainwashing repeated, the light in Yehui’s eyes slowly faded away again.

-Because of that carefree and foolish child, your plan has crumbled. At this rate, I’ll be discarded and thrown away.

Before she could even execute her plan to gain favor with the Head of the Manor, she had first earned the Master’s hatred.

This terrible pain too.

-It’s all that child’s fault. This clan’s fault. My own pathetic fault.

‘…Just disappear.’

Fear and malice mixed in Yehui’s eyes.

***

Moa scurried over to Jaseonghwa’s room.

Jaseonghwa was sitting in front of her vanity, combing her hair.

“Madam!”

Approaching Jaseonghwa, Moa saw the round stone placed on the vanity and smiled brightly.

“Ah, if you were planning to come here, we should have come together, little one.”

Moa liked Jaseonghwa’s slightly low and calm voice.

She wanted to snuggle into her lap and nuzzle her face against her, but worried that Jaseonghwa might feel burdened, Moa clasped her hands behind her back and swayed her body with her belly puffed out.

For some reason, just seeing Jaseonghwa made the soles of her feet tingle.

“Hehe.”

When Moa just giggled without any particular reason, Jaseonghwa opened her arms.

“Come here, let me check if you ate well?”

Though frail, Jaseonghwa was still an adult and stronger than Moa, so when she pulled Moa into her embrace, the small body was instantly drawn in.

Held in arms that carried a subtle medicinal fragrance, her toes curled up from the overwhelming ticklish sensation.

“Let me see, how full is this little belly?”

“Kyaak!”

Moa let out a delighted scream, not knowing what to do with herself.

When the high-pitched scream like a dolphin’s came out, Jaseonghwa, who had been rubbing Moa’s belly, also smiled gently.

“You know what?”

After giggling for a while, Moa leaned her back against Jaseonghwa’s embrace and began to speak while swinging her legs back and forth.

“Some older sister called me dirty. She said I’d get kicked out.”

“…Who said that?”

Jaseonghwa’s face, which had been smiling warmly while holding the child who seemed to smell like warm milk, instantly hardened coldly.

Who dared to hurl such harsh words at their precious benefactor?

She was ready to immediately order a servant to bring that person before her.

But Moa continued chattering as if it didn’t bother her, really just like pouring out the day’s events to her mother.

“But that sister seems a bit strange.”

“Strange how?”

“I think she’s sick somewhere. She said mean things, but the sister looked more scared than me. Nobody told her to say bad things, so why did she?”

“Is that so?”

“She seemed like she couldn’t breathe well too… Even if someone’s going to cry, it should be me. Why did that sister look sadder?”

Jaseonghwa’s expression gradually softened at Moa’s innocent words.

Piecing together the fragmentary details that Moa was babbling about, there was only one person who came to mind.

Bukgung Yeohi, who had maintained perfect manners.

‘She must be having a very hard time inside.’

She gently stroked Moa’s head.

“Wasn’t Moa sad?”

“Nope. I don’t cry. When I saw that sister greet everyone and eat earlier, she was really pretty. I want to be pretty like that too.”

The saying that a guest should preserve the host’s dignity was still too difficult for young Moa to understand.

But it was certain that Yehui’s well-mannered appearance at the dinner table had looked pretty to her.

Next time, I should greet her prettily too and ask her to play. Then she won’t get angry this time, right?

Moa nodded her head up and down with that thought.

“Ahh…”

Jaseonghwa let out a small sigh at Moa’s thoughtfulness.

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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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