The Dragon Family’s Beloved Baby Cat - Chapter 4

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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 4

Chunsim was a maid about two years senior to Sehui.

Since they had assigned the kind and diligent Sehui to take good care of Moa, she harbored resentment that she, who had been managing Cheongbindang, had been pushed to the sidelines.

“How dare an orphan like you enter Cheongbindang, which I’ve been carefully tending to.”

Chunsim glared at the silk clothes Moa was wearing.

They were certainly expensive clothes. But since the steward had hastily procured them, they weren’t of the highest quality.

They weren’t fitting for a distinguished guest of Cheongbindang. However, they were also inappropriate for a commoner orphan to wear…

Chunsim’s gaze turned to the jade buttons on Moa’s clothes.

“How did you deceive the Head of the Manor? Did you want to wear such clothes and live in luxury?”

“I didn’t deceive anyone…!”

When Moa shook her head, Chunsim glared at her coldly.

“You must have deceived the Head of the Manor by pretending to be a precious young lady, so he gave you Cheongbindang! Do you think it’s proper for an orphan like you to stay here?”

Chunsim roughly tore off a jade button from Moa’s clothes.

The torn button went into Chunsim’s sleeve pocket.

‘Why, why to me…’

Moa’s eyelashes trembled with shock.

She hadn’t expected to encounter someone who openly displayed hostility toward her again here.

‘I didn’t do anything… Do I look like a bad child?’

She suddenly remembered the day she overheard a conversation between the grandmother and mother at her foster home, shortly before she was sent back to the orphanage.

‘I know you took in the child with good intentions. But it’ll be hard enough to take care of just the child who’s about to be born.’

‘Mother, but…’

‘Let me be honest. I can’t stand the idea of raising a child of unknown origin together with my grandchild.’

The grandmother’s eyes had been filled with contempt as she said those words.

She had been too young to understand then, but she later asked her older sisters about the words that had stuck in her memory and learned their meaning.

‘That’s not right. I’m Moa Han from Seedling Orphanage.’

‘You fool, they just hate us because we’re orphans.’

It wasn’t that I was disliked because I had no parents, but I was disliked because I had no parents.

Moa trembled slightly as she recalled the hurt she had received that day.

“Why… why are you doing this to me?”

Moa clenched her fists tightly and asked, overwhelmed with injustice.

These were the words she had wanted to ask the grandmother who said she disliked her ‘because she was an orphan,’ and the foster mother who had failed to persuade the grandmother and sent her back to the orphanage despite promising to protect her.

“I… I didn’t do anything wrong.”

Chunsim tilted her head cynically.

“Do you think you have to do something wrong to be hated? You just don’t have the right to be here.”

Those words stirred up Moa’s old wounds and tore off the scab all at once.

Chunsim confiscated various accessories and luxury items that she thought had been ‘unfairly’ given to Moa, putting them in her own pockets.

“Anyway, the Head of the Manor will kick you out soon when you become bothersome. You won’t last long.”

“…!”

The thought that she must stick to this house.

But the learned certainty that she would be abandoned again stabbed at Moa.

When tears began to well up moistly in Moa’s eyes.

Suddenly, something like a warm breeze blew through the empty room.

It felt exactly like Somi’s fluffy tail touching her cheek.

‘Somi…’

When she thought of Somi, light shone again in Moa’s empty eyes.

Moa’s gaze changed completely.

Even in her fear, a very quiet determination arose.

‘I, I didn’t tell any lies.’

Since Jin Saheon had made this decision, it was unfair for her to be treated this way.

Moa clenched her hands so tightly that four small crescents appeared on her palms.

Just then-

“Miss, I’m back.”

Sehui opened the door and entered.

Chunsim quickly changed her expression and smiled primly.

If not for Moa’s reddened eyes and the missing button, no one would have noticed anything suspicious.

“…Chunsim?”

“I just happened to keep the young miss company for a bit.”

There was no way the perceptive Sehui couldn’t sense Chunsim’s twisted jealousy.

“Sister Chunsim. But why does the miss look like this?”

When Sehui asked sharply, Chunsim lifted her head arrogantly.

“She fell down earlier. I think it hurt.”

Chunsim, who looked down on both Sehui and Moa, told an obvious lie.

It was because she thought both of them were beneath her.

‘Now I see that she’s the liar.’

Because being an orphan was my fault.

Fire blazed bright blue in the eyes of Moa, who had been so intimidated.

When she became completely certain that she hadn’t done anything wrong, courage welled up from Moa’s small heart.

“Sister Sehui!”

Unlike calling for Sehui, Moa ran to Chunsim and hugged her tightly.

“Oh, my!”

While Chunsim staggered-

Moa’s small hand precisely grabbed her sleeve cuff.

“This sister stole my things! The Head of the Manor gave them to me, so they’re mine!”

“L-let go!”

Moa ignored those words and shook the pocket with all her might. She just had to hang onto the flailing arm, so it wasn’t difficult at all.

Clatter-!

The jade button, silver spoon, and even a child’s ornament all came tumbling out.

The room instantly froze.

“…Chunsim.”

Sehui no longer treated Chunsim as a senior.

“How dare you… lay hands on the miss’s belongings?”

“N-no, this child! This child did it on purpose-!”

Chunsim tried to make some excuse. She thought she could suppress them with words and senior authority.

But before she could even try to stop her.

Sehui blew the whistle she had been carrying and called the guard warriors who were protecting Cheongbindang nearby.

It was something Jin Saheon had specially provided to protect and watch over Moa.

As the warriors rushed in instantly, Chunsim screamed “No!” as she was dragged away, leaving a long wail behind.

Soon, with the distant screaming, the room became silent.

Sehui hugged Moa and quietly stroked her back.

“Miss, you were startled, weren’t you? You must have been scared…?”

“…Mm-hmm.”

Moa tightly gripped Sehui’s clothes with her arms.

‘She said I’d be thrown away again…’

Her heart was still trembling.

But on the other hand.

‘I, I protected myself…’

Unlike her past memories, the fact that she had defended herself without being swayed by adults sparkled in her heart like a very small lighthouse beacon.

Moa bit her lips tightly and made a small resolution.

‘This time I absolutely won’t be abandoned. I’ll say what I want to say and be helpful so I can stay here.’

Sehui gently stroked Moa’s head.

“Come on, let’s put on some pretty clothes. Playing outside will make you feel better.”

“…Okay!”

Moa’s mood improved as her eyes sparkled.

“Hmm… our little miss’s face has gotten all messy, hasn’t it?”

Sehui firmly closed the door and decided to go prepare water to clean Moa’s face, which had gotten dirty from crying.

Moa, who had bravely decided to wait for Sehui again, looked around the room and headed toward the window.

Moa saw a young boy she’d never seen before standing in the distance.

The boy, neatly dressed in blue martial robes, was looking at Cheongbindang from afar while pressing his temples as if he had a headache.

He appeared to be around seventeen or eighteen, with long hair tied back tightly like Jin Saheon’s.

His delicate face was pale and unhealthy-looking, with very deep shadows under his eyes like Jin Saheon’s.

‘He must be a child of this house?’

A child of this house. Moa thought this and felt momentarily envious.

‘Huh? That face is…’

And when she looked more closely, it was a face she’d seen in her dream! Though he looked slightly younger than in the dream.

But she couldn’t say she’d met him in a dream, so she decided to pretend she didn’t know for now.

“Who are you, oppa? I’m Moa!”

Moa raised her voice and called out.

Seeing his face that somehow looked extremely sensitive and bad-tempered, Moa made a worried expression.

‘Why does his expression look so different?’

In the dream, he had seemed very cheerful.

The current boy’s expression was on edge, as if he hadn’t slept for about ten nights.

Thinking he might be tired from lack of sleep, Moa waved her hand.

“If you’re sleepy, do you want to sleep here?”

“…How dare.”

At her suggestion to come in and sleep, the boy’s face twisted harshly.

Then, as if sensing the boy’s inner anger—

A small snake-like animal with dark blue scales that had been drooping on his shoulder came flying toward her as if it might attack.

Its dim, dark yellow eyes were elongated like a snake’s.

Moa blankly met eyes with that small animal.

‘Geumoh…?’

That seemed to be its name in the dream. Why is it different from the dream?

It definitely had more mystical and gentle eyes…

Moa, who had been tense for a moment, carefully reached out her hand. It was because she felt like Geumoh was suffering.

When Moa’s hand touched it, Geumoh hesitated for a moment.

Ripples briefly appeared in its yellow eyes.

At that moment, in the eyes of the boy standing in the distance with a pained face, along with confusion, a spark of hope he didn’t even know he had suddenly ignited.

“Young master, you mustn’t!”

Just then, as if she had heard the commotion, Sehui came running from behind Moa, pulled her into her arms, and closed the door.

—Grrrr…

Without seeing that Moa’s hand had touched Geumoh, and that in that moment the spirit beast’s eyes, which had seemed to be going berserk, had briefly cleared.

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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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