The Dragon Family’s Beloved Baby Cat - Chapter 40
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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 40
A piece of paper with “Sealed Door” written on it.
The Haejeo Family had been forbidden from all activities and had their doors locked shut for the past two years.
The problem with the Haejeo Family that Jin Saheon had been pondering was precisely this.
“Come here! The Master of Jinryongseoga has come to visit!”
The guard sitting on the coachman’s seat shouted with a voice filled with inner strength.
However, the heavy door didn’t budge an inch.
Soon the door opened slightly, and someone whose face couldn’t be properly seen whispered.
“Please return. Our clan no longer receives outside guests.”
Jin Saheon, who had been watching the situation from inside the carriage, let out a bewildered laugh.
“Well, this is something.”
He never expected they wouldn’t open the door even when the master of another great clan had come.
He could break through by force if he wanted to, but he couldn’t start a war when he had come to ask for help.
Jin Saheon got out of the carriage with Moa.
While he became serious, contemplating a solution, Moa quietly let go of her father’s hand and toddled toward the base of the wall.
‘The baby pigs must be very shy!’
Moa wasn’t disappointed.
Even in fairy tales, didn’t they lock their doors and hide when the wolf came?
Thinking they were hiding because they considered them wolves, Moa carefully examined the base of the wall where bushes grew thick.
‘I should huff and puff for them!’
That’s when it happened.
Something sparkling caught Moa’s eye.
Meanwhile, it didn’t take long for Jin Saheon to discover that Moa had disappeared.
“…Moa?”
After finishing a brief discussion with the guards and turning around to comfort the child.
The child who should have been playing with her grass doll had completely vanished.
“Moa, Moa has disappeared!”
Shocked, Jin Saheon’s face turned pale in an instant as he looked around.
However, Moa had vanished without a trace.
‘I should have held her hand more carefully. I should have watched the child!’
He deeply regretted it and began worrying about where his already sickly(?) child might have disappeared to.
“We’ll find the young miss!”
The guards also scattered instantly and began searching for Moa.
Jin Saheon scanned the ground, following the direction the small footprints had moved.
Soon Jin Saheon stopped at the base of a wall thick with bushes.
Through the grass that had been half-pressed down by a small body, he could see the entrance to a small drainage tunnel.
In the dirt pile in front of it, there was one adorable shoe print. Anyone could tell it belonged to his daughter.
“No way.”
Jin Saheon peered into the drainage tunnel in disbelief.
It seemed to be an unused drainage tunnel, and inside the dark passage filled with dust, there were faint but distinct crawling marks leading deeper inside.
“She went into such a narrow place. What if she gets stuck!”
The guards who had followed Jin Saheon were also speechless with bewilderment.
The Haejeo Family’s manor had been breached by just one old crack in a drainage tunnel.
The adults were too big to notice it, and even if they had seen it, it was such a small passage they wouldn’t have dared to enter.
“Shall we break down the door and enter immediately?”
A guard asked, placing his hand on his sword hilt.
Jin Saheon’s eyes flashed menacingly for a moment, but he gritted his teeth and shook his head.
“No, stop.”
“But the young miss is alone inside!”
“The child has already gone deep inside. What if we attack the passage recklessly and it collapses?”
Moreover, the moment they broke down the door when they had come to ask for help, communication with the Haejeo Family would be permanently severed.
Jin Saheon suppressed his boiling anger and strode back to the main gate.
“My daughter has entered this place.”
Jin Saheon spoke in a much lower and more menacing voice than before.
Through the crack in the door came the gatekeeper’s incredulous voice.
“Master, your jest goes too far. Not even an ant has passed through this door, so how exactly did she enter?”
“Must I prove that my daughter is smaller and quicker than an ant for you to open the door?”
Jin Saheon spoke in a cold voice, but now the gatekeeper didn’t answer at all.
An absurd standoff where the outside claimed someone had entered while the inside insisted no one could have come in.
Jin Saheon suppressed his rage that felt like it would burst the veins in his forehead and shouted with inner strength so it would echo inside the manor, not just to the gatekeeper.
“Listen well! If even a hair on my daughter’s head is harmed, I’ll shatter this door to pieces, sealed or not!”
The thunderous shout shook the entire area.
***
At that moment, inside the wall.
“Cough, cough! Ptui ptui!”
Moa, who had passed through the long drainage tunnel, rolled and tumbled onto the bushes.
The cute silk clothes she had worn were already covered in dirt, and spider webs and dry leaves hung from her hair like decorations.
But Moa jumped up with sparkling eyes.
“Wow, I made it!”
Moa raised her head with anticipation.
What kind of place would the Pig Family’s estate be?
“…Huh?”
It was something square and orderly.
The garden trees were trimmed as straight as if measured with a ruler, and all the buildings were spotlessly white.
What overwhelmed Moa most was the enormous maze.
Countless cotton cloths hung on lines, fluttering like waves in the wind and blocking her view.
The tunnel Moa had emerged from happened to be connected to a place where laundry was dried.
“Wow, giant curtains!”
Moa pushed through the cloths and moved forward.
It was the perfect place for hide-and-seek. The air vibrated with the pungent smell of burning medicinal herbs that made her nose sting.
As the cloths fluttered, both the path she had come from and the path ahead became confusing.
Every time Moa pushed through the cloths to find her way, black stains appeared in a line.
That’s when it happened.
Hundreds of wind chimes hanging from the eaves all burst into a cacophonous sound at once.
Clang! Clang-! Clang!
Urgent shouts erupted from inside the manor.
“Emergency! Standoff at the main gate!”
“Someone claims an outsider has entered, so search immediately!”
Soon the sound of people rushing about could be heard.
‘Eek! If I’m caught, I’ll be kicked out!’
Completely unaware that her beloved father was in a standoff trying to find her.
Moa began running frantically wherever her feet took her.
“Who’s there! Stop right there!”
The people who spotted Moa closed in with their encirclement, but Moa moved nimbly.
[Run! More! Moa is a cat so she can run more!]
As Somi said, Moa didn’t tire easily even when running.
Fortunately, she encountered people who weren’t very fast, so by running with all her might, she managed to avoid being caught.
“Stop, stop chasing me!”
Moa squeezed her eyes shut and ran frantically, escaping for quite a while.
Using her small body and moving as Somi instructed, she was able to barely shake off the people.
“Huff, huff…”
Where on earth was this place?
As Moa wondered while catching her breath, Somi suddenly spoke up, pointing over there!
[Let’s go hide inside that building!]
Running any further was definitely impossible.
Moa followed Somi’s direction and slipped inside a building.
Once inside the building that seemed completely cut off from the outside, the noisy sounds could only be heard faintly.
“Phew, we’re safe.”
Moa let out a sigh of relief as she dusted herself off and stood up.
That’s when it happened.
“…Who are you.”
A cold and sharp voice rang out.
Moa looked up in surprise.
A young boy was standing in the long corridor.
He appeared to be about three or four years older than Moa.
He was a beautiful boy with skin so pale it was almost white, and impressively sharp, irritated-looking eyes.
But the boy’s appearance was strange.
His entire body was wrapped in layers of white cloth, and he wore thin gloves on the hands holding a book.
Despite asking the question first, he was covering his ears as if he didn’t want to hear Moa’s answer.
As if he didn’t want to touch anything in the world.
“Hello?”
Moa smiled brightly and waved her hand.
But the boy’s reaction was cold, almost approaching contempt.
The boy’s gaze swept over Moa’s dirt-covered clothes, grimy face, and hair with leaves stuck in it.
The boy’s face instantly contorted.
“Filthy.”
“…Huh?”
“Mother would never send something as dirty as you… Don’t come near me!”
The boy recoiled in horror.
The hand holding the book was trembling.
Moa pouted at his pathologically avoidant behavior.
Perhaps because she had been so cherished lately, she was hurt by the boy’s horrified reaction.
“I need to drive you out! Guards!”
“Shh, be quiet!”
Moa panicked at the thought of being chased again and urgently rushed toward the boy.
She felt bad since he disliked her so much, but she had to stop him even if it meant covering his mouth.
As Moa approached with gleaming eyes, the boy’s face became wet with panic and cold sweat.
“St, stop… Mmph!”
“Sorry, I’m sorry. But bad people keep chasing me!”
Moa firmly covered the boy’s mouth with her hand.
As her dusty hand touched him, the boy’s face turned pale blue as if he might faint.
‘This crazy… I won’t let this… Huh?’
Sniff.
The boy’s hand that was trying to push Moa away stopped in mid-air.
His furrowed brow gradually relaxed.
The headache that always pressed down on his head, the sewer-like stench that lingered around his nose… wasn’t there.
“…Huh?”
Instead, there was a new scent.
The sweet, sticky scent of sweets, the fresh scent of grass, even the slightly musty smell of dust.
“You…”
The boy grabbed Moa’s arm as if entranced.
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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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