The Dragon Family’s Beloved Baby Cat - Chapter 5
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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 5
Startled, Moa’s legs gave out and she collapsed into Sehui’s embrace.
“…What, what was that?”
Too shocked, Moa burrowed deeper into Sehui’s arms.
“Are, are you alright, Miss? You must have been very frightened.”
Sehui gently patted the child’s back to help her calm down.
“That person is Young Master Jin Yeongang. He’s the Master’s youngest son. And that creature just now was Geumoh.”
“…Do oppa and Geumoh hate me?”
Though she paused briefly thinking the name was the same as the one from her dream, Moa asked Sehui with teary eyes, her hurt feelings overwhelming her.
“It’s, it’s not like that. It’s just that the Young Master is very sensitive…”
“I just thought he looked tired… so I told him to come here and sleep…”
Sehui’s eyes widened in surprise at Moa’s words, then she bit her lip once before answering.
“The Young Master suffers from severe insomnia.”
“…What’s insomnia?”
“It’s a… disease where you can’t sleep well.”
Sehui turned her head briefly to wipe away the tears that had formed in her eyes.
“No matter how sleepy you are, you just can’t fall asleep.”
Such a strange disease existed!
Moa was momentarily surprised, then imagined what would happen if she couldn’t sleep.
Moa, who had slept through the night even as a baby, would habitually start nodding off once it passed eight-thirty even as she grew older.
‘But if I couldn’t sleep… Eek!’
How terrible!
Moa’s eyes instantly welled up with tears.
How hard it must be. A disease where you want to sleep because you’re tired but can’t!
“Then what can we do? Exercise usually helps you sleep better.”
“Well, even when he practices martial arts, it’s been quite a while since he’s been repeating a cycle of not sleeping for three or four days, then fainting and sleeping a little before waking up again…”
Moa felt genuinely sorry for him.
She felt so bad for him, wanting to sleep but unable to.
So even Yeongang, who had the caring Sehui and a reliable father, had his own difficulties.
She felt sorry for having envied him, even briefly.
Seeing Moa’s genuine sympathy, Sehui’s expression softened a bit more.
‘What a kind young lady.’
Jin Yeongang, now eleven years old, was a sore spot for the people of Sega.
Jin Yeongang’s insomnia had developed about three years ago.
The physicians said it didn’t seem to be a physical problem with the child, and it was likely a psychological factor due to his mother’s illness.
Before the onset, he had been the youngest of Sega, a very bright and affectionate boy.
However, the insomnia that developed when he was eight completely changed the child’s personality.
Into a child who was extremely sensitive, easily irritated, and wary of his surroundings.
Geumoh, Jin Yeongang’s guardian spirit, was very sensitive to emotional changes, so it would easily attack the surroundings according to the child’s psychological changes.
‘It must be frightening.’
Seeing such a tiny child feel compassion filled Sehui’s heart with both pride and pity.
“Miss, you must be startled, so let me bring you some sweets. Are you scared if I leave?”
“Mmm.”
Moa shook her head. Then she thought she wanted to bring some to Jin Yeongang too.
It happened that text appeared before her eyes again, which made Sehui’s departure less frightening.
‘Can’t Sehui unni see it?’
The text had such a strong presence that anyone with normal vision should be able to see it, but Sehui didn’t notice anything and left the room.
Moa fumbled to read the text.
-Main Mission: Remove Geumoh’s abnormal status
·Before guardian spirit contract
(Incomplete contact error. Contract required)
·Reward: ‘Curse Healing’ ability activation
·If target healing fails, Jin Yeongang dies in 30 days.
Moa’s eyes shook with an ominous feeling.
The word ‘dies’ seemed to weigh down on her heart. The characters before it were probably Jin Yeongang.
Moa opened the window with trembling hands.
In the distance, she could see Jin Yeongang’s retreating figure.
Geumoh perched on his shoulder also seemed to still be suffering.
“Oppa…”
The bright Yeongang from her dream, and the miserable Yeongang of reality.
Even in her sadness, Moa understood what Somi had meant.
That she would know what she had to do.
She didn’t know the method right away, but she didn’t want to see him like that.
“No. Absolutely not!”
Moa clenched her small fists tightly.
Then, Jin Yeongang, who had been walking away desolately, looked back this way.
His empty eyes, as if resigned to death, seemed to pierce through Moa.
Thump-
Moa’s small heart collapsed.
Sehui returned with a tray of refreshments and comforted Moa.
Only then did some color return to the child’s face.
“Sehui unni, what was that… spirit creature I saw earlier?”
Moa asked, thinking of Geumoh. At Moa’s question, Sehui nodded with an “Ah.”
“Spirit creatures are sacred animals bestowed by the divine beast Twelve Guardians.”
“Divine beast? Twelve Guardians?”
Moa tilted her head, not understanding.
“Oh my. There are books in the library that the young masters used to read when they were little, so I’ll bring one and explain it to you.”
“Books? Ugh.”
Moa wrinkled her face, thinking of the textbooks the older kids at the orphanage used to read.
“It’s a book with lots of pictures, so it’ll be easier for you to understand, Miss.”
“…Okay.”
Moa reluctantly nodded.
‘Would it be okay if I said I wanted to go together?’
Moa hesitated briefly, slightly scared as she remembered the dangerous moment from earlier.
Until now, Sehui had stayed close by Moa’s side and taken very careful care of her.
‘If I’m bothersome… she’ll dislike me, right?’
While wanting her to pay attention to her—
The reason Moa had been a good child until now was because she liked the teachers that much.
Because she didn’t want them to think of her as a bothersome child.
In this short time, Sehui had found her way right into Moa’s heart.
‘Sehui unni shouldn’t have a hard time. Then she’ll leave.’
Besides, if she seemed like a bothersome kid, she might get kicked out, so she had to endure it.
In the end, instead of asking to be taken outside together, Moa decided to quietly keep her mouth shut and wait for Sehui.
Still feeling lonely, Moa brought out her ears and tail and hugged her fluffy tail.
‘I hope unni comes back soon.’
As she lay curled up like a baby waiting, Sehui returned after a while.
Sehui showed her a picture book, saying it was one Yeongang had read when he was younger.
“Who is this?”
Moa pointed to the figure drawn on the first page, radiating brilliant light.
“That’s the Heavenly Deity. The god who created all things.”
The name of this nation that rules the world is the Dan Empire.
The Heavenly Deity protects the Dan Empire so that the human world can function smoothly, bestowing guardian spirits and allowing the imperial family to use divine power.
Namely, the Twelve Guardians.
“They are the twelve animal guardian spirits who serve the Heavenly Deity as their master. The twelve powerful families of the Dan Empire each serve one of the Twelve Guardians.”
As she pointed to each animal picture symbolizing the Twelve Guardians—rat, ox, tiger, rabbit—and explained them one by one, Moa’s eyes widened in amazement.
“Wow. Then, is there one here too?”
“Our Jinryong Clan serves the dragon guardian spirit, the foremost of the Twelve Guardians. That would be Lord Jinryongryeong.”
“Jinrongryeong! That’s hard to say…”
Moa grumbled quietly.
“Is there really a dragon?”
“Of course. It exists in the Gajujeonsimcheo.”
“But why did the Heavenly Deity give animals?”
“To make the empire peaceful.”
Moa nodded her head, going “Ooh.”
Then she arbitrarily thought to herself that the empire must be about the size of the orphanage.
No matter how she thought about it, in Moa’s mind she could only imagine something like a zoo with adorable animals running around.
“Since the Twelve Guardians have many things to consider when caring for the Sega, they summoned their kin as well. Like workers. Those are the spiritual creatures like Geumoh.”
Moa, who had planned to get a spiritual creature later to carry on her shoulder, was soon disappointed.
She heard that spiritual creatures are born destined to be paired with direct descendants of the Sega, so if you’re not a direct descendant, you can’t obtain one.
So much so that even other direct descendants cannot touch a spiritual creature that already has a pair.
“Tch.”
She had wanted to get a cute cat spiritual creature.
Moa pouted her lips and asked Sehui.
“Why isn’t there a cat among the Twelve Guardians?”
“Well…”
Sehui smiled awkwardly at Moa’s question. Moa poked the picture of Jinryongryeong with a disappointed expression.
“Huh?”
And at that moment.
Flash—!
A blue dragon filling the sky.
A golden tiger and red horse running across the land.
People in splendid clothes bowing toward the twelve divine beasts.
Pure white light flowing from their hands.
‘Is that divine power?’
Somehow it’s a very nostalgic and familiar power.
The moment she thought that.
The vision suddenly changed.
The blue dragon fell into deep sleep and the spiritual creatures writhed in agony.
A white cloth was placed over Yeongang’s face.
“The Lady has passed away!”
The voices of wailing people swept past.
Crash!
The massive castle gates burst into flames.
Red flames devoured everything.
“Finally. The Jinryong Clan has fallen.”
“Huff, huff…”
Moa, who had completely emerged from the vision, gasped for breath.
It was shocking that this beautiful Jinryong Clan where she was would collapse…
‘Scary.’
The satisfied voice of a strange man filled with joy that she heard at the end.
The malice and sinister atmosphere contained in it was so terrifying.
“Miss?!”
Sehui, who was startled when the child who had been reading well suddenly became dazed and then shuddered, jumped up from her seat.
“Scary…”
When Moa’s face turned pale, Sehui held the child in her arms to calm her down.
“It’s okay. The pictures must have been too vivid and scary.”
Whether the earlier shock had come back to life, or the detailed drawings were frightening…
However, her doubts did not fade away inside.
Certainly the terrified appearance was unmistakably that of a five-year-old.
But the eyes that flashed for a moment were like those of a sage. Moreover, even the finger that touched the book was trembling severely.
‘This is not ordinary…’
However, since the child was clinging to her, she had no choice but to comfort her without asking more questions.
Sehui briefly wondered whether she should report this to the Master.
“Miss, would you like to go out for a short walk?”
Moa nodded while pressing her eyes tightly with the handkerchief Sehui handed her.
‘Master and Sister Sehui must not die.’
Thinking that the people of this household would die one after another, and that kind Sehui might also suffer, made her feel very suffocated.
‘Is there something I can help with?’
To meet Somi, there was no particular reason why Jin Saheon and Sehui had to be safe.
But Moa was scared and didn’t want them to disappear.
The child starved for affection had already come to like them with just a little helping hand.
“Master is really strong, right?”
Moa asked Sehui as if clinging to her. He had swept away a massive boulder in one breath and eliminated all the bad people, so he must be strong.
So such things shouldn’t happen.
However, Moa instinctively knew that what she had seen was both past history and the future that was to come.
“The Master is extremely strong. Not only does he have almost no rivals in the world in terms of martial prowess, but the Master’s spiritual creature Bihui is also famous for being incredibly powerful.”
“Right?”
“So whatever you’re afraid of, he will solve it for you.”
“Mm-hmm…”
Moa nodded with a dark expression.
Even though it was power she had clearly seen with her own eyes, why didn’t it reassure her?
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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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