The Dragon Family’s Beloved Baby Cat - Chapter 83

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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 83

Along with realization, something flooded into Danhwi’s mind.

‘What is this?’

It was fragmented and flickering, making it hard to properly discern what he was seeing.

Light.

Eyes opening for the first time.

Red, sticky blood.

‘Hwi… my child…’

And then the pain and fear that followed.

I need to find someone.

My master.

Where are you?

I can only hear your pain.

I want to meet you.

I keep, keep searching. Where are you? I want to see you. I came here for you.

That’s not it. That’s fake.

My master isn’t there.

Danhwi realized that what he saw and felt was Goseol’s heart.

The agonizing time of suffering under forbidden arts.

The hatred toward the Emperor who tried to force a connection.

The days of wandering in search of his master.

Tears fell drop by drop from Danhwi’s eyes.

-Kuuu…

Goseol cried too.

Transparent tears flowed from his large blue eyes.

Danhwi learned for the first time that spirit beasts could cry.

“Goseol…”

Neither of them could stop their tears.

Goseol’s sadness felt like his own.

Goseol was soon another version of himself.

As emotions were shared through their contract, Danhwi embraced Goseol’s neck, wrapped in joy and regret.

“Older Brother! Goseol is crying!”

Moa shouted in surprise.

“Older Brother is crying too! Why is everyone crying?!”

Moa waved her hands frantically, not knowing what to do.

She went back and forth between Danhwi and Goseol, restless.

“It’s nothing…”

Danhwi wiped his tears and forced a smile.

“It’s nothing. Just…”

“Just?”

“I’m happy that Goseol and I became friends.”

“…Really?”

Moa looked at Danhwi with suspicious eyes.

“Really.”

Danhwi patted Moa’s head.

“Then that’s fine! If it’s happiness, that’s good!”

Moa smiled brightly.

“Goseol, you became friends with Older Brother, so don’t cry anymore!”

Moa stroked Goseol’s beak.

Goseol rubbed his face with his wing as if wiping away tears.

-Kuuu.

“Hehe, Goseol is so cute!”

Moa burst into giggles.

Danhwi laughed along.

But deep in his eyes, a dark light lingered.

***

The night was deep.

Moa was sleeping soundly beside Danhwi.

Danhwi couldn’t fall asleep.

His face looked lonely as he stared at the ceiling, lost in thought.

‘I know everything now.’

He had seen everything in Goseol’s memories.

The moment Father bled and declared abdication.

The moment Older Brother used forbidden arts to prevent Goseol from finding his master and imprisoned him.

‘I’m the real Emperor.’

He knew that fact now.

Goseol was the proof.

Father had declared abdication, and the Heavenly Deity had sent down Goseol.

Older Brother was nothing but a usurper who had stolen it.

“Hah…”

Rage surged up.

But Danhwi suppressed that anger.

Getting angry now wouldn’t change anything.

He needed to think rationally.

‘If I push Older Brother out now? What would happen if I revealed that I’m the Emperor?’

Danhwi quietly closed his eyes.

Legitimacy was on his side.

The mere fact that Goseol had contracted with him was sufficient evidence.

‘But…’

Older Brother had already been sitting on the Emperor’s throne for several years.

He controlled the Subjects, commanded the army, and ruled the country.

What would happen if he stepped forward now?

Some of the Subjects would follow him.

But there would also be those who followed Older Brother.

‘The country would be split…’

A civil war seemed certain to break out.

Danhwi suddenly recalled the scenery he had seen from the sky while riding Goseol.

The streets of the Imperial Capital that looked small like toys.

The people moving like ants.

The outside world he saw for the first time.

The wind of freedom he felt for the first time.

‘It would burn fiercely.’

If they got caught up in war.

If their peaceful daily lives crumbled.

If blood flowed, houses burned, and families scattered.

‘That can’t happen.’

Danhwi shook his head.

There was something more important than revenge against Older Brother.

The people’s peace.

Wasn’t protecting that the real duty of an Emperor?

‘I can’t let someone else suffer the same injustice as me.’

Because he was too young, Danhwi had suffered between his abdicated father and his greedy older brother.

One person’s misguided thoughts had tormented and killed his father, mother, himself, and all the palace servants who served them.

No one should get caught up in such affairs again.

‘Not yet.’

Danhwi looked at Moa sleeping beside him.

He could hear the steady breathing from Moa’s mouth as she slept peacefully with a smile.

He didn’t even want to imagine this child trembling in the midst of war.

‘I’m too weak right now.’

He needed power to reclaim the throne without creating rivers of blood.

Enough power to push his brother aside without shaking the nation.

Danhwi quietly clenched his fist.

Legitimacy that anyone would have to acknowledge.

The qualities of an emperor that the people would willingly follow.

Without civil war.

Without bloodshed.

He had to return as an emperor no one could deny.

‘I have to endure until then.’

Danhwi looked out the window.

Thinking of the Imperial Palace made his heart instantly heavy.

That hellish place.

If he returned, he couldn’t know what kind of suffering his brother would inflict on him.

“I have to go back…”

Thinking that suddenly made his heart ache as if it were being squeezed.

The warmth of family he had experienced again after so long.

If possible, he wanted to stay here for the rest of his life.

By Moa’s side, together with the people who raised Moa to be such a lovable and happy child.

‘No. Ah, no…’

Danhwi squeezed his eyes shut.

The sweetness he had tasted once was too difficult to give up.

But if he stayed here, Moa’s family would be in danger.

His brother wouldn’t leave them alone.

No matter how strong the Jinryong Clan was, they couldn’t fight the Emperor head-on.

He couldn’t put these warm people in danger because of himself.

‘If I go back, at least… they’ll be relieved.’

He would take Goseol with him too.

Pretending he hadn’t noticed anything.

Pretending he didn’t know about the contract.

For now, he would do as his brother wanted.

Then he could buy time.

‘Wait, Dan Hyeonwoo.’

Danhwi’s eyes hardened.

A deep and dark light that was hard to believe belonged to a child’s eyes.

‘Someday I will definitely… execute you.’

After becoming stronger.

After gaining power that no one could ignore.

As the true master of this nation.

Until then…

‘I’ll endure.’

Danhwi quietly closed his eyes.

At the window, Goseol was watching over him.

Goseol’s eyes also held sadness as it felt its master’s heart through their contract.

***

The next morning.

When Moa opened her eyes, Danhwi was already awake.

He was looking out the window.

“Older Brother?”

Moa sat up, rubbing her eyes.

“Couldn’t you sleep?”

“…A little.”

Danhwi turned around and smiled sadly.

That smile looked somehow sorrowful, making Moa’s heart sink.

“Older Brother, what’s wrong?”

Danhwi fell silent for a moment at Moa’s question.

Then he opened his mouth.

“Moa.”

“Yeah?”

“I think I have to go back.”

Moa’s face hardened.

“…What?”

“I have to return to the Imperial Palace.”

“Why?”

Moa shot up.

Moa looked frightened.

That’s how much the Imperial Palace was a place with no good memories for Moa.

‘No, except for when Older Brother and Goseol met!’

To say he would return to such a place on his own.

Shocked, Moa tightly grasped Danhwi’s hand.

“Why are you going back? Can’t you stay here?”

“Moa…”

“Older Brother, stay here. With me. Okay?”

Moa’s voice gradually mixed with whining.

When Danhwi didn’t answer, her face looked increasingly sorrowful.

“No one will be mean to you, Older Brother. You promised.”

Tears welled up in Moa’s eyes.

Danhwi’s heart ached watching Moa like this.

He wiped away the tears forming in Moa’s eyes with his finger.

This situation was so painful that just hiding his trembling fingers took all his strength.

“I know.”

Danhwi stroked Moa’s head.

“Everyone here is so kind.”

“Then why…!”

“That’s why I have to go back.”

“Huh…?”

Moa made an expression of incomprehension.

Danhwi said quietly.

“If I stay here, your family will be in danger.”

“…In danger?”

Moa asked back.

“Why? Why would it be dangerous if you’re here, Older Brother?”

Danhwi couldn’t answer.

That his older brother was trying to kill him.

That he was the true Emperor.

He couldn’t tell all of that to this young child.

“…There’s just something like that.”

Danhwi lowered his head.

“Bad people are looking for me. If I stay here, they’ll harm your family too.”

“Then…”

Moa’s voice trembled.

“Then we just need to punish the bad villain mister! Our Grandfather is really strong!”

Moa had already intuited that the person Danhwi was talking about was the Emperor.

“Father is strong too! Mother is strong too! My older brothers are too!”

Moa said while choking back tears.

Somi, who had been floating nearby watching the situation, also looked at the two children with sympathetic eyes.

As if comforting them, Somi’s tail gently swayed and covered Moa’s head, stroking it.

“If we all combine our strength, we can beat the bad people!”

Danhwi looked at Moa like that.

Pure eyes.

Eyes that didn’t yet know the darkness of the world.

Moa didn’t know what kind of pain Danhwi had lived through.

Nor about what it meant to be a ruler.

“…Moa.”

Danhwi firmly grasped Moa’s hand.

“I’ll explain everything later. Right now…”

A lonely light appeared in Danhwi’s eyes.

“Right now, just trust me.”

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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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