The Little Baby Snake of the Vermilion Bird Family - Chapter 1

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This chapter was translated by Lunox Novels. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
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Chapter 1
A cold, biting land.
Abandoned there entirely alone, a tiny snake blinked.
‘It’s freezing…’
The young snake knew exactly where she had been cast away.
The southern territory of the Haeseo Kingdom.
Namto, a cursed land where black rain fell daily and anyone who dared set foot inside never made it out alive.
Even within that realm, she currently lay in the most heavily corrupted area of all.
Despite being left alone in such a harsh place, no resentment filled her heart.
After all, being abandoned was entirely her own fault.
The tiny snake, Baeksa, laboriously lifted her head to look down at her own body.
Her torso, which had once been as pure white as a snowflake, was now stained black.
A pitch-black trunk that did not suit the name Baeksa, the White Snake, in the slightest.
That hideous body was the exact reason she had been discarded here.
‘This thing is no longer of any use.’
‘Take that thing to Namto and throw it away.’
Because she could no longer be utilized in any way shape or form.
Her body had not possessed such a grotesque appearance from the very beginning.
There was a time when Baeksa, true to her name, possessed a clean and spotless form.
However, the year she turned seven, everything changed when she manifested an Abnormal Ability, a power unique to Beast-kin.
Exhaling a faint breath, the tiny snake recalled that day while watching the black flurries of snow drift down.
The exact moment she had first manifested her Abnormal Ability.
***
Baeksa was a snake born to a Dragon Clan father, the Emperor of the Haeseo Kingdom.
She possessed neither the beautiful horns nor the brilliant Cintamani that her other dragon Beast-kin siblings had.
Furthermore, she had failed to manifest an Abnormal Ability, something every Beast-kin used from birth as if it were a natural part of their body.
Because of this, some murmured that it was due to her mother’s humble origins.
Yet, because the existence of Baeksa’s mother was kept strictly unspoken, nothing was accurately known, nor could it be uncovered.
In such circumstances, there was only one thing Baeksa could be certain of.
That she had been born a snake, a hotbed of ill omen.
And that a white snake was not a welcome presence in the imperial palace.
‘A snake? How could a snake come from the imperial family…’
‘Is it certain that she carries His Imperial Majesty’s bloodline?’
Since it was the law of nature for dragons to be born from the Dragon Clan, everyone found the birth of a baby snake impossible to believe.
Consequently, the imperial family of the Haeseo Kingdom viewed Baeksa as a massive disgrace.
A blemish that had suddenly appeared one day upon an Emperor who was never supposed to show a single flaw.
Thus, the Emperor did not even grant Baeksa a name.
In the imperial court of the Haeseo Kingdom, it was customary for the Emperor to personally name his children.
So while her other siblings received the names of dragons the moment they were born, Baeksa lacked a proper name even by the age of seven.
“That thing,” “the white snake,” “the small snake,” and “the worthless creature” were the titles used to call the child.
Even so, the young girl was fine with it.
She believed that merely being kept alive when she was no different from a royal disgrace was an immense act of grace.
Then came the year she turned seven.
‘The Princess has manifested an Abnormal Ability!’
‘However, the ability is…’
Contrary to everyone’s expectations that she would never manifest an Abnormal Ability, the child did.
Yet, what the young girl came to possess was not the Blessing, the characteristic Abnormal Ability of the Dragon Clan.
‘No! My power! This crazy thing ate up my Blessing!’
‘I—I didn’t mean to do that…’
‘Help me! Nanny! AAAAH! Help me!’
The Abnormal Ability the child manifested was Absorption.
She had manifested it by swallowing the power of Prince Songra while suffering from his relentless bullying.
Baeksa’s power was a ravenous, horrifying Abnormal Ability that devoured absolutely anything without distinction.
Having manifested her power in such a manner, the helpless child was hauled away by guards and dragged before the Emperor.
The young girl knelt before her father, trembling like a criminal.
Instinctively, she realized that her power was by no means a welcome Abnormal Ability.
Sure enough, the Emperor looked down at the child with a smirk.
To any observer, it was not the face of a father rejoicing over his daughter manifesting an ability.
‘I intended to have you thrown away in the southern lands before long.’
The child flinched at the Emperor’s words.
What kind of place was the southern lands?
It was a region currently ruled by the Vermilion Bird Clan, who had been exiled from the Haeseo Kingdom, and a place cursed by the ancient divine dragon.
Once inside, no one could ever emerge alive.
To think he had intended to abandon her in such a place.
Tears welled up in the child’s large eyes.
Seeing this, the Emperor spoke as if he had been waiting for this exact moment.
‘However, I have changed my mind. If you work for me from now on, I shall withhold that much at least.’
‘What will you do? Will you be exiled to the south and die? Or will you remain in this palace and work for your father?’
‘I—I will stay. I want to work for Your Majesty.’
The child spoke, looking up at the Emperor with frightened eyes.
I will do anything, whatever the task may be.
So please, just do not exile me.
As if satisfied with the answer, the Emperor bestowed a name upon the child.
Baeksa.
It literally meant White Snake. It was also a measure to draw a clear line between her and the other royals who were Dragon Clan.
Even so, Baeksa was utterly delighted just to have a name.
Because it meant she finally had a purpose, something she could do within this imperial palace.
Because it meant she could prove her usefulness in some way.
From then on, once a day, the Emperor had Baeksa’s eyes covered and took her somewhere.
Then, he would place someone’s hand in hers and command her to absorb the energy inside that person’s body.
She did exactly as she was told.
She never removed her blindfold, nor did she wonder about the identity of the hand’s owner.
Because her father had told her not to be curious.
Because her only duty was to faithfully execute what she was told without questioning a single thing.
‘Lady Baeksa, it is time to head to the Separate Palace.’
Therefore, despite traveling back and forth to the Separate Palace, Baeksa knew absolutely nothing about the owner of the hand.
All she knew was that the hand was fair, the fingers were long, and it had never stirred even once while she held it.
Yet, it was not a corpse. She could feel a gentle warmth radiating from the hand.
Occasionally, a pleasant scent wafted from it. It was a nostalgic fragrance, as if she had smelled it somewhere once before.
However, it must have been an illusion. Baeksa had been isolated from others ever since her birth.
How much time had passed in that manner?
A subtle change began to manifest in Baeksa’s body after she started absorbing the energy.
Black spots emerged on her pure white torso, and the smudge-like spots grew larger the more she exercised her Abnormal Ability.
Eventually, it gradually consumed Baeksa’s body. Despite the alterations occurring to her form, Baeksa could not neglect the task the Emperor assigned.
Since that was the sole reason she was spared from exile, she had to work diligently without a single complaint.
However, the moment the spots completely covered her pure white body.
The moment she became a pitch-black, ominous snake instead of a white, clean baby snake.
Baeksa could no longer employ her Abnormal Ability.
She could absorb neither blessings, nor curses, nor anything else. It was as though her body had reached its absolute limit.
And upon discovering this fact, the Emperor—
‘Get rid of it.’
Commanded her to be discarded in Namto without a single moment of hesitation.
It was a voice in which not a shred of affection for a daughter he had sired and raised could be felt.
And so, now.
She had ended up abandoned here all alone.
Tears fell drop by drop from the eyes of the baby snake whose body had turned entirely black.
If only she had been a little more useful, would she have avoided being abandoned?
What exactly was the energy she had been absorbing all this time that transformed her body into this state?
Without me, what will happen to the owner of that hand…?
All sorts of thoughts drifted into her mind only to fade away repeatedly. The tiny snake curled her body even smaller.
Baeksa knew instinctively that her death was drawing near.
Because ever since she was discarded here, the corrupted energy of the land had been pouring endlessly into her body, regardless of her will.
Absorbing corrupted energy past one’s limit meant death.
And she had been at her limit from the very moment she was abandoned. Soon, her body would fail to endure.
‘If I had known it would turn out like this…’
If she had known it would end in this manner, she wouldn’t have tried so hard to be recognized.
A father who gave her a worthless, trifling name.
Yet, she had been so happy even to receive that, so the child wanted to work hard at everything.
She believed that if she did, he would acknowledge her one day, and she would be able to fulfill her role as a member of the imperial family.
But now she understood.
That it had all been impossible from the very moment she was born a snake.
That there are hearts in this world that cannot be changed no matter how hard one tries…
The tiny snake closed her two eyes.
She lacked the strength to flee anywhere or even to struggle to survive.
The only thing Baeksa could do was quietly wait right here.
For the end that was approaching her.
Just as her eyes closed and the strength drained from her entire body.
A tiny, pitch-black bead-like object materialized within Baeksa’s vision.
‘What is that…?’
It looked exactly like a dragon’s Cintamani. Something that could never possibly form inside Baeksa.
At the same time, it was what she had desired more fervently than anyone else…
Squeezing out her final ounce of strength, the tiny snake looked up at the round bead.
And in the next instant.
The bead flashed with a white light and swallowed the tiny baby snake.
Without giving her any time to look closely or verify what it was, everything before Baeksa’s eyes dyed black.
It was the conclusion of a short life.
***
After the baby snake’s heart came to a complete halt.
The energy of All Creation was absorbed into the bead, and the surrounding corrupted land slowly began to reclaim its original form.
However, because it returned for only a fleeting moment, nobody witnessed that sight.

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This chapter was translated by Lunox Novels. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
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