The Little Baby Snake of the Vermilion Bird Family - Chapter 4

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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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“You must never look up.”
The palace attendant gave the young girl the warning again and again.
It was an instruction she had heard before. Even Baeksa knew that when meeting the Emperor, one must not raise their head until permission was granted.
As the child nodded with a tense face, the attendant watched her for a moment before announcing toward the inside of the door.
“Your Majesty, I have brought the princess as instructed.”
“Let her in.”
A cold voice filtered out from behind the closed door. Baeksa flinched at that callous tone.
It was a voice she had heard multiple times, yet cold sweat broke out and her hands trembled every single time she heard it.
When the doors parted, the child kept her gaze fixed solely on her own toes as she stepped forward cautiously, coming to a halt.
Then, with her head deeply bowed before the massive imperial throne, she waited for the Emperor to speak.
Before long, the Emperor opened his mouth and uttered a dry remark.
“You have come. This is the first time I am seeing your face. There has been no reason to see you until now.”
“H-Hello, Your Majesty…”
But that was all; the Emperor did never tell her to look up.
Whether one quarter of an hour passed, or two quarters of an hour, it remained the same.
The child squeezed her eyes shut, feeling with her entire body the arrow-like sharpness of his gaze piercing down upon her.
‘It’s actually better this way.’
If he had told her to look up, she wouldn’t have known what kind of expression to make.
So it was rather a relief. Baeksa peeked open her eyes slightly to look at her toes, recalling the time she had first arrived here.
The time she had been dragged away after manifesting her Supernatural Ability.
The Emperor of that day had given Baeksa a choice to decide her own destiny.
As time passed and Baeksa became useless, she realized too late that there had never really been a choice even back then.
Still, on paper, there certainly had been a choice.
‘But there won’t be one this time…’
Because she hadn’t manifested her ability, nor had she shown any kind of usefulness.
Therefore, just as Songra said, and just as the palace rumors went, she would be thrown out.
Gulp.
Baeksa swallowed hard.
The little girl fidgeted with her sweaty, tiny palms, waiting for her father’s words to fall.
Of course, still, even now…
A single strand of hope breathed inside her heart, wondering if her father might call her tenderly at the very last moment.
“A useless creature. How could a snake Beast-kin be born into this Haeseo Kingdom Imperial Court…”
The heartless Emperor had never once granted Baeksa’s hopes. Her heart stung at his dry words.
Muttering just loud enough for her to hear, the Emperor smiled and looked down at Baeksa.
“Your disposition has been decided.”
Why was it that even though she knew it was a futile expectation, and even though she knew what lay ahead, there was no way to stop these feelings from blossoming?
“Go to Namto, the southern land of the Vermilion Bird.”
It was probably because Baeksa was so young that even combining her age before death with her current age wouldn’t make her an adult.
So when she grew older, she might stop harboring futile expectations, and she might not feel her heart ache upon hearing such words.
Yet Baeksa knew that something like ‘getting a little older’ would not happen to her.
Because going to Namto meant she would die.
Without any time to grow more, learn more, or understand more.
“Go live or die, do as you please.”
Baeksa softly clenched both her hands as the Emperor’s words pierced her ears.
‘It was true.’
The fact that he had originally intended to throw her away, and Songra’s words that she would have been discarded if she had stayed just one more week.
It was all true.
Baeksa was glad about it, yet she wasn’t glad. No, she felt somewhat sad.
She was being thrown out just as she had aimed for, so why was she sad? The child blinked her aching eyes and bit her lower lip hard.
Then, after a short silence, Baeksa slowly raised her head to look at the Emperor.
At the child’s sudden action, everyone present froze in astonishment. The Emperor was no exception.
The child thought the expression of the Emperor she looked up at was more heartbreaking than she had imagined.
This was the second time she was being cast out by her father’s hands.
However, experiencing a sad event twice did not make it any less sorrowful.
Despite that, the girl tried her best not to cry, forcing a smile onto her face.
“Yes, Your Majesty.”
Yet she could not stop the tears flowing out like a burst spring.
A single tear rolled down her pale cheek and gathered at the tip of her chin.
Instead of wiping the tear away, Baeksa trembled her small lips and continued speaking.
“Thank you for raising me until now.”
Slowly, very slowly in the dead silence, the child bowed her head to offer her final greeting.
“Please, stay healthy.”
Those final words were not a greeting meant for the Emperor.
‘Please recover fully.’
It was a greeting meant for the Owner of the Hand, whose hand she had held onto until the moment she was cast aside.
***
The Emperor arched an eyebrow at the child’s attitude.
Through his narrowed eyes, his black irises pierced down at the child standing below his feet.
Long hair that hadn’t been properly cared for, and a frame smaller and frailer than others her age.
A young child barely around seven years old.
Even for a young child, there was no way she didn’t know what kind of place Namto was.
The Beast-kin of this Haeseo Kingdom grew up hearing stories about the cursed land of the South from the time they were small.
So she must know that going there meant death.
She would also know that she was being sent there because of the heavenly law stating a dragon cannot kill its own offspring.
Even so.
‘Thank you for raising me until now.’
‘Please, stay healthy.’
Could a seven-year-old truly utter such words?
Wasn’t crying and begging not to be thrown out, pleading desperately to avoid banishment, the behavior children of that age would normally show?
If Yeoryun or Songra had heard this news, they would have probably clung to his legs and wept until they collapsed from exhaustion.
But the child didn’t do that.
Without crying, begging, or trembling for reconsideration, she lifted her head and looked straight into her father’s face.
And as if she had been waiting for this exact moment from the very beginning, she smiled softly through her tear-stained face and delivered her final farewell.
From her pitch-black eyes glimpsed beneath her bangs, not a single hint of expectation or hope could be seen. Those clear eyes, completely void of emotion, seemed to resemble her father’s own for a brief moment.
However.
‘What does it matter.’
She was a child to be cast out soon anyway.
Now that the decision to expel her had been made, the fact that the child showed a slightly unusual side wasn’t very important.
The fact that he had only learned today what color that child’s eyes were wasn’t very important either.
The fact that today was likely that kid’s birthday was equally unimportant.
She was merely leaving on the same day she had arrived.
As the Emperor gestured, the tiny girl retreated and left the room as if she had been waiting for it.
Though her two legs trembled slightly as she walked lightly, the child did not look back even once.
A tiny tear stain remained where the child had stood, but it quickly dried up and vanished without a trace.
Watching that sight with boredom, the Emperor spoke to the scribe who sat kneeling.
“Record that the princess was expelled from this palace today.”
Then, as if he had just remembered, he added one more instruction.
“Lest she be confused with the other princesses, write down that Princess Baeksa was expelled.”
The scribe moved his hand very slowly, recording that the girl who had been here just moments ago was now leaving the palace.
That short line of record became the sole evidence that the girl had ever existed in the Imperial Court.
From that moment on, everything proceeded with rapid efficiency.
A carriage stood ready, and the palace attendants who would see her off on her departure gathered in a small cluster before the narrow gate of the Imperial Palace.
Originally, when a member of the imperial family left the palace, it was customary for everyone who had served them to come out and see them off.
However, since there were only three people managing Baeksa’s Residence, only three attendants stood side-by-side next to the carriage she would ride.
Baeksa hesitated as she approached the carriage upon spotting a familiar attendant.
She was the only attendant in this Imperial Palace who had looked after Baeksa even just a little bit.
‘She will live better without me.’
In truth, her Residence was no different from a place of exile. Since attendants were ranked based on which master they served, she would work in a much better environment if she came to serve a better master than herself.
Thinking that way made her feel a bit less sad.
As Baeksa climbed into the carriage with a tense face, the guards who would escort the child all the way to the southern land took their positions on both sides of the carriage.
And before long, the carriage slowly set off.

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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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