The Little Baby Snake of the Vermilion Bird Family - Chapter 50

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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 50
“So please, don’t worry about it. I will be fine.”
Baeksa gazed steadily at Hwanya’s hand.
The traces of Contamination had vanished without a trace from Hwanya’s palm, leaving it clean and warm—as warm as her father’s hand.
And so the child was certain: Hwanya must be a warm-hearted person as well.
In the girl’s mind, soil had begun to accumulate where such certainty could take root.
“Since we’ve only just met, if we grew closer together, wouldn’t that be…… nice?”
Baeksa’s face flushed red as she stumbled over the words.
Though she had spoken with considerable resolve, voicing such things aloud was still foreign to her, still shameful.
But there was no time for further embarrassment.
“Yes.”
Hwanya lifted Baeksa into his arms and answered simply.
“I’ll be very good to you. Just as your aunt Ju Myeongyeong was to me.”
Hwanya’s voice remained stolid, measured, and perfectly level.
To a young child’s ear, it might have sounded a little frightening—yet Baeksa felt no fear from him.
“Truly? You promise?”
“I do.”
“Hehe, then let’s link our pinkies!”
As Baeksa wiggled her small pinky finger forward, Hwanya let out a soft laugh.
He extended his own pinky and hooked it with hers.
At her brother’s tender gesture, Baeksa pressed both palms together in joy.
“Hehe, I’m so happy.”
“With Hwaryeong being a boy, I thought I needn’t concern myself too much, so I simply fulfilled my duties as an older brother and watched over him.”
Hwanya held Baeksa as he sank into thought, gently swaying his arms as if to soothe her.
“What should I do for you first? Have you been outside the estate before?”
“Outside?”
“Yes. Beyond the estate walls.”
“Ah, I went out once during the Divine Beast Festival. Since then I’ve been a bit shy, so I haven’t……”
Baeksa hesitated as she spoke, glancing up at Hwanya from the corner of her eye.
‘But I want to go out.’
During her time at the estate, she had met many new people, and many of them were kind.
She had grown thoroughly familiar with its layout, and now could find her way alone without anyone’s guidance.
So.
On her clear, lovely face, the desire to venture outside shone transparent as glass. She spoke carefully.
“I only saw a little of the outside world during the Divine Beast Festival, but it seemed so fascinating, so beautiful, so wonderful.”
Of course, given what had happened during the festival, she should try to avoid drawing attention from others.
‘But……’
Baeksa watched Hwanya’s expression as she continued.
“I would love to go out again, if I could. I haven’t had many chances to see the world outside……”
Two brief lives.
In those two lives, Baeksa’s world had been very narrow—hemmed in by the high walls of the Imperial Palace.
And now it was slowly widening. That was why she wanted to take one more step beyond those walls.
At the girl’s careful confession, Hwanya’s expression grew inscrutable for a moment, then he nodded slowly.
“Let’s go.”
“…… Really?”
“Yes. I’ll ask Father for permission.”
“Wonderful!”
The child beamed with delight.
“Then let’s take Hwaryeong and Doeui with us too. It would be so much fun and so joyful if we all went together.”
Hwanya’s mouth tightened with what seemed like reluctance before he slowly spoke.
“Hwaryeong…… doesn’t like being around me.”
At this unexpected words, Baeksa’s eyes widened in surprise.
‘He never seemed that way at all.’
Hwaryeong wanted to look good in front of Hwanya. That meant he cared for him deeply.
To avoid disappointing Hwanya, Baeksa recalled Hwaryeong practicing Beast Transformation so diligently, and shook her head firmly.
“From what I can see, I think Hwaryeong likes you. But because he likes you, he’s just being careful. So let’s all go together.”
Hwanya remained silent for a long moment at her words, then bowed his head and pressed a kiss to the child’s round forehead.
“Yes. Let’s do that.”
At Hwanya’s warm reply, Baeksa’s face lit up with a smile as if she had gained the whole world.
They looked exactly like true siblings, as if they had grown up together from earliest childhood.
***
Hwanya traced the memory of the child who had rested in his arms only moments before.
‘Round and warm.’
Were not snakes cold and slender creatures?
And what was the world’s perception of snake-kin?
According to legend, they were beings who had grown greedy and failed to become dragons.
Cunning and repulsive—a race that would always betray.
The little snake was so small and beautiful that Hwanya wanted to laugh a hundred times at such worldly judgments.
Watching her gentle, wide-set eyes, he felt that no creature more pure and lovely could possibly exist.
And at the same time, he could not banish the thought of Ju Myeongyeong.
‘Aunt.’
If she had lived, how much would she have loved the child?
That sweet little snake who bore her likeness so closely—how tenderly would she have cherished her?
Perhaps, without the weight of his anxious nature, the child would have grown more bold and spirited.
But instead.
‘That chance was stolen from her.’
More precisely—stolen away.
He had heard the whole story: how the child had fared in the Imperial Palace, how she came to be here.
All of it had been so cruel that he could scarcely believe a thing so small could endure it.
At the thought, Hwanya’s hand clenched into a fist.
His aunt’s disappearance. His mother’s death.
And Baeksa, abandoned in Namto.
One man was woven through all of it.
‘The Emperor.’
Celestial Dragon—thought to possess the greatest Supernatural Ability of any emperor in history.
If he was the child’s father, then he was certainly the one who had taken Ju Myeongyeong, the one who had killed his mother.
In Hwanya’s eyes, a dark crimson flame burned quietly. He stared down at his own palms, then gripped them so hard that his nails left marks in the flesh.
‘I will not forgive.’
I will repay him.
A single tiny blade of grass remained in Hwanya’s hand.
It must have clung to him when he lifted Baeksa.
He carefully tucked it into his pocket.
Though the grass was worthless and unremarkable, in this moment it felt precious to him.
***
“Progress?”
At the Emperor’s languid question, everyone fell silent at once. He smiled with a bloodless grin and staggered down from the dais.
“Ha!”
Crash!
Then he began hurling whatever lay in his grasp at random.
Porcelain shattered, furniture splintered, the floor cracked. The Imperial Physicians pressed flat to the ground, trembling.
“Every time, the same excuses. How should I deal with you wretches?”
At the Emperor’s furious voice, none dared lift their head.
The sound of a honed blade scraping across stone cut through the chamber. The Emperor swayed where he stood, raising his head.
Then he murmured quietly.
“It’s all because of that woman. That she won’t die.”
The Imperial Physician flinched.
Everyone in the room knew whom the Emperor meant.
The troublesome burden of the Imperial Palace—the defective, inadequate half-serpent princess, Baeksa.
Since her birth, the Emperor had blamed her for every misfortune that befell the palace.
And he was not entirely wrong.
After Baeksa was born, Baeksa’s mother had simply collapsed and never woke again.
That was seven years ago.
During all those years in bed, her body had wasted away to skin and bone. Not a single Imperial Physician could explain why she would not wake.
All they could surmise was that after bearing the princess, her vital energy had been depleted, leaving her unconscious.
And……
The Imperial Physician dared a glance at the woman behind the Emperor.
She lay like a corpse, and through Spirit Sight, the fluctuations of her soul were so faint they seemed about to vanish at any moment.
Her spirit had already scattered almost entirely; scarcely a fragment remained bound to her body. She was, in all practical sense, already dead.
Yet she still lived—because of the Emperor’s obsessive will.
He had sealed the scattering soul so it could not fully leave her flesh, and through every means at his command, he kept her breath going.
But even that was reaching its limit. Only a single fragment of spirit remained in the woman’s body.
When it faded, she would die. The Imperial Physician could well imagine what storm would then sweep across the Haeseo Kingdom.
“Your Majesty……”
Just as the Imperial Physician moved to speak, the Cintamani burst from the Emperor’s robes, scattering golden light.
In that instant, the Emperor’s eyes narrowed.

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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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