The Little Baby Snake of the Vermilion Bird Family - Chapter 60

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

Episode 60
Hwaryeong chirped insistently in his own defense, and Ju Jeokseo let out a soft laugh.
“I was only joking.”
“Hmph.”
Hwaryeong subtly edged away from Ju Jeokseo and settled beside Baeksa.
Seeing this, Baeksa smiled quietly and gently took hold of Ju Jeokseo’s hand.
‘It’s warm…….’
Thank goodness—it was very warm.
The child, who still remembered the sensation of her fingertips growing cold as blood drained away, released a quiet breath of relief.
“I’m so relieved…… I was so worried.”
“I was just about to tell you not to worry, since I sensed you sitting outside the door…….”
Ju Jeokseo’s gaze turned toward Doeui.
“It seems you managed to take him away and comfort him appropriately. Well done, Doeui.”
Doeui nodded.
“Doeui even made me a crown ornament.”
“So he was practicing alone—he must have made it for you.”
“Hehe…….”
Baeksa laughed brightly.
Ju Jeokseo gazed at her for a moment, then slowly opened his mouth.
“Yeon-ah, it was the Ghost Dragon that attacked you.”
“The Ghost Dragon……?”
“Yes. A creature formed by gathering the spirits of dead dragons. Long ago, it was thought to have vanished, but in truth it has been sealed beneath the Imperial Palace all this time.”
At the mention of the Imperial Palace, Baeksa’s expression drained of color.
‘The Imperial Palace means…….’
Father sent it.
Did he send it because I didn’t die?
‘But a dragon cannot kill his own child…….’
So why had he not killed her directly and instead abandoned her in Namto?
It was to escape Heavenly Punishment, was it not?
‘Then why now?’
Baeksa’s hand tightened. The girl listened intently to Ju Jeokseo’s explanation, her expression slightly tense.
“It seems the Emperor released the Ghost Dragon to bring you back to the Imperial Palace.”
“That’s…… a bit strange.”
“Why?”
“Your Majesty would have no reason to want me back. He despised me very, very much. If anything, he might have sent it to kill me…….”
As Yeon spoke slowly, a sudden image flashed through her mind.
‘Inside its belly!’
Inside the Ghost Dragon’s belly, its hand had not lunged at her, but at the small light within her body.
As if that alone was the goal, it had desperately tried to claim Mother’s power.
Remembering this, Baeksa’s head snapped up.
“Oh, no!”
“Hmm?”
“It wasn’t trying to take me—it was after Mother’s power that I carry!”
She withdrew the Guiding Feather from her clothes and placed it on her lap, and a tiny point of light bloomed from the feather.
The small bird-shaped light looked around curiously, as if the outside world amazed it, before gently settling on Baeksa’s shoulder.
“It was trying to steal this. This child protected me.”
“This is…….”
Ju Jeokseo smiled faintly.
He reached out his hand, and the small bird-shaped light fluttered away to perch on his finger.
“Ju Myeongyeong’s power. Faint, but I can feel her soul as well.”
“……Did it want to take Mother’s soul?”
“If it needed Ju Myeongyeong’s soul, that means she might still be alive within the Imperial Palace.”
A moment of silence fell. Ju Jeokseo sighed.
“And at the same time…… it means Ju Myeongyeong is in such peril that her soul was needed to save her.”
Someone flashed through Baeksa’s mind—one figure in particular.
‘That person…….’
The one from whom she had absorbed power again and again, until finally she could not absorb it all, and fled.
The Owner of the Hand, whom she had never encountered again since that escape.
Why did that person come to mind now, so suddenly? Was it because she thought of the Imperial Palace?
“And……you said the Ghost Dragon was made by gathering dragon spirits, yes?”
“Yes.”
“I saw the memories of those dragons inside it.”
“The memories of dragons? How?”
“There was no way to escape, so I tried to absorb a little power with my Abnormal Ability, and suddenly the memories flooded into my mind.”
Recalling those terrible and agonizing memories, Baeksa’s face contorted slightly.
“And inside it, the dragon spirits tried to absorb me.”
“You?”
“Yes.”
The girl nodded.
“They called me a young dragon, but…… they must have been mistaken about something? I’ve received dragon blood, but I’m not actually a dragon.”
By nature, a true dragon possessed a Cintamani, horns, long whiskers, and beautiful scales.
But Baeksa’s Beast Transformation, as was well known, became a bare, small, and adorable baby snake.
She had no horns, no mane.
So Baeksa had reasoned that they must have been mistaken.
“It might not be a mistake.”
Ju Jeokseo spoke with a rather serious expression.
“The spirits trapped within respond only to the spirits of dragons—for only kindred can control the Ghost Dragon.”
“Then are you saying Yeon is a dragon beast-kin?”
“But she does look a bit different from what we’d call a dragon…….”
Hwanya and Hwaryeong each spoke a word. Hwaryeong added urgently.
“Of course I’m not saying you’re lacking! If anything, dragons are the ones lacking! They’re disagreeable, but in any case, you look a bit different from the dragons we know.”
“But the bead that Yeon carries, and her Abnormal Ability is unique too…… And if the dragon spirits within said the same thing, it might be worth investigating.”
“Yes, uncle.”
Baeksa nodded.
Baeksa still believed those dragon spirits must have been mistaken.
By any reasonable measure, she was not a dragon—Hwaryeong was right.
No matter how generously one looked at it, she could not be a dragon. If she had even resembled one, the Imperial Palace would never have abandoned her so callously.
And yet…….
‘I don’t want to hope again…….’
Just as it had happened before, and before that, her heart was not entirely her own to control.
Just as she had wondered then whether the bead she had seen before her death might be a Cintamani, she felt a soft bloom of expectation rising now.
She knew herself that such hope was absurd. In truth, it made no sense.
But as Ju Jeokseo had said, it was too strange to dismiss all of this as mere coincidence or confusion.
***
“Family Head, you must not move.”
After the children had all left, Physician Son spoke with a worried expression.
He regarded Ju Jeokseo’s wound.
For now, he had applied medicine temporarily and bound it with cloth, but whether the wound would heal remained uncertain.
All he had managed was to staunch the bleeding. The wound was too deep, and even the physician found himself at a loss.
“The wound inflicted by the Ghost Dragon carries a special power, and does not heal by ordinary means.”
“But you’ll manage well enough on your own, I’m sure. I’m not worried.”
“You should be. This is not a trivial matter.”
The old physician released a heavy sigh.
“I did not mention it before the young masters and mistress to spare them worry, but in truth, your injury is quite serious. You may need to seek the aid of another who knows the Ghost Dragon well.”
“Wounds heal in their own time, whether someone knowledgeable about the Ghost Dragon comes to examine them or not. So don’t trouble yourself too much.”
“In any case! I have told you—do not overexert yourself. Especially—you are forbidden from Beast Transformation for a while.”
Physician Son spoke in a firm tone and left the room. His voice and manner were quite different from when he addressed Baeksa.
After the physician departed, Ju Jeokseo felt at his own wound.
The wound on his chest was positioned at the center, like a fissure running through his body.
‘If the wound doesn’t heal, Contamination will continue to accumulate.’
If that happened, he would become like Hwanya before. With a wound in the body, Contamination penetrated more easily.
Even if Baeksa could absorb Contamination, wasn’t she in a state where she needed to be watched carefully these days?
Ju Jeokseo, who had not failed to notice that the tips of Baeksa’s hair had darkened further, shook his head.
‘I cannot burden Yeon.’
So somehow, he had to heal quickly.
He had to.
‘Ju Myeongyeong.’
Only then could he save her.
‘Is she truly still alive?’
For a moment, the day he had first brought Baeksa came back to him.
The Emperor, mad with grief over losing his concubine, had cast his own daughter away in Namto.
The day he first heard that tale.
“A concubine…….”
Could it be.
Back then, he had thought nothing of it and moved on.
But now, with things as they were, something about it weighed on his mind.
Ju Jeokseo’s hand tightened.

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