The Morning Star Baby Wants a Family - Chapter 2

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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 2
Seowan brought Hae-na to the Yul Estate.
The residence, constructed of blue-tiled roofs and dark timber, exuded an antiquated elegance.
Even the servants’ gait was measured and precise—nothing ordinary about it.
A criminal remained a criminal, even if spared. Hae-na had expected to be cast into some abandoned warehouse or dungeon.
Yet contrary to her expectations, the servants guided the child to a chamber befitting a noble lady.
Hae-na surveyed the room with an expression of utter bewilderment.
A silk-quilted bed, fine wooden chests and tables, and the delicate fragrance of precious incense drifting through the air.
‘Why have they brought me here…?’
My legs ached from the long confinement in the wall closet and the extended standing since descending from Seowan’s shoulders.
Yet I could not bring myself to sit on the floor.
The room was far too exquisite; even the ground seemed cleaner than I was.
“Does the chamber please you, young lady?”
At that moment, a woman with a kind countenance approached Hae-na.
It was Chung-yeon, the attendant who had received the child from Seowan and guided her here personally.
“Perhaps you should bathe first. I’ve prepared bathwater—shall we go?”
“P-please, lower your speech. How could you speak so kindly to someone as lowly as me…?”
Startled by the gentle words, Hae-na waved her hands frantically. Chung-yeon tilted her head in puzzlement.
“Lowly? You are a guest brought by the master himself—of course you deserve such treatment.”
“I’m not… I’m not someone worthy of such kindness.”
Hae-na hung her head and answered hesitantly, revealing a cloud-patterned emblem sewn into her worn collar.
Chung-yeon regarded her intently.
The figure who had suddenly arrived at the Yul Estate, where guests were rarely received, was a thin and terrified child.
Chung-yeon, who worked within these walls, knew little of the world beyond them.
Though the Yeon Family had committed treason, how much of that grave crime could rest upon such a small child’s shoulders?
The small, round brown head trembled visibly. The child cowered as though bearing some terrible sin.
Chung-yeon found it deeply pitiful.
“Young lady. This is the Yul Estate.”
Bending down to meet her gaze, Chung-yeon looked into those frightened green eyes.
“The master of this residence is Seowan, and I, as a servant of this house, merely obey his commands.”
“….”
“Who you are matters little. What matters is that the master has ordered me to care for you well.”
A flicker of confusion appeared in those orange eyes that had been so fearful.
Chung-yeon offered her a gentle smile.
“So there’s no need to worry. If your conscience troubles you, then help me obey the master’s orders. Agreed?”
Hae-na nodded numbly.
With that, Chung-yeon scooped the child into her arms and carried her toward the basin of prepared bathwater.
A delicate fragrance rose from the water. With swift yet tender movements, Chung-yeon undressed the child and placed her in the tub.
“Now then, let me wash you clean.”
Chung-yeon scrubbed Hae-na thoroughly, dried her, applied fragrant oil, and combed her hair dry.
After that, Chung-yeon changed the child’s clothes and left the room, saying she would bring a meal.
In the blink of an eye, I found myself clean and fragrant, left alone in the room.
‘What… what is this?’
The treatment was far too generous.
Perfumed oils during a bath? For me, a servant of the Yeon Family, even warm water was a luxury.
‘And these clothes…’
I gazed down carefully at the garments I wore.
The pale pink jeogori was embroidered with golden thread, and the fresh green skirt hem gleamed with a lustrous sheen.
As the saying goes, even a dog learns in three years—having worked in a merchant house, I could recognize at a glance how precious and expensive the silk used in these garments was.
‘Why would he go to such lengths for me?’
Tamlang Seongggun Yul Seowon was not one to show mercy to a mere child.
At least, that was what I had heard until now.
Four years ago, the illegitimate daughter of the Previous Tamrang Seongggun, who had suddenly inherited the power of Tamrang Fortress.
Or rather, not even an illegitimate daughter.
She was the child born to an Entertainer who had spent a single night with the Previous Tamrang Seongggun.
Seowan had become Tamlang Seongggun after annihilating the entire Yul Clan, who opposed raising one of such lowborn blood as Seongggun.
She was one who would not spare even an infant if they bore the Yul surname.
Even when handling various state affairs as the king’s delegate afterward, she had never shown mercy to anyone.
‘Could it be… that he thinks I committed no wrongdoing?’
The moment that thought crossed my mind, my small heart sank.
“…That can’t be it.”
My quiet murmur was heavy with guilt.
I was the only young servant working in the Yeon Family.
The other servants were all adults, at least eighteen years old.
The children were all in the Basement. Trapped in that prison.
‘He said he rescued those children.’
The reason the Government Military had raided the Yeon Family must have been because what the house had done to those children was discovered.
So perhaps Seowan had thought I was in the same situation as those children?
That I was too young to understand anything. That I was merely a victim being exploited…
‘No.’
I bit down hard on my lower lip.
The cries of those children still echoed in my ears.
They had all cried so much.
Saying it hurt, begging for help, reaching out their hands.
I could not help those children. I was afraid of becoming like them.
Then and now, I wanted to live, and I was glad to be alive.
I did not have the courage to say now that I was wrong and ask him to kill me.
But if Seowan did not know of my sin, I had to tell him.
No matter how shameless it made me, I could not keep silent.
Even if it meant prostrating myself at his feet again and begging for my life.
The moment Hae-na steeled her resolve and shot up from the chair, the sliding door glided open with a soft rumble.
The instant she laid eyes on Seowan, her entire body froze solid.
Indifferent to the child’s visible dread, Seowan strode toward Hae-na with measured, purposeful steps.
Behind the open door, Chung-yeon’s worried gaze followed from the threshold.
“Why are you standing?”
Seowan, who had been regarding the child with the stillness of a statue, let the words fall flatly.
Hae-na startled violently and hastily dropped back into the chair.
In her haste, the fabric of her skirt crumpled beneath her.
Oh no.
Panicked, Hae-na tugged frantically at the wrinkled cloth to smooth it.
“I merely asked a question.”
Another word drifted down over the child’s bent head.
Stiffening at this, Hae-na slowly rose from the chair once more.
“I… there’s something I need to tell you.”
Hae-na forced her trailing words to come faster.
In the Yeon Family, slowness brought punishment.
Stale rice, or days locked in a lightless storage room.
If she displeased the Tamlang Seongggun, the consequences would be far worse.
“Speak.”
Cold permission was granted.
Hae-na clenched her trembling hands tightly, hiding them within her sleeves.
“Thank you so much for saving me. But… I don’t deserve this kindness. Because…”
Hae-na explained, as calmly as she could manage, what I had been doing all these years.
I wanted to make excuses for why it had been necessary, but I held my tongue. That was not something I was permitted to do.
When I finished speaking, I exhaled deeply. My heart thundered in my chest.
What would happen now?
Being locked away in a cell or stripped of these fine clothes—I could accept that.
But I dreaded that he might rage and order my immediate execution.
“I understand you had no choice.”
In that moment, his measured voice severed the dark imaginings spiraling through my mind.
“You belonged to the Yeon Family from birth, so you did as you were bound to do. Your guilt lies with those who abandoned you there, not with yourself.”
Indeed, I had been left as an infant at the gates of the Yeon Family estate.
Yet Hae-na felt more relief than curiosity about how Seowan had learned this truth.
“Your sin is not yours to bear.”
Hae-na bowed her head deeply, afraid tears would spill.
From the moment I was old enough to understand, guilt had weighed heavily upon my small shoulders.
Every time I turned away from another’s death to survive, every time I lived on.
I had wondered countless times if my very existence was a mistake.
No one had ever told Hae-na that this was not her fault.
Not even Hae-na herself.
But Seowan told me otherwise.
Relief and gratitude flooded through me like a tidal wave, and tears threatened to spill over.
I bit my lip hard to avoid ruining the expensive silk garments.
“That is precisely why I brought you here.”
Seowan’s voice continued, as cold and clipped as before.
I lifted my head.
His rigid expression had softened slightly.
Some emotion flickered across his face—whether pity or guilt, I could not discern.
Yet it was far too cold to be the face of one merely comforting a child.
“Eight years ago, it was I who abandoned you before that residence.”
Speaking with the countenance of a penitent confessing his sins, Seowan uttered the words with mechanical precision.

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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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