The Morning Star Baby Wants a Family - Chapter 31

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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 31
At that, Chung-su’s face twisted. It wasn’t the look of disgust he’d worn when hearing that he disliked Seowan.
“Me?”
Chung-su asked as if genuinely unable to comprehend.
Hae-na blinked her sunset-hued eyes and spoke.
“Yes, well…”
“You really mean me? Truly me?”
Chung-su repeated as though he’d heard something impossible.
But Hae-na simply nodded.
I had merely been curious whether Chung-su disliked me; I didn’t dislike him at all.
Though he’d shown some displeasure, Chung-su had always treated me with great respect.
He’d explained his reasons clearly, and when I questioned him, he’d acknowledged that I was right.
Adults made the same mistakes yet apologized to other adults while refusing to apologize to children.
When something incomprehensible happened in the Yeon Family, I would ask if it was truly right.
Each time, the adults would scold me, saying what could a child possibly know, and demand my silence.
Chung-su was the first adult to acknowledge that his opinion was wrong and to tell me that I was right.
He was kind like Chung-yeon and upright like Seowan.
“Such words won’t make any difference to me, miss.”
Chung-su spoke with a reluctant expression.
Hae-na tilted her head in confusion.
“Yes. I know well that you don’t like me, Chung-su.”
At that innocent remark, Chung-su’s conscience pricked sharply.
Though the words had come from his own mouth, hearing them from Hae-na’s lips made them sound terribly cold.
Why must he feel this way?
He hadn’t done anything particularly wrong!
As Chung-su vented his grievance internally, he paused. Or had he?
Looking down at Hae-na again, her face remained full of goodwill. When our eyes met, the child smiled brightly.
Inexplicable guilt washed over him at that sight.
He recalled his past self, questioning whether Seowan’s order to find a household to send the child to truly required such effort.
“…Miss.”
“Yes?”
In the end, Chung-su couldn’t overcome his pangs of conscience.
“Is there… anything you need? Something you’d like to have?”
Chung-su regretted the words the moment they left his mouth. Hadn’t he witnessed with his own eyes how freely Seowan spent money on the child?
Besides, Hae-na seemed to lack any greed. It seemed unlikely she would say there was anything she wanted.
As expected, Hae-na began to shake her head.
But then her head, which had turned to one side, slowly rotated back to center.
A serious air settled over the child’s round face.
After a moment of thought, Hae-na carefully opened her mouth.
“Rather than something I need… may I ask you just one thing?”
At those words, Chung-su recalled Hae-na’s assault from moments ago, which had begun with the claim that she only wanted to ask a few questions.
He had no idea how much more she would pummel him with those innocent eyes.
Yet Chung-su could not bring himself to refuse.
“Yes. Please, ask away. As much as you’d like….”
Chung-su answered in a listless voice. Then Hae-na spoke.
“You said earlier that the Yul Clan would become a target for many people. What exactly does that mean?”
Fortunately, it was a genuinely innocent question. Chung-su answered lightly.
“It means being attacked. Whether politically or physically.”
At those words, Hae-na’s face went pale. She asked desperately.
“Is someone trying to harm my sister?”
“Well, yes. That is the case, but….”
Despite Chung-su’s nonchalant response, Hae-na’s expression remained urgent. The child, fidgeting as though some disaster had already struck, spoke.
“Couldn’t we increase the security at the Residence? I wish there were a bodyguard to protect my sister.”
At that, Chung-su nearly laughed.
It seemed Hae-na’s conception of an attack was limited to infiltrating the Residence or ambushing someone on the street.
Seowan could handle such threats without lifting a finger.
She was Tamlang Seongggun, after all—one of the most formidable among the Seven Stars.
The attacks Chung-su feared were nothing so childish.
They meant fabricating evidence to brand the Yul Clan as traitors, or throwing Seowan alone onto a battlefield.
What troubled him most was not Seowan’s death, but the fall of Tamlang Fortress and Seowan losing her power.
Seowan’s grip on life was as tenacious as steel wire. It had been so since her days as a street mercenary.
She had survived against all odds.
Even when her body was reduced to tatters, her eyes burned with an obsession for life.
Even if a million-strong army were thrown at her on a battlefield, Seowan would slay them all and live.
But in doing so, she would drain her power excessively, lose control and spiral into chaos, ultimately losing her strength.
Even stripped of her power, I did not believe Seowan would die.
Yet a life fallen from such heights would be so terrible that death might be preferable.
Chung-yeon and I had known Seowan since our days as ronin.
We siblings had saved her life exactly once.
It was a trivial kindness. But Seowan never forgot it, and after becoming Tamlang Seongggun, she placed both of us in key positions at the Residence.
From that moment on, Chung-yeon and I shared our fate with the Yul Clan and with Seowan.
In those ronin days, every meal and every night had been a worry and a danger.
I did not wish to return to such circumstances.
‘…And there’s the young lady too.’
Adults might endure somehow, but how could a child bear such a harsh life?
“Chung-su?”
Hae-na called to him carefully as he fell silent. Lost in thought for a moment, he returned to reality at the sound of her voice.
“Ah, ahem. Increasing security is not possible, I’m afraid. Hiring warriors could be mistaken for maintaining a private army, and the Royal House of Cheonmang Kingdom does not permit such things.”
“….”
“If you’re worried about assassins, there’s no need. The Master would suppress any such threat without difficulty.”
Yet the worry etched across Hae-na’s face showed no sign of fading.
“Still, though….”
The mere possibility that her sister might die unsettled her deeply.
Hae-na knew that someone who had laughed and spoken with her yesterday could return today as a corpse.
The warm, smiling face of Uncle Seo came to mind.
She had no desire to experience the loss of family a second time.
“What if Sister loses control of her spiritual power and becomes weak? What if a bad person attacks her then?”
Well, that shouldn’t happen.
Chung-su smiled faintly.
Severing the neck of an assassin—not even a celestial being—was as effortless for Seowan as unleashing a deluge upon him.
Of course, she could rampage if she experienced severe shock or fear.
But Seowan was not the sort to be shaken by mere assassins.
During her mercenary days, she had killed countless foes, and nearly died more times than she could count.
“It will be fine. Such things….”
Chung-su tried to reassure the deeply worried Hae-na.
Yet in that moment, a thought flickered through his mind.
‘Isn’t the young lady herself in greater danger?’
Children who had not yet become celestial beings faced constant threats to their lives. The stronger a family’s power, the fewer siblings one had, the greater the peril.
And now, Hae-na was suspected to be Seowan’s daughter and the sole heir of the Yul Clan.
Those who wished to make the Yul Clan their ally, and those who sought to check the Yul Clan’s power.
The former would kill Hae-na to force Seowan to seek a new heir, while the latter would eliminate her to sever the Yul line entirely.
Unlike Seowan, who would survive even if thrown into the heart of a battlefield, even a single unremarkable assassin posed a threat to Hae-na.
Chung-su gazed down at the child, his mind troubled.
‘I should warn her to be careful.’
But how? By telling her that from now on, all manner of people would seek her death?
He could already envision Seowan, wreathed in an ominous aura.
Chung-su shuddered involuntarily.
Then, a method suddenly gleamed in his mind.
Chung-su adopted a grave expression and spoke with a troubled air.
“Actually, now that I think about it, there is some danger involved.”

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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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