The Morning Star Baby Wants a Family - Chapter 63

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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 63
Let us rewind time four days, to that fateful night.
“Hae-na, Hae-na! Little one!”
Seowan cradled Hae-na in his arms, his face drained of all color.
The limp child lay motionless, her eyes sealed shut.
As though she would never wake again.
Just as the world began to fade to white, a large hand suddenly appeared and pressed a finger beneath the child’s nose.
“…She is breathing.”
“….”
“She lives. She has merely lost consciousness.”
With those words, the suffocating grip around Seowan’s chest released. Cheon-eul rose to his feet and spoke.
“We must not delay. Take her to the Royal Physician at once. We need to return to Gaeyang Palace immediately.”
Seowan steadied himself and stood.
As he moved to adjust his hold on the child, Cheon-eul extended his arms.
“Allow me. Your right shoulder is gravely wounded, is it not?”
Only then did Seowan notice his right arm trembling uncontrollably.
The arm that had desperately clung to Hae-na went limp the moment she was transferred to Cheon-eul’s embrace, falling uselessly to his side.
Cheon-eul’s expression grew even more rigid.
The spiritual energy that had been dormant within the cave now flowed with terrible ease.
Wind swirled around the three of them, and in a blink, they arrived at Gaeyang Palace.
“Goodness, goodness. What in the heavens is all this commotion in the dead of night?”
The Royal Physician, summoned so abruptly, threw up his hands in bewilderment at the sight of them.
He had intended to examine the two Seven Star Army soldiers first, but at Cheon-eul’s insistence, he attended to Seowan and Hae-na instead.
Fortunately, the Royal Physician was as skilled as he was talkative, and he swiftly and expertly tended to Seowan’s right shoulder.
Hae-na’s examination concluded even faster.
The Royal Physician snapped his medicine chest shut after his inspection.
“This young lady has no injuries. She is simply exhausted and has fallen into deep sleep. Let her rest well.”
At his cheerful words, Seowan exhaled in relief.
After tucking Hae-na’s blankets carefully around her, Seowan rose.
“Now examine him as well.”
“Ah yes, of course. Geomun Seongggun, please come this way.”
The Royal Physician spoke with a light chuckle.
Cheon-eul’s face grew troubled.
“It would be better to move to another room. To the Hall where I reside… or perhaps the adjacent room instead.”
His voice, which had been flowing naturally, became strangely disjointed.
Seowan turned to look at Cheon-eul.
Details he had failed to notice while tending to Hae-na now slowly came into focus.
Cold sweat drenched his composed brow.
Across his exposed neck and face ran a profusion of crimson heat rash, and his lips were pale and parched.
“You—what is happening to you—”
Before Seowan could finish speaking, Cheon-eul’s body swayed violently, as though he could no longer stand.
“Someone! Is anyone here? Please, hurry!”
The Royal Physician who saw him gasped in alarm.
The Palace Attendants who rushed in supported Cheon-eul and laid him down in the adjacent room.
The Royal Physician swiftly pulled open Cheon-eul’s garments and let out a sharp cry.
“How can this be! Internal bleeding, fractures… and what is this condition of his back!”
Indeed, Cheon-eul’s body was in a terrible state.
Severe internal hemorrhaging had mottled his pale skin, and seeping fluid oozed from the infected wounds on his back.
The room erupted into frantic activity. Cheon-eul had already lost consciousness.
The man’s flushed face contorted with pain as he began to groan and labor for breath.
Seowan stood motionless among the bustling figures, staring at Cheon-eul.
‘He must have been injured.’
Only now did that realization strike her.
They had fallen from the same height, so it was inevitable that Cheon-eul had sustained injuries equal to her own.
Foolishly, she had failed to recognize it.
Her mind had been so scattered that she could not even examine her own wounds.
But Cheon-eul himself must have been aware.
Yet he had acted as though nothing had happened.
He had walked ahead, casting jokes, and even as he hung from the cliff’s edge, he had asked after her welfare.
Even in the moment he released his grip without hesitation, Cheon-eul had been smiling at her.
Why? Why on earth?
Heavy questions accumulated relentlessly.
Seowan stood rooted to the spot.
“Why is Tamlang Seongggun still standing there! Someone get him to a bedchamber!”
The Royal Physician, moving with urgency, cried out in exasperation.
It was just as the Palace Attendants reached out to support Seowan.
“When will he be able to wake?”
“The young lady? If we let her rest well, she should―”
“No, that man.”
Seowan cut off the Royal Physician’s words. He blinked in surprise.
“Geomun Seongggun? Well, I would say at least half a day must pass before he regains consciousness.”
The Royal Physician, who had been smacking his lips as he answered, suddenly snapped to attention and focused on treating Cheon-eul.
Seowan was led by the Palace Attendants toward the room where Hae-na lay.
Upon seeing the child resting quietly on the bedchamber, her sense of reality returned slowly.
With all this commotion, word of their injuries would surely reach Yeon-bi.
And with Cheon-eul unconscious, she needed to keep her wits about her.
After dismissing the Palace Attendants, Seowan brought a chair and sat beside the bedchamber.
The sounds from the adjacent room seeped into the quiet chamber.
Even after the Royal Physician and Palace Attendants had left, Cheon-eul’s groans of pain continued for a long while.
Seowan held Hae-na’s hand, yet her gaze remained fixed on the wall from which the sounds emanated.
The long night passed, and dawn broke.
Seowan, who had been dozing while seated, lifted his head at the sound of movement beyond the wall.
The Hall, emptied of all but one, lay in silence. Through that stillness came the rustle of fabric.
Cheon-eul had awakened.
Seowan carefully withdrew her hand from the child and rose from her seat.
She hesitated briefly before the firmly closed door of the adjacent room, then pushed it open.
“…Seowan?”
Cheon-eul sat propped against the bedchamber wall, dressed in white robes.
Seowan closed the door without a word and approached him.
Cheon-eul’s face bore the pallor of illness.
Seowan gazed down at that countenance before speaking.
“Why did you do it?”
At the blunt question, Cheon-eul laughed awkwardly.
“You ask so directly it’s embarrassing. I merely didn’t wish to collapse before a woman, despite being a man….”
“Don’t deflect, Cheon-eul.”
Seowan cut through his words coldly.
“When I lost myself and clung to you, you promised to help me.”
“….”
“Why didn’t you tell me of your condition then?”
The smile fading from Cheon-eul’s face dissolved slowly.
Their gazes crossed through empty air.
“Foolishly, I believed you would be fine. And at the cliff…I let go of your hand.”
Bitter self-recrimination laced the end of Seowan’s words.
Cheon-eul hastily placed his hand over hers.
“No, Seowan. You didn’t let go.”
Seowan’s deep blue eyes fixed upon him.
“I let go. It was my choice. You bear no blame for it.”
His voice carried a pleading quality, desperation breaking through his fractured composure.
Seowan did not miss that moment.
“Yes, you let go. And I lost you.”
Seowan’s hand gripped Cheon-eul’s firmly.
His hand, one knuckle larger than hers, was held fast within her grasp.
“Tell me, Yeo Cheon-eul.”
“….”
“Why did you risk your life for me?”
Cheon-eul’s eyes trembled.
Seowan’s words fell like a verdict.
A merciless command that there was no longer any hiding or fleeing.
He shook his head weakly, his reddened lips parting.
“I…you….”
My voice would not come. It felt as though someone had seized my throat in an iron grip.
“Because I love you.”
Yet even so, Cheon-eul spat out the words.
The confession hung in the air of my mind, both wretched and tender.
“If I did this because I love you.”
Cheon-eul laughed, his voice hollow.
“Will you believe me?”

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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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