The Morning Star Baby Wants a Family - Chapter 64

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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 64
A silence as profound as death descended upon us.
I filled Cheon-eul’s transparent jade eyes completely.
He gazed at me with a face so fragile it seemed on the verge of shattering.
I could not speak.
The answer Cheon-eul had finally given was far too heavy to bear.
“…Why?”
After a long silence, another question spilled from my lips.
“Why would you…for me….”
Confusion flooded my distorted features.
I gazed at Cheon-eul as though looking upon a stranger.
Even that disheveled expression moved my heart so deeply that Cheon-eul smiled bitterly.
“I do not know.”
Ah, how did it come to this?
When I laughed aloud seeing her bewildered by my clumsy proposal?
When we crossed blades with Seowan and fought as though death itself were upon us?
Perhaps it was that spring when I was nineteen—the moment I first saw the world reflected in her eyes.
There is no folly greater than tracing back the moment one falls in love.
For by the time I realized it, I was already submerged entirely.
I gently took Seowan’s hand, cradling it as one would handle delicate glasswork.
I closed my eyes in reverence.
My transparent jade gaze vanished from sight, and my long silver lashes lowered.
A soft whisper of sound.
As my head bowed, my long silver hair cascaded downward.
Then my soft lips touched the back of her hand.
The sensation against her cool skin burned like fire. Seowan trembled, her hand quivering.
“I do not dare hope for the same affection in return. I would be content merely to give you anything within my power.”
I felt my breath against the back of her hand.
I looked up at her slowly, my expression as blindly devoted as a tamed beast.
“I yearn for you, Seowan.”
Smiling as though on the verge of tears, I whispered.
“So please, do not marry another.”
* * *
I squeezed my eyes shut, then opened them wide.
It was because I had recalled Cheon-eul’s fervent confession once more.
Had he instead pressed a blade to my throat, I would have been less startled than this.
Cheon-eul was a deceptive man, and indeed, not long after we met, he had drawn his sword on me, claiming curiosity about my swordsmanship.
Yet he had kissed the back of my hand and spoken of yearning for me.
In that moment, Cheon-eul appeared so utterly fragile.
I understood well that one who lays bare their heart to its depths has no choice but to appear so.
“Sister?”
Hae-na called out to me again. At her voice, my fingers trembled.
Facing the round, curious eyes of the child, I felt the familiar helplessness wash over me once more.
I could not tell Hae-na plainly what had happened while I slept.
It was not a tale fit for a child’s ears, nor was it the true reason I had decided upon this marriage.
“…I made a promise.”
After steadying my breath, I spoke in a measured voice.
When I lost Hae-na and fell into the Moonstone Cave.
I had clung to Cheon-eul and begged him desperately.
Though made in a state of madness, such a promise could not simply be unmade.
Cheon-eul had helped me sufficiently.
He devised every means to guide me, and in the end, he even wagered his own life in my stead.
Faced with the weight of his earnest affection, I recalled the debt I owed him.
‘If you wish, shall I marry you?’
At my flat response, Cheon-eul stared at me with vacant eyes.
That blind gaze unsettled me somehow.
I lowered my eyes and continued.
‘You promised to grant me anything if I helped you.’
‘….’
‘If what you desire is that I not marry another….’
As I spoke thus, I felt a faint twinge of guilt.
I knew that what Cheon-eul truly wished for was far more than mere marriage.
He would desire a heart that matched my own.
But I could not offer that.
So I struck first, cowardly.
It was the best I could manage.
‘Shall I marry you.’
I bit my lower lip firmly.
I had surely promised to grant him anything.
How paltry a repayment this was.
Cheon-eul stared at me with astonishment.
Only after a long moment did he ask, stupidly, if that would truly be acceptable.
“I proposed marriage as recompense for honoring his promise, and Cheon-eul accepted.”
Cheon-eul’s eyes, bright with joy then, resembled the transparent eyes of Hae-na gazing up at me now.
Guilt pricked at me anew.
My face naturally contorted, and Hae-na’s brow furrowed in sympathy.
“You are marrying him because of a promise?”
That was why it sounded so cold.
I had thought that perhaps, without realizing it, we had grown close and shared our hearts—but a promise, of all things.
‘Then why did you hold my hand….’
Hae-na’s gaze, mingled with disappointment and bewilderment, drifted toward Seowan’s hand, which remained clasped in his.
Sensing her stare, Cheon-eul smiled faintly.
“It is not merely for that reason. I harbor affection for Seowan.”
“Cough!”
Before his gentle words could fully settle, Seowan’s upper body convulsed forward.
As she coughed violently, having drawn breath too sharply, two pairs of eyes immediately fixed upon her.
“Sister, are you well?”
“Breathe slowly, Seowan. Yes, just like that.”
A large hand swept gently across her back.
Once I had steadied my breathing and fixed a sharp glare upon Cheon-eul, he laughed softly.
“Why such surprise? Surely this was not the first time you heard such words.”
His face, smiling with eyes pleasantly narrowed, was composed.
As though he had never trembled and laid bare his heart, he wore his usual expression.
Yet in one regard, his eyes differed.
The jade-green gaze fixed upon me was tender enough to melt.
It was somewhat different from what Hae-na showed me, but the essence was the same.
“…Sigh.”
Unable to speak with my usual sharpness, I could only release a deep breath.
“Cheon-eul, is this truly so?”
In that moment, Hae-na interjected with her question. The child’s sunset-hued eyes sparkled with anticipation.
“Indeed, it is true. Because I harbor affection for Seowan, I begged her to consent to marriage with me.”
With those words, Cheon-eul grasped my hand once more.
It was a hand so clean it needed no further washing.
“And you, Sister? Would you be content to marry Cheon-eul?”
Hae-na pressed the question upon her sister without fail.
It was the very same question Cheon-eul had posed to me before the child awoke.
I made an effort not to contort my face before the child and opened my mouth.
“There is nothing objectionable about it.”
“Even so. Even so… do you think he is the finest among all men?”
Even her listless answer bore resemblance to the one Cheon-eul had given.
How strange that my younger sister, sharing my blood, had come to resemble Cheon-eul, with whom she shared not a drop.
I laughed softly.
“Yes, it seems so.”
At that answer, Hae-na’s face brightened brilliantly.
Seeing the child scramble to rise from her seat, I approached in alarm.
“Truly? Really?”
Hae-na grasped her sister’s hand and asked.
At the child’s earnest expression, my laughter deepened.
The face wearing that light smile truly seemed well.
Unlike when I had previously spoken of other marriage prospects, it was quite a peaceful countenance.
“Thank, thank goodness… *sob*.”
I tried to smile at my sister.
But the moment I lifted the corners of my mouth, tears began to fall in torrents.
Seowan, startled, grasped my shoulders and checked my condition.
I shed tears like drops of rain, burrowing into my sister’s embrace.
“Thank goodness, thank goodness. You’re okay, *hiccup*, I can see you again, I can see you again, *sob*….”
Once the tension and shock had passed, relief finally flooded through me.
When the cave was collapsing, I wanted to call out to Seowan and cry my heart out.
But the fear that I might never see my sister again was far greater.
After that, so many momentous things happened that I was lost in a daze, as if enchanted.
Yet the moment I saw Seowan’s face and thought that everything would be alright now, sorrow crashed over me like waves.
“S, sister, sister….”
Seeing the child clinging to me and weeping openly, Seowan’s eyes also grew red.
But instead of crying, she held me gently and patted my back with tenderness.
“Yes, your sister is here.”

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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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