The Morning Star Baby Wants a Family - Chapter 70

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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 70
Hae-na swallowed hard.
The woman, who had been struggling to move her body, slowly pushed herself upright.
Her golden-red eyes swept across the surroundings before settling upon Seowan and Hae-na.
A gaze laden with caution fixed upon the two of them.
The moment the woman opened her mouth, a dry cough erupted from her throat.
“Cough, cough!”
The coughing was harsh, as though she had gone without water for far too long.
As Hae-na shifted anxiously and glanced up at Seowan, she conjured a small droplet of water and sent it toward the woman’s lips.
The instant the water touched her parched lips, the woman drank it down desperately.
After allowing her to drink her fill, Seowan simply dispersed the remaining droplet.
The woman’s eyes widened slightly at the sight.
“…Thank you.”
A voice emerged—similar to Hwa Yeon-bi’s, yet carrying greater weight and gravitas.
The woman straightened her posture and arranged her disheveled hair.
Though her complexion remained haggard, her composed bearing radiated a subtle nobility.
“I offer my first greetings, Tamlang Seongggun.”
The woman bowed with elegant grace.
Her clear eyes gazed directly at Seowan.
“I am Hwa-yeon-ri, the current Pagun Seongggun.”
It was what I had anticipated, yet still a startling revelation.
Hae-na stared intently at Yeon-ri.
Then she recalled the Spirit Core that rested perfectly round within her heart, gleaming with power.
‘How is this possible?’
Perhaps sensing the confusion written across my face, Yeon-ri smiled faintly.
“Due to unavoidable circumstances, I could not reveal myself, yet it is I alone who was chosen by Pagun Seongggun.”
A brilliant flash of flame!
Before her words had even finished, every lamp within the room ignited simultaneously.
“If you harbor doubt, bring Yeon-bi before me. I shall prove it beyond question.”
The smile was chilling—as though she would incinerate Yeon-bi without hesitation.
Seowan shook his head slowly.
“Proof is no longer necessary. However, an explanation is warranted.”
“…”
“Why were you imprisoned in that place? Furthermore, how was Hwa Yeon-bi able to wield the power of Pagun Seongggun?”
Hae-na followed her elder’s gaze toward Yeon-ri.
That was precisely what I wished to know as well.
The unstable Spirit Core of Yeon-bi, and Yeon-ri’s Spirit Core that became complete the moment it awakened.
Yeon-bi’s power had not been false.
It appeared as though one power had been divided between two people.
“The reason, you say…”
Yeon-ri murmured softly. Simultaneously, the lamplight in the room flickered violently.
“I underestimated that foolish woman.”
Beneath the light, almost playful tone lay an ancient, festering resentment.
“And so she struck me from behind.”
With a cold smile playing at her lips, she continued.
* * *
Yeon-ri and Yeon-bi were the third children born among Hwa-un’s eight offspring.
Twin sisters born together, they bore striking resemblance to one another, yet their temperaments were as opposite as black and white.
Yeon-ri was bold and cunning; Yeon-bi was fragile and foolish.
The Hwa Clan was no place for the weak to survive.
All eight of Hwa-un’s children yearned to succeed her as head of the family, and they would stop at nothing to achieve it.
Yet Yeon-bi endured. It was thanks to Yeon-ri.
They were not close sisters, but they remained each other’s only blood relation.
Yeon-ri would click her tongue at Yeon-bi’s foolishness, yet she kept her alive.
She was certain that someone so pathetic would be no hindrance, and there remained a gossamer thread of affection between them.
The bloodshed that had swept through the Hwa Clan subsided around the time the sisters came of age.
What remained of the family were the twin sisters and a younger brother who could not fulfill his role as a man.
Watching her mother lie upon a sickbed, Yeon-ri believed the day when she would become Pagun Seongggun was not far off.
That expectation soon became reality.
Hwa-un breathed her last on Yeon-ri’s birthday.
The moment her mother’s final breath left her body, Yeon-ri felt a tremendous force surge into her.
‘Sister?’
It was Yeon-bi, who had kept vigil at their mother’s deathbed alongside her, who noticed first.
Yeon-bi stared at Yeon-ri with a terrified expression, tears glistening in her eyes.
Thinking that she feared being killed for her uselessness, Yeon-ri smiled generously.
‘Do not worry.’
I will not kill you.
Just as she was about to say this, the world spun before her eyes.
In her increasingly blurred vision, she saw Yeon-bi holding a large porcelain vase.
The lips that had been trembling spoke.
‘I’m sorry, sister.’
The moment those words reached her ears, consciousness shattered.
When I opened my eyes again, I found myself bound and cast into the center of a dark Underground Facility.
‘How dare she…!’
Enraged, I snapped the ropes and attempted to set the Underground Facility ablaze.
But my spiritual power would not move at all.
I could only sense its presence, faintly and distantly.
In my panic, I discovered a long wound across my arm.
Blood dripped from the gash, falling steadily to dampen the floor.
A massive formation was drawn across the vast floor of the Underground Facility.
The crimson line was absorbing her blood.
Then, with light footsteps, the Underground Facility brightened suddenly.
The figure that emerged was her foolish twin sister, Yeon-bi.
In Yeon-bi’s hands were a black dagger and a small ceramic bowl.
‘You… you…!’
A furious shout echoed through the Underground Facility.
Yeon-bi flinched as if frightened, her shoulders hunching, but she soon approached Yeon-ri.
‘I’m sorry, I’m sorry. Sister.’
She spoke while gripping the blade tightly.
‘But I also…’
It was then that a twisted smile bloomed across her terrified face.
‘I can’t keep living like this forever, can I…?’
Madness-tinged exhilaration seeped into her trembling voice, thick with guilt.
Yeon-bi raised the blade and, without hesitation, cut Yeon-ri’s arm.
She caught the flowing blood in the ceramic bowl, drank it, carefully staunched the wound, and left the Underground Facility.
As if Hwa-yeon-ri must never die.
‘She intends to continue doing this.’
Yeon-ri understood instinctively.
Writhing in the searing pain of her arm and the bitter helplessness that consumed her, she swore with blood in her throat.
I will reclaim what is mine.
I will survive, crawling across the floor if necessary, and I will take back what that woman stole from me.
And so time passed, until Yeon-ri’s body was covered in scars.
‘Hurry and prepare!’
Yeon-ri left the Underground Facility.
* * *
“…And so, while I waited for such an opportunity, Tamlang Seongggun came to find me.”
Yeon-ri finished her account with an elegant laugh.
“I am truly grateful. I had resolved to escape by any means before returning to the Capital Residence.”
“Was there a particular reason for such a resolve?”
At Seowan’s question, Yeon-ri nodded lightly.
“The moment I left that place, I felt the shackles binding me begin to waver. Perhaps the formation inscribed in the Underground Facility played a significant role alongside the consumption of blood.”
Her elegant, smiling face turned chilling in an instant.
“Sensing this myself, I grew restless as a beast with its tail aflame… so I held my breath all the more.”
“…”
“Ready to bite at any moment an opportunity arose.”
Her voice was as cold as a blue-edged blade, belying the smile on her face.
At her serpentine momentum, Seowan reflexively raised his guard.
Yeon-ri laughed softly.
“Oh, do not worry. Tamlang Seongggun is my benefactor, and we do not hold the same person as an enemy, do we?”
Her tone was laden with meaning. Understanding dawned in Seowan’s eyes, which had narrowed in confusion.
Hwa Yeon-bi, who had been the Second Prince’s right hand.
And the First Queen Consort, the Second Prince’s biological mother, was a princess of the Oseo Kingdom.
“…Was it forbidden sorcery?”
The question emerged more as confirmation than inquiry.
“What else could it be?”
Yeon-ri answered with composed indifference.
The designation of Celestial Beings remained forever within heaven’s domain.
No star in Cheonmang Kingdom’s sky possessed the power to defy it.
“Yeon-bi would boast about the Second Prince whenever she returned from the Palace, so it’s certain. And originally… it must have been far more convenient and cruel sorcery than what was done to me.”
With those words, Yeon-ri gestured toward Hae-na.
Seowan, who had been blocking the child’s ears with his spiritual power, turned and cradled her in his arms.
Hae-na, who had been sitting on her sister’s lap and staring intently at Yeon-ri, immediately nestled into Seowan’s embrace.
Her ears were gently sealed once more, and Yeon-ri continued speaking.
Wrapped securely in the warmth of his arms, Hae-na rolled her eyes with an embarrassed expression.
‘But I can hear everything….’

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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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