The Morning Star Baby Wants a Family - Chapter 9

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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 9
“How dare you! To speak the name of His Royal Highness the Prince so carelessly…!”
The Court Lady’s voice erupted in fury.
Hae-na startled at the outburst, yet her gaze remained fixed on the Fourth Prince before her.
‘It’s him.’
The child who had been imprisoned in the deepest chamber of the Yeon-ga Underground Prison.
The only one among those who escaped who had never been recaptured.
Those golden eyes—eyes I hadn’t seen beneath the pale moonlight of that place—looked strange now.
But everything else was identical.
So much so that I couldn’t possibly mistake him for anyone else.
“Is it really you?”
Hae-na spoke despite knowing she would be severely reprimanded for such rudeness. Yet I had to know.
That child had been so gravely ill.
Even if he had escaped successfully, I thought he might have died.
“Tamlang Seongggun! What is the meaning of this disrespect!”
As the Court Lady’s angry voice rang out, Seowan’s hand pressed down on Hae-na’s head.
“It’s fine, just leave it be, Court Lady Gwon.”
The boy’s youthful voice reached us then.
“But Your Highness…”
“I know her. From Tamrang Fortress. Let the child raise her head.”
As the Court Lady hesitated, Seowan withdrew his hand from Hae-na’s head.
Hae-na’s head snapped up as though released.
A familiar face came into view.
Still gaunt, yet far better than when I had seen him in that underground chamber filled only with pale blue moonlight.
Our eyes met—those pale golden eyes that had always burned with resentment now held a faint smile.
Hae-na stared blankly at that face.
The fact that he was alive was far more shocking and joyful than learning he was a prince.
‘He was alive.’
Hae-na’s tears came pouring down.
My smooth, chestnut-like face crumpled like a burst dumpling.
Hwi-seo let out a soft laugh at the sight.
It reminded me of when I first saw that joyful, ridiculous face.
* * *
I first met Hae-na on the seventh day of my imprisonment in the Yeon-ga Underground Prison.
The warriors who had guarded me fell in a single stroke, and when I opened my eyes again, I found myself trapped in a Moonstone Chamber.
When I could barely keep my eyes open against the force that collided with my own energy, a man in a cloud-patterned robe entered.
Surprise and shock flickered across his face in turn, then it turned cold.
‘Hurry with the work.’
He left those words with his subordinates and departed from the underground facility.
Even in my haze of consciousness, I saw his face clearly.
Yeon Ki-mun, the head of the Yeon Family.
Children who vanished with unsettling frequency.
A Moonstone Chamber, and himself trapped within it.
Hwi-seo grasped Yeon Ki-mun’s intentions immediately.
Yet there was nothing he could do.
He was a brilliant member of the Royal Family, but simultaneously only nine years old.
As a member of the Royal Family, Hwi-seo endured experiments of even greater intensity.
The Moonstone Chamber was suffused with pale blue moonlight throughout the day, and the excessively generous meals contained finely ground moonstone mixed within.
Within that chamber, Hwi-seo thrashed against his fate.
He attempted to summon his power by any means, and when his body weakened, he deliberately inflicted wounds upon himself, hoping they might release him.
But the members of the Yeon Family did not so much as blink.
Every attempt Hwi-seo made became merely another variable in their experiments.
Exhausted, Hwi-seo refused all sustenance.
Better to die with the dignity befitting the Royal Family than to live on and serve their purposes.
“Hey, hey. Eat this. You can’t go on like this or something terrible will happen.”
Then Hae-na tapped against the bars of the chamber where Hwi-seo was confined.
Beneath the pale blue moonlight, she appeared only in shades of black and white—a small girl.
With round eyes and flushed cheeks, she held out several rice balls toward him.
“Get lost.”
Hwi-seo, opening his eyes without strength, pushed her away without mercy.
It was obvious that moonstone would be mixed into those as well.
The child startled at his harsh response.
Then she crept forward again.
This time, she entered the prison itself and offered the rice balls once more.
“Hurry. Eat before anyone else sees. These won’t hurt you.”
Even a small amount of food mixed with moonstone caused excruciating pain.
The children would weep and refuse the food, but with nothing else to eat, they were forced to consume it.
Hwi-seo too was suffering from terrible hunger.
At the prospect of food untainted by moonstone, his hand reached out before he could verify the truth of her words.
Hwi-seo grabbed a rice ball and bit into it eagerly.
Just as she had said, it did not hurt. The boy devoured the food with desperate urgency.
“Eat slowly… here, drink some water too.”
With practiced ease, the girl patted his back soothingly.
After drinking the water she offered, Hwi-seo finally regained his senses.
He fixed her with a sharp gaze.
Cloud patterns were embroidered upon the small girl’s clothing.
“Who are you?”
“Oh, I’m Hae-na. I work here in the Underground Facility.”
My voice grew quieter as I introduced myself.
At that, Hwi-seo’s gaze turned even colder.
“Then can you let me out of here?”
At the wary edge in his voice, I bowed my head deeply.
Then I shook it.
“I’m sorry. I can’t do that….”
Hwi-seo let out a hollow laugh.
So this was all the cheap pity he could muster.
Or perhaps she had deceived him all along, feeding him moonstone deliberately.
After all, this child was also a servant of the Yeon Family.
“Leave once you’re done.”
Hwi-seo turned away coldly.
Behind him, he sensed her hesitation before the sound of the door opening and closing reached his ears.
“I’ll come again.”
A thin voice trembling with tears drifted through.
Hwi-seo did not answer.
But Hae-na kept her promise.
The child came to visit Hwi-seo at least once every two days.
Her small hands always carried something.
She was truly an irritating child.
The worse Hwi-seo’s condition became, the more she wept at the sight of him.
She cried while bringing rice, apologizing that she couldn’t bring it every day, and wept while applying crude ointment from a rough container, saying he looked like he was in pain.
Her tears grated on him so much that Hwi-seo asked in a voice bristling with thorns.
“Then why don’t you bring it every day like you said?”
At that, tears spilled from Hae-na’s eyes once more.
But what followed was something Hwi-seo had not anticipated.
“I’m s-sorry. But the other children are so hungry too….”
“….”
“I’m still just a young servant, so even if I bring all my own rice, it’s not enough…. I’m really sorry.”
Hwi-seo merely blinked.
He had never considered that the food without moonstone was her own portion.
On the day she brought the ointment, Hae-na’s body bore wounds as well.
As if punctured by something, they were quite deep.
When he asked why, the child answered with a bright smile.
“Servants get ointment when they’re injured. So I hurt myself a little on purpose.”
Speaking as though it were nothing, Hae-na wiped away all the moonstone from his wounds and carefully applied the ointment.
Blood seeped through the hastily wrapped bandage around her leg.
I had thought it cheap pity.
Lacking the courage to truly help, it was nothing but hollow hypocrisy born of self-comfort.
But Hae-na continued her hypocrisy nonetheless.
She offered the pity I desperately needed, yet apologized each time.
The worse my condition became, the more her complexion deteriorated.
It was only natural.
Even for a commoner, prolonged contact with moonstone was inadvisable, and besides, the treatment Hae-na received from the Yeon Family appeared far from kind.
Hae-na truly wept often.
She wept when Hwi-seo was in pain, and she wept even when told not to return.
Only once did she smile—when I taught her my name.
As such days accumulated, Hwi-seo came to understand that I would not endure much longer.
The boy prepared for one final struggle.
I ate whatever was available and slept however I could.
Then, the day before my planned departure, I seized Hae-na as she turned to leave.
“You pity me, don’t you.”
Hwi-seo spoke, gripping her small, delicate hand firmly with my own withered one.
“Then help me. Just this once.”
It was a command both arrogant and desperate.
The boy, despite his tattered garments, possessed a menacing gleam in his eyes. Hae-na, overwhelmed by his intensity, shrank back.
“Tonight, leave the side gate of the Residence unlocked. You can close it after the Hour of the Pig passes. But from the Hour of the Rat until the Hour of the Pig, it must remain open without fail.”
Tonight, the full moon, was a day when many in the Cheonmang Kingdom kept to themselves.
From the Hour of the Rat to the Hour of the Pig was when the moon shone brightest. Surely surveillance would be lighter.
Yet I could not claim the risk of discovery was entirely absent.
Hae-na’s eyes trembled.
If, by any chance, she were caught….
The thought that surfaced in her transparent gaze was laid bare for all to see.
Hae-na looked at Hwi-seo with fearful eyes.
“Can’t you do it?”
Hwi-seo asked again.
Hae-na remained silent.
It was deflating. So it would be, Hwi-seo thought mockingly as I released Hae-na’s hand.
“I’ll do it.”
A small but resolute voice reached my ears.

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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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