The White Tiger Clan’s Baby Cotton Ball - Chapter 121

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This chapter was translated by Lunox Team. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
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Chapter 121

 

She had hidden like a child, yet he said she did well.

 

When Soya looked at him with a puzzled expression, he spoke with a satisfied face.

 

“From now on, whenever such impure fellows approach, hide behind Elder Brother.”

 

“Impure… sir?”

 

“That’s right. That bastard just now is a very impure fellow.”

 

Gaya’s face turned menacing again as he recalled Jeok Sanyu.

 

It was because his first meeting with him came to mind.

 

“Elder Brother?”

 

At Soya’s call, he quickly relaxed his expression. Then he smiled with an incongruously gentle smile and said.

 

“That woman you saw earlier too. Except for this Elder Brother, the world is full of impure fellows. So this Elder Brother must protect our Somsom.”

 

Gaya’s face as he said this somehow looked the most impure in the world, but…

 

“Yes, Elder Brother.”

 

Soya answered with a bright smile.

 

Until just moments ago, she had sighed at her own behavior of hiding behind him, but with Elder Brother’s single word saying she did well, Soya’s heart was eased.

 

The fact that there was always a back to hide her made her feel so reassured.

 

“Let’s go inside now. We need to sleep early to attend tomorrow’s celebration.”

 

“That’s a good idea, Somsom. But about tomorrow’s banquet…”

 

The gentle conversation between the two siblings echoed through the night air.

 

* * *

 

Meanwhile, Sanyu’s steps as he left Baek Gaya behind and returned to his quarters were very light.

 

A proper smile bloomed on his face, which had always been shadowed with darkness, for the first time in a long while.

 

This was because he had just seen Baek Gaya’s face crumpling with displeasure.

 

Watching Baek Gaya’s face contort was one of his small pleasures in the tedious battlefield.

 

Recalling that face that had rushed to block him as soon as he greeted his sister made him feel refreshed.

 

‘Even that demon of the battlefield makes such expressions in front of his sister.’

 

Jeok Sanyu thought with a chuckle.

 

‘Come to think of it, it was like that back then too. Some baby bird he claimed as his own…’

 

Pause.

 

The smile that had appeared on Sanyu’s face faded and soon disappeared completely.

 

Baek Gaya’s sister with her fluffy snow-white hair.

 

And the small baby bird with snow-white down he had seen in the distant Northern Region.

 

Thinking of these things made him remember his own little sister, whom he had deliberately tried not to recall.

 

His light steps slowed down.

 

As he walked the night path with an expressionless face.

 

“That’s too much, Father! You promised Lili!”

 

At the sharp voice, he turned his head to see Lili, who was furious, and Father, who didn’t know what to do.

 

“I’m sorry, Lili. Instead, Father has prepared something else…”

 

“I don’t want it! I absolutely want the one with jade from the Eastern Region embedded in it—”

 

“How can you raise your voice before Father at this late hour?”

 

Unable to watch any longer, Sanyu cut off Lili’s words with a remark.

 

“Sa, Sanyu Elder Brother…?”

 

Lili, who had been shouting at the top of her voice, was startled by Sanyu’s appearance and looked at him.

 

However, soon her face filled with anger.

 

“What business is it of Elder Brother’s! This is between Lili and Father!”

 

Instantly, Sanyu’s face hardened.

 

“Are you now shamelessly raising your voice even to me, your elder brother?”

 

His low rebuke froze the night air cold.

 

“Di, did you just get angry at Lili?”

 

Lili looked at Sanyu with an expression of disbelief, her eyes shaking.

 

For the past five years, Lili, who had been the princess of the Suzaku Family, had never once heard unpleasant words from anyone.

 

She was already dissatisfied that her First Elder Brother, whom she met for the first time today, didn’t seem to show much interest in her.

 

On top of that, she was deeply shocked by the sharp attitude the Young Masters of the White Tiger Family had shown her, and now even First Elder Brother was getting angry at her!

 

Of course, Jeok Sanyu hadn’t raised his voice or scolded her harshly.

 

However, to Lili, who was accustomed to everyone always treating her with gentle, smiling faces, Sanyu speaking stiffly with an expressionless face felt exactly like he was angry at her.

 

Large teardrops began to form in Lili’s eyes…

 

“That’s too much! How can you do that to Lili! Sob, sob sob, waaaaah!”

 

Soon Lili burst into loud tears.

 

“Oh my, don’t cry, Lili. Your brother seems to have misunderstood something.”

 

Startled, Jeok Ayun embraced the child, patting her while speaking to Sanyu.

 

“Sanyu. You have misunderstood. My Lili is angry because I broke my promise with her, so don’t speak to your sister like that.”

 

“…”

 

Instead of answering, Sanyu quietly watched the scene.

 

Hwayu, who happened to be passing by, discovered Lili sobbing in Father’s arms and, showing his usual excessive reaction, took his sister inside the pavilion.

 

Finally, after Lili’s crying stopped and the surroundings became quiet, Sanyu spoke to his father.

 

“Unconditionally indulging a child’s stubbornness is not good for discipline, Father.”

 

“Isn’t Lili a child with many wounds?”

 

However, Jeok Ayun spoke in a calm voice and shook his head.

 

“Aren’t you being too cold to Lili? She’s the little sister your mother left behind as her last gift.”

 

“…”

 

“Please treat your sister a little more kindly.”

 

“…”

 

At those words, Sanyu pressed his lips tightly shut.

 

Was it because he had been away from the estate for too long and met that child only after she had grown so much?

 

He found Lili subtly uncomfortable.

 

Even though she was clearly his blood-related younger sister.

 

A quiet silence flowed between the father and son for a while.

 

A little later, Sanyu looked at the dark surroundings and spoke.

 

“…Eight years ago, when I left for the campaign, I made a promise with that child in this Imperial Palace. That I would return in good health.”

 

Realizing this was about Soya, Jeok Ayun’s expression gradually hardened.

 

“I kept my promise and returned in good health like this, but that child is nowhere to be seen.”

 

“…”

 

“So that must be why. When I see Lili, I think of Soya—that child who would have grown just as much if she were alive—so I can’t smile at her comfortably.”

 

“…”

 

“But as Father said, I should be the first to open my heart and approach the sister Mother left for us.”

 

Sanyu said this with a bitter smile.

 

His throat bobbed painfully as he swallowed the anguish he had been suppressing for years.

 

“But Father. Just a little, just a very little longer, I want to mourn that child’s death.”

 

“…”

 

“For the past several years, I mourned that child every day in the harsh battlefield, yet now that the war has ended and I meet my family, I think of that child again.”

 

“…”

 

While Jeok Ayun couldn’t say anything.

 

“Never bring up that story in front of Lili.”

 

Jeok Hwayu, who had come outside after comforting Lili, spoke to his brother.

 

“She’s a child with many wounds. She’s a child who already suffered greatly because that child took her place.”

 

“That child…?”

 

Sanyu frowned briefly, not understanding those words.

 

“Surely, the ‘that child’ you’re referring to isn’t Soya?”

 

“I cannot interfere with Elder Brother mourning and remembering that child. However, please be careful at least in front of Lili. I hope our sister won’t be hurt anymore because of that child.”

 

Sanyu, who had been quietly listening to those words, asked back in a stiff voice.

 

“What are you saying right now? Your words make it sound as if Soya deliberately stole Lili’s place.”

 

“….”

 

A pause.

 

At that sharp rebuke, Jeok Hwayu’s expression was momentarily colored with bewilderment.

 

However, he soon composed his expression and retorted.

 

“It’s not entirely wrong either. While Lili wandered the streets, that child enjoyed everything that Lili should have had instead.”

 

“So you’re saying that’s Soya’s fault!”

 

Sanyu, who hadn’t raised his voice even when Lili acted rudely toward Father, sternly rebuked his younger brother.

 

“That child is also a victim! How shocked must that young child have been to learn she was a switched baby!”

 

“H-Elder Brother…?”

 

Since Sanyu rarely raised his voice in such a manner, Hwayu also hesitated.

 

“Don’t tell me you spoke that way in front of Soya too?”

 

“….”

 

Before his angry elder brother, Hwayu couldn’t answer for a long while before finally managing to speak.

 

“I simply wish for Lili not to be hurt again.”

 

He still refused to back down as if he wasn’t wrong, though his voice was somewhat smaller than before.

 

“Lili is… such a precious child, isn’t she? The child Mother left us in exchange for her life.”

 

“Yes. She is precious.”

 

Jeok Sanyu’s flat, cold voice immediately cut off his words.

 

“However, to me, Soya is equally precious as a sister. So never again insult the dead child.”

 

Sanyu shot back with a cold face, then nodded to Father in greeting before leaving first.

 

Hwayu also stared at his elder brother’s retreating figure with a stubborn expression, then likewise left his greetings to Father before departing.

 

And in the place where his sons had left.

 

Jeok Ayun remained alone, lost in thought.

 

His entire face had turned pale, and even when his two sons greeted him before going inside, he couldn’t respond and remained frozen in a daze.

 

Because the words Hwayu had said earlier.

 

[It’s not entirely wrong either. While Lili wandered the streets, that child enjoyed everything that Lili should have had instead.]

 

[I simply wish for Lili not to be hurt again.]

 

Those words…

 

[Because of your mother’s greed, Lili had to wander the streets at such a young age without even awakening her Spirit Core. With everything that child should have rightfully enjoyed stolen away by a servant woman’s daughter.]

 

[So make sure Lili never learns of your true identity. If Lili ever gets hurt because of you, I will not forgive you.]

 

They were the same as the words he had once said to Soya.

 

But though they were clearly words he had once spoken with his own mouth, hearing them from another’s lips, why did they sound so….

 

“Why do they sound so strange….”

 

As the bewildered murmur flowed through his teeth, chills rose on his skin.

 

Something, an uneasy sense that everything had been terribly wrong all along, violently shook his heart that had been pounding since earlier.

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This chapter was translated by Lunox Team. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
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