The White Tiger Clan’s Baby Cotton Ball - Chapter 127

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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 127

 

Sanyu’s face, having learned the truth, was filled with an agonized expression.

 

[Are you referring to that girl, Soya?]

 

The young Ga Bok, who had followed from the Vermillion Bird Mansion to serve the Family Head, said.

 

[After the Family Head sent her to the Cold Palace, she lived as if she didn’t exist for a while. Then after Miss Lili came, the Family Head gave that child to the young lady as her personal servant…]

 

At first, he thought he had misheard.

 

But he hadn’t misheard.

 

[Still, the Family Head ordered everyone to keep silent so Miss Lili wouldn’t know. If only someone hadn’t made a slip of the tongue, Miss Lili wouldn’t have known either… Poor our young lady…]

 

Even in this situation, young Ga Bok only pitied Lili, not Soya.

 

That alone was enough to understand.

 

What kind of treatment Soya, that young child, had received from the family members…

 

His heart was crushed.

 

The sky collapsed, the world collapsed.

 

No, perhaps what had collapsed was nothing other than himself.

 

His entire heart felt torn to shreds, scattered into pieces.

 

During the three years he was absent, Soya had to fight loneliness alone in the Cold Palace, and after Lili appeared, she had to become that child’s servant and watch her be loved.

 

How much.

 

How painful and difficult it must have been.

 

In that vast mansion where not a single ally remained, that small child…

 

Perhaps he should have sensed something was wrong from then.

 

During the long war, when he heard the news that a young lady from the Vermillion Bird Family had left the mansion and ultimately passed away.

 

How could the most precious young lady of the Southern Lands meet such a fate in the very heart of the Vermillion Bird Family’s influence?

 

Sanyu lamented his own ignorance and immediately headed toward the pavilion where the White Tiger Family was staying.

 

The young masters of the White Tiger Family greeted him in place of their Family Head.

 

“Father was just summoned by His Majesty. If you have something to say, tell me.”

 

“Soya…”

 

Sanyu couldn’t bring himself to look directly at the young master’s face and bowed his head as he pleaded.

 

“Please let me meet Soya just once.”

 

“Absolutely not! What terrible things are you planning to say to Cotton Ball!”

 

At this, Gayul growled and shouted with a voice full of hostility.

 

“You people told our Cotton Ball she was unsightly and shabby! You said her beast transformation was hideous and that you’d cut off her wings if she showed herself!”

 

“You said such things… to her…”

 

Sanyu’s already pale expression grew even more ashen.

 

“Don’t pretend you didn’t know now! Because of you people, Cotton Ball was so scared of beast transformation that she had nightmares and hid her appearance completely! Even when we told her that her transformed appearance was the cutest in the world, she couldn’t believe it and just held back tears!”

 

Gayul remembered Soya when she first came to White Tiger Palace, adamantly refusing and saying her beast transformation wasn’t cool at all.

 

He remembered what Soya said while holding back tears when he and Arang called her cute during that year’s Mountain Festival.

 

Back then, he was too young to clearly understand what had happened to Soya and only thought there were bad people who had bullied her.

 

But now he knew.

 

Those who called Soya a shabby baby bird with only unsightly white down, those who said her beast transformation was hideous and they’d cut off her wings if she showed herself.

 

They were all members of the Vermillion Bird Family.

 

People she had once believed were family.

 

‘And now they have the nerve to ask to meet Cotton Ball!’

 

Just like the Head of the Jeok Family who had fought with Father a few hours ago, all the flying beasts of the Southern Region seemed to be this shameless.

 

Gayul glared at Sanyu with irritation.

 

Even the way his eyes trembled as if he knew nothing at all was disgusting.

 

Gayul glanced at Ga Hyeon, hoping his second elder brother would say something to him.

 

But his brother was acting strange.

 

By now, he should have been wearing his characteristic gentle eye-smile while hurling harsh words at the opponent, but he was just staring blankly at the Vermillion Bird Family man with an expressionless face.

 

‘What harsh words is he planning to say that he’s like that? He’s not even smiling.’

 

At that moment, Ga Hyeon betrayed Gayul’s expectations and spoke in a calm voice.

 

“You’re the first young master of the Vermillion Bird Family. Jeok Sanyu, correct? The one who received praise from His Majesty at today’s banquet.”

 

“That’s… correct…”

 

“Please follow me.”

 

Gayul blinked at the unexpected response.

 

“Brother…?”

 

However, Ga Hyeon ignored his younger brother’s gaze and guided Sanyu to the backyard.

 

And there, Sanyu discovered Soya.

 

* * *

 

At the same time.

 

Saeon and Irim sat facing each other with a table between them.

 

This was the first time the two had faced each other since Irim visited White Tiger Palace five years ago.

 

“It’s been a long time, Saeon.”

 

Irim greeted his former teacher with a languid smile after meeting him for the first time in so long.

 

“I heard you got into a fistfight with the Head of the Jeok Family in front of the banquet hall.”

 

“Has that matter already reached His Majesty’s ears?”

 

“That’s not all. Several officials from the Central Region have already come to me saying the two Family Heads who caused a disturbance in the Imperial Palace should be punished.”

 

“Then there’s no choice. However, if you’re going to punish us, please punish that feathered bastard from the Jeok Family more severely than me. He’s worse than I am.”

 

At those words, Irim burst into laughter.

 

“How could I punish a teacher who is like a father to me?”

 

Irim picked up the teapot on the table and poured tea into a cup.

 

Splash—

 

The sound of tea hitting the teacup rang out clearly.

 

“Listen, Saeon. The tea’s fragrance is quite good.”

 

“Your Majesty.”

 

However, Saeon didn’t pick up the teacup and looked directly at Irim. Then he asked in a quiet voice.

 

“Your Majesty sent me to the Southern Lands five years ago.”

 

That had also been a long-unresolved question for Saeon.

 

“Why did you give me such an order specifically?”

 

That enigmatic command to steal the most precious thing from the Southern Lands.

 

His small, pure white treasure, Soya, whom he met by chance there.

 

If not for Irim’s order, Saeon would never have met Soya.

 

And if he hadn’t been there that day, Soya would have…

 

It was a terrible thought.

 

Clink.

 

Irim set down his teacup neatly and gazed at Saeon’s face.

 

A memory from long ago overlapped with it.

 

[Master. Please, please help me…!]

 

[Your Highness the Prince…? How is it that at this late hour…]

 

[I must save this child! Please…! Please help me!]

 

The face of the white-haired man who had been the only one to extend a hand to the powerless young prince in a moment of desperate need…

 

[I couldn’t… protect her.]

 

[…]

 

[I failed to protect that child.]

 

That sad voice that spoke emptily before the corpse of the child he ultimately couldn’t protect…

 

[Even if this life is cut short, cut short, and cut short a hundred times more… next time, I will surely…]

 

That wailing oath that felt like his intestines were being torn…

 

Splash—

 

With the sound of tea splashing, Irim returned to reality once again.

 

He elegantly curved his eyes toward the man before him and lifted his teacup.

 

“Who knows.”

 

At his evasive attitude, Saeon chuckled as if he hadn’t expected anything from the start.

 

“Do you know something, Your Majesty?”

 

“What are you talking about?”

 

“When Your Majesty was young, you were truly adorable, but now that adorable charm has completely disappeared.”

 

“What insolent words you speak.”

 

Irim chuckled softly and looked at his teacher’s reflection in the tea cup with eyes that had grown somewhat wistful.

 

* * *

 

Soya was spending time alone in the small backyard attached to the pavilion assigned to the White Tiger Family.

 

Without her Elder Brothers, without Yeonjeong and Sanho, without Seolyeo and Chirpy, she sat alone leaning against a wooden pillar, resting.

 

Birds flew over and chirped around Soya.

 

Her usual bright smile toward the birds was particularly lacking in energy today.

 

‘How strange. Today I accomplished yet another great thing, so why do I feel so dejected?’

 

Soya couldn’t understand her continuously sinking mood.

 

Clearly, just as she had imagined dozens of times in her head before coming to the Imperial Palace, she had said everything she needed to say in front of them without trembling at all.

 

But just then.

 

Rustle—

 

The sound of footsteps on grass could be heard.

—————
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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