The White Tiger Clan’s Baby Cotton Ball - Chapter 130

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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 130

 

Lili sent all the servant women out of the room, then sat alone in front of the mirror, chewing only on her lower lip.

 

She was confused about how Soya, who was clearly reported dead, could be alive, and why she had to appear as the daughter of the White Tiger Family of all things.

 

However, what made Lili even more anxious than that was…

 

[Soya…]

 

Father’s attitude toward that child.

 

Wasn’t he treating her as if she were his own lost daughter?

 

Jeok Ayun’s attitude made Lili extremely anxious.

 

“No. There’s no need to be anxious. That child is fake. A fake who stole Lili’s place and was driven out.”

 

Lili muttered to herself as if to reassure herself.

 

“Even if she appears again like this, she won’t be able to steal anything…”

 

Gasp.

 

Lili discovered a pale figure reflected in the mirror and turned around in shock.

 

“What, what is that!”

 

A man wearing black cloth was standing behind her.

 

“Who, who are you!”

 

At the ominous aura emanating from the man, Lili instinctively shrank back and shouted.

 

“If, if you don’t get out right now, I’ll, I’ll call for people!”

 

“How disappointing. It’s been such a long time since we met.”

 

“What, what…?”

 

Toward the flustered Lili, the man grinned, showing his yellowed teeth.

 

“Hello. Cuckoo.”

 

“How, how do you know that name…!”

 

Cuckoo.

 

As that long-forgotten name flowed from the stranger’s mouth, Lili’s face turned deathly pale.

 

“How? I’m the one who gave you ‘that power.'”

 

The man said as he pulled down the black cloth he had been wearing over his head.

 

In that moment, Lili’s pupils trembled.

 

Although the man had a face she was seeing for the first time…

 

“Could it be… a fierce, fierce beast…!”

 

Far away in the northern lands, there were non-human beings that lived by changing human shells.

 

They were fierce beasts, beings reborn through the power of evil.

 

And long ago, Lili had encountered one of them.

 

“Yes, you haven’t completely forgotten me.”

 

Taotie looked over Lili’s appearance.

 

“It seems you’ve been eating and living well with the power I gave you.”

 

“That, that’s right! I’m living well, so why did you come? Don’t tell me you’re here to take back the power you gave me?”

 

“I need your help, Cuckoo.”

 

Toward the extremely wary Lili, Taotie proposed in a deliberately benevolent voice.

 

“If you help me, I’ll also help you become the Dragon Emperor’s Bride.”

 

Flinch.

 

In that moment, Lili’s pupils visibly shook.

 

“Even, even without your help, I can become the Dragon Emperor’s Bride!”

 

However, Lili soon raised her voice and shouted.

 

“Hwayu said he would make Lili the Dragon Emperor’s Bride! So disappear from Lili’s sight right now!”

 

At this, a mysterious smile appeared on Taotie’s face.

 

“Even now, aren’t you barely holding on without beast transformation?”

 

“…”

 

In that moment, Lili’s mouth shut tight.

 

“If you keep holding on like that, you’ll eventually have your identity exposed, won’t you? Cuckoo.”

 

Though they can no longer be found in the southern lands now, once upon a time, beast-people of the ‘cuckoo’ species lived in the southern lands.

 

They had their special abilities sealed and were driven out of the southern lands for the crime of plundering small bird beast-people.

 

Lili was also one of the exiled cuckoo beast-people.

 

Beast-people without special abilities were weaker than other beast-people, making survival disadvantageous.

 

Therefore, Lili and other cuckoo beast-people barely maintained their lives by stealing others’ belongings on the streets.

 

Lili was very dissatisfied with such a life.

 

There were so many wonderful birds in the Southern Region, so why did she have to be born as a cuckoo and suffer like this?

 

The very day Lili met Taotie, the day her fate was reversed.

 

Lili was hiding in an alley, eating stolen food alone because she didn’t want to share it with her tribe members.

 

Suddenly, a man wearing black cloth stood in front of her.

 

[What! I have nothing to share with you! It’s all Lili’s!]

 

Lili hugged her food and glared at the man with wary eyes.

 

However, the man seemed uninterested in Lili’s food and just quietly looked into her eyes.

 

[You have eyes suitable for becoming a seed of evil.]

 

The man muttered incomprehensible words, then soon grinned and asked.

 

[How about it. Won’t you make a deal with me?]

 

[…?]

 

[If you show the qualifications to become a seed of evil, I’ll give you something very good.]

 

[Something good?]

 

At that time, Lili was young and uneducated, so she didn’t know what a deal meant.

 

She understood even less what “seed of evil” meant.

 

However, only the words “something good” stuck in her ears.

 

[You seem to have your special ability sealed. If you make a deal with me, I’ll not only unseal your special ability but make it even more powerful.]

 

Taotie whispered to Lili in a very seductive voice.

 

[I’ll give you power so strong that you can even deceive the strongest beast-people of the southern lands. With that, you’ll be able to enjoy a prosperous life.]

 

[A prosperous life?]

 

[Yes. A life where you don’t have to starve and steal from others like this.]

 

At those words, Lili swallowed and asked.

 

[What, what do I need to do?]

 

And that night.

 

A great fire broke out where the cuckoo tribe was hiding.

 

Not a single member of the hiding cuckoo tribe survived; they were all massacred.

 

Except for one person, Lili.

 

The tribal special ability that Lili regained was ‘brood parasitism.’

 

Originally, the ‘brood parasitism’ possessed by cuckoo beast-people was the ability to pick up fake parents’ feathers and change into a similar appearance.

 

However, ‘brood parasitism’ maximized by the power of evil changed into something very wicked and evil that even attacked the real offspring of fake parents.

 

That power that harmed other lives resembled evil magic rather than a special ability.

 

[Just try lying. I won’t let that cloth-wearing bastard get away with it.]

 

Even while being suspicious like this, Lili searched for the prettiest feather.

 

Then she happened to pick up a sparkling red feather.

 

The moment she grasped it and used her special ability, Lili’s dull gray hair and eyes changed to red.

 

At first, she didn’t even know that feather was Suzaku’s feather.

 

But as soon as she set foot in the southern lands, people approached her and spoke to her in friendly voices.

 

And the day she crossed the threshold of the Suzaku Mansion.

 

The family head looked at her and suddenly shed tears, saying she was his real lost daughter, and all the Suzaku Family members welcomed her with joy.

 

Just as that fierce beast had told her, Lili’s life changed in an instant.

 

From a miserable life of being driven from her homeland and wandering strange lands, she became the noble youngest lady of the Suzaku Family!

 

Everyone loved Lili, and everyone blessed Lili’s existence.

 

Lili doesn’t know what happened to the real daughter of this house either.

 

She probably died somewhere.

 

The malicious beast that awakened my special ability told me so.

 

The moment ‘brood parasitism’ manifests, the ‘real child’ would die with cracks forming in their spirit core.

 

And that was also the reason Lili was certain that Soya was ‘fake’.

 

That child had survived without dying during the months Lili stayed with the Suzaku family.

 

In any case, the real daughter of this house would never appear again.

 

But there was one very big problem.

 

That was the fact that the special ability’s effect was limited.

 

Originally, ‘brood parasitism’ was a power that only lasted until the baby cuckoo grew up. Therefore, after the first growth, one would return to their original form.

 

But Lili loved her current life too much.

 

So Lili deliberately tried not to undergo first growth by confining her spirit core’s power and refusing beast transformation.

 

However, just as Taotie had said earlier, the limit was gradually approaching.

 

At this rate, she would either die from cracks in her spirit core, or her true form would be exposed.

 

Taotie, who had accurately read Lili’s anxiety, smiled sinisterly and spoke.

 

“Do you want to return to the days of wandering the streets again? You’d be lucky if you were just kicked out to the streets. What if you receive severe punishment for deceiving the family?”

 

“Th-that can’t be!”

 

Lili denied with a voice full of fear.

 

“F-Father and Elder Brother love me so much! My family would never abandon me!”

 

“Is that really so?”

 

“…”

 

Lili couldn’t answer any further.

 

Because she remembered the way Father had acted just today.

 

That unpleasant sight of him caring more about that child than herself when Soya appeared.

 

“…So what is it that you want?”

 

Finally, Lili asked, showing the reaction Taotie wanted.

 

At this, Taotie raised the corners of his mouth in a grin.

 

* * *

 

Seolyeo was prowling around the dim rear garden.

 

The commotion that had occurred at the White Tiger family during the day had barely been calmed when Saeon arrived.

 

But what mattered to Seolyeo wasn’t that.

 

While he had gone outside the palace following Gaya, Soya had cried too much.

 

He wanted to comfort her.

 

He remembered long ago when he had picked flowers from Horim Mountain for Soya.

 

But this place was different from White Tiger Palace or Horim Mountain, so the flowers Soya usually liked were hardly visible.

 

So after prowling around the Imperial Palace’s rear garden for a long time, Seolyeo discovered something black and wriggling in the dark shadows far away.

 

‘What is that?’

 

It was when Seolyeo was about to step toward that direction.

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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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