The White Tiger Clan’s Baby Cotton Ball - Chapter 145

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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 145

“Have I ever said with my own mouth that I was this family’s daughter? I only said I came looking for my family, but you were the ones who hugged me crying and wailing, calling me your lost daughter!”

Lili’s grumbling outcry rang out loudly.

“Shouldn’t you be grateful to me instead? You didn’t even know that girl was a fake who had been switched with the real one until I came, right?”

Lili suddenly pointed at Soya with wide eyes.

“Thanks to me, you found out that girl was fake! I played the role of the real one you lost! But you don’t even know to be grateful to me…! Ugh…”

Lili, who had been screaming, suddenly clutched her heart and let out a groan.

Her spirit core, which had reached its limit, was swept away by her excited emotional state.

“Kuh, heuuk…”

If she endured any longer like this, her spirit core would shatter.

“N-no, not like this…”

Lili trembled with a pale face.

Eventually, her body, unable to endure, collapsed downward.

Pop!

In the spot where Lili had been just moments before, a single cuckoo chick remained.

Cuckoo. Cuckoo.

A brief silence fell along with the cuckoo’s cry.

“She really was… a cuckoo…”

Someone’s murmur drifted through the cold silence.

“Must I continue watching this spectacle?”

At that moment, Irim spoke with a cool voice.

“We apologize, Your Majesty…”

Jeok Ayun barely managed to squeeze out a response from his tightly constricted throat.

“Today’s scheduled ceremony is postponed to tomorrow. And that gray-feathered daughter of the Jeok family…”

Irim’s gaze briefly turned toward the cuckoo.

“The crime of attempting to poison the White Tiger Family’s daughter and the crime of impersonating the Dragon Emperor’s Bride under the name of a divine beast.”

He recited Lili’s crimes one by one.

“And the crime of disturbing the Imperial Palace with false purification power—interrogate and severely question all of it, then drag her away and imprison her.”

“Yes, Your Majesty.”

The Imperial Palace soldiers dragged away the cuckoo as it fluttered and resisted.

Lili flapped her wings toward Jeok Ayun and Jeok Hwayu, chirping for help, but they could only watch her being dragged away with hollow faces.

The situation was settled by Irim, and the gathered people dispersed.

However, only Jeok Ayun remained standing tall in that spot, unable to leave.

If Lili wasn’t his real daughter…

If she was a cuckoo…

Then where was my real daughter that Lili had imitated?

No.

Does a ‘real daughter switched by a greedy servant woman’ actually exist?

The only evidence that the Suzaku Family’s youngest daughter had been switched was… the proof of direct lineage that Lili had brought.

But all of that had been revealed to be false like this…

Suddenly, a sense that something was very wrong pierced through his mind.

As he blankly raised his gaze, he met eyes with Soya.

Suddenly.

The situation from earlier, which he had briefly forgotten due to this incident, came to mind.

[Lili tried to kill me. If what had been there wasn’t an illusion beast but really me, I would have truly died.]

[…]

[And yet you’re protecting Lili in front of me?]

Lili had tried to kill Soya.

Even so, I protected Lili in front of Soya.

Saying Lili was my everything, so please forgive her.

To Soya, who had nearly been killed by none other than Lili.

“What have I… done…”

What on earth have I done?

All color drained from his already pale face.

Suddenly dragged into cold reality, he moved his lips toward the child.

“Soya…”

He felt he had to say something right away.

Whether it was a shameless apology, a cowardly excuse, anything at all.

However, Soya, who glanced at him with cold eyes…

Swish—

Grabbed Saeon’s hand and simply passed by him.

“Ah…”

A low sigh flowed through his teeth.

Left behind, Jeok Ayun had to stand blankly in the same spot for a long time in the still unbelievable reality.

* * *

On the way back to her quarters, holding Saeon’s hand.

Soya was in a rather unpleasant mood.

From Jeok Ayun’s appearance as he let go of Lili’s hand, she remembered him coldly pushing her away when she had run to him after her first beast transformation.

From Hwayu’s appearance defending that child, saying it was ridiculous that Lili was a cuckoo, she remembered him from that time when, unlike today, he had immediately pushed her away.

And when she saw them raising their voices and arguing among themselves at the end…

She wondered what they found so unfair.

She had known this would happen.

She had known that whether they cast Lili aside or held onto her until the end, neither would be pleasant.

‘This is why I tried not to interfere in their affairs…’

Soya was thinking this with a somewhat gloomy and sunken mood.

Swoosh—

Suddenly her body was lifted high. Saeon had picked her up.

Soya grabbed Saeon’s shoulders in surprise and said,

“Father. I’m not nine years old anymore.”

“But our baby looked like she missed Papa’s embrace.”

Saeon said with a voice containing gentle laughter.

“But our baby has grown too much now. Before, when I held you like this, you fit in one embrace.”

“…”

At this, Soya closed her mouth for a moment, then…

Pop!

Her body, which had suddenly become much smaller, fit snugly into Saeon’s embrace.

Saeon patted the body of Soya, who had become a small bird.

Then the small bird cried “Peep, peep” and shed tears from her tiny eyes.

Saeon, who had stopped walking, looked down at Soya.

“Our baby, why are you crying so sadly?”

His thick finger wiped away the large teardrops hanging at her eyes.

“Peep…”

Instead of answering, Soya made bird sounds, then soon buried her head in his large embrace and shook her body.

Saeon calmly waited, patting the child’s body until Soya stopped shaking.

“…You know, Papa.”

Soya, who had stopped shaking, lifted her head to look at Saeon and said,

“I’m really, really happy that Papa is my papa.”

“Papa too.”

Saeon grinned and stroked Soya’s little head.

“I’m really so happy that our baby Cotton Ball is my daughter.”

Soya’s eyes curved prettily at those affectionate words.

Pleasant chirping sounds came from between her small, cute beak.

In truth, the words “not that man” were hidden before what she had just said…

“Chirp chirp, chirp.”

Soya, feeling much better, rubbed her little head against Saeon’s palm.

Saeon let out a small laugh at Soya’s affectionate behavior, which he hadn’t seen in a long time.

* * *

Meanwhile, at the same time.

Gayul was taking care of a sparrow.

It was the sparrow with the injured leg that he had rescued not long ago.

That day, Gayul had disinfected the sparrow’s infected leg with Soya, applied ointment, and wrapped it with bandages.

Soya had a special power to heal wounds.

But that day, because of the first prince who had come from the Suzaku Family, she didn’t use that power and treated it with ordinary methods.

Gayul didn’t quite understand the reason, but Soya had said that having special powers was a secret.

That’s why the incident two years ago when Soya instantly purified people poisoned by poison insects had been kept secret until now.

However, thanks to that, Gayul was able to experience treating another animal for the first time.

Every time he saw the bandage he had personally wrapped around that thin sparrow’s leg, he felt proud.

But the sparrow had been acting a bit strange since this morning.

It kept biting Gayul’s hand with its beak and scratching with its claws, acting violently.

“Why is it so angry? Is it hungry?”

Gayul tilted his head as he watched the baby sparrow fiercely pecking at his palm with its beak.

The young sparrow’s attacks didn’t hurt and were just ticklish.

“Cotton Ball used to peck at me like this when she was little and got angry…”

Suddenly Gayul’s thoughts drifted to Soya.

“I wonder if Cotton Ball is okay.”

Today Soya had gone to the Shrine of the Golden Dragon, holding Father’s hand.

She said she would reveal the evil deeds of that wicked cuckoo from the Suzaku Family there.

“I wanted to go with her too.”

Since Soya said she wanted to go alone with Father, the other family members deliberately didn’t follow.

Even as the baby sparrow bit and gnawed at his hand, Gayul’s mind was filled with worry about Soya.

Just then, his ears perked up.

He heard the sound of Soya returning!

Gayul immediately rushed out through the open window.

“Cotton Ball!”

“Yul Elder Brother!”

Soya in bird form was chirping and laughing happily with Ga Hyeon and Seolyeo.

But the White Tiger’s excellent sense of smell detected the scent of tears coming from Soya.

‘At times like this, I should pretend not to know.’

Gayul, who lacked awareness but had exceptional memory, cleverly recalled what Cheongha had once told him.

She had said that pretending to know when a woman hides tears with a smiling face makes you a clueless and ignorant tiger.

But pretending not to notice the smell of tears and making her laugh brightly with funny words and entertaining stories makes you a dignified and cool tiger.

Gayul recalled Mother’s teachings and transformed into a tiger to cheer up Soya, dancing ridiculously and singing in an absurd tune.

Then Soya also laughed brightly and sang along with chirping sounds.

That day, Gayul was so focused on Soya that he failed to notice.

That the young sparrow in his room had become very strange…

“Grrr, grrrr…”

The sparrow threatened the birds at the window, looking like a small demon beast.

The birds that had been dozing were startled by the threat and flew away with a flutter.

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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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