The White Tiger Clan’s Baby Cotton Ball - Chapter 147

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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 147

Sanyu’s reaction was unusual.

“…?”

Gaya frowned at his sudden change.

“Why are you…”

It was when he reached out toward him with a puzzled expression.

Startled.

At the warning sent by his animal instincts, Gaya immediately pulled back his body.

Kugwagwang—!

Sanyu’s attack flew toward the spot where Gaya had been standing just moments before.

“Grrrrrr…”

Something like a beast’s growl leaked out from between Sanyu’s teeth.

“What the hell, are you cra…”

“Grrrrrrr…”

He stopped.

Gaya sensed something was seriously wrong and furrowed his brow.

And in that brief moment.

Hwaeaek—!

Gaya’s body was pushed back and he fell to the ground.

Kuwoong—!

At the same time, Sanyu pounced on Gaya.

“Keurgh!”

“Grrrr…”

“Damn…it…”

Gaya barely managed to grab Sanyu’s arms as he bit into his shoulder, pushing him away while gritting his teeth.

Blackened whites of his eyes and red pupils.

Sanyu looked not human, but rather like a demon beast.

* * *

“Didn’t the Vermillion Bird Family help the criminal escape?”

Jeok Ayun, summoned due to Lili’s disappearance from prison, had to prove his family’s innocence before the Imperial Palace officials.

“After the incident during the day, all of our family members, including myself, never moved a single step from our assigned pavilions.”

However, people did not easily believe his words.

Because he already had a history of defending Lili even after she had committed attempted murder within the Imperial Palace.

“Those who received treatment from the criminal are complaining of pain again, one by one.”

“The Vermillion Bird Family should know how great a crime it is to lie in the name of a divine beast. That cuckoo wench even went so far as to impersonate the Dragon Emperor’s Bride in Suzaku’s name.”

“Whatever the outcome of this incident, Family Head Jeok and the Vermillion Bird Family must take responsibility together. Keep in mind that His Majesty is also watching this matter closely.”

“…I understand.”

Under the barrage of attacks from the officials, Jeok Ayun answered with a tired expression and walked out.

The sky had already grown dark.

‘What on earth happened.’

He thought while pressing his throbbing forehead.

To disappear so completely without a trace…

The Imperial Palace soldiers had been searching for two hours already, but still couldn’t find her.

‘Did she really use evil magic or something.’

Deep wrinkles formed above Ayun’s brow.

Then Jeok Ayun’s steps came to a complete halt when he spotted a man walking toward him from the opposite direction.

‘Baek Saeon…’

The other person also recognized him and stopped.

His expression was filled with chilling murderous intent.

Ever since they met at the Imperial Palace, that man had always been hostile toward him, but today his antagonism was particularly intense.

However, Saeon soon tried to pass by as if he didn’t even want to exchange words.

“Soya is…”

If not for that name that flowed from Jeok Ayun’s lips, he would have done so.

“Is she healthy. I heard she was ill for several days after falling into the lake that day. Is the child’s body alright now…”

“Right now, whose name are you calling with that filthy mouth?”

Saeon whipped his head around to glare at him, asking back in a voice that seemed to barely contain his boiling rage.

From the moment that man asked Soya to forgive that cuckoo in front of the Shrine of the Golden Dragon during the day, Saeon had wanted nothing more than to tear him apart.

Unable to recognize his own child, defending and supporting the fake daughter who tried to kill his real daughter.

Unbearable fury rose at the sight of him now asking as if he cared about Soya.

But he had promised Soya.

That he wouldn’t fight in front of many people again and come home injured, causing her worry.

Saeon roughly clenched his fists, remembering his promise with the child.

“…I have something to ask.”

However, Jeok Ayun opened his mouth without being intimidated by the naked hostility directed at him.

“On that day when you met Soya and took her away… did the Vermillion Bird Family’s three-legged crow really attack that child?”

“What?”

One of Saeon’s eyebrows rose menacingly.

“Now acting like you knew nothing about it, why are you asking that.”

“This is… the first time I’m hearing of it. It was a story I heard for the first time today. But if that’s really true, then that child…”

Jeok Ayun gritted his teeth and continued.

“Must have thought all this time that we were trying to kill her.”

Toward him who squeezed his eyes shut and opened them while muttering in an anguished voice, Saeon asked in a cold voice.

“Can you say that’s not true?”

“…”

For a moment, Jeok Ayun unconsciously swallowed hard.

“You bastards drove that child to the Cold Palace when she was only six years old. Six years old.”

“…”

“Our family’s youngest tiger at that age couldn’t even read properly yet and just ran around mountains and fields. When evening came, she would return covered in dirt from head to toe, and it was routine for her to be caught again after running away because she didn’t want to bathe.”

“…”

“She was at such a young age when she should have been protected in her parents’ embrace without any worries! You bastards abandoned Soya at such a tender age!”

Veins bulged in Saeon’s neck as he pressed Jeok Ayun.

“And yet. After taking away even that small child’s spirit core and confining her to the Cold Palace. After making that small child suffer alone without adult protection, facing people’s indifference. Can you say that wasn’t trying to kill her?”

Saeon remembers.

When Soya first came to White Tiger Palace.

That small child who couldn’t fully accept the affection people gave her, and busily ran around with that tiny body trying to be helpful to White Tiger Palace somehow.

Nine-year-old Soya who even injured her small hands, saying she wanted to repay his kindness.

“Cotton Ball, my daughter Soya, suffered in fear of beast transformation because of you people. She thought it was natural for people to dislike her.”

Soya was a child who smiled more brightly than anyone at a single kind word or trivial praise.

She was a child who would smile as brightly as if she had received the most precious thing in the world at one warm touch, tightly grasping that hand.

“And after all that… you dare to pretend to worry about that child now?”

Fury rose in Saeon at the sight of the one who had made a child who smiled so brightly at such small, simple things become hesitant even to smile, now mentioning Soya’s name in front of him.

“It was the first time you heard of it? It was a story you heard for the first time today? Don’t make me laugh. Do you think wrapping it up in such words will make what you bastards did to Soya forgivable?”

Each of Saeon’s cutting words became sharp daggers that tore through Jeok Ayun’s chest.

However, Jeok Ayun, who couldn’t fully accept Saeon’s words, raised his voice.

“What do you, what do you know?”

Veins bulged in his neck as he shouted at Saeon.

“In an instant, I learned that my daughter wasn’t my blood! That pure white fur felt nothing but horrifying!”

“Horrifying?”

At that word, the thread of reason that Saeon had barely been holding onto snapped with a ‘crack.’

“Without even knowing how that small child came to have that pure white fur. What? Horrifying?”

Saeon couldn’t hold back any longer and lunged at Jeok Ayun.

“You’re the one who’s truly terrible!”

“Let go of this… Urgh…”

“You terrible chicken-brained bastard.”

Thoom—!

Jeok Ayun’s body flew far away from Saeon’s attack.

Immediately, Saeon pounced on him and swung his fists.

“This crazy tiger with nothing but endurance…”

Whoosh—!

Blooming flames surrounded the two men.

The aggressively flickering fire caught onto Saeon’s clothes.

At this, Saeon threw his body and jumped straight into the Imperial Palace pond with a splash.

With a hissing sound, the flames were extinguished.

Meanwhile, Jeok Ayun staggered to his feet.

However, without giving him even a moment’s rest, he had to dodge Saeon’s attack that came flying again.

Crash—!

The pavilion next to the pond was destroyed.

In an instant, their surroundings became a battlefield.

At the sight of the two Family Heads engaging in hand-to-hand combat, not only the Imperial Palace soldiers but even the officials who had gathered until late rushed out.

“Oh my, Family Head!”

Ho Jeokyeong, who had come to escort Saeon and was attending the central officials’ meeting, spotted Saeon and cried out in surprise.

Although he had a reputation for having a bad personality due to his cold impression, he had never acted on emotion even once since becoming an adult…

“How can you cause trouble in the Imperial Palace without thinking of the consequences!”

“I don’t care. I’ll kill that bastard right here and beg His Majesty to spare only my life.”

Saeon said this and lunged at Jeok Ayun once again.

Crash! Bang! Smash—!

At the loud sounds of things breaking and flying around, someone sighed with a worried voice.

“Sh-shouldn’t we stop them?”

“How can mere beastmen like us stop the Family Heads of the Three Great Families?”

“Look here, Red Fox. You should try to stop them somehow.”

“Me? Why should I? That’s a tiger I’m seeing for the first time.”

Jeok Yeong turned away from Saeon and pretended not to know him.

“No, don’t pretend you don’t know like that… At this rate, someone will really get seriously hurt.”

“Hehe, if someone’s going to get hurt anyway, it’s better if they get seriously hurt.”

Jeok Yeong smiled warmly and chuckled.

“Ah, of course I won’t let that tiger I’m seeing for the first time get hurt even a little. I can’t bear to see tears in our cute Cotton Ball Miss’s eyes.”

In the White Tiger Palace, there were many others besides him who wouldn’t let Saeon be if he made the Young Lady cry.

Jeok Yeong was a capable aide who had already decided it was better to worry about what would need to be compensated for due to Saeon’s accident rather than worry about Saeon himself.

So he was standing at a distance, looking at the broken items and calculating estimates in his head when it happened.

“Grrr…”

An ominous howling sound came from somewhere.

The intelligent beastmen with developed five senses flinched and looked toward where the sound came from.

“Demon beasts…?”

Along with someone’s murmur, demon beasts began to reveal themselves one by one from the darkness.

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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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