The White Tiger Clan’s Baby Cotton Ball - Chapter 181

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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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Side Story 4

At this, one of Gaya’s eyebrows rose crookedly.

“Not cute at all.”

“I’m past the age where I’d look cute to Elder Brother.”

“Why do you get to decide that on your own? You’re still a baby too, you know?”

Gaya grumbled with a pouty expression as he gently pulled and stretched Ga Hyeon’s cheeks.

The soft cheeks stretched out as Gaya pulled them.

If it had been Gayul, he would have jumped up and down saying not to treat him like a baby, but Ga Hyeon just stared at his elder brother with a blank expression.

His appearance was soft and cute like kneaded rice flour, all pale and squishy, but why did he act like such an old soul when speaking and behaving?

“There’s no fun in teasing you.”

Gaya shook his head back and forth.

Ga Hyeon, who had been staring up at him quietly, suddenly asked.

“Father has returned. So are you really going to the battlefield in Father’s place next spring?”

“I’m not going to war in Father’s place, I’m fulfilling my duty. As the family’s heir.”

Gaya answered in an indifferent voice.

There was no trace of fear about the battlefield to be found in Gaya as he answered.

Rather, it was Ga Hyeon who was worried.

Noticing the worried expression on his not-cute younger brother’s face, Gaya grinned and asked.

“What. Are you worried about your elder brother?”

“….”

Instead of answering, Ga Hyeon hardened his expression and nodded.

This was a little cute.

“It’s not really a big deal. Sanho from the Blue Wolf Family is only fifteen but went to war accompanying his father, and the Family Head of the Azure Dragon Family has been going to battlefields for years even though he’s younger than me.”

Thanks to that, his mother was taken by those fish bastards from the Eastern Lands though….

“So don’t worry. This elder brother will end the war and return. I’ll bring you a gift then too.”

“…?”

Ga Hyeon tilted his head at the sudden talk of gifts, but Gaya just smiled broadly.

Gaya knew what his younger brother wanted most.

Because on that rainy night, he had heard his younger brother’s mumbling as he groaned from nightmares in bed.

When the war ends, and everything returns to its proper place.

Then the nightmares of the baby tiger who secretly whimpered from missing their mother while thinking he was an adult would disappear too.

* * *

Gayul crouched on the dirt ground, sniffling and whimpering.

A handful of his proud tail fur was missing.

This was all because of Arang.

That mean brown tiger had pulled out his tail fur!

Of course, Gayul hadn’t just taken it lying down either.

“Roar, roar! (Mean brown tiger! I should have pulled out all the fur from her front legs!)”

Gayul fumed as he looked at the fluffy brown fur remaining on his claws.

“Are you upset from fighting with Lady Arang?”

“Roaaaar! (Why would I be upset? I taught that mean brown tiger a lesson!)”

Gayul bristled and shouted in response to Su Ri’s question.

“Roar! Growl, sniff! (Look at this! I pulled out this much fur from her front legs!)”

“But more of Young Master’s tail fur got pulled out. Didn’t Young Master lose to Lady Arang?”

“….”

Gayul’s mouth clamped shut.

Right. That was upsetting too! Feeling like he had lost to that mean brown tiger!

But that wasn’t what was really upsetting Gayul.

After keeping his mouth tightly shut with a sulky expression for a while, Gayul soon turned his body around and spoke in a pouty voice.

“Grrowl, sniff…. (That’s not what’s important. What’s really upsetting me is something else.)”

Su Ri looked at Gayul who had turned away in a huff.

The way his tail was wagging back and forth was a signal asking him to please ask what was really upsetting him.

If he ignored this signal and pretended not to notice, the Young Master would obviously get even more upset.

“What’s really upsetting you?”

“….”

However, when he actually asked, Gayul didn’t answer and hung his head low.

His deeply bowed head and tail that had stopped wagging and drooped down somehow evoked pity.

“Young Master?”

“Growl…. (How much I….)”

Soon Gayul weakly opened his mouth and mumbled.

“Grrowwl…. (How much I looked forward to meeting a younger sibling….)”

Judging by his unusually weak, trailing voice, the earlier incident must have really upset him a lot.

“But what Young Master Hyeon said wasn’t wrong either. Lady Arang is your cousin, so she is your younger sibling.”

“No! She’s not my sibling!”

Gayul suddenly jumped up and strongly denied it while releasing his beast transformation.

“If she were a sibling, she should be a little more…! A little smaller and softer! You said siblings are small and precious, someone you want to protect! But she’s nothing like that!”

He was shouting so excitedly that spit was flying.

“There’s nothing you can do about it, Young Master. It’s not like siblings just appear because you want them. Lady Arang is pretty cu…”

“No! She’s not cute at all!”

“Yes, yes, you’re right, Young Master. Lady Arang isn’t cute at all.”

Su Ri agreed with everything he said, but Gayul’s mood didn’t improve easily.

‘He said storks bring siblings.’

With a deliberately serious expression, Gayul thought for a while and cleverly remembered what Gaya had said.

Soon he jumped up and started heading somewhere.

“Huh, huh? Young Master, where are you going?”

“The library.”

“Eh? Why would Young Master go to the library? Are we playing hide-and-seek among the books?”

“I’m going to find a stork.”

“What?”

Su Ri followed behind Gayul with a bewildered expression.

Arriving at the library, Gayul found an illustrated guide with birds drawn in it among the numerous books.

It was to find a stork.

‘I’ll find a stork and ask it to bring me a sibling.’

Gayul crouched in front of the bookshelf with a very serious expression and opened the book.

When he turned the first page, there was an incredibly beautiful, magnificent bird with brilliant five colors drawn at the very front, the first he’d ever seen in his life.

For a moment, Gayul forgot why he had looked for the guide and just stared at the picture in a daze.

“Wow, it’s a phoenix. The king of birds.”

Su Ri peeked his head out and explained.

“The king of birds?”

“Yes, just like tigers are the king of land beasts, phoenixes are originally the king of birds. Now Suzaku, one of the Four Divine Beasts, has become the leader of birds and leads the flying beasts, but the true king of birds is the phoenix.”

“I see…. Its feathers are so sparkly and pretty.”

Gayul, who had been muttering blankly while looking at the phoenix, suddenly came to his senses.

‘Oh right, this isn’t the time for this.’

Gayul quickly flipped through the pages again to find a stork.

Then he suddenly discovered a very small, pure white bird like a cotton ball and opened his eyes wide in surprise.

‘So, so cute…!’

Due to neglecting his literary studies, he couldn’t really tell what was written, but he could tell that the small bird in the picture was very cute.

Small, cute… and so he looked like someone you’d want to protect.

Like a little brother!

“L-look at this, Nam Suri! It’s a really, really cute bird!”

Gayul said with a face flushed bright red, showing Su Ri the drawing in the book.

“I’m definitely going to have a small, soft little brother like this! Not a fierce tiger like Arang!”

“But if Young Master gets a little brother, wouldn’t it be a tiger? Since the Family Head is a tiger.”

“…!”

At Su Ri’s words, Gayul froze with a face as if he had gained great enlightenment.

“B-but…! But…!”

Gayul’s eyes trembled as he asked in a very earnest voice.

“Couldn’t there be small, cute tigers among tigers?”

“Oh come on, a small, cute tiger? Where in the world would such a tiger exist?”

However, the oblivious Su Ri, who failed to notice Young Master’s earnest gaze, immediately said that.

Eventually, tears began to well up in his round eyes, and soon Gayul kicked off from the library and ran out.

* * *

Saeon found Gayul crouched in a corner of White Tiger Palace.

Hearing his footsteps, Gayul glanced up, but as soon as their eyes met, he turned his head away again.

It was a posture full of obvious sulking.

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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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