The White Tiger Clan’s Baby Cotton Ball - Chapter 205

—————
This chapter was translated by Lunox Team. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
—————

Side Story 28

At those words, Seolyeo flinched.

Seolyeo doesn’t know what the veil of time is. However, he had heard the same words just a few hours ago.

—Those are times covered by the veil of time. Times that are now forgotten by everyone, vanished times.

The snake that had been chasing me said that.

Those terrible scenes I had witnessed were not illusions, but times that had actually existed beyond the veil of time.

“How do you know that…?”

It was the moment Seolyeo gulped and opened his mouth with a tense expression.

Swoosh—

Irim suddenly leaned toward Seolyeo and placed his hand on his chest.

“Wh-what are you doing…!”

While Seolyeo froze in shock at the sudden contact.

“So it’s hiding here. Evil.”

As Irim muttered, the evil hidden within Seolyeo’s heart stirred.

“…!”

Startled by the chilling energy that pulsed and surged up in an instant, Seolyeo brushed away Irim’s hand and staggered backward, ending up falling on his bottom.

“Huff, gasp…”

Seolyeo exhaled ragged breaths.

Thump, thump, thump, thump.

His heart beat rapidly from shock.

The evil energy he had felt moments ago subsided instantly as if it had been an illusion.

However, goosebumps rose on his skin as he kept remembering that energy that seemed ready to take over his body at any moment.

It was a horrible sensation, like insects crawling through his blood vessels.

“I told you to be careful of the black water.”

Irim’s muttering snapped Seolyeo back to his senses.

“Y-you are…”

Seolyeo pressed his chest that wouldn’t calm down and asked Irim.

“Just what do you know?”

“Well.”

Irim quietly looked down at his palm that had just touched Seolyeo and muttered.

“Whatever it is, it would be more than what you know.”

“Th-then please get rid of this!”

Seolyeo clutched his chest and pleaded in an urgent voice.

“Th-there’s something very bad in here! Please get rid of it! You are, if it’s you…!”

A desperate light dwelled in Seolyeo’s eyes as he looked up at Irim.

Perhaps that man, that man who knows about the veil of time and evil, might also know how to eliminate evil?

“Impossible.”

However, Irim betrayed Seolyeo’s expectations and answered immediately.

When even Irim, who had felt like a lifeline for a moment, said there was no answer, tears welled up in Seolyeo’s eyes.

“Then if this can’t be eliminated, in-instead, me…”

“That’s also impossible.”

Even though Seolyeo hadn’t finished speaking, Irim cut off his words sharply.

“I cannot eliminate evil, by any method. The same goes for you.”

Irim said while looking at Seolyeo’s face being colored by despair.

“You know that too, which is why you’re running away, isn’t it?”

“I’m not running away! I’m… I’m going to protect Soya!”

Seolyeo burst out without realizing it, then suddenly remembered there had been a similar situation before.

That is, when he first encountered this man…

[I won’t harm Soya! I, I’m someone who protects Soya! You’re the one who shouldn’t harm Soya!]

How had he responded to those words?

[You must do exactly that. That’s the reason I’m keeping you alive.]

Right, he had looked at me with cold eyes and said that.

‘Come to think of it, this man, it’s as if he knew me from before…’

It was then.

Throb—

His head began to throb with pain.

Throb, throb—

The moment he reflexively let out a groan and squeezed his eyes shut, scenes that were both unfamiliar and familiar flashed before his eyes.

The scenes he had seen beyond the veil of time, among them…

The moments when one timeline ended and was covered by a new veil of time…

Gasp.

Seolyeo realized that in the vanished times he had seen, that man was always there at the end.

‘Just now, that was…’

At the end of the crumbling time, a platinum-haired boy standing alone in noble posture, watching the end of the timeline…

His breath caught.

“You, just what is your identity…”

“My identity?”

Irim slowly raised the corners of his mouth.

The shadow of a massive dragon rippled under the dim moonlight.

“Wouldn’t it be more important to know who you are first, young imugi?”

A deep, great voice that seemed to shake heaven and earth resonated through Seolyeo’s mind.

* * *

Seolyeo ran while swallowing back his tears.

To that desolate northern land where, before meeting Saeon, he had wandered alone like an outcast, wearing the hide of a demon beast.

[Wouldn’t it be more important to know who you are first, young imugi?]

Endless questions swirled in his mind.

I am… who exactly am I?

Among all those many times, why did evil choose me of all people?

To know that, he had to learn about himself.

I want to know about myself too.

To do that…

—Go north. Far away. Even farther.

—And there.

—Find your …

After running without rest like that, he arrived at the desolate northern land, at the place where Manzajiso Hyeontojihagung, where his roots lay, had been.

Seolyeo looked at the parched, dried-up land.

Then black bubbles began to foam up around the ground where he had stepped.

Watching the bubbles that frothed and bloomed as if greeting him cheerfully, Seolyeo clenched his fists tightly.

“Black water….”

It was the very same black water that Hyeon Rabaek had controlled.

It was the very same black water that had attacked Soya and put her in danger.

Watching the black water rise and sway around him like a dance, Seolyeo had to acknowledge it.

That he was the son of that man who had tried to kill Soya.

“…I’m sorry, Soya. I’ve been deceiving you all this time.”

Seolyeo suddenly felt like all of this was his karma.

“The truth is, I’m the son of the man who tried to kill you, but I was afraid you’d hate me, so I kept it secret and hid it completely. So, hic… so maybe this is my punishment.”

Words that could never reach Soya kept flowing from his lips.

[Please. I have to protect Soya. Tell me how.]

—…There is one method.

“But, Soya. I am….”

Seolyeo wiped his eyes with the back of his hand and stared at the gradually rising black water with determined eyes.

“I will protect you. This time, somehow. Without fail, I will….”

Soon the surging black water engulfed Seolyeo.

* * *

After Seolyeo departed to the north, Irim gazed in the direction he had gone for a long while.

In the vanished times, Evil had coveted that child’s body many times.

And Irim could finally understand the reason.

Only the bloodline of the Sky and … could touch the veil of time.

Irim slowly turned his head to look toward where the White Tiger Palace was.

The morning sun had already risen.

Soon Soya would wake up.

She would learn of Seolyeo’s absence.

“Perhaps… she might even cry.”

Irim smiled bitterly thinking of Soya.

Through countless lives that had to perish, Soya had for the first time passed her fourteenth birthday.

And at the end of her first childhood, she would experience the pain of loss.

Irim slowly closed and opened his eyes.

For countless hours, he had felt helpless for being unable to protect her.

A similar helplessness reared its head once again.

Even knowing Soya would be sad, he hadn’t stopped that child from leaving.

Rather, he had urged him to go north.

He was always a sinner before Soya.

“…I’m sorry, Soya.”

The moment he muttered bitterly.

[I’m sorry, Soya.]

[Please forgive me, my queen.]

[It’s all my fault….]

[Soya, I’m sorry….]

[Sorry for being too late….]

All those many words of apology he had given to Soya came flooding back mixed together.

I’m sorry. I’m sorry, Soya. Once again, I’m sorry to you without fail….

Irim whispered in a faint voice like a murmur to Soya in the countless vanished times.

A sensation like his heart being squeezed choked his throat.

—————
This chapter was translated by Lunox Team. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
—————