The White Tiger Clan’s Baby Cotton Ball - Chapter 206

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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 Episode 29

In her first life, she had to die in agony, her soul corrupted by her father and even deprived of rest.

In the several lives he remembered afterward, she met death because of the cuckoo, and in several other lives, she died because of those sent by Hyeon Rabaek.

Including deaths from the resurrected hands of evil demons and deaths from being unable to heal her injured spirit core despite avoiding all those crises, there were countless deaths.

Irim desired only one thing.

Even if just for one lifetime, for Soya to live out her natural lifespan and pass away in the arms of those she loved.

The harsh fate that had befallen Soya was heartbreaking, and he resented the heavens that had stood by and watched her tragic destiny.

He cursed the officials of the Heavenly Realm who had left evil to run rampant but tried to take her life for the petty reason that their authority had been challenged.

[Do not be arrogant for having defeated me, young Imperial Dragon of the earthly realm. The reason the Heavenly Realm leaves you be is because they know you will self-destruct anyway.]

“…I should have cut off your breath right then and there.”

Irim muttered in a cold voice.

A chilling murderous intent settled in Irim’s blue-green eyes, which had always been gentle.

It was an expression he had never shown in front of Soya.

At the same time, it was the expression that the eleven-year-old young emperor, who had slaughtered his own blood relatives and ascended to the throne himself, had always worn in those precarious storms of blood.

[The price for defying heaven’s will shall be entirely yours to bear.]

Irim laughed lightly in derision.

The price for defying heaven’s will. Such a thing could hardly be frightening.

If he could trade one of his days for one of her days, he would pay the price of thousands and tens of thousands of days to continue her complete life.

If there was one thing Irim feared, it was only this:

That his own fate would run out before he could continue her complete life.

…Yes, that is the only thing I fear.

“But Soya.”

Suddenly he looked toward the direction of the White Tiger Palace and smiled faintly.

“This time, I think I can finally keep my promise to you.”

There had been countless promises that could not be kept.

[This Imperial Palace is dangerous. Let’s leave together, Soya.]

[Your Majesty…?]

[Let’s leave the Imperial Palace together, Soya. I’ll protect you.]

Such was the promise made when escaping the Imperial Palace together with Soya.

[I want to see flowers, Your Majesty… The flowers that bloomed in the private family’s garden…]

[Not now. When your body becomes healthy, then we’ll go see flowers together.]

Outside the Imperial Palace, having fled from his father’s eyes. Such was the promise made during the time spent together in the thatched hut where they had hidden, unable to flee far due to her weak body.

[Your Majesty…! No, Your Majesty…! Your Majesty…!]

[I’m, gasp, fine. I’m fine, Soya, ugh… I will, I will definitely… come back for you… I’ll come back soon…]

Such was the promise he had gasped out while coughing up blood toward her as she was dragged away, amid the kicks poured down by the Emperor’s soldiers who had burst in.

[Just a little. Just wait a little longer. The day I come for you is not far off, so just a little longer…]

Such was the promise he had made in his heart every day while surviving countless crises, abandoned in the desolate northern lands where demon beasts swarmed.

And…

[I will save you. Soya. Even if I must break the taboos of this world, I will definitely save you.]

Such was the promise made on the day he offered the Imperial Dragon’s orb to her dead body and turned back the first time.

And now, finally, it was time to keep that promise.

Thud. Thud.

Black scales fell from his body.

Irim glanced at his scales that tirelessly festered, fell off, and grew back repeatedly without end.

The black scales that fell from his body scattered like flower petals on the gentle breeze.

Soya.

The beginning of all the misfortune you had to endure was my father’s evil deeds…

Your being turned away by those you loved began when I gave you the Imperial Dragon’s orb and brought you back to life…

How could I ever be forgiven by you for all these countless wrongs.

Soya, my consort…

The lonely voice scattered among the drifting black scales.

Irim turned away in anguish.

6. Time flowed and flowed, and the baby bird of the White Tiger Palace

Southern Empire, Vermillion Bird Mansion.

The Family Head’s office.

A red-haired man sat in proper posture, examining documents.

The gentle-faced man was Jeok Sanyu, the young new Family Head of the Vermillion Bird Family.

He devoted all his strength to straightening the discipline within the estate that had become lax during his absence and rebuilding the family that had been shaken.

He could not waste any passing hour or moment.

Because he had one very important promise.

[Somsomi, you won’t come to see me directly?]

[…A little later. The karma I must bear is still too great.]

His young sister, with whom he had parted without proper farewells due to hastily leaving the Imperial Palace because of the fire that struck the estate.

[When I can appear before that child in a more admirable form. Then I’ll definitely go to see her again.]

To meet that child again as soon as possible, I could not rest even for a moment.

“Family Head…!”

At that moment, his subordinate came looking for him with a somewhat flustered expression.

“What is it?”

“Well… News has come from the Imperial Palace. The criminal who was imprisoned in the Imperial Prison…”

The hesitating subordinate carefully opened his mouth.

And upon hearing the news of Lili’s death in prison, a low sigh escaped from Sanyu’s lips.

“Yes, so it has finally come to that.”

Sanyu nodded with a somewhat weary expression.

They had said that a body drained of life force as the price for using evil magic would not live long.

On the day he visited the Imperial Palace to complete the succession of the Family Head position, Sanyu had been able to see Lili imprisoned in the prison cell.

Lili, with half her body grotesquely withered and twisted and empty eyes, did not recognize him at all.

Her appearance was tragic as she stared blankly into space, muttering, then having seizures from the intermittent physical pain that visited her.

She had been in a state where death would not have been strange at any time, yet she had lived three more years in that cold and dark Imperial Prison, so she had endured for quite a while.

And Sanyu knew that Lili had been able to endure that long because… there had been the Emperor’s will.

[How could I forget the merits the Jeok Family has established for the Empire all this time? Do not worry. The Imperial Family will care for the Jeok Family’s daughter so that her breath will not easily cease.]

Thinking of the Emperor who had said those words, Sanyu often felt chills run down his spine.

Could living such a life—cold and dark days with no one to visit amid the pain of a rotting body, prolonging such a fleeting existence—truly be considered grace?

“Should we not inform the Deceased Madam?”

At his subordinate’s question, Sanyu pondered for a moment, then soon rose to his feet.

His steps leaving the office headed toward the small building on the west side of the estate.

There sat a man on the wooden floor, his eyes covered with a long cloth.

Though he must have sensed his presence, the man did not turn around and continued gazing into the distance.

Sanyu followed his father’s gaze and stared at the western sky.

Suddenly, he felt a surge of emotion.

He seemed to understand why his father deliberately sat in the small building at the westernmost part of the estate, endlessly gazing only at the distant western sky despite being unable to see anything…

Three years ago. On the day there was a victory celebration banquet at the Imperial Palace.

A fire suddenly broke out at the estate.

Father lost one eye in that incident, and even the vision in his other eye became blurred.

The flames that burned the estate that day were none other than the fire ignited by Jeok Ayun’s rampaging emotions.

Originally, Suzaku’s flames cannot harm Suzaku’s direct lineage.

Yet his body was injured because those flames contained the will to harm himself.

The burn scars that remained all over his body from that day’s accident were the punishment a father who had abandoned his child inflicted upon himself.

Had he not been rescued in time, Father would have lost his life in those flames.

[You do not even have the right to die.]

[So do not die. Live. Please, for a long, long time, live. If only for Soya’s sake.]

Sanyu knew how those words of his had pierced his father’s heart.

Because of that single statement, the man who had burned himself in hellfire was still trapped in the hell he had created.

Jeok Ayun lived as if he truly intended to live for a long, long time, having let go of everything except life itself.

Sanyu turned away from his breaking heart and spoke carefully.

“Father.”

Then, in a calm voice, he delivered the news of Lili’s death.

“The cuckoo has died.”

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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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