The White Tiger Clan’s Baby Cotton Ball - Chapter 221

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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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Part 2, Chapter 13

Drip, drip—

At the sound of water droplets, Seolyeo’s gaze turned downward.

Black droplets that had flowed down his body fell below and pooled back into the marsh.

Seolyeo, who had been staring at it blankly, suddenly came to his senses and frantically searched through his front garment.

As he felt around his chest to check his body’s condition, he sensed an unpleasant energy writhing near where his spirit core should be.

It was the energy of evil that had now become part of him.

Three years ago, Seolyeo left the White Tiger Palace and arrived at the northern lands where the Black Tortoise Clan’s palace once stood.

The dry land welcomed him by bubbling up black foam, and the black water that rose with his power became a marsh that served as his new nest.

And in this place, evil slowly began to devour his body.

As if to prove this fact, black scars had formed on his chest.

When he first discovered them, how disgusting and terrible they were.

Young Seolyeo had been so shocked that he shed tears and trembled with his body curled up, but now when he saw this, he only frowned slightly.

It was because he had become far too accustomed to it during the three years to be newly frightened.

In the cold and desolate black marsh where no one else existed, Seolyeo had been fighting by sharing one body with the evil that dwelt within him, repeatedly devouring and being devoured by each other.

That had already been going on for three years…

Evil wanted to possess Seolyeo’s body, and Seolyeo was still holding on with all his might to avoid being devoured by such evil.

Seolyeo slowly raised his body.

Each time he moved his steps, there was a splash, splash— sound of water.

Seolyeo checked the season.

Between the green leaves, he discovered pale pink flower blossoms that resembled the eyes of someone he missed.

It was spring.

Fortunately, the season hadn’t changed yet.

Last year, he couldn’t see spring.

This was because he had spent a full four months from the previous winter in a state of being devoured by evil.

When Seolyeo, who had lost his body to evil during winter, opened his eyes again, spring had already passed and it was summer.

Since his consciousness also sank while his body was being devoured by evil, Seolyeo had to spend that year’s spring in vain without enjoying even a single day of it.

It was quite regrettable.

Even Seolyeo himself didn’t know how much time he had left.

However, he knew that he wouldn’t have many springs remaining.

Seolyeo liked spring.

When spring came, even in this desolate and barren northern land, he could occasionally see pale red flowers that reminded him of someone.

Seolyeo bent his body toward the flower.

Swoosh.

His hair, which had grown down to his waist, touched his eyes.

It seemed to have grown more than last time.

When he lost his body to evil and then reclaimed it, time would have passed by quickly, and the cycle that was initially a day or two was now gradually getting longer.

Each time that happened, Seolyeo’s body would have grown rapidly like bamboo after rain.

It wasn’t just his hair that had grown.

His body had also grown over the past three years, becoming as tall as Saeon and Gaya—the two tallest people he knew.

His shoulders had broadened, and his body lines had thickened.

Now, no one would think he was that reckless little kid who used to run around Horim Mountain.

‘How many days passed this time?’

Seolyeo squinted his eyes, then brought his fingertip to touch the water droplets hanging delicately on the flower petals.

‘Half a month…’

The memory of water showed him that half a month of days and nights had passed.

This time he had opened his eyes again after only half a month, so the cycle was short.

Some external force had interfered.

Seolyeo thought he knew what that force was.

Just before regaining consciousness, the scene he had seen through the black water was vivid in his eyes.

Among the murmuring people, white hair fluttering in the wind.

Although he immediately regained consciousness and was busy taking back the power that evil had been wielding, so he couldn’t confirm that face, he was certain. It was that child.

“Soya…”

Seolyeo quietly murmured that name.

The evil that had devoured his body had tried to harm Soya again.

Using water, which was his power, even though he had deliberately withdrawn the water from the western lands to prevent such a thing…

“…”

Creak. Strength entered his tightly clenched jaw.

The strange phenomenon of water in the western lands gradually drying up was Seolyeo’s doing.

The power over water that was said to be passed down to the head of the Black Tortoise Clan had become even more powerful since Seolyeo accepted it.

Seolyeo could freely manipulate anywhere there was water, in any way he wanted.

The problem was that the evil sharing his body could also wield this power.

The strange phenomena throughout the continent, including the capital, were the work of evil that had possessed Seolyeo’s body and used his power.

One fortunate thing was that evil’s power couldn’t dwell in bright places.

Therefore, what evil could touch was only black water pooled in shadows.

So Seolyeo had planned to withdraw all the water from the western lands so that evil couldn’t harm Soya with his power.

But it seemed Soya had left the western lands.

The place he had seen through the black water the moment his consciousness awakened was definitely the Imperial Palace.

The place he had gone to with Soya three years ago.

And the place where Seolyeo had encountered evil.

“…”

Seolyeo clenched his fist tightly.

His heart ached sharply at the fact that his power had almost harmed her again…

“No. This time I didn’t harm her.”

Seolyeo deliberately muttered those words aloud.

Even though there was no one listening, if he didn’t do this, it felt like frightening thoughts would keep gnawing at him.

—Be careful. Evil devours the host’s mind through negative thoughts.

That suspicious black snake who had told him how to save Soya had said so.

That a mind weakened by negative thoughts makes the evil dwelling within stronger.

Seolyeo couldn’t be devoured by evil yet.

“I didn’t harm Soya. This time I really… didn’t harm her.”

Only after repeating the muttering several times could Seolyeo finally calm his heart.

* * *

Soya was moved to an empty pavilion in the Imperial Palace.

Irim quietly looked down at Soya lying on the bed.

The royal physician had just left.

Fortunately, there was nothing wrong with her body.

She was simply sleeping as her body protected itself from the aftermath of the duel with evil she had just fought.

However, even knowing she was safe, Irim could hardly take his eyes off her.

His face, which was always quiet and peaceful, was pale white as if it might disappear.

Soya—something happening to her was also his one and only terrible reverse scale.

He knew that many things had changed differently from past lives in this lifetime, but even so, in that moment his mind went completely blank, unable to think of anything.

He had almost destroyed everything and once again covered the world with the curtain of time to turn back time.

“Your Majesty.”

A dignified voice called to him from beside.

“You have stepped forward for our family clan, and even called the Tae Ui to show concern for my daughter’s health—I am truly deeply grateful.”

“….”

Saeon, who had been keeping watch together beside Soya’s bed, expressed his gratitude, but Irim gave no response.

Saeon glanced sideways at Irim’s profile, whose gaze remained fixed on Soya lying on the bed throughout.

Only nineteen years old.

Every emotion in the world seemed mixed together on the young Emperor’s face.

Saeon recalled the tremor of the earth he had felt earlier.

Even he, who feared very little, had felt a chilling sensation for a moment—such was the intensity and terror of that aura.

It was definitely not simply the level of power meant to handle an accident that had occurred within the Imperial Palace.

The Imperial Dragon’s aura that had shaken the earth contained much deeper emotions.

Fierce and vivid emotions that seemed ready to bring down the world.

At the same time, a certain question that had been harbored for a long time arose in Saeon’s mind.

[Go to the Southern Region, to the Land of Suzaku. Steal the most precious thing from there.]

It was none other than Irim who had sent me to the Southern Lands.

[Why did you give such an order specifically to me?]

[Who knows.]

When I reunited with the Emperor at the Imperial Palace three years ago, I asked once, but he did not answer my question.

However, Saeon could be certain.

That the ‘most precious thing in the Southern Region’ he spoke of was precisely our house’s Cotton Ball, the most treasured in the world.

I still couldn’t understand how Irim knew I would encounter Soya when he gave that order. But still….

‘Because he’s the Imperial Dragon.’

Since he is the Imperial Dragon, the master of the earthly realm, perhaps he has some great ability that I don’t know about.

Thinking simply made my complicated mind feel at ease.

Now there was something more important for Saeon, who was Soya’s father.

“Do you love her?”

A pause.

Irim, who had been looking only at Soya without moving, finally turned to look at Saeon.

“What did you just say…?”

“Soya.”

Looking straight at Irim’s face, where bewilderment was clearly spreading, Saeon asked in a clear voice.

“Do you cherish my daughter?”

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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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