The White Tiger Clan’s Baby Cotton Ball - Chapter 230

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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 22

“You too will eventually be abandoned and forsaken like me… dying alone in such loneliness…”

Soya covered both ears with her hands, but even so, the eerie cursing voice pierced through, making her squeeze her eyes shut and collapse to the ground.

“N-no!”

At Soya’s cry, cackling laughter spread out in all directions.

“You will spend your whole life unloved by the person you love most… lonely like me, painfully, tormentingly…”

Her heart shook violently at that voice that felt like it was slashing at her skin.

Even though she knew it couldn’t be true, her heart ached as if she had truly been abandoned and left alone.

It was when Soya, collapsed on the floor, was trembling and shaking her head violently.

“…Ball!”

She heard someone calling her.

“Cotton Ball!”

‘Father…?’

It was the voice of her father, whom she loved most in the world.

“It’s okay, Cotton Ball. Papa is here. So don’t be scared and open your eyes.”

Her mind instantly cleared, and the voice that had been scratching at her eardrums disappeared completely.

As she slowly lifted her eyelids, she saw the faces of Saeon and Gayul looking at her with worried expressions.

“Father? Elder Brother…?”

“Soya…!”

Saeon pulled Soya into his arms and patted her back.

Seeing his face that looked almost desperate, Soya realized she had caused them worry.

“I-I’m fine. It’s just that suddenly I heard strange sounds…”

Soya took deep breaths to show that she was unharmed.

“Th-this guy cast strange evil magic on our Cotton Ball Miss! This wicked sorcerer! Bad sorcerer! Die, sorcerer!”

Along with Su Ri’s tearful voice, sounds of someone getting beaten could be heard.

The Village Chief rolled on the ground from Su Ri’s kicks, letting out pained groans.

‘Evil magic…’

A small doubt arose in Soya’s mind as she stared blankly at the scene.

‘But what just happened didn’t feel like evil magic.’

That unpleasant and eerie voice that had scraped at her eardrums.

Rather than evil magic, it felt exactly like… a very bad memory.

Her intuition was telling her so.

* * *

‘Come on, a memory? There’s no way I have such memories.’

Soya shook her head back and forth.

Agonized screams of the sorcerers could be heard from outside.

Soya said that what happened earlier was just a temporary phenomenon and that she would help deal with the remaining sorcerers, but it wasn’t accepted.

So while she sat resting in a warm place, the White Tiger Family members completely wiped out the sorcerers.

‘Right, there’s no way such memories exist…’

Suddenly, Soya’s eyes hardened stiffly.

In fact, she had experienced such inexplicable déjà vu before.

“Run away!”

“You can’t just stay still! Hurry and escape, Soya!”

For instance, the unknown voice that had shouted for her to run when she was attacked by the Three-Legged Crow.

“What happened to that child?”

“She died.”

Things like the conversation between Jeok Hwayu and the Three-Legged Crow.

At that time, she was too young to examine that phenomenon, too sick with fever from eating the peach, and too pained by being abandoned by the people she thought were family to think about anything else.

After that, she hadn’t had such strange experiences for a while…

‘But it feels too unsettling to just let it pass.’

Back then she was too young to think more deeply about it, but not anymore.

Moreover, hadn’t she felt a similar sensation quite recently?

‘When I drank the herbal medicine His Majesty sent at the Imperial Palace, something like an afterimage flashed by…’

Glancing to confirm that things outside had been settled, Soya got up.

As she approached the Village Chief tied up in the village square, Gayul and Su Ri quickly stuck to her sides.

Thanks to the two people emanating fierce energy as if they wouldn’t let anyone harm her even slightly, Soya felt very reassured.

“What did you mean by what you said earlier? About a curse condensed with evil power being carved into my soul. Are you saying someone cast evil magic on me?”

“As if I’d answer you easily… Urgh…”

Thwack!

Gayul struck the sarcastic Village Chief on the head.

“You bastard, can’t you answer properly when Cotton Ball asks you something?”

“It doesn’t mean evil magic. Literally, I felt traces of an old curse. I-I don’t know anything more than that.”

The Village Chief quickly changed his attitude and answered readily.

“Then what was that voice?”

“Voice? What voice are you talking about?”

“This sorcerer seems to be making excuses to our Young Lady’s question again!”

“I-I really don’t know! Even if you beat and threaten me, I don’t know anything more!”

When Su Ri raised his voice angrily, the Village Chief protested with an aggrieved face.

‘He doesn’t seem to be lying.’

Soya looked at the Village Chief with calm eyes and thought.

‘Then what was that voice?’

Soya clenched her fists tightly.

The source of all these incidents was ‘Evil’.

At the end of this northern journey, when she faced Evil again, she might get a clue.

Soya had gained one more reason why she had to find Evil.

* * *

The interrogation surrounding the sorcerers continued until deep into the night.

At the end of the interrogation, they learned several more pieces of information.

The ‘master’ the Village Chief mentioned was none other than Evil.

A few months ago, they confessed to seeing Evil awaken near the Black Marsh.

That place was also Soya’s group’s destination.

“Hueuk, now that our master has awakened, he won’t leave you alone…! Kuh, kuhheuk…!”

The sorcerers screamed loudly before getting hit once more by Gayul’s white tiger front paw and collapsing with a thud.

“That, that violent tiger…”

“Heh, recognizing my violence. You’re smart fellows.”

Gayul, who took being called violent as a compliment, shrugged his shoulders and lifted his chin.

“What will you do with these people now?”

“Since they’re criminals, we’ll have to send them to the Imperial Palace.”

However, the White Tiger Family’s search party had to go find the evil, so they couldn’t take these people to the Imperial Palace.

Therefore, Soya’s group asked the Azure Dragon Family for support through Chirpy and waited.

The Azure Dragon Family, which was responsible for evacuating the residents of the Northern Lands, would also be suitable for taking the sorcerers to the Central Region.

“We’ll stay here briefly until the Azure Dragon Family people arrive.”

“Yes, Family Head.”

With that, the matter was settled, and Soya purified the man they had found behind the altar.

“I am a member of the Black Serpent Tribe, one of the seven descendants of the Northern Deity Hyeontoyeomwang.”

“…!”

Surprised expressions appeared on everyone’s faces at the man’s unexpected identity.

“Does that mean the Black Serpent Tribe is still alive?”

“Yes. When Hyeon Rabaek awakened the evil and countless tribes perished, our Black Serpent Tribe was able to survive with the ‘Seal’ special ability.”

The problem was that the sorcerers also coveted that ‘Seal’ special ability.

When the man was young, the sorcerers kidnapped children from the Black Serpent Tribe.

Due to the side effects of the incomplete evil magic, all the other children who were kidnapped together died, and only this man survived.

However, his spirit core gradually became contaminated, and at some point, he even lost his reason…

“Thank you so much. How can I repay this kindness?”

“….”

The White Tiger Family members silently exchanged glances with each other.

Finding surviving members of the Black Tortoise Clan, or more precisely, finding the successor of the ‘Black Water’ who had conspired with evil, was the main purpose of this search.

“We’re looking for survivors of the Black Tortoise Clan. Can you take us to the Black Serpent Tribe?”

“Of course. The Black Serpent Tribe does not forget kindness.”

The man answered readily.

Thanks to this, things worked out easily, but somehow Soya couldn’t smile.

“Go inside and get some rest, Cotton Ball. You’ve been tired all day.”

“Yes, Father.”

Soya went inside so as not to worry her father, but she couldn’t fall asleep at all and came back out to the courtyard to pace around.

Actually, her heart had been feeling uneasy since a little while ago.

‘His Majesty also knows that his mother passed away like that.’

Throughout listening to the Black Serpent Tribe man’s story describing how painful it was to be sacrificed to evil magic, the image of the Former Empress she had seen five years ago kept coming to mind, making her heart ache.

‘…Still, I hope His Majesty doesn’t know about how the Former Empress changed so painfully. It would be too sad to see someone precious become like that.’

It was when Soya was thinking this with somehow drooping eyes.

‘…?’

Suddenly feeling like someone was watching her, Soya quickly turned around.

However, there was nothing where she looked.

Nothing except a small water puddle under the moonlight.

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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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