The White Tiger Clan’s Baby Cotton Ball - Chapter 298

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This chapter was translated by Lunox Novels. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
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Part 2, Side Story 16
Saeon pretended indifference while stealing a glance at the letter’s contents.
It was an apology letter from the Second Son of Bear Family—who had lost the ability to walk because of Saeon—expressing his regrets that he could not accompany her to Bandi Dungeon.
“I was planning to go to Bandi Dungeon today, but my only companion had an accident and can no longer walk.”
“Oh, what a shame.”
Saeon tightened his loosely curled lips and replied in a deliberately sympathetic tone.
“So I’m thinking of going alone.”
“What…?”
Saeon’s brow furrowed for a moment.
“You wouldn’t be permitted entry alone, would you?”
“That’s why I’ll have to sneak in.”
Cheongha spoke with confidence.
“If the Azure Dragon Clan Head finds out you’re doing something like that, you’ll get scolded, won’t you?”
“But today is the last day the dungeon is open. It seems difficult to find another companion.”
Seeing her face suddenly grow gloomy, Saeon found himself blurting out without thinking.
“Then just go with me.”
“What? But you said you hated those shiny bugs, didn’t you?”
I immediately regretted it, but I could not bring myself to ignore the faint glimmer of hope that lingered in her round, sparkling eyes as she looked at me.
“I hate bugs, but there’s no helping it if you want to go. …Besides, it’s partly my fault.”
Saeon spoke curtly and rose to his feet.
“What are you doing? Let’s go.”
He extended his hand toward Cheongha.
“Oh? Um.”
Cheongha took Saeon’s hand and stood up.
Thus, a quarter hour later, the two arrived at the dungeon entrance together.
The two entered the cave and walked forward, relying on the pale luminescence of the fireflies.
Tap, tap, tap, tap.
Splash, splash, splash, splash.
In the quiet cave, the footsteps of the two echoed irregularly.
“It should be this way…”
Standing before a fork in the path, Saeon chose his direction with a cautious expression.
Cheongha, who had been gazing intently at his face, suddenly realized something anew.
‘Now that I think about it, Baek Saeon… he’s grown incredibly tall.’
When we first met, he was only slightly shorter than me, but at some point he caught up to my height, and now he stands a full head taller.
‘Back then, it felt like I was the one who needed to protect him…’
I remember climbing to the Horim Mountain Midslope to play house, and when he took the role of the bride, I handed him a bouquet of wildflowers while promising to protect him for life.
Though it was an anecdote born from my mistake of taking him for a boy, the young him was so delicate and beautiful that everyone would have agreed.
‘But the current Baek Saeon is…’
Now his voice had deepened and his features had grown sharper, and he had matured into such a striking figure that no one would mistake him for a girl.
Realizing this fact without warning, he suddenly felt unfamiliar to me.
‘Was Baek Saeon always this handsome….’
Cheongha forgot she was supposed to watch the path ahead, stealing furtive glances at his face as she walked.
As she caught glimpses of his youthful features radiating masculine charm, she recalled a conversation the Imperial Palace’s attendants had been having not long ago.
[Saeon is really something, isn’t he? The Beast-People of the Western Lands are so fortunate. They get to see Saeon’s handsome face all the time….]
[His face is impressive, but his character is even more so. I nearly tripped the other day, and he….]
[But Saeon doesn’t have a betrothed, does he? He’ll be returning to the Western Lands soon, so if only I could confess my feelings….]
‘Now I understand why everyone is so drawn to Baek Saeon….’
It was precisely when Cheongha’s attention was fixed upon his face.
Thud.
The man walking ahead suddenly stopped in his tracks.
“What’s wrong, Saeon?”
“I just felt something strange….”
Rumble―!
Before he could finish speaking, the sound of the earth’s axis trembling accompanied the warping of the earth’s pulse, and the cave began to shift.
“Be careful, Cheongha!”
Saeon pushed her behind him, then leaped into the air and swung his Sword toward the stalactites crashing down above his head.
The hard stone crumbled like dust against his blade.
“This way!”
Landing below, he seized Cheongha’s hand and began sprinting in the opposite direction.
Rumble, crash―!
Leaving the sound of the earth’s trembling behind them, they barely reached a safe zone where the earth’s pulse remained still.
“Phew, we made it….”
As Cheongha’s tension eased, she caught her foot on a protruding root and tumbled forward.
“Ow!”
Startled by her cry of pain, Saeon turned around.
“Cheongha! You’re bleeding from your knee…!”
“It’s fine, ugh….”
Cheongha spoke dismissively as she tried to stand, only to immediately sink back down.
Witnessing this, Saeon’s expression grew cold and stern.
“Saeon…?”
It was as Cheongha hesitated, taken aback by his suddenly hardened expression—as if he were angry.
Whoosh.
Saeon turned away from her, crouched down, and offered his back.
“Get on.”
“What…?”
“Come on. We still need to see the fireflies.”
“….”
As Cheongha stood dumbfounded, staring at his back, Saeon merely turned his head slightly while still offering his back, urging her forward.
“What are you doing? Aren’t you coming?”
“Oh, ah, yes…!”
Cheongha climbed onto his back without hesitation.
With her clinging to him, Saeon rose to his feet and began walking slowly toward the mouth of the cave.
Tap, tap.
The sound of his footsteps echoed through the quiet cave as he walked in silence.
Cheongha felt oddly strange.
‘Was Saeon’s back always this broad?’
Thump. Thump. Thump. Thump.
Every point where their bodies touched seemed to demand her attention.
How much longer did they walk?
Before long, the end of the cave came into view.
As they stepped out of the cave, a glittering forest of night unfurled before them.
“Wow…!”
Cheongha let out a soft gasp at the beautiful sight she had never witnessed before.
Tiny fireflies that shone like stars adorned the night forest with their twinkling light.
“You like those bugs that much?”
“Yes, they’re so beautiful.”
“….”
Saeon set her down gently on the soft grass field, took one deep breath, and then walked toward a firefly dancing in the air.
As he extended his hand, a firefly descended and landed on his palm.
He made a small sound—”Uh….”—and covered his palm with his other hand.
Then he approached Cheongha with the firefly.
“Here.”
As he held out his hand, Cheongha opened her palm as if entranced.
The firefly landed on her hand, but soon fluttered away again.
“Ah….”
A short sigh escaped her lips.
“And I went through the trouble of catching it for you.”
Saeon chuckled softly and sat beside her, watching the fireflies.
Now I understood why people found these strange winged insects—with their glowing bottoms—so captivating.
Chirp, chirp.
Chirp, chirp, chirp.
In the Firefly Forest, where only the song of grass insects seeped through the quiet stillness.
The two of them gazed silently in the same direction for a long while.
It was strange.
She had come to see the fireflies.
Yet Cheongha kept stealing glances not at the fireflies, but at Saeon’s profile as he watched them.
At him, who had come along despite not even liking them.
At him, who disliked insects yet had caught one with his own hands for her injured knee.
‘What is this feeling?’
Her heart stirred in a peculiar way.
Then, the moment our eyes met when he suddenly turned to look at me, Cheongha casually averted her gaze as if nothing had happened.
Thump. Thump. Thump. Thump.
Perhaps startled at the thought of being caught stealing glances, her heart raced wildly.
Overwhelmed by this unfamiliar sensation she had never experienced before, Cheongha found herself utterly unable to concentrate on the fireflies dancing and shimmering before her eyes.

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