The White Tiger Clan’s Baby Cotton Ball - Chapter 52

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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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Chapter 52

 

At that voice, Soya looked up and was startled to discover Irim looking down at her drawing.

 

“Your Majesty…?”

 

Irim asked with a gentle smile on his face.

 

“I failed to keep my promise to return quickly, Soya. Will you forgive me?”

 

“Forgiveness? What are you talking about?”

 

Soya hurriedly waved both hands.

 

“Well. I thought you were angry with me.”

 

Irim slowly straightened his back and added in a deliberately hurt voice.

 

“You don’t call me like you used to anymore.”

 

“I should call you Your Majesty now.”

 

“This isn’t the Imperial Palace, so while I’m staying here, won’t you call me Elder Brother?”

 

“But…”

 

Under his steady gaze, Soya hesitated before speaking.

 

“Then only while you’re staying here, Elder Brother.”

 

“It sounds good.”

 

“…?”

 

“I really missed hearing you call me Elder Brother.”

 

It had only been one season since she last saw him, yet he spoke as if they were meeting again after decades.

 

Feeling somehow embarrassed, Soya blushed and quickly changed the subject.

 

“E-Elder Brother, have you been well all this time?”

 

After asking, Soya immediately wanted to bite her tongue. How could she ask such a thing when she had heard about what happened around him?

 

‘I must be an idiot. He must have had many difficult times, so there’s no way he could have been well.’

 

Soya was making a tearful face and blaming herself.

 

“Yes, I’ve been well, Soya.”

 

Then he chuckled and spoke in an affectionate voice.

 

“I ate well and dressed well. Ah, I didn’t sleep well though. I was a bit busy. Still, I became the Emperor of Taehwa Kingdom, so I don’t think I did too badly.”

 

At his seemingly playful tone, Soya’s self-reproaching feelings scattered away.

 

Then she realized a bit late. That he had deliberately spoken playfully for her sake.

 

He, who had a slightly more mature atmosphere than before, was still kind and warm.

 

‘Why would such a gentle person have rumors of being a terrifying tyrant like a demon?’

 

Soya felt somehow upset.

 

Meanwhile, there was a pair of eyes watching Soya and Irim’s conversation from behind the bushes.

 

‘Who is that person? Why is Soya smiling like that while looking at that person?’

 

It was Seolyeo.

 

Seolyeo was secretly watching the two people while tightly clutching ginkgo leaves in both hands.

 

‘It’s strange. I wish Soya wouldn’t smile while looking at that kid.’

 

Seolyeo vividly remembers the sensation he felt on the day he first met Soya.

 

Originally, the place where he lived was the cold and dry Northern Lands.

 

From when his memories began, he was always alone.

 

The first moment he remembers was the day he witnessed his mother’s death.

 

Though he can no longer remember her face or scent, Seolyeo too had a mother who gave birth to him.

 

Mother hid him in the wardrobe to save him, and ‘That Man’ killed Mother and set fire to the estate.

 

He didn’t remember well how he escaped from the hot flames.

 

It was something that happened when he was too young, so his memories were fragmented.

 

When Seolyeo came to his senses again, he had become a small beast with black fur.

 

People called him a ‘magical beast.’

 

A disgusting and terrible magical beast that harms good people.

 

‘I’m not a magical beast. I haven’t harmed anyone. But why does everyone call me a magical beast?’

 

Seolyeo tried hard to say that he wouldn’t harm anyone, so please don’t hate him.

 

[Whine, whiiine…!]

 

However, what came out of his mouth were only whining sounds like a magical beast’s cry.

 

People wouldn’t listen to him. Rather, they called him a disgusting magical beast and chased him with clubs.

 

Seolyeo had to hide in remote places to avoid people.

 

As a result, there were far more days of starvation than days of proper eating.

 

He would wander the cold and lonely streets, and when night came, he would go down to private houses and rummage through piles of food that people had thrown away.

 

If the rustling sounds were discovered, he would whine and run away from people’s stone throwing.

 

It was difficult to sleep peacefully even at night. If he met magical beast hunters while sleeping hidden in his hideout, he had to run away with all his might.

 

That day was also a very unlucky day.

 

Seolyeo, who had barely escaped limping on one foot after being hit by an arrow shot by a magical beast hunter, encountered Saeon while walking on the mountain path.

 

[What’s this? A baby magical beast? It looks like it’ll starve to death soon from not even being able to eat porridge.]

 

[Whine…! Whiiine! Whine!]

 

[You’re young, but you shouldn’t bare your teeth at adults.]

 

[Grrrowl…!]

 

[Baby magical beast. Do you want to come with me? I’ll give you three warm meals a day.]

 

[Whiiine…?]

 

He brought him to White Tiger Palace without his consent.

 

However, clever Seolyeo escaped to the mountain when Saeon let his guard down.

 

‘Hmph, as if I don’t know you’re trying to hand me over to magical beast hunters after reassuring me like that.’

 

He said he’d give three warm meals a day, but seeing how he took him to a fierce-looking woman, his scheme was obvious.

 

Seolyeo didn’t trust Saeon.

 

He didn’t trust not only Saeon but all people.

 

Fortunately, Saeon didn’t come to catch him anymore, but Seolyeo, who was alone again, was quite lonely.

 

Sometimes eating mountain fruit, sometimes going down to White Tiger Palace to steal food, he lived alone on Horim Mountain for several years.

 

Then one day, he happened to meet Soya.

 

Seolyeo remembered the moment he first saw Soya as if it were yesterday.

 

Seolyeo, who had been lonely alone for a very long time, followed the clear voice that echoed through Horim Mountain and discovered Soya.

 

Soya was playing tag with the tiger beastkin of White Tiger Palace.

 

He secretly watched that scene as if enchanted.

 

‘I could do well too. Tag game…’

 

When he lived in the Northern Lands, Seolyeo had once approached children his age who were playing hide and seek because he wanted to play with them.

 

However, the boys who saw him threw stones and tree branches, and the girls screamed and burst into tears.

 

Those children’s crying and stone throwing felt more painful than being hit by arrows shot by magical beast hunters.

 

After that day, Seolyeo would shrink in fear whenever he saw young humans his age.

 

But Soya was different from other people.

 

Unlike other children who would scream that he was a terrible magical beast when they saw him, she always spoke to him in a gentle tone.

 

She even stopped mean beastkin from bullying him.

 

She would look at him and praise him, saying he was a good and gentle child, a smart magical beast who could even write his name.

 

When he was next to Soya, Seolyeo’s heart would keep pounding.

 

‘I want to become friends with that kid.’

 

So Seolyeo wanted to become friends with Soya and hovered around her.

 

Being by Soya’s side felt warm and cozy.

 

It was just like being held in the arms of her mother, whose face and scent she could no longer remember.

 

And Soya had even helped her find her true form.

 

The moment the warm white light from Soya’s fingertips enveloped her body, she was able to shed her black exterior and emerge.

 

The fierce-looking woman from White Tiger Palace she had seen long ago had called her a beast-person who possessed a Spirit Core.

 

‘Me, a beast-person?’

 

Seolyeo was so happy to no longer be a demon beast that was pointed at, but to become a beast-person like Soya.

 

Even though she herself didn’t know what kind of beast-person she was.

 

Having become a beast-person, Seolyeo became Soya’s guard.

 

Saeon had said it was just a nominal guard position to stay at White Tiger Palace and she didn’t really need to do anything, but Seolyeo was so proud of the fact that she was Soya’s protector.

 

She wanted to protect Soya.

 

She wanted to stay close by her side always, making sure she never got hurt even a little, never cried from being upset.

 

But…

 

‘That kid stole my place.’

 

Seolyeo stared intently at Soya and the unfamiliar boy beside her.

 

Just moments ago, guarding Soya’s side had been her role, but suddenly this boy who appeared out of nowhere had stolen her place.

 

Soya kept smiling in front of the unfamiliar boy and talking to him in gentle tones.

 

Seolyeo really loved it when Soya smiled like that, folding her eyes into pretty crescent moon shapes.

 

But she didn’t understand why, just in this moment, even Soya’s smiling face made her feel gloomy and dejected.

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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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