The White Tiger Clan’s Baby Cotton Ball - Chapter 58

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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 58

 

“Ah, Father…!”

 

Lili’s fierce expression changed instantly.

 

The face that had been raging like a demon was nowhere to be seen, replaced by such a pitiful expression that one would want to comfort her immediately.

 

Lili ran to her father and burst into tears as she embraced him.

 

“Sob, sniff, Father…”

 

Lili’s tyrannical behavior had started last summer, after Soya disappeared.

 

In fact, on the last day of that summer festival, it was none other than Lili who had ordered the Three-Legged Crow to eliminate Soya.

 

Elder Brother had tried to give that child money and send her far away, but Lili hated the thought of Soya living and breathing under the same sky as her.

 

It was right to cut out any seed that might become a source of discord someday.

 

Therefore, Lili commanded her Three-Legged Crow to kill Soya.

 

[Get rid of that child without anyone knowing. Before Elder Brother’s Three-Legged Crow takes her away to somewhere far.]

 

[What? But Young Master said…]

 

[You’re Lili’s Three-Legged Crow! You have to grant all of Lili’s requests! If that child stays alive, she’ll definitely steal Lili’s place again someday. Do you want me to live my whole life anxiously because of that child?]

 

[I understand, Young Lady. I will eliminate the source of trouble, so please don’t cry.]

 

But somehow, after that day, Lili’s Three-Legged Crow disappeared without a trace.

 

However, Lili wasn’t too worried.

 

She had overheard Elder Brother’s Three-Legged Crow reporting Soya’s death.

 

‘It worked out even better. I was wondering how to silence him.’

 

With the bothersome Soya eliminated and the Three-Legged Crow who was the only one who knew about it having gone missing, Lili actually thought things had worked out well.

 

Lili began to feel anxious again after overhearing a conversation between Father and Elder Brother.

 

[Find the child.]

 

They thought they had moved to a place where Lili couldn’t hear and spoke secretly, but there was no place that Lili, the precious youngest daughter of the Suzaku Family, couldn’t access.

 

This was because the Family Head had ordered that the child should not be prevented from entering any place.

 

[…Then at least bring back the corpse. Only then can I believe it. That child’s death.]

 

Elder Brother’s words that even if she were alive, she wouldn’t live long reassured Lili, but Father’s voice asking to find that child kept echoing in her head.

 

‘What does he plan to do after finding that child?’

 

‘Father is Lili’s father, so why is he looking for that child?’

 

‘Don’t tell me he wants to raise that child like a daughter again?’

 

Such thoughts frequently arose and made Lili anxious.

 

‘No. Lili is Father’s only daughter. Lili is the only Young Lady of the Suzaku Family, and Father and Elder Brother must love only Lili.’

 

Whenever her anxiety flared up, Lili would act out even more neurotically and tyrannically.

 

Usually, young servant girls her age were the targets.

 

And when Father would hold and comfort her at the end of such tyrannical behavior, it felt like she was confirming his affection, which would calm her heart.

 

But Lili, being held in Jeok Ayun’s arms, couldn’t see it.

 

She couldn’t see that her father’s complexion had grown somewhat wearily dark as he patted her.

 

“What’s the matter, Lili.”

 

“That child tried to steal Lili’s belongings! The ornament that Lili’s mother gave her!”

 

Lili pointed at the servant woman prostrated on the floor sobbing and huffed angrily.

 

Jeok Ayun glanced at the ornament hanging from Lili’s jeogori.

 

“…”

 

It was something the Deceased Madam had left for Soya.

 

And at the same time, it was also something Lili had taken from Soya.

 

“N-no, Family Head. Really, it’s not true. I was just trying to straighten the Young Lady’s clothing…”

 

“Don’t lie! You tried to touch Lili’s ornament with those dirty hands! Did you think I wouldn’t know?”

 

Lili interrupted the servant woman’s words and shouted angrily.

 

Jeok Ayun quietly observed the scene and then spoke while soothing the child.

 

“Lili. It’s not right to carelessly lay hands on the family’s people over uncertain matters.”

 

“But… but…”

 

Lili looked up at her father with a tearful expression, then immediately screamed shrilly.

 

“Lili was scared that someone would steal Mother away again!”

 

“…”

 

“Lili is so scared. If someone like ‘that child’ steals Lili’s family away again, then, then what will Lili do. Sob, sniff, waaaah…!”

 

Lili began to wail at the top of her voice.

 

Jeok Ayun soothed the child with a troubled expression.

 

After barely calming Lili down and sending her inside, Jeok Ayun let out a sigh.

 

Lili’s habits were getting worse and worse.

 

At first, everyone had been understanding, thinking that Lili was a child with emotional wounds, so she was just a little more sensitive than others…

 

But as time passed, Jeok Ayun’s worries deepened over Lili’s increasingly rough behavior.

 

‘That day was the same.’

 

That day, Lili had claimed that Soya had stolen the ornament in order to frame her.

 

Falsely accusing someone of being a thief was clearly wrong, but no one scolded Lili about that incident.

 

It was more important to comfort the shocked and wounded heart of little Lili, who was only nine years old.

 

‘But… I had forgotten. That Soya, that child was also the same age as Lili.’

 

Suddenly, Jeok Ayun’s thoughts drifted to Soya.

 

He had tried to find at least Soya’s corpse but couldn’t find it in the end. Eventually, he had to accept Soya’s death.

 

It would be impossible for that small child, especially one whose Spirit Core wasn’t even intact, to survive alone outside the estate walls.

 

At first, that child had been terrible to him, then resentful, and when he learned about the switch with Lili, he had thought it would have been better if she had never been born at all.

 

But when he actually heard that the child had died.

 

Why did it feel like his heart was crumbling…?

 

Even though he had resolved not to give that child even a speck of his heart for Lili’s sake, he must have secretly harbored feelings in his heart.

 

The last time he saw the child was the day after Lili learned the truth and the estate was turned upside down.

 

While sharing refreshments with Lili on the pavilion, he spotted Soya leaving the estate.

 

Without realizing it, he had been looking at that child, and the moment their eyes met, he immediately looked away.

 

‘If I had known that would be the last time, I wouldn’t have looked away.’

 

After learning of the child’s death, as time passed, he kept thinking about the child more and more.

 

Traces of the child remained in every place in the estate.

 

In the bedroom remained memories of the child taking her first steps, and on one wall of the office remained traces where the child who had just learned to write had scribbled with ink.

 

At Hayeonji’s pond remained the sound of the child’s laughter as she giggled at the blooming lotus flowers, and on the garden’s walking path remained memories with the child who had held his hand tightly while chattering away.

 

And in the deepest part of the estate, in the Sacred Hall where the Suzaku Family’s divine artifact, the Vermillion Bird Treasure Bow, was kept…

 

[This is our Jeok Family’s family treasure, the Vermillion Bird Treasure Bow. It’s a treasure left by an ancient divine beast.]

 

[A treasure?]

 

[Not yet. When you awaken your Spirit Core and succeed in Beast Transformation, then I’ll let you touch it.]

 

[Peep… Soya wants to touch it too…]

 

The child had puffed out both cheeks and looked at the Sacred Bow with regretful eyes.

 

Lost in thought while wandering through the estate, Jeok Ayun had stopped before the Sacred Hall where the Suzaku’s divine artifact was enshrined.

 

It was the first time he had set foot here since that day three years ago.

 

Creak―

 

Opening the old wooden door that didn’t match the estate and entering inside, he could see a large bow decorated with red feathers stored in the center.

 

The child who had sparkled with excitement while looking at that Sacred Bow ultimately passed away without ever being able to touch it.

 

“….”

 

Jeok Ayun stared at it with an expressionless face for a long while, then turned to leave.

 

However, just as he was about to walk away indifferently.

 

He stopped.

 

In an instant, he whipped his head around.

 

‘Light from the Divine Artifact…?’

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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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