The White Tiger Clan’s Baby Cotton Ball - Chapter 80
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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 80
Saeon gently patted the small body of Soya, who was bursting into tears in his arms.
Originally, the growth pains of young beastkin were something they had to endure alone, with only the mother beastkin being the exception who could stay by their side.
A young beastkin suffering from growth pains couldn’t recognize anyone, even if it was their blood father who gave them flesh and blood, let alone Saeon… who wasn’t blood-related to Soya.
However, even so, Saeon couldn’t leave Soya alone.
[Father!]
That day, the black body fluid of the poison insects splattered on the cheek of the child who had rushed to save him.
It made a hissing sound as it corroded and burrowed into the child’s skin.
[Cotton Ball…!]
The child’s pupils dilated, and for a moment it felt as if the entire world had stopped.
Saeon couldn’t clearly understand what had happened.
Suddenly the sky turned red, and the child’s closed eyelids snapped open.
At the same time, brilliantly sparkling red feathers fluttered gently around the child.
All of this happened in the very brief moment of a blink.
A bright red flame bloomed from the child’s tiny palm.
The child raised both hands with unfocused eyes.
Soon, the brilliantly bloomed red flame blazed as if it would devour the entire world, covering the entire village area…
It became a warm light that embraced the world.
Where the sparkling light settled, people looked around in confusion before being startled in amazement.
[The, the patients…!]
[All the patients have been healed!]
The flame the child had created healed all the spirit cores of the contaminated people.
It wasn’t just the spirit cores.
All the old scars and small scratches on people’s bodies completely disappeared cleanly.
Chirpy, who had collapsed, also hopped up on both feet and scurried about, and Saeon’s wounds from the poison insects had also completely vanished.
It was truly a miraculous sight.
Among the people bursting with exclamations, Saeon slowly realized.
That the child had awakened the ‘Southern Purifier.’
The child who had collapsed into his arms groaned in pain.
The child’s forehead was hot like a fireball.
Though startled, Saeon soon realized it was growth pains and returned to the White Tiger Palace first with the child.
And he stayed by the child’s side throughout the growth pains.
In truth, there was nothing he could do to help by being there.
Only the mother who had carried the child in her womb for ten months could calm a child whose reason was paralyzed by growth pains.
However…
[Papa, Papa… Don’t leave Soya behind. Soya doesn’t want to be alone.]
How could he leave the side of a child crying so sorrowfully?
[Please don’t hate Soya. Soya did wrong…]
[Next time… next time Soya will definitely succeed. Will succeed magnificently…]
Saeon could tell who those words were meant for.
Jeok Ayun. The man who was the child’s biological father yet had abandoned the child.
The child was delirious from the surging heat and confusing him with that man.
There was no doubt that man was the child’s biological father.
The child, who had repeatedly transformed and untransformed during the growth pains, possessed brilliant red feathers.
[Baby Cotton Ball. Papa is here, so what are you looking at that makes you so sad?]
Saeon’s heart ached at the sight of the crying child.
Perhaps because of the wounds received at a young age, Soya often suppressed her emotions.
She didn’t whine even when waking from sleep, and endured it even when catching a cold or being in pain.
Seeing such a child crying in pain like this, his heart couldn’t help but ache.
The child would cry sorrowfully, but in between would lose reason to the burning pain and become a fire bird, burning the surroundings and attacking Saeon with beak and claws.
But each time, Saeon didn’t avoid it and hugged the child tightly, comforting her.
[It’s okay. It’s okay, Baby Cotton Ball.]
[Papa is by your side, everything’s okay.]
[Our baby, everything’s okay.]
Because of this, small scratches remained on his body, but Saeon was fine.
They were glorious scars of joy from witnessing the child’s growth.
They didn’t hurt at all.
“When a child grows up so magnificently, what parent would feel pain watching it?”
It was true.
Though his heart felt like it was tearing because he couldn’t soothe the child’s pain, these wounds could never hurt him.
“Our baby, thank you for growing up so magnificently.”
“…!”
At those words, the child finally burst into tears, and Saeon held her in his arms, comforting her.
After a while, the calmed Soya sniffled.
“Sniffle, sniffle, ugh…”
“Here, blow.”
When Saeon brought a handkerchief to the child’s nose and spoke, Soya went “Mmph.” and shook her head back and forth.
Now that she was twelve years old too, she seemed embarrassed to blow her nose in front of her father.
Saeon burst into laughter.
Soya made a sulky face as if she felt teased for no reason, then asked slyly.
“What happened to the village?”
“Thanks to Baby Cotton Ball, all the villagers’ spirit cores were purified and everything was resolved well. Chirpy is safe now too.”
“…!”
At the words that everyone was safe, Soya’s face brightened brilliantly.
“That day, you don’t know how magnificent our baby was. Father is so proud of Baby Cotton Ball.”
Saeon smiled broadly while stroking the child’s head.
“…”
It was really strange.
Soya had always dreamed of the day she would have her first growth.
And after completing her growth, she had planned to boldly declare to Father not to call her a baby anymore…
‘Since Father is smiling so affectionately like this, I think it would be good to be a baby forever.’
The thought of wanting to remain an eternal baby in front of Father kept occurring to her.
“…It’s really fortunate.”
“Soya.”
Saeon called Soya’s name in a somewhat serious and subdued voice.
Whenever Father, who always called her ‘Cotton Ball,’ addressed her by her actual name ‘Soya’ like this, it always meant an important conversation would follow.
Soya straightened her posture and looked up at Father.
“Don’t you have something to tell Papa?”
“I found the owner of the voice who lent me the Purification Flame. So what happened was…”
Soya explained to Saeon everything she had seen and heard that day.
The one who had lent her the Purification Flame was none other than Suzaku, the divine beast of the Southern Region, and that long ago on a night when the red moon rose, she had awakened him.
“…So that’s how it was.”
Saeon nodded quietly.
Seeing that Saeon wasn’t as surprised as she expected, Soya asked.
“Father, you had already guessed, hadn’t you?”
“A little. Ever since you awakened the White Tiger of Horim Mountain.”
“Then am I the one from the prophecy who will awaken the Four Divine Beasts?”
On the night when the red moon rises, the Dragon Emperor’s Bride will awaken the slumbering Four Divine Beasts to sweep away the darkness scattered across this land and bring peace.
During the Mountain God Festival three years ago, Soya had been too young to understand what it meant to have ‘awakened the White Tiger.’
But as she received education as the Young Lady of White Tiger Palace, she gradually came to understand what it meant.
And also why Father had told her to keep that fact secret three years ago.
“Yes. That’s what I’ve been speculating. That you are the one from the prophecy who will awaken all the remaining divine beasts and defeat the evil of the Northern Region.”
“The reason you didn’t tell me was—”
“Because you would be in danger if that fact became known. I told you, didn’t I? That Baby Cotton Ball worries me more than anyone else.”
At that time, Soya had been a young beastkin child who hadn’t even achieved her First Growth yet.
Moreover, her Spirit Core was more unstable than others, and she was just beginning to overcome her fear of Beast Transformation.
So Soya could understand Father’s feelings. However.
“Father, I… I’ve made up my mind.”
A firm and resolute determination shone in Soya’s pale red eyes as she looked up at Saeon.
“I’m going to awaken the remaining two divine beasts as well. And I’m going to fight against the Xuanwu Clan.”
Because she was no longer a young beastkin child anymore.
“I’m going to drive away the demon beasts that torment people, and I’m going to end the war too.”
She wouldn’t run away anymore. From the prophetic mission given to her.
At those words, Saeon burst into laughter.
He had thought that Soya would surely say something like that, if it was the Baby Cotton Ball he knew.
That’s why he had deliberately refrained from telling her until the child would figure it out on her own.
Before those small shoulders had to bear the burden of the prophetic mission, he had hoped the child could live as a child just a little longer.
However, the child had grown up so much in the blink of an eye, and he could no longer stop a child who had grown this much.
Then, as a father, what he could do for his child was…
“Alright, Cotton Ball. You walk your own path.”
Saeon placed his hand on the child’s shoulder and grinned.
“Papa will pave the path you need to take and stand before it.”
To see if there are any obstacles blocking your way.
To see if there are any bad people who might endanger you.
To see if you might fall and cry from pain.
To see if you might get lost and wander in the wrong places.
Standing on that path, I’ll watch over you and wait for you to return safely.
“So you should run hard in the direction you think is right.”
To believe in and support the child so she could walk confidently on the path laid before her.
That was the best thing he could do for his child as a father.
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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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Mara55
I’m so glad she has Saeon in her life. Thanks for translating.