The White Tiger Clan’s Baby Cotton Ball - Chapter 83

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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 83

 

Ga Hyeon had been captured and brought in by the gray wolves guarding the Western Land outskirts.

 

“Our unit members discovered the Young Master attempting to destroy the bridge leading to the Southern Lands and go to the Southern Lands alone. In the process of stopping this, the guard unit sustained injuries…”

 

Saeon received the Guard Captain’s report with a calm expression.

 

Ga Hyeon had completely destroyed the bridge leading to the Southern Lands.

 

Not stopping there, he had apparently engaged in hand-to-hand combat with the guard unit that tried to stop him as he headed alone toward the Southern Lands.

 

With Gayul causing trouble and now Ga Hyeon creating such an incident, Saeon felt a stiffness creeping up the back of his neck.

 

“Baek Gahyeon.”

 

He looked at his second son, who stood silently with a pale, ashen face, and asked.

 

“Do you know that doing such things constitutes an act of rebellion against the Family Head?”

 

Injuring the gray wolves of the outer guard unit was a very serious crime that went against the Family Head’s authority.

 

Even if there had been no intention to attack them.

 

Moreover, Ga Hyeon had damaged major infrastructure connecting the Western and Southern Lands.

 

Though Saeon asked in exasperation, Ga Hyeon stubbornly kept his mouth shut and gave no answer whatsoever.

 

“Won’t you tell your father why you did such a thing?”

 

“…”

 

His second son Ga Hyeon had always been a mature child.

 

While his youngest, Gayul, would occasionally cause trouble and play mischievous pranks, Ga Hyeon had never done such things.

 

Considering how ordinary young tiger beastmen would cause accidents because they couldn’t control their overflowing competitive spirit, this was quite exceptional.

 

Thus, he had always been a gentle and mild-mannered young nobleman beloved by all beastmen of the Western Lands.

 

And now that same Ga Hyeon had caused a major incident incomparable to the mischievous prank Gayul had pulled earlier.

 

“Ha, really…”

 

Saeon let out a deep sigh and pressed his throbbing temples with his index finger.

 

Of all days, today his sons had caused such accidents – it was exasperating.

 

“Why are you both acting like this all of a sudden? Do you know what day today is?”

 

He scolded his two sons, who stood before him with their heads hung low, in a stern voice.

 

“It’s the day your sister finally experienced her first growth pains and awakened. On this wonderful day when you should be congratulating your sister, if you two cause accidents like this as if you’d made some kind of pact—”

 

“B-but…!”

 

At that moment, Gayul cut off Saeon’s words.

 

“But?”

 

As if telling him to try making an excuse, Saeon raised one eyebrow and looked at his youngest son.

 

At this, Gayul squeezed his eyes shut and shouted shrilly.

 

“But we can’t help it! We can’t let Cotton Ball be taken away!”

 

“…What?”

 

“…Huh?”

 

Saeon and Soya simultaneously widened their eyes and stared at Gayul.

 

“Cotton Ball being taken away, what do you mean by that?”

 

“I’m being taken away? By whom?”

 

“Th-that… that…! I, I can’t say!”

 

Gayul turned his head away sharply and refused to answer.

 

However, his trembling shoulders and the intermittent sniffling sounds revealed that he was crying.

 

Soya couldn’t understand this situation and just blinked blankly before approaching Gayul.

 

“Elder Brother, you’re the one who bothered me, so how can you cry?”

 

“Ugh, sniff, sob…”

 

“Don’t do that and tell me. Who’s taking me away?”

 

Soya looked up at the sniffling Gayul’s face and asked.

 

Unable to avoid that gaze, Gayul squeezed his eyes shut and confessed.

 

“The… feather. The red feather. That’s Suzaku’s feather, isn’t it?”

 

“…?”

 

“So, that’s why I was afraid you’d go to those people… I tried to prevent you from going…”

 

“Those people?”

 

Soya couldn’t immediately understand who the ‘those people’ Gayul mentioned were and asked back with a puzzled face.

 

However, Gayul couldn’t answer, afraid that if he continued speaking, sorrowful tears would burst out, so he just bit his lower lip hard.

 

He bit it so hard that his lip turned white from lack of blood circulation.

 

“Elder Brother, you don’t mean… the Vermillion Bird Family members, do you?”

 

Watching this, Soya asked in a voice full of disbelief.

 

Then Gayul’s sobbing grew louder, and soon he burst into wailing tears.

 

Soya’s mouth fell open in overwhelming bewilderment.

 

So taking away all her shoes.

 

And blocking the corridor in front of her room.

 

‘It wasn’t to torment me, but to prevent me from leaving?’

 

“Hah…”

 

Saeon let out a hollow laugh with an incredulous expression.

 

Then, struck by a sudden thought, he whirled around to look at Ga Hyeon.

 

“Then Hyeon, you cutting the bridge to the Southern Lands was also?”

 

“…I thought to prevent Soya from going south. Even so, she could cross over there with beast transformation, but it would buy us some time.”

 

Ga Hyeon, who had kept his mouth shut the entire time, finally raised his head and looked directly at his father as he spoke.

 

“And with that time, I planned to go to the Vermillion Bird Mansion and duel with them. Or I thought it would be good to set it on fire.”

 

“What?”

 

“If there was no place to return to, Soya would continue to stay at White Tiger Palace.”

 

Though Saeon asked back in bewilderment, Ga Hyeon didn’t stop and resolutely continued his explanation.

 

Ga Hyeon still vividly remembered that night long ago, before the Mountain Lord Festival, when Soya had tried to leave White Tiger Palace alone in the middle of the night.

 

The chilling fear, shock, sadness, guilt, and sense of loss he had felt that day – all those negative emotions.

 

He never wanted to lose Soya again.

 

She was his sister.

 

His precious little sister who had made him feel, for the first time in his life, the desire to cherish someone.

 

If only he could stay together with Soya for a long time within the fence called family, Ga Hyeon could do anything.

 

Even if it meant harming that child’s trash-like former family members.

 

“If I couldn’t burn down the Vermillion Bird Mansion, I planned to pluck all the combs off those chicken-headed bastards. Those guys are cheap anyway.”

 

“Do you know what you’re saying right now…!”

 

Just as Saeon, unable to bear listening to his son brazenly talking about going to the Vermillion Bird Mansion to set fires and pluck combs, was about to say something.

 

“So.”

 

At Soya’s voice, everyone instantly fell silent.

 

“Elder Brothers caused all that trouble… because you were afraid I’d leave? Afraid I’d leave White Tiger Palace and go to the Vermillion Bird Mansion? Am I understanding this correctly right now?”

 

“Sniff, sob, Cotton Ball…”

 

“…”

 

At Soya’s question, tears burst from Gayul’s eyes, and Ga Hyeon clenched his fists and lowered his head.

 

Seeing this, Soya immediately raised her voice.

 

“What on earth were you thinking? Why would I go there! My family is here!”

 

“Sniff, sob, huh…?”

 

“…?”

 

Gayul, who had stopped crying abruptly, and Ga Hyeon, who had snapped his head up, simultaneously looked at Soya.

 

Soya glared fiercely with her hands on her hips, looking like she was holding back her anger.

 

“Then don’t tell me, the suspicious behavior you two have been showing these past few days was also because of that?”

 

“…”

 

“…”

 

This was the first time Soya had spoken in such an angry voice.

 

At her scolding, Ga Hyeon and Gayul froze with stupid expressions before carefully nodding their heads.

 

“No, why on earth…? Don’t tell me you saw it? The Red Feather?”

 

“Y-yes…”

 

Gayul glanced at Soya and obediently confessed.

 

Soon a sigh escaped between Soya’s lips.

 

It had been suspicious how the two kept making serious expressions while stealing glances at her, then playing dumb and pretending not to know when she actually spoke to them…

 

“Hyeoni Elder Brother. You told me before. That real family doesn’t abandon each other over mere appearances.”

 

Soya looked at Ga Hyeon and asked.

 

“But did Elder Brother think I would leave just because I grew Red Feathers?”

 

“…But that’s not just feathers. It’s proof that you share blood with Those People.”

 

Ga Hyeon answered while gritting his teeth, as if he hated having to say that fact with his own mouth.

 

“Hyeona, that’s—”

 

It was when Saeon, who had been quietly watching the children’s conversation, was about to step in.

 

“What’s the big deal about that? It’s just sharing blood.”

 

Soya spoke in a calm voice as if stating a perfectly obvious fact.

 

“My real family is all here.”

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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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