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Brought to you by Valir Scans! To support our team and enjoy the latest releases, please ‌‌read directly on our official site: valirscans.org
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Chapter 46
"Chirp!"
Jeok Soya gasped in wonder at the sensation of flight ‌‌she had ‌‌never experienced before.
But there was no time to revel in the moment. Even now, Hyun Rabaek must be suffering.
Jeok Soya flapped her wings frantically and climbed above the cliff.
Once she gained momentum from a single wingbeat, the rest became effortless.
Soaring high into the sky, Jeok Soya spotted a cluster of people gathered in frantic activity.
At the center stood Sayeon, his expression grave.
"Chirp!"
At Jeok Soya's cry, Sayeon's head snapped up instantly.
The moment he spotted the snow-white chick flapping its wings earnestly, his eyes narrowed to slits—
"...Cottontail?"
Half a beat late in recognizing Jeok Soya, Sayeon's face registered shock.
"Cottontail, you...!"
"Chirp! Peep!"
Jeok Soya cut off Sayeon's words.
"Peep peep! Peep, chirp!"
At the sound of the chick's chirping, Sayeon's face gradually hardened into stone.
"What...?"
"Peep, peep ‌‌‌peep..."
"Damn ‌‌‌it, get someone—! Wait, Cottontail, what's wrong ‌‌‌with your body!"
Sayeon snatched Jeok Soya ‌‌up urgently.
The chick's body was covered in wounds.
"Peep?" ‌‌
Jeok Soya tilted her head ‌‌‌in confusion, then suddenly felt the world spin.
"Cottontail!"
Cottontail...
Cottontail...
Cottontail...
Sayeon's voice echoed like a refrain.
Jeok Soya collapsed into Sayeon's palm.
* * *
Blink, blink.
When I opened my eyes again, I was lying on a simple cot inside the Barracks.
My body felt heavy and limp, my armpits aching ‌‌‌dully—the aftereffects of a chick's first flight.
'I actually flew...'
Lost in disbelief at this reality, I suddenly remembered the moment before I collapsed.
"Hyun Rabaek...!"
I jolted upright and spotted Baek Gahyun lying on the cot beside me.
"Thank ‌‌‌goodness..."
Watching ‌‌Baek Gahyun sleep soundly, Jeok Soya exhaled in relief.
'Sayeon brought my brother back safely.' ‌‌‌
A faint smile bloomed across Jeok Soya's face.
'I protected my brother.'
But her serene expression soon darkened.
'Everyone must have seen it.'
Jeok Soya recalled the crowd ‌‌‌‌‌gathered before she collapsed.
The thought that everyone had witnessed her transformation weighed heavily on her heart.
'No. If I went back, I'd make the same choice anyway.'
As Jeok Soya shook her head, trying to dispel the gloom, the barracks door opened.
"Cotton ball!"
Sayeon, entering the barracks, spotted the awakened ‌‌‌Jeok Soya and approached swiftly.
"Ah, Sayeon."
"Are you alright?"
"Yes, I'm fine—"
Whoosh!
Sayeon suddenly pulled Jeok Soya into his embrace.
"Wha—?"
Jeok Soya's eyes widened in surprise.
"You worked so hard. Really."
"Sayeon...?"
"To warn everyone that your brother was in danger, you flew here on those tiny ‌‌‌‌wings without anyone teaching you how. You did that."
"I... I did."
"My little cotton ball is so brave and remarkable. Truly, so remarkable. Whose daughter are you, anyway?"
“....”
Sensing moisture in Sayeon's voice, Jeok Soya nestled quietly against him without speaking.
'Sayeon is strange. He speaks of even the smallest things as though I'd accomplished ‌‌something tremendous.'
In Sayeon's warm embrace, Jeok Soya's fingers fidgeted as she pondered.
'Even ‌now, he speaks as if I'd ‌‌‌‌saved the world itself, as if I'd done something so grand.'
Yet when she pulled away from his embrace, his face bore no trace of tears.
'I could have sworn Sayeon was crying, but perhaps I was mistaken.'
Jeok Soya tilted her head curiously before asking.
"Is Hyun Rabaek alright?"
"Yes. Some brave little cotton ball called people in time and got through the danger."
"Thank goodness...!"
Sayeon chuckled softly and stroked Jeok Soya's hair.
"Can you tell me ‌‌‌what happened on the mountain?"
"Well..."
Jeok Soya recounted everything she had seen and heard.
She had found the man who tried to kill her in the Phoenix Territory, and Hondon ‌‌‌had emerged from within his body.
"Hondon...?"
"Yes, my ‌‌older brother Hyun ‌‌called it that. One of the Four Calamities, Hondon."
Sayeon's expression grew grave in an instant.
"Why would Hondon be here...."
The Four Calamities—four demonic ‌‌‌beasts that had once thrown the world into chaos long ago.
The Four Ancient Clans had united their strength to seal them away, but eight years prior, ‌‌Hyun Rabaek, the patriarch of the Hyunmu Clan, had awakened those sealed spirits and become their master.
"He said he needed to confirm something with me. That I seem to possess the ability to sense dark magic, and that he needed to examine my spiritual core...."
Sayeon recalled the incident that had recently thrown Baek Ho Palace into turmoil. ‌‌
It was not merely the work of someone versed in ‌‌‌dark magic who had approached a young silver tiger overwhelmed by parental pressure, seeking to exploit the situation.
Whoever had given Jeok Soya a sachet imbued with dark magic, endangering her and the other girls, and had sought ‌‌‌to drive her away by revealing her past with the Jujak Family—
'It was all the interference of the Northern Lands.'
He had suspected as much vaguely, but it was the outcome he had ‌most dreaded.
Of all things, their blade had ‌been aimed at Jeok Soya. Was it mere chance? ‌Or....
A thin furrow formed across Sayeon's brow.
Jeok Soya, noticing how grave his expression had become, glanced at him cautiously.
At that moment, a large, warm hand came to rest upon the crown of her head.
"You must have been so frightened and scared, my little cotton ball."
Sayeon spoke thus while stroking Jeok Soya's hair.
"I'm sorry. I should have been by your side, but I wasn't."
"No, that's not true! My older brother Hyun was with me, and besides, and also...."
Startled by Sayeon's ‌‌‌‌‌apology, Jeok Soya shook her hands vigorously before her words trailed off.
When she had thought she might die, the person she had missed most was Sayeon.
I had ‌truly longed for his broad, sturdy back that had always protected me.
I had hoped he would appear as he always did whenever I was in danger.
"See? Now that you think about it, you were upset that I wasn't there, weren't you?"
Sayeon, perceiving Jeok Soya's hesitation, asked with a knowing smile.
"Um, well...."
Jeok ‌Soya felt as though her true feelings had been exposed, and though her cheeks flushed slightly, she could ‌‌‌not answer readily.
"It's alright to answer honestly, cotton ball. It's only natural for a child to seek her father."
"I missed you and wanted to see you, Sayeon. But that's not your fault. It's just that I...."
"It is my fault. When a child is hurt or in danger, it's always the parent's fault."
Sayeon spoke with a bitter smile.
I had brought her here because I wanted to protect this child from near death.
Yet after bringing her, I left her alone on the mountain, and she fell into danger from a demonic beast.
'This is no time to complain that cotton ‌‌ball won't call me father.'
How ‌‌‌‌could I deserve to be a father?
It was then that Sayeon was reproaching ‌‌‌himself thus.
"Um, Sayeon, but you see...."
Jeok Soya called to him in a very solemn ‌‌‌‌voice.
"I'm not a baby. I'm already nine years old...."
"You sound just like Yul."
Sayeon burst into laughter.
Now that he thought about it, Jeok Soya always seemed to read the room, yet she never held back from speaking her ‌‌mind, delivering her words ‌‌in that soft, measured way of hers.
There was something endearing about it, and it only made him want to tease her more.
"You haven't even undergone your first ‌‌‌growth yet. That makes you a baby."
The beasts divided childhood and boyhood at the first growth, so his words weren't wrong.
Still, Jeok Soya felt a little wronged at being called a baby.
"But I defeated the wicked Hondon and protected my brother...!"
He paused.
Sayeon, who had vaguely assumed that Baek Gahyun had defeated Hondon, asked in surprise.
"You, little cotton ball, defeated Hondon...?"
"Yes. Though Baekho helped me."
Jeok Soya opened her palm and gathered her energy. White light coalesced above her hand, forming into a pristine white blade.
"...!"
Sayeon's expression stiffened in shock.
"Little cotton ball, this is..."
Sayeon, the patriarch of the Baekho Family, recognized it at a glance.
It was the Divine Blade of Baekho—a divine artifact forged from the spiritual form of the ‌‌‌ancient divine beast Baekho.
"Where did you..." ‌
"I met Baekho. Baekho helped me protect my brother."
Jeok Soya handed the Divine Blade of Baekho to Sayeon as she explained.
"Surely you don't mean you awakened Baekho."
Three things were necessary to awaken a slumbering ‌‌‌ancient divine beast.
Direct bloodline, the divine beast's will, and its spiritual form.
Jeok Soya did not carry direct bloodline ‌‌‌‌blood. But Baek Gahyun, who did carry such blood, had been in the same place.
Furthermore, ‌‌‌‌‌the divine beast Baekho's ‌other name was "the Protector." Thus, awakening Baekho would have required a "protective heart."
And finally, the spiritual form. The entirety of Horim Mountain where they had ‌‌‌‌stood was equivalent to the divine beast's spiritual form.
All ‌‌‌three conditions for awakening the divine beast had been fulfilled.
Yet even when all three were present, not everyone could awaken an ancient divine beast.
If awakening ‌‌‌‌‌a divine beast were so easy, it would have been done dozens of times over by now.
According to the ancient prophecies passed down through the ages, only one person could awaken a divine beast.
[On the night when the crimson moon rises, the bride of the Yellow Dragon shall awaken the ‌slumbering Four Sacred Beasts and dispel the darkness ‌‌‌‌‌scattered across this land, bringing forth peace.]
The bride of ‌‌‌‌the Yellow Dragon.
'...Surely not.'
Sayeon's gaze upon ‌‌‌‌Jeok Soya deepened.

---------------
Brought to you by Valir Scans! To support our team and enjoy the latest releases, please read directly on our official site: valirscans.org
---------------