Chapter 128
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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 128
Jeok Soya lifted her head absently, then froze.
'That person is....'
The man across from her noticed her too, and after a brief sigh, he stopped in his tracks. With an anguished expression, he walked toward her.
It was then that Jeok Soya stared blankly at the man approaching her.
With the soft sound of footsteps, the man came to stand before her and slowly lowered himself to his knees.
"...!"
At the sight of San Yu bowing his massive frame, Jeok Soya's eyes widened in an instant.
"Soya..."
"No, please don't do this, I...!"
"I'm sorry."
Jeok Soya, who had been startled and tried to stop him, froze at the earnest voice that spilled from between his lips.
"I promised you I would return soon, but... I've been so late."
"...."
She remembered it was when Jeok Soya was six years old.
Now it had already been eight years since that spring.
She had followed him all the way to the Imperial Palace to see him off as he departed for war.
[Older Brother, you must return healthy. Do you understand?]
And there in the Imperial Palace, she had exchanged her final farewell with him through tears.
[Yes, Soya. Your older brother will return to see our Soya very soon, so our Soya must stay healthy and well too.]
At that time, Jeok Soya was so young and so small.
She did not understand how long "soon" truly was.
So she waited vaguely.
For him to return again.
But tragedy came faster than her waiting, and it ultimately prevented her from waiting for him any longer.
"Because I came so late, I didn't even know you were suffering alone all that time, and I've been so late."
"...."
"You've grown so beautifully, yet I couldn't even keep the promise to return soon."
"...."
"I'm sorry, Soya."
"...."
"I'm sorry. Your older brother is truly sorry."
"...."
"I'm so... so very sorry...."
"...."
Between his voice repeatedly murmuring apologies, anguished sobs were woven into every syllable.
To the young Jeok Soya, he had been the largest person in the world after her father.
The sight of such a towering figure curling in on himself and weeping before her felt profoundly strange to her.
"I...."
Jeok Soya swallowed a trembling breath and slowly opened her mouth.
I had intended to tell her not to mind it and to get up already. But the moment I opened my mouth....
Plink, plink. A soft stream—
"Huh...?"
Jeok Soya blinked in confusion.
Tears began to fall, one after another.
"Wh, what? That's strange. Why is this happening?"
Jeok Soya, startled, tried to wipe her eyes with her sleeve.
And the moment she rubbed her eyes—
A torrent of tears—
Even more tears streamed down both her cheeks.
"Ah.... The tears, why, won't they stop...."
My vision blurred before me.
No matter how much I wiped, the tears simply would not cease.
"Why, sob, why do they keep, sniff, coming...."
Hiccup, hiccup. My voice kept breaking with each suppressed sob.
My chest ached with a sharp, piercing pain.
The moment I realized I was crying because my heart was hurting—
Only then could I understand.
[So I truly hope you won't trouble yourself over what happened in the past.]
Those words had never come from a kind heart that understood and forgave them.
Rather, I was no longer that nine-year-old child waiting for them to return to me.
Because even without them, I now had the most precious true family in all the world.
Because I had believed that the wounds of my childhood could no longer leave even the slightest mark upon me.
So I had drawn that line with such composure and maturity, but it seemed I was not truly fine after all.
On the day I awakened from the past the Phoenix showed me and underwent my first growth, I thought I had shed all my sorrow while weeping in Father's embrace. But that too was not the truth.
I was not fine at all.
I had never forgotten that wound, not for a single moment.
Perhaps I had always longed to hear that apology.
Separate from having carved them out of my heart, I had desperately wanted to be comforted for my childhood stained with sorrow.
"Sob, sniff, ugh...."
At the sound of my pitiful, whimpering cries, San Yu's expression twisted in anguish.
In the meantime, his face too was wet with tears, just as mine was.
Though he gazed at me with sorrowful eyes, San Yu did not dare reach out his hand toward my tears.
He dared not, for he had no right to comfort me....
"...Jeok Soya. The wounds you suffered won't disappear with just these words alone."
He forced out his voice, which was thick with pain.
"When I saw you in the Northern Lands that day. You were the most beautiful and most precious little bird I had ever known."
"...!"
At those words, Jeok Soya bit her lower lip firmly and looked up at him.
"You are not worthless, nor are you pitiful. Forget all those cruel words. If you cannot, then I will go and teach a lesson to all those wretched birds who speak such lies."
Beyond the blur of tears, I could see the face of a man weeping sorrowfully, his cheeks drenched with anguish.
"Throughout countless days, the sister I longed to see again is the most beautiful fledgling in all the world."
The most beautiful fledgling in all the world....
Perhaps the words a six-year-old me most desperately wished to hear from my family....
"I'm sorry I couldn't tell you that sooner."
The man who had once been my older brother spoke those words with sorrowful eyes wide open, even as his throat constricted with endless tears and his voice fractured with each word.
"I'm sorry it took so long. Truly, truly sorry. Jeok Soya...."
"Hic, hic-ugh, why, why so, late, sob, ugh.... Why did you come so late.... How long, hic, did I wait... Waaah."
Jeok Soya burst into uncontrollable sobs.
Just like a six-year-old child.
* * *
Gaya hummed cheerfully as he walked, his steps remarkably light.
Each stride carried an unmistakable spring.
Seol Yo and Suri trailed behind him, hurrying to keep pace.
An hour earlier, upon returning to his residence, Gaya had immediately declared he had somewhere to go and specifically ordered Seol Yo and Suri to accompany him—now they were on their way back from outside the palace.
"But are you truly going to have the young lady's ornament crafted from something so precious?"
Suri, following behind, ventured a careful question.
He had wondered what the eldest young master was up to, only to discover he was entrusting a precious jewel bestowed by the Emperor to a craftsman outside the palace.
"That's right. I'm going to give Softy a surprise gift. She'll definitely love it. Softy loves me, after all."
Gaya smiled softly, thinking of the jewel he would retrieve in four days.
Suri was thoroughly astonished by such a choice from Gaya, who was ordinarily consumed by material desires.
"But that jewel belongs to you, young master?"
"Tch, how foolish. That's not mine—it's Softy's."
Gaya snorted dismissively, as if answering an absurdly obvious question.
"The ones who led the war to victory weren't those fools sitting before His Majesty with proud expressions just now—it was our Softy."
Though no one else knew the truth, it was entirely Jeok Soya's achievement that had defeated Hyun Rabaek and stripped the demonic beasts of their power.
Without Jeok Soya, the war would still be dragging on endlessly.
As someone who loved recognition, Gaya couldn't understand why Father and his sister kept the matter secret, but regardless, the Emperor's gift rightfully belonged to Jeok Soya.
"Pardon? The young lady?"
"I'm right, aren't I, Seol Yo?"
When Suri tilted his head in confusion, Gaya turned to Seol Yo with a knowing smirk.
"Yes? Yes, that's correct."
Seol Yo nodded vigorously.
"Why have you been saying 'just Seol Yo' this whole time?"
"There's a reason for it."
Just as Jeok Soya's journey to the Northern Lands was a secret, so too was Seol Yo's accompanying her.
Having secrets made everything feel frustratingly constrained.
"Ah, I see there is."
Despite Gaya's lukewarm response, Suri remained full of questions.
"But we're not doing anything—why did you order us to follow you?"
"A man of my caliber wandering the Streets alone only invites troublesome hangers-on."
Gaya explained this self-evident fact in a flat, matter-of-fact tone.
Upon arriving at the Pavilion, he caught the scent carried on the air.
Soya's fragrance drifted to him on the breeze sweeping from the Back Garden beyond the Pavilion.
His brow twitched sharply as he moved to seek out his sister.
The salty, briny note mingled with it was unmistakably the scent of tears.
Yet had it been only this, his face would not have twisted into such a savage expression.
The approaching air carried the scent of someone he decidedly despised.
Jeok San Yu. That wretched bird had made his sister weep.
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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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