Chapter 144
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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 144
Jeok Ahyun froze in place.
For a brief moment, I thought I was seeing things.
I hadn't been sleeping well recently.
It had been like this ever since arriving at the Imperial Palace.
Perhaps I was exhausted, perhaps my body had been pushed too hard....
Thinking thus, I slowly closed and opened my eyes.
Blink, blink....
Yet even after blinking several times, Riri's hair and eyes remained that dull grey hue.
"...."
My lips parted soundlessly.
"Why are you acting like that, Father?"
Riri furrowed her brow at my incomprehensible behavior and asked in a small voice.
But Father gave no response.
"...?"
Just as irritation was beginning to rise—my mood already low, and now Father being so frustratingly unresponsive—
Riri noticed people staring at her with strange eyes and instinctively faltered.
Some pointed at her while whispering to their companions, while others gazed at her with expressions of shock, much like Jeok Ahyun.
'What is this? Why are they all....'
Thud.
At that moment, Jeok Ahyun's hand released hers, falling limply to his side.
As cool air brushed past her now-empty hand.
Riri felt that something terribly wrong had occurred.
Instinctive dread prickled upward from her toes, crawling across her skin.
'Why, why is he doing this? Why are they all looking at Riri like that....'
The gazes of those around her felt utterly unfamiliar and strange, yet simultaneously achingly familiar.
From so long ago, now barely remembered....
From those hazy days on the streets before crossing the threshold of the Jujak Family, when I survived by stealing from others....
Those hostile and contemptuous looks directed at me....
Shudder.
As her thoughts reached that point, Riri's heart plummeted and a cold sensation seized her, causing her body to tremble.
'No. No. That can't be. I'm no longer that cuckoo from those days. There's no way people would look at me like that.'
Even as she repeated this to herself, her fingertips and toes continued to shake uncontrollably.
"Ah, Father."
Riri deliberately pulled her lips into an awkward smile as she tried to grasp Jeok Ahyun's hand.
Flinch.
The moment she touched him, his fingertips reflexively recoiled.
Simultaneously, his face, which had been frozen in a daze, slowly drained of color as if he had realized something.
"Could it be.... No, that can't possibly...."
Muttering in a whisper-soft voice, he suddenly lifted his head.
At the end of my wavering gaze, the two Yellow Dragon statues facing each other—the ones I had passed while holding the child's hand moments before—came into focus.
"That's... impossible..."
His Adam's apple bobbed as he swallowed roughly, his breathing ragged.
Riri, stiffened by the unfamiliar appearance of her father, found herself frozen between flight and surrender.
"The Yellow Dragon Altar is the most sacred place within the Imperial Palace, where the Son of Heaven who rules the earthly realm offers sacrifices to the Yellow Dragon."
Tae Irim's voice, which had been quietly observing the situation, resonated softly through the taut air.
"When one stands before the Yellow Dragon, the judge of the earth, the first Emperor erected these two statues before this altar as a symbol that all must reveal their truth."
Tae Irim cast an indifferent gaze downward at Jeok Ahyun and Riri.
"Thus, when one ascends to this place, the Beastkin's supernatural abilities are released."
'Supernatural abilities...? Why would that...'
Riri didn't immediately comprehend the words and wore a bewildered expression.
When passing the facing Yellow Dragon statues to ascend the altar, the Beastkin's supernatural abilities would be released, revealing their true forms.
All high-ranking Beastkin families of Taehwa Kingdom knew this.
However, Riri had arrived at the Jujak Family only at age nine, and afterward had neglected her studies of history and etiquette due to her frail health.
Thus, she did not know.
That the cuckoo's supernatural ability, which had allowed me to live as a young lady of the Jujak Family for so long, could be released so suddenly before so many people.
Above all, Riri, who had lived as a young lady of the Jujak Family for the past five years, had at some point forgotten her true appearance and had even lost awareness that her form was being maintained by a supernatural ability.
Riri's gaze drifted downward almost unconsciously, and she discovered hair falling across her chest.
The dull grey hair, as if drained of all light, felt profoundly alien.
As she gradually comprehended the situation, shock painted itself across her face.
"W-why is this...!"
Startled, Riri raised her head again and froze upon meeting Jeok Ahyun's expression as he looked at her.
The emotion that surfaced on his face was unmistakable—pure terror.
Father was looking at me as if witnessing something terrifying and dreadful.
"F-Father, this... this is..."
"..."
"I mean, this is... how did this happen..."
"..."
Riri opened her mouth to offer some explanation, then closed it again.
Turning her head slowly, she saw the members of the Jujak Family among the curious onlookers, their faces etched with shock.
She saw Jeok San Yu staring at her with a rigidly hardened face, and Jeok Hwayou, whose expression had vanished, looking ashen and pallid.
Though no one spoke, they had all understood.
That I was not, in fact, the true daughter of the Jujak Family.
Shhhhh—
Riri stammered with an earthen-hued face.
"N-no, that's not it..."
Though no one pressed her, Riri shrank defensively like a cornered mouse.
"I-I don't know anything about this! I... I...!"
Her voice pierced through the air sharply.
And the more she spoke, the more intensely the crowd's gaze fixed upon her.
Unable to withstand the oppressive atmosphere, Riri burst into tears and clutched at Jeok Ahyun's sleeve.
"Father... Father..."
"..."
Yet Jeok Ahyun could not bring himself to look at Riri.
As he lifted his gaze to avoid her eyes, he caught sight of Jeok Soya standing beside Sayeon and froze.
Jeok Soya was watching him with an expression that revealed nothing of her thoughts.
In that moment, I realized her gaze was fixed not on me, but on the sleeve of my garment that Riri had seized.
Whoosh—!
As though I had committed some grievous transgression, I recoiled and wrenched my sleeve from Riri's grasp.
"Father...?"
Riri called out to me in a voice trembling with disbelief.
So startled by the fact that I had rejected her hand, her tears ceased entirely.
My crimson eyes trembled violently as they beheld Riri—all traces of the Phoenix bloodline now utterly eradicated.
Who was this child, truly?
This girl I had cherished and embraced as my daughter for the past five years—who could she possibly be?
"What will the patriarch of the Jeok Family do with the cuckoo that has flown into the Phoenix's nest?"
As their stalemate dragged on interminably, Tae Irim posed the question in a somewhat weary tone.
Cuckoo...
I was mechanically echoing that word that had fallen from the Yellow Dragon's lips when—
"That's absurd!"
The one who had so brazenly cried out before the Yellow Dragon was none other than Jeok Hwayou.
"It cannot be. How could a mere cuckoo deceive the Phoenix? How is such a thing even possible?"
Yet despite his repeated denials, Jeok Hwayou's face bore the expression of one watching the world crumble to dust.
Jeok Soya observed them with calm, measured eyes.
[It is an ancient tale from before you and I were even born. There was once a Grey-Feathered Tribe driven from the Southern Lands.]
Recalling her recent conversation with Tae Irim, Jeok Soya thought of the cuckoo-human who was said to possess a most peculiar ability called "brood parasitism."
Originally, brood parasitism referred to parent birds laying their eggs in another bird's nest and having them raised in their stead.
The phenomenon of brood parasitism displayed by natural birds manifested as a far more distinctive ability in the world of humans.
Young cuckoo-humans before their first maturation awakened this ability from birth, acquiring physical characteristics similar to their false parents.
To deceive a being stronger than oneself was impossible.
Yet Riri had employed sorcerous power.
And Jeok Soya suspected that perhaps the Calamity Beast Dochul had granted her that power.
But what if Riri's collusion with the Calamity Beast was not something recent?
What if she had been conspiring with it since ancient times?
What if, from that day nine years ago when she first crossed the threshold of the Joojak Residence, she had already carried some peculiar power within her?
'Perhaps the impossible—a cuckoo deceiving the Phoenix—could truly come to pass.'
If Riri was indeed a cuckoo, and if she was deceiving everyone through her ability—
'Then I must forcibly dispel her ability.'
Fortunately, there existed one place within the Imperial Palace capable of accomplishing this.
Thus I had requested that Tae Irim gather everyone in this location.
"Stop it, Jeok Hwayou."
San Yu, the first among the three men of the Jujak Family to regain his composure, spoke to Jeok Hwayou in a cold, measured tone.
"You already know it yourself. That child is a cuckoo."
At those words, Jeok Hwayou's knees buckled and he collapsed to the floor.
His brother's words were right.
The moment Riri's ability was dispelled and her true form revealed, he—as a direct descendant of the Jujak Family—could instinctively discern the child's identity.
He had simply refused to accept reality, unable to readily come to terms with it.
Clenching his teeth as he stared down at the floor, he suddenly snapped his head up toward Riri and cried out.
"Why? Why did you deceive us...!"
Bloodshot eyes brimming with betrayal fixed upon Riri.
"I cherished you as a true sibling, so why did you lie to us and deceive us!"
At his outburst, Riri's expression twisted.
She could not fathom that the man she had believed would be eternally on her side was now turning away from her.
"...When! When did I ever lie!"
Riri bit her lower lip painfully and lashed out in anguish.
"I only brought the crimson feather! It was you all who welcomed me, saying I was your lost daughter!"
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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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