Chapter 145
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Chapter 145
"Have I ever said with my own mouth that I'm this family's daughter? I only said I came looking for my family, but it was all of you who clung to me weeping, calling me your lost daughter!"
Riri's shrill cry echoed through the air with a piercing quality.
"Shouldn't you be grateful to me instead? Before I came, you didn't even know that girl was a fake who'd switched places with the real one, did you?"
Riri suddenly pointed at Jeok Soya, her eyes wide with fury.
"Thanks to me, you found out that girl is a fake! I played the role of the real daughter you lost! And yet you don't even thank me for it...! Ugh...."
As Riri raged, she suddenly clutched her chest and let out a pained moan.
Her spiritual core, already at its limit, had been swept up in the turbulent emotions.
"Hck, ugh...."
If she continued like this, her spiritual core would shatter.
"N-no, I don't want this...."
Riri trembled violently, her face drained of all color.
Unable to endure any longer, her body collapsed downward.
Poof!
Where Riri had stood moments before, a single young cuckoo bird remained.
Cuckoo. Cuckoo.
A brief silence fell with the bird's cries.
"She really... was a cuckoo...."
An indistinct murmur drifted through the cold silence.
"Must I continue witnessing this spectacle."
At that moment, Tae Irim spoke in an icy voice.
"My sincerest apologies, Your Majesty...."
Jeok Ahyun barely managed to squeeze out a response through his constricted throat.
"The ritual scheduled for today shall be postponed until tomorrow. And that gray-feathered daughter of the Jeok Family...."
Tae Irim's gaze flicked toward the cuckoo.
"The crime of attempting to poison the daughter of the Baekho Family, and the crime of impersonating the Yellow Dragon's bride under the guise of a Divine Beast."
He enumerated Riri's crimes one by one.
"And the crime of disturbing the Imperial Palace with false purification powers—interrogate her thoroughly for all of it and imprison her with utmost severity."
"Yes, Your Majesty."
The Imperial Palace soldiers dragged away the struggling cuckoo with a flutter of wings.
Riri flapped her wings and chirped desperately toward Jeok Ahyun and Jeok Hwayou, begging for help, but they could only watch her being dragged away with hollow expressions.
With Tae Irim's intervention, the situation was resolved, and the gathered crowd dispersed.
Yet Jeok Ahyun alone remained standing in that spot, unable to leave.
If Riri wasn't his real daughter....
If she was a cuckoo....
Then where was the real daughter that Riri had been imitating?
No.
Did such a thing as a "real daughter switched by a greedy maidservant" even exist in the first place?
The only evidence that the youngest daughter of the Jujak Family had been switched was... the direct proof that Riri had brought with her.
But now it had all been revealed as lies....
In an instant, a sensation that something had gone terribly wrong pierced through his mind.
As he lifted his gaze in a daze, his eyes met Jeok Soya's.
A flash.
The situation from moments before—which he had momentarily forgotten amid this chaos—came rushing back.
[Riri tried to kill me. If the one standing there had been the real me instead of a phantom beast, I would truly be dead.]
[....]
[Yet you still shield Riri before me?]
Riri had tried to kill Jeok Soya.
And yet I shielded Riri before her.
Saying that Riri was my everything, begging for forgiveness.
To Jeok Soya, who had nearly been killed by none other than Riri herself.
"What have I... done...."
What on earth had I done?
All color drained from that pale face.
Dragged abruptly into the cold reality, he moved his lips toward the child.
"Jeok Soya...."
He felt he had to say something immediately.
Whether a shameless apology or a cowardly excuse, he felt compelled to offer something.
But Jeok Soya, regarding him with cold eyes....
Swiftly—
She simply passed by him, her hand clasped firmly in Sayeon's.
"Ah...."
A low sigh escaped between his teeth.
Left behind, Jeok Ahyun had to stand motionless in that same spot for a long while, unable to accept the reality before him.
* * *
On the way back to her residence, hand clasped in Sayeon's.
Jeok Soya was in a decidedly unpleasant mood.
Seeing Jeok Ahyun release Riri's hand reminded her of how he had coldly pushed her away when she had rushed to him after her first transformation.
In Jeok Hwayou's defense of that child, insisting Riri was no cuckoo, she saw echoes of how he had immediately rejected her back then, unlike today.
And when she witnessed them arguing heatedly with one another....
She felt an overwhelming sense of injustice.
She had known it would be like this.
Whether they cast Riri aside or clung to her until the end, neither outcome would satisfy her.
'This is precisely why I tried not to interfere in their affairs....'
It was as Jeok Soya sank into these somewhat melancholic thoughts.
Whoosh—
Suddenly her body was lifted high. Sayeon had picked her up.
Jeok Soya, startled, grasped Sayeon's shoulders and spoke.
"Father. I'm not nine years old anymore."
"But my little one seemed to miss being in daddy's arms."
Sayeon spoke in a voice tinged with gentle laughter.
"But our little one has grown so much now. She used to fit perfectly in my arms like this."
"...."
At this, Jeok Soya fell silent for a moment....
Poof!
In an instant, her body shrank dramatically and nestled snugly into Sayeon's embrace.
Sayeon gently patted the small bird that Jeok Soya had become.
The tiny sparrow chirped softly, "Chirp, chirp," tears streaming from her bean-sized eyes.
Sayeon stopped walking and gazed down at Jeok Soya.
"My little one, why are you crying so sadly?"
His thick fingers wiped away the large tear clinging to her eyes.
"Chirp...."
Instead of answering, Jeok Soya made soft chirping sounds, then nestled her head deep into his broad chest, her small body trembling.
Sayeon waited patiently, gently patting her until her trembling subsided.
"...You know, Father."
Once her trembling had ceased, Jeok Soya lifted her head and looked at Sayeon.
"I'm so, so happy that you're my father."
"Me too."
Sayeon smiled warmly and stroked her head.
"I'm so very happy that my little cotton ball is my daughter."
At his tender words, Jeok Soya's eyes curved beautifully.
Between her small, delicate beak came cheerful chirping sounds.
In truth, those words had carried an unspoken caveat—'anyone but that man'....
"Chirrup, chirrup."
With her spirits lifted, Jeok Soya nuzzled her head against Sayeon's palm.
Witnessing her childlike affection for the first time in ages, Sayeon let out a soft laugh.
* * *
Meanwhile, at that same moment.
Baek Gayul was tending to the sparrow.
It was the injured sparrow he had rescued not long ago.
That day, Baek Gayul and Jeok Soya had disinfected the sparrow's infected leg, applied salve, and wrapped it in bandages.
Jeok Soya possessed a special power to heal wounds.
However, that day she had forgone using her power and treated it through ordinary means because the eldest young master from the Jujak Family had come calling.
Baek Gayul didn't fully understand the reason, but Jeok Soya had told him that her special power was a secret.
After all, two years ago when Jeok Soya had instantly purified those poisoned by the venom beetle, hadn't that remained hidden all this time?
Nevertheless, thanks to this, Baek Gayul had experienced treating another creature for the first time.
Every time he saw the bandages he had personally wrapped around the sparrow's thin leg, he felt a sense of pride.
But the sparrow had been acting strangely since this morning.
It kept pecking at Baek Gayul's hands with its beak and scratching with its talons, behaving violently.
"Why is it so angry? Is it hungry?"
Baek Gayul tilted his head as he watched the young sparrow peck aggressively at his palm with its beak.
The chick's assault was not painful, merely ticklish.
"When Cottontail was young, she used to peck at me like this whenever she was upset...."
Suddenly, Baek Gayul's thoughts drifted toward Jeok Soya.
"I wonder if Cottontail is all right."
Today, Jeok Soya had set out for the Yellow Dragon Altar, holding Father's hand.
She had said she would expose the wicked deeds of that cursed cuckoo from the Jujak Family.
"I wanted to go with her too."
Since Jeok Soya had insisted on going alone with Father, the rest of the family deliberately refrained from following.
Even as the young sparrow gnawed and nibbled at his hand, Baek Gayul's mind was consumed with worry for Jeok Soya.
Then, all at once, his ears perked up.
He heard the sound of Jeok Soya returning!
Baek Gayul immediately bounded out through the open window.
"Cottontail!"
"Older Brother Gayul!"
Jeok Soya, in her bird form, was laughing brightly alongside Baek Gahyun and Seol Yo, her voice trilling with joy.
Yet the keen sense of smell possessed by the white tiger detected the scent of tears emanating from Jeok Soya.
'I'm supposed to pretend not to notice at times like this.'
Baek Gayul, lacking perceptiveness but blessed with an exceptional memory, recalled what Chung Ha had once told him.
She had said that acknowledging tears when a woman hides them behind a smile is the mark of an insensitive and foolish tiger.
But to ignore the scent of tears and make her laugh genuinely with funny words and entertaining stories—that is the mark of a dignified and splendid tiger.
Remembering his mother's teachings, Baek Gayul transformed into a tiger and performed an absurd dance while singing in an off-key voice to lift Jeok Soya's spirits.
At this, Jeok Soya burst into genuine laughter and sang along with him, her voice trilling with delight.
That day, Baek Gayul's attention was so completely focused on Jeok Soya that he failed to notice something.
The young sparrow in his room had become very strange indeed....
"Grrrrr, grrrrr...."
The sparrow, now resembling a small beast, threatened the birds gathered at the window.
The drowsy birds, startled by the menace, fluttered away in panic.
---------------
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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