Chapter 7
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Chapter 7
In that moment, Jeok Hwayou found himself pausing without thought, his gaze turning toward Soaya.
Older brother....
He had deemed it an undeserved title for a child who had deceived her own family.
Yet somehow, a peculiar feeling stirred within him.
"I have somewhere to go for a moment. Wait here for me."
Jeok Hwayou concealed his true thoughts behind an awkward smile.
It was in that instant.
"What happened to that child?"
"She is dead."
Suddenly, a scene flashed before Soaya's eyes—Jeok Hwayou and the Masked Assassin conversing.
A sharp intake of breath.
'What is this...?'
The vision scattered and vanished in an instant, as though it were nothing more than a dream.
A bead of cold sweat traced down Soaya's forehead. It seemed she had seen something that was not there.
"Soaya?"
Jeok Hwayou called out to her as she stood dazed. Soaya snapped back to awareness and looked at him.
"I will return shortly. If you wait here...."
He seemed anxious somehow, as though he feared she might refuse his request.
'It is a lie.'
Soaya understood it instinctively.
That command to wait was a deception.
He would not return once he left.
This moment was when I would be abandoned.
And yet, knowing this....
"Yes, Young Master."
Soaya clutched the beaded bracelet he had given her and nodded with a bright smile.
Only then did Jeok Hwayou's expression ease, and he turned to leave.
Soaya remained in place, watching his receding figure for a long while.
The radiant smile that had graced her face gradually faded and blurred away.
Slowly, the sun set and night descended.
The Festival ended, and Soaya found herself alone on the now-deserted Streets.
Older brother did not come. He would not come, no matter how long she waited.
Yet Soaya remained in the same spot, fingering the beaded bracelet and waiting still.
Even knowing he would not return, I wanted to feel what it was like to wait for him.
'Still... it was good.'
Soaya thought this with genuine sincerity.
I was a wretched fledgling who had deceived and grieved my family.
Yet they had raised me until I turned nine, though they had every right to beat me and cast me out.
To someone like me, today's brief outing was an extravagant luxury—as precious as receiving the world's most treasured gift.
So I must never harbor resentment.
Even if they have abandoned me....
* * *
A fever crept through my body, and my throat burned with discomfort. My movements had grown sluggish.
I knew what this affliction was. It came from eating peaches.
I had suffered from it several times in my earliest years, and after my circumstances reversed, the maidservants who knew I could not tolerate peaches would deliberately feed them to me to torment me.
In a few hours, it would pass, as it always had.
But what troubled me far more was what lay ahead.
I had nowhere to go and nothing to my name....
"Flee!"
An urgent voice suddenly pierced through my mind.
'What is this?'
In that very instant, I whirled around.
Shing—
A short blade sliced through the air, grazing past my hair.
A few strands of my snow-white hair drifted to the ground like snowflakes.
"...!"
My eyes widened in shock.
Had I not turned my head, it would not have been my hair that fell to the earth, but my neck.
A chill ran across my skin.
Stiffening at the sudden, piercing sense of murderous intent, I spotted a man in a black mask emerging from the undergrowth across from where the blade had come.
Our eyes met.
A tremor ran through me.
Suddenly, a scene from earlier in the day flashed before me.
That mysterious vision of Jeok Hwayou speaking with the Masked Assassin....
"What became of that girl?"
"She is dead."
My heart sank like a stone.
'It was not a vision. Perhaps that scene showed me the future.'
Now I understood who "that girl" in their conversation referred to.
"That girl" was me—myself.
I had thought his words about removing me for Riri's sake meant merely casting me out from the family.
I had believed it meant disposing of me far away, out of the young lady's sight.
But it was not.
'My brother... intends to....'
My pupils trembled violently.
I wanted to deny it, but I could not.
'He means to kill me.'
My legs quivered beneath me. A chill seized me despite the summer heat.
'I must flee... I must escape....'
My body, sluggish from eating the peach, refused to move as though it had turned to stone.
The murderous intent emanating from nearby crept steadily closer toward me.
"You can't stay still! Run now, Soya!"
At that moment, a voice echoed through my mind once more.
I had no time to question what this voice was or what future I had glimpsed moments before.
I bolted in the opposite direction from where the short blade had flown.
Simultaneously, I heard the footsteps of an adult man pursuing me from behind.
Tap, tap, tap, tap.
Patter, tap, tap, tap.
My body felt weak and my legs threatened to give way, yet I continued running.
Then, disaster struck.
"Ow!"
I tripped over a stone and fell.
Crash—
The beaded bracelet I had been clutching snapped, scattering colorful beads across the ground, and at the same moment, the pouch I had hung inside my jacket tumbled free.
"Ah...!"
And in that very instant.
"Wretched little rat of a girl."
A massive shadow fell over me.
I remained rigid on the ground, lifting my head.
A man with his face concealed behind a black mask stood before me.
He raised his sword toward me.
'This is it. I'm going to die.'
Perhaps from the very beginning, it had been impossible for a small girl to escape from an adult man.
Just as I sensed death and squeezed my eyes shut, that moment arrived.
Screech!
Clang—!
With a sharp metallic cry, the assassin's blade flew far away.
I carefully lifted my eyelids.
The first thing I saw was the broad, solid back of an adult man.
'Father...?'
No, it was not my father.
A man as tall as my father stood before me, his long, snow-white hair flowing down to his waist.
Upon his shoulders, the fluttering silk bore the image of a fierce beast with white fur and blue eyes, alongside a blue emblem.
I recognized what that blue emblem depicted on the silk.
The divine beast that guarded the Western Lands and the master of the earth that ruled the land.
A creature with fangs and claws harder than steel, the supreme leader of beasts whose bodies transcended the limits of ordinary creatures.
'The White Tiger of the Western Lands...'
The master of the Baek Family, whose name I had only heard whispered through people's lips, now stood before me, gracefully wielding his sword to shield me.
* * *
The master of the Western Lands, the head of the Baekho Family, Baek Sayeon, set foot in the Southern Lands at the Fifth Prince's command.
[Go to the Southern Lands, to the Phoenix Territory. Steal the most precious thing you find there.]
It was an enigmatic order that came without warning, yet I could not refuse it. Because....
[If you do, Baek Sayeon, I shall grant you the Dragon's Blood Herb you have been searching for so desperately.]
The Fifth Prince saw through exactly what I needed.
So strictly speaking, I moved not by command, but by transaction.
I never imagined I would end up stealing from the lands of those feather-brained Jujak fools.
Yet it was instinct that moved me when I sensed the murky killing intent bearing down from so close.
My blade carved through the air with elegant precision, devoid of all mercy.
Shing!
The pristine white longsword cleaved a long gash across the body of the Masked Assassin.
Baek Sayeon gazed down at the fallen assassin with cold eyes.
With graceful finality, I swept my blade's tip across the assassin in his final moments.
The black mask covering the assassin's face was sliced clean away.
Beneath the severed mask, a tattoo emerged—a three-legged raven stretching from cheek to nape.
It was the mark of the Samjokoh, the warrior collective commanded by the Jujak Family.
It was as I narrowed my eyes, studying the mark, that I felt it.
Suddenly, I sensed something trembling violently beside me.
Whip—!
The moment I turned my head, my gaze met something small and white.
"...?"
A pale face, trembling uncontrollably, yet bearing an expression of composure beyond her years....
"What is this little cotton ball."
A small girl, white as cotton, stood before me.
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