DRP 30

chapter 30

As we wandered here and there, evening came before we knew it.

How did time go by so fast?

I blinked in disbelief, and all the adults laughed at me—everyone except my dad.

Dinner was charcoal-grilled barbecue.

It was the kind where you grill meat over a brazier filled with charcoal, and it was insanely delicious. Meat of every kind, along with mushrooms, potatoes, and onions—grilled together, the flavor was no joke.

Just as I thought.

The Baek family are absolute food connoisseurs!

After I’d stuffed myself so full that my cheeks and belly were round, a secret “family event” began. It was time to place a prohibition spell on all of us.

This had already been discussed in advance.

But before that, Grandma and Baeksan called just me and So Baeksan aside, saying there was something only the two of us needed to know.

“Come in.”

Grandma greeted us in Baeksan’s office as if it were her own home.

I wondered if that was okay, but since the actual owner, Baeksan, seemed perfectly happy, I just stayed quiet and sat before them. So Baeksan obediently sat beside me.

“Now. I’ll tell you the real reason both families decided on this engagement.”

Grandma’s sharp eyes swept over the two of us.

“Each of you has a secret to protect.”

Baeksan’s low, fading voice pierced my ears.

“Hyeon, your secret is your identity as a Haetae.”

I flinched at the word Haetae.

“And So Baeksan’s secret—he is the son of the Emperor.”

Like spilled water, the two adults—one as white as snow, one as black as night—took turns pouring out the truth.

Thunderstruck, So Baeksan and I turned to each other at the same time.

“Haetae?”

“Prince?”

Our voices rose higher and higher as we repeated the other’s secret.

Shock. Panic. Confusion.

My heart plummeted straight down a slide—it was only natural.

“From birth, Hyeon was a Haetae.”

Grandma pressed on relentlessly, ignoring our dazed expressions.

“Though her parents were of different species, she shifted back and forth between human and canine forms.”

She explained slowly, for So Baeksan’s sake.

I was born a Haetae—a mythical beast that senses evil. When Grandma mentioned that ability, So Baeksan’s eyes widened in realization.

“No wonder something felt off. Rumor had it you were terribly frail, but when we met, you seemed perfectly healthy.”

I was healthy.

I loved long walks, and I could clear a heaping bowl of rice every meal. My body might be small, but there was nothing fragile about my daily life.

“To keep anyone from finding out she was a Haetae, that rumor was the best cover. We had to limit her outings and raise her entirely at home.”

“Then even in the Hyeon family, very few know this truth.”

“Only a handful of direct relatives. And they’re all bound by prohibition spells to keep quiet.”

So Baeksan lowered his gaze slightly.

Those bright blue eyes flickered with emotion and thought. When he looked back up, the sharp intelligence had returned.

“Hyeon must have suffered a lot.”

I blinked, startled.

Even though my identity must’ve shocked him, he was patting my back, saying I must’ve had a hard time.

“How does Hyeon recognize evildoers?”

Grandma tapped her nose, and So Baeksan nodded in understanding. I added,

“They smell bad. The greater the sin, the stronger the stench.”

“Since canine folk have such keen noses, it must be painful for you.”

“Exactly. When bad people are near, it’s so irritating I just want to push them away.”

“So your Haetae sense is another reason it’s hard for you to go out—you can’t exactly live with your nose plugged.”

I told them about the time my nose almost rotted off after going out.

Yes—the murder case in Rose Village.

Ugh, even remembering it made me shiver. The stench had been horrific.

Seeing me tremble, So Baeksan looked deeply concerned.

How could this tiger be so gentle? Honestly, I was the one starting to worry about him.

Our side of the story ended there.

Now it was time to hear the Baek family’s side.

“To put it simply,” Baeksan began, resting a hand on his chest,

“all this trouble started because I was the Emperor’s man.”

My jaw dropped—both at the shocking content and his choice of words.

“There are children here, you damn tiger.”

“Have you forgotten all sense of propriety?”

“And you call your tone ‘proper,’ do you?”

Grandma scolded him furiously, but Baeksan just twirled a lock of his loose hair and spoke to me.

“Do you know what it means in Hleuk when a man wears his hair down?”

I shook my head.

Now that I thought about it, most men in this world had long hair. Some wore it tied, others loose—but I hadn’t known there was meaning to it.

“It means he has no partner.”

“Huh?”

“You can tie it for convenience, but to braid or coil it up—that’s something only your partner may do.”

My eyes dropped to his hair. His silver locks hung freely, like a lion’s mane.

“I too once found the one meant to braid mine.”

His fingers moved lazily through his hair.

“Unfortunately, that person was the Emperor.”

His tone didn’t rise or fall.

Just calm.

“She said it was dangerous for me, and refused even to keep me as a consort. Simply set me free.”

With a languid wave of his hand—

“So infuriating.”

He twisted his lips in bitterness.

To my amazement, Baeksan and the Emperor had once been deeply in love.

But that raised a question—why hadn’t the Emperor accepted him as consort?

He was from the Baek clan, one of the Five Great Families, a high-ranking sorcerer.

Tall, strikingly handsome, strong-willed enough to even stand up to Grandma when she’d been a general—Baeksan had every qualification to be the Emperor’s spouse.

He wasn’t someone who’d ever be a victim; he was the type to seek out his enemies and thrash them himself.

So why refuse marriage on the grounds of “danger”?

From what I knew, it made no sense.

Curious, I looked to Grandma. After some thought, she began explaining what had happened before So Baeksan was born.

“You’ve read in books that the current imperial family came to power through a revolution, haven’t you?”

I nodded.

Decades ago, the sky of Hleuk had changed hands once.

It was the reason Grandma had been able to become a general—and why my aunt and uncle sometimes muttered that it was time for another “purge.”

“What’s written in the records is only a fragment. The war between the former Suzaku dynasty and the current Dragon dynasty was brutal beyond words.”

The books mentioned it briefly, but the revolution had been soaked in blood. The Suzaku and the Dragons had equal power.

“The Dragons had great individual strength but few in number; the Suzaku were the opposite. Both sides suffered devastating losses.”

In the end, only the current Emperor and Crown Prince survived among the Dragons, and the Suzaku dwindled to a mere handful.

Those Suzaku who lived in Hleuk now were distant kin, practically strangers to the old royal line.

“Any Suzaku with even a drop of imperial blood fled abroad. It took many years to settle the chaos.”

Given the political climate then, the Emperor couldn’t possibly take Baeksan—heir to one of the Five Great Houses—as consort.

If Baeksan had been from a distant branch, maybe. But as a direct heir, he was the very pillar of his clan’s power.

To prevent excessive power from concentrating in the Baek family and splitting the court, the Emperor sacrificed her own happiness.

A ruler’s duty, it seemed, demanded such a price.

The Emperor was a great monarch.

But the “best choice” for one can be the “worst fate” for another. Losing his lover like that, Baeksan had every right to be furious.

As his expression grew darker, I quickly changed the subject.

“So, since the Crown Prince and So Baeksan are the same age… does that mean they’re twins?”

“Yes. I’m the elder.”

Since their parents were a dragon and a tiger, no one could tell which bloodline the twins had inherited until their first birthday.

So Baeksan’s father had sealed off a palace building with multiple sorcery barriers and raised them in secret.

On their first birthday, both brothers transformed into their true forms—one tiger, one dragon.

In Hleuk, if siblings are of different species, each takes the surname of the parent who shares their race.

The tiger elder took his father’s name, becoming Baek Hwiryeok, while the dragon younger took his mother’s, Cheong Gyuhun.

“I lived in the palace until I was four. Then Father and I returned to the Baek estate—he couldn’t stay away from his duties any longer.”

“The Crown Prince and you weren’t exactly shut-ins like me. Plenty of people must’ve seen your faces. Wasn’t anyone suspicious?”

“We’re fraternal twins. I take after Father, and His Highness takes after Mother.”

Different features, different eye and hair colors, even different temperaments—no one would ever guess they were brothers.

“How interesting,” I murmured.

“Most people assume I’m the illegitimate child Father brought home after some affair.”

Not entirely wrong—except the “affair” had been with the Emperor.

“So,” Grandma said after a sip of tea, “what do you think?”

“What do you mean?”

“Do you still want to go through with the engagement?”

She looked at us seriously.

“The secrets you both bear are not light ones. You’ll have to hide them all your lives, live carefully, and sometimes, protecting each other will feel impossible.”

Was I truly ready for that?

I turned to So Baeksan.

He looked nervous—staring at the floor, body stiff, as if terrified I might say no.

I understood.

Anyone tangled with the imperial family usually ran for the hills.

But what he didn’t know—

Was that I, too, had a secret I hadn’t told even my parents.

I was a reincarnated soul, with faint memories of my past life!

“Grandma, Baeksan.”

I boldly placed my hand over So Baeksan’s.

He flinched, startled, but I met the adults’ eyes and declared,

“I’ll do my best to protect So Baeksan!”