Chapter : 8
Sa-eon’s eyes hardened at the pale face of the child who looked as if she could collapse at any moment.
“Hey, Cotton Ball. Are you okay?”
At the repeated voice directed at her, So-ya snapped out of her daze and lifted her head.
Before her stood the unfamiliar man who had just saved her from the assassin.
Tall, with a clear and handsome appearance, the man carried a slightly cold and intimidating aura.
He exuded the exact opposite atmosphere from her father, who always smiled gently.
“Ah…”
So-ya let out a small sigh.
For a moment, she thought the broad back that had blocked the assassin and protected her was her father’s.
After all, there was no one as big and sturdy as her father.
It was a foolish thought.
Her father’s back no longer protected her.
So-ya recalled the back of her father as he turned to leave her and return to Lady Liri.
The once warm and strong back that had always protected her now only left a cold and lonely impression.
Swallowing her sadness, So-ya opened her mouth.
“I’m not Cotton Ball. I’m…”
She hesitated for a moment.
Long ago, she would have introduced herself as the Red Phoenix family’s So-ya, but now she realized she could no longer do so.
“…I’m So-ya.”
“Your name sounds like Cotton Ball too.”
Baek Sa-eon smirked slightly as he looked at So-ya, whose small frame and rounded features gave her a childlike appearance.
But the smile quickly disappeared from his face.
‘Was this child the one the Red Phoenix family’s assassin was after?’
His eyes narrowed as he observed her.
To send an assassin to eliminate such a small girl…
And that too, the Samjoko—the Red Phoenix family’s most renowned warrior group.
Behind the cowardly act was the unmistakable will of someone determined to eliminate the child.
Sa-eon asked with a serious expression,
“What did you do to earn the grudge of the Southern chicken heads?”
“Chicken…?”
“Yes.”
He pointed toward the fallen assassin as So-ya blinked in confusion.
“They’re the Samjoko sent by the Red Phoenix lot.”
“Ah…”
So-ya didn’t fully understand the sudden talk of chickens, but she knew of the Samjoko.
The Samjoko, made up of warriors from the Black Crow family who had served the Red Phoenix direct line for generations, moved only on the orders of the direct family line.
Her face clouded with sorrow, and soon a large tear formed in her eye.
“So… I almost… died? By… the Red Phoenix family people…?”
It was as if she were seeking confirmation of what she already feared.
“If I hadn’t been there, maybe?”
Baek Sa-eon’s indifferent words made it worse.
Plop.
The tear that had lingered fell.
Plop. Drip. Drip.
One by one, the tears streamed down like a heavy rain.
Sa-eon paused and looked down at the child.
Death is frightening even to the elderly, so it was not strange for a child to cry like this.
Yet this tiny girl hadn’t cried when she was actually in danger of dying; only now, when she realized the Red Phoenix family had sent the assassin, did she cry bitterly.
She didn’t make a sound but let thick tears fall, trying to hold back her sobs, and it was painfully pitiful.
Even though he was not usually sensitive to others’ tears, it kept catching his attention.
“Hu, hup, sniff….”
“…”
Sa-eon had no talent for comforting children. His sons rarely cried.
Even when they were very young, they only cried when hungry or dissatisfied with food.
So seeing a crying child was slightly unfamiliar, but he silently watched her trembling shoulders and clumsily reached out a hand.
His rough fingertips carefully patted her delicate shoulders.
Though she tried to restrain herself, her sobs didn’t grow louder, but her shoulders shook more violently, and her body trembled.
He stayed quietly by her side until her crying subsided, then spoke in a gruff but gentle voice,
“It’s too late for a Cotton Ball like you to be wandering alone. I’ll take you to your family.”
So-ya wiped her eyes with the back of her hand and shook her head.
“It’s okay.”
“Runaway Cotton Ball? Then your family must be worried…”
“There isn’t any.”
So-ya spoke in a calm voice.
“There isn’t… a family.”
“….”
Baek Sa-eon fell silent.
He stared quietly at So-ya, who struggled to hold back her tears.
‘A child clearly connected to the Red Phoenix family…’
The mysterious command of the prince came to mind again. He had said to steal the most precious thing from the Red Phoenix land.
‘The most precious thing…’
Originally, he intended to steal the Red Phoenix family’s treasured bow, passed down to the head of the Jeok line, but suddenly his mind had changed.
Perhaps it was a mere whim…
Whoosh—
So-ya’s body lifted into the air.
Startled, So-ya’s eyes widened. Her pale little face with reddened eyes looked like a rabbit.
“Then.”
Baek Sa-eon met her gaze and grinned.
“I’ll steal you, Cotton Ball.”
“W-what…?”
So-ya’s tears vanished as she was flustered.
Steal me?
Isn’t “steal” usually used for something precious, taken secretly?
But she was not precious at all—she was a worthless sinner.
“Why… me?”
“Because out of everything I saw in the South, you appealed to me the most.”
Baek Sa-eon explained in a casual yet kind voice.
He was curious why the Red Phoenix family’s assassin targeted this small child, and it seemed the child had nowhere to go.
More than anything, he had been concerned about her since earlier.
So he thought he’d ‘steal’ her.
Compared to a boring treasure, this seemed far more valuable.
“You really have no family waiting for you?”
He asked, piercing into So-ya’s eyes.
“…Yes.”
So-ya nodded and answered in a sad voice.
Those she once loved as family had tried to kill her. That could never be called family.
In truth, they had never truly been her family, but foolishly she had clung to them alone.
But now, it was time to let go.
“There really isn’t any family.”
Having read the truth in her words, Baek Sa-eon smiled again, as if confirming,
“Then will you be stolen by me?”
“….”
So-ya’s throat bobbed painfully at his question.
She was okay. Always okay.
Though she could no longer be her father’s daughter, though her older brother’s disdain pricked her skin, she was fine.
The sharp gazes of the retainers, the love everyone gave to Lady Liri, and her lonely observation of it all—she was fine with that.
But…
‘I don’t want to die.’
Death was not something she could accept.
‘Dying is such a scary and sad thing.’
Perhaps it was shameless for a sinner who had deceived and hurt her family to think this way, but still, So-ya did not want to die.
She glanced at Baek Sa-eon.
A man as big and strong as her father.
‘If I follow him, I can escape Red Phoenix territory.’
He looked slightly scary, his tone was rough, and he spoke oddly about stealing her.
‘If I follow him, I’ll survive.’
So-ya nodded toward him.
“Yes. Please take me with you.”
“Good.”
Baek Sa-eon gently rubbed the swollen red skin around her eyes and smiled.
“Good choice, Cotton Ball. I am Baek Sa-eon, master of the West.”
“Yes, Sa-eon. I’m So-ya, and I’m nine years old.”
So-ya repeated her name as she introduced herself to him.
“Right, Cotton Ball.”
It seemed to have little effect, but he said it anyway.
“This is a mutual agreement, so don’t report me later, wherever you go.”
“R-report?”
“Yes. About me stealing you.”
Baek Sa-eon nodded, speaking seriously.
“That would be inconvenient. If it gets around that I sneaked into the Southern chicken-head land like a thief and stole something…”
“I-I won’t, I promise!”
So-ya answered quickly.
No one would care about taking a useless child like her.
But she added hurriedly, worried he might find it troublesome.
“And, ah, no one would care. They might even be glad. If I’m gone…”
As she babbled, she suddenly felt her throat tighten.
“Cotton Ball?”
Sa-eon called her when her face suddenly went pale and she stopped speaking.
Plop.
So-ya’s head drooped.
“Cotton Ball, why…?”
Reaching instinctively toward her face, Sa-eon was startled.
“…!”
The child’s body felt like a burning flame.
