Chapter : 3
So-ya looked up at her father with a tense expression.
That day… in other words, since the day of her first transformation—when it was revealed that she was not the real daughter—it had been three years since she had last stood before him.
Yet the gaze that Jeok A-yun directed at So-ya was unbearably dry and indifferent.
Tap. Tap. Tap.
His fingertips struck the desk in a steady rhythm.
It was a habit he often showed when he was deep in thought.
So-ya stole a glance at his hand.
She remembered how gentle that hand had been just moments ago when it stroked Miss Lili’s hair.
And she also remembered how cold and merciless that same hand had been three years ago, when it cast her aside.
[Take the child’s Spirit Core and confine her to the Cold Palace.]
The memory of that day—the biting air, the razor-sharp stares, the terror too great for a six-year-old to endure—rose up again and bound So-ya tightly.
“You know your position. I will not waste words.”
His calm, carefully measured voice pierced her skin like a blade.
“Because of your mother’s greed, Lili had to wander the streets at an age when she had not even awakened her Spirit Core. All that she should have rightfully enjoyed was taken by a maid’s daughter.”
“……”
So-ya felt like a criminal. Her eyelashes trembled, heat rising to her eyes.
“Therefore, for the daughter I have finally reclaimed, I intend to do anything. Even if the entire world shakes their heads and calls it unreasonable.”
My daughter…
At those words, So-ya realized once more.
Ah… To Father, a daughter is only Miss Lili.
To Father, I can never again be a daughter—or anything at all.
In truth, from that day three years ago, they had ceased to be anything to each other.
Even knowing that, So-ya had foolishly clung to the hope that perhaps her father might call for her again. She had waited and waited for him, alone in the cold, barren palace.
She had lost her mother at a young age.
But despite her mother’s absence, So-ya had grown bright and cheerful because she had her father’s love.
She had loved her gentle older brothers too, who would squabble to monopolize their little sister’s attention—but still, she had loved her father the most.
To young So-ya, her father had been her entire world.
Even if he no longer considered her his daughter…
When she had been dragged into this room earlier at Miss Lili’s stubborn insistence, she had secretly felt a flutter of anticipation.
To stand before her father—whom it had felt sinful even to glimpse from afar—had made her heart pound.
It was foolish.
At last, the naive lingering hope she had never been able to discard snapped cleanly in two.
“So make certain that Lili never learns who you are. And should she ever be hurt because of you—”
Jeok A-yun’s eyes narrowed faintly.
“I will not forgive it.”
So-ya’s throat bobbed painfully.
…But Father, am I not already an unforgivable child?
She swallowed down the words that threatened to spill out.
Because she was no longer his daughter—nor anything at all to him.
Even the love he had once given her had merely been something stolen from Miss Lili.
Such realizations were cruel.
“Yes, Clan Head.”
With her head bowed deeply, So-ya answered in a faint, shrinking voice.
As he silently looked down at her, a hairline crack seemed to flicker across Jeok A-yun’s face.
From So-ya, he sensed grief, loss—perhaps even resignation.
Emotions far too deep and desolate for a nine-year-old child.
Only then did he truly look at her for the first time in three years.
Her pale complexion. Her hunched shoulders. The two hands fidgeting helplessly within her sleeves. Her restless feet. The lifeless tone of her voice…
She was very different from the child he remembered. The So-ya of the past had not been like this.
Useless sentiment.
Coldly severing the thought before it could grow, he dismissed her.
“Leave.”
So-ya retreated without making a sound.
Had she always walked like that?
Like a sinner… holding her breath as she moved…
“……”
Jeok A-yun’s expression twisted briefly.
If he claimed he felt no pity, that would be a lie.
But he refused to dwell on it.
She had originally been a maid’s daughter. He had raised her well enough. Even though she had stolen his true daughter’s place, he had neither punished her nor driven her out nor had her beaten.
Compared to the guilt he felt toward Lili, any pity he might feel for So-ya was insignificant.
Lili—his true daughter—had grown up in the freezing streets, without proper food, unable to see a physician even when ill, mocked as a fatherless child.
The maid who had switched the children had raised Lili as her own, yet had not been a good guardian.
Whenever he asked about that woman, Lili’s darkened expression tore at his heart.
He had wanted to seize that wretched criminal and interrogate her thoroughly, but she had already died three years ago.
Thus Lili had been left alone, without father or mother, for three long years.
Worse still, she had not even awakened her Spirit Core at the usual age of five or six. Only at nine had she undergone her first transformation—and even then, because of a severe illness in childhood, her Spirit Core was weak and her transformation incomplete.
And yet that child had endured the pain, forcing herself to transform before them just to meet her “real family.”
Whenever he thought of Lili, his chest felt as though it were tearing apart. Guilt toward his late wife suffocated him.
In his heart, there was not even a single grain of pity left to spare for So-ya.
Since she had originally been the daughter of the maid who served his wife, allowing her to atone by serving the clan’s young lady was, in his mind, a generous decision.
Though he knew the child was not at fault, Jeok A-yun deliberately brainwashed himself into believing otherwise.
It would not do to concern himself any further with that pitiful yet audacious child.
Each day was already full, simply returning to Lili the affection she had been denied.
The “fake” who had stolen the true young lady’s place became the true young lady’s maid.
Such an absurd farce unfolded within the Vermillion Bird clan, but Clan Head Jeok A-yun tightly sealed the mouths of the household.
“Father!”
Laughing brightly, Lili ran toward him, and he scooped her up with one arm.
She wrapped her arms around his neck, chattering sweetly.
So-ya watched the affectionate father and daughter in silence.
“Oh dear, Lili. Your hair has come undone.”
Chiding her gently, Jeok A-yun removed her hair ribbon.
“We must tie it again.”
He handed the ribbon to So-ya, who followed behind them.
The gesture was indifferent—like how he treated any other servant woman of the clan—and yet it was cruel, as if reminding So-ya never to forget her place.
It’s fine.
Staring down at the ribbon in her hands, So-ya murmured to herself.
Yes, it’s fine.
When she closed and reopened her eyes, she saw him smiling warmly as he combed through Lili’s tousled hair with his fingers.
Just as he had once done for So-ya when she was very young…
“Oh! It tickles, Father.”
Lili burst into laughter, and Jeok A-yun smiled along with her.
A cuckoo bird fluttered around them as if blessing the peaceful moment between father and daughter before flying away.
…It’s fine. Really, it’s fine.
So-ya was fine.
It hurt that she could no longer be her father’s daughter—but she was fine.
Her brother’s contemptuous gaze stung—but she was fine.
The sharp whispers of the household servants when they saw her, the love everyone showered upon the true young lady Lili, even standing beside her as her maid and watching it all—she was fine.
Because she was… a wicked little bird who had deceived and hurt her father and brothers.
A sinner who had stolen Miss Lili’s place and caused everyone suffering.
So of course she was fine.
Truly fine.
Truly…
On Miss Lili’s ninth birthday—
The first birthday since her return.
Clan Head Jeok A-yun announced that a grand celebration would be held.
And amid the preparations came word that the Fifth Prince of the capital would be visiting the estate.
