Chapter : 7
At that moment, Jeok Hwa-yu unconsciously hesitated and glanced at Soya.
“Brother…”
It was a title unfit for the little one who had deceived her family. Yet… somehow, it stirred a strange feeling.
“I have somewhere to go for a while. Wait here.”
Jeok Hwa-yu forced an awkward smile, hiding his inner thoughts.
It was at that instant.
“What happened to that child?”
“He’s dead.”
Suddenly, a scene flashed before Soya’s eyes: Jeok Hwa-yu talking to a man wearing a black mask.
Startled.
‘What… was that?’
The scene vanished in an instant, as if it were a dream.
A cold sweat trickled down Soya’s forehead. She must have imagined it.
“Soya?”
Jeok Hwa-yu called out to her, noticing she was staring blankly. Soya quickly snapped back to reality and looked at him.
“I’ll be gone for a while, so wait here…”
He seemed oddly anxious, as if afraid she might refuse.
‘It’s a lie.’
Soya instinctively knew.
His words to wait were false.
He wouldn’t come back.
Right now… was the moment she would be abandoned.
And yet, knowing that…
“Yes, young master.”
Soya squeezed the beaded bracelet he had given her and smiled faintly, nodding.
Only then did Jeok Hwa-yu turn around, his expression showing relief.
Soya remained in the same spot, watching Jeok Hwa-yu’s figure fade into the distance.
The fresh smile that had rested on her face slowly blurred.
As the sun set and night fell, the streets, now sparse after the festival ended, left Soya alone.
Her brother did not come. He would not come, no matter how long she waited.
Still, Soya stayed in place, fiddling with the beaded bracelet, wanting to feel the act of waiting for him.
Even knowing he would never return.
‘Even so… it was nice.’
Soya truly felt that way.
She had been a wicked little bird, deceiving her family and causing them sorrow.
Yet the family had taken care of her—beating and expelling her as they should—until she turned nine.
For someone like her, today’s brief outing had been an extravagant luxury. It had felt like receiving the most precious gift in the world.
So, she resolved never to resent them.
Even if they, in the end, abandoned her…
A fever slowly crept over her, her throat tingled, and her movements grew sluggish.
Soya knew exactly what was happening. It was from eating peaches.
She had fallen ill from them a few times as a very young child, and after her circumstances changed, some deliberately fed her peaches to torment her.
After a while, she would be fine. As always.
What worried her more was what she would do next.
She had nowhere to go, nothing to her name…
“Run!”
Suddenly, a desperate voice echoed in her mind.
‘What is that?’
Just as Soya turned her head sharply, there was a swift shing—
A short dagger grazed through her hair.
A few strands of her snow-white hair fell to the ground like snowflakes.
“…!”
Her eyes went wide.
If she hadn’t turned her head, the dagger would have claimed her neck instead of her hair.
A chilling sensation crawled over her skin.
Frozen in place by the murderous intent, Soya spotted a man wearing a black mask in the bushes across from her.
Their eyes met.
Startled.
She suddenly remembered the scene she had glimpsed earlier in the day:
Jeok Hwa-yu speaking to the man in the black mask—the mysterious vision.
“What happened to that child?”
“He’s dead.”
Her heart plummeted.
‘It wasn’t a hallucination… maybe that scene was showing the future.’
Now, she finally understood who “that child” referred to.
It was her.
She had thought his words meant simply removing her from the household for Lady Lili’s sake, keeping her out of sight.
But no.
‘Brother… he…’
Her eyes shook violently.
She wanted to deny it, but she couldn’t.
‘He intends to… kill me.’
Her feet trembled. Despite the summer heat, a chill ran through her.
‘I need to run… I have to run…’
But her body, dulled from the peaches, felt like it had frozen completely.
The deadly intent nearby drew closer with every heartbeat.
“Don’t stand there! Run, Soya, run!”
Once again, a voice echoed in her mind.
No time to ponder what the voice was, or what she had glimpsed.
Soya ran in the opposite direction of the dagger.
At the same time, she heard the heavy footsteps of an adult man chasing her.
Thud, thud, thud, thud.
Clack, thud, thud, thud.
Her body felt weak, her legs wobbly, but she kept running.
Then—
“Ah!”
She tripped on a stone and fell.
Clatter—
The beaded bracelet in her hand broke, scattering colorful beads across the ground, and the pouch she had tied inside her jacket fell.
“Ah…!”
And then, at that very moment—
“You little rat of a girl.”
A huge shadow fell over Soya.
She froze and looked up.
A man in a black mask stood before her, raising his sword toward her.
‘No. I’m going to die.’
Perhaps a small girl had no chance of escaping an adult man from the start.
Just as she closed her eyes, sensing death, a sharp shing!
Clang—!
The swordsman’s blade flew far away with a sharp clang.
Soya cautiously lifted her eyelids.
The first thing she saw was the broad, solid back of an adult man.
‘Father…?’
No, not her father.
A man as tall as her father, with long snow-white hair flowing to his waist, stood before her.
On his shoulder, a fluttering silk banner bore a fierce mountain beast with white fur and blue eyes, alongside a blue emblem.
Soya recognized the emblem on the banner.
It represented the Guardian Beast of the West, the ruler of the land.
The leader of the beasts, possessing teeth and claws harder than steel and strength surpassing that of all beastfolk.
‘The Western Guardian Beast, Baekho…’
The very master of the Baekho family, whom she had only heard of in stories, now elegantly wielded his sword in front of her.
The master of the West, Baekho family’s head Baek Sa-eon, had set foot in the southern lands by the prince’s order.
[Go to the southern lands, to the territory of the Vermillion Bird. Steal the most precious thing there.]
The order was puzzling, yet he could not refuse. Because…
[If you do this, Baek Sa-eon, I will give you the Dragon Blood Grass you have been seeking.]
The prince had seen exactly what he needed.
So, it was less of an order and more of a transaction.
He had never expected to commit theft in the Vermillion Bird territory.
Yet the ominous intent nearby made him act instinctively.
His sword cut through the air with no mercy.
Shing!
The snow-white longsword slashed through the black-masked assassin.
Baek Sa-eon coldly looked down at the assassin, who was on the verge of death.
He elegantly swung the sword tip toward him.
The black mask covering the assassin’s face was sliced off.
Beneath it, a three-legged crow-shaped tattoo stretched from cheek to neck.
It was the mark of the Vermillion Bird family’s warrior group, the Samjok-o.
As Sa-eon frowned at it, he suddenly felt something trembling beside him.
Snap!
He turned and met the gaze of something small and white.
“…?”
A small, snow-white girl trembled, her face pale, yet she maintained a composure beyond her years.
“What is this cotton ball?”
A tiny girl, white as cotton, stood before him.
