Chapter 1

Cold, bitter ground.

A tiny snake, abandoned there all alone, slowly blinked its eyes.

‘It’s so cold….’

The young snake knew exactly where she had been abandoned.

The southern lands of Haeseo Kingdom.

A cursed land where black rain fell every day, and anyone who stepped inside was said to never leave alive.

Among those lands, the place where she now lay was the most heavily contaminated of all.

Even though she had been abandoned in such a dreadful place, she felt no resentment.

Because being abandoned was all her own fault.

The little snake, Baeksa, struggled to lift her head and looked down at her body.

Her body, once as white as fresh snow, had been stained completely black.

A pitch-black body that did not suit the name Baeksa (White Snake) at all.

That grotesque appearance was the very reason she had been abandoned here.

“It’s no longer of any use.”

“Take it and throw it away in the Southern Lands.”

Because she could no longer be of use in any way.

Her body had not looked like this from the beginning.

There had once been a time when Baeksa’s body was as pure as her name.

But everything changed in the year she turned seven, when she awakened the innate power all beastfolk possessed—an Ability.

The tiny snake let out a faint breath as she watched the black snow drifting through the air, recalling that day.

The exact moment when she had first awakened her Ability.

Baeksa was a snake born to the Dragon Tribe Emperor of Haeseo Kingdom.

Unlike her dragon beastfolk siblings, she had neither beautiful horns nor a radiant Dragon Pearl.

Nor had she awakened the Ability that every beastfolk was born with and used as naturally as breathing.

Because of that, some whispered that it must have been because her mother came from lowly origins.

However, the identity of Baeksa’s mother had always been kept secret, so nothing was known, nor could anything be discovered.

In those circumstances, there was only one thing Baeksa knew.

She had been born as a snake, a creature considered the source of ill omen.

And a white snake was not a welcome existence within the imperial family.

“A snake? How could a snake be born into the imperial family…?”

“Is it truly His Majesty’s blood?”

Since dragons were naturally born from dragon beastfolk, no one could believe the birth of a baby snake.

Thus, the imperial family of Haeseo regarded Baeksa as a tremendous disgrace.

A stain that had suddenly appeared upon an emperor who was never allowed to have flaws.

Because of that, the Emperor never gave Baeksa a name.

In the imperial family of Haeseo, it was tradition for the Emperor himself to name his children.

Her brothers and sisters all received dragon names the moment they were born, but even at seven years old, Baeksa still had no proper name.

“They,” “White Snake,” “Little Snake,” and “Worthless Thing” were the only ways people addressed her.

Even so, the child was content.

She believed that simply being allowed to live, despite being little more than the imperial family’s disgrace, was already an immense blessing.

Then, in the year she turned seven—

“Her Highness the Princess has awakened her Ability!”

“But… that Ability…”

Contrary to everyone’s belief that she would never awaken one, the child finally manifested her Ability.

But what she obtained was not the Dragon Tribe’s Ability of Blessing.

“No! My power! My blessing! This lunatic has devoured it!”

“I-I didn’t mean to…”

“Help! Nurse! Aaaah! Help me!”

The Ability Baeksa awakened was Absorption.

It manifested after she was relentlessly bullied by Prince Songra and accidentally devoured his Ability.

Baeksa’s power was a greedy and terrifying Ability that consumed everything it encountered.

Having awakened it in such a way, the frightened child had no idea what to do before the imperial guards seized her and dragged her before the Emperor.

She knelt before her father, trembling like a criminal.

Instinctively, she knew that her power was not one anyone would welcome.

Sure enough, the Emperor looked down at her with a chilling smile.

It was not the face of a father delighted that his daughter had awakened an Ability.

“I had been planning to throw you into the southern lands soon anyway.”

The child flinched.

The southern lands.

A place now ruled by the Suzaku Clan, who had been exiled from Haeseo Kingdom.

A land cursed by the Ancient Divine Dragon.

No one who entered ever returned alive.

To think he had intended to abandon her there.

Tears welled up in the child’s large eyes.

As though he had been waiting for that reaction, the Emperor continued.

“But I’ve changed my mind. If you work for me from this day forward, I’ll postpone that.”

“What will you choose? Be exiled to the south and die… or remain in the imperial palace and work for your father?”

“I-I’ll stay. I want to work for Your Majesty.”

The frightened child looked up at the Emperor.

“I’ll do anything. Any task at all. So please… just don’t exile me.”

Apparently satisfied with her answer, the Emperor finally bestowed a name upon her.

Baeksa (White Snake).

Exactly as it sounded—a white snake.

It was also a way of distinguishing her from the other dragon-born royals.

Still, Baeksa was simply happy to have a name.

It meant she finally had a role to play in the imperial family.

It meant she could prove she was useful.

From then on, once every day, the Emperor blindfolded Baeksa and took her somewhere.

There, he would place someone’s hand into hers and order her to absorb the energy within that person’s body.

She obeyed exactly as she was told.

She never removed the blindfold.

She never wondered whose hand it belonged to.

Because her father had told her not to ask.

Her only duty was to faithfully carry out whatever she was ordered to do.

“Lady Baeksa, it’s time to go to the detached palace.”

As a result, despite traveling back and forth to the detached palace countless times, Baeksa knew nothing about the owner of that hand.

All she knew was that it was soft, with long slender fingers, and that it had never once moved while she held it.

But it wasn’t a corpse.

The hand was always warm.

Sometimes it even carried a pleasant fragrance.

It was a scent that somehow felt strangely familiar, as though she had smelled it long ago.

But that had to be her imagination.

Since the day she was born, Baeksa had been isolated from everyone else.

As time passed…

After she began absorbing that person’s energy, subtle changes appeared in her body.

Black spots formed upon her pure white scales.

And the more she used her Ability, the larger those stain-like marks became.

Gradually, they consumed her entire body.

Even as those changes spread, Baeksa never neglected the work the Emperor had assigned her.

After all, that work was the only reason she had not been exiled.

She had to endure it without complaint.

But the moment those black stains completely covered her snowy-white body—

The moment she ceased to be a pure white baby snake and became an ominous black snake—

Baeksa could no longer use her Ability.

She could absorb neither blessings nor curses.

Nothing at all.

It was as though her body had finally reached its limit.

And when the Emperor learned of it…

“Throw it away.”

Without the slightest hesitation, he ordered her to be abandoned in the Southern Lands.

There was not even a trace of affection in his voice for the daughter he had fathered and raised.

And so…

That was how she came to be abandoned here alone.

Tears rolled from the eyes of the baby snake whose body had turned completely black.

If only I had been a little more useful… would I not have been abandoned?

What was that energy I’d been absorbing all this time… that it turned my body into this?

Without me… what will happen to the owner of that hand…?

Countless thoughts surfaced, only to fade away again.

The little snake curled herself into an even smaller ball.

Instinctively, Baeksa knew that death was drawing near.

Ever since she had been abandoned here, the contaminated energy of the land had been pouring endlessly into her body against her will.

Anyone who absorbed more contaminated energy than their body could bear would die.

And from the moment she had been abandoned, she had already reached that limit.

It was only a matter of time before her body gave out.

‘If I had known it would end like this…’

If she had known this would be her end…

She would never have struggled so desperately to earn recognition.

Her father had given her nothing more than a pitiful, insignificant name.

Yet she had been so happy just to receive even that.

She had wanted to do everything she could.

She believed that if she worked hard enough, someday he would acknowledge her.

That she would finally become a true member of the imperial family.

But now she understood.

The moment she had been born a snake…

None of that had ever been possible.

There are hearts in this world that no amount of effort can ever change.

The little snake slowly closed her eyes.

She had no strength left to run away.

No strength left to struggle for survival.

All Baeksa could do now was quietly wait.

For the end that was approaching her.

Just as her vision dimmed and the last of her strength slipped away—

Something small and pitch-black appeared before her eyes.

‘What’s… that?’

It looked exactly like a Dragon Pearl.

Something that could never appear to someone like Baeksa.

And at the same time…

It was the thing she had longed for more than anything else.

Gathering the last of her strength, the little snake looked up at the round black pearl.

Then, in the next instant—

The pearl burst forth with brilliant white light and swallowed the tiny baby snake whole.

Before she could even see it clearly or understand what had happened, darkness consumed her vision.

It was the end of her short life.

After the baby snake’s heart had completely stopped beating…

The energy of all creation flowed into the pearl, and the contaminated land around it slowly began returning to its original form.

But the restoration lasted only for a brief moment.

No one was there to witness it.