TLBSV 08

Chapter 8

An unfamiliar face, an unfamiliar voice.

Having spent her entire life strictly confined within the Imperial Palace, Baeksa, who had absolutely no reason to ever see an unfamiliar beastman, instinctively shrank back.

However, the woman approached with a warm, affectionate smile and gently pulled the blanket Baeksa had pushed away back over her.

“The esteemed doctor said you need to rest a little more. Please, lie back down.”

Caught completely off guard and swaddled in the fluffy cotton blanket, Baeksa hesitated for a moment before timidly opening her mouth.

“U-Umm… where exactly am I…?”

A ceiling as grand and soaring as those in the Imperial Palace, beautifully embroidered bead curtains, and candelabras burning brightly with a mesmerizing flame in every corner of the room.

The entire room was bathed in rich, warm reds, and as if proving she was a total stranger to this place, Baeksa alone was shockingly white.

Because of this striking contrast, Baeksa had a faint idea of where she might be, but she couldn’t help but ask for confirmation.

At her question, the maid smiled kindly once more and spoke.

“You are currently in the estate of the Vermilion Bird Clan.”

With an incredibly gentle touch, she properly settled Baeksa back into bed and carefully pressed the back of her hand against the child’s feverish forehead as she continued.

“Our Lord found you collapsed all alone in the snow and brought you here. He explicitly instructed us to serve you with the utmost care until you awoke.”

“When you say ‘Our Lord’…”

“He is the Patriarch of the Vermilion Bird Clan.”

Hearing the maid’s confirmation, Baeksa let out a soft gasp, her tiny mouth falling slightly open, before giving a slow nod.

So it was true.

The man she had seen right before she thought she would die. That person truly was a member of the Vermilion Bird Clan. And on top of that, he was the absolute head of the clan.

However, once her thoughts reached that point, a heavy question surfaced in her mind.

Why on earth did he save her?

The relationship between the Vermilion Bird Clan and the Imperial Palace was incredibly hostile. It was because the Emperor had violently abandoned the Southern Lands to rot.

So why would he save someone undeniably wearing the garments of the Imperial Family…?

Maybe he didn’t know.

What if he didn’t realize the clothes she was wearing belonged to the Imperial Palace? If she thought about it that way, it made perfect sense.

While Baeksa was hesitating, lost in thought, the maid, having quickly tidied the area around the bed, offered a gentle, reassuring smile.

“I heard the story from the Master. You must have been incredibly cold out there in that snow, right? But it’s not cold in here, so you’re completely safe now. The flame of the Vermilion Bird is keeping the room at the perfect temperature.”

So that was why it felt so incredibly warm. The child cautiously gauged the maid’s expression and gave a small nod.

Only then did Baeksa realize that the clothes she was currently wearing were not the filthy Imperial garments she had worn when she was banished. Most likely, the kind maid standing before her had bathed her and changed her into these clean, soft new clothes.

New clothes. A gentle, caring touch. The words ‘you’re completely safe now.’

All of these things were so terrifyingly unfamiliar to Baeksa that the child swallowed hard.

She honestly didn’t know what to say. The room was filled with a comforting warmth, and the clothes against her skin were incredibly soft.

But was someone like her really allowed to enjoy such profound luxury?

Maybe.

Maybe now that she was awake, they would tell her to leave. Maybe she would be thrown back out into that freezing snowfield.

Her tiny heart plummeted violently in her chest.

I don’t want that.

Being thrown away twice was already agonizing enough; the thought of being discarded a third time was genuinely horrifying. Furthermore, since she had confirmed that the mysterious orb wasn’t going to appear again, she absolutely could not return to that deadly place.

Unsure of what to do, Baeksa blinked rapidly before finally mustering the courage to look up at the maid.

“Umm… excuse me…”

The child’s voice trembled pitifully.

“You said… the Patriarch brought me here… right?”

The maid nodded encouragingly.

“Yes, that’s correct.”

“Then… um, is it possible for me to meet the Patriarch?”

By the time she finished her sentence, Baeksa’s voice was shaking uncontrollably. Her tiny hands gripped the cotton blanket with desperate strength.

Baeksa planned to meet the master of this estate and beg him to let her stay. She knew it was an incredibly shameless and brazen request. He might fly into a fiery rage, screaming that he severely regretted ever showing her such kindness.

However.

If not here, I have nowhere else to go.

Baeksa only had two choices left in this world. Either she managed to stay here, or she would be thrown back out into that cursed land.

It felt as if the piercing, agonizing chill of that frozen snowfield was still lodged deep within her bones. If she were thrown back to a place where even her tears froze solid before they could fall, she would undoubtedly die this time.

Baeksa recalled the man’s striking crimson eyes she had seen right before she lost consciousness. In that fleeting moment, the young girl had desperately thought that this man might let her live just a little bit longer.

Because those eyes, though as intensely hot as a burning fire, looked so incredibly kind. And for some strange, inexplicable reason, they stirred a deeply nostalgic ache in her heart.

That feeling hadn’t changed even now, which was why Baeksa desperately wanted to meet the Patriarch of the Vermilion Bird Clan once more.

Of course, if I meet him, I must tell him the absolute truth about everything.

From her terrifying, gluttonous ability, all the way down to the cursed circumstances of her birth. She couldn’t possibly lie to the savior who had pulled her from the brink of death.

But the moment she made that resolve, a sharp, stabbing pain pierced her small chest. Because she couldn’t shake the terrifying thought that if she revealed everything, absolutely no one would welcome her.

Flinch. Baeksa’s fingertips trembled faintly.

After silently watching Baeksa for a moment, the maid broke into a bright, comforting smile.

“Of course, My Lady. I was actually just on my way to inform the Master that you had awakened.”

Leaning down slightly toward Baeksa, she whispered in a warm, conspiratorial tone.

“I will go and let the Master know right away, so please rest comfortably until then.”

“T-Thank you.”

“Don’t mention it. And by the way, my name is Sirang.”

Her voice was as clear and beautiful as a bell.

“While you are staying in this estate, My Lady, I will do absolutely everything in my power to ensure you lack nothing.”

She was entirely different from the palace servants in the Haeseo Empire, who always scowled deeply the second they laid eyes on Baeksa.

Because of that profound difference, without even realizing it, Baeksa mirrored her soft smile. Though her face was still incredibly tense, it was the very first genuine smile she had managed to form since leaving the Imperial Palace.

In the corridor leading to his private chambers, Joo Jeok-seo was staring blankly at a particular painting.

Lining the hallway of his private quarters were several long, masterfully crafted paintings. The one he was looking at depicted two young Vermilion Birds playing happily together. Because the artist had used a special, brilliantly luminous red pigment, the painting seemed to glow like a living flame even in the dead of night.

However, what Joo Jeok-seo was staring at was not the majestic Vermilion Bird with striking crimson feathers. His gaze was fixed entirely on the bird painted next to it—a smaller, yet stunningly detailed White Vermilion Bird.

Standing silently, staring intently at the painting, Joo Jeok-seo lightly traced the pristine white feathers of the White Vermilion Bird with his fingertips.

All he could feel beneath his touch was the rough, dry texture of old paper. A foolish part of him had momentarily hoped he might feel the soft, comforting sensation of the feathers from his memories from long ago, but as expected, it was impossible.

Knowing exactly how pathetic he looked, he dropped his hand with a deeply bitter expression.

A beautifully radiant White Vermilion Bird, completely covered in pure white feathers. Born twenty-seven years ago alongside a dire prophecy declaring she would extinguish the flames of the Vermilion Bird Clan. The one and only young lady of the South.

And the living omen of disaster for the Vermilion Bird Clan—Joo Jeok-seo’s beloved younger sister.

She had vanished without a single trace exactly ten years ago. Right before the clan’s sacred coming-of-age ceremony, she had completely disappeared, not leaving behind so much as a single letter, as if she had never existed in the first place.

Countless days had passed since then. Flowers bloomed and withered over and over, yet Joo Jeok-seo had never once seen his sister’s face again.

Was she even alive? Was she living well?

To find his sister, he had scoured not only the Southern Lands but the entirety of the Haeseo Empire. Because the Vermilion Bird Clan was strictly forbidden from crossing the southern border, he had even swallowed his immense pride and desperately requested aid from the White Tiger and Azure Dragon Clans to find her.

Because she was not the type of child to simply disappear without a reason. She was not the kind of girl to suddenly run away without even saying a proper goodbye to him. Joo Jeok-seo firmly believed that something terrible must have happened to his sister.

‘Brother, look at this! I can finally use my ability!’ ‘I can’t make Warming Stones with my feathers like you, but I’m so incredibly happy I can decorate your clothes beautifully instead.’

But ten years. In a long, agonizing ten years, let alone finding his sister, he hadn’t managed to find a single one of her white feathers.

If she had truly left because she utterly despised the Southern Lands, he wished she would have at least sent word that she was living happily somewhere. Not hearing a single whisper of news had burned Joo Jeok-seo’s heart to ash.

Perhaps that was exactly why.

‘Please… save me.’

Why he couldn’t push away or ignore the tiny child desperately reaching out and begging for her life.

It was the white hair.

In the Empire, the color white was highly revered as a symbol of profound blessing and luck, but if that white belonged to a snake, the reality was entirely different.

Snake beastmen are fundamentally treated as a symbol of absolute misfortune.

Judging by the horrifying fact that she had been thrown away all alone in a freezing snowfield, it was painfully obvious what kind of miserable treatment that baby snake had endured before ending up here.

“…”

He recalled the exact moment he first discovered the tiny snake in the snow.

In truth, at that exact moment, Joo Jeok-seo had been completely overwhelmed by the bizarre delusion that he had somehow found his younger sister as a small child.

The overwhelming sensation that his sister, who had vanished ten years ago, had somehow regressed to a child and was lying collapsed in that freezing snow.

Of course, that was nothing more than a desperate delusion born of a broken heart. He knew better than anyone that such a thing was utterly impossible.

But still…

Why on earth did the image of his beloved sister perfectly overlap with that tiny baby snake in that moment?

Was it truly just because their hair color was similar? Or was he finally going insane from the agonizing desire to see his sister again?

Just then, he heard the soft sound of approaching footsteps from the end of the hall.

“Master, I have something to report.”

A maid spoke from outside the corridor in a clear, bright voice.

“It is regarding the young snake lady you brought in last night.”

Only then did Joo Jeok-seo finally tear his lingering gaze away from the painting of the White Vermilion Bird hanging on the wall.