At that moment, Jeok Hwa-yu unconsciously paused and looked at Soya.
“Oppa”…
He had always thought it was an absurd title for a child who had deceived their family.
And yet… for some reason, the word stirred something strange inside him.
“I have somewhere to go for a moment, so wait here for me.”
Hiding his thoughts, Hwa-yu forced an awkward smile.
And then—
“What happened to that child?”
“She’s dead.”
Suddenly, a scene flashed before Soya’s eyes—Hwa-yu speaking with a man dressed in a black mask.
She flinched.
‘What… was that…?’
The image scattered and vanished in an instant, like a dream.
A cold bead of sweat rolled down her forehead.
She must have imagined it.
“Soya?”
Hwa-yu called out to the dazed girl.
Soya snapped back to her senses and looked at him.
“I’ll be back shortly, so if you wait here—”
For some reason, he looked nervous.
As if he feared she might refuse.
‘It’s a lie.’
Instinctively, Soya knew.
That his words were a lie.
That once he left, he would never return.
That this very moment was when she was being abandoned.
And yet, even knowing that—
“Yes, Young Master.”
Clutching the bead bracelet he had gifted her tightly in her hands, Soya smiled softly and nodded.
Only then did Hwa-yu finally look relieved as he turned away.
Soya remained standing there, watching his retreating back for a long time.
The fresh smile lingering on her face slowly faded.
Eventually, the sun set and night fell.
The festival ended, and the bustling streets gradually emptied until Soya was left alone.
Her oppa never came back.
And he never would.
Even so, she stayed in the same place, fiddling with the bead bracelet as she waited.
Even though she knew he would never return.
Because she wanted to hold onto the feeling of waiting for him.
‘Still… I was happy.’
Soya truly meant it.
She was a wicked little bird who had deceived and hurt her family.
And yet, instead of beating her or throwing her out, they had taken her in until she turned nine.
To someone like her, today’s brief outing had been an extravagant gift.
It felt like receiving the most precious treasure in the world.
So she mustn’t resent them.
Even if they had… abandoned her.
A slight fever crept over her, and her throat stung painfully.
Her body also felt sluggish.
Soya knew exactly what these symptoms meant.
She had eaten peach.
When she was very young, she had fallen ill from it several times. And after her status was overturned, the maids who knew she couldn’t eat peaches would sometimes deliberately feed them to her just to torment her.
Still, after suffering for a few hours, she would recover.
Just like always.
More than that, what worried her now was what she should do next.
She had nowhere to go. Nothing to her name—
“Run!”
Suddenly, a desperate voice rang out inside her head.
‘What was that?’
The moment Soya abruptly turned her head—
Swoosh!
A short dagger sliced through the air past her hair.
Several strands of her snow-white hair fluttered to the ground.
“……!”
Soya’s eyes widened roundly.
If she hadn’t turned her head just now, it wouldn’t have been her hair lying there—
it would have been her neck.
A horrifying chill crawled over her skin.
Frozen by the murderous intent she suddenly sensed, Soya stiffened and looked toward the bushes where the dagger had come from.
A man dressed in black stood there, his face hidden behind a mask.
Their eyes met.
She flinched.
Suddenly, the scene she had glimpsed earlier that day resurfaced in her mind.
Hwa-yu speaking with the black-masked man.
“What happened to that child?”
“She’s dead.”
Her heart dropped coldly.
‘It wasn’t a hallucination. Maybe… that scene showed the future.’
Only now did Soya understand who “that child” in the conversation referred to.
It was her.
Soya herself.
When they said they would “get rid” of her for Miss Lili’s sake, she had thought they merely meant driving her out of the family.
She thought they would send her somewhere far away where Miss Lili would never see her again.
But no.
‘Oppa… is trying to… kill me…’
Her eyes trembled violently.
She wanted to deny it, but she couldn’t.
‘He intends to kill me.’
Her legs shook uncontrollably.
Despite the summer heat, chills spread through her body.
‘I have to run… I need to run…’
But because she had eaten peach, her body had become sluggish and unresponsive, as though frozen stiff.
The killing intent drew closer and closer.
“You can’t just stand there! Hurry and run, Soya!”
At that moment, the voice rang out in her head again.
There was no time to question what the voice was or what those visions meant.
Soya immediately turned and ran in the opposite direction from where the dagger had come from.
At the same time, she heard the footsteps of a grown man chasing after her.
Tap, tap, tap, tap.
Her body shivered weakly, her legs threatening to give out beneath her, but she kept running.
And then—
“Ah!”
She tripped over a stone and fell.
Crash—
The bead bracelet in her hand snapped apart, colorful beads scattering across the ground.
At the same time, the small pouch hidden inside her jeogori slipped free and dropped.
“Ah…!”
And right then—
“You little rat of a girl.”
A large shadow loomed over Soya’s head.
Stiffly, she lifted her gaze.
The masked man stood before her.
He raised his sword toward Soya.
‘No… I’m going to die.’
Perhaps from the beginning, it had been impossible for a tiny little girl to escape from an adult man.
Soya tightly shut her eyes as she sensed death approaching.
And at that very moment—
Slash!
Clang!
With a sharp sound, the assassin’s sword was knocked far away.
Slowly, Soya opened her eyes.
The first thing she saw was the broad, sturdy back of a grown man.
‘Father…?’
No.
It wasn’t her father.
A tall man, nearly as imposing as him, stood before her with long white hair flowing all the way to his waist.
On the silk mantle draped over his shoulders was embroidered a fierce beast with white fur and blue eyes, alongside a blue insignia.
Soya recognized that symbol immediately.
The Divine Beast that protected the West and ruled over the land.
The sovereign of all beasts, possessing fangs and claws stronger than steel and physical abilities beyond the limits of ordinary beastfolk.
‘The White Tiger of the West…’
The very lord of the Baek Clan, whom she had only ever heard about in stories, now stood before her, elegantly wielding his sword.
Baek Sa-eon, lord of the White Tiger Clan and ruler of the West, had stepped onto the southern lands under the Crown Prince’s command.
“Go to the southern lands, the territory of the Vermilion Bird.
And steal the most precious thing there.”
It had been a sudden and cryptic order, but he could not refuse.
Because—
“If you do, Baek Sa-eon, I shall give you the Dragonblood Herb you have searched for so desperately.”
The prince had seen straight through what he needed most.
So this was not truly an order, but a transaction.
Still, he had never imagined he would end up stealing something from those bird-brained Vermilion Bird bastards.
Then he sensed foul killing intent nearby and moved instinctively.
His blade cut through the air gracefully, carrying not even the slightest mercy.
Slash!
The white sword sliced deeply across the assassin clad in black.
With cold eyes, Sa-eon looked down at the fallen assassin.
As the man lay on the verge of death, Sa-eon flicked the tip of his sword elegantly.
The black mask covering the assassin’s face split apart and fell away.
Beneath it, a tattoo stretching from cheek to neck was revealed—a three-legged crow.
The emblem of the Vermilion Bird Clan’s warrior organization, the Samjogo.
Sa-eon frowned slightly as he stared at it.
And then—
he sensed something trembling beside him.
Whip—
The moment he turned his head, his gaze met something small and white.
“……?”
A little girl, pale-faced and trembling all over, yet somehow wearing an expression far too calm for her age.
“What is this?”
A tiny white girl who looked like a fluffy cotton ball.
