The child’s pale face looked as though she might collapse at any moment, and Sa-eon’s expression hardened.
“Hey, Cotton Ball. Are you okay?”
At the sound of his voice directed at her once again, Soya snapped back to her senses and lifted her head.
The unfamiliar man who had saved her from the assassin stood before her.
He was tall and strikingly handsome, but there was something cold and intimidating about him.
He was the complete opposite of her father, who had always worn a gentle smile.
“Ah…”
A faint sigh escaped Soya’s lips.
For a brief moment, when he had stepped in front of the assassin to protect her, she had mistaken his back for her father’s.
Because only her father had ever seemed that large and dependable.
What a foolish thought.
Her father’s back no longer protected her.
Soya remembered the sight of her father turning away from her and walking toward Miss Lili instead.
That warm, sturdy back that had once always protected her now left behind only cold loneliness.
Swallowing her sadness, Soya spoke.
“I’m not Cotton Ball. I’m…”
She hesitated for a moment.
A long time ago, she used to introduce herself as Jeok Soya of the Vermilion Bird Clan.
But now, she could no longer do that.
“…I’m Soya.”
“Even your name sounds like a cotton ball.”
Baek Sa-eon let out a snort of amusement as he looked at Soya’s tiny frame and round features.
But the smile on his face quickly faded.
‘Was this child the target of the Vermilion Bird Clan’s assassin?’
His eyes narrowed as he studied her.
To send an assassin after such a small little girl.
And not just any assassin, but a member of the Samjogo, the Vermilion Bird Clan’s elite warrior corps.
Behind such despicable methods was a clear determination to eliminate the child at all costs.
With a more serious expression, Sa-eon asked,
“What kind of grudge did you earn from those birdbrains of the South?”
“Bird… brains?”
“Yeah.”
Pointing toward the fallen assassin, Sa-eon explained to the blinking Soya,
“One of the Vermilion Bird bastards’ Samjogo.”
“Ah…”
She didn’t understand the random “birdbrain” remark, but she did know the Samjogo.
They were warriors from the Black Crow Clan who had served the direct bloodline of the Vermilion Bird for generations.
And they only moved under orders from members of the direct line.
Sadness filled Soya’s face, and large tears began gathering in her eyes.
“Then… I really almost died, didn’t I? By the… people of the Vermilion Bird Clan…”
It sounded less like a question and more like someone confirming something they already knew.
“If I hadn’t been here, probably.”
Sa-eon answered bluntly.
And then—
Drip.
A tear fell.
Drip. Drip. Drip.
The tears that had gathered at the corners of her eyes suddenly began pouring down like rain.
Sa-eon paused and looked down at the child.
Even old men feared death, so it wasn’t strange for a child to cry like this.
But this tiny little girl hadn’t cried when she had actually been facing death.
She only started crying after learning that the people who sent the assassin were from the Vermilion Bird Clan.
She tried desperately not to make a sound, silently shedding large tears instead.
It was pitiful enough to keep bothering him.
Even though he wasn’t normally the kind of person affected by other people’s tears.
“Hic… sniff…”
“……”
Sa-eon wasn’t good at comforting children.
His sons rarely cried.
Even when they were very young, they only cried when they were hungry or throwing a tantrum over food.
So dealing with a crying child felt unfamiliar to him.
Still, after silently watching her trembling shoulders for a while, he awkwardly reached out.
His rough hand carefully patted the child’s delicate shoulder.
Though she kept trying to hold back her sobs, her trembling only grew worse.
Sa-eon stayed quietly beside her until her crying finally subsided.
Then, in a gruff but gentle voice, he said,
“It’s too late at night for a little cotton ball like you to be wandering around alone. I’ll take you back to your family.”
Soya wiped at her eyes with the back of her hand and shook her head.
“It’s okay.”
“A runaway cotton ball? If you do that, your family will wor—”
“I don’t have one.”
Soya answered calmly.
“I don’t have a family.”
“……”
Sa-eon fell silent.
He stared quietly at Soya as she struggled to swallow her tears.
‘She’s definitely connected to the Vermilion Bird Clan…’
The prince’s mysterious order resurfaced in his mind.
Bring back the most precious thing in the Vermilion Bird lands.
‘The most precious thing…’
Originally, he had intended to steal the Vermilion Bird Clan’s treasured bow, passed down through the Jeok family heads for generations.
But suddenly, he changed his mind.
Maybe it was nothing more than a whim.
Clink—
Soya’s body suddenly lifted into the air.
Her eyes widened in shock.
With her reddened eyes and white appearance, she looked exactly like a rabbit.
“Then.”
Meeting Soya’s gaze, Baek Sa-eon grinned.
“I guess I’ll steal you instead, Cotton Ball.”
“W-What…?”
Soya was so startled her tears immediately stopped.
Steal her?
Wasn’t “stealing” something you did to something precious?
But she wasn’t precious at all.
She was a sinner with no value.
“Why… me?”
“Out of everything I’ve seen in the South, I like you the best.”
Sa-eon answered in a casual but gentle tone.
He was curious why the Vermilion Bird Clan had targeted such a small child.
And the girl clearly had nowhere to go.
More than anything, he couldn’t stop thinking about her.
So he decided he might as well steal her.
Honestly, she seemed more valuable than some boring old treasure bow.
“There really isn’t anyone waiting for you?”
He looked deeply into Soya’s eyes as he asked.
“…No.”
Soya nodded sadly.
There had once been people she loved and considered family.
But they had tried to kill her.
That could never be called family.
Truthfully, she had stopped being their family long ago, yet she had foolishly clung to them all by herself.
But now, it was finally time to let go.
“I really don’t have a family anymore.”
Seeing the truth in her answer, Sa-eon grinned again as if confirming it one last time.
“Then will you let me steal you?”
“……”
At his question, Soya’s throat tightened painfully.
Soya was okay.
She was always okay.
It hurt that she could no longer be her father’s daughter.
It hurt when her oppa looked at her with disgust.
The servants’ sharp whispers, watching Miss Lili receive everyone’s love while she stood alone in silence—
she had endured all of it.
But…
‘I don’t want to die.’
She wasn’t okay with dying.
‘Dying is too scary… and too sad.’
Maybe it was shameless for a sinner like her—someone who had hurt and deceived her family—to think such things.
But even so, Soya did not want to die.
She glanced at Baek Sa-eon.
A man as large and strong as her father.
‘If I go with this person, I can leave the Vermilion Bird lands.’
His face was a little scary, and his way of speaking was rough.
And suddenly declaring he would “steal” her was definitely strange.
But—
‘If I go with this person… I can live.’
Soya nodded toward him.
“Yes. Please take me with you.”
“Good.”
Sa-eon grinned as he brushed away the tears around Soya’s swollen red eyes with his fingertips.
“You made the right choice, Cotton Ball. I am Baek Sa-eon, Lord of the West.”
“Yes, Lord Sa-eon. I’m Soya. I’m nine years old.”
As Sa-eon introduced himself, Soya introduced herself once more.
“Yeah, Cotton Ball.”
It didn’t seem to have much effect.
“Since this is happening with mutual consent, don’t go reporting me later.”
“R-Report…?”
“Yeah. About me stealing you.”
Nodding solemnly, Sa-eon continued,
“It’d be troublesome if rumors spread that I sneaked into the Southern birdbrains’ territory like some thief cat and stole something.”
“I-I would never report you!”
Soya answered hurriedly.
Even if someone took away a useless child like her, nobody would care.
Still, worried that he might reconsider taking her, she quickly added,
“And n-no one would care anyway. They might even be happy if I disappeared…”
As Soya rambled on, she suddenly felt her throat tighten painfully.
“Cotton Ball?”
Noticing her face suddenly looking strange, Sa-eon called out to her.
And then—
Thunk.
Soya’s head drooped forward.
“Cotton Ball, why are you—”
Instinctively reaching toward her face, Sa-eon froze in shock.
“……!”
Her body was burning hot.
