Home/The very suspicious chick of the Blue Dragon clan/ch 18

Chapter 18

Hwi casually transferred Aran into Su-ryeon's hands and stroked her round head with his fingertip.

"I'll see you at the palace later, little one."

"Pi? Pipit?!"

(Wait, excuse me? Older brother! Hey, Cheong Hwi!)

Hwi snickered, pretending not to hear, as servants rushed over with horses.

Before mounting, Su-ryeon carefully placed Aran on his shoulder.

"Then… you need to behave, okay? I'll go slow."

---

He said he'd go slow.

Su-ryeon, with Aran perched on his thigh, didn't even urge the horse into a trot.

Thanks to that, even the Blue Dragon Guard members walking ahead with lanterns moved at a leisurely pace.

Aran didn't know what to do with herself on the horse moving at a pace no faster than a person walking.

"Pii…"

(Hey, Cheong Su-ryeon… I think you're pushing yourself too hard when you don't even like me.)

As she awkwardly turned her head this way and that, he chuckled and asked the same question.

"Peep-peep, you don't like me, do you?"

Aran's movements halted.

Her not liking him?

Having received so much grace from the Blue Dragon Palace, how could she possibly dislike a young master of the Cheong clan?

Aran swore she didn't dislike Su-ryeon.

It was true that Su-ryeon sometimes used rude language, but in Aran's experience, that described half the people in the Blue Dragon Palace.

Rather, she understood perfectly well why Su-ryeon disliked her.

She thought Cheongun and Hwi, who had accepted her as family without reason, were far stranger than Su-ryeon.

"Peep."

(I don't dislike you.)

She shook her head late, but Su-ryeon didn't understand.

Even if he had, he probably wouldn't have believed her.

"It's only natural that you dislike me."

On the slowly swaying horseback, Su-ryeon's voice rang low.

"You never made any choice, yet I hated you first."

Aran swallowed a sigh.

Perhaps this child needed an opportunity to talk about this.

So Aran decided to stop denying and making excuses that Su-ryeon couldn't understand anyway.

Then Su-ryeon's story went back a little further in time.

"I thought Mother… was getting better. Everyone said so. Now I don't even know whether that was just hope or the truth."

Aran listened silently to the boy's words.

"It was an anxious time, so I could have postponed ability training until next year. But I was impatient. My younger siblings were going to be born—I thought I couldn't just be the brother who… the brother who was the only one useful."

Unable to bear it any longer, Aran cut in.

"…Pipi."

(…You are your brother's wings. It seems you were the only one who didn't know that's what you'd become.)

"And because of that, I was the only one who couldn't be at her deathbed…"

One hand, not holding the reins, gently grasped Aran's small body.

"I blamed you. Before you came, I was the only one I could blame. I think I felt a little relieved that I could hate you instead of myself."

By then, the horse had come to a complete stop.

Aran's heart ached at Su-ryeon's moist, sandy-colored eyes.

She knew the feeling of hating oneself.

When she was abandoned by her family, when she lost Okdan so meaninglessly, when she was betrayed by her teacher.

In all those moments of misfortune, Aran had only herself to hate.

Because if it wasn't her fault, if there was no reason for all that unhappiness, that would have been far harder to accept.

"…Cowardly, I ran away from my own fault."

Aran, having endured all that misfortune and finally forgiven herself, reaching all the way to the very gates of heaven as a Vermilion Bird immortal, comforted the child.

"Pit-pit."

(It's okay. You're just a wounded child. If I could be a place for you to rest, then that too would be one of the reasons for my existence.)

Unable to hear Aran's words, Su-ryeon continued.

"I'm glad you're safe. That way I got a chance to apologize. If something had happened to you too…"

Su-ryeon shuddered at the thought and continued.

"I would have been truly ashamed before Mother. Since I didn't follow her dying wish, even if I meet her again later, I wouldn't be forgiven."

"Peep."

(No, your mother would always forgive you.)

Because only those who have been loved know how to give love.

Aran had no doubt that the lady was like that.

"Aran, can I be a coward one last time?"

When Su-ryeon asked with tear-filled eyes, Aran knew.

She would never again see a Cheong Su-ryeon who was a coward.

Even though she hadn't nodded, Su-ryeon continued on his own.

"From now on, I'll protect you."

As expected, it was a statement not even a speck cowardly.

Aran looked up quietly, and Su-ryeon smiled faintly, even with moist eyes.

"Of course, this is so that later, when I meet Mother in the eastern sky, I can face her with pride. So you're just being used without knowing anything."

Watching the Blue Dragon chuckle as if he'd made a brilliant joke, Aran was dumbfounded.

She shook her head and said.

"Pik."

(I'm sorry too.)

"Eh?"

Unable to understand her, Su-ryeon tapped Aran's head with his fingertip.

"Is this about not wanting to be used?"

"Pii…, pipit."

(It's not that… I didn't expect you all to come looking for me. Even though you've been so good to me… it was actually me who didn't think of you as family.)

"Oh, Cheong Aran. Don't be like that."

Su-ryeon continued to answer at cross-purposes.

"Opportunities like this don't come every day. Actually, you know, this big brother is a really cool Blue Dragon who inherited the wind-and-rain ability… And my ability is…"

Was this guy always this talkative?

After Su-ryeon's self-praise, Aran eventually swallowed a laugh and nodded.

"Piik!"

(Fine, do as you like. Try protecting this great Vermilion Bird with all your might!)

Suddenly, a jealous cold wind whistled from somewhere.

Startled, Su-ryeon tucked Aran into his clothes.

"Oh, it's already cold even though it's autumn. Let's go home now, Aran."

Indeed. Why is such a bleak winter wind blowing in autumn?

Startled, Aran burrowed into his clothes, then peeked her head out and laughed inwardly.

Well, even when winter comes, I won't have to worry anymore.

Because I have a home to return to and a family waiting for me.

---

"Piip."

(Oh, it's cold.)

But as the weather grew colder, Aran was stuck staying in the palace.

Having spent her childhood in the Vermilion Bird Territory, she hadn't known—but winter was far too harsh for a young Vermilion Bird not yet accustomed to regulating its body temperature.

Even though she was still staying in the medicine wing, she could feel the wind seeping through the cracks in the door from time to time.

As Aran was dozing off in So-rim's warm embrace, Huirim arrived carrying a large wooden chest.

"What's that?"

So-rim asked without even greeting him, but Huirim answered as if used to it.

"A gift for the young miss."

Aran barely lifted her sleepy eyelids.

"Young miss, another gift has arrived from the Black Tortoise Palace."

Huirim set the wooden chest on the floor so Aran could see it well, then opened the lid.

"This one is quite precious."

"Pit?"

(What is it?)

"Ta-da!"

What he pulled out of the wooden chest was fluffy sheep's wool.

So-rim, on Aran's behalf, asked with curious eyes.

"Sheep's wool? Is this sheep's wool really that precious, brother?"

"Oh, look at this."

Huirim spread the wool out for his younger sister and Aran to see.

As he'd said, upon closer inspection, it wasn't just any sheep's wool. The edges of the white wool were black in places.

"This is black sheep's wool, a specialty of the Black Tortoise Territory."

"Black sheep's wool?"

"Yes, black sheep only live in the north, so I've never seen one either. There aren't many in the Black Tortoise Territory either—black sheep's wool is only used by the Black Tortoise clan, and occasionally presented to the royal family."

Only then did So-rim exclaim in surprise and touch the wool.

"Hic, they sent something so precious to our young miss? It's incredibly soft!"

Then Huirim chuckled and pulled a letter from the wooden chest.

"Oh, there's a letter too. I'll read it to you, young miss."

By then fully awake, Aran fluttered up and looked down at the letter Huirim unfolded.

"To the youngest of the Blue Dragon Palace. As a gift to mark your first winter, I am sending you this wool—I don't feel the cold, so I give it to you. From Taeo."

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