Home/The very suspicious chick of the Blue Dragon clan/ch 33

Chapter 33

That same day, at Hwa Gyeom's residence.

The vast mansion where the imperial court's power broker lived had over a dozen rooms, all meaninglessly empty.

Late at night, when even the hired hands—who bustled about as if to prove their master's influence—had all fallen asleep, hushed voices came from the master's inner quarters.

"The matter is handled."

At the end of the whispered words, a strange answer mixed with metallic scraping and nasal tones replied.

"Hmm, fresh death is not bad for replenishing vital energy."

Hwa Gyeom spoke in a low, thoughtful murmur.

"It's problematic if palace attendants change too frequently. We don't have that many prepared personnel."

"Keeek, what exactly are you good for! With just a mere nanny and a maid…!"

Just as Hwa Gyeom was about to answer, a presence was felt outside the door.

"M—Master…?"

It seemed a servant, perhaps returning from the latrine, had overheard the voices.

The conversation in the room fell abruptly silent.

The shadow outside the door hesitated, then drew a little closer.

"Master, are you alright?"

Hwa Gyeom quickly lay down on his bedding. Then, deliberately breathing heavily, he reached out and slid the door open with a clatter.

"…What is it?"

"D-did this humble one wake you while you were sleeping? I—I apologize, Master."

"Ah. I must have been talking in my sleep, was I?"

The servant faltered and replied.

"Y-you must have been very tired. S-shall I fetch you another cup of water?"

Hwa Gyeom shook his head weakly.

"No. I shall try to go back to sleep."

The servant closed the door to the inner quarters with an apologetic expression and withdrew.

He cast furtive glances into every corner, but there was only the master in the room.

He could have sworn he'd heard voices conversing…

What kind of sleep-talking is so clearly articulated? How unsettling.

Though uneasy, the servant had no choice but to withdraw.

His master was already fearsome as a tiger in his authority.

After losing his pregnant wife and unborn child five years ago, Academician Hwa had become even more sharp and thorny.

The servant had come to check if anything was amiss in the dead of night, but also feared being scolded for disturbing his master.

He'd woken him for nothing, yet was let off this easily—he was lucky.

With that thought, the servant quickly distanced himself from the inner quarters.

---

Five years earlier, when Hwa Gyeom had been a scholar of the Royal Library.

His young and beautiful wife, who had just conceived a child, had been violated by Kim Gye-chang, then the Grand Academician and Hwa Gyeom's superior.

His wife left a single suicide note and hanged herself from a tree.

But Kim Gye-chang was the Grand Academician of the Royal Library, the emperor's teacher, and the most trusted subject of the imperial court.

When Hwa Gyeom went to confront Kim Gye-chang with his wife's suicide note, he was treated like a deranged liar.

He lost even the physical evidence—the suicide note—and soon faced losing his wife, his child, and even his position.

Just then, as Hwa Gyeom burned with rage, a hallucinatory voice whispered in his ear.

—Don't you want to burn this whole world to ashes? Don't you want to avenge your child, who was strangled to death before even seeing the light?

At first, he thought it was just the voice of his own heart.

If he could, he wanted to rush to Kim Gye-chang's house right then, strangle him to death, and set that vast mansion ablaze.

But the voice whispered again.

—If you and I join forces, there will be nothing to fear in this world. Even the emperor, above all others, will not dare treat you lightly.

"Wh—who are you!"

Hwa Gyeom truly shouted into the void, gesturing wildly as if he'd gone mad.

Then, from the darkness between the broken roof tiles, something formless squirmed out.

He rubbed his eyes at the unbelievable sight, but a mass as thick as ground ink was pooling and approaching him.

—I am the one who will fulfill your wishes. If you accept me, there will be no desire unattainable in this land.

Hwa Gyeom happened to be standing beneath the very tree where his wife had hanged herself.

His wife's feet, dangling in their socks, were vivid in his memory.

When he'd rushed out after reading the suicide note, his wife had still been hanging from the tree, barely breathing.

"Dear…!"

Startled, Hwa Gyeom hesitated, reaching out to take her down.

If he saved her, what then?

Should he live a servile life as a cripple who had lost his wife to violation?

None of this misfortune was his fault…!

"Hu—husband…, kkh…"

Hwa Gyeom pretended not to hear his wife's final call.

Because the intangible thing called pride felt heavier than his wife hanging from the tree.

The voice, as if reading Hwa Gyeom's inner thoughts, said.

—Accept me. You must avenge your unjustly deceased wife and child…!

The scraping voice echoed in his ears.

Hwa Gyeom swallowed dryly as he looked at the hideous mass crawling toward his feet.

Yes, if only he could drag that vermin Kim Gye-chang to hell with him…!

If he could set this rotten world ablaze!

Hwa Gyeom squeezed his eyes shut.

A chilling yet sticky, utterly repulsive sensation crept from his toes, engulfing his entire body.

It was agonizing, like having a wet cloth stuffed down his throat.

"Urgh, ugh…!"

Unable to bear the evil energy crawling over his body, Hwa Gyeom eventually lost consciousness.

When he woke the next morning, his vision had momentarily gone dark, but it soon cleared.

Once his sight returned, his body felt full of energy—as if he could accomplish anything.

From that very day, his wishes began to come true, one by one.

The beast-like Grand Academician's household was charged with the great crime of treason, and Kim Gye-chang fell from grace, living in a state worse than death before finally perishing.

His sister was chosen as empress over all the formidable candidates, and Hwa Gyeom himself rose to become the youngest Academician of the Royal Library.

As the young, clever brother of the favored empress, he even secured the position of the emperor's strategist—a post traditionally held by the Grand Academician.

Even after moving to a mansion like a palace and commanding over a hundred servants, people did not point fingers at him—they bowed their heads and offered gifts.

Hwa Gyeom no longer wanted to burn the world. Why would he, when the whole world lay at his feet?

By then, the voice's influence had grown stronger.

The voice that had once only resounded in his head now spoke through Hwa Gyeom's own mouth.

Around that time, the empress became pregnant.

The voice revealed its greed—it wanted the dragon in the womb.

To Hwa Gyeom, already addicted to wealth and power, that desire was all the more tempting.

If both the voice and the unborn crown prince were on his side, nothing could be better.

A yellow dragon, no less.

A yellow dragon that, once grown and ascended to the throne, could command the divine beast palaces with the Word of Authority.

But the empress, gentle by nature, showed no opening.

Even when the voice manifested itself, she dismissed it as a mere nightmare.

Hwa Gyeom devised a scheme and requested an Anryeongje ritual for the emperor.

When the empress attended the ritual under the pretense of protecting the fetal spirit, the voice used her soul as a conduit to penetrate the womb directly.

"Keeeee…!"

Later, when the newborn crown prince cried out like a beast, Hwa Gyeom realized the scheme had succeeded and rejoiced inwardly.

Though the empress's body, forcibly invaded, grew weaker by the day, Hwa Gyeom's joy did not fade.

Hadn't his sister, thanks to having a good brother, risen to the highest position among all women in the empire?

Her short life could be considered quite beautiful and fulfilling.

If she were to bear another son, the crown prince's hard-won position might be endangered.

The empress slowly withered away.

It was not uncommon for a woman who had given birth to die of childbed fever, so no one found it strange—not even the emperor.

Once the voice took over the crown prince's body and began to spread its influence, Hwa Gyeom grew freer.

It was an unexpected stroke of luck for Hwa Gyeom.

He used the crown prince, and the voice used him.

And so their twisted symbiosis began.

Entirely against the will of the infant crown prince.

---

Time passed, on a clear autumn day.

Aran sat neatly at her desk with her small body, now perfectly adapted.

It was her morning training session, repeated every day for the past three months.

She was trying to recover the Vermilion Bird ability—Illusion.

Having regained her human form, it was time to recover her ability.

She quietly surrendered her body to the sunlight seeping through the paper window.

Closing her eyes and beginning to breathe slowly, a faint flame flickered within her dark eyelids.

It had taken two months just to see that flame again.

She evened her breath, and evened it again.

Focusing on the inner flame until her own existence seemed to vanish entirely…

Whoosh—!

Suddenly, a white, massive flame began to spread, and Aran felt her heart pound as she opened her eyelids.

Could it be—success…?

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