Home/The very suspicious chick of the Blue Dragon clan/ch 9

Chapter 9

Turning around, a pitch-black snake was poking its head out from the bushes.

Aran was about to cry out in surprise—"Piik!"—when the black snake quietly opened its mouth and dropped a leaf it had been carrying.

Then it calmly lowered itself and disappeared back into the foliage.

Aran looked down at the leaf the snake had left behind, pressing down on her fluttering heart.

Fortunately, the twins were a little distance away, and the servants didn't seem to have noticed anything unusual.

The leaf the snake had left behind.

It was a leaf full of insect holes—but the problem was…

The eaten patterns strangely formed characters.

「太澳」—Taeo.

Taeo.

Strangely, it was a name that didn't feel unfamiliar.

---

"Kkyuu?"

(Arani, what's that?)

Aran, lost in her own thoughts, was startled by Yeon's innocent question.

Yeon had come close without her noticing.

Flustered, Aran grabbed the suspicious leaf with one foot and tore it to shreds with the other claw.

Yeon flinched, shrinking his shoulders.

"Kkip!"

(Arani! Why did you suddenly do that?)

"Pipi…"

(Just a moment…)

Still uneasy, Aran even shoved the piece with the most characters into her tiny beak and swallowed it.

Considering that the twins couldn't read yet, it was a bit of an overreaction.

Yeon's expression turned strange.

"Kurung…"

(You don't mean…)

Ugh, what kind of leaf is this?

It's not poisonous, is it?

Just as Aran was writhing her tongue at the pungent, spicy taste while trying to come up with an excuse—

Yeon, who was prodigiously smart for a baby, came up with a peculiar conclusion.

"Kurorong."

(Ah, now Yeon-ie gets it. Arani is a herbivorous bird. That's why she can't eat tasty cwickets…)

"Pi?"

(What? Crickets can't possibly be tasty!)

It was an interesting hypothesis, but clearly wrong. Vermilion Birds are not herbivorous.

Besides, Aran's mind was too cluttered right now to deal with the little one.

Tearing the remaining leaf to pieces with her claws, she recalled that day.

The day she had flown over a burning world and heard the divine voice.

In fact, on that day when she had promised the god a second chance, Aran had heard one more voice in the darkness.

—In return, take care of Taeo of the Black Tortoise clan.

But she had completely forgotten about it until now.

Her consciousness had been fading, so perhaps she'd secretly hoped she'd misheard.

Back then, Aran had believed she was about to ascend.

So now the Black Tortoise god was sending snakes to deliver leaf-letters, reminding her of the promise?

Wait, hold on…

Was there a beastman named 'Taeo' in the Black Tortoise clan?

Hyeon Taeo.

In the previous life that Aran remembered, there was no such name. Like Cheong Yeon…

At that thought, Aran shuddered, worrying that those whose names she didn't remember might have died young in this life.

Not Yeon—not our sweet Yeon.

Yeon, don't worry.

I'll protect you. I'll make sure you live a hundred years.

Just then, the Black Tortoise god's voice came back to her even more vividly.

—In return, take care of Taeo of the Black Tortoise clan.

"Piik!"

(But wait, you—!)

Aran screeched in exasperation.

You sent this body back to the Eastern lands—how am I supposed to take care of Taeo in the Black Tortoise clan?

You should have sent me to the Black Tortoise Palace in the first place…

No. If she'd gone to the cold Black Tortoise Palace, Aran would have frozen to death immediately.

They were a clan famous for strict survival of the fittest—they would never have helped Aran hatch.

Taeo…

Aran pondered deeply.

Who exactly is Taeo? Has he even been born yet?

---

Around the same time, at the Northern Black Tortoise Palace.

As the clan head Hyeon Ui-cheon rose from his seat, his trusted retainer and strategist Han Si-baek asked.

"Are you going to Amcheon?"

"Yes. I can't bear the curiosity any longer."

Amcheon was the vast hatching ground located beneath the Black Tortoise Palace.

And at this moment, a great number of black snakes and turtles were gathering there.

Shhhh, shhhhh…

The sound of animals crawling over the cold ground echoed.

"We already have several sons, and given my age, I wasn't expecting much, but still…"

Black Tortoise beastmen experience exactly two breeding seasons in their lifetime.

But this year, miraculously, a third breeding season had come to the Great Lord and his wife. As if by gift, a youngest child was about to be born.

And now, on the verge of hatching, such a miracle occurred—it was only natural to be expectant.

The two men headed toward the northern garden with pleasant tension.

Past the serene garden's small pavilion and stone pagoda, a low staircase with its entrance hidden by bushes appeared.

A staircase that no one except females in their laying season was allowed to descend.

Because beneath it lay the sacred ground where hot springs boiled—Amcheon.

A hatched Black Tortoise must climb those stairs entirely by its own strength.

That was the first law of the Black Tortoise Palace.

When they finally reached the stairs, the two men stood gaping.

"…How can this be."

Han Si-baek, the Black Tortoise Palace's strategist who had been through countless trials, gasped in awe.

Countless snakes and turtles were bowing their heads toward Amcheon, where steam rose. Trembling as if waiting for someone.

Hyeon Ui-cheon gazed down the dim staircase.

Anxiously anticipating his still-young bloodline, struggling to crawl up from there.

How long had they stood there?

Slither, pat.

From afar, a sound somehow different from a Black Tortoise's footsteps began to echo.

Slither, tap.

The two men stood entranced, unable to exchange a single word.

They simply waited for that something to approach, thinking, surely not, surely not.

Tap.

A small, moist, yet resolute sound continued for a long while.

Finally, the owner of that sound came into view.

…A child.

Not a Black Tortoise, but a child.

That child was crawling up the stone stairs with bare hands, tenaciously.

"What am I witnessing right now?"

Han Si-baek asked in disbelief.

No one can go down there. The only beings that can climb those stairs are those born in Amcheon.

Then that child had already obtained human form in that deep cave, without a single morsel of food?

Hyeon Ui-cheon did not answer.

Instead, he lowered one knee to the ground and waited for his new family member to finish the arduous journey.

Then he reached out with trembling hands to the child who had climbed the final step.

"Come here, little one."

As the child looked up at him warily, Hyeon Ui-cheon's heart pounded violently.

Because one of the child's eyes was a vivid green.

"Green eyes…!"

The child had a pale, bloodless face and jet-black hair, but one eye was more brilliantly green than jade.

The pupils of direct-line Black Tortoise beastmen turn green when using their abilities.

But this child had been born with green eyes from the start.

Was it thanks to these eyes that he could already summon the animals?

The child quietly surveyed his surroundings with a pair of mismatched eyes.

"You've worked hard, my son."

Hyeon Ui-cheon said in a choked voice.

He slipped his hands under the child's arms and lifted him up—white and cold as snow.

The child, beautiful as a painting, neither cried nor blinked. He simply opened his small, red lips and uttered his first sound.

"Ah."

A faint, clumsy voice.

Before the two men, whose eyes seemed about to pop out in astonishment, something even more astonishing occurred.

As if one "Ah" had completed all practice, the child began to speak.

"I… am."

The pronunciation was slurred, but understandable.

"Taeo, ya."

Hyeon Ui-cheon wept.

Because Hyeon Taeo was the childhood name of the first Black Tortoise clan head.

Ui-cheon wrapped the naked child in his arms and quickly covered him with clothes.

"Thank you for coming to this land, Taeo-ya. I am your father."

He was honored to meet his son.

And so, they began to proclaim the birth of a new Black Tortoise loudly across the continent.

Hyeon Taeo was—

the reincarnation of a god.

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