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Chapter 6
Seo-yu clamped a hand over her mouth.
If she cried out for help now, the foragers nearby would surely alert the siblings — and once that happened, she’d be interrogated about the Seolrinhwa.
Thankfully, the herb gatherers didn’t notice her presence.
“What noise? Probably just a squirrel or something. The sun’s setting soon, stop jumping at shadows and find that ‘Seolrinhwa’ already.”
“Got it.”
Their voices faded into the distance.
Only then did Seo-yu, wincing from the pain in her leg, drag herself further up the mountain. She couldn’t go back to the village — not where those siblings waited.
‘Where should I go…?’
Her injured leg throbbed. Her chest felt tight. Everything felt hopeless.
Though she had learned early to endure without comfort — with no adult ever soothing her when she failed — Seo-yu was still just a child.
She had no idea what to do now.
But one thing was certain.
“I can’t give them the Seolrinhwa.”
Cradling the small pouch close to her chest, Seo-yu lifted her gaze toward the ridge ahead.
‘…Could I go to the Kirin Clan myself?’
She didn’t dare dream of reaching the Heavenly Medicinal Forest (Cheon-uirim), but if she brought the flower to the clan, maybe… just maybe they would let her study at the Medical Academy.
‘If I disappear, everyone will be happier anyway…’
There was no one who would mourn her.
“I’ll leave. I have to.”
Resolute, Seo-yu began to climb again.
To reach the far east where the Kirin Clan resided, she would first need to cross Mount Baegok.
She pressed on.
By the time a bluish dusk spread over the mountain, her body had reached its limit.
‘Ugh… my knee hurts too much…’
The pain gnawed at her, relentless. She wanted to give up, to sink into the snow and never move again — but she had no home left to return to.
She limped onward, forcing one step after another, leaving small red droplets of blood across the white snow.
Then, near the mountain’s edge, something familiar caught her eye.
‘Burnet!’
The red, brush-like flowers of Burnet weed were used to stop bleeding — crush and apply it, and the wound would close almost instantly.
It was common in the highlands, but impossible to find beneath Baegok’s heavy snow. Yet there it was, sprouting near the cliffside.
Summoning her remaining strength, Seo-yu approached. The roots were buried under the snow, but unmistakably, it was burnet.
She brushed away the snow carefully and reached out to pull it free when—
“What are you doing there?”
“I… I’m bleeding. I just wanted to stop the blood with this burnet…”
She froze the moment she realized she’d answered without thinking.
Whoosh—
The cold wind carried an unfamiliar scent.
Then, above her, a vast shadow loomed — shaped like horns. Immense horns.
They cast a dark, threatening silhouette over her trembling body.
“I told you to return by sundown. Can’t even tell time now?”
It was Nok Su-jeong.
How had she found her here? The young noblewoman glared with eyes colder than the winter air itself.
Seo-yu’s face drained of color.
“M-My Lady… how did you…?”
“This mountain belongs to our family. Do you think there’s anywhere I can’t go?”
Su-jeong gave a mocking snort, stepping closer.
“So, I’ll ask again — what exactly are you doing?”
Seo-yu scrambled to her feet and instinctively stepped back.
Su-jeong’s sharp eyes flicked toward the pouch tied at Seo-yu’s waist.
“That pouch looks heavy.”
Seo-yu clutched it tightly.
“Give it here,” Su-jeong ordered, voice icy.
“This… this is mine.”
“What?”
A laugh burst from Su-jeong — high and mocking — before it dropped into a sneer.
“And what in this world belongs to you?”
Seo-yu’s lips quivered, but no sound came.
“You heard something, didn’t you?” Su-jeong’s tone was laced with certainty.
“What were you planning to do with it? March to the Kirin Clan yourself?”
“…!”
Seo-yu flinched, trembling. Seeing that, Su-jeong’s lips curled upward.
“Do you really think the Kirin Lord would honor you for it? That your life would miraculously change?”
Seo-yu’s silence was answer enough.
“So naive,” Su-jeong clicked her tongue.
“You’ll be branded a thief — the one who stole the flower I found. Tell me, would the Kirin Lord accept a stolen gift?”
“I-I’m not a thief! I found the Seolrinhwa myself!”
“And how would you prove that? Who would ever believe you?”
Seo-yu’s voice faltered.
Su-jeong was right. There was no one who would believe her. No proof, no witness, no defense.
“Now hand it over.”
Su-jeong reached for the pouch. Seo-yu trembled but hid it behind her back.
“You ungrateful wretch,” Su-jeong hissed. “Our parents took you in, and this is how you repay them?”
Her eyes turned feral.
Step by step, she advanced. Seo-yu retreated, step by trembling step — until her heel met empty air.
The cliff.
Even then, she didn’t let go of the pouch.
“You stubborn girl!”
Su-jeong bit her lip, frustration flickering across her face before she took a step back.
“Fine! Just come here first. If you fall, that herb will be crushed to dust!”
She extended her hand toward Seo-yu.
Seo-yu’s eyes widened. It was the last thing she expected. Still, she couldn’t bring herself to take that hand.
Su-jeong’s patience snapped.
“Do you have a death wish?! You want people to call me the sister who killed her own blood?!”
Seo-yu hesitated — just a heartbeat — and that was all it took.
Su-jeong grabbed her wrist.
For a brief, fragile moment, relief flooded Seo-yu’s chest.
“I was so scared…”
But before she could even breathe—
Thud—
‘Huh?’
Her body lurched forward. The ground vanished beneath her feet.
And her hands — empty.
Su-jeong now held the pouch.
“See? I told you to listen.”
Her voice, cold as frost, was the last thing Seo-yu heard before she fell.
Whhhhhhh—
The howling wind swallowed everything as she plummeted into the abyss of Mount Baegok.
‘So… this is how I die.’
Perhaps from the blood loss, her body no longer had the strength to scream.
“I just wanted to live well…”
A single tear slipped from her eyes and vanished into the air.
There was no one to mourn her. No one who would find her. The cliff would be her grave.
She closed her eyes.
‘…Kamang?’
For a split second, she thought she saw her little black squirrel darting along the edge.
‘That can’t be…’
Still, she was strangely comforted that her final hallucination was of that small friend.
Then—
Fwoosh!
Instead of pain, something soft enveloped her. Like clouds. Warm. Gentle.
‘It feels… fluffy…’
When she dared to open her eyes, golden light flooded her vision.
“The sky…?”
A pair of enormous golden wings stretched across the horizon, catching the dying sun and scattering it in brilliant radiance.
They moved with a grace so divine it took her breath away. It took her another heartbeat to realize—
She was flying.
No — she was being carried.
‘Who…?’
Her gaze lifted, and she saw them: twin horns gleaming like polished amber, a mane like a lion’s rippling in the wind, scales of purest gold.
Wings. Horns. Mane. Scales.
There was only one creature in all the realms that possessed all four.
“No way…”
The King of all scaled beasts.
Sovereign of the East, who ruled over the land that bore life and the waters that sustained it.
The mightiest among the living dragons of this age.
“A… a Yellow Dragon?”
The last descendant of the Royal Dragon Line — the Hwangryong himself — was carrying Seo-yu upon his back.
