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Chapter 3
“If you start spouting nonsense about there being no improvement, you’d better be prepared for the consequences.”
The young Emperor smiled coldly. As though tickling a woman’s waist, he lightly rattled the bead curtain.
The glass beads clinked against one another with a soft rattling sound. Yet even at that noise, the person behind the curtain did not move in the slightest.
Having finished taking the pulse of the slender wrist he held, the royal physician lowered his head with a heavy expression.
“…Your Majesty, I believe it would be best to seek another solution. Perhaps requesting assistance from the beastfolk of the south—”
At the words “beastfolk of the south,” the Emperor’s brow twitched.
Because there was only one group that description could refer to.
Anyone in Haeseo Kingdom knew that the current Emperor despised them.
Realizing he had disturbed the Emperor’s mood, the royal physician squeezed his eyes shut.
“Request assistance from the beastfolk of the south… That is a good idea.”
The Emperor rose abruptly and strode up until he was standing directly before the physician, looking down at him with a chilling expression.
“Then those fools who can’t even cure their own ailments will happily come running to treat her, is that it?”
“…My apologies.”
“Enough.”
The Emperor turned away.
Just as the royal physician let out a sigh of relief, the Emperor asked casually, as if the question had merely crossed his mind.
“What happened to that child?”
At once, a palace attendant standing quietly in one corner of the room answered.
“She remains the same as before.”
“I expected as much. And what I ordered you to prepare?”
“It is nearly complete. We should be able to depart soon.”
“Good.”
The Emperor stared at the attendant with a gaze as cold and sharp as a blade.
“Once the preparations are finished, remove it from this imperial palace.”
The eyes of a dragon, capable of killing and erasing anything he wished, flashed dangerously.
“It seems she cannot awaken while that thing remains in the palace.”
Anything ominous had to be removed.
Everything bad would be swept away, leaving only good things behind to help her wake up.
After saying that, the Emperor immediately turned and left.
Moments later, a fierce gust of wind swept in from somewhere and snuffed out the candle flames.
At the same time, the hanging bead curtain swayed gently.
“Really?”
“I’m telling you! They’ve almost finished preparing already.”
“No way. Even so, would His Majesty really be that heartless…? The blood of a dragon flows through that child.”
“Don’t you think he would? He didn’t even give the child a name!”
“But if they send the child there, won’t they die?”
“That’s the point. They’re being sent there to die. If a dragon kills their own child directly, they’ll receive divine punishment.”
The palace maids lowered their voices and whispered among themselves. Even as they talked, they remained alert in case someone overheard.
They had no choice.
If anyone heard this conversation, they could be dragged away and executed immediately.
Fortunately for them, only one listener had heard everything.
‘It must be almost finished.’
It was Baeksa, transformed into her snake form.
She was hiding behind a cluster of bushes.
If anyone discovered she had left her residence, she would undoubtedly be scolded, but she had no choice.
It seemed to be common knowledge that Baeksa would soon be leaving the imperial palace, yet no one had bothered to tell the person involved.
Quietly reflecting on the maids’ conversation, Baeksa thought sadly.
‘A dragon receives divine punishment for killing their own child…’
It was true.
As everyone knew, dragons could not kill their own offspring.
Not only that, dragons were unable to kill one another as well. They were beastfolk blessed with the power of the Heavenly God.
It was one of the restrictions imposed upon a race possessing such immense power.
But Baeksa could not understand.
Was abandoning someone to die really different from killing them directly?
‘Then divine punishment is very strange…’
With her head hanging low, Baeksa was about to return to her residence when—
“Look at this! Look at me!”
A familiar voice echoed from afar.
It was Yeoryun, another of Baeksa’s half-siblings.
Possessing a pure white Dragon Pearl, Yeoryun was a princess especially cherished by the Emperor.
As soon as Yeoryun’s voice rang out, the maids who had been talking moments ago immediately stopped and dispersed.
Afraid that Yeoryun might notice her, Baeksa flattened herself beneath the bushes instead of returning to her residence.
A moment later, Yeoryun appeared among the dense foliage, dressed in beautiful clothing.
A small orb floated above her head as she ran along with an excited smile.
That was the Dragon Pearl.
‘A Dragon Pearl…’
Something every dragon was supposed to possess.
Something Baeksa, the white snake, did not have.
A dragon with a Dragon Pearl could not only use the power of blessings, but could also summon rain from a clear sky and call forth winds to move ships.
It was truly the foundation through which one could wield the power of the omnipotent Heavenly God.
The white pearl suddenly flashed.
Rain fell from the clear sky, dampening the ground in a perfect circle around the young girl.
Yeoryun had used her power.
The palace attendants gasped when her beautiful clothes became wet with the drizzle, but Yeoryun paid no attention and merely burst into cheerful laughter.
The white Dragon Pearl, glistening with raindrops, sparkled like a pearl beneath the clear heavens.
Envy filled Baeksa’s eyes as she watched.
‘I thought I wasn’t jealous anymore.’
She had decided not to desire things she could never have.
She had believed that even seeing something like that would no longer make her envious.
But the heart was not something she could control.
She could not stop those feelings from flooding in all at once.
Especially because Yeoryun’s Dragon Pearl was more precious than those of the other royals.
A pure white Dragon Pearl.
In Haeseo Kingdom, white was considered an auspicious and blessed color.
It was for the same reason that Baeksa had managed to remain alive within the imperial family.
…And also why she had been cast aside the moment her body turned black.
In such a kingdom, it was only natural that Yeoryun, who possessed a white Dragon Pearl, would be loved.
Those who saw Yeoryun’s Dragon Pearl believed she might one day become the legendary White Dragon.
If that happened, Haeseo Kingdom would enjoy endless glory and prosperity.
Moreover, Yeoryun was closely connected to the kingdom’s legend that “a dragon is born from the lowest place.”
Her mother had once been a slave.
Taking all of that into account, the beastfolk praised Yeoryun as someone destined to become a magnificent dragon in the future.
There had once been a time when Baeksa envied that deeply.
A White Dragon from legend.
Wasn’t that an amazing thing just to imagine?
But—
‘I won’t feel that way anymore…’
It had nothing to do with someone who would soon be cast out of the imperial family.
So she would neither grieve nor envy.
Ignoring the ache in her heart, Baeksa returned to her residence.
The tiny snake slithering away looked especially small and pitiful today.
Several days later.
Two palace attendants truly entered Baeksa’s room and silently took hold of the child’s hands.
They filled a large bath with water, washed her quickly, and dressed her in the cleanest clothes she owned.
What the child wanted did not matter during any of this.
Neither attendant even looked properly into her eyes.
As though they were merely carrying out an assigned task, they quietly bathed and dressed her without a word.
Entrusting herself obediently to their hands, the young girl studied their faces.
They were unfamiliar.
The people who usually brought her meals and washed her were different attendants.
‘And there are two of them.’
Three attendants were assigned to care for Baeksa, but they worked in shifts and never came together.
Because of that, Baeksa understood instinctively without needing anyone to tell her.
‘So today is the day.’
The day His Majesty had spoken of.
And the day she had been waiting for…
‘It was true.’
They really had planned to throw me away.
After she had finished changing clothes, one of the attendants turned to her and said,
“Please follow us.”
Without waiting for a response, the attendant immediately began walking.
Afraid of dirtying her clean clothes, Baeksa gathered up the hem of her skirt and hurried after her with small, quick steps.
As she stepped outside, the scenery of the residence she had lived in all her life entered her sight.
A shabby, aging residence.
An overgrown front yard left untended for years.
The long corridors that echoed with every footstep and the dried-up pond.
It had been a lonely and desolate place, but it was also the place that had sheltered Baeksa until now.
But this would be the last time.
‘Goodbye.’
After today, she would never be able to return.
Nor would she be allowed to miss it.
After bidding a final farewell to the place she had lived, Baeksa hurried after the palace attendant, who did not wait for her and continued onward at a brisk pace.
