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Chapter 6
The small body was slowly freezing solid.
Her tiny hands had become swollen from the cold, and before she knew it, they had gone numb.
The carriage that had brought Baeksa here had long since left the Southern Lands.
Now, she was truly alone in this freezing place.
Her breathing grew faint, and her eyelids drooped halfway shut. Standing once again at the edge of death, Baeksa desperately fought to remain conscious.
She still had not seen the orb again.
But no matter how long she waited, it never appeared.
The icy snow drifting through the air and the merciless winds of the Southern Lands steadily froze the girl’s body.
The child gently clenched and unclenched her numb fingers.
‘Why…’
Why wasn’t it appearing?
Had she actually imagined it back then?
Frozen tears stung her delicate eyelids.
Her eyes hurt, but perhaps because her face had already frozen stiff, she could not even close them properly.
Yet even as her consciousness faded, the orb never appeared.
As though she had expected this all along, Baeksa smiled sadly.
‘I guess I really did imagine it…’
Once she thought that, everything made sense.
Why would a Dragon Pearl-like orb appear before someone like her, who wasn’t even a dragon?
And yet, because of that tiny possibility…
Because she had dared to hope that it might truly have appeared…
She had foolishly failed to run away and ended up abandoned in the Southern Lands once again.
It was a fitting end for a snake, a symbol of ill omen.
‘It’s my fault.’
If she had been born a dragon, she would never have been abandoned, nor would she have come all the way here clinging to such foolish hopes.
The child did not know much about the world, and blaming others was difficult for her.
But blaming herself and hurting herself was as easy as breathing.
So Baeksa chose to blame herself.
She thought it might hurt a little less that way.
The tiny baby snake curled herself into a ball and exhaled shallow breaths.
Baeksa stared blankly at the snowy field.
‘When I die… will I stop feeling sad and hurt?’
This time, she hoped she would not come back to life again.
‘I’m scared…’
Just as Baeksa squeezed her eyes shut and trembled violently—
“…A child?”
A strange voice came from somewhere in the distance.
“A child? Patriarch! There’s a child collapsed here all alone!”
A very unfamiliar voice.
The southern region of Haeseo Kingdom.
A polluted land where no one could survive because an enraged dragon had ceased sending rain.
Yet even in that land abandoned by the Emperor, beastfolk still lived.
The Patriarch of the Vermilion Bird Clan, Ju Jeokseo.
Had Ju Jeokseo not remained there, using his powers to slow the spread of the Southern Lands’ corruption and care for its people, every beastfolk living there would have perished.
As a result, they were wary of outsiders.
And they were even more wary of the Imperial Palace.
So when rumors spread that an Imperial carriage loaded with cargo was heading toward the Southern Lands, the beastfolk could not help but grow anxious.
‘An Imperial carriage is coming here?’
‘Could it be that the Emperor finally intends to wipe out the Southern Lands?’
No one knew what the carriage was carrying.
But whatever it was, it certainly could not be something beneficial to the Southern Lands.
The Emperor had abandoned this land long ago.
He no longer cared whether the people living here survived or died.
Which was why they needed to find out exactly what the Imperial carriage was bringing.
And so Ju Jeokseo decided to go to the border of the Southern Lands himself.
After all, he was one of the very few people capable of remaining unaffected by the corruption of the Southern Lands, even if only temporarily.
Without delay, he mounted his horse and headed toward the border of the contaminated territory.
His dark crimson hair, tied back into a single bundle, fluttered behind him like the dying embers of a fire.
When he stood atop the snowy plain on his black horse, he looked like a flame that had suddenly bloomed amidst the snow.
Yet he was the only thing that stood out.
There was no Imperial carriage.
Nor was there anything that appeared dangerous.
Just as he was about to turn his horse around and leave—
“Over here! Over here! It’s here! There really is a child!”
Jo Yeong jumped up and down while calling for Ju Jeokseo.
The man’s brows furrowed at the noisy display.
“Stop talking nonsense. Why would there be a child here?”
“I’m serious! Hurry and come look!”
Unable to ignore the commotion, Ju Jeokseo reluctantly walked over.
And there really was—
“…What?”
A tiny little girl.
A child lying collapsed upon the pure white snowfield as though she had been discarded.
A girl wearing clothes embroidered with the Imperial Palace’s insignia, lying there without a single guard beside her, without even a fur blanket to protect her from the cold.
Without hesitation, Ju Jeokseo approached and touched her frozen cheek.
Fortunately, she was still breathing.
But—
‘Her breathing is faint.’
So faint and fragile that it seemed ready to stop at any moment.
If nothing was done immediately, she would die.
How long had she been abandoned in a place this cold?
Had he not come, the child would undoubtedly have died here before sunrise tomorrow.
Without hesitation, he reached out toward her.
‘Is this a trap?’
Or had she simply been abandoned to die?
Knowing full well the immense resentment the beastfolk of the Southern Lands held toward the central territories and the Imperial Palace, someone had left her here dressed in Imperial clothing.
Judging from the circumstances, the latter seemed far more likely.
Just as Ju Jeokseo carefully lifted the frozen child into his arms—
The little girl slowly forced open her frozen eyelids.
At that moment, the eyes of Ju Jeokseo and the tiny baby snake met.
An unfamiliar voice.
An unfamiliar embrace.
Surrounded by unfamiliar things, Baeksa slowly opened her eyes.
Within her dimming vision, she saw a man with dark crimson hair.
Eyes as red as blazing flames.
Hair just as red.
The moment she saw him, Baeksa realized who the man holding her was.
‘Ah… the Vermilion Bird Clan…’
The very clan that had incurred the Emperor’s wrath and now ruled the abandoned Southern Lands like its king.
Even Baeksa had vaguely heard stories about the people who lived here.
The Vermilion Bird Clan, once one of the great pillars supporting the Haeseo Kingdom, still remained in the Southern Lands.
Then was this man one of that clan?
She was curious, but she could not ask.
It felt as though merely opening her eyes had exhausted the last of her strength.
Even blinking was difficult.
Through her blurred vision, the girl stared blankly at the man’s flame-like hair.
Like that hair, his hands were warm, like fire itself.
His large hand cupped her cheek, slowly thawing her frozen body.
‘It’s warm…’
It had been so long since she had felt another person’s warmth.
And it was also the warm flame she had encountered at the very end of her life.
Because of that, she suddenly no longer wanted to die.
‘I want to live…’
She wanted to live.
Just like the dream she had once held as a child—to live quietly and unnoticed until one day she could leave the palace and find happiness.
She would not mind begging for food because she had no money.
She would not mind sleeping beneath a bridge because she had nowhere else to go…
A dream she thought she had abandoned long ago reignited within her heart like a tiny spark.
And so the child decided to do something she would never normally do.
“…Ple…”
Using the very last of her strength, Baeksa stared directly into the man’s eyes and spoke.
“Please… save me…”
His hands were so warm.
Those hands felt capable of completely thawing her frozen cheeks.
And if someone possessed such warmth…
‘Maybe… even if only for one more week…’
Perhaps he would let her live.
That foolish hope once again raised its head within the child’s heart.
Tears she thought had long dried up welled forth again from the warmth she encountered at the end of her life.
A single tear rolled down her round cheek.
Unable to wipe away her tears or even think about stopping her crying, Baeksa desperately grabbed hold of the sleeve of this man who resembled a living flame.
“Please…”
A tiny voice, barely more than a whisper.
Yet clear and unmistakable.
Looking up at him, Baeksa pleaded earnestly.
“I want to live…”
With those words, the child’s small eyelids closed.
Her hand fell limply.
Her tiny body went slack within the man’s sturdy embrace.
And in the very next moment—
Whoosh!
A large fur blanket was draped over Baeksa’s small body.
The blanket was so large and warm that it could have wrapped around her tiny frame several times over.
