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Chapter 06
The item the child handed over with her large, shining eyes was a small wooden box.
A box without anything special about it, where the dented marks all over its surface merely showed the traces of time.
“This is… Su-jong’s…?”
“Tori, why did you bring this out?”
Since it was an item Uncle Jang had already looked through once while rummaging through Baek Su-jong’s belongings, the adults’ reactions were lukewarm at best.
However, Tori’s eyes were sparkling even brighter than usual.
“Here, right here! There’s a gap!”
“A gap?”
“A gap, you say?”
Jang Baek-gi, having received the box from Tori, flipped it over and examined it this way and that.
Sure enough, a very tiny, long gap ran across it. A clever gap that looked just like a joint seam.
“There’s definitely something inside there!”
“Go ahead and check it.”
When he inserted a needle into that gap and poked around, a letter-like object folded in half came out, just as Tori had said.
With trembling hands, Jang Baek-gi checked its contents and immediately handed the paper to Beom Hyeon.
“…It is indeed the proof.”
“…….”
Beom Hyeon’s brow furrowed fearsomely as his gaze turned toward Tori.
This was the proof that hadn’t turned up even after tearing Baek Su-jong’s room apart from ceiling to floor.
“Tori, how on earth did you find this…?”
“I wonder if a ghost brought this here or something?”
It was truly ghost-baffling work.
Something that even Jang Baek-gi—who was the foremost in the military when it came to searching—had marveled at was now right before their eyes.
And yet, the one who found it was merely a six-year-old rabbit beastfolk?
It was beyond baffling; it was downright miraculous.
However, contrary to Beom Hyeon’s fierce aura, Tori hopped about so energetically that her half-remaining tail fur fluffed up.
“Black thread! I saw a black thread.”
“……?”
“Streaming out from that box, with my very own two eyes!”
“…….”
The two adults quietly looked down at Tori.
With her bottom wiggling, her eyes wide and sparkling, and her rabbit ears twitching, it was a reaction that unmistakably screamed truth.
Seeing Beom Hyeon’s expression soften slightly at that, Jang Baek-gi cautiously added a word:
“My lord… you know how it is. Tori is a child who says she came from the moon.”
“Yes, that’s right! I came from the moon. Heheh.”
“…….”
A strange silence suddenly descended upon the room.
However, Tori only grew more excited.
“Right, Tori. Since you came from the moon, what’s a little black thread to you that you wouldn’t see it?”
“That’s right! I came from the moon, and I know how to spot black threads, too!”
A trace of pity brushed across Jang Baek-gi’s expression.
“…Anyway, I’m glad Tori found it.”
At that, the child twisted her body shyly as if embarrassed.
In the end, Beom Hyeon couldn’t hold back either and pulled up the corners of his lips.
“…Indeed. You’ve done a great job, Tori.”
“Thank you, my lord!”
“You’ve made a huge contribution, is there anything you wish for?”
At those words, Tori tensed up intensely and clasped her two hands tightly together. Her appearance, instantly reminiscent of a fluffy cotton ball, drew the intense focus of both men.
What was she going to ask for? Since she was a child who loved food, would she request exotic delicacies? Or perhaps she had some other item in mind.
While the adults guessed away one by one, the child’s request was something entirely unexpected.
“My lord… um, well then……. Can you make peace with Uncle Baek now?”
“……!”
It was a proposal that even shocked Jang Baek-gi, but Beom Hyeon—even more shocked than him—asked:
“…Even after that man pointed a sword at you, you say such things?”
“B-But, he told me to stay still so I wouldn’t get hurt, and he must have had a reason…!”
Moved by her thoughtful words even though she must have been scared, the corners of Jang Baek-gi’s mouth instantly collapsed.
“I’ll beat up that bastard Baek Su-jong for you, Tori! Don’t you worry.”
At that bold vow—where he even rolled up his sleeves and flexed his bulging arm muscles—Tori bared her front teeth and burst into a fit of giggles.
Deep in the night, after the child had fallen asleep.
Jang Baek-gi unlocked the door of the prison where Baek Su-jong was confined.
“Get out.”
“…….”
Baek Su-jong, who had opened his eyes at the sound of footsteps, slowly raised his body with a meaningful expression, as if knowing that what was bound to come had come.
At that sight, Jang Baek-gi clicked his tongue.
“Look at that state.”
Naturally, Baek Su-jong didn’t pay any mind to Jang Baek-gi’s reaction. His life was going to end soon anyway, so what did it matter whether his appearance was clean or a mess?
However, Jang Baek-gi’s subsequent instructions left Baek Su-jong bewildered.
Not content with merely letting him wash up, he handed him new clothes and new straw shoes.
“We’re going to see your mother, so don’t harbor any foolish thoughts.”
“…….”
For a moment, Baek Su-jong felt a hot lump rising up his throat.
Mother.
It must mean his mother’s passing was near. It was surely the result of the master lord showing consideration until the very end so that the son wouldn’t commit the unfilial act of passing away before his mother.
Filled with gratitude and remorse, Baek Su-jong asked Jang Baek-gi:
“Where is… the General?”
“He’s where he always is.”
“…….”
He wondered if an opportunity to offer a deep bow like this would come again before his execution.
Thinking thus, Jang Baek-gi silently watched as Baek Su-jong performed a deep, formal bow toward the main quarters.
One week later.
Having concluded his mother’s funeral, Baek Su-jong checked one more time on his soundly sleeping younger sibling before stepping outside.
Thanks to Beom Hyeon’s consideration, he had been able to share a final farewell with his mother without being late. It would be a lie to say he wasn’t worried about the sibling left behind alone, but.
“Older brotheee-r…!!”
“How is Mother?”
“She got better after older brother Baek-gi brought that medicine, but according to the d-doctor, it seems her allotted lifespan has very little time left……”
Having repaid kindness with treason, the Jangsan Tiger Family had bestowed an even greater grace upon him.
Now, it was truly his turn.
Baek Su-jong said to Jang Baek-gi, who was waiting for him:
“…Let’s go now.”
“…….”
The two men, setting out on the road in silence, walked endlessly.
Until the high-riding moon set and the surroundings grew faintly bright.
Around that time, Baek Su-jong spoke up first.
“This should be far enough. I’m ready.”
No reply came back from Jang Baek-gi, but Baek Su-jong walked forward to stand before him, knelt down, and closed his eyes.
It was a resolute face, as if telling him to take his head right now.
However, Jang Baek-gi merely pulled him up to his feet.
“Execution, my foot.”
“A traitor must be executed without fail… that is the family rule.”
“Do you consider disloyalty a greater sin than lack of filial piety? Can you blame someone who was blackmailed with his mother’s medicine for committing disloyalty?”
Baek Su-jong’s eyes widened in shock.
“How on earth… did you know that?”
“I found out because I found the letter sent by those damn Geumin Tiger Clan bastards. The one you cleverly hid in the cracks of the wooden box.”
Baek Su-jong’s face twisted in a complex knot. It was the look of someone who never dreamed they would find that.
“Seeing that expression, I should tell you something even more astonishing. That letter, Tori found it.”
“……Tori?”
“Yeah. That little thing… Even though you pointed a sword at her own neck, she seemed to think she had to do something for both the lord and you.”
Baek Su-jong’s eyes gradually turned burning red.
And hearing that the lord had forgiven him because filial piety is considered the heaviest sin of all from ancient times, he could hold back no longer and broke down completely.
Hot tears moistened the ground, and shortly afterward, the brilliant morning sun rose.
“Hooooo-.”
‘Breath mist’ is coming out.
Following the secret method Uncle Jang had taught me, I tried making breath mist, but no matter how many times I did it, it was just too fascinating.
“Haaaaa-.”
“Tori!”
“Haa- Yeees!”
Stopping my breath-blowing for a moment, I scurried over toward Uncle Jang, who was calling me.
Since the uncle’s two hands were heavy with luggage, opening the door was my job.
“There, a new quilt.”
“Woah, it’s super thick!”
“Of course. It’s stuffed full of cotton. If you sleep covered in this, you’ll be super warm.”
“Woah-ah!”
When I hopped up and down in excitement, Uncle Jang burst into a loud laugh.
The Jangsan Tiger Household was right in the middle of preparing for winter.
The courtyard was full of firewood, and food to eat throughout the winter was piled high in the storehouses.
Thick clothes and quilts had also been newly prepared, but as if Uncle Jang felt even that wasn’t enough, he brought out braziers every which way. He said he’d put one in each room so there wouldn’t be any chance of feeling cold.
And my job was mainly to follow Uncle Jang around and help with petty chores.
“Mister, over here!”
“Right.”
Since there weren’t many people, putting quilts into each room took no time at all.
Standing right beside Uncle Jang—who was wrapping straw bales around the trees so they wouldn’t freeze to death—I handed him the straw rope.
“Can we finish all of this in a day?”
“Hard to say. Well… from here to there is all done, so it looks like we’ll pretty much finish.”
“Heheh.”
It was right at that moment.
“Ah, jeez! Why do you have to smile so cute like that again, you rascal, you rascal!”
“Uwaaah, m-mister!”
Uncle Jang suddenly started messing up and petting my hair all over.
It wasn’t that I hated it, but as I squirmed in surprise, the uncle picked me up high in the arms altogether, and because he spun me around in a circle just like that, giggles burst out of me.
Yet something felt noisy and bustling. At first, I thought it was just because I was playing with the uncle, but listening closely, sounds were coming from outside.
Wondering what was going on, I looked up to ask, but for some reason, Uncle Jang’s expression had hardened rigidly.
“Tori, stay right here for a moment.”
“Huh? Ye-yes….”
However, as if to disrupt my plan to wait obediently, the sounds drifting in from outside the wall only grew louder and louder. My ears twitched of their own accord out of curiosity.
‘What on earth is going on?!’
It was right then. A voice punched straight into my ears.
“My lord, from now on my life is simply your property. If you tell me to go jump off a cliff, I’ll bury my face right in and die, so just say the word!”
“……?”
In front of the main gate of the Jangsan Tiger Household.
A man with his head shaved clean was kneeling before the lord, keeping his head bowed.
I tilted my head in confusion.
‘Who on earth is that person…?’
Somehow, that folksy dialect sounded a bit familiar, too….
Uh, wait a minute!
Wait a second?!
