Chapter 1
Cold, freezing ground.
A small snake, abandoned there all alone, blinked her eyes.
‘It’s cold…….’
The young snake knew very well where she had been abandoned.
The southern land of Haeseo Kingdom.
The cursed Namtto, where black rain fell every day, and no one who stepped into it could ever come out alive.
And the place where she was now was the most polluted land of all.
Although she had been abandoned alone in such a dangerous land, she did not feel any resentment.
Because being abandoned was all her fault.
The small snake, Baeksa, 힘겹게 lifted her head and looked down at her own body.
Her body, which had originally been as white as snowflakes, had been stained black.
A pitch-black body that had absolutely nothing to do with the name Baeksa, White Snake.
That hideous body was the reason she had been abandoned here.
‘She can no longer be used.’
‘Take that thing to Namtto and throw it away.’
Because she could no longer be used for anything.
Her body had not always looked this ugly.
There had been a time when Baeksa also had a clean body, just like her name.
However, everything changed in the year she turned seven, when she awakened the unique ability of beastmen, called an ‘ability.’
The small snake let out a weak breath as she looked at the falling black snow and remembered that day.
The moment she first awakened her ability.
Baeksa was a snake born to the Dragon Race Emperor of Haeseo Kingdom.
She did not have the beautiful horns or brilliant dragon pearls that her other dragon beastmen siblings possessed.
Moreover, she had not awakened the ‘ability’ that all beastmen naturally used as if it were a part of their bodies from birth.
Because of this, some people whispered that it was because her mother came from a lowly background.
However, the existence of Baeksa’s mother had been kept secret, so nothing was known about her.
In such a situation, there was only one thing Baeksa knew for certain.
She had been born as a snake, a creature that was a source of bad luck.
And white snakes were not welcomed in the imperial family.
‘A snake? How can there be a snake in the imperial family……?’
‘Is she really His Majesty the Emperor’s bloodline?’
Since it was the natural order of things for dragons to be born from dragon beastmen, everyone could not believe the birth of a baby snake.
Therefore, the imperial family of Haeseo Kingdom considered Baeksa a great disgrace.
A disgrace that had suddenly appeared to an Emperor who could not show even the slightest flaw.
So the Emperor did not even give Baeksa a name.
In the imperial family of Haeseo Kingdom, it was customary for the Emperor himself to name his children.
Thus, her other siblings received dragon names as soon as they were born, but Baeksa had no proper name even after turning seven.
‘That thing,’ ‘white snake,’ ‘little snake,’ and ‘worthless thing’ were the words used to call the child.
Even so, the child was fine.
She thought that simply being allowed to live despite being a disgrace to the imperial family was already a great blessing.
Then, in the year she turned seven.
‘Her Highness the Princess has awakened her ability!’
‘But her ability is…….’
Contrary to everyone’s belief that the child would never awaken an ability, she awakened one.
However, what the girl gained was not the dragon race’s ability, ‘Blessing.’
‘No! My power! This crazy thing ate my Blessing!’
‘I, I didn’t mean to…….’
‘Help me! Nurse! Aaaah! Help me!’
The ability the child awakened was Absorption.
She had awakened it after suffering from Prince Songra’s bullying and devouring his ability.
Baeksa’s power was a greedy and terrifying ability that devoured anything and everything without discrimination.
After awakening her ability in such a way, the child did not know what to do and was dragged before the Emperor by soldiers.
The girl knelt before her father and trembled like a criminal.
She had instinctively realized that her power was not an ability anyone would welcome.
As expected, the Emperor looked at the child and gave a sinister smile.
It was clearly not the face of a father happy that his daughter had awakened an ability.
‘I was planning to take you to the southern land and throw you away soon.’
The child flinched at the Emperor’s words.
Where was the southern land?
It was the land ruled by the Vermilion Bird Clan, which had been expelled from Haeseo Kingdom, and a place cursed by an ancient Divine Dragon.
No one could come back alive after entering that place.
He had been planning to throw her away in such a place.
Tears welled up in the child’s large eyes.
Seeing that, the Emperor spoke as if he had been waiting for it.
‘But I have changed my mind. If you work for me from now on, I will postpone that.’
‘What will you choose? Will you be exiled to the south and die? Or will you remain in this imperial family and work for your father?’
‘I-I’ll stay. I want to work for Your Majesty.’
The child looked up at the Emperor with frightened eyes.
I’ll do anything. Any task is fine.
So please, don’t exile me.
Apparently satisfied with her answer, the Emperor gave the child a name.
Baeksa.
It literally meant White Snake. It was also a measure to distinguish her from the other dragon members of the imperial family.
Even so, Baeksa was simply happy to have a name.
It meant that she finally had something she could do in this imperial family.
It meant that she could prove her usefulness.
After that, the Emperor covered both of Baeksa’s eyes once a day and took her somewhere.
Then he would make her hold someone’s hand and ordered her to absorb the energy inside that person’s body.
She did exactly as she was told.
She never removed the blindfold, nor did she wonder who the owner of that hand was.
Because her father had told her not to be curious.
Her only job was to do exactly what she was told without asking anything.
‘Lady Baeksa, it is time to go to the detached palace.’
Because of this, even while going back and forth to the detached palace, Baeksa knew nothing about the owner of the hand.
The only things she knew were that the hand was delicate, the fingers were long, and it never moved even once while she was holding it.
However, it was not a corpse. She could feel warmth from the hand.
Sometimes, the hand also carried a pleasant scent.
It was a nostalgic scent, as if she had smelled it somewhere before.
But it must have only been her imagination. Baeksa had been isolated from everyone else ever since she was born.
After some time had passed.
Ever since she began absorbing energy, small changes started appearing in Baeksa’s body.
Black spots appeared on her pure white body, and the more she used her ability, the larger those stain-like spots became.
And eventually, they began to swallow Baeksa’s entire body.
Even though her body was changing, Baeksa could not neglect the ‘work’ the Emperor had given her.
The only reason she was not being exiled was because of that work, so she had to work hard without complaining.
But the moment the spots completely covered her pure white body.
The moment she became a pitch-black and ominous snake instead of a white and pure baby snake.
Baeksa could no longer use her ability.
She could absorb neither Blessing nor Curse, nor anything else.
It was as if her body had reached its limit.
And when the Emperor learned of this,
‘Get rid of her.’
He ordered without the slightest hesitation that she be abandoned in Namtto.
There was not even the slightest trace of affection in his voice for the daughter he had given birth to and raised.
And so, now.
She had been abandoned here all alone.
Tears fell drop by drop from the eyes of the baby snake whose body had turned completely black.
Would she not have been abandoned if she had been just a little more useful?
What kind of energy had she been absorbing all this time to make her body like this?
What will happen to the owner of that hand if I am gone……?
All kinds of thoughts came to her mind, only to disappear again and again.
The small snake curled her body up even tighter.
Baeksa instinctively knew that her death was near.
Ever since she had been abandoned here, the polluted energy of the land had been continuously flowing into her body against her will.
If she absorbed more polluted energy than her limit, she would die.
And she had already reached her limit the moment she was abandoned.
Soon, her body would no longer be able to endure it.
‘If I had known it would end like this…….’
If she had known things would end this way, she would not have tried so hard to be recognized.
Her father, who had given her such a worthless and insignificant name.
Yet, because she had been happy simply to receive even that, the child wanted to work hard at everything.
She believed that if she did so, someday he would acknowledge her, and she would be able to fulfill her role as a member of the imperial family.
But now she understood.
All of it had been impossible from the moment she was born as a snake.
There were feelings in this world that could not be changed through effort…….
The small snake closed her eyes.
She had no strength left to run somewhere or even try to survive.
All Baeksa could do was quietly wait here.
For the end that was coming for her.
Just as her eyes closed and the strength left her entire body.
Something like a small, pitch-black bead appeared in Baeksa’s vision.
‘What is that……?’
It looked just like a dragon’s dragon pearl.
Something that could never appear for Baeksa.
And at the same time, something she had desperately wished for more than anyone else…….
The small snake squeezed out her last bit of strength and looked up at the round bead.
And then.
The bead flashed with white light and swallowed the small baby snake.
Before she had any chance to examine or confirm what it was, Baeksa’s vision turned completely black.
The end of her short life.
After the baby snake’s heart completely stopped.
The energy of all things in the universe was absorbed into the bead, and the polluted land around it slowly began to return to its original state.
However, the restored state lasted only for a very short time, so no one saw it.
