Chapter 2
“Why…….”
Baeksa muttered as she looked down at her small hands.
“Why am I…… back here again?”
Baeksa had just woken up and was startled.
The place where she had opened her eyes was her room in the Imperial Palace.
It was not Namto, where black snow fell and it was freezing cold.
How had she returned to the Imperial Palace?
Could it be that Father had given her another chance?
Had he picked up the abandoned her and brought her back to the Imperial Palace?
But something felt strange.
There were no black spots on her body at all.
Her body was completely clean, just like before she awakened her ability.
The girl spun around in place to look at herself more carefully.
Then, colorful smoke rose, and a small baby snake appeared from within it.
Baeksa, in her beast-human form, looked at her tail.
Her long and clean body, white like a rice cake, had not a single black spot anywhere.
Just then.
“Hey! Snake!”
With a loud crash, a boy entered Baeksa’s room.
He was Baeksa’s half-brother, the Second Prince Songra, born to the Empress.
Baeksa froze when she saw Songra.
‘On Brother Songra’s forehead…….’
The dragon’s mark was still on his forehead.
The golden mark was something every dragon who could use ‘Blessing’ possessed.
But when Songra turned ten, he lost the mark.
Because Baeksa had awakened her ability and absorbed part of his ‘Blessing.’
After losing part of his Blessing, the mark never appeared on Songra’s forehead again.
Because of that, Baeksa had to endure Songra and the Empress’s harsh criticism and bullying.
But the mark was still there……?
Could it be……?
‘Could I have returned to the past……?’
An unbelievable thought slowly rose in Baeksa’s mind.
‘If that is really true.’
Then she must not react, no matter how Songra bullied her.
While Songra grabbed her body and bullied her, Baeksa tightly closed her eyes and quietly endured it.
“How funny. Why can’t you even turn into a human?”
She did not think about running away like she had back then, nor did she think that she wanted to become a magnificent dragon like Songra.
If she thought like that, ‘that thing’ might happen again.
“Tsk.”
“…….”
“It’s boring. What’s wrong with you today? Did you eat something bad?”
Songra left, saying it was no fun because Baeksa did not react at all.
Only after Songra left did Baeksa slowly open her tightly closed eyes.
After making sure there was no one in the room, she quickly slipped outside through a hole in the door.
Then she bit a weed growing outside her room and used her ability.
Sssss—
“……!”
Just as Baeksa expected, the grass lost all of its life force and died.
The girl’s greedy ability had already awakened.
Whether it was life or death.
Blessing or corruption.
A terrifying ability that greedily devoured everything that existed.
Baeksa calmed her pounding heart and thought carefully again.
‘It seems I really did return to the past.’
Before she awakened her ability and became her father’s tool.
If she had reacted to Songra’s bullying just now, the same thing as in the past would have happened.
Thinking that far, Baeksa raised her head and looked at the sky.
Wait.
Did the same thing really have to happen?
Did she really have to become Father’s tool again?
Maybe she could do better this time.
Maybe she could become a little more useful, so she would not be abandoned, and then…….
But then Baeksa remembered her father coldly throwing her away and lowered her head.
‘What a foolish thought.’
If she really had returned to the past, no matter what she did, the future would not change.
She would have to faithfully absorb the energy inside the ‘owner of the hand’ as Father ordered, and after that, she would be abandoned by her cold-hearted father.
She did not want that.
If the same future was waiting for her anyway, she did not want to live that way.
Trying so hard that she would bleed from the nose again, desperately using her ability to earn Father’s approval.
Living in fear that she might be abandoned once she was no longer useful.
She was tired of such a life.
‘Then what should I do…….’
At that moment, she remembered what Father had said before her regression.
‘I was planning to take you to the southern land and throw you away soon.’
She learned that those words were true because of Songra.
Songra, who had lost part of his Blessing to Baeksa, had screamed at her in anger.
‘If it weren’t for that horrible ability of yours, you would have been abandoned soon! Do you understand?’
‘Sob, you would have been abandoned. If His Majesty had taken you there just one week earlier…….’
‘He said one week…….’
That meant that one week from now, the Emperor would take her to Namto and abandon her there.
After thinking for a while, Baeksa made her decision.
This time, she would not try to be loved. She would simply let herself be abandoned.
If the same future was waiting for her anyway, she did not want to stay in this horrible Imperial Palace any longer.
Even if she could live for only one day, she wanted to live outside the Imperial Palace.
In a place where no one would find her horrible or filthy.
Besides……
‘I want to see what that was…….’
That orb she had seen at the final moment of her life.
She had not seen it clearly, but it definitely looked similar to a dragon’s wish-fulfilling pearl.
‘If I could see it just one more time.’
If she could find out what it was, Baeksa thought she would be fine even if she died a little earlier in this life.
To do that, she first had to hide her ability.
If she was lucky, she might be able to survive there for a few days.
Her ability could absorb anything.
Since she had not absorbed anything yet, it would take time for her body to become filled with corruption.
Even four days should be enough to find out what that orb was.
Of course, the orb might not appear again…….
Still, Baeksa wanted to go there again.
Whether it appeared or not, she felt that she had to see it with her own eyes.
And if she was even luckier, she might meet the beast-people who lived in that exiled territory.
Then she might be able to survive a few more days by relying on their kindness.
‘Of course, those people probably won’t be kind to me…….’
But anything would be better than staying here.
Baeksa already knew from her previous experience that there was no place sadder and lonelier than the Imperial Palace.
However, once she decided to leave this place, there was one thing that bothered her.
‘That hand.’
The hand from which she absorbed energy every day by the Emperor’s order.
What would happen to that person if I left?
The energy accumulated inside her body was strong enough to destroy young Baeksa’s body and eventually kill her.
But if Baeksa disappeared…….
Baeksa blankly looked down at her own two hands.
During her time in the Imperial Palace, there had been a brief moment when she found comfort in that hand.
The owner of the hand could neither speak nor move, so she never hated Baeksa or pushed her away.
But at the same time, it was terribly sad.
The only beast-person in this place who did not push her away was the owner of this hand, who lay there as if she were dead.
That was why Baeksa sincerely hoped that she would wake up soon.
And even after waking up, she hoped that she would not push Baeksa’s hand away like she did now.
But at the same time, she was afraid.
She was afraid that once the woman woke up, Baeksa would no longer be useful and would be abandoned.
She was afraid that the owner of the hand, after waking up, might push her away strongly like her father had…….
Thinking that far, Baeksa firmly shook her head.
‘No.’
If she kept thinking about such things, she would not be able to leave.
Then, just like in the past, she would once again be used as her father’s tool and eventually abandoned.
‘I’m sorry, unknown…… young lady.’
Thinking of the young woman’s hand, Baeksa curled herself into a sad coil.
‘Even if I stay, I will soon become useless anyway.’
So please find another way, wake up as soon as possible, and recover completely.
Baeksa sincerely hoped that she would be able to get up soon.
It was true that holding that hand had allowed her to extend her life even a little longer.
She had given up even that now, but that did not mean the feelings she had experienced back then had disappeared.
Even now, it felt as if the familiar scent she had smelled beside her still lingered at the tip of her nose.
Inside a room softly filled with light.
The Emperor raised the long string of beads hanging down with his hand and asked,
“How is her condition?”
