Chapter 3
“Ugh… this is exhausting.”
“Can you believe that in this enormous palace, I’m the only one who understands Beast Speech? Me, Cheong Hui.”
Cheong Hui?
The moment she heard that familiar name, it felt as though lightning struck Aran’s mind.
Cheong Hui, the future Lord of the Eastern Region.
He was an Azure Dragon worthy of remembering, even after a hundred years.
Which meant…
Her suspicions were now confirmed.
She really had gone back one hundred years into the past.
So… this brat is Hui? The one who can speak Beast Speech?
“Kyup.”
(…)
Faced with that undeniable reality, Aran instinctively clamped her beak shut.
Inside her chestnut-sized head, her cherry-sized brain raced furiously.
There was a saying:
Great talents bloom late.
That had described Aran’s life perfectly.
She had been born weak…
Yet grown into one of the greatest Vermilion Birds in history.
She learned to fly later than everyone else.
But in the end…
She flew higher than any of them.
She had been abandoned by the Vermilion Bird Clan while still a chick.
Yet she lived a life more glorious than any Vermilion Bird before her.
Her extraordinary journey had brought her miraculous treasures like the Herb of Immortality and the Elixir of Eternal Life.
Eventually…
She had even been granted the chance to ascend to the Immortal Realm.
Standing beneath the wide-open Heavenly Gate…
She heard the voice of a god.
“Aran… you have done enough.
Come to the Immortal Realm.”
But…
Her young disciples were beside her.
She had found those children throughout the continent and raised them herself.
They had no homes to return to.
She couldn’t bear to abandon them.
And so…
The radiant Heavenly Gate slowly closed once again.
Years passed.
One by one, her disciples grew into adults and left her side.
When the last one fell ill and died…
Aran’s heart broke.
She severed all ties with the mortal world and secluded herself deep within the mountains to cultivate alone.
Several years passed.
Then…
One night, she awoke to violent winds.
The world…
Was burning.
How could such an enormous catastrophe happen in a single night?
No matter how great a Vermilion Bird she was…
She couldn’t extinguish flames of that scale alone.
She regretted it.
I should’ve ascended back then.
Instead of watching my beloved disciple die…
Instead of seeing the entire world reduced to ashes…
I should’ve gone.
At that very moment…
The god spoke once more.
“If I give you another chance…
Will you come to the Immortal Realm this time?”
She was alone.
The world had already ended.
There was no reason to refuse.
She nodded without hesitation.
If I get another chance…
I’ll ascend.
Only…
She never imagined that “another chance” meant living through another hundred years first.
That swindling Black Tortoise God…
I should’ve wondered why it wasn’t the Vermilion Bird God who appeared in the first place.
Aran shook her head.
Still…
What could she do now?
Even if she’d been tricked…
Had she refused back then…
She would’ve ended up roasted alive along with the rest of the world.
For someone with fire resistance…
Being burned to death was simply absurd.
The young master of the Cheong Clan, who had been quietly observing the little bird all this time, tilted his head.
“Hey…”
“Didn’t you just say, ‘I wonder if our Okdan is doing well?'”
What?
You’ve been listening since then?!
Startled, Aran’s tiny body trembled.
The past week had been the coziest, safest she’d felt in over a century.
It was the first genuine rest she’d enjoyed in a hundred years.
What do I do?
If they find out there’s a hundred-year-old Vermilion Bird inside this baby bird… won’t they throw me out immediately?
I can’t let that happen…!
Anything but being sent back to the Vermilion Bird Palace! I’d rather fall into the underworld!
Right!
She needed to deny knowing anyone named Okdan before it was too late.
Sorry, Okdan…
But just as Aran was about to speak—
“…No, that can’t be it.”
“I don’t think anyone named Okdan even lives in our palace.”
For some reason…
Hui reached the completely wrong conclusion all by himself.
“Oh, honestly…”
“What a ridiculous misunderstanding.”
As Aran silently sighed with relief, Hui continued criticizing himself.
“‘I wonder if she’s doing well?'”
“What kind of baby talks like that?”
“Even my grandmother, who passed away after turning sixty, sounded more modern.”
What’s wrong with the way I talk?!
It was fortunate…
But also deeply insulting.
Seeing the tiny bird shivering, Hui stepped closer.
“By the way…”
“What should we do with you?”
“It seems Father wants to make you the youngest member of our family.”
What?!
That huge dragon has such wonderful plans?!
The Azure Dragon Clan of the East—the family that treasures every blade of grass—is going to raise me?
I wholeheartedly approve!
Even so, Aran curled up from the lingering chill.
Watching the little bird ball herself up like a frightened squirrel, Hui hesitated.
“What’s wrong?”
“Are you scared of me?”
Scared?
A Vermilion Bird who had lived for a hundred years…
Afraid of a fifteen-year-old dragon?
Not likely.
But this was her second life.
After surviving countless hardships…
Aran had become an expert at staying alive.
Tilting her tiny head innocently…
She changed tactics in an instant.
“Kyuu…”
(Mommy…)
“…Good heavens.”
For all his height…
Cheong Hui was still only a fifteen-year-old boy.
A boy who had lost his mother barely a month earlier.
As the eldest son of the Azure Dragon Clan, heavy responsibilities had left him no time to grieve.
Seeing the lonely baby bird before him…
His heart ached.
Without realizing it, Hui gently cupped her in his hands.
“Little one…”
“Do you miss your mother?”
“Cheep… cheep…”
(Mama… Mama…)
The baby bird rubbed her head against his palm, searching for warmth.
Perhaps she leaned too far.
Tilt.
She rolled halfway across his hand.
“Haha…”
Hui laughed softly, tears gathering in his eyes.
“You know…”
“I miss my mother too.”
He gently adjusted her so she lay comfortably in the center of his palm.
Looking down…
She really was just a tiny bird.
Her body was smaller than his hand.
Covered in soft white fluff like willow cotton.
Her little seed-like eyes were jet black—
Nothing like the Vermilion Birds he’d heard about.
Of course…
He trusted his father’s judgment.
But if she wasn’t a Vermilion Bird…
Perhaps that would be for the best.
With gentle eyes, he continued,
“Come on.”
“Let’s go see your mother.”
…My mother?
Wait… I have one?
Here? In the Azure Dragon Palace?
Hopeful, Aran tilted her head.
Moments later…
She discovered an astonishing truth.
In her second life…
She apparently had a mother who was…
Very large.
Very blue.
And…
Male.
That same night…
The Azure Dragon Clan’s second son, Cheong Su-ryeon, walked into the moonlit training grounds.
It was the only place he could calm the frustration boiling inside him.
Shing.
His sword left its sheath.
The polished blade gleamed beneath the pale moonlight.
“Haa!”
With a shout, he slashed downward.
As the cold blade cut through empty air…
The conversation he’d had with his father several days earlier resurfaced.
“…What did you say that bird is?”
“The youngest.
The fifth child of our family.”
After making that unbelievable declaration…
His father had shamelessly added the one reason Su-ryeon could never openly oppose him.
“Su-ryeon…
You remember the promise I made to your mother, don’t you?”
How could Father bring up Mother’s dying wish…?
Su-ryeon had been the only member of the family unable to be by her side when she passed away.
His father knew better than anyone how deeply he regretted it…
How much it still hurt.
Whoosh!
His sword sliced through the air once more.
Wind swirled around him.
It was his inherited gift—
The Azure Dragon Clan’s greatest power.
The power over wind and rain.
He needed to calm himself before that precious power harmed someone innocent.
Yet…
His father’s words echoed relentlessly.
“She asked me to raise every child from the nest equally.
Even if one is weak…
Even if one lacks strength…
None should ever be treated differently.
That was your mother’s final wish.”
That’s impossible…!
His mother had suffered from childbed fever for an entire month.
Had she even known someone else’s egg had ended up in their nest?
Would she truly have left such a will if she’d known?
Su-ryeon didn’t believe so.
Even then…
He waited.
He thought his older brother would help persuade their father after returning home.
Cheong Hui, two years older than him, had received imperial assignments from childhood thanks to his gift of Beast Speech.
Their father trusted Hui more than anyone.
And yet…
What happened?
The moment Hui returned…
Instead of objecting…
He’d gone to see the bird…
Then brought it straight back to Father.
Drip.
Drip.
Rain began to fall.
Breathing heavily, Su-ryeon lowered his sword.
His grip remained so tight his knuckles turned white.
He hated his father.
He resented his brother.
A poor little bird?
So what?
Are we going to adopt every pitiful beastfolk on the continent as our youngest sibling?
The rain only grew heavier.
“…Get a hold of yourself, Cheong Su-ryeon.”
Otherwise…
There had been no point coming to the training grounds.
Taking a deep breath, he sheathed his sword.
He clenched his teeth to stop the tears threatening to spill.
A thirteen-year-old boy who had just lost his mother…
Could hardly be expected to sympathize with someone else’s tragedy.
In the end…
The wounded boy reached his own conclusion.
No matter what Father or Hui said…
He had only two younger siblings.
He always had.
And now that his mother was gone…
He believed that would remain true…
Forever.
