chapter 19
However, the worry lasted only a moment before a smile spread across Namgung Heuk’s lips.
“I like it!”
What a relief!
At those words, Hongseol’s face instantly brightened. Namgung Heuk tied a knot on his sash and adjusted it with meticulous care, checking every angle.
At that moment, Namgung Jeok, wearing a distressed expression, asked,
“Sister! What about me?”
“Prince Gongja… is… right here!”
Hongseol finished loosening one side of her own hair and cautiously brought her hand toward Jeok’s untidy bangs.
Namgung Jeok obediently stayed still, like a well-behaved puppy.
“All done!”
Before long, Jeok’s bangs were tied neatly with a blue silk ribbon.
“Now your pretty eyes are more visible.”
At Hongseol’s words, Jeok brushed his shiny forehead and grinned widely.
“Thank you, sister!”
Seeing Heuk and Jeok smiling so brightly at her, Hongseol suddenly thought of someone.
‘Since their brother is so kind, Namgung Baek must be a good person too.’
Brother… she thought.
Even just thinking it in her mind made her feel incredibly shy. Without realizing it, she twisted her body slightly and tapped the ground with her toes.
“Brother!”
Heuk, who had been proudly straightening his shoulders in front of Hongseol, suddenly looked surprised.
‘Brother…?’
Startled, Hongseol turned her head.
Between the plum trees, dazzling silver hair fluttered in the wind.
It was the eldest prince of the Namgung family, Namgung Baek.
Though he still looked young, his well-formed face held somehow hollow, piercing blue eyes.
It wasn’t the first time she had seen him, yet…
His remarkably refreshing presence again captured Hongseol’s gaze without her realizing it.
“Namgung Baek… Brother?”
For a moment, Namgung Baek raised his handsome eyebrow.
“Brother, did you say?”
Oops.
The title she had rolled around in her mouth several times accidentally slipped out.
Hongseol’s face turned pomegranate-red as she tried to explain,
“Ah, um, well… Lord Changcheon said that calling you ‘older brother’ sounded a bit awkward…”
Perhaps it was thanks to making new friends.
In situations like this, she would normally have run away without a second thought, but a small courage rose in her.
From staring at her toes, Hongseol slightly lifted her curious eyes.
“Is… that not okay?”
“…Do as you wish.”
“…!”
At those words, Hongseol’s eyes went wide. Warm, fuzzy feelings began to rise somewhere in her chest.
‘As expected, Brother must be a good person!’
“Why are you even here?”
Namgung Heuk asked him, puzzled.
“Shouldn’t you be at the martial grounds right now? I saw Lord Changcheon asking where you went during personal training earlier.”
Namgung Baek let out a cold smile at Heuk’s words.
“What good is learning martial arts anyway…”
Hongseol tilted her head at that. She couldn’t understand Namgung Baek.
‘If I could just use my internal energy, I’d be fine living without meat dishes for the rest of my life.’
Meanwhile, the sociable Namgung Heuk asked his brother,
“I was going to play a rat-catching game with Hongseol, are you going to join too?”
Namgung Baek’s gaze fell on his younger siblings at that moment.
It was because he noticed the knot on Heuk’s sash and the blue silk ribbon tied in Jeok’s bangs.
Even Hongseol’s hair, which she had just let down, was curly and adorned.
It was easy to guess where the blue ribbons his siblings were proudly showing off had come from.
However, Namgung Baek soon turned his gaze away.
“I said, are you going to play too?”
“….”
Despite Heuk asking repeatedly, Namgung Baek turned and disappeared without a word.
As always, he appeared suddenly and left on his own whims.
“Seriously, what’s with him?”
Heuk pouted but gently patted Hongseol’s shoulder with his fingertips.
“Don’t worry about him. His personality is a bit… unusual. He’s sensitive because of a condition he has.”
“A condition? What kind of condition?”
Hongseol’s chest dropped.
‘Could it be that his unusual hair and eye color are because he’s sick?’
Suddenly, she felt guilty for thinking he looked so good.
“He was poisoned by some unknown toxin around the age of eight. I don’t know much, but it seems serious.”
“But…”
He looked healthy from the outside. Hongseol swallowed the rest of her question.
“The elders said that by the time he’s twenty, the poisoning will worsen and he might die.”
“What?!”
Hongseol’s eyes widened like apricot seeds.
Was that something you could say so casually?
Heuk, as if reading her mind, spoke reassuringly,
“Don’t worry. Our mother, the head of Namgung family’s medical hall, is the best doctor in the world. She’ll save him somehow.”
Even the youngest, Namgung Jeok, added a word.
“If it really can’t be helped, Grandpa said he’d bring a snake from the mountain hall.”
“I see.”
Hongseol nodded, thinking of the enormous snake living atop Daechuksan Mountain.
Her racing heart gradually returned to normal.
‘How comforting it would be to have a family like this.’
From a grandfather who would fetch a medicine for her, to a mother who is the best doctor in the world, to slightly mischievous but warm-hearted younger siblings.
Hongseol couldn’t help but envy Namgung Baek.
“Well, that’s why his personality is so difficult. Eldest children are usually a bit prickly. You’ve heard that, right?”
“What story?”
“The middle child usually has the best personality among three siblings.”
At these words, the youngest Namgung Jeok, who had been quietly crouching, jumped up and raised his hand.
“What about the youngest?”
“The youngest isn’t bad, but tends to be a little spoiled.”
Upon hearing this, Jeok’s face immediately darkened.
“Waaah.”
The innocent Jeok looked at Hongseol with eyes saying, “Really?” and Hongseol smiled warmly.
Before, he had only seemed scary, but now he looked like a little rascal she wanted to tease.
“It’s true. Usually, the youngest is the most spoiled.”
“Waaaaah!”
Namgung Jeok ended up bursting into tears. Hongseol panicked.
“Don’t cry, youngest prince! It was a joke!”
Beside Hongseol, Namgung Heuk scratched his head in mild annoyance at the fuss.
“Miss! I brought an umbrella! Huh?”
Meran appeared late between the plum trees and stopped in place.
Her gaze, for reasons unknown, landed on the crying youngest prince and the children comforting him.
“They look like such a friendly set of siblings, don’t they?”
A satisfied smile spread across Meran’s face.
Late at night, when everyone was asleep.
Hongseol, who had buried herself under the covers, suddenly woke.
In the dimly lit inner room, no one was there. Meran, the servant, had returned to her quarters after confirming Hongseol was asleep.
Normally, she might have been scared by the shadow of leaves on the wall, but not now.
Something else was bothering her.
‘My claws are itchy.’
As a cat beastman, the most bothersome task was trimming her claws. Once a month, she had to shift into her cat form and trim them.
‘When did I last trim my claws?’
She couldn’t remember. Panic rose in her.
She had always warned young cats at the training hall:
“If you keep running away, your claws will grow crooked and pierce through your paw pads!”
‘That can’t happen!’
Quickly, Hongseol peered out the window. Outside was pitch dark.
‘Everyone should be asleep by now. I just need to trim my claws and shift back, right?’
She decided that only the direct Namgung family would know about her cat form.
“Spreading rumors could cause trouble with the training hall anyway.”
Recalling Namgung Ho’s advice, Hongseol didn’t notice a strange shadow near Datak.
She lifted the blanket and leapt off the bed, flipping once in midair.
‘Ah!’
Perhaps from nervousness, her paw slipped upon landing.
“Meow!”
Of course, Hongseol didn’t let that slide.
Acting like a cat, she leapt to regain balance midair.
As she landed on Datak and shrugged her shoulders in pride at a “perfect landing,” she suddenly saw a pure white mouse staring back at her.
Startled by the cat’s gaze, the mouse wobbled.
With a plop, it collapsed flat on the table.
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