“However, it is not something so important that it requires a child to kneel.”
He let go of her hands and picked up the feather casually.
“This is a Guiding Feather.”
“A Guiding Feather…?”
“Yes. It guides those who have lost their way. It was made by my younger sister.”
His younger sister had made it.
Then why wasn’t he angry even though she had ruined it?
Everyone Baesa had ever met blamed her whenever something broke or went wrong.
But Jujeokseo didn’t blame her at all. Instead, he simply held out the feather toward her.
“It has a special power. When someone loses their way, it returns them home. Once it brings them back, its light fades like this.”
Baesa carefully took the blackened feather with her swollen hands.
Then she looked up at him.
“Since it lost its power after touching you… it seems this is your home.”
Baesa lowered her gaze at his gentle words.
‘That can’t be true, Lord.’
I am a cursed snake who cannot belong anywhere.
And the reason the feather lost its light was because her ability devoured its power.
At his kindness, Baesa made a decision.
She couldn’t hide the truth from someone so kind.
“L-Lord… I have something to tell you.”
After hesitating, she finally spoke.
“The reason this feather lost its power is because of my ability…”
“Your ability?”
Baesa nodded slowly.
“You may already know, but I am a member of the imperial beastkin.”
No—he surely already knew.
The Emperor had dressed her in imperial clothing and abandoned her in the southern lands.
“But I cannot use the imperial ability. Instead…”
Baesa removed a small accessory from her clothing.
She activated her ability carefully, and the accessory turned black, then crumbled into ash that fell from her hands.
It was an ability that destroyed and consumed everything.
This was the first time she had revealed its true nature to someone, so she bit her lip tightly.
“This… is why it broke. But thank you for speaking so kindly to me.”
After a moment, Jujeokseo spoke with a puzzled expression.
“What kind of ability is this?”
“Huh? It’s… the power to take away another’s energy…”
“What are you talking about? There is no such ability as stealing from others. All abilities exist in harmony with nature. Yours must have a proper name.”
He answered calmly.
Baesa blinked in confusion.
“Ah… the Emperor called it ‘Absorption.’”
“Absorption… I’ve never heard of it. But impressive. If refined properly, it could greatly benefit your growth.”
Baesa was completely stunned by his reaction.
‘Impressive?’
Her ability was anything but impressive.
She was already an unlucky snake beastkin, and now she had an ability that devoured everything.
And yet he called it impressive?
Was the lord of the Zhuque family lying?
While she was still confused, Jujeokseo casually set the feather aside and spoke.
“I heard you wanted to meet me.”
“Yes…”
“Do you have something to ask of me?”
Baesa nodded slowly.
“I have a request…”
“A request?”
She swallowed hard.
“I… can I stay here?”
Her voice trembled violently.
She knew how absurd her request was.
He had saved her life, and now she was asking to stay.
She really had no shame.
And she was useless.
But—
‘If not this…’
I’ll be sent back to the cold again.
Sirang had said she would be cared for “while she stayed here.”
Which meant she would eventually have to leave.
But Baesa had nowhere else to go.
The only place waiting for her was the frozen, barren snowfield.
Still kneeling, she looked up at Jujeokseo with trembling eyes.
“I may be useless… but I will work hard at anything you ask.”
“……”
“I know my birth might make you uneasy…”
“My birth? You mean because you are imperial?”
“Yes…”
She had never once been treated as an imperial.
Yet now, that very identity—one that had never helped her—had become a chain in this foreign place.
But she could not lie to her savior.
Even knowing the beastkin of Zhuque territory despised the imperial family, she had to tell the truth.
