Her frail body slowly began to freeze.
Her small hands, swollen from the cold, had already gone numb.
The carriage that had brought Baeksa here had long since left the southern lands.
Now, she was truly alone in this freezing place.
Her breathing grew faint, her eyelids drooped halfway shut. At the edge of death once again, Baeksa struggled desperately to stay conscious.
She still hadn’t seen the orb again.
But no matter how long she waited, it didn’t appear.
The biting snow and the fierce winds of the southern lands froze her body solid.
She weakly clenched and unclenched her numb hands.
‘Why…’
Why isn’t it appearing?
Had she… been mistaken back then?
Frozen tears stung her delicate eyelids.
Her eyes burned, but her face was so stiff with cold that she couldn’t even close them properly.
Even as her consciousness faded, the orb never appeared.
As if she had expected it all along, Baeksa gave a lonely, sorrowful smile.
‘I must have imagined it…’
Once she thought that, everything made sense.
She wasn’t a dragon—so why would something like a dragon’s wish-granting orb ever appear to her?
And yet, because of that faint possibility… because she had hoped it might truly exist…
She hadn’t even tried to run, and had allowed herself to be abandoned here once more.
A fitting end for a snake—a creature seen as an omen of misfortune.
‘It’s my fault.’
If she had been born a dragon, she wouldn’t have been cast aside… and she wouldn’t have come all this way clinging to such foolish hope.
The child didn’t know much of the world, so blaming others was difficult.
But blaming herself—wounding herself with those thoughts—was as easy as breathing.
So Baeksa chose to blame herself.
It felt like it would hurt less that way.
The small snake child curled her body into a tight coil, exhaling faint breaths.
She stared blankly at the snow-covered ground.
‘If I die… will I stop feeling sad and hurt?’
This time… she hoped she wouldn’t come back to life again.
‘I’m scared…’
Just as Baeksa squeezed her eyes shut, trembling—
“…A child?”
A voice came from afar.
“A child? Master! There’s a child collapsed here alone!”
A completely unfamiliar voice.
The southern region of Haeseo.
A polluted land where no one could survive, because an enraged dragon had ceased to send rain.
And yet, even in the land abandoned by the emperor, there were still beastfolk who lived on.
If not for the head of the Vermilion Bird clan—Ju Jeokseo—who used his powers to slow the corruption and protect the land, all of them would have died.
Because of that, they were wary of outsiders—and even more so of the imperial palace.
So when rumors spread that a carriage from the palace was heading toward the southern lands carrying some kind of cargo, unease spread among them.
‘A palace carriage is coming here?’
‘Is the emperor finally trying to wipe us out?’
They didn’t know what the carriage carried.
But they knew one thing—it wouldn’t be anything beneficial.
The emperor had abandoned this land long ago. He didn’t care whether its people lived or died.
So they had to find out what was coming.
That was why Ju Jeokseo decided to go to the boundary himself.
After all, he was almost the only one who could remain unaffected—if only briefly—by the corruption of the southern lands.
He mounted his horse and rode straight toward the border.
His dark crimson hair, tied back, fluttered like smoldering embers.
As he stood atop the snowy field on his black horse, he looked like a flame igniting in a sea of white.
But aside from him, nothing stood out.
No palace carriage. No sign of danger.
Just as he was about to turn back—
“Over here! Here! It’s here! There really is a child!”
Jo-yeong jumped up and down, calling out to him.
Ju Jeokseo frowned at the commotion.
“Don’t be ridiculous. Why would there be a child here?”
“I’m telling you, it’s true! Come quickly and see!”
Reluctantly, he stepped closer.
And there—
“…What is this.”
There really was—
A small girl.
Collapsed on the white snow as if she had been discarded.
Wearing clothes marked with the imperial emblem, yet without even a guard—without even a single fur blanket to cover her.
Ju Jeokseo approached without hesitation and touched her frozen cheek.
Thankfully, she was still breathing.
‘Her breath is faint.’
So faint it seemed it could stop at any moment.
If nothing was done immediately, she would die.
How long had she been left in this cold?
If he hadn’t come, she would have surely died before sunrise.
He reached out without hesitation.
‘A trap?’
Or had she simply been left here to die?
Dressed in imperial clothing, abandoned in a place where the inhabitants bore deep hatred toward the palace…
Given the circumstances, the latter seemed more likely.
As Ju Jeokseo carefully lifted the frozen child—
In his arms, the small girl struggled to open her frozen eyelids.
Their eyes met.
An unfamiliar voice. An unfamiliar embrace.
Surrounded by unfamiliar things, Baeksa struggled to open her eyes.
Through her fading vision, she saw a man with dark crimson hair.
Eyes like burning flames. Hair like fire.
The moment she saw him, she realized who he was.
‘Ah… the Vermilion Bird clan…’
The rulers of the southern lands.
The ones who had incurred the emperor’s wrath.
She had heard vague stories about them before.
That the Vermilion Bird clan, once a pillar of the empire, still remained there.
Then… was this man one of them?
She wanted to ask—but couldn’t.
It felt as though opening her eyes had drained the last of her strength.
Even blinking was difficult.
She simply stared blankly at the man’s flame-like hair.
Like his hair, his hands were warm—like fire.
He cupped her cheek gently, slowly thawing her frozen body.
‘Warm…’
It had been so long since she felt another person’s warmth.
And it was the warmth she found at the very end of her life.
Because of that—
She no longer wanted to die.
‘I want to live…’
She wanted to live.
Quietly, like a mouse, just surviving—then someday leaving the palace and finding happiness.
Like the dream she once had as a child.
Even if she had to beg for food.
Even if she had to sleep under a bridge.
The dream she thought she had abandoned long ago flickered back to life like a small flame.
So the child decided to do something she would never normally do.
“…Sa—”
With the last of her strength, Baeksa stared into the man’s eyes.
“Please… save me…”
His hands were so warm.
Warm enough to melt her frozen cheeks.
And someone who carried such warmth—
‘Maybe… just for a week more…’
Might let her live.
That foolish hope rose once again in her heart.
Tears she thought had long dried up welled up again at the warmth she found at the end of her life.
A single line of tears streamed down her round cheek.
Unable to wipe them away, unable even to stop crying, Baeksa desperately clutched the man’s sleeve.
“Please…”
A tiny, fading voice.
Yet clear.
Looking up at him, she pleaded earnestly—
“I want to live…”
With those words, her small eyelids closed.
Her hand fell limp.
Her tiny body slackened in the man’s firm embrace.
And in the very next moment—
Whoosh!
A large fur blanket was thrown over her small body.
It was big enough to wrap around her several times over—thick, and warm.