‘There are still quite a lot of places left to introduce.’
Baek Gahyeon thought as he looked around the estate.
He wasn’t particularly busy, yet it still felt like a pointless waste of time, which irritated him a little.
“Um……”
At that moment, Soya called out to him cautiously.
“Are you very busy?”
“…Huh?”
“Thank you so much for taking time out of your busy schedule. I’ll look around from here on my own, so you can go ahead first, young master.”
“N-No, I……”
Gahyeon was flustered. He wasn’t busy—it was just bothersome.
But there was no need to refuse her words outright. He could just agree that he was busy and leave.
Yet, for some reason, he found himself hesitating.
“I-I am… busy, but…”
“I’m really okay. Please go ahead.”
Soya said again with a faint smile.
“O-Okay. Sure.”
Strangely guilty, Gahyeon added unnecessarily,
“I’ll send someone over this way, so don’t wander off alone and get lost. Just stay in the garden and look around.”
“Yes, young master. Thank you very much.”
As Soya answered brightly with a smile, Gahyeon paused for a moment before turning away.
After sending Gahyeon off, Soya let out a small sigh.
“Phew……”
In truth, she already knew. He wasn’t busy—he just didn’t like her and found her troublesome.
Soya, sharp as she was, could tell Gahyeon didn’t find her pleasant.
Of course, she didn’t resent him for it.
She simply felt burdened that such an important young master had to deal with something troublesome because of her.
Just then—
“…Huh?”
“Eek…!”
From the bushes nearby, the third young master, Baek Gayul, who had apparently been hiding there watching her, suddenly met her eyes.
“Waaah!”
Startled, Gayul tumbled over with a loud crash all by himself.
“Ar-Are you okay?”
Soya widened her eyes and hurried over in shock.
But Gayul quickly scrambled up and shouted,
“D-Don’t come near me, cotton ball!”
“But you’re injured……”
Soya pointed at his knee and muttered.
“Gasp! Bl-Blood…!”
Only then did Gayul notice his torn trousers and the blood seeping from his scraped knee, and he panicked.
Then he glared at Soya and shouted,
“I-I am Baek Gayul, the third son of the great White Tiger House! A wound like this is nothing to someone like you, a cotton ball!”
His face flushed red as he yelled and then ran off in a hurry.
Soya blinked as she watched his disappearing figure.
‘Is he angry?’
She recalled his red face and raised voice.
Maybe that was possible.
People usually got angry when they saw Soya.
Even when she did nothing, they got angry—so it made sense that the third young master would be upset after falling and getting hurt because of her.
“Still… he should really get that treated…”
Soya’s eyes drooped sadly.
After a short while, Yeonjeong and Sanho, having received Gahyeon’s message, came to take her.
“Lady!”
“Oh my, there you are.”
“The second young master is something else. Leaving such a young lady alone here just because he’s busy.”
“It’s okay. The young master kindly showed me around.”
Soya defended Gahyeon against their complaints.
“Our sweet young lady, shall we head back now?”
“Yes.”
So Soya returned, holding Yeonjeong’s and Sanho’s hands on either side.
On the way back, Sanho noticed her drooping expression.
“What happened, young lady?”
“Well… it’s just…”
Soya carefully explained what had happened earlier.
“The youngest young master fell and got hurt because of me. I wanted to treat his wound, but……”
Contrary to her worried expression, Yeonjeong and Sanho burst into laughter and waved their hands dismissively.
“Oh, it’s fine. The youngest young master is always getting into accidents and getting hurt.”
“But……”
Soya remembered when Lady Lili had pushed her before, making her fall.
Her knee had split open and bled—it had hurt so much.
“Our cotton-ball lady is so kind-hearted. But you really don’t need to worry. The youngest young master is a tiger!”
Yeonjeong even raised her hands like claws and went “Roar!” playfully, mimicking a tiger.
“That’s exactly why I’m more worried……”
Soya’s quiet murmur was too soft for anyone to hear.
“Ack! I-It hurts!”
“Oh my, you’re being especially dramatic today, young master.”
A boy about twelve carefully applied medicine to the young master’s wound.
The poor boy serving the youngest young master was Suri, a beastkin from the Indigo Wolf clan and Sanho’s younger brother.
“I-it really hurts!”
Gayul shouted with tears forming at the corners of his eyes.
“You should’ve just stayed still. I would’ve carried you back, but instead you ran here on an injured leg.”
“I-I couldn’t show weakness like that!”
Gayul huffed in frustration.
It was all because of that small, white, fluffy girl who looked like a cotton ball.
He had refused to look weak in front of her, so he ended up running on his injured knee and making it worse.
“But that girl… that cotton ball. She doesn’t seem like a tiger, so what is she?”
“I’m not sure. Since she’s small, maybe a mouse?”
“But mice aren’t quiet like her. I heard mice are very noisy.”
Gayul pouted and shook his head.
“Maybe a dog? Dogs have shiny eyes and droopy corners like that. Like this.”
“But dog beastkin are usually quite healthy. That cotton-ball lady seemed rather fragile.”
“Hmmm……”
Gayul and Suri seriously tried to guess Soya’s identity.
“Then what is she? A hedgehog? A squirrel? A deer?”
Gayul listed animals one by one.
“Not a hedgehog—she’s too round. And there’s no squirrel clan with white fur. Deer are much taller and slimmer.”
“Ugh……”
“Maybe she isn’t even a wild beast. The clan head brought her from outside. Anyway, you shouldn’t be running until your leg heals, understood—young master? Young master, where are you going!”
As soon as his wound was treated, Gayul jumped up and dashed outside.
“I’m busy!”
“No, young master! It’s time for sword training—! Oh dear……”
Left behind, Suri sighed in exhaustion.
Saeon’s office.
“The youngest young master has been skipping training and following that cotton-ball lady all day.”
Sa-eon lifted his head from the documents he had been lazily flipping through at Jeokyoung’s report.
“So Yul has taken a liking to the cotton ball too, it seems.”
Sa-eon chuckled lightly.
“Shouldn’t you say something to him, my lord? No one else can rein in his temperament.”
“Leave him be.”
He stood up and walked toward the window.
Just below, Gayul and Soya were visible.
The sight of the cautious boy tailing the much smaller cotton ball was oddly amusing.
“Isn’t it nice? The smaller one following an even smaller one.”
As Saeon murmured lazily while looking outside—
“My lord.”
Jeokyoung called carefully.
“About that cotton-ball girl… she isn’t actually some hidden illegitimate child, is she?”
“What?”
Sa-eon’s face filled with confusion.
“I mean, you went to meet His Highness the Crown Prince in the morning, and suddenly came back at night with a little girl. It’s suspicious. And that western room……”
“No.”
Sa-eon frowned and immediately denied it.
An illegitimate child?
What nonsense was that.
“Then what is she? You didn’t just pick her up on the street, did you?”
“……”
Sa-eon knew everyone was curious about Soya.
He had ended his explanation with a simple “I stole her on the way.”
So it wasn’t strange.
Some even treated it as a joke—but it wasn’t one.
Even he didn’t quite know how to explain Soya properly.
Because it was true—he had really found her by chance and taken her.
‘No. Was it really chance?’
Sa-eon’s expression slowly hardened.
