"I understand what you mean. Father shut his eyes tight when I said the Princess was coming, but he soon said he’d allow it. I don’t think you need to worry about her staying here.
I already told Grandfather from the Tang Clan, and he said he’ll let Father know once he returns to the clan. Think he’ll be surprised too? Hehe."
"Thank you, Hwa-eun."
"No need to thank me."
After the ship departed, we all rested in our rooms, and around noon, I explained to Hwa-eun what had happened the night before.
It was in order to expedite the Princess’s move-in. Hwa-eun had quickly received permission from her adoptive father at the Beast Palace and Grandfather Mandok Shingun to let the Princess stay.
Apparently, her adoptive father had been shocked to hear I’d formed a Beast-Heart Pact with the Princess, but when I said I was bringing her to the Beast Palace, he just reacted like, "Ah, so it’s finally happened."
My father-in-law would be surprised too, but rejecting it wasn’t even an option.
Honestly, I said I was asking for permission, but it wasn’t asking—it was a notification.
Who in their right mind would say no when a princess says she needs a place to stay?
Even if she had been cast out by the king, that didn’t change her status as royalty.
Rejecting her would insult the royal family’s dignity—and that would be a disaster.
To be honest, I grumbled a bit when the Princess showed up saying she’d been exiled and wanted me to take responsibility, but rejecting her never once crossed my mind.
She was royalty. And more than that, the daughter the king doted on most. Just because she’d been temporarily cut off didn’t mean it was permanent.
The king was still young and full of fire now, but give it time. When he gets older, loses strength, and his estrogen levels rise, wouldn’t he want to see his beloved daughter again?
That’s just how men are—once the estrogen hits, they start crying at dramas and tearing up for no reason.
Now imagine he hears that someone refused to take in his daughter when she needed help?
Obviously, that person would be punished, and the one who welcomed her would be rewarded.
A little calculating? Sure. But think of it as a long-term investment—who knows, I might get another spirit beast out of it.
And even if she were cut off forever, I’d still be fine.
Even if the current king collapses, there’s a powerful backup—his successor.
This king might default, but there’s still a safe insurance policy waiting.
Besides, the Princess apparently treated the Crown Prince pretty well. And from what I saw of him recently, he didn’t seem like someone who would just turn his back and pretend nothing happened.
The Crown Prince is definitely not the type to just wash his hands of it.
Since there was no need to worry about the Princess’s living arrangements anymore, I reported to Hwa-eun about the new addition to the family.
"Oh, and Hwa-eun—I received a spirit beast as a parting gift when leaving the ~Nоvеl𝕚ght~ palace."
"I thought you left empty-handed, but I guess not? What kind of spirit beast is it?"
"It’s called an yeongwon, an aquatic creature with a distinctive dorsal crest..."
I explained it in detail, wondering if the term for yeongwon was different in the Central Plains—but apparently, yeongwon was yeongwon here too.
"Oh! Yeongwon! I know those. Then it must be the Bakwon, the Hail of the Cloud-Rain-Snow-Hail branch of the Twenty-Four Poison Branches, right?"
Hwa-eun immediately mentioned the name Bakwon.
She seemed to assume it had to be the Bakwon, since it was a yeongwon spirit beast.
I shook my head at her words.
"Ah, but I’m not so sure about that. I’m starting to think it might be something else."
"Why’s that?"
"Well, for starters, it’s way too young. Looks really different from the drawing in the Secret Compendium of Venomous Creatures."
"Really?"
The illustration Hwa-eun and I had seen of the Bakwon in the Compendium looked like a magnificent stegosaurus, with an impressive crest growing down its back.
The print was faded, so we couldn’t tell the colors clearly, but it showed a creature with black patterns and white spots.
But the one currently dozing in the cage was mostly white, with just blue markings on the dorsal crest.
And the crest itself was small—quite a difference.
Sure, there might be a difference between hatchlings and adults, but the size and markings of the crest can also be used to distinguish species, so we couldn’t make any conclusions yet.
"Yeah, I think I’ll need to raise it for a while and see how it turns out."
"Got it. Still, congrats on the new addition to the family, So-ryong."
"Thank you, Hwa-eun."
"So then... does that mean you’re coming back now?"
At the end of our conversation, Hwa-eun asked if I was heading straight back.
I flinched at her question and replied awkwardly.
"Uh, well, about that..."
"Hm? Why can’t you answer?"
When I hesitated, Hwa-eun asked why I wasn’t answering.
Feeling a prick of guilt, I mumbled back.
"It’s just... well... I’ve come all the way here, so I was thinking, maybe I could take this chance to check out the four northern locations...?"
"..."
I was referring to four of the seven potential sites for the World-Destroying Golden Toad—the ones north of the Yangtze River.
I’d originally planned to investigate the three southern sites first and visit the northern ones later when the chance came.
But now that I’d made it north, wouldn’t it be a waste to just turn around?
A long silence followed.
Well, it wasn’t really long—but it felt like an eternity.
Is this a no? Did I totally misread the room?
Just a while ago, Hwa-eun had been urging me to return quickly, even visiting my mental space and demanding affection.
That whole incident forced me to secretly wash my pants at night... and now I was asking something this tone-deaf?
My heart pounded nervously, until finally, I heard a sigh—and then her reply.
"Haa... Fine. But you have to come back soon, and you need to meet me often in the mental space."
"O-often?"
"Is that a problem too?"
"N-no! Of course not! Why would that be a problem?"
Obviously, when she said “meet,” she didn’t just mean a friendly chat.
At this rate, maybe I should start sleeping in diapers next time.
At that moment, Gun Hye-rin and the Princess chimed in, apparently puzzled by the mention of mental space.
"Wait, meeting Hwa-eun? In the mental space?"
"Don’t tell me that’s complete now?"
"Yes, we can meet in the Princess’s mental space now too. Oh, right—I never told Gun Hye-rin, did I? Yes, it’s complete."
"Ooooh! So now we can meet in the mental space too?"
"Perfect timing—I’ll teach you the chant now."
Hwa-eun began passing on the video-call technique to the other two.
It occurred to me: I’d probably never know peace in my mental space again.
But at least with more people dropping by now, there was one small upside.
I guess... I won’t need diapers after all.
***
While Hwa-eun was teaching the two of them the avatar chant for mind-space communication, I was staring at the creature inside the cage.
Honestly, I wanted to take it out right away, but the thing was still sleeping soundly.
I didn’t want to wake it up and startle it, so I left it alone.
Even if the bars meant nothing, animals still feel a big difference between having them there and not.
There’s that well-known behavior where two dogs bark fiercely at each other through a fence, but go silent and confused once the barrier’s gone.
So I hesitated to remove the cage, thinking the little one might be shocked if it woke up and found nothing between us.
Then suddenly, I felt something crawling up my leg, and when I looked down, it was Hyang, climbing up while making soft squirming noises.
—Tsrrt. 『Daddy.』
"Oh, hey, Hyang."
—Tsrurr. 『Whatcha doing?』
"I’m watching this little guy," I said, looking at the creature dozing while sitting.
Hyang climbed over my back and onto my shoulder, then crawled down my arm and onto the table.
—Tsrrt. 『Why’s it sleeping so much?』
"Who knows? Maybe it’s just because it’s a baby."
—Tsrurur. 『Hey, wake up.』
Hyang peered into the cage and poked the creature gently with her antenna.
It opened its eyes, blinked a few times, and then closed them again.
"Hyang, don’t bother it."
—Tsrrt. 『I’m not bothering it. I was just trying to talk to it. We can’t leave it locked up in there forever.』
"Yeah, that’s true."
—Tsrurur. 『Hey. Hey.』
At first, it didn’t respond. But when Hyang kept tapping it with her antenna, the creature swished its crest-backed tail irritably.
—Tsrrt. 『Oh! Looks like it’s gonna get up!』
Just like Hyang said, it looked like it was about to rise—but after one tail flick, it wrapped the tail around its face and went right back to sleep.
God, that’s cute.
I found the sight unbearably adorable, but Hyang clearly didn’t think the same. Her voice rang out in outrage.
—Tsrr! 『Wh-what the heck is this thing!? When your older sister wakes you, you’re supposed to get up!』
The sibling hierarchy in our household is pretty strict, and Hyang was furious that the creature hadn’t obeyed.
Annoyed, she started trying to sneak her antenna between the creature’s tail and its face, gently tickling the gap.
The creature responded by lifting its tail and shaking its head once.
Now wide-eyed and alert, its gaze found Hyang—and its eyes started growing wider and wider.
They expanded until they couldn’t grow any bigger, and then the creature let out a bizarre noise.
—Kkiee!
Definitely startled.
"It’s okay, little one. We’re not bad people."
I tried to calm it down with a soft voice, but it just flattened itself against the cage bars, staring at us in fear.
—Tsrrt. 『It’s okay. Don’t be scared. Funny how it was sleeping so peacefully before, and now it’s totally freaked out. Right, Daddy?』
Just as Hyang turned to me with that comment, the creature’s mouth opened—and something came flying toward us.
—Fthuthuk.
Three shots.
The speed wasn’t too fast—I caught two of them—but one smacked straight into Hyang’s forehead.
—Smack.
—Tsrrrut. 『Ah, ow! Hey! That hurt!』
Hyang rubbed her forehead with her antenna, growling in frustration.
Meanwhile, the creature, having launched its shots, squinted and promptly closed its eyes again.
It had lobbed something pea-sized at Hyang and gone back to sleep.
At first, I thought what I caught were ice shards—because they were small and transparent.
"Wait... is this like Seol, Bing, and Dong—does it use ice?"
But when I touched the little pellet in my hand, there was no chill at all.
"This isn’t ice..."
If it were, it should’ve been cold, but it wasn’t.
Just then, as the ship shifted, a beam of sunlight streamed through the window and onto the table.
And that’s when the small white translucent thing sparkled in the light.
"Did it just awaken?"
"What is this?"
Our commotion drew Gun Hye-rin and the Princess over, and they picked up one of the dropped shards.
After examining it, Gun Hye-rin’s expression turned surprised.
"This is crystal."
"Crystal?"
I took a closer look too—and saw that it was a hexagonal crystal.
It was definitely quartz, what people commonly called crystal.
It seemed this creature’s special ability was firing off crystal.
But then—suddenly—Gun Hye-rin and the Princess’s voices started sounding twice as fast.
"Itshootscrystalshowincredible."
"Reallyincrediblehuh?I’veneverheardofaspiritbeastthatfirescrystals."
At first, I thought only their voices were playing tricks on me.
But their movements were twice as fast, too—like skipping through a risqué video.
Even their lips were moving at double speed.
"What... what the hell? Why’s this happening?"
—Tsrurr. 『Daddy. Something’s wrong with Hyang.』
Only Hyang’s voice was coming through clearly.
Next to me, Gun Hye-rin and the Princess spoke in shocked tones.
"Whyisthemastertalkingsosluggishly?"
"So-ryong? So-ryong, are you okay?"
Then I realized—this wasn’t them speeding up, or my hearing or sight glitching.
No—Hyang and I had slowed down.
Which meant...
That creature in the cage, now gently snoring again...
It was definitely the cause.
The Princess and Gun Hye-rin, faces full of worry, rushed to check on me.
"So-ryong, are you okay?"
"M-master, are you alright?"
They started inspecting me in a panic—but for some reason, there was a faint smell in the air, like something singed.
Is this another one of that thing’s toxins?
What a bizarre creature.
