Prologue
A dark room.
A small, white egg lay in a basket on the floor.
Moonlight shone through the window, illuminating only the egg.
A man with long black hair tied loosely back into a ponytail squatted down to examine the egg with a worried look on his face.
It was a strange thing indeed.
It had been a week since the egg was supposed to hatch, and there had been no sign of it doing so.
“That’s strange.”
Eggs were very rare in the Astrophel family, but they never failed to hatch.
It was a family famous for its powerful vitality.
This egg was a little different.
“……Hmm. Was there a shortage of pheromones?”
The man narrowed his eyes and rubbed his chin, then sighed.
It was right to think that there was no hope because it was way past the scheduled date.
Nevertheless, he couldn’t shake his lingering feelings, so the man murmured, “Let’s wait one more day.”
It was then.
The door to the bedroom, where no one was allowed to enter except those authorized, opened.
“Baon.”
“My Lord ……?” 1
The cold voice came from behind.
He had the same black hair as the squatting man, but he had a more dangerous atmosphere.
Red eyes glinted in the darkness, showing that they were not human.
The man with a cold impression lowered his gaze indifferently to the basket. 2
“Looks like it’s still here.”
“Yes, it is.”
Tsk.
The man clicked his tongue briefly in response to Baon’s answer.
That was it.
He withdrew his gaze without regret.
“The third one’s a dud.” 3
It was a cold judgment.
Although his own child failed to be born, he seemed unmoved.
Was it because he had two heirs who had already cracked the egg?
Baon looked bitterly at the last egg whose occupant had not seen the light of the world.
It shouldn’t have been possible in only three months, but he had grown attached to it.
“It may be too weak to hatch.” 4
“It’s just as well. Even if it had been born, it wouldn’t have been able to function properly.” 5
The man stood before the basket.
He could feel a faint wriggle of energy, but it would soon be extinguished.
“Inform the family that two successors have been born.”
“Yes, sir.”
The man, who had been staring indifferently at the egg, turned away as if he didn’t need to see more.
He could no longer sense any vitality from the egg.
It was at that moment.
A twitch.
A miraculous thing happened.
Twitch. Twitch.
The egg began to move.
Baon’s eyes opened wide in surprise.
The man who was about to leave the room also stopped and turned around.
Tap tap. Tap tap.
It felt then that earnest movement to come out from the inside began.
The shell of the broken egg clattered to the floor.
“My lord, just now…!”
“Yes. It’s hatching.”
The man’s eyes narrowed. He could feel a fragile and delicate life.
Is a Black Mamba’s energy this weak at birth?
As the man pondered for a moment if this could be, since he hadn’t seen the moment first two heirs broke the egg and emerged, he heard a cry.
“Pii-!” 6
At the same time, the room fell silent.
“What’s that?”
“…… It’s a bird.”
A bundle of white cottony fluff, even smaller than the size of his palm, was enthusiastically flapping its adorable little wings.
It was a tiny little thing, unable even to get a piece of eggshell off its head by wriggling and flailing about.
Nevertheless, they couldn’t take their eyes off it, so the two men stared at the figure with bated breath.
The baby bird, finally free of the shell around its body, seemed then to have lost its strength.
It looked like it was about to doze off, as if its eyes might close at any moment.
Sure enough.
“Pii…….”
With a colorful chirp, it fell asleep.
It was an astonishing sight.
To think that it was exhausted and fell asleep just because it emerged from the egg. At such a spectacle as he’d never seen before in all his years of life, the man looked at Baon.
Baon’s mouth was open, looking dumbfounded.
Soon, the corners of the man’s mouth twisted upward.
“Explain, Baon.”
The birth of a baby bird in the House of Astrophel, a family that was the symbol of Black Mamba.
It was something that absolutely required an explanation.
Notes:
[1] 가주님: title for the head of a family / household
[2] 서늘한 인상의 남자가 무심하게 시선을 내려 바구니를 보았다: FWIW, 인상의 can mean either ‘impression’ or ‘scaly/scalelike’ so I feel like ‘cold-blooded/reptilian’ could also be implied?
[3] “세 번째는 글렀군.” The third one is wrong / incorrect / false / hopeless, so, I think it could also be ‘there was something wrong with this one’ with the implication being that it won’t/can’t/was never going to hatch.
[4] “워낙 약하게 태어나셨습니다.” lit: You were born too weak. Which doesn’t entirely make sense given Kaid’s response. Maybe, ‘You came into the world too weak.’
[5] “차라리 잘됐어. 어차피 태어나도 제 구실을 하지 못했을 테니.” specifically the segment 제 구실을 하다 lit. “perform one’s function[duty] worthily”
[6] 삐 Bird chirping sound effect. ‘Peep’ is probably closest English term but I can’t see ‘peep’ without thinking of the marshmallows….
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