TLBVBF 01

A cold, freezing land.

On that desolate ground, a small snake abandoned all alone blinked slowly.

‘…It’s cold.’

The young snake knew very well where she had been left.

The southern lands of Haeseo Kingdom.

A cursed southern soil where black rain fell every day, and anyone who stepped foot inside was said never to return alive.

Among those lands, this place—where she now lay—was the most heavily tainted of all.

Even though she had been abandoned in such a harsh place, she did not feel resentment.

Being discarded… was all her own fault.

The small white snake, Baeksa, slowly lifted her head and looked down at her body.

Her originally snow-white body, pure as falling snow, had been completely stained black.

A pitch-black body that no longer matched the name “Baeksa” (White Snake) at all.

That grotesque form was the very reason she had been abandoned here.

‘It’s no longer usable.’

‘Throw it into the southern lands.’

Because she could no longer be used in any way.

It wasn’t as if her body had always been this hideous.

There had once been a time when Baeksa had a clean body, just like her name suggested.

But everything changed the year she turned seven, when she manifested her innate ability—the “divine power” unique to beastfolk.

The small snake exhaling faint breaths looked at the falling black snow and recalled that day.

The moment she first awakened her ability.

Baeksa was born under the emperor of the Haeseo Kingdom, a dragon-blooded father.

Unlike her dragon-beast siblings, she had no beautiful horns or radiant divine orb.

Moreover, she could not manifest the “divine power” that all beastfolk naturally possessed from birth, as if it were part of their body.

Because of that, some even whispered that it must be due to her mother’s lowly origin.

But since her mother’s identity was never spoken of, nothing about her was known for certain.

The only thing Baeksa could understand was one truth.

That she had been born as an omen of misfortune—a snake.

And that a white snake was not a welcome existence in the imperial family.

“A snake? How could there be a snake in the imperial family…?”

“Are you sure it’s truly the emperor’s bloodline?”

For dragon-beastfolk, dragons were supposed to be born naturally. So no one could believe the birth of a snake child.

Thus, the imperial family regarded Baeksa as a great disgrace.

A stain on the flawless emperor—something that should never have existed.

Because of that, the emperor did not even give her a name.

In the Haeseo imperial family, it was customary for the emperor to personally name his children.

All her siblings received dragon names at birth, but Baeksa remained unnamed even after seven years.

“She,” “the white snake,” “the small snake,” “that insignificant thing”—those were the only ways she was addressed.

Still, the child didn’t mind.

Simply being allowed to live, despite being the shame of the imperial family, felt like a great mercy.

Then, at the age of seven—

“Her Highness has manifested her divine power!”

“But… that divine power is…”

Contrary to everyone’s belief that she would never awaken her ability, the child did manifest power.

But what she gained was not the dragon’s divine blessing of “protection.”

“No! My power! My blessing—it’s being devoured by this insane thing!”

“I—I didn’t mean to…!”

“Help! Nanny! Aaaah! Help me!”

The power she awakened was absorption.

It manifested when she, suffering under the bullying of Prince Songra, ended up devouring his divine power.

Baeksa’s ability was a terrifying, greedy power that consumed everything in its path.

Unable to comprehend what had happened, the child was dragged before the emperor by soldiers.

She knelt before her father, trembling like a criminal.

Instinctively, she understood that her power was not something welcomed.

As expected, the emperor looked at her with a thin, twisted smile.

It was not the expression of a father pleased by his daughter’s awakening.

“I had been thinking of discarding you into the southern lands soon.”

At those words, the child flinched.

The southern lands—where the exiled Suzaku clan now ruled, a place cursed by the ancient divine dragon.

A place no one ever returned from alive.

To think she had originally been intended to be thrown there…

Tears welled in the child’s wide eyes.

Seeing this, the emperor spoke as if he had been waiting for it.

“But I’ve changed my mind. If you work for me from now on, I will postpone that decision.”

“What will it be? Exile and death in the south… or staying in the palace and serving your father?”

“I… I’ll stay. I want to work for Your Majesty.”

The child looked up at him fearfully.

“I’ll do anything. Anything at all. So please… don’t exile me.”

Satisfied with her answer, the emperor finally gave her a name.

Baeksa (白蛇).

It literally meant “white snake,” a designation also meant to distinguish her from the other dragon-blooded royals.

Still, the child was simply happy to have a name.

It meant she finally had a role in the imperial palace.

It meant she could prove her worth.

After that, the emperor took Baeksa somewhere every day, blindfolding her.

Then he placed someone’s hand in hers and ordered her to absorb the energy within that person.

She obeyed.

She never removed the blindfold, never asked who the hand belonged to.

Her father had told her not to ask.

Her only duty was to do exactly what she was told, without question.

“Lady Baeksa, it is time to go to the detached palace.”

Thus, even as she went back and forth to the detached palace, she knew nothing about the owner of the hand she held.

Only that the hand was delicate, the fingers long, and that it never once moved.

Yet it was not a corpse. There was warmth in it.

Sometimes, there was even a faint pleasant scent—something strangely familiar, as if she had smelled it somewhere long ago.

But it must have been an illusion. Baeksa had been isolated from others since birth.

Time passed like that.

After she began absorbing energy, subtle changes appeared in her body.

Black spots formed on her originally pure white body, and the more she used her ability, the larger those stains became.

Slowly, they began to consume her entirely.

Even so, Baeksa could not neglect the “work” the emperor had given her.

Because that was the only reason she was not exiled.

She had to do it diligently without complaint.

But the moment the black stains completely covered her white body—

The moment she was no longer a pure white snake, but a pitch-black, ominous one—

She could no longer use her ability.

She could absorb nothing anymore—not blessing, not curse, nothing.

It was as if her body had reached its limit.

And when the emperor learned this—

“Dispose of it.”

Without the slightest hesitation, he ordered her to be thrown into the southern lands.

There was not even a trace of affection for the daughter he had raised.

And so, now.

She had been abandoned here alone.

From the eyes of the blackened baby snake, tears dripped one by one.

If she had been just a little more useful… would she have been discarded?

What exactly was the energy she had absorbed all this time that it turned her into this?

If I’m gone… what will happen to the owner of that hand…?

Thoughts rose and fell, again and again.

The small snake curled itself tighter, shrinking into itself.

Baeksa instinctively knew her death was near.

Ever since she had been left here, the polluted energy of the land had been flowing endlessly into her body.

If she absorbed too much of it, she would die.

And she had already reached that limit the moment she was abandoned.

‘I wish I had known it would come to this…’

If she had known it would end like this, she wouldn’t have tried so hard to be acknowledged.

Her father, who had given her such a worthless name.

And yet, she had been so happy just to receive anything at all.

She had wanted to work hard at everything.

So that one day, she might be recognized and become a proper member of the imperial family.

But now she understood.

None of it had been possible from the moment she was born a snake.

There are hearts in this world that effort alone cannot change…

The small snake closed her eyes.

She no longer had the strength to run or struggle to survive.

All she could do was wait quietly in this place.

For her end.

As her eyes closed and strength drained from her body—

Something small and black, like a bead, appeared in her vision.

‘That… is?’

It looked just like a dragon’s divine orb. Something that should never exist for her.

And at the same time… something she had longed for more than anything.

The small snake squeezed out her last remaining strength and looked up at the round bead.

And in the next moment—

The bead flashed with white light and swallowed the tiny baby snake whole.

Before she could even see or understand what had happened, Baeksa’s vision turned black.

The end of her short life.

After the baby snake’s heart completely stopped,

the energy of all creation began to be absorbed into the bead, and the polluted land slowly started to regain its original form.

But it lasted only for a brief moment—so no one saw it.

And then…