TLBVBF 02

“Why….”

The White Serpent muttered as she looked down at her small hands.

“Why am I… back again?”

The moment she woke up, she had been shocked.

Because the place she opened her eyes in was her quarters inside the imperial palace.

Not the southern lands of the North Territory, where black snow fell and the cold pierced everything.

Where exactly had she returned from?

Could it be… her father had given her another chance?

Had he picked up the abandoned child and brought her back to the palace?

But something felt strange.

There were no black spots on her body at all.

It was as if she had returned to the time before her ability awakened—completely clean.

The girl spun in place to look more closely.

Then, multicolored mist rose around her—and from within it, a small baby snake appeared.

The White Serpent, now partially transformed, looked down at her tail.

A long, clean body like white rice cake dough—without a single black speck.

Then—

“Hey! Snake!”

With a loud crash, a boy barged into her room.

It was Songra, her half-brother, the Second Prince born from the Empress.

The White Serpent froze when she saw him.

“On Songra’s forehead….”

There was a dragon seal on it.

A golden mark granted only to those who could use “blessings.”

But Songra had lost his seal when he turned ten.

“You, you…! What did you do!”

It was because the White Serpent had awakened her ability and absorbed part of his blessing.

After losing part of it, the mark never returned.

Because of that, she had endured Songra and the Empress’s harsh abuse.

But now the seal was there again…?

Then that meant—

“Don’t tell me… I went back to the past?”

An absurd thought floated into her mind.

“If that’s really true…”

Then she must not react, no matter how Songra treated her.

As before, she endured silently while he grabbed and tormented her.

“Seriously, why don’t you even transform into a human? That’s boring.”

She didn’t think about running away like before, nor about becoming a magnificent dragon like Songra.

Because if she did, “that incident” might happen again.

“Tch.”

“You’re not fun today. Did you eat something wrong?”

When she gave no reaction at all, Songra lost interest and left.

Only after he was gone did she slowly open her tightly shut eyes.

Confirming no one was inside, she slipped out through a hole in the door.

Outside her quarters, she bit down on a patch of wild grass and activated her ability.

Ssssh—

“…!”

As she had expected, the plant was stripped of all life and withered away.

Her greedy ability had already awakened.

Life or death.

Blessing or corruption.

It devoured everything that existed.

The White Serpent calmed her pounding heart and thought carefully.

‘I must have gone back to the past.’

To before she awakened and became a tool of her father.

If she had reacted even slightly to Songra’s bullying just now, the same future would have repeated itself.

She looked up at the sky.

Wait.

Was repeating the same thing really bad?

Was it wrong to become her father’s tool again?

Maybe this time she could do better.

Be more useful, not be discarded—

But then she remembered her father’s cold face as he threw her away.

‘What a stupid thought.’

If she truly had returned to the past, nothing she did would change the future.

She would still be ordered to absorb the energy inside the “Hand’s Owner,” and afterward, be discarded.

She didn’t want that.

If that future was waiting anyway, she didn’t want to endure it again.

A life of bleeding from exhaustion, desperately trying to please her father, using her ability until she collapsed.

She was already sick of it.

‘Then what should I do…’

At that moment, she remembered something her father had said before her regression.

“I was planning to throw you into the southern lands soon.”

She had confirmed it was true thanks to Songra.

Songra, after losing part of her blessing, had screamed at her:

“You would’ve been thrown away soon anyway if not for that disgusting ability! Don’t you know?!”

“Just a week earlier and the Emperor would’ve abandoned you!”

“A week…?”

That meant in one week from now, the Emperor would abandon her in the southern lands.

After thinking for a while, the White Serpent made a decision.

This time, she would not try to be loved.

She would choose to be discarded.

If the same future was coming anyway, she didn’t want to stay in this terrible palace any longer.

Even if she only had one day to live, she wanted to live outside.

Somewhere no one would call her disgusting or unclean.

And above all—

‘I want to see it…’

That orb she saw in her final moment of her previous life.

She hadn’t seen it clearly, but it resembled a dragon’s sacred pearl.

‘If I could see it one more time…’

If she could confirm what it was, she felt it would be okay—even if she died a little earlier this time.

But first, she had to hide her ability.

If she was lucky, she might survive there for a few days.

Her ability absorbed everything, so as long as she didn’t use it, it would take time for her body to become fully corrupted.

Even four days would be enough to identify the orb.

Of course, it might not appear again…

But she still wanted to go.

Whether it appeared or not, she needed to see it with her own eyes.

And if she was even luckier, she might meet the beast-people living in that exiled land.

Then perhaps she could survive a little longer with their help.

‘Though they probably won’t be kind to me…’

Still, anything was better than staying here.

She had already learned through experience that nothing was more lonely and miserable than the imperial palace.

But as she decided to leave, one thing weighed on her mind.

‘That hand.’

The hand she had been absorbing energy from every day by the Emperor’s command.

What would happen to that person if she left?

The energy accumulated in that body was strong enough to kill her young body.

If she disappeared…

She looked down at her hands blankly.

There had been moments in the palace when she felt comfort from that hand.

Its owner never spoke or moved, so she was never rejected.

And yet, it was also sad.

The only one who didn’t push her away in this place was a motionless, almost lifeless hand.

So she truly wished that person would wake up soon.

And even after waking, she hoped they wouldn’t push her away like everyone else.

But at the same time, she was afraid.

Afraid that once they woke up, she would become useless again.

Afraid that the awakened owner might reject her just like her father did…

She shook her head violently.

‘No.’

If she kept thinking like that, she wouldn’t be able to leave.

And then she would end up being used again as her father’s tool, just like before.

“Sorry… unknown lady.”

The White Serpent curled up with a sorrowful expression.

“Even if I stay, I’ll just become useless soon anyway.”

So please recover quickly, and find another way.

She genuinely hoped the woman would wake soon.

It was true that she had survived a little longer thanks to holding that hand.

Even though she had now given that up, the feeling she had then hadn’t disappeared.

The scent she remembered still lingered faintly at the tip of her nose.

Inside a softly lit room, the Emperor lifted a beaded curtain and asked.

“How is her condition?”