Chương 56: Do you smell something odd?
[200X April 20th.]
Under the blazing sun, Chang Seol is standing under the tree, staring at the house on the other side of the road, wondering when did her life go wrong.
It has been wrong from the beginning. Saya is gone. And now, Chang Seol is twenty years behind her time.
"To make sure that the egg hatches safely…" Chang Seol mutters bitterly, "Shouldn't she make sure of it by herself?"
Darn! Why must she take care of her younger self?
But she has nowhere to go.
Chang Seol grabs her hair in frustration. She should have followed Saya. The train must be gone by now.
"Evil train." Chang Seol stomps on the ground. "I just wanted to go to U City: I didn't want to go to U City in the past."
She leans against the tree, thinking about everything that she heard from Saya. She's a cockatrice who can become a human. Is she like a duckling who started thinking of herself as a human because she saw humans right after the egg was hatched?
Chang Seol shakes her head. It's better not to think about it.
The main door of the Chang family house is pushed open. She sees her mother, father, and her grandfather come out of the house. Her mother is carrying something wrapped with a piece of black clothing. They get into the car anxiously. Chang Seol hails a cab and follows their car.
"Where are they going?" She mumbles.
After a few hours, they reach the mansion in S City. Chang Seol empties her wallet with a heavy heart. The cab driver doesn't notice that the dates on the notes are wrong. He puts the money in his pocket and drives away from Chang Seol.
She watches them walk into the mansion. The mansion is heavily guarded. There's no way that she can get inside the mansion without getting noticed. Chang Seol loiters around the area, thinking of ways to get in.
The sun settles in the horizon as the sky bleeds red. Her parents and her grandfather come out of the mansion empty-handed. It's not hard to guess what happened here.
Her family must have left the egg in No Shi Won's mother's care.
"Darn." Chang Seol stares at the mansion blankly. "I didn't expect this."
Who would expect to see their own birth? That's ridiculous. There's a good reason why no one wants to see their own birth. First, it's too awkward. Second, it's awkward. Third, there's a chance that one might screw up something and erase their own existence. Fourth, there's also a chance of getting stuck in the past or creating a time paradox. Fifth, one might find out their birth secret.
"I don't like it." Chang Seol sits down on the ground, waiting for the sky to turn dark. "I don't like it at all."
No matter how much she complains about it, she is still stuck in the past.
***
At around three in the morning, Chang Seol climbs the tree, crawls on the branch that is going over the brick wall surrounding the mansion, and then, she jumps inside the vicinity, falling hard on the concrete.
For some time, she doesn't get up. It hurts. She might have broken something. It's most likely to be her ankle. Chang Seol lets out a cuss. "Cluck."
What?
She blinks her eyes. Slowly, she raises her hand and touches her head.
Her fingers run against soft feathers — not hair.
Oh, damn it! "CLUCK!"
"Who's there?" A guard yells. Chang Seol runs on her fours, toward the shadowy area behind the tree. She quickly takes off her clothes and shoves it inside the bag. After that, she hides the bag on the tree. At night, it shouldn't be seen.
The guard looks around suspiciously. When he notices nothing suspicious, he goes back to the gate.
Chang Seol looks up at the mansion. Going through the main door is nearly impossible. But going through the window is definitely impossible. So she decides that it would be a door.
It's 3 in the morning for god's sake. Who would be awake?
She goes to the main door and pecks the lock with her beaks until it breaks. She lowers her head and pushes the door open. As expected, everyone in the mansion is asleep. Chang Seol sniffs the air.
Food. There's chicken here somewhere. She hasn't eaten anything since she came here.
Chang Seol goes to the kitchen. The kitchen is big but it's not big enough for her to move freely. She moves slowly, cautiously not breaking down anything. Chang Seol finds what she's looking for.
The refrigerator.
There's leftover food: chicken dishes, desserts, rice, and fruits. Within a few minutes, the refrigerator is emptied by her. She closes the refrigerator door while licking her beaks clean. On an empty stomach, any food is delicious.
Now, she's not hungry anymore. She should check on the egg.
Chang Seol climbs the stairs as she follows the scent of the egg. There's only one egg in this house. Everyone else either smells like snakes or humans.
It's the last room on the corridor. Chang Seol breaks the lock and enters the room. Even in the dark, she sees the egg lying on the bed alone.
What did No Shi Won say? His mother helped her hatch.
"My foot!" Chang Seol grumbles. "There's no one here. I feel bad for my egg."
There's some sound. She hears the footsteps coming toward her. Chang Seol looks around for a place to hide. Where could a giant bird hide?
"I think that I heard a sound." It's a woman's voice. "Do you smell something odd?"
"I smell something stronger." The man replies, "It could be the egg though."
"Egg, huh?" The woman sounds unconvinced. "No Shi Won keeps crying since the egg came here."
Chang Seol rushes toward the attached bathroom before the woman and her companion can come inside. It must be No Shi Won's parents.
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