One of the Four Great Noble Families, the prestigious medical family known as the Yakryeong Family.
And I was its only blemish.
“I heard she spent the entire family fortune buying all sorts of rare medicinal herbs?”
“Even the family head had to go to the Imperial Palace to ask for money… I heard the household is in terrible shape.”
“They’re going to ruin a prestigious family because of one useless child!”
That child was me.
Yeon Ryeong-hwa, the youngest daughter who was destined to die and had just turned seven.
“Cough, cough!”
As the morning air seeped deep into my lungs, my stomach churned as though I had been forcibly dragged back from the brink of death.
“Ugh, it smells!”
Hong-dan, my personal maid, entered the room and immediately wrinkled her nose in disgust.
When she flung the window wide open, the cool early-summer morning breeze rushed into the room.
“Ugh.”
My body was already burning with fever, and the cold air made me feel even more chilled. I instinctively curled up.
Thud!
Hong-dan dropped a bowl of completely cold porridge beside my head as if she were throwing it down.
“Eat. It’ll be troublesome if I really have to dispose of a corpse one of these days.”
“……”
I pulled the thin blanket up to my shoulders and said nothing.
Hong-dan didn’t care. She immediately began rummaging through my room.
“Should I wear this ring today?”
Before leaving to search for a cure for my illness, Father had bought all sorts of glittering things for me, knowing I would be left behind alone.
But while Father was away, I wasn’t allowed to leave freely, so those things held little meaning for me.
“It fits perfectly! I’ll take this one, Young Lady!”
I considered telling her no, but decided against it.
Let’s not waste my strength unnecessarily right now.
My physical condition was at its worst.
If I wanted my body to move the way I intended, I needed to conserve even the smallest amount of strength.
After putting on the ring, Hong-dan took a necklace as well and wore it around her own neck as though it belonged to her. She spun around, admiring herself in the bronze mirror.
“Oh, and make sure you finish the work Young Master gave you within one shichen. He’ll come to check later.”
She really hasn’t changed at all.
Only after the door closed did I slowly release the breath I had been holding and sit up.
In the corner of the room was a bamboo-woven mat, with countless medicinal herbs scattered messily across it.
Sorting the herbs according to their types and functions.
That was the work assigned to me.
No, to be precise, it was work my cousins had dumped on me.
At some point, they had started passing their own chores onto me because no one cared about me anyway.
But right now, there was something more important than that.
Shall I begin?
Tap tap tap—
I moved my tiny feet and crouched down in front of the mat.
I pushed aside the dried astragalus and yellowed licorice roots, then picked out only a few herbs that were in the best condition.
“Hmm. This should do.”
Rustle, rustle—
I moved my hands quickly, putting the medicinal ingredients into the small mortar I had placed in the corner and pounding them.
A soft, steady scraping sound echoed through the room.
This should keep me going for about three shichen—six hours.
I hurriedly rolled the mixture into a pill and tossed it into my mouth.
“Ugh……”
The bitterness nearly brought tears to my eyes, but I managed to swallow it.
Then I found a small cloth bundle hidden deep inside the wardrobe.
Inside were essential tools that everyone from the Yakryeong Family was supposed to carry.
Several slender silver needles lay neatly arranged inside.
I took the needles and stood in front of the cracked bronze mirror in the corner of the room.
My reflection appeared in the mirror.
A small, painfully thin girl.
A face turned deathly pale from coughing, with colorless lips.
A face so familiar that I was sick of seeing it.
I picked up a needle.
Tap—
Looking into the mirror, I located the exact acupoint and inserted the needle.
For a moment, it felt as though I couldn’t breathe.
Then, little by little, the breath trapped deep inside my chest began to escape.
“Haa.”
After letting out a short breath, I looked at the girl in the mirror and gave a calm snort.
You might wonder how I could do something like this at only seven years old.
The answer was simple.
It wasn’t my first time.
Because…
“……I’ve returned again.”
I had experienced regression.
Not once.
Not twice.
But ten times.
***
The Kingdom of Cheonmyeong, a nation protected by the Four Divine Beasts.
There were four great noble families here, each inheriting the power of the omnipotent Four Gods.
The Imperial Family of Cheonmyeong, who served the White Tiger.
The Geomcheon Family, who served the Azure Dragon and were known as the sword of the Imperial Family.
The Jeokhyeon Family, who served the Vermilion Bird and studied the principles of the world.
And the Yakryeong Family, the prestigious medical family that served the Black Tortoise and healed people.
Among them, the Yakryeong Family was a strict and upright household that valued integrity and honesty above all else.
And yet, the family’s fortunes had begun to decline noticeably.
All because of one youngest daughter who was suffering from an incurable illness.
Even so, I survived.
I survived by consuming the rarest medicinal ingredients in the world—the ones Father managed to obtain for me.
Seolhoncho, a herb said to grow only in the heart of the Ice Snow Ridge, where hands and feet froze solid.
Jeokhyeolgeun, a root said to take hold beneath blood-soaked soil.
Even rare medicinal ingredients that the Imperial Family itself could not easily obtain.
Thanks to them, I escaped death countless times.
I never fully recovered.
But somehow, miraculously, I was able to keep breathing.
And so, after clinging to life until I turned seventeen…
“Young Lady, there is terrible news from the battlefield……”
I received word of my father’s death.
The funeral hall was filled with an icy silence.
But that silence was closer to disgust than mourning.
“In the end, it was because of that child……”
“He threw himself onto such a dangerous battlefield just to save one sick girl……”
Every accusation whispered from behind was directed at me.
I collapsed in front of my father’s ashes, sobbing in agony.
More than anyone, I knew their words weren’t entirely wrong.
Father would go anywhere if it meant obtaining medicine for me.
Because of that, he never noticed the abuse my uncle, Yeon So-taek, inflicted on me.
He had not only squandered the family fortune, but had also neglected his own health.
The father had no other children.
I was his only direct descendant who could inherit his position.
A useless daughter who was destined to die and could never become a physician.
After learning that if I, his broken daughter, ultimately failed to become a physician, Father would also lose his qualification to become the next family head, I could no longer ask him for anything.
I have to get better.
That was all I could think about.
I had to take the medicine Father sent me and get better.
Then I won’t have to burden Father anymore.
But my body always betrayed both Father’s will and mine.
As I spent more and more time locked alone inside that cramped room, constantly listening to my uncle Yeon So-taek’s verbal abuse, I gradually began to torment myself.
It’s my fault.
I was my father’s shackles.
I was the person who had ultimately driven him to his death.
If Father had never given birth to someone like me in the first place……
Step.
As I sobbed as though I were falling apart, Yeon So-taek’s shadow fell over me.
His sharp contempt pierced me as always.
“Do you know how your father died on the battlefield?”
He asked through clenched teeth.
“I heard he cursed you until the very end.”
Thump.
My heart sank.
I stared blankly up at him.
“He said that if it weren’t for you, this would never have happened…… He died miserably, regretting you.”
He lowered his head and whispered quietly into my ear.
“He died. Because of you.”
“Ah……”
The tears that had gathered in the corners of my eyes spilled helplessly down my cheeks.
“I-I’m sorry……”
I barely managed to whisper.
“I’m sorry…… I’m sorry…… sob, sob……”
But my apology never found anyone to receive it.
It simply scattered into the smoke rising from the candles mourning the dead.
Exhausted from crying, I eventually lost consciousness.
How much time had passed?
Suddenly, I opened my eyes at the sensation of a sharp wind cutting against my skin.
“……!”
Ssshhk.
At that moment, cold metal pressed against the back of my neck.
……A sword blade.
The sleep vanished from me instantly, and I pushed myself up, avoiding the blade.
When I raised my head, a familiar man was standing there.
Red hair and red eyes.
Flawless white skin that made those blazing colors stand out even more.
Lips curved into a gentle smile.
“Hello, Yeon Ryeong-hwa.”
“…You.”
My one and only fiancé.
Jeok Yeon-hu.
He had been the only comfort I had throughout my life as a defective, dying girl.
When I turned ten, he had miraculously appeared beside me, who had always been alone.
He was the only person who stayed by my side and taught me what warmth felt like.
“About your father.”
A gentle smile appeared on Jeok Yeon-hu’s lips.
“He was worried about you until the very end.”
“What……?”
It was something I couldn’t bring myself to believe.
“I was told he died resenting me……”
That was why, even with a sword pressed against my neck, I stupidly muttered those words.
“Heh……”
Jeok Yeon-hu twisted the corner of his mouth and sneered.
“I saw it myself.”
At that moment, it felt as though my thoughts stopped completely.
My mind went blank.
“I killed him myself.”
He looked directly into my eyes, his gaze horrifyingly gentle even at that moment.
“Tell me. Do you really think you were destined to die from the beginning?”
I couldn’t answer.
His lips curved into another smile.
As though he found this situation incredibly amusing.
“What…… does that……”
Jeok Yeon-hu gave no further answer.
He merely twisted his wrist slightly.
Whoosh—!
The next moment, a red arc sliced across my vision.
The dreamlike reality suddenly became filled with vivid pain.
Something hot spread from my neck, and the world slowly faded away.
“Ah!”
I opened my eyes again.
I hurriedly sat up and looked around.
Everything was horribly familiar.
My room, where I had spent my entire life.
The pain crushed my entire body.
And the reflection of my seven-year-old self in the bronze mirror.
“Have I…… returned to the past?”
That was my first regression.
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