Everyone in the hall swallowed nervously, their faces tense.
All color drained from Yeon So-taek’s face in an instant.
“……Wh-Why is that…….”
He could only stare at the letters as though he could not believe his eyes.
‘I clearly told them to burn them all……!’
“Everyone, be quiet.”
The Family Head’s low, heavy voice rang throughout the hall.
Grandfather approached me.
Taking the letters from me, he quickly skimmed through them, then let out a hollow laugh.
“So the Young Family Head was telling the truth.”
His decisive words, as though delivering a verdict, caused murmurs to ripple through the hall.
Grandfather’s gaze turned toward Yu Jinbok, who was prostrated on the floor.
“Chief Steward of the Inner Residence. Did you know about all of this?”
“I-I…… I was afraid! Lord Yeon So-taek had everything in his grasp, so I thought I wouldn’t survive if I went against him. But even so, I shouldn’t have turned a blind eye while someone’s life was at stake……!”
“Shut up!”
Yu Jinbok shrank back.
“While a person died and Ryeonghwa suffered for so many years, you kept your mouth shut just to protect your position?”
“Please, kill me……!”
“This is utterly appalling.”
Grandfather let out a deep sigh before turning toward Yeon So-taek.
“Yeon So-taek.”
“Father! You know, don’t you? You know I could never do such a thing……!”
Yeon So-taek approached him as though he were about to grab him by the hem of his trousers, but Grandfather merely looked down at him with cold eyes.
“Yes. I hoped you hadn’t done it either.”
“……”
“But I began to suspect something from the moment Ryeonghwa’s condition suddenly improved. No matter how talented she may be, Ryeonghwa is still a child who hasn’t properly learned medicine yet.”
Grandfather’s gaze grew icy.
“Yet you consistently reported that Ryeonghwa was in such serious condition that she could not even leave the house.”
‘So he even made false reports like that.’
By now, it hardly surprised me anymore.
“I had someone investigate separately, and it turned out that most of the reports you submitted had been falsified.”
Yeon So-taek’s shoulders flinched.
“You intercepted the correspondence between the Young Family Head and Ryeonghwa, driving a wedge between blood relatives, and after driving a patient to their death, you concealed the incident. Not only did you abandon your duties, you even deceived the Family Head. Your crimes are indeed grave.”
Bang!
Grandfather struck the floor with his cane.
“As the Family Head, I hereby decree. Effective today, Yeon So-taek is expelled from the Yeon family!”
“No!”
Geum Suryeon rushed forward, her face ashen.
But the judgment was not over.
“And Yeon Dopyeong.”
Yeon Dopyeong’s eyes widened.
“I hear that you have been pushing the duties entrusted to you onto Ryeonghwa all this time, and that you even siphoned off the precious medicinal herbs the Young Family Head sent for Ryeonghwa for your own personal gain.”
Yeon Dopyeong’s face turned deathly pale.
Even Yeon So-taek seemed to be hearing this for the first time, as he hurriedly crawled forward on his knees.
“Father! Dopyeong is still young! He only did it because he was immature! Please forgive him just this once!”
“Grandfather! I’ll never do it again!”
Yeon Dopyeong wailed, but Grandfather’s expression did not waver in the slightest.
“Strip Yeon Dopyeong of his physician-in-training qualifications. Assign him as an assistant physician-in-training at a provincial branch, and prohibit him from entering the main family residence for the next ten years.”
“H-How could you…….”
The provincial branches were places where those who had committed mistakes were sent to start over from the very bottom.
“I will not expel you from the family, considering your young age. Spend the next ten years reflecting on your crimes, and learn again how you should treat human lives.”
“Grandfather! Please, just this once……!”
Yeon Dopyeong tried to rush forward, but the guards blocked him.
Geum Suryeon ultimately fainted, unable to withstand the shock.
“Dismiss Yu Jinbok, the Chief Steward of the Inner Residence, and expel him from the family as well. Anyone who participated in or aided this matter will also be investigated and severely punished according to the severity of their crimes.”
Grandfather’s cold gaze swept across the hall.
“Anyone involved in this matter will receive no leniency, even if they are blood relatives.”
Even the elders straightened their backs and held their breath.
Before long, the criminals were dragged out one by one by the guards.
“Let go of me!”
“Yeon Ryeonghwa! How could you do this to me……!”
Yeon So-taek struggled desperately, scraping at the floor, while Yeon Dopyeong screamed at the top of his lungs.
Geum Suryeon, who had lost consciousness, was also carried outside the main reception hall by the attendants.
Once they had disappeared, the physicians and elders crowded around Grandfather as though they had been waiting for this moment.
“Who will take over the duties Yeon So-taek was responsible for?”
“Shouldn’t we notify the collateral branches immediately?”
There was a mountain of work to deal with, considering how many responsibilities Yeon So-taek’s family had been handling.
Grandfather answered their questions with a tired expression as he left the main hall, and Father followed behind him.
Even so, Father looked back at me once.
After confirming that Ryujin was beside me, he gestured with his eyes as if telling me to go inside and rest.
‘Father, I’ll see you later.’
I answered with my lips as well.
Before long, the noisy hall was completely empty.
The sun was already sinking toward the west.
‘It’s over.’
Only then did it truly sink in.
The people who had trampled me in every one of my past lives had finally fallen before my eyes.
I should have felt relieved.
I should have been happy.
And yet, strangely, I felt suffocated.
“My lady, are you all right?”
“Ryujin. I’m going to take a little walk.”
I forced a smile, and Ryujin followed me from a short distance away without asking anything more.
I passed through the corridor of the main hall and headed toward the lakeside.
The setting sun dyed the surface of the lake red.
Whenever the wind blew, the crimson waves shattered into countless ripples.
As I gazed at the sight, a memory from long ago suddenly came back to me with vivid clarity.
It was one winter in my previous life.
After suffering from a high fever and vomiting blood, I grabbed the hem of Yeon Dopyeong’s clothes as he was about to leave the room.
“Brother…… Please give me some medicine. I-I think I’m going to die.”
Yeon Dopyeong looked down at me and twisted up the corners of his mouth.
“Then die.”
His foot kicked me hard in the chest.
As I collapsed onto the floor, Yeon Dopyeong stomped on my hand.
“You’re going to die anyway, so why do you keep bothering me?”
When Geum Suryeon called out to him from afar, Yeon Dopyeong turned his back on me.
Geum Suryeon also sneered when she saw me covered in blood before closing the door.
That day, I spent the entire night alone on the cold floor, breathing weakly as I endured.
So that I would not die.
Believing that someday, I would get better.
But when I actually watched them being driven out, the pain I had endured all those years came rushing over me all at once, rather than joy.
I bit down hard on my lip.
I didn’t want to cry.
If I shed tears now, it felt as though I would be losing to them all over again.
But the crimson sunset spreading across the lake kept growing blurry.
“Ryeonghwa.”
A low voice came from behind me.
I hurriedly wiped my eyes and turned around.
“Father?”
Father stood there with the setting sun behind him.
“I thought you went with Grandfather.”
“I went, then came back out.”
Father slowly approached me.
“Don’t you have a lot of things to deal with?”
“A lot.”
“Then how…….”
Father shrugged as though it were nothing.
“I left them to your grandfather and slipped away.”
“All of it?”
“He can handle that much on his own.”
Father stopped in front of me and said as though it were the most natural thing in the world,
“Because right now, you come first.”
My heart pounded hard.
You come first.
Those were the words I had wanted so desperately to hear throughout all my past lives.
I had always waited.
For him to come running whenever I said I was sick.
For him to stay by my side whenever I was afraid and alone.
But the family always came first, patients came first, and the war came first.
I had thought it was only natural for me to be pushed behind them.
After all, I was a child who would die soon anyway.
But this time was different.
Father had put everything else aside and came looking for me.
I clenched the hem of my skirt with trembling hands.
“Father.”
“Yes.”
“I read all the letters.”
Father’s face stiffened.
“The letters you sent me. The ones where you wrote that you missed me, that you were sorry you couldn’t come back…….”
My voice trembled terribly.
“I didn’t know anything.”
Father had not forgotten me.
He had gone north to save my life, and even while he was unable to return, he had sent countless letters.
Then, in my previous life, he eventually died without ever seeing me again.
The thought of that made my chest ache as though it were being torn apart.
“……I’m sorry.”
“Why are you apologizing?”
I raised my head at his hoarse voice.
Deep remorse was etched across Father’s face as well.
“I’m the one who should be sorry. No matter how urgent things were at the front, and no matter how impossible it was for me to leave the family, I should have come to see for myself how you were doing.”
I hesitated for a long time before asking quietly,
“Then…… why didn’t you ever come back?”
“…….”
“I kept waiting.”
The fact that the letters had never reached me was Yeon So-taek’s doing.
But even so, if he had not received a single reply for three years, couldn’t he have come to see me at least once?
The loneliness and hurt I had buried away surged up, making my eyes burn.
Father remained silent for a long while.
Eventually, he opened his mouth in a low, hoarse voice.
“When your mother collapsed…… I stayed by her side.”
“……”
“I had people procure the medicinal herbs and never left her side for even a moment.”
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