I gave a small nod.
‘Grandfather is back.’
Whenever my grandfather was summoned to the imperial palace, he would return once a year and stay with the family for about half a month.
That time had come.
It was customary for everyone in the family to go and pay their respects to him.
‘Everyone except me, of course.’
Yeon Dopyeong glared at me, his teeth clenched.
Then he abruptly turned his head and barked at Hongdan.
“Hey!”
“Y-Yes?!”
“Take all of that away. Now!”
He gestured carelessly toward the herbs scattered across the floor. When Hongdan hesitated, he immediately shouted at her.
“Are you going to move or not? Do I have to clean it up myself?!”
“I-I’ll do it right away!”
While Hongdan hurriedly gathered up the herbs, Yeon Dopyeong lowered his voice and threatened me.
“You. Consider yourself lucky. I’m letting this go today because Grandfather is here.”
He was walking toward the door when he suddenly stopped.
“…And you.”
Yeon Dopyeong slowly turned his head, his eyes gleaming ominously.
“If you tell anyone about what happened just now, I’ll make sure the last bit of your lifeline gets cut off, too.”
Leaving me with that chilling warning, he turned his back and walked away.
Thud. Thud. Thud.
Only after the door closed did silence return.
“Haaah.”
Only then could I finally let out the breath I had been holding.
‘…I did it.’
Right before Yeon Dopyeong left the room.
He had tried his best to act as though nothing had happened, but I hadn’t missed the slight trembling of his shoulders.
‘He’d rather die than swallow his pride. There’s no way he’d willingly let his secret be exposed.’
Now that I had a definite weakness to hold over him, Yeon Dopyeong clearly wouldn’t be able to mistreat me as carelessly as he had before.
‘The immediate problem is taken care of…’
Hongdan and Yeon Dopyeong.
I had dealt with the two people who had directly tormented me.
‘Now I need to figure out what comes next.’
I steadied my breathing and rose to my feet.
Then I opened the door and looked out at the world bathed in sunlight.
‘Everything I need to do from now on to protect myself and the Yakryeong Family.’
With a firm expression, I took in the entire view of the Yakryeong Family.
***
It wasn’t as though I had been able to act with such confidence from the very beginning.
“P-Please, help me!”
When I first regressed, I immediately went to my uncle for help.
“She’s finally gone mad. Take her away and lock her up immediately.”
But all I received in return was confinement, and I didn’t survive even ten days.
In my next life, I sought out my grandfather.
“Grandfather! P-Please, listen to me! The family is in danger! It’s in danger! I-I’m telling the truth!”
But because I was feverish and could barely string my words together, my uncle and Hongdan dismissed everything I said as hallucinations caused by my illness.
I even tried escaping the family.
But with the sickly body of a seven-year-old, surviving outside for long was impossible.
If no one was going to save me, then I had to find a way to survive on my own.
“Cousin, I’ll help you.”
In my next life, I secretly studied medicine while pretending to take care of my cousins’ work for them.
I had started doing it to cure my own illness, but as I continued researching, I developed countless medicinal formulas.
After countless failures, I reached one conclusion.
I couldn’t survive by asking for help.
I couldn’t survive by running away.
I had to carve out my own path to survival.
‘Thankfully, there’s no one around.’
Behind the annex where I lived was a large lake.
The surface of the water, reflecting the clear light of early summer, was as transparent as glass, and the Xuanwu Shrine floated quietly in its center.
The shrine was not a place people could enter whenever they pleased.
Perhaps because of that, even on a day like today, when Grandfather had returned, this area remained deserted.
“Perfect.”
I plopped down beside the lake and picked up a fallen branch.
Then I slowly began writing on the ground, making sure not to get even a single character wrong.
[Terminally Ill Body]
[Jeok Yeon-hu]
In my past lives, I had always died because of one of those two things.
To overcome my illness, I needed rare medicinal ingredients and a proper environment in which to receive treatment.
To stop Jeok Yeon-hu, I needed enough power to move people before he could devour the family.
Above all, in my previous life, Jeok Yeon-hu brought the Yakryeong Family to ruin and slaughtered every member of the family.
And my father was among them.
‘…I don’t want that.’
I had always believed that my father had died resenting me.
But Jeok Yeon-hu had clearly said that my father had worried about me until the very end.
I still didn’t know which version was the truth.
But one thing was certain.
My father had sacrificed everything to cure my illness.
Until now, my father had been the one trying to save me.
So this time, it was my turn to save him.
If that was the case, then there was only one answer.
A position from which I could control medicinal ingredients, move people, and determine the future of the family.
I drew a long line through the two words I had written.
Then I wrote another word beneath them.
[Head of the Family]
“I have to become the head of the family.”
To protect the family and survive myself, I needed that kind of authority.
And to do that, I first had to prove my abilities.
I thought of the medicinal ingredients I needed to make that medicine.
To obtain those ingredients and make the medicine effective, I would have to visit the herbal medicine shops in the market.
But as a patient, I could not leave the family grounds without the current head of the family’s permission.
‘For now, I’ll try making it with what I have.’
I slowly got to my feet.
Following the lake, I eventually reached a secluded spot at the edge of a thicket.
It had once been used as an apothecary, but now it had been abandoned and treated as nothing more than a storage shed.
Creak.
When I pushed the door open, old mortars, medicinal boilers, and worn-out herb cabinets came into view.
I took out a small cloth bundle from inside.
Just as I expected, it contained medicinal ingredients I had gradually collected while doing my cousins’ work for them.
‘Good.’
I took them out one by one and inspected their condition.
Cnidium, Angelica dahurica, Polygonatum, Perilla leaves, and Hyeonryeong root.
They were all certainly valuable.
But…
‘Low-grade.’
A bitter smile naturally formed on my lips.
It made sense, in a way.
These were the kinds of medicinal ingredients my uncle, Yeon So-taek, had brought for his son Yeon Dopyeong’s training—ingredients cheap enough that it wouldn’t matter if they were damaged.
Still, they were better than nothing.
I pushed aside my unnecessary thoughts and placed the ingredients into the mortar.
Crush. Crush.
It wasn’t easy with the body of a seven-year-old.
My arms quickly began to tremble, and my palms soon ached and tingled.
But I had made this medicine dozens of times before.
I was so familiar with the process that I could practically make it with my eyes closed.
How much time had passed?
At last, a small bowl was filled, and a faint medicinal aroma spread through the room.
I dipped my fingertip into the powdered medicine and tasted a little.
“Hmm.”
This should have some effect. But…
‘As I thought, it’s not enough.’
Such a weak effect wouldn’t be enough to earn Grandfather’s genuine recognition.
I quietly set the bowl down.
‘If only I had a slightly better Hyeonryeong root…’
If I could obtain a high-grade Hyeonryeong root, the medicine’s efficacy would be on an entirely different level.
But something like that was beyond my reach right now.
Just then—
Rustle!
“…Huh?”
A faint noise came from the wall of the storage shed, where there should have been no one at all.
Rustle. Rustle.
This time, it was much clearer.
A chill ran down my spine.
‘Don’t tell me…?’
My actions had already diverged from my previous lives. Perhaps that had created an unexpected variable.
Maybe the shadow of Jeok Yeon-hu—or rather, the Jeokhyeon Family—had already fallen over this household for some unknown reason.
And if they were trying to kill me right now for some reason…?
‘I need to hide.’
Overcome by unease, I hurriedly moved toward a corner to hide.
Then—
“Kkyu!”
A small, pitiful cry suddenly rang out.
“Kkyuuuu!”
I approached the source of the sound, only to find an old jar shaking violently.
I blinked as I moved closer.
‘An otter?’
A small otter was struggling helplessly, its plump belly stuck in the mouth of the jar.
Its head and front paws had managed to squeeze through, but it was clutching something tightly in its front paws.
“J-Just stay still.”
“Kkyuu…”
I carefully slipped my hands beneath its armpits and pulled its body free.
Pop!
Fortunately, it didn’t take much strength.
The otter tumbled across the floor after finally escaping the jar.
The impact caused the object it had been holding to fall at my feet.
“Kkyuu!”
I reached down to pick it up—
And froze.
“Hyeonryeong root?”
And this wasn’t just an ordinary high-grade specimen.
A clear blue glow emanated from its roots, while a deep, rich fragrance filled the air.
My heart suddenly began pounding.
‘With this…’
I could definitely make the perfect medicine and prove my abilities to Grandfather, the head of the family.
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