Yeon Baekyu looked at his daughter for a while before slowly speaking.
“It has been a long time.”
“……”
“You’ve worked hard.”
It was a short remark.
But within those few words was a father’s consolation for the daughter who had remained in the Imperial Family for the past several months, caring for the sick.
Yeon Dohwa seemed to understand his meaning as well and smiled faintly.
“It was nothing. I merely continued the work you had been doing.”
“You must have had a hard time after I returned.”
“You had it just as hard, Father.”
Yeon Dohwa looked at her father’s face for a moment.
“When you were in the Imperial Family, there were times you didn’t sleep properly for several days.”
“There’s no need to bring up the past.”
“I’m bringing it up because it isn’t in the past.”
Yeon Dohwa’s voice softened slightly.
“The prescription you adjusted last time did work at first.”
Yeon Baekyu’s gaze changed.
“……How long did it last?”
“About ten days.”
“Ten days…”
“After that, the symptoms began worsening again.”
Silence briefly settled over the room.
While staying in the Imperial Family, Yeon Baekyu and Yeon Dohwa had spent countless nights awake over the same patients.
More than anyone, they knew how many prescriptions they had changed and how many different methods they had tried.
Yeon Dohwa took out a sealed bamboo scroll bearing the Imperial Family’s emblem from within her robes and placed it on the desk.
“His Majesty sent this secret decree.”
Yeon Baekyu silently broke the seal.
The more he read after unrolling the bamboo scroll, the deeper the furrow between his brows became.
A moment later, Yeon Baekyu rolled the scroll back up and let out a long breath.
“……The Imperial Family’s condition has worsened.”
“Yes.”
“What about the rampage?”
Yeon Dohwa did not answer for a moment.
That brief silence was enough.
“It is happening more frequently.”
Yeon Baekyu’s expression grew heavy.
The White Tiger’s Rampage.
A strange illness in which the divine beast’s power dwelling within the bodies of members of the Imperial Family runs wild for an unknown reason.
It begins with mild abnormalities, but as time passes, the patient gradually loses their reason, until eventually even their body can no longer withstand it.
Even with the medical knowledge Yakryeong had accumulated over hundreds of years, they had yet to clearly determine its cause.
That fact had been kept an absolute secret from the outside world.
Only a very small number of people within Yakryeong even knew about it.
Yeon Baekyu and Yeon Dohwa had searched for a cure for a long time, but so far, all they had been able to do was delay the symptoms.
“What about acupuncture?”
“We tried everything you left behind as well.”
Yeon Dohwa hesitated before continuing.
“……There is one strange thing.”
“What is it?”
“At first, I thought it was because the divine beast’s power had weakened.”
Yeon Baekyu turned his gaze toward his daughter.
“But after continuing to observe the patients, I realized it was slightly different.”
“How?”
“Rather than the power having weakened…”
Yeon Dohwa paused to choose her words.
“It is closer to something being twisted somewhere.”
Yeon Baekyu’s brows furrowed deeply.
He, too, had sensed that same strange discrepancy several times while staying in the Imperial Family.
But he did not know what was causing the divine beast’s power to become that way, or why.
“Have you found the cause?”
“Not yet.”
Yeon Dohwa shook her head.
“That seems to be why His Majesty has become impatient as well.”
She looked at the bamboo scroll on the desk.
“If the cause cannot be found through the medical knowledge we have used until now, he ordered us to examine all the other records as well.”
Yeon Baekyu’s eyes narrowed.
“Other records?”
Yeon Dohwa did not answer immediately.
The moment he saw that brief hesitation, the color slowly drained from Yeon Baekyu’s face.
“……Don’t tell me.”
“Father.”
“You intend to open the Forbidden Archive.”
Yeon Dohwa was silent for a moment before slowly nodding.
“Yes.”
At that moment, Yeon Baekyu’s expression hardened completely.
“His Majesty must know what is inside.”
“He does.”
“And yet?”
Yeon Dohwa answered quietly.
“He said that if it cannot be resolved through medicine, then we must search even forbidden records for a clue.”
Yeon Baekyu remained silent for a long while.
Then, at last, a low voice escaped his lips.
“……You intend to look into sorcery again?”
“……”
Yeon Dohwa could not answer.
Bang—!
Yeon Baekyu slammed his hand hard against the desk.
The inkstone shook violently, and the ink rippled all the way to its edge.
“No.”
His roughened breathing echoed through the study.
“Father.”
“Does His Majesty not know what happened to our family because of that?”
For the first time, Yeon Baekyu’s voice rose.
Yeon Dohwa silently looked at him.
“Yakryeong nearly faced annihilation for the sole reason that sorcery had been used.”
Yeon Baekyu’s hand clenched into a fist.
“We had to cast out members of our own family with our own hands, and punish them to the point of taking their lives.”
It was as though old memories flashed before his eyes.
The fear that had spread throughout every corner of the family.
People being dragged away overnight.
The days when people had to prove one another’s guilt just to survive.
“We only managed to protect the family after shedding that much blood.”
Yeon Baekyu gritted his teeth.
“And now, after all this time, you intend to open that taboo again?”
His face held more than anger.
There was a clear fear that the same thing must never happen again.
Yeon Dohwa’s expression also grew heavy.
“I know.”
She spoke quietly.
“I have never forgotten what happened either.”
Yeon Baekyu’s rough breathing eased slightly.
“That is why it wasn’t easy for me to bring this to you, Father.”
Yeon Dohwa thought over her words for a moment before quietly adding,
“When I first received the secret decree, I thought the same thing.”
“……”
“That there must never again be a time when Yakryeong bleeds because of sorcery.”
Yeon Baekyu looked at his daughter.
A heavy silence descended between them.
It was the kind of silence only those who had lived through that day together could understand.
After a while, Yeon Baekyu slowly steadied his breathing.
“Then tell His Majesty exactly what I said.”
His voice remained firm.
“As long as I am alive, Yakryeong will not lay a hand on sorcery.”
Yeon Dohwa lowered her gaze for a moment.
“……Yes.”
But then she cautiously added,
“However, I don’t think the members of the Imperial Family will be able to endure their condition for much longer.”
Yeon Baekyu’s expression grew heavy once again.
“I won’t deny that I want to grasp at any method I can find if there is another way.”
Yeon Dohwa continued calmly.
“But if that means pushing Yakryeong into the same hell once again… I don’t want that either.”
The firmness in Yeon Baekyu’s expression softened ever so slightly.
“Yes.”
He spoke quietly.
“Wanting to save someone does not make everything permissible.”
Yeon Dohwa lowered her head.
“I will remember that.”
***
The day my first class at the medical academy began.
I woke up much earlier than usual.
Outside the window, the world was still submerged in the pale light of dawn, but strangely enough, my mind was perfectly clear.
Beside my bed lay the physician trainee uniform and physician trainee tablet I had checked several times the night before.
I carefully put on the pure-white uniform and fastened the physician trainee tablet to my belt.
Click.
The small jade tablet touched my waist, producing a clear sound.
It was the first day I would attend class after officially becoming a physician trainee.
‘It’s finally beginning.’
I no longer had to secretly sneak glances at Yakryeong’s medical texts.
I no longer had to pick up discarded prescriptions and memorize them throughout the night.
In this life, I could sit proudly in my place and learn medicine.
Just knowing that made my heart swell.
“My lady, are you all ready?”
At Ryujin’s voice from outside the door, I quickly gathered my medicine pouch and brush.
“Yes. Let’s go!”
As I stepped out of the detached quarters, the fresh morning air brushed against my cheeks.
The medical academy was a spacious hall located to the east of the main residence.
It had several classrooms, practice rooms, and a small medicinal herb repository, and was where the physician trainees of Yakryeong learned medicine.
When I arrived in front of the hall, dozens of physician trainees had already gathered in small groups.
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