Grandfather’s gaze immediately turned toward me.
When my eyes met those green ones filled with puzzlement and surprise, my shoulders tensed involuntarily.
“Shouldn’t you be a child who is supposed to be taking medicine and lying in bed?”
His firm voice fell.
“I do not know how you managed to come all the way here, but you should not come to the main hall in that condition.”
“I will escort her to the detached residence immediately.”
The chief steward stepped forward as though he had been waiting for this.
“Do so. With so many people coming and going, the smells and energies have become muddled. It is not good for Ryeong-hwa.”
His words felt less like affectionate concern and more like a cold judgment made as a physician.
‘I have to say this properly.’
Suppressing my nervousness, I swallowed hard. Then I deliberately answered in a bright, loud voice.
“Grandfather, I’m fine.”
Only then did Grandfather’s gaze settle on my face.
He soon raised his eyebrows, as if he had immediately noticed that my condition had improved.
“How…….”
Before he could continue his question, I quickly held out my bloodstained hand.
“More importantly, please treat me first, Grandfather!”
If Grandfather valued principles as much as I knew he did, he surely wouldn’t be able to send an injured child away without treating her.
“Treatment?”
Grandfather’s gaze dropped to my hand.
As expected, his eyes narrowed coldly.
“You’ve injured your hand.”
“We will have a servant treat Lady’s wound…….”
“Is a servant a physician?”
At the short rebuke, the chief steward bowed his head with a pale face.
“In the Medicine Spirit Family, turning away after seeing a patient is a sin. No matter how urgent the matter may be,
if a physician puts aside a patient, how can he call himself a physician?”
The surroundings became as quiet as a mouse.
Yeon Baekyu issued his command heavily, his hands clasped behind his back.
“Let her in.”
“……Yes, Family Head.”
At last, the chief steward stepped aside.
“Ryeong-hwa, follow me.”
Grandfather turned and entered the main hall without saying another word.
I stared at his broad back for a moment before carefully taking a small step forward.
***
The moment I entered the main hall, the atmosphere changed completely.
Outside, people’s whispers scattered chaotically with the wind, but inside, it was quiet as though we were underwater.
Broad pillars, the thick scent of incense, and the faint fragrance of medicinal herbs spreading among them.
I was reminded once again that this place was the ‘heart of the Medicine Spirit Family.’
Beside the large table in the center of the main hall stood my uncle, Yeon So-taek.
He wore a gentle smile, but beneath his eyes lay a faint, undisguised greed.
Beside him stood Yeon Hwi-cheon, the eldest grandson of the Medicine Spirit Family, with his hands neatly clasped together, while Yeon Dopyeong stood a little farther away.
‘His expression is quite a sight.’
The moment Yeon Dopyeong saw me, he was silently horrified.
His wide eyes seemed to ask, ‘Why are you here?’
But Grandfather did not even spare a glance at their agitation.
I calmly followed behind Grandfather as he strode forward with his large steps.
Then, suddenly, he stopped.
“……Your hand.”
It was a short remark.
When Grandfather turned around with his brows drawn together, I quickly opened my injured palm and showed it to him.
Beneath the dried blood, a wound tinged with a reddish glow was revealed.
After carefully examining my wound, Grandfather abruptly called for Yeon Hwi-cheon.
“Hwi-cheon.”
“Yes, Grandfather.”
Yeon Hwi-cheon stepped forward with a posture that was flawless down to the slightest detail.
The hem of his blue robe glided softly across the floor.
As always, a gentle and proper smile rested on his face.
“Treat Ryeong-hwa wound.”
At those words, the corners of Yeon Hwi-cheon’s eyes stiffened ever so slightly.
‘Just as I thought. He’s hiding his true nature after all.’
Yeon Hwi-cheon was the son of my eldest aunt, who had taken in a matrilocal husband, and the eldest grandson of the Medicine Spirit Family.
My father, the young family head, had no children other than me, and since his only daughter was even terminally ill,
Yeon Hwi-cheon was considered a strong candidate for the next family head.
Pale skin and dark jade-green hair.
Green eyes that proved his Xuanwu bloodline.
His neat appearance and proper posture, along with his impeccable words and actions. He was flawless in front of anyone.
People often praised him as the pillar who would one day support the Medicine Spirit Family.
But I knew.
I knew just how rotten the inside of that pillar was.
In my previous life, I too had once been fooled by that immaculate face.
I thought he was different from Yeon Dopyeong, who openly tormented me.
I believed his gentle tone was sincere, and I believed there was genuine concern in the hands that checked my condition.
It had all been a perfect illusion.
“Bring water for me to wash with immediately.”
“I touched something dirty.”
‘Was life when I overheard those words…… my third one?’
He smiled warmly at me to my face, yet behind my back, he regarded me as a filthy ‘contamination.’
And in places where he thought I couldn’t hear him, he would sneer as he spat out words like these.
“A filthy mass of germs.”
So there was no way he could be pleased about being ordered to treat me personally.
He was pretending to remain calm on the outside, but surely he was inwardly seething with disgust.
I could guess why Grandfather had deliberately entrusted my wound to him.
‘He must want to see how much his skills have improved while he was away from home.’
He wanted to personally verify the abilities of someone being considered for the succession.
“……Yes. I will do so.”
Yeon Hwi-cheon forced a gentle smile and took a step toward me.
At that moment, my uncle hurriedly stepped in.
“Father, I will do it. I am not a Ryeong-hwa attending physician?”
“A man who calls himself an attending physician does not even seem to know that the patient under his care has recovered her strength.”
Yeon So-taek’s face stiffened, as if he had realized his mistake.
“Hwi-cheon will handle the treatment. You will give me a detailed report on her treatment and progress thus far.”
Yeon Baekyu’s green eyes sank coldly.
“You have no objections, do you?”
“……Yes.”
Yeon So-taek could no longer step forward and backed away.
He surely knew that going against the family head here would only expose his true intentions.
Yeon Hwi-cheon bowed politely again.
“I shall obey your command, Family Head.”
‘Family Head,’ rather than ‘Grandfather.’
The fact that he immediately adopted proper formal etiquette upon realizing that his grandfather was displeased with him—it was an exemplary attitude no matter how one looked at it.
Yet the moment he turned toward me and held out his hand, a faint trace of displeasure flickered in his eyes, subtle enough that only I could notice it.
“Your hand…… a little closer.”
I obediently held out my injured hand.
Yeon Hwi-cheon took a clean cloth from the medicine box beside him.
His movements as he wiped around the wound were calm, and he did not apply excessive force.
Then his fingertips stopped for just a moment.
Our eyes met.
A proper smile still rested on his lips, but coldness seeped into his eyes.
‘How dare someone like you.’
In my previous life, the moment I received that look, I would have lowered my head first.
But this time, I did not look away. Instead, I met his gaze even more directly.
Yeon Hwi-cheon was the first to avert his eyes and resumed moving his hand.
He took a pinch of fine medicinal powder and sprinkled it thinly over the wound. It was a powder used to dry the area around a wound and stop bleeding.
“Brother.”
At my quiet call, his fingertips stopped.
Yeon Hwi-cheon completely erased the contempt from his eyes and smiled kindly.
“Hmm? What is it, Ryeong-hwa?”
“You shouldn’t use medicinal powder on my wound.”
At my unexpected words, the main hall instantly froze.
Yeon Hwi-cheon’s green eyes trembled slightly.
“What did you say……?”
I calmly pointed at the wound.
“Please look closely.”
Beneath the reddish, hardened blood, an extremely faint black energy was spreading.
Yeon Hwi-cheon’s expression stiffened when he noticed it.
“This is…….”
“It’s an intrusion. It’s probably a symptom caused by my illness. Whenever I get wounded, this black energy seeps out like this.”
There was one thing Yeon Hwi-cheon had overlooked. I was not an ordinary patient.
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