Chapter 2
Chapter 2
-----------------------------------------------------------------
Translator: Vine
Chapter: 2
Chapter Title: No More Hiding
-----------------------------------------------------------------
The Terminally Ill Baby Physician Doesn't Hide Her Genius
Chapter 2
I don’t like childcare stories.
But I had a friend who was absolutely crazy about them.
There was one novel she managed to drill into my head after nagging me to read it until my ears bled.
I read it so many times because she forced me to. And heard about it even more.
Just when I was on the verge of memorizing it.
One day, I woke up in the world of that book.
Why, of all things?
‘Why me and not my friend?!’
I despaired, but perhaps thanks to my friend's relentless nagging, my body remembered the story.
“Please focus, Lady Biyu.”
I clicked my tongue inwardly and looked ahead.
‘This is the fourth time I've done this.’
In my first life, I was born here.
After dying, I keep regressing to the age of three.
Waking up in this gloomy place every single time is getting so, so old.
An Eastern-style childcare story.
The novel's protagonist, 'Ayan,' was a gifted individual who could heal people with her cooking.
With her exceptional choice of ingredients and prodigious talent, she moved and healed countless people with her dishes, eventually even curing her father's incurable disease. She was a truly devoted daughter.
The secret to her ability was, in fact…
“Before the test, we will have a brief history lesson.”
*Tap, tap.* The sound of the makeshift chalkboard being struck wasn't exactly pleasant.
I glanced around.
This was one of the family's vacant buildings.
Today, it was filled with patients forcibly brought from the slums.
Moaning patients. People lying on straw mats. A few held their children, staring at the instructor with fearful eyes.
An education held in a room full of the sick was bizarre, to say the least.
“The continent is largely divided into the Eastern and Western Continents. The ancestors of our great Heuk Family were mystical beings who came from the Eastern Continent, a land protected by dragons, where the sky and nature are worshipped.”
The long-winded explanation I already knew went in one ear and out the other.
“…Therefore, everyone gathered here will take a simple test to see if you can wield the family's power.”
This is the fourth time I've taken this test.
‘Tsk.’
To explain why I keep repeating this test, I'll have to give a brief overview of this world.
This world is divided into the Eastern and Western Continents.
The Eastern Continent revered the sky, wind, nature, and water, while the Western Continent revered the earth and fire.
The Western Continent, which worshiped earth and fire, developed through warfare, and even now, the battlefields never cease.
Moreover, due to the nature of their abilities, it was full of offensive power users, so the Western Continent was overflowing with warriors.
‘Damn it, we need physicians! Physicians!’
‘An apothecary, call an apothecary!’
And because of these people who fought day in and day out, medicine and pharmacology developed immensely.
Naturally, a nation where physicians and apothecaries took center stage, ‘Baiho,’ was born.
This nation, which began with a powerful first emperor who advocated for the nurturing and protection of healers, gradually grew rich and strong.
Then one day, a plague of unknown origin spread through the country, and just as even the most renowned physicians of the Western Continent were giving up hope…
…people from the Eastern Continent suddenly appeared. The Easterners.
The Easterners, who revered the sky, were blessed by dragons and could use nature-related abilities.
Among these, their ability to heal sickness and wounds was unparalleled.
It was an ability desperately needed on the Western Continent, where war was endless.
It seemed the immigrant Easterners would adapt well…
And the family I belong to, the 'Heuk' Family, was one of those that had crossed over from the Eastern Continent.
The first family head, 'Heuk Ahwa,' saved the life of the Baiho Emperor, who had contracted the plague, and was granted a noble title for it.
That's how they came to settle here for good.
But even now, 100 years after their arrival, they were a family that still couldn't adapt to the reality of discrimination against Easterners.
‘They disguise this ideological brainwashing as a history lesson every time. That Easterners are superior?’
After the history lesson, which contained exactly what I just described, was over…
“Now, everyone, focus on the water before you!”
I stared at the cup of water, utterly fed up.
“You may also take a fan or an ore instead of a water cup. The servants will walk around and assign you to a patient.”
“Waaaaah!”
“Mommmyyy! I don't wanna, I don't wanna!”
“I'm scared!”
Ugh, who's screaming in front of the patients?
I covered my ears.
‘I get it, though.’
No matter if they were children from a family of physicians and apothecaries, seeing patients at such a young age was bound to be frightening.
Real-life patients aren't docile.
‘Especially the severely ill… they're practically wild animals sometimes.’
Most were irritable from the pain, and they often smelled foul.
An expressionless servant arrived, grabbed my arm roughly, and placed me in front of someone.
‘This one is in bad shape.’
It probably wasn't the plague, but the person was covered in bedsores on their back and buttocks.
The stench of pus was strong.
I stared at the water in my hand.
Let's see…
‘For once, they're using clean water.’
I gazed at the water with interest.
I've taken this test in every life after regressing, but what they gave us was sometimes different.
There was a time they gave us fans and told us to create a wind.
Next to where I stood, besides the water, there was also an ore crackling with static electricity.
The Heuk Family, which had once enjoyed a golden age, was now in a slow decline.
‘We need a genius to lead the family!’
My grandmother, the current family head 'Heuk Moran,' was desperately trying to find a child with genius-level abilities.
This test, too, was a way to see who could use 'healing abilities.'
They secretly bring the children to a place where they've gathered patients from the slums. And they look for a child who can heal.
They were so short on talent that they even dragged in a kid like me, who lives in confinement.
‘Ugh, it's so noisy…’
I looked around sullenly.
“Now, be still and focus. The more you cry, the harder it is to concentrate. If you want to go home, then focus!”
Most of the kids still couldn't calm down.
“I don't wanna, I won't do it! Call my mommy!”
“Daddy! Daddyyyyy!”
Everyone here, except for me, was from a collateral branch or an illegitimate child.
The so-called leftover group.
Unlike the direct line, who receive an elite education from birth, this was how they screened for the ones born with precious abilities.
I stood up.
“You are not allowed to stand.”
The expressionless servant blocked my way.
“Sit down.”
Just then, the patient reached a hand toward me. Their eyes were desperate.
And yet, when our eyes met, they gave a faint smile. As if they found me cute.
Looking at their heavily bandaged hand, I felt a sudden surge of irritation.
‘These damn people from my family. I'm so sick of them.’
This method of using patients just to find a single healer never sat right with me.
But what annoyed me most of all…
…was that I had to live another twenty years like this.
“Sit down this inst—”
“I just have to finish the test, right?”
I looked up at the servant with a pout.
“Then I'll just finish it.”
And then, the moment I dipped my finger into the clean water…
*Swoooosh!*
Water shot up from every child's cup.
“Oh, my goodness!”
“Kyaaaaak! The w-water!”
I knew the diagnosis of the patients here. A contagious fever. It was my fourth time, so of course I knew.
‘The medicinal ingredients are over there.’
The water moved here and there, gathering the ingredients into itself. The ingredients dissolved and vanished into the water, taking on various beautiful hues as they mixed and blended over and over.
Finally, a yellow-tinged medicine was created.
The water moved gently, helping the patients into comfortable positions before flowing into their mouths.
“…Good heavens.”
Someone let out a small gasp.
When the softly glowing water subsided, not a single patient remained sick.
Because I had healed them all.
“Done, right?”
My name is Heuk Biyu.
The original protagonist's older cousin.
And this family's hidden genius and apothecary.
And,
I'm done hiding my power.