Chapter 4
Chapter 4
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Translator: Vine
Chapter: 4
Chapter Title: The Genius Niece
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As he opened his eyes, the frail impression vanished, replaced by an air of sharp irritability.
“You wanna die?”
To borrow my friend's phrasing, he was 'damn pretty, but with a filthy mouth.' True to that assessment, his words were anything but kind.
“Uncoo! Me, me! Heuk Biyu!”
I desperately introduced myself. Or rather, I tried to.
I wanted to showcase my genius as a polite and intelligent infant through my speech!
But I couldn't! I was suffocating!
All I managed to get out was my name.
“And? You think you're the only Heuk around here?”
“Un, un, nie…”
“Nie?”
“Niece! Niece!”
“Sounds more like 'piss off'. What a mouth on this one.”
Seriously, how can a father not understand a baby? He can't even tell the difference between a curse and baby talk!
“Niece! Piss off! Piss off! Your brother's daughtew!”
Honestly, I threw in a curse myself in the middle of that.
“Ah?”
Heuk Birang paused, then pulled me close to observe me. Up close, his pale complexion was even more apparent.
“Ahh. You're... that Heuk Bibi?”
“Biyu!”
“Right, that. What the—you're my second brother's kid, aren't you?”
I'm going to die young at this rate.
I kicked Heuk Birang's chest with all my might and glared at him.
I'm suffocating!
“Tsk, what a temper.”
I was finally set down on the floor.
“Cough, cough! Hack!”
He'd grabbed me right by the scruff of my neck, and I couldn't breathe.
I'm only three years old. Is this treatment for real?
My dislike for this childcare story just grew by another 20%. It's all because of Heuk Birang. Childcare stories really aren't for me.
I looked up, my face red as I coughed.
‘He's ridiculously tall.’
I'd thought he was tall, but looking up from down here, he seemed even taller. Though for his height, his build looked slender.
‘Makes sense, since he can't eat properly.’
“You look just like my sister-in-law.”
Heuk Birang said listlessly, crossing his arms.
“So you're the baby butterfly.”
“Butterfly?”
I looked up at Heuk Birang, still coughing.
What's this about a butterfly?
My friend also called me, 'Heuk Biyu,' a 'butterfly.' Is there a connection?
‘I can't remember anything about it.’
I know the plot well, but it's true that some of the finer details are hazy.
That was only natural.
‘How am I supposed to remember every little thing that isn't related to my survival?’
I grabbed the hem of Heuk Birang's clothes. I didn't know where he was going, so I figured I'd hold on and talk.
“Why were yoo sweepin' in the hawwway awone?”
“Enunciate, kid. I have no idea what you're saying.”
“Yoo know what I said.”
“...”
“Why were yoo sweepin' awone?”
Heuk Birang's eyebrow twitched for a moment before an indifferent voice escaped his lips.
“The weather was nice.”
A lie.
This man didn't just fall asleep because he likes to lie down anywhere, as he claims.
On the contrary, his disposition was close to mysophobia.
That's why he was so stressed about his condition, which was why his face looked the way it did.
The three men confined here in the east wing all suffer from serious illnesses.
Among them, my uncle's illness is severe 'narcolepsy.'
And 'sleepwalking.'
Narcolepsy is a disease where abnormal sleep patterns manifest.
My uncle would collapse at any given moment.
He would even fall asleep so deeply that eating was impossible.
In this way, sleep had stolen many things from his life. Even the ability to properly love his only daughter.
‘On top of that, because of his sleepwalking, he sent the heroine to the safe west wing and locked himself away here.’
The men of the Heuk family, afflicted with serious illnesses, and me, the daughter of one of them.
The east wing, also home to one of my male cousins.
My father, Heuk Biyu's father, must be here somewhere, too.
In about ten years, the heroine was destined to cure only one of them here.
The other two die before then.
One of them is my dad.
‘Though that's still a long way off.’
Yes, that's the problem.
The soft, sweet heroine's growth is still a long way off.
In the meantime, not only the heroine's father but also all the other characters she's supposed to save will continue to suffer.
And what about me?
I want to get my hands on the imperial family's 'treasure' as soon as possible.
In that case, people with mutual interests should join forces.
‘Uncle, I'm here to bring you your happy life a little early.’
So please, help me.
“Uncoo, are yoo sick somewhere?”
“What are you talking about, you brat? Did you call me a patient earlier?”
He abruptly crouched down, his glaring eyes making him look just like a thug.
The more he slept, the smaller Heuk Birang's world became.
Even after sending his daughter away for her safety, he grieved that she was growing more distant, beyond his reach.
I patted my uncle's knee.
“Uncoo, I'm gonna tell yoo a secwet, just for yoo.”
“What kind of nonsense is this? Wait, seeing you in the east wing... did you go crazy too, following my second brother's lead?”
“Goodness, you're really not the kind of person who's good for a child's emotional well-being.”
“...Huh?”
His handsome face tilted.
He had sensed that something was off.
***
Heuk Birang stared blankly down at the tiny pipsqueak before him.
Just moments ago when he'd opened his eyes, he had felt a wave of irritation and ennui.
Instead of feeling refreshed like a normal person upon waking, he experienced various symptoms like paralysis, hallucinations, and sleep attacks.
A completely jumbled state of mind was just a bonus.
He felt despair every time he woke up.
‘How much time has passed this time?’
My time is being thrown away like trash.
The body blessed by the dragon was incomparably sturdier than that of an ordinary person.
It allowed him to survive even without eating while he slept, but that was all.
No one knew of a cure.
Even the family's greatest talents and the most renowned physicians had given up. It was no different from a curse.
When he opened his eyes this time, he felt a paralysis in his hand. Though he had the sensation of have instinctively grabbed something.
He hadn't been lucid enough to control his strength.
“Wisten cwose, Uncoo.”
The very first thing he saw upon opening his eyes was a head of soft, pale violet hair.
A very small baby.
While her cheeks were chubby, the arm he had grabbed was nothing but skin and bones.
As uninterested as he was in the world, he could at least tell that the little baby before him was exceptionally pretty.
‘Though not as pretty as my daughter.’
A familiar face. He seemed to recall his sister-in-law looking just like this.
‘Did my second brother even have the presence of mind to look after her?’
A flicker of pity crossed his cold face.
It was because he'd recalled the connection between his second brother's illness and his neglected niece.
It was the bare minimum of sympathy he could show.
“Are yoo wistenin', Uncoo?”
“What.”
He scowled to hide his sympathy.
“Actuawwy, I'm a genius.”
Heuk Birang reacted to his niece's 'genius declaration' with a bewildered expression.
“So what?”
A less than favorable attitude.
He had no intention of changing it.
As long as he was warm to his own daughter, that was enough.
What reason did he, a man who couldn't even care for his own daughter, have to worry about a mere niece?
But his niece wasn't flustered at all. On the contrary, he had the illusion that her eyes were sparkling.
“Even if I can cure Uncoo's sickness?”
“What?”
“I said I can cure that sickness.”
The three-year-old baby placed her tiny hands on her hips and declared bravely.
“That's the kind of genius I am.”
What is she talking about? Is this pipsqueak a patient too?
Just as Heuk Birang was about to say something, the child smiled brightly and lifted a water bottle.
“I guess I'll have to show yoo! Watch cwosewy.”
*Trickle.*
...What. What am I supposed to be watching? Her pouring water?
His niece, who had poured water into the bottle cap, dipped her finger into it.
*Whoooosh!*
Incredibly, an enormous amount of water—unthinkable to have come from a bottle cap—crashed over Heuk Birang.
His surprise was short-lived.
‘I can... breathe?’