Chapter 44
Chapter 44
-----------------------------------------------------------------
Translator: Vine
Chapter: 44
Chapter Title: The Three-Tailed Fox
-----------------------------------------------------------------
“Huh?”
“No, it’s nothing. Anyway. Your father is monitoring us, even out here.”
Father?
I looked up at the empty air. Come to think of it, I had been feeling a constant breeze.
“…You said you met my eldest sister, right? Heuk Haran.”
My eldest aunt?
“Yeah, why?”
“I’m sure you’ll handle yourself just fine. And you have me and my older brother by your side, but…”
My allies. For a moment, I forgot the situation and felt a surge of reassurance.
“Be careful of that sister of mine.”
Heuk Birang’s expression was the most serious I had ever seen it.
“My eldest brother and I can’t accompany you outside since our confinement order hasn’t been lifted. We’ll try to get it lifted, though.”
“…”
“Until then, avoid contact with Heuk Haran as much as possible. Your father has no memory of her, so I’m telling you this.”
“Why?”
Heuk Haran is an incredibly ambitious woman. She would stop at nothing to become the family head.
In the original story, she actually killed the family head and briefly took the position, only to have it snatched away by the heroine.
“Your eldest aunt tried to kill your father several times.”
This was news to me.
“Since she hates your father, her blade will be aimed at you. You’ll definitely become a target.”
“…”
“Above all, if she finds out about your prodigious talent, she’ll be even more determined to come after you.”
I couldn’t deny it, since that’s exactly what happened in my past life. I thought so, too.
Though, this was the first I’d heard about her targeting my father.
“But why are you telling me this where Dad can’t hear? We can just talk about it together.”
“I’ll tell him. And I didn’t put up the barrier just to talk about Heuk Haran. It was for this and other things.”
Heuk Birang let out a small sigh.
He seemed to be debating whether to say something or not.
“You… how much do you know about your father’s illness?”
Instead of being swayed by his cryptic words, I tilted my head.
“What is it you want to say?”
I’m used to discerning the main point from people who beat around the bush.
The hesitation. The lies they only confess later.
It’s all things patients do.
“Is it hard to say?”
“Huh? No, no… It’s not that.”
Heuk Birang scratched his cheek.
“Do you trust your father?”
What could he mean? He wouldn’t be warning me that my father would suddenly betray me. It must be about his illness.
“I trust him. I’ve decided to. As a physician, I will trust and help a patient who is fighting with all his will and might to get better.”
“…”
“Same goes for you, Uncle. I trust you.”
Heuk Birang looked stunned. Then he bowed his head low and ruffled his own hair.
“Right, what am I saying…? To a three-year-old who even cured me.”
Heuk Birang’s eyes darted around before he finally gave a bitter smile.
“Sorry. Something was bothering me, and I ended up saying something strange.”
“It’s okay.”
I understand your anxiety. All those long moments you lived with an incurable disease, unable to see even a step ahead.
‘After all, I don’t know when my own regression will end.’
That’s why I want to go back even more.
“Just pretend you didn’t hear it.”
“Okay.”
The barrier of water disappeared.
The sight of Heuk Birang with a hand on his hip, gazing at the moon, was poignant.
“When I look at the moon… it makes me think of my daughter.”
My uncle’s once-prickly voice softened. His face looked gentle, too.
‘He was a doting father.’
My uncle turned his head.
His expression as he looked at me seemed at ease. There was a hint of longing in it, too.
“You know, I hope my Ayan grows up to be brave and, what’s the word… wise and good, just like you.”
“What if she doesn’t turn out like that? What will you do then?”
I’m not exactly a good person. I’m only treating you all because I have an ulterior motive.
“What? What does that have to do with anything?”
My uncle burst out laughing. It was an unguarded expression.
“Even if she doesn’t, she’s still my daughter. What would change?”
“…”
“Oh, and of course, even if you couldn’t cure me, you’d still be my niece. Just so you know.”
My uncle gently tapped my forehead.
“Sometimes you look like you’re carrying a huge burden. You’re only three, you don’t have to carry the weight of the world, kiddo.”
He no longer pushed me with uncontrolled strength like he did when we first met.
“I was going to walk you back, but I won’t. Your father is definitely watching over you.”
Heuk Birang waved.
Smiling, I followed suit and waved back enthusiastically.
“Bye, Uncle!”
“Yeah.”
Don’t worry.
I’ll make sure you get to see your lovely daughter.
* * *
The next day.
Chirp, chirp, chirp. Birds sang in the morning air.
I was contemplating something, humming in thought.
“What are you doing?”
Startled by a presence that had suddenly appeared behind me, I turned my head to see my father.
“When did you wake up?”
“Around the time you did.”
…I slept in the next room, but he sensed me waking up? A renowned warrior truly is on another level.
‘His complexion seems to be almost back to normal.’
“How’s your body feeling?”
“No problems.”
“And your head and memories?”
“It doesn’t hurt, and nothing new has surfaced.”
I came to the conclusion that pain must accompany his recovery of important memories.
It was just a hypothesis for now, though.
For now, his body couldn’t handle it, resulting in pain and fever, but there was a high chance it would get better over time.
‘After all, we’re relying on a miracle to cure a disease that should be incurable.’
I turned my gaze to the floor. On a small blanket, a tiny, breathing life form rested.
It was the puppy I had rescued.
After my father collapsed, I had my eldest and youngest uncles retrieve him, and I took care of the puppy as well.
‘It still can’t open its eyes…’
My father plopped down beside me.
“What’s this?”
“What do you mean? It’s the puppy we found back then.”
My father looked bewildered.
“A puppy? This thing?”
Right? I was just thinking the same thing.
After getting my father settled, I washed and treated the puppy, and that’s when I realized it wasn’t a puppy.
“Isn’t it a fox? A white fox, at that.”
“Right?”
The pointed ears, the sharp snout, and the bushy tail.
No matter how I looked at it, it was a fox.
A fox so small it looked like it had just been born.
“But Dad, this one… has three tails.”
It was true. Unlike a normal fox, it had three tails.
“Dad, do you think it could be a divine beast?”
“…I can feel some kind of power from it. But it seems a little different from a divine beast.”
So he doesn’t know either. My father pointed at its tails.
“In the first place, white foxes are animals only found on the Eastern Continent. I’ve never heard of one with three tails. Perhaps it’s a mutation?”
“Huh? There are no white foxes on the Western Continent?”
“None. Unless it was poached?”
He added that on the Eastern Continent, white foxes are considered sacred, and their export is strictly forbidden.
So does that mean this little one was smuggled in?
“Poor thing.”
I carefully stroked the sleeping baby fox.
“It must have suddenly opened its eyes in a strange new world. How scary must that have been? Everything would have been unfamiliar… It must have had to adapt just to survive.”
It’s just like me.
I already felt sorry for it because it was injured, but now I felt even more sympathy.
‘Can I send it back to the Eastern Continent?’
It might be possible after the heroine becomes the family head.
My father, who had been listening quietly, asked abruptly.
“Is that from experience?”
“…Huh?”
“Because you also lived all alone in this east wing?”
I blinked. Oh, that startled me. He meant that…
I rolled my eyes and nodded.
“That’s right. So I thought I’d become this little one’s guardian and friend.”
“Then I suppose I’ll have to be your guardian.”
“Huuuh?”
Looking amused, my father leisurely rested his chin on his raised knee.
“Let’s see… You spent three years without me, right? In that case, I’ll have to work twice as hard for the next three years. Captain.”
“…That ‘Captain’ again.”
My father smiled knowingly.
“If you accept us as family, then we become family.”