Chapter 45
Chapter 45
-----------------------------------------------------------------
Translator: Vine
Chapter: 45
Chapter Title: Raon
-----------------------------------------------------------------
“……”
I’d wondered how two brothers could have such different personalities. But now that I looked closer, he had a hint of the same slyness as my eldest uncle.
I pouted.
“You’re my dady, so I’m calling you Dady. I’m not calling you ‘mister’.”
My father froze.
“You…”
“Oh? It moved!”
Just then, the baby fox opened its eyes.
*Whoa, oh my gosh.*
Its eyes were a truly beautiful gold.
“Yip…?”
The baby fox had a bewildered look on its face. It glanced around before trying to stand up.
“This thing looks like it’s about to die.”
“Dady! Why’d you hit it!”
“I just touched it.”
Though it had collapsed at the light touch of his hand.
“Oh no, you can’t. I treated you, but you have no energy.”
Hadn’t it been unconscious for several days?
*Besides, when I first diagnosed it, it was poisoned with an anesthetic, right?*
It was a little strange. Did my diagnostic ability work on animals too?
I’d never tried, so I didn’t know.
But I’d never heard of people from families with healing abilities being able to diagnose or treat animals.
*Is it not an animal? But it looks so much like a baby fox.*
Though it did have three tails.
I reached out a hand to the baby fox, which was whining as it struggled to get up.
As I very carefully brought my hand to its head, the fox flinched.
I gently stroked it with just my fingertips.
“I won’t hurt you. Were you scared?”
After a few minutes, I could feel its trembling subside a little.
The baby fox hesitated, then sniffed my hand. Then it licked me.
*Aww! So cute…!*
I had my father bring over the food I had prepared. It was peas and corn.
I’d also prepared some milk, just in case.
“You’re hungry, right? Go on, eat.”
“…Being waited on like royalty.”
My father seemed somewhat dissatisfied for some reason.
Thankfully, the fox ate the prepared food well. Its belly grew chubby after it ate its fill.
So cute…
*We’ll be together for a while, so should I give it a name first?*
The fox didn’t seem to fear me anymore. After sniffing me a few more times, it yelped and rubbed its body all over me.
*Though it seemed scared of my father.*
Well, it was understandable. He was built like a mountain and wore a perpetually blank expression.
“Your name… will be ‘Raon’.”
Since it was a fox from the Eastern Continent, I should give it a name in their style.
“It means ‘joyful’. Since your home is probably the Eastern Continent. That’s what I’ll call you.”
I gently petted the fox. It seemed to like being petted near its ears.
“Kyank! Kyank!”
“…It yelps like a puppy. No, is it a little different?”
I held the warm fox that fit perfectly in my arms and gave a soft smile.
“I’ll make sure to send you home.”
The baby fox ate a little more, ran around the room, and then quickly fell asleep. It seemed exhausted.
“It has low stamina…”
“Just like you.”
“Ack.”
That was unfair. Isn’t it normal for a three-year-old to have low stamina? Although I was weaker than others my age.
“Hmph, if you know, then you better protect me from now on.”
My father gave a barely perceptible smile.
A moment later,
I moved to another room.
There were a total of five rooms in the building where my father lived.
One was my father’s room. Another was the room I slept in. The third was locked.
*I asked Dad why it was locked, but he said he couldn’t remember.*
The fourth was the room I had given to the baby fox.
And the last one…
As I opened the door, the scent of medicinal herbs washed over me. It was being used as a drying room.
The herbs I’d bought with my father were stored here.
This room, strangely enough, had shelves that seemed to be made specifically for medicinal herbs.
And that wasn’t all. It was shaded from the sun, and its structure allowed for good ventilation.
It was a room made for medicinal herbs.
*Anyone could see this room was made for a physician and an apothecary.*
My father wouldn’t have used it. Naturally, my ‘mother’ came to mind.
*Her name was Arin, right?*
That’s what my father had called her.
What was her last name? I only knew what she looked like.
Well, I’ll figure that out later.
I strode forward, avoiding the drying herbs.
“Here it is.”
Where I stopped, there was an object shrouded in cloth. I pulled off the cloth that was covering it.
A cage with bars appeared, and the creature sleeping inside slowly opened its eyes.
“Hi. We meet again today.”
Unlike the baby fox, which I had seen for the first time in this life, this one was an old acquaintance.
It was the masterless Divine Beast that Heuk Daewi had luckily obtained in my past life.
A pure white baby snake.
The only thing that set it apart from a normal snake was the horn on its head.
*Hiss, hiss.* I grinned at its wary posture.
*You looked at me just like that when you were dying, too.*
Still, we became friends before you closed your eyes for good. Even if it was only for three days…
This creature was called a ‘Dokgaksa’.
As the name suggested, it was a poisonous horned snake, a type of Divine Beast born from nature.
According to research I did later, it was an extremely rare creature.
If a physician or apothecary becomes its master, they gain immense talent in creating not only elixirs but also poisons.
The creature itself also had the ability to handle plants, showing excellent skills in storing, preserving, and managing medicinal herbs.
*Where did such a treasure come from?*
I suppose I should thank Heuk Daewi.
Though I had to be accepted as its master first.
I held out what I had brought with me.
“Hungry?”
I’d heard that Divine Beasts don’t feel hunger much, but I had brought a clean fruit just in case.
They said these creatures only ate fruit.
I’d only been looking at it for the past few days; this was the first time I had offered my hand.
“Ah, I guess it won’t come if I just hold it out like this…”
What should I do? Should I open the cage?
I was pondering this for a long while.
*Slither.*
To my surprise, the baby snake came closer. My surprise was short-lived as a familiar voice cut in.
“What are you doing over there?”
Unable to even pull my hand back, I shouted.
“Aah, don’t step on the herbs!”
“I won’t.”
My father’s feet floated off the ground.
Ah, so that was an option?
My father, who had lightly flown over, stared down at me.
“A snake after the fox? I see you plan on turning this house into an animal farm.”
“No, I’m not.”
I didn’t know if the baby fox was a Divine Beast, but having too many would just drain my energy. One Dokgaksa was enough for me.
“I was taming it. You remember this one, right?”
“I do. The one you suddenly insisted we buy while we were shopping. I thought you were going to boil it…”
“Aaaaaah! What are you saying! It can hear you!”
It can hear you! You cruel father!
We had bought the Dokgaksa in a shabby alley, just as Heuk Daewi had said.
*‘Eh, just take it for that price. It’s poisonous so you can’t eat it, and mutants don’t sell anyway.’*
The animal seller didn’t seem to know its true value.
*Then again, it’s a creature known only among noble families through word of mouth.*
“My apologies, snake.”
“…Apologize more sincerely!”
My father obediently apologized to the baby snake as I demanded. He seemed more relaxed than when he was dealing with the fox.
“Taming a masterless Divine Beast… that won’t be easy.”
“I have to, though. I know it’s very difficult, but… huh?”
Yes, it was a very difficult task.
According to records, the Dokgaksa was an especially difficult Divine Beast to tame; hadn’t it taken one person ten years?
In fact, if I hadn’t picked up the baby Dokgaksa that Heuk Daewi had thrown away in frustration…
…I never would have gotten involved with it, nor would the dying Dokgaksa have opened its heart to me over those three days.
Yes, that’s how it was, but…
*-Peep?*
The Divine Beast approached my finger and tilted its head. Then, it slithered up onto my palm.
It’s cute, so cute…!
Its scales are so cool to the touch…!
“Dady, do Divine Beasts all make similar sounds?”
I asked, bewildered.
“Usually.”
“…Really?”
In the original story, the heroine’s Divine Beast chirped like a bird.
“If it takes the form of a perfect animal, it makes that animal’s sound. But there are no horned snakes in the world.”
“Right…”
The baby snake had now climbed up to my wrist. It looked like a bracelet.
“How curious. Did it take to you immediately?”
I didn’t have time to be amazed. I was completely frozen, only able to blink my eyes.
*What… is this?*
A small voice sounded in my ear.
-Connection.
It wasn’t my imagination.
But the feeling was a bit strange.
It was as if a newborn baby, instead of crying ‘wah’…
…had said, *‘Hello, Mother?’* That’s what it felt like.