Chapter 66
Chapter 66
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Translator: Vine
Chapter: 66
Chapter Title: Two Weeks
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I recalled what Jeok Yunha had said today.
‘Whew, that really surprised me. The people you assigned to me are from the Heuk family, right? I could tell even with their masks on.’
‘Uh-huh.’
‘They're amazing! Seriously, it felt like using an ox-slaughtering knife just to catch a chicken!’
Even after the meal, my uncle, eldest uncle, and Gyewon didn't leave.
So I told my uncle what I'd heard from Jeok Yunha.
My uncle's reaction was nonchalant.
“We didn't do much.”
That couldn't be true.
‘The lightning mage who supposedly murdered his subordinate one day and vanished, Lord Heuk Biwon, right? The other one is….’
This was a period the original novel never covered. I knew the gist of Heuk Birang's past, but I had no idea what organization my eldest uncle belonged to when he was young, or what my father used to do.
“We just did what we used to do. My big brother's job was to wreak havoc. Mine was to gather information.”
My uncle drained his glass. It was definitely a water glass, but he drank from it like it was liquor.
Soon, my uncle named two organizations.
“Eldest Uncwe was in the Black Guard, and Uncwe was in the Shadow Corps?”
They were the Heuk family's top military and intelligence organizations, respectively. With a blank face, Heuk Birang gestured with his eyes toward my father.
“Your father was…,”
At that moment, my father was being held captive by my eldest uncle, who was clinging to him while deftly dodging his attempts to push him away.
I glanced at my father and said.
“...An assassin?”
Heuk Birang froze and looked at me, a surprised expression on his face.
“What, you knew… No, no, pretend you don't know.”
My uncle waved his hand dismissively.
I shrugged.
My father himself had said he was the family's dog, so I'd just made a guess based on that.
If he’d done the family’s dirty work, things like that naturally came to mind.
“Sometimes I really can't tell if I'm talking to a three-year-old or someone my own age….”
Heuk Birang let out a sigh.
‘He looks like he has something on his mind.’
Still, he remained silent, and I simply stayed by his side for a while.
A short time passed.
“You see….”
“What's wowwying you?”
I tilted my head.
Sometimes, a patient wears an expression that says they just want someone to listen to their story.
That was the look on my uncle's face right now.
“I’m a vewy good patient wistener.”
“……”
Heuk Birang seemed to feel awkward and scratched his cheek.
“Well, you see. I… have something to confess, and you can't laugh when you hear it, okay?”
“I’ve never waughed at a patient's wowwies.”
My uncle let out a small chuckle, but he seemed to have found some courage.
“When I got sick, a problem developed with my powers, too. It's been a while.”
He tried to sound nonchalant, but the end of his voice trembled slightly.
“...I'm afraid of water, you see.”
I was surprised, but I didn't let it show.
Heuk Birang was a water mage.
But he was afraid of water?
No, for someone with that fear, he used his powers just fine, didn't he? Was that all? My diagnosis involved him being trapped in water.
He'd seemed perfectly fine all this time.
“For the record, I'm fine with water others control. It's purely a fear of the water I control.”
This was what my uncle meant.
“When I first got this illness… I fell asleep, and I almost hurt someone because I couldn't control my powers.”
In the early stages of his illness, his power would apparently run wild whenever he fell asleep.
People had gotten hurt because of it.
“...And during a time I couldn't control it, my daughter almost got hurt. Since then, water... it's become frightening. My own power became frightening.”
Heuk Birang wore a look of immense pain.
His wife had died early, and his only daughter, Heuk Ayan, was his entire world.
It must have been a devastating blow.
“So I can't use my power beyond a certain level. I've become... a cripple. There's none of that past glory left.”
Heuk Birang clenched his hand into a fist, then opened it.
A small waterspout formed in his palm before vanishing completely.
“That's probably part of why I'm confined here. The main house treated me like trash in the end.”
As he looked at my young face, my uncle’s expression was desperate.
“Can... can this be cured too?”
In the original novel, he never had a problem like this. That meant this strong uncle of mine had solved this problem on his own.
Even so, I could well understand the torment he must be feeling.
“So Uncwe isn't just here because he caused twouble and has a sleeping sickness. And the pwoblem you mentioned will be aww wight.”
“...Why?”
I gently took my uncle's hand.
It was damp.
He must have been nervous.
“It's because the sickness is making you unable to contwol your powers, wight? That'll get better when you take the medicine, so it's not a pwoblem.”
I dipped my hand into the water glass I was drinking from.
“Evewything will be fine, you see?”
My uncle stared at me blankly. Confusion clouded his sharp eyes.
Soon, he frowned.
“What if I still can't use my powers after taking the medicine? Am I useless then?”
“Then it's a psycho-wo-gical pwoblem.”
*Whooosh!* The water that had shot up enveloped Heuk Birang.
“Don't wowwy. Who do you think Uncwe is wooking at wight now?”
I smiled sweetly.
“A genius physician.”
The one who was once the greatest in the empire, a genius physician renowned across the continent.
“I'll become a gweat doctor who can fix even that.”
The after-service is guaranteed, you know?
A short while later, I gathered my uncle, eldest uncle, and Gyewon, who were all about to head home. My father was there too, of course.
“Physician Heuk Biyu will be taking a short bweak to focus on tweating Eldest Uncwe and Uncwe.”
“Is there a reason?”
I nodded.
For one, with Jeok Yunha's support, I had successfully acquired even the rarest, hard-to-get medicinal herbs.
And it was time to start brewing my uncle and eldest uncle's medicine in earnest.
“Wisten cawfuwwy. Stawting tomowwow, people fwom the main house will pwobabwy come.”
A warrior from the Heuk family had already sown the seeds this afternoon.
I explained briefly.
“You mean… they won't just stop at a warning, but they'll try to take Father and our uncles to the main house?”
“Uh-huh.”
Gyewon had a look of disbelief, but the expressions on my uncle and eldest uncle's faces were different. My father's, too.
My eldest uncle had dealt with Kanin's hideout. It was possible a trace had been left behind.
‘More importantly, does the main house really not know about the two of them going out?’
If this was also a trap, the main house would surely have a field day making an issue of my eldest uncle and uncle’s unauthorized outing.
And if they were summoned, they would use their illnesses against them.
‘Let's advance the medicine by about ten stages. Then their improvement will be noticeable.’
I looked at the four of them.
“Just buy me two weeks.”
“...Two weeks?”
I grinned.
“Yeah. Then I'll show you a miracle.”
* * *
“Is Lord Heuk Bihu present!”
Someone pounded on the door as if to break it down.
Then, the door opened on its own.
The people who rushed in were low-ranking warriors of the Heuk family, dressed in black robes and gray hoods.
“An order has come from above! You are to report to the main house at once... Uwaaargh!!”
They were sent flying like leaves in a gale-force wind.
The men, now thrown outside the gate, stared ahead in a daze.
The man they were looking for, my father, was standing in the yard, sweeping his hair back with an annoyed look on his face.
“Get the hell out of my house.”
And just like that, the warriors were sent flying like stars.
‘Wow, shouldn't a wind that strong be called a tornado?’
Watching people get swept up in a tornado in broad daylight, I let out a whistle.
‘A home run. It's a home run!’
If my dad had played baseball, he would have been the home run king.
It was then.
*Rumble, craaack!*
With a tremendous sound, a bolt of lightning struck from a clear sky. It was in the direction of my eldest uncle's house.
‘Good, that side is driving them away well, too.’
I hummed a little tune.
‘Perfect. This is exactly how I wanted them to do it.’
Two nights ago.
‘Just buy me two weeks.’
I had boldly declared that I needed them to buy me time to make the medicine.
‘We don't have to go to the main house wight away. And there's a way to avoid being summoned. We just have to dwive away anyone who comes wooking for us.’
The person who had sent his subordinate to my clinic to cause a scene would use it as a pretext to summon them to the main house.
Of course, they would be waiting with a trap. But was there any reason to do as they pleased?
‘By any means necessawy... send them flying!’
‘The head of the famiwy will take wesponsibiwity!’
Want to buy some time? You just have to lie back and dare them to do their worst.
While driving everyone away, of course.