Chapter 70
Chapter 70
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Translator: Vine
Chapter: 70
Chapter Title: The Test of Sanity
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I clasped my hands lightly and leaned back, relaxed.
‘It took far too long to get here…’
The Matriarch then spoke to my uncle.
“After Heuk Biwon, it’s your turn, Heuk Birang.”
The uncle beside me seemed to flinch.
“...I obey your command, Mother.”
A moment later, Heuk Birang wiped the reluctance from his face and bowed politely.
‘Wow, with manners like that, it’s hard to believe he’s so rebellious.’
While I was inwardly marveling, the Matriarch continued.
“This is how we will determine if Heuk Biwon's condition has improved.”
At a single gesture from the Matriarch, a small vial flew in on the wind.
“Does anyone have a bay leaf?”
“I-I have one, Matriarch…!”
The Matriarch skillfully crushed the leaf into a powder and added it to the vial in her hand.
‘That’s…’
It’s difficult to identify a medicine just by looking at the vial.
But I recognized it for a reason. It was a potion I was all too familiar with.
“Biwon, are you prepared?”
“Is there any need for preparation? The niece who defended me didn't lie, so all I have to do is prove it.”
My eldest uncle shrugged.
I had to admit, he had a real talent for being audaciously cheeky, even in front of the Matriarch.
“Let’s see if you can still say that in the face of this test. This is a weak catalyst. A very weak medicine that will incite your madness.”
Only then did a hint of tension cross my eldest uncle’s face.
‘I knew it would be that!’
It was the same vial I’d seen countless times in my first life, back when I was forced to attend those meetings.
That was when our relatives were plotting to forcibly trigger my eldest uncle's uncontrollable madness to throw him at our enemies.
The plan was to start with a light catalyst and eventually create a drug that would induce irreversible insanity.
My role was to create an anesthetic to calm my eldest uncle during the experiments.
‘I smuggled out so much of that catalyst.’
The Matriarch threw the vial down the stairs. My eldest uncle caught it with ease.
“Drink it.”
As I watched my eldest uncle open the lid, I felt a ticklish breeze on my cheek.
- Is it really all right to leave this be?
The voice that whispered in my ear was my father's.
I subtly raised my eyes. I could read the faint concern in his otherwise indifferent expression.
- You can speak.
“Mhm, it’s okay.”
I hadn’t expected to see the Matriarch, but I had anticipated this kind of situation.
‘Even if it had been my aunts instead of the Matriarch, they would have prepared that medicine as soon as his recovery was mentioned.’
I recalled two weeks ago, when I had started the plan.
‘Just buy me two weeks.’
That was the day I’d declared that everyone should be kept away, just to buy myself time to make the medicine.
‘The moment I say I tweated him, they’ll test to see if his condition has impwoved. That's when you have to be caweful, Eldest Uncle.’
‘Hm? Me?’
‘Mhm. To check on the impwovement of youw condition… my aunts will definitely twy to induce youw madness on puwpose.’
‘…Not just diagnose me?’
There was no way those women would be convinced by a simple diagnosis and say, ‘Oh, I see. So he's better now?’
They were the type to manipulate the results even if it were true.
‘Whatevew happens, you have to enduwe it. That's the key. Don't wowwy, my medicine will help you, Eldest Uncle. But don't fowget... enduwing it is up to youw own will.’
I had made a request of my eldest uncle.
They would use any means necessary to provoke him, so he had to endure it.
And so.
The moment my eldest uncle swallowed the medicine.
The Matriarch commanded.
“Everyone, seize him.”
Warriors rushed forward, seizing Gyewon and tying him up tightly.
“Stay still if you don't want this entire test to be nullified.”
The three brothers, who were about to move, had to stop at the Matriarch's command. The warriors tied Gyewon up tightly without any interference.
My expression grew serious as well.
“Biwon. I ask you. Has your illness truly improved?”
Malice radiated from the Matriarch's narrowed eyes.
The Matriarch was a great physician, even if not as great as I was in my prime.
She could have understood my eldest uncle's condition with a single diagnosis.
Yet she deliberately chose the most provocative method.
“Have you recovered enough not to go mad, even if your son's head is cut off?”
A warrior, following her order, pointed a sword at Gyewon's neck.
…This was too much.
‘What worries me is…’
The one thing my uncles had in common was a child they cherished more than anyone.
I could see my other uncle's face, pale as if this were his own trial.
I stared at my eldest uncle again.
- Are you sure you don't need to step in?
My father's voice came again.
I nodded calmly.
“Yeah. Of course. I don't make my medicine carelessly.”
This kind of nasty, cheap situation? I expected it. That's why I needed those two weeks.
I could only see my eldest uncle's profile, but he was clenching his teeth. The veins standing out on his neck looked serious.
His dark red eyes wavered wildly.
‘Endure it, my dear patient.’
His condition must have looked unusual to others, as I could hear people murmuring.
“…His condition looks serious. Shouldn't we get away?”
“What if lightning starts striking everywhere like before!”
“If things get bad, we can use the sturdy warriors as shields…”
Against the backdrop of these hushed voices from behind, voices full of anxiety and distrust.
I glanced up at the sky.
‘Lightning? As if.’
The sky was nothing but blue.
Before I knew it, my eldest uncle was laughing.
“Haha, Mother… Is this all the test amounts to?”
“…”
“I know you won't kill my son, the apple of my eye.”
My eldest uncle spread his arms wide.
“Knowing your personality, Mother, you would never get rid of the last tool you have to control me.”
“…”
The Matriarch's shoulders flinched.
It was a tremor even I could notice from a distance.
“…Truly.”
The Matriarch's expression was one of disbelief, yet at the same time, it held a strange, incomprehensible obsession.
“Have you recovered?”
Her voice, bursting out as if she were grinding her teeth, was laced with longing.
“Who in the world could have treated your illness, which no physician on earth could cure?”
No one could utter a word.
The Matriarch's voice was thick with possessiveness, desire, and greed.
“Well now…”
My eldest uncle grinned.
Then, instead of answering, he raised one hand.
*Crackle!*
Lightning formed at my eldest uncle's fingertips.
“W-We were tricked! Everyone, get back!”
“Damn it, it's the madness!”
The area behind us grew noisy, but only for a moment.
Because my eldest uncle's lightning wasn't aimed at the warriors holding Gyewon, nor at the physicians, apothecaries, and vassals standing behind them.
*BOOM!*
*CRACKLE!*
The lightning shot out like an arrow, carving a giant character into the floor. That character was:
‘Pass.’
It was a character announcing the result of his own test, and it was also a signal to me.
“Did you ask who treated and saved me?”
My eldest uncle's eyes gleamed, free of madness.
He placed a hand on his hip and laughed loudly. Then he spread both his hands.
“Hear it from the person herself.”
I grabbed my father's arm.
“Daddy, now.”
I entrusted myself to my father's hands and opened the water canteen I had been carrying as if it were a part of me.
I poured the water generously into my hand.
“You have to hold me tight, okay?”
The night before we came here, just last night, we had gathered to talk.
If the opportunity arose to introduce the physician who cured my uncles' illnesses…
They were to pass it to me.
‘I told him to give me a signal.’
The moment I clapped my hands, a huge wave surged from the water droplets floating in the air.
The wave's destination was the warriors holding Gyewon.
“Ghk, khuk!”
“W-What is this?! Ugh!”
The warrior holding his arms and the one with a sword to his neck were all trapped in the water.
‘My, you fellas look pretty healthy.’
“The person who tweated Eldest Uncle, who no one else could cuwe—did you find them?”
I climbed down from my father's arms.
I toddled over to the foot of the magnificent staircase and looked up.
I’ve come this far, through a long life.
I smiled brightly.
“The physician is wight here.”