Chapter 75
Translator: Vine
Chapter: 75
Chapter Title: Journey to Cheimik
‘It's not certain, but her condition...’
The Matriarch had given up her sight, but in exchange, she had greatly enhanced her other abilities.
‘How many times must I tell you? Do not touch my child. Speak without laying a hand on her.’
Though Heuk Bihu's interruption had been a nuisance, the Matriarch had managed to diagnose Heuk Biyu for a fleeting moment.
And the child's condition was...
A faint smile touched the Matriarch's lips.
‘Why have I been unaware of such a treasure for so long?’
Well, it was because her children had blinded her to it. She had reaped what she sowed.
Still, she wasn't displeased.
A genius, after all, is like an awl in a sack—it's bound to stick out. It was more amusing for the news to reach her ears this way.
However, it was clear that her son, who was always by the child's side, would not stand idly by if she tried to use her. And if it was not just one, but all three of them, it would be downright bothersome.
“If you desire that child, her father, Heuk Bihu, will only be an obstacle.”
“...”
“Is he not the one who dared to ignore the Matriarch's summons even with his broken mind? A mere warrior, at that.”
*Clack.* The opponent moved their piece.
It was a move that neither blocked head-on nor completely deflected the attack.
“So, what will you do about Bihu?”
“...I will take care of it myself. He's a thorn in your side anyway, isn't he?”
The Matriarch sensed the opponent's piece, subtly hidden behind her own.
“He would have been better off living without remembering.”
Things she could perceive only through the wind and touch that served as her senses.
“Because this time, I will dispose of him for good.”
Seeing that the Matriarch did not refuse, the opponent's lips twisted into a smirk.
***
Night.
The surroundings were quiet and dark. A carriage sped continuously down the darkened road.
It was a pristine white, luxurious carriage, conspicuous even in the dead of night.
The party was formal enough to be escorted by knights in uniform.
But the expressions of the group were all, without exception, grave.
Meanwhile, inside this luxurious carriage were two men.
One man stared ahead, his hands clasped nervously.
‘We're already behind schedule on completing our mission...’
Before him lay another man.
His superior.
Currently, his superior was unconscious, burning with a high fever.
It had already been three days.
Whenever he opened his eyes, he would complain of being terribly cold and cry out in pain.
They had sought out physicians in every village they passed, but all of them merely shook their heads, saying they had never seen such an illness before.
‘It looks similar to a fever that was once prevalent in the village... but the diagnosis is strange. And look, I've never seen the skin swell up and turn red like this.’
He didn't know much about medicine, but even he could see that his superior's symptoms were worsening by the day.
So much so that he thought... he might die.
‘Absolutely not.’
If his superior died, it would become a hassle for him.
Above all, they were on a very important mission, obligated to travel across the empire and meet with various lords.
That mission was.
‘We must find... the white fox... quickly!!’
Fortunately, there were several sizable cities on their current path.
‘I hope there's a high-ranking physician this time.’
Most importantly, the territory ruled by the Heuk family was not far.
They planned to simply get some fever reducer in a village that served as a key point between territories and then leave again.
“We're approaching Cheimik!”
“Hurry!!”
“Yes, sir!”
He did not know.
That the village was already... full of people suffering from the same illness as his superior.
***
“Hey. Heuk Biyu. What in the world is this?”
A week had passed since we met the Matriarch. We were now in a carriage, heading to Cheimik.
The carriage carried my uncle, me, and my brother Gyewon, racing along without a break.
“Yip! Yap! Yap!”
“Unca, stop.”
In my arms was the baby fox, Raon, who had recently become part of our family.
And wrapped around my neck was Baem-baem-i, the baby unicorn snake, who was happily nuzzling his head against me.
“You're scaring Raon. Put that thing down right now.”
“This?”
My uncle gently shook the thing in his hand, grinning as if it were hilarious.
“What's so scary about this? It just looks like a bird's beak. Hey, fox, you need to grow a spine, you little punk.”
“Yelp!”
“Ah, I told you he doesn't like it!”
In my uncle's hand was a bird's beak mask.
The mask had goggles over the eye sockets, a respirator at the tip of the beak, and a filter cartridge on the headpiece.
It looked similar to the masks worn by plague doctors in European history.
Here, it was what physicians from the Western Continent wore.
The Matriarch, intending to support us as if we were an official dispatch of physicians, had sent a variety of supplies.
‘She said she'd made arrangements with a nearby city to send medicinal herbs to the village in advance.’
As a result, the carriage the Matriarch sent even contained masks like this.
“Hey, but are you really going to wear this ugly thing? Is it that necessary?”
Raon was still trembling as he looked at the mask in my uncle's hand. Was it because of how it looked?
“Whimper... whine...”
He was trembling so hard with his ears flattened that it was pitiful.
As I glared at my uncle, Heuk Birang stealthily lowered the mask.
Although the medical advancements of the Eastern and Western Continents differed, the Heuk family did not exclude those of the West.
That's why some physicians wore these masks when dispatched to handle epidemics.
Of course, I didn't need one.
‘Not that it wouldn't be helpful.’
Why are epidemics so frightening?
Because even the physicians treating them can get infected. In the worst-case scenario, they could even die.
But who am I?
A genius physician! And a regressor!
The disease that has likely spread in Cheimik is one I probably know.
And besides, I can cure any illness I catch.
There was no need to wear that heavy mask. A simple cloth mask would be more than enough.
‘In the first place, the Cheimik disease isn't even a respiratory contagion.’
I kept this thought to myself and shrugged.
“I don't need to wear it. It's not necessary.”
“What? Just wear it. I can adjust the size for you. Or I think there was a smaller one, too?”
“I said I don't need it. I only brought it cuz lots of people will be watching. We don't have to go around making a big deal 'bout not needing what she gave us, you know.”
“Then what are you going to do with this? You're not telling me to wear it, are you?”
“Of course not. Unca doesn't need stuff like that, right? Cuz you have the dragon's blessing.”
My father, uncle, and eldest uncle, who received the dragon's blessing, are resistant to common infectious diseases like the cold.
They were blessed with such robust bodies that it was strange they had contracted an incurable disease in the first place.
What a convenient plot device.
It also made them the perfect candidates for a dispatch like this.
‘Damn it, I'm so jealous!’
With my frail body, I always had to catch whatever disease it was first and then struggle to cure it.
‘Back when my skills were still developing, it was a real pain in the ass.’
My uncle pointed at my brother Gyewon, who was sitting across from me, reading a cookbook.