Is This Really Seasickness?
"Is this really seasickness?"
"Ugh……."
Unable to say yes or no, Ryeon just gulped down some water. As if that would somehow settle her churning stomach. It felt like she'd eaten something scorching hot—the burn rising from deep inside, followed by a familiar sour nausea. Not quite like the vomiting from motion sickness, but a sensation she'd grown all too accustomed to in her past life. The unmistakable surge of blood welling up from within.
Ryeon swallowed back the rising blood with effort, circulating her Harmony and Purification. Her vision swam, and a metallic tang filled her mouth.
Aftereffects occur if Spiritual Energy drops sharply!
Be careful.
It wasn't just that she'd held so much spiritual energy—dumping too much of it all at once was the real problem.
What the hell am I supposed to do?
"Nui, does it hurt a lot? Should I hurt instead of you?"
"That wouldn't work! It doesn't hurt that much. It's just seasickness."
Danmok Bi piled all the small gifts and snacks from the visitors who'd come to see Grandfather Danmok Cheon-gi today onto Ryeon's bed, then tried to burrow into her embrace to keep her from hurting. But Hwaryun pulled him away, saying not to bother the sick person, leaving him to cling to her hand and whimper instead.
But man, Hwaryun's got some serious intuition. Or is this even intuition?
She'd fooled the adults easily enough with Harmony, passing it off as mere seasickness. So why was this kid staring at her so suspiciously?
Still, lying here like this, I'll get cold again soon.
Ryeon checked the time. At this rate, her spiritual energy levels would climb past sixty again in no time—but she'd bought herself a good chunk of time regardless. A brief dip in her condition should recover with some rest. After getting off the canal, she could purify the bustling streets, then siphon a bit of energy into new clothes and accessories for Danmok Bi. That ought to do it.
'Carry the light born of time'—that's what it meant. I should've taken that advice from Cheonbi Palace more seriously.
Now she got it. It was telling her to take jewels formed under the earth's pressure over long ages!
I must've been using way more spiritual energy than I realized.
Making Qinglian Water or Baekyakcheong, purifying every corner of the estate—it had all added up more than she'd thought. And the more she used it, the more proficient she got, accelerating the refill rate. That had hit her hard.
If I don't use it, I die. But using it makes me better at it, so I have to use even more, faster……
"Don't worry too much, Hwaryun. Once we get off the boat…… we'll buy clothes and jewels, and it'll be fine."
"What kind of illness gets better with luxury spending? And how does a martial artist get such bad seasickness anyway?"
"I'm not a full martial artist yet……."
"You're still a baby?"
"Our Hwaryun's so smart~?"
"How do you say the exact same thing as Biarang?"
Hwaryun shot her a look like he wanted to clutch his neck. Even that expression on the young boy's face was just cute. Ryeon laughed, and Hwaryun pouted sulkily.
"If you're a baby, go to sleep."
"You brat—talk like that to Nui and you'll get scolded."
"Yeah, yeah, go to sleep then."
Hwaryun grumbled. Ryeon felt the boy's still-childish fingers kneading her hand as she drifted off, eyes slowly closing. The distant ripple of water lulled her like a lullaby.
Danmok Ryeon's hands weren't soft like a child's—they were thin and dry. If there was any consolation, it was that they bore no scars or blemishes.
Without his sister, Danmok Bi grew far more composed than usual, asking steadily, "Does Nui hurt a lot?"
"A little. But it'll be fine soon……."
Danmok Bi's worry probably stemmed from Hwaryun's own attitude. He wasn't hiding his concern well, so the boy had picked up on it and assumed it was serious.
Hwaryun recalled Ryeon's earlier glare and swallowed a sigh. "She says she's really okay."
"Really?"
Hwaryun nodded. While Ryeon was awake, Danmok Bi had clung and fussed nonstop. But the moment she fell into a deathlike sleep, he simply sat glued to her bedside, head resting nearby, gazing at her silently.
Hwaryun stared down at him for a moment before blurting, "You like your sister that much?"
"Huh? Yeah!"
Danmok Bi answered swiftly and clearly, his face lit with the puzzled look of someone asked the obvious.
"Why? 'Cause she gives you lots of tasty stuff?"
Danmok Bi shot Hwaryun a slight glare, clearly annoyed at being treated like a kid. "She doesn't have to give me any of that. I can give to Nui instead."
"Even the allowance? Even Bingdangho? You'd give it all to her without eating any?"
Danmok Bi flinched a bit, biting his lip hard—but he nodded. "Of…… course."
"You like her that much you'd give her everything?"
"Yeah!"
"Why?"
Back to the same question. Danmok Bi turned to gaze quietly at his sleeping sister.
"Nui took all of Mother's illness."
"What?"
"That's why Mother's healthy now, and I could be born healthy too."
"Who said that?"
"Dunno. Passersby…… other grown-ups……."
Danmok Bi mumbled petulantly, lips pursed. "It would've been nice if she'd split it half with me."
"……."
"But she didn't—'cause she really, really likes me. You think that's true?"
Hwaryun answered coolly. "Nah, that has nothing to do with it. She probably didn't even know you'd exist when she was born."
"……."
Danmok Bi glared at him again. Hwaryun shrugged teasingly and added, "But she does like you. For real."
"Right?"
"Yeah."
What else could that deep bond be but love? She opens her arms and hugs even his tiny body, lets him sleep beside her, strokes his hair, shares her treats…… There was something transcendent in how Danmok Ryeon cherished her brother. Her boundless affection blurred the lines between mine and yours in a way hard to believe for her age.
"Hyung, it's really got nothing to do with me? Nui getting sick isn't because of……."
"Told you, no connection."
Hwaryun emphasized a bit sharply, but Danmok Bi beamed. "Then I like her even more."
"Why? What?"
"'Cause it's not that she likes some random brother she doesn't know!"
Then, as if that spirited shout were a lie, he added softly in a deflated voice, "And it's not 'cause of me she's sick……."
Danmok Bi mumbled that, then shoved his head under Ryeon's blanket. "Nui said…… I can do whatever I want."
His voice muffled softly through the bedding.
"When?"
"The day the cicadas were chirping and Nui was lying down 'cause it was hot……."
The day she'd caught a heatstroke; he'd burrowed into her arms out of worry. Now he wondered if he'd made her hotter. I shouldn't do that anymore. Danmok Bi resolved quietly inside and continued.
"She said if I don't wanna be the world's greatest or whatever…… I don't have to."
Grandfather was the living legend who'd saved the murim, and Father was the genius who'd tragically perished, praised as the rightful heir to that seat. How deep and heavy must the tangible and intangible expectations have been on Danmok Hyeon-seong's frail daughter's brother? Had anyone ever truly weighed that burden?
"……And?"
"So I asked what to do if I don't wanna be the world's greatest, and she said she'd handle everything."
"……."
He hadn't known how heavy it was. By the time he realized, he didn't know how to set it down. Then he'd seen his sister take it all on with her whole body. Even if it was just words, it didn't matter. No one had ever said anything like that before.
"I like Nui. I'll grow up fast and protect her……."
His mumbling under the blanket trailed into soft snores soon after.
Hwaryun let out a hollow chuckle, laid Danmok Bi properly to the side, and tucked him in. Then he turned to gaze at Ryeon on the bed, grasped her wrist, and slowly closed his eyes.
At that moment, Hwaryun's hair fluttered faintly before settling.
He probed with his fingertips, feeling one by one. Her immature meridians were a total mess, ragged and torn. Her breathing carried a bloody tinge. And now, the faint, precarious breaths barely audible.
What the hell is this? Why does she keep doing this?
Hwaryun released her wrist. Asleep on the bed, Danmok Ryeon looked like she was dead. Holding a hand near her nose, he could barely detect the shallow, drawn-out breaths—enough to make it heartbreaking.
He'd heard she'd been sickly for a long time, but it was still strange no one noticed how badly she hurt now.