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Chapter 33
What could that be?”
What on earth was it?
I couldn’t even tell roughly where in my body it was.
It felt as if something were dissolved inside my veins.
I couldn’t feel it directly, nor could I see it.
But it was definitely inside me.
Thinking that, I clutched my head with both hands.
“Oof, my head hurts…”
Since coming back to the past, nothing had been simple.
My head already wasn’t working as well as before the regression.
Why do complicated things keep swelling like a river?
I just couldn’t understand it.
I muttered softly and pushed myself up.
There was no sign of the medicinal hall attendants or the lord of the house.
Did they leave me to rest?
When I leaned against the wall, a sharp sting rose from my wound.
“Ugh…”
I sneakily lifted my clothes and saw a cut.
It wasn’t deep, but it made me frown.
Suddenly I remembered the moment my uncle had stabbed me in my previous life.
“Compared to that, this isn’t so bad.”
Still, maybe because my body was smaller, the wound felt bigger.
“What kind of bastard was that?”
Could it be the faction leader with the badge?
But he wouldn’t be foolish enough to try to kill me in front of everyone like that.
He was a member of the Dasachen family’s inner circle. He had enough sense…
“No, wait.”
If he’d had sense, he wouldn’t have made a poisoned arrow like that.
Right—anyone with a brain wouldn’t do such a vile, stupid thing.
Then…
“You don’t mean—!?”
I shouted, and the door flew open.
Tang Sayiuk (the medicinal hall head) came into my room carrying various medicines.
“Awake? Lie down a bit more.”
Tang Sayiuk called one of the attendants over.
“You, go fetch that second son.” (note: “이공자” literally “that second young master” — context likely referring to the household’s son of rank)
“Yes, master.”
The attendant left the room.
At another gesture from him, a different attendant quickly approached me and replaced the blood-soaked cloth with a clean one.
I watched that quietly, then spoke cautiously.
“Father… cough!”
But my throat felt rough, like sand stuck in it, and my voice didn’t come out clearly.
Grabbing my throat and coughing, Tang Sayiuk hurried over and smoothed my back.
“Your condition is still unstable. Don’t move—this could’ve been disastrous.”
“Father… is he—?”
“He was here until just a moment ago, but he had something to take care of and left. He’ll be back soon. I’ll wake you when he returns, so lie down.”
“But—”
“Goodness… I’ve seen patients who were hovering between life and death, but I’ve never seen one move about so well after that.”
Tang Sayiuk sighed.
“Considering the state you were in when you first collapsed, you should have been bedridden for seven days and nights. How did you get up so quickly? Even I, a physician, don’t know. Do you really not feel any pain?”
I thought for a moment and answered.
“It hurts a little where I was cut, but not enough to be unable to move.”
“Inside? Outside?”
“My abdomen.”
“The blade grazed you, so that’s only natural.”
Still, Tang Sayiuk sent an attendant to fetch a pain-relief medicine and gently applied it to the wound.
He seemed worried because I’d mentioned pain.
I waited while my uncle finished applying the medicine, then asked.
“Have they caught whoever operated the mechanism?”
“Ribi is searching for the culprit; they’ll find them soon.”
“It was so crowded there—will anyone have seen properly?”
“It’s okay—only a limited number of people can operate the mechanism.”
Tang Sayiuk raised one eyebrow as he replied.
“After the house master personally checked your condition, the twisted flow of qi returned to its place and the reversed poison quietly drained into the antidote vial.”
“Grandfather really is incredible…”
“Of course the house master is remarkable, but is this something only he could do?”
Tang Sayiuk blinked.
“Where does this monstrous healing ability of yours come from?”
He kept mumbling to himself, “Given how you first collapsed, you should have been unable to move for at least seven days and nights…”
At that point I felt puzzled too.
When I came to, the burning pain had vanished and my body felt refreshed—I had assumed Grandpa had healed me.
“The house master did heal you. He suppressed your inner power and drew the poison into the antidote vial.”
“Then—”
“However, you almost fell into possession by the coin-demon’s charm. That means your meridians were damaged. But…”
“But?”
“It’s as if that never happened. You’re completely healed. Did you eat something while I was away?”
“Uhang…”
“Met an immortal or something?”
“If we’d met an immortal, my father would have already been healed.”
“That was a joke.”
“Mine too.”
He let out a sigh of relief.
“Anyway, it’s a relief you’re not in pain. I was really worried.”
“Yes.”
“Anyway, if we catch the one who harmed you, we’ll tear him limb from limb—”
He growled.
I nodded.
This wasn’t some special treatment; it was natural.
Harming a direct member of the Tang family is a crime punishable even by one’s life.
So the adults would decide the punishment.
Hearing talk of tearing someone limb from limb didn’t make me pity him at all.
I watched my uncle giving orders to the attendant and carefully ran my hand down near my lower abdomen.
“I felt some power inside my body.”
If that was true,
could that power be why I recovered so monstrously quickly?
“I should ask Father.”
Or Grandpa.
This wasn’t a question I could answer by myself.
As that thought branched into another, a breeze gently blew and the closed door cracked open a little.
And through the gap—
Sssrriip.
The Manhyulsa (Blood-seeking snake?—a named familiar) that had slipped out of my sleeve returned!
Only then did I realize why my sleeve had felt a bit empty.
“Right, it wasn’t there!”
I’d felt a little hollow and uneasy because the snake I always kept had gone.
Seeing the Manhyulsa quietly creep back into my sleeve, my uncle flinched and said,
“If it’s a spirit-creature, can it open doors by itself?”
“The wind opened the door,” I said.
“I saw it too—it’s uncanny.”
I stretched both hands out and the Manhyulsa slithered into my palm as if nestling there.
“Where have you been?”
Of course I couldn’t converse with a snake. Though I definitely felt it understood my words.
“…No matter how spiritual it is, how would I know what a snake is thinking?”
I had no idea what it was thinking as it curled into my sleeves.
The Manhyulsa ignored me and tucked itself into my sleeve.
Just then—
“Master! Master! Something terrible has happened!”
One of the young warriors from the inner city burst hastily into the medicinal hall.
Who can operate the mechanism?
“The inner city warriors, and the branch disciples and students of the Dokryonggak who trained there for a long time.”
Most of them could probably access the mechanism.
But in reality, if you narrow down who could actually operate it, it’d be less than a quarter.
The more hands required, the more finicky the activation.
Jinhyeon stood motionless before the statue and stared at the slot where the sacrificial blade was inserted.
This mechanism was dangerous, so ordinarily the blade wasn’t left there.
He circled the statue once.
This device was crafted by the iron masters and had a special feature.
If the device is tampered with, it doesn’t activate immediately; it’s set to activate after a delay.
The reason was simple—to allow someone to train alone.
Dang Jinhyeon examined the feature.
Sure enough, that part was dust-free, as if someone had touched it recently.
Because the head of Dokryonggak, Dang Jinhyeon, had not authorized the mechanism to be operated,
the person who messed with it of their own accord must be the fiend who harmed the Tang Clan’s second young master.
“They used this to harm my daughter.”
He rose from his seat beside the statue.
Those who could move the device had all been away from the statue today.
They were mostly elders or long-serving inner-city warriors.
The elders were observing the tests for the noble, and the inner-city warriors were protecting the noble, so they were away from the statue.
But one person—
“There was someone I didn’t see.”
And that that person could have tampered with the device would be unknown to Tang Lipdo.
Because the one who taught him how to touch the device was none other than Jinhyeon himself.
Jinhyeon, his voice edged with danger, ordered the warrior.
“Go fetch Jeonggyeong.”
