I sat blankly, leaning against the bed.
Click—
I heard the door open, but I didn’t turn around. I remained sitting there absentmindedly for a moment longer.
“Young miss!”
At the sudden shout, I flinched and lifted my head. The one who had yelled was Danggeum, my maid.
“Please get a hold of yourself! Here—”
After taking medicine, eating, being examined by the physician, receiving treatment, taking medicine again, sleeping, and taking more medicine…
It felt like I had consumed every rare medicine in the world.
Have you ever seen a wild ginseng as thick as an arm? I have. It’s inside my stomach now.
I rubbed my eyes, trying to regain my senses.
‘I must have… fallen asleep during treatment.’
When I sat up, only the family physician remained by the bedside, organizing his acupuncture needles.
Until now, Father had always stayed by my side throughout the treatment. In my previous life, I thought it was surveillance, but now I understood it was concern.
I asked the physician,
“Where is Father?”
“Tsk, the Fourth Young Master really does useless things.”
“…?”
Clicking his tongue, the physician gave a non-answer and quickly left the room.
By the time I stepped out of the quarters, he had already disappeared.
“What was that?”
The courtyard was strangely quiet.
My father’s and my residence was located at the far western edge of the Baekri family estate, in the most remote corner. For a direct family residence, it was secluded and plain.
‘Well, I prefer not running into other relatives anyway.’
Originally, Father had lived elsewhere. But after he formally registered me into the family, Grandfather had driven us out here, saying he didn’t even want to see us.
I crossed the bare courtyard and headed toward the servants’ quarters to ask about Father’s whereabouts.
‘As expected.’
No one was there. That explained the unnatural silence.
Whenever Father wasn’t around, the servants would quickly slip off to rest.
‘Where did he go?’
I was debating whether to wait here or go out to find him.
“Everyone, hurry up!”
A commotion suddenly rose from near the white wall behind the building. The servants who had vanished earlier had gathered there.
A servant who seemed higher in rank urged them on.
“Hurry, hurry! Are you all here?”
“Ah, I was sleeping so well. What’s going on?”
“You clueless fool. Of course you wouldn’t know while napping. The head of the family just returned!”
“What? The head of the family?”
“There’s going to be a banquet tonight, so the lady of the house ordered that half stay in the quarters and the rest report to the main house. Who’s going?”
Hearing this, my eyes widened.
The head of the Baekri family, my grandfather, was a rather peculiar man whose thoughts were impossible to read.
He was a brilliant strategist who had elevated the Baekri family from mediocrity to one of the top ten clans in a single leap. Yet he would sometimes lock himself away to train for an entire year, and when he did come out, he would immediately leave again, saying he wanted to travel.
Even in the novel, he appeared only a few times as an ally to the protagonist, showing off the overwhelming martial prowess befitting one of the “Top Eleven Under Heaven.”
‘Even I barely met him.’
Despite living in the same household for years, I could count the number of times I’d seen him on one hand.
When I fell into qi deviation, Grandfather had been away traveling. And now he had returned…
My eyes widened, and I rushed out of the residence.
‘Damn it, it was today!’
Today. The very day Father and I would be thoroughly marked in Grandfather’s eyes.
In the first place, a novel told from the protagonist’s perspective never covers the childhood of a minor villain like me.
But I had a rather convincing past that inevitably led me to become a villain. And this very moment was adding to that inevitability.
‘I have to stop it.’
I walked forward without hesitation.
The servants and guards I passed along the way whispered among themselves with strange expressions.
By the time I arrived, my breath was ragged, and my back was soaked with sweat.
The elderly servant guarding the door looked startled.
“Young miss?”
Seeing my pale face and bloodless lips, as if I might collapse at any moment, he asked reflexively,
“Are you alright?”
I tried to answer that I was fine, but a cough burst out before I could speak.
The old servant recalled that Baekri Yeon had only recently collapsed due to qi deviation.
His eyes quickly filled with sympathy.
“You’re not well, so what brings you all the way here?”
“Ha… ha… Father… is Father here—”
Before I could even finish my question—
“How dare you spout such nonsense!”
A thunderous roar erupted from inside.
“Uigang! Will you keep disappointing me like this? Have you still not come to your senses—!”
It was Grandfather’s voice.
The old servant glanced at me and said,
“You’ve come to see the Fourth Young Master. However… as you can hear, it’s not a situation where a message can be delivered.”
I clenched my fists.
Only those permitted by Grandfather could enter this room. People in key positions within the family, or direct descendants who had earned recognition.
Naturally, I could not enter.
I bit my lip anxiously.
“What are you doing here, Baekri Yeon?”
The moment I heard that voice, my neck stiffened.
The old servant bowed toward my back.
“Young Lady Uiran, you have arrived.”
Baekri Uiran.
Father’s half-sister, my aunt.
She sharply asked the old servant,
“Why is she here? Don’t tell me Uigang brought her?”
“No. She came on her own.”
“…On her own?”
She glanced between me and the door, then scoffed.
“Ha, do you even know where this is? This is not a place someone like you can set foot in!”
The two maids behind her openly sneered at me.
I silently looked at them.
In the past, I had been terribly afraid of encountering my aunt. Whenever she ran into me, she would find fault with me for anything and everything.
If our eyes met, she’d say I dared to look at her. If I lowered my gaze, she’d say I refused to look at her. If I greeted her, she’d ask who I thought I was. If I didn’t, she’d accuse me of disrespect…
No matter what I did, she always found a way to berate me.
Gradually, her verbal abuse escalated, and eventually she began to beat me.
“Someone like you dares to taint the Baekri family…!”
And I, not even knowing what I had done wrong, would shrink and apologize first.
Of course, my aunt was meticulous in her cruelty. She only bullied me when no one was around, in places out of sight. Especially making sure Father would never hear of it.
At first, Father wasn’t around. Later, our relationship worsened to the point I couldn’t tell him.
‘I was foolish.’
Back then, I thought it was natural for my aunt to hate me. I was part of the Baekri family, yet couldn’t even use martial arts.
But at Father’s funeral, I heard the truth.
“That bastard Uigang, strutting around just because he can swing a sword! Serves him right!”
My aunt had been jealous of my father. She envied his skill and reputation but couldn’t touch him.
And then his daughter turned out to be weak, without martial ability, and naive. To her, I must have seemed like the perfect prey.
“What are you staring at? Just because your father came back, you think you can ignore me?”
A cleverly twisted accusation that made it seem like I was being arrogant because Father had returned.
I quickly bowed.
“I’m sorry. It’s been a while, Aunt.”
Then I added, as if truly ashamed,
“I wasn’t feeling well, so I couldn’t come greet you.”
Just then, as if on cue, my coughing returned, and my aunt’s face stiffened.
The situation had become awkward. It now looked like she was scolding a sick niece the moment they met.
She seemed to want to say more, but with others watching, she couldn’t bring herself to speak.
My coughing wasn’t fake, either.
‘It feels like the fever is coming back.’
Once my coughing subsided, she hurriedly spoke in a gentle tone, as if nothing had happened.
“Seeing that you came all the way here alone, you must be feeling much better.”
If I said I was fine, it would reduce her actions to mild nagging. If I said I was unwell, she would immediately send me back.
“Ah… well…”
As I hesitated, she said,
“It’s alright. Speak freely.”
“…There was no one in the residence. I looked around, but everyone seemed busy somewhere else. So I had no choice but to come alone.”
“…!”
Her eyes widened.
Household affairs and servant management were handled by my grandmother, her mother.
If there were no servants in the residence? That was impossible.
Yet it was no secret that the servants in Father’s quarters were negligent. Especially in front of me, they didn’t even bother to hide it. All of it was under Grandmother’s tacit approval.
‘As long as it doesn’t reach Grandfather’s ears, it’s fine… right? But now what?’
The shouting inside had already stopped.
Grandfather was a top-tier martial artist. Those inside the room were also trained. If they focused, they could hear conversations from a hundred steps away.
‘They must have heard everything.’
A conversation right in front of the door, separated by only a single wall… there was no way they missed a single word.
In the first place, my aunt had tried to frame me as arrogant, knowing they might hear.
‘She didn’t expect this part, though.’
Her lips trembled as she hurriedly said,
“Perhaps you misunderstood. The servants would never do such a thing. Stop talking nonsense and go back—”
But her words were cut off by Grandfather’s furious voice.
“Uiran! Get in here immediately! Baekri Yeon, you too!”
