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Chapter 44
“Hm?”
“No, never mind. Anyway, your father is watching even from here.”
My dad?
I glanced up at the air. Come to think of it, I had felt a breeze brushing around me for a while now.
“…You said you met your eldest aunt, right? Hyeokha.”
My eldest aunt?
“Yeah, why?”
“You’ll handle it well, I’m sure. And your Nana-hyung is with you, but still…”
I suddenly felt reassured, as if I’d forgotten my situation and gained an ally.
“Be careful around her.”
Hyeokbirang’s expression was the most serious I’d ever seen.
“Your eldest uncle and I are still under a travel ban, so we can’t accompany you outside. We’ll try to have it lifted, but until then…”
“…”
“Until then, avoid contact with Hyeokharan as much as possible. Since your father doesn’t remember, I’m telling you directly.”
“Why?”
Hyeokharan was a woman with immense ambition. She would stop at nothing to become head of the family.
In fact, in the original story, she killed the family head, sat in his place for a while, and was then overthrown by the heroine.
“Your aunt tried to kill your father several times.”
That was news to me.
“She hates him, so her blade will eventually turn toward you. You’ll be her target for sure.”
“…”
“And most of all, once she learns about your extraordinary genius, she’ll aim for you even more.”
That, I couldn’t deny. In my previous life, that’s exactly what had happened.
But that she had tried to kill my father—that was new.
“Then why don’t you want Dad to hear this? If you told him with me, wouldn’t that be enough?”
“I will tell him. And it’s not only because of Hyeokharan that I came. That was just part of it.”
Hyeokbirang let out a small sigh.
He looked conflicted, like he was debating whether to speak.
“How much do you know about your father’s illness?”
Instead of being shaken by the ominous words, I tilted my head.
“What exactly are you trying to say?”
I was used to people who spoke in circles.
Hesitant manners. Telling lies only to confess later.
That was what patients often did.
“Is it… hard for you to say?”
“Huh? No, no, it’s not that.”
Hyeokbirang scratched his cheek.
“Do you trust your father?”
What did he mean? Surely he wasn’t warning me that Dad would betray me. It must be about his illness.
“I trust him. I’ve decided to. As a doctor, I’ll believe in a patient who gives everything he has to get better, and I’ll help him.”
“…”
“Same for you, Uncle. I trust you too.”
Hyeokbirang’s face went blank. Then he dropped his head and messed up his own hair.
“Right… what am I saying, spouting such anxious nonsense… to a three-year-old who already healed me.”
He looked around awkwardly, then forced a bitter smile.
“Sorry. Something’s been weighing on me, and I said something strange.”
“It’s okay.”
I understood their anxiety. The long, dark years of living with an incurable illness, never able to see even one step ahead.
‘Just like me—I don’t know when my regression will end.’
That’s why I wanted to return even more.
“Pretend you didn’t hear that.”
“Okay.”
The watery barrier faded.
Hyeokbirang stood with his hands on his hips, gazing at the moon. His figure looked wistful.
“Whenever I see the moon… it reminds me of my daughter.”
The uncle who always spoke so sharply now had a softened voice. His face looked gentler too.
‘That’s right, he’s a doting dad.’
He turned his head toward me.
The look he gave me was peaceful, tinged with longing.
“You know, I hope my Ayan grows up strong, smart, and good like you.”
“What if she doesn’t? What then?”
I wasn’t exactly a good person. I only healed them because I had my own agenda.
“What? What does that matter?”
He laughed, completely unguarded.
“Even if she doesn’t, she’s still my daughter. What difference does it make?”
“…”
“Oh, and even if you fail to heal me, you’re still my niece. Don’t forget that.”
He tapped my forehead lightly.
“Sometimes you make this face like you’re carrying a huge burden. You’re only three—you don’t have to carry everything alone, kiddo.”
This time, unlike when we first met, he didn’t push me roughly.
“I was going to offer to take you back, but no need—your father’s watching closely over you.”
Hyeokbirang waved his hand.
I laughed too and waved mine enthusiastically.
“Bye, Uncle!”
“Yeah.”
Don’t worry.
I’ll make sure your precious daughter sees the future.
* * *
The next morning.
Chirp, chirp. Birds sang in the daylight.
I sat thinking hard about something.
“What are you doing?”
Startled by the sudden voice behind me, I turned and saw Dad.
“When did you get here?”
“About when you woke up.”
…I had slept in the next room. He still sensed me? A famed warrior really was different.
‘His complexion looks almost back to normal now.’
“How’s your body?”
“No problems.”
“And your head? Your memory?”
“No pain. Nothing new has come back.”
I came to the conclusion that whenever Dad recalled something important, it was accompanied by pain.
Just a hypothesis for now.
The body couldn’t handle it yet, so it came with headaches and fevers—but eventually, he’d improve.
‘It’s an illness that shouldn’t be curable, one I’m treating by relying on a miracle.’
I lowered my gaze.
On a small blanket, a tiny life was breathing softly.
It was the puppy I had rescued.
After Dad collapsed, my uncles helped carry him back, and I brought the puppy and another being along as well.
‘It still hasn’t opened its eyes…’
Dad plopped down beside me.
“What’s this?”
“What do you mean? The puppy I picked up.”
Dad gave me a baffled look.
“A puppy? This?”
So he noticed too. I had been thinking the same.
After washing and treating it, I realized it wasn’t a puppy at all.
“Isn’t it a fox? A white fox.”
“Right?”
Sharp ears, pointed muzzle, fluffy tail—
It was obviously a fox.
A tiny white fox, probably just born.
“But Dad, it has… three tails.”
Indeed, unlike a normal fox, this one had three tails.
“Dad, could this be a divine beast?”
“…It does feel like it has power. But it seems different from a divine beast.”
So even Dad wasn’t sure. He pointed at its tails.
“White foxes only live on the Eastern Continent. I’ve never heard of one with three tails though. Maybe a mutation?”
“What? There are no white foxes on the Western Continent?”
“None. Unless it was smuggled here.”
On top of that, in the East they were considered sacred, and smuggling them out was strictly forbidden.
So this little one must have been trafficked in secret.
“That’s sad.”
I gently stroked the sleeping baby fox.
“To suddenly wake up in a strange world… it must be terrifying. Everything unfamiliar… and it had to adapt just to survive.”
It was a lot like me.
I already felt sorry for its injuries, but now my heart ached even more.
‘Could I send it back to the Eastern Continent?’
Maybe once the heroine became head of the family, it would be possible.
Dad, who had been quietly listening, suddenly asked:
“Was that… from experience?”
“…Huh?”
“You’ve lived all alone here in the East, haven’t you?”
I blinked. Oh, that’s what he meant…
I rolled my eyes and nodded.
“Yeah. That’s why I thought I’d become this one’s guardian and friend.”
“Then I should be your guardian.”
“…Huh?”
Dad leaned his chin on his knee, grinning as if amused.
“Let’s see… you spent three years without me, right? Then for the next three years, I’ll work twice as hard. Boss.”
“…You and that ‘Boss’ thing.”
Dad smiled knowingly, warmly.
“When you accept someone as family, that makes them family.”
