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Heukbiyu answered as if incredulous at the question.
“Well… rats are dirty and gross! They even catch bugs, not just mice!”
Her childish pronunciation leaked and her thinking was shallow—typical of a little kid. Through the conversation, Luije became certain this child didn’t know even a fraction of their grand plan.
“No matter how great a physician she brags to be… a child is still a child.”
Luije remembered the elder’s voice from that morning, the old man who had ordered her about.
“Hmm, I’ve changed my mind. If there’s an opportunity, kidnap that little Heuk family girl.”
It was different from last night, but it was an order, so she had to accept it.
“I’d rather just kill her.”
The patients in Heukbiyu’s ward were recovering at an astonishing rate. Many had fully healed; only mild cases remained. All of this had happened in just a few days since she’d arrived in this village.
Luije ground her thumb between her teeth. It had taken her a full fifteen years to get this far. What was this?
“She’s a child who shouldn’t be kept in the Heuk family.”
Right—if it was a shame to keep her in the family, wouldn’t killing her be better? That way no one could have her.
“The thought of an internal family test makes me feel sick.”
The way physicians were trained inside Shinion was brutal: if you couldn’t best the child beside you, you were cast aside. Luije had already made her rival unable to ever wake again.
“First we should spread the disease again.”
Spreading the disease was easy: just release rats. Their luggage was already full of them. In a filthy village like this, the increase of rats wouldn’t be surprising.
What was strange was that those who had left last night to release rats across the village hadn’t come back. People sometimes disappeared simply to obey the family’s orders, so Luije didn’t worry much.
“Um, Lady Luije…!”
A knight ran up to her. “A physician from the Heuk family has come.” That little brat? Luije frowned but said, “Show them in.”
A little while later Luije faced Heukbiyu, being held by a man. For some reason she was being held by a different Heuk family man than on the first day.
“Heukbiwon.”
Luije had heard that name before. Shinion had long taught everything about the Heuk family to those affiliated with the clan—relationships, the whole web. A handsome man with an irritatingly smug smile glanced sharply around.
“I’ve come with something to ask.”
“To ask what?”
Next to Heukbiyu and Heukbiwon stood a hunched man. Judging from the condition of his neck and cheek, he was an infectious disease patient.
“I met a patient with some… unusual symptoms. It’d be good if you could look at them together.”
Luije inwardly smiled—a sneer. So predictable. In the end it was just a helpless child after all. A variant? We control the disease; such a thing hadn’t been made or even happened.
“Well, that’s serious. Experience can be lacking… so an inexperienced young physician might mistake ordinary symptoms for something else.”
Heukbiwon raised an eyebrow. He was quickest to pick up on Luije’s delicate mockery.
“I’ll gladly take a look.”
“Thank you!”
The child smiled plainly and unabashedly. Luije snorted.
“Will you wait? We’ll take the knight and apprentices with us.”
She ordered the lower-ranking physicians—her knight and apprentices—back at the barracks.
“Prepare the bags with the rats.”
After finishing her preparations she returned to Heukbiyu. The others came along.
“Shall we go?”
And so Luije walked with Heukbiyu and her party.
“By the way, are you not taking that patient who was beside you earlier?”
“Oh, that person? They said they had business here, so I asked someone to guide them.”
Oh, I see, Luije thought indifferently. How long had they been walking?
A signal came from behind.
“Um, Master Luije….”
An apprentice carrying a bag approached, hesitating. “I have urgent business—may I follow a bit later? My bowels have become sensitive…”
“What?”
Even though she knew it was an act, the performance was excellent enough to make one blink.
“What a pathetic child. Finish quickly and follow us.”
“Yes, yes!”
The apprentice bowed and hurried off.
“He showed a shameful side—making everything require permission because his pupil is inept…”
Biyu smiled and said it was fine. What an idiot, Luije sneered inwardly as she walked.
How long had they walked?
“How long are we going to walk?”
“Oh, we’re almost there.”
“Huh?”
Heukbiwon, who had been carrying Heukbiyu, stopped walking.
“Come to think of it, it doesn’t seem like a good time for a disease variant to appear.”
“Huh?”
“I think I might have misread the symptoms.”
Something felt off. Heukbiyu, who claimed she’d misread it, didn’t apologize—she wore a brazen face.
“I have a question.”
“What are you doing right now?”
So it had been a lie; Luije’s anger flared at being deceived. How dare a brat—!
But Biyu only looked at Luije with innocence.
“Have you ever caught this disease?”
“Suddenly—what are you saying? There’s no point in talking. We’ll be going back.”
The apprentice who had gone to release the rats would have finished his task. Disease would spread again in Heukbiyu’s district. That would be her victory.
“Once, I thought that if you want to become a great physician, you should directly experience every disease at least once.”
Luije paused for a moment.
‘What kind of insane talk…’
Only a child could say such a thing—catch the disease herself. Which physician’s body or life would survive that?
Even without knowing that, she was a capable physician.
“When researching medicine, I eventually felt that poison and medicine are essentially the same.”
Heukbiwon put Biyu down on the ground. Heukbiyu toddled forward.
“If medicine cures disease, isn’t there somewhere a poison that makes people catch the disease?”
Even now Luije didn’t understand what Heukbiyu meant. But someone was approaching the group with steady footsteps. The moment she saw the person floating beside him, Luije’s eyes widened as if they would split.
‘That is…’
It was clearly the apprentice who had gone to release the rats. And the person levitating the apprentice was Heukbihu.
A gust of wind blew.
“Eek, aaah!”
Luije was startled at the sight of a rat floating right in front of her face.
“Get—get it away. Remove it, I said!!”
“Why be startled? It’s just a rat.”
Luije raised her head. She could do nothing but stare; her body was still paralyzed from the lightning. She couldn’t move at all.
“It’s not even poison.”
Only then did Luije realize.
‘…our plan!’
It had clearly been exposed. But how?
Her teeth clicked together.
The rat floating in the wind was slowly moving closer. A rat that the family had specially made—carrying bacteria. If it bit her…
Luije’s face drained of color.
Next.
