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Chapter 7
I opened my eyes wide.
“So it’s not that there’s absolutely nothing!”
That meant there was a way to neutralize the poison.
“If only my father’s poison can be neutralized, maybe I can change the future.”
Even if I couldn’t change everything, at the very least I might be able to stop him from being murdered.
Of course, we’d have to find out how my uncle managed to make that lethal dose of poison, but that was a problem for later.
But—
“Huh?”
My uncle’s, father’s, and grandfather’s expressions were far from pleased.
If there really was an antidote, why did they all look like that?
I cautiously called to my father.
“Father…?”
Then my father spoke.
“I know what method it would require, but it’s practically impossible.”
My grandfather answered.
“Still, there’s no reason not to try.”
My father contradicted him.
“You won’t be able to obtain it.”
My grandfather replied again.
“Of course it will be difficult to get….”
I listened quietly to their conversation for a moment, then suddenly cut in.
“But we have to try, Father…!”
“Bia?”
“I don’t know exactly what the method is, but I think we have to try.”
I had already watched my father die once.
Back then I was powerless and useless, forced to watch him die helplessly.
“But not now!”
There was still some time before my father’s death. That meant there was plenty of time to change the future.
“You told me it was foolish to give up without trying, remember?”
“But—”
“Even if Father can’t obtain it, I will get it.”
Of course it sounded absurd.
How could an eight-year-old child like me obtain something that the head of the Sacheondang family, the head physician, and even the Second Young Master could not?
But I was desperate enough now.
“If I have to trade my life for it, I will get it.”
If that was the way to save my father I would do it without hesitation.
My father reached out to me with a deeply flustered look.
“Bia, you don’t know what you’re saying….”
“No, Father. I know exactly what I’m saying.”
I shook my head firmly.
“I won’t watch you die. So grandfather, please tell me.”
I looked up at my grandfather.
“How do we obtain the medicine for Father?”
A moment of silence passed.
And the one who broke that silence wasn’t my father or grandfather.
“Child, an antidote is not something that can be obtained easily.”
It was my uncle, Dang Sa-yuk, head of the family’s medical hall and in charge of medicine in general.
He spoke to me in a soft, coaxing voice.
“What your father needs to be cured is not a ‘medicine’ but a ‘poison.’”
“A poison?”
“Sa-yuk! How much of this can you tell a child?”
“Have you not looked at this child’s eyes? She won’t give up until someone tells her.”
My uncle said.
“What we need is the Manhyeolshindok. It is said to be an extreme poison that can kill ten thousand people with a single drop.”
I understood what he meant and nodded.
“So you want to use a poison as a medicine.”
That was common in the Dang family—poisons became medicines and medicines could be poisons.
“Exactly.”
He continued.
“Although that poison can kill ten thousand people, used properly it becomes the greatest remedy, overpowering the venom of all things.”
“Where is that poison?”
“That’s precisely the problem.”
I listened carefully to my uncle, waiting for him to continue.
“That poison comes from the Manhyeolsa, a snake that hasn’t produced venom even once in fifty years.”
“Huh? The Manhyeolsa?”
I rubbed the place where the snake had bitten me a little while ago and thought of what my grandfather had said.
“Did Jin-hyeon put the Manhyeolsa in?”
I thought my grandfather had definitely mentioned the Manhyeolsa back then.
Narrowing my eyes, I looked at my uncle.
“Uncle, surely you’re not—”
“Yes. The snake you captured was the Manhyeolsa. The venom from that snake’s three fangs is the Manhyeolshindok.”
At that moment my eyes widened.
“Then we can just extract it right away!”
I clenched my fist and leapt to my feet.
But my father stopped me, sat me down, and shook his head.
“Whoa!”
“To extract clean Manhyeolshindok you must collect venom directly from the snake’s fangs.”
“There are three fangs—surely one would produce something?”
“If it were that easy, the Dang family would already possess the Manhyeolshindok.”
My father said.
“The last pure Manhyeolshindok the Dang family had was used up fifty years ago. Since then the Manhyeolsa has never given venom.”
Listening to my father, I remembered the snake that bit my ankle and then seemed sorry, gently coiling its body around my leg.
I also remembered how, when I squeezed it, it went limp as if dead in my hand.
“Hmm….”
Is it really that difficult to get venom from that snake?
“But it seemed so gentle like it would give it up if asked….”
Also—
“For some reason….”
Whenever I thought of that snake I felt weird.
“It’s a strange thing to say, but…”
I couldn’t shake the feeling that the snake had come here because it wanted to be with me.
I pondered deeply in my father’s arms, then finished thinking and jerked my head up.
“Father!”
“Yes?”
“Could you let me meet the Manhyeolsa again?”
While people had taken my uncle away, grandfather had placed the Manhyeolsa back into the Paldokgo chest himself.
But I felt I needed to meet that snake again.
Only then could I understand this strange feeling I had.
As soon as I said the word ‘Manhyeolsa,’ my father’s face crumpled without mercy.
He held me and said in a firm voice.
“Do you think the Manhyeolsa is just a backyard worm? It is the strongest venomous snake alive.”
“But I was fine even after being bitten.”
“It’s always the variables that the Manhyeolsa’s venom creates. If there exists venom that can break the ‘Mandoekbulchim’ body—” (note: literal term retained) “—then that venom would be the Manhyeolshindok. That’s how dangerous this snake is.”
Hearing my father’s stern voice—something I’d never heard from him before—I blinked in surprise.
He had never refused my request so firmly until now….
My father continued.
“The Manhyeolsa has been placed back into the Paldokgo. And as you know, the venoms in Paldokgo cannot be removed lightly….”
“But I can take it out whenever I want, since I put it in.”
At that moment, it was my grandfather who had been quietly listening to our conversation who intervened.
He took an old bunch of keys from his waist and said,
“If that is your will and desire, I will let you meet it.”
“Father!”
“You are the child who survived a Manhyeolsa bite. What’s the harm in being bitten twice?”
My grandfather looked at me with a serious expression.
“It’s a nearly forgotten art, but the Sacheondang family has a martial technique called Venom Taming.”
I nodded.
“I’ve heard of it—that technique lets one command poisons as one wishes.”
“Yes, and sometimes a rare constitution called the Dokryeongjichitae is born, a body that all poisons obey. It’s so rare it’s said to appear once in a thousand years.”
Dokryeongjichitae.
I had heard of it.
A mysterious constitution that can govern all poisons.
My grandfather reached out his hand to me.
“Paldokgo is so dangerous that most people collapse merely from standing near it, but you, who withstood the Manhyeolsa’s venom, might be able to enter.”
At that moment my father sprang up from his seat.
“Bia, this is too—”
But my grandfather paid no mind and continued.
“If you truly bring back the Manhyeolsa’s venom, I will personally teach you.”
He placed the old bunch of keys onto my hand.
A large ring had eight keys dangling from it.
I easily guessed that they were the keys to open the Paldokgo.
My grandfather gently bent my fingers so I could grip the keys.
“If you want to meet the Manhyeolsa, then go meet it.”
Hearing my grandfather’s voice, I carefully squeezed the keys tight.
“Thank you, Grandfather!”
My grandfather nodded, his eyes lighting up as if daring me to try.
“All right.”
“But… I’m not going to Paldokgo to learn venom-martial arts from you.”
At that, my grandfather’s face hardened a little.
“…?”
And silence fell over the room.
