The Beloved Baby Deer of the Hwangryong Family - Chapter 5

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This chapter was translated by Lunox Team. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
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Seo-yu, who had been driven out of the household, hurriedly climbed up the mountain.

And she began busily searching around for Snow Scale Flowers.

‘There aren’t any. Not here, not there, nowhere….’

However, no matter how much she searched, no Snow Scale Flowers were to be seen.

In the first place, it didn’t seem likely that such uniquely shaped flowers would bloom in multiple clusters on a single mountain.

One hour, two hours.

As time passed helplessly, Seo-yu grew increasingly anxious.

If she couldn’t find the Snow Scale Flowers like this, Nok Su-jeong would really pull out her horn.

Even though it was a horn that looked hideous to others, it was Seo-yu’s one and only horn. She didn’t want to lose even that.

But there were no Snow Scale Flowers anywhere. Moreover, for some reason, the earth that always helped her wouldn’t answer no matter how much she spoke to it.

“Please, I’m begging you. Could you tell me where the Snow Scale Flowers are?”

In her desperation, Seo-yu pressed her ear directly against the snow field.

The cold snow turned the side of her face red, but Seo-yu was so urgent that she felt no pain at all.

[….]

But no matter how long she waited, only silence continued, and no words could be heard.

Feeling rejected even by the earth, which had been her only ally, Seo-yu felt like she was about to burst into tears.

“Are you all pretending not to hear me too?”

Feeling upset and disappointed, Seo-yu lightly tapped the snow-covered ground with her fist, then carefully gathered back the snow she had disturbed with her own hands.

“I’m sorry. I haven’t done anything for you, yet I only ask for help….”

She felt so pathetic for taking out her anger only on the earth when she couldn’t say anything to the siblings who tormented her.

Feeling dejected, Seo-yu gently patted the ground until the snow was evenly covered, then moved on again.

Seo-yu, who had come up empty-handed several times, was about to try going somewhere else.

“There’s nothing here either. Maybe I should go to the complete opposite side… Huh? Blackie!”

Not far away, on a tree, the Black Squirrel, Blackie, was sitting and looking at her.

“Blackie, we meet again! Do you happen to live somewhere around here?”

Seo-yu forced a smile as she spoke. Though she was exhausted, she didn’t want to show her struggling state to her forest friend.

“I’d like to give you something, but I didn’t bring anything with me… Ah! Wait a moment.”

Looking around, Seo-yu picked an unfrozen berry and placed it on the softly piled snow so Blackie wouldn’t be startled.

“Eat this. Today it’s my gift to you, so you can’t refuse.”

“Chit.”

“You understand? Ahaha, I feel like I can communicate with you.”

Seo-yu burst into laughter, then her eyebrows drooped.

“I’d like to play with you more, Blackie, but I think I have to go. I need to find flowers that bloom in snowflakes. I have no idea where they might be… I’m sorry.”

Blackie blinked, took the berry in its mouth, and ran away.

Seo-yu swallowed her regret and took another step forward.

But not long after, Blackie, who she thought had gone far away, came back to find her again.

“Huh? Blackie, why did you come back?”

“Chit! Chit chit!”

Blackie spun around in place. It looked like it definitely had something to say.

“Could it be… you want me to follow you?”

Though she couldn’t understand Blackie’s words, she somehow felt that way. Seo-yu followed Blackie’s steps.

Blackie kept leading Seo-yu to a place far from the forest.

After walking for a while, a white snow field spread out before them, without a single tree or blade of grass.

She didn’t want to disappoint Blackie, but she couldn’t waste any more time.

“That’s a cliff! Just how far are we going… huh?”

Seo-yu, who had hurriedly called out to Blackie, rubbed her eyes at the unbelievable sight.

At the spot where Blackie had stopped, wasn’t there a single Snow Scale Flower blooming!

“Blackie, did you call me here to give me this?”

“Chirp, chirp chirp!”

Blackie nodded its head adorably. Seo-yu was deeply moved.

“Thank you, Blackie. Thank you so much…”

Seo-yu stroked Blackie, overwhelmed with emotion.

Blackie, who had quietly enjoyed her touch, soon left the spot. As if its job was completely done.

Left alone, Seo-yu carefully dug up the Snow Scale Flower and put it in her pouch along with some snow. As much as the pouch became full, Seo-yu’s heart became lighter.

‘Perfect! I found one more root, so now she won’t be angry.’

Relieved, Seo-yu quickly tried to transform back into a deer and descend the mountain.

But perhaps she had pushed too hard with her injured leg? Suddenly her leg gave out and she ended up hitting a protruding rock.

“Ow, ow…”

She must have hit it hard because the area around her knee turned bright red.

Seo-yu quickly returned to human form and rolled up her clothes. The wound was quite deep. There was a lot of blood too.

‘What should I do? I don’t have any medicine with me.’

Usually herb gatherers carry medicine for first aid, but strangely, Seo-yu never got even a common scratch while gathering herbs, so she didn’t carry anything with her.

She also wasn’t in a position to freely obtain medicine from the Medicine Hall.

‘Ugh…’

She tried to stand up somehow, but the pain was severe. Just as Seo-yu, unable to bear the pain, sat back down again.

Voices could be heard from below the ridge.

“Does a medicinal herb called Snow Scale Flower really exist?”

‘Oh, people… Snow Scale Flower?’

Seo-yu, who was about to call for help, hesitated at the unexpected word.

“It must. They told us to find it on this mountain, didn’t they? If it didn’t exist, they wouldn’t have said that.”

“But why exactly are we looking for it?”

“Why else. Because of the Heavenly Medicine Forest.”

Heavenly Medicine Forest?

Seo-yu blinked her eyes.

‘I’ve heard of it. They said it’s like a treasure trove of medicinal herbs.’

Since even Seo-yu, who was ignorant of worldly affairs, knew about it, it must be a place of great prestige.

It was also one of the reasons why many people in the Western Lands who dreamed of becoming physicians wanted to enter the Kirin Family’s Medical Academy.

Because if you graduate from the Medical Academy as valedictorian, you’re given the qualification to enter the Heavenly Medicine Forest.

‘But what does that have to do with the Snow Scale Flower?’

As Seo-yu tilted her head in confusion, the next words followed.

“Ah, you’re new here so you don’t know? The Kirin Family made a grand proclamation. They said they’d grant qualification to enter the Heavenly Medicine Forest to whoever brings them a Snow Scale Flower.”

What…?

Upon learning this truth, Seo-yu froze like stone.

‘What do you mean…’

Her mind went blank. They would let her enter the Heavenly Medicine Forest if she brought the Snow Scale Flower?

Young Master Su-gyu and Miss Su-jeong had never said a single word about this to her.

‘They just said I was doing Young Master Su-gyu’s work for him…’

It turned out to be an incredible opportunity that could change her life.

Seo-yu, who had been gaping in shock, shook her head.

‘No, that can’t be. When I return today, they surely intended to tell me.’

…Did they really intend to tell her?

Would they really have given her such an amazing opportunity?

‘That’s too much…’

Seo-yu didn’t want to become someone’s benefactor or obtain amazing herbs from the Heavenly Medicine Forest.

But if she had been given the chance to enter the Medical Academy, she would have surely done her absolute best.

Entering the Medical Academy run by the Kirin Family was the first dream Seo-yu had ever had in her life.

‘My, with skills like these, Miss Seo-yu could even take the Medical Academy exam later.’

‘Medical Academy? Physician, what’s the Medical Academy?’

‘It’s a place that teaches Medical Arts. It’s full of Medical Books, and physicians who graduate from the Medical Academy are respected everywhere since there’s no illness they don’t know.’

It was something she had heard from a physician at the Medicine Hall when she was even younger, while preparing medicinal ingredients.

He was a physician who had been particularly kind to her, but he disappeared at some point and she had been very sad about it.

Anyway, it was the first praise Seo-yu had ever heard in her life, and since that day she had always dreamed of becoming a physician.

Even the antlered deer siblings knew this fact.

‘You want to become a physician? What a big dream. A physician? You can’t even read properly.’

Of course, they immediately mocked her.

‘No matter how much they hate me, how could they do such a thing…’

She knew well that they disliked her. Since the reason was clear, she thought there was nothing she could do even if they bullied her.

Since there was nothing she could do, she would endure and bear it. That’s how she had been comforting herself.

But when even her one and only dream and hope was trampled on, she couldn’t bear it.

“Sob…”

Thinking this way made her feel so wronged that tears she couldn’t swallow leaked through her teeth.

Just then, one of the herb gatherers looked around.

“Did anyone else hear that sound just now?”

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This chapter was translated by Lunox Team. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
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