The Terminally Ill Youngest Daughter of a Medical Dynasty Is a Genius Physician - Chapter 1

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This chapter was translated by Lunox Novels. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
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※ The medical knowledge, illnesses, medicinal materials, and treatment methods depicted in this work have been created and adapted for the sake of narrative, and may differ from actual medical science.
Episode 1
The sole blemish upon one of the Four Noble Families—the renowned medical house, Yak Ryeong-ga.
“She squandered the family fortune collecting every miraculous elixir under the sun, didn’t she?”
“Even the head of the house has gone to the imperial palace seeking funds… the state of our family is beyond words.”
“One defective child is going to ruin a noble house!”
That defective child is me.
Seven years old this year, the youngest daughter with a terminal illness: Yeon Yeong-hwa.
Cough, cough!
As the morning air forced its way deep into my lungs, it felt as though I were being torn from death itself, my insides churning.
“Ugh, what a stench!”
My handmaid, Hong Dan, entered and wrinkled her nose without the slightest pretense.
She flung the window wide open, and the cool early-summer breeze swept into the room.
Ugh.
My fevered body, already burning, felt even colder, and I curled up without thinking.
Thunk!
Hong Dan set down a bowl of cold porridge at my bedside as though tossing it.
“Eat. If you turn into a corpse on me, that’ll be quite the inconvenience.”
……
I pulled the thin blanket up to my shoulders and said nothing in return.
Unbothered, Hong Dan immediately began rummaging through my room.
“Should I wear this ring today?”
Before Father left to find a cure for my illness, he bought me all manner of glittering trinkets to keep me company.
But while he was away, I had no freedom of movement, and such things held little meaning for me.
“It fits perfectly! I’m wearing this, miss!”
I considered protesting, then thought better of it.
‘I shouldn’t waste my strength now.’
My current condition was dire.
If I wanted to move as I wished, I had to conserve whatever strength I had left.
Hong Dan slipped the ring onto her finger, then wrapped a necklace around her neck as though it were her own, spinning before the cracked bronze mirror to admire her reflection.
“Oh, and you should finish the task the young master gave you within two hours. He’ll be coming to check on it later.”
‘She really never changes.’
Only after the door closed did I exhale slowly, holding back my breath until then, and push myself upright.
In the corner of the room lay a woven bamboo mat, upon which countless medicinal herbs lay scattered in disarray.
Sorting the herbs by type and function.
That was the task assigned to me.
Or rather, it was work my older cousins had foisted upon me.
At some point, they had taken to dumping their own share of chores on me, since no one paid me any mind.
But now there was something more important than that task.
‘Shall I begin?’
Patter-patter-patter—
I shifted my small feet and crouched before the mat.
Sweeping aside the dried astragalus and yellowed licorice, I selected only the finest specimens of a few herbs.
“Yes, this should do.”
Rustle-rustle—
My hands moved quickly, placing the herbs into a small mortar tucked in the corner and grinding them down.
Crackle-crackle—a soft, steady sound filled the room.
‘This should keep me going for three hours.’
I hastily shaped the medicinal paste into pills and tossed them into my mouth.
Ugh……
The bitterness nearly brought tears to my eyes, but I managed to swallow.
Next, I retrieved a small cloth bundle from deep within my chest of drawers.
Inside lay an essential item that any member of Yak Ryeong-ga must possess.
Several thin Silver Needles were arranged in neat rows.
I gathered the needles and stood before the cracked bronze mirror placed in one corner of the room.
My reflection stared back at me from its surface.
A small, gaunt girl.
A face drained of color from constant coughing, lips bloodless and pale—a face I knew far too well, had grown tired of seeing.
I picked up one of the needles.
Click—
I examined the mirror and found the precise acupoint, then inserted the Silver Needle with steady hands.
For a moment, her breath seemed to catch in her throat, then the stale air trapped deep in her chest began to drain away slowly.
“Hah.”
After exhaling sharply, I gazed at the girl in the mirror and let out a soft, derisive laugh.
How could I possibly do such a thing at merely seven years old?
Simple enough.
Because it wasn’t my first time.
That’s why.
“……I’m back again.”
I was caught in a cycle of regression.
Ten times over, no less.
* * *
Cheon-myeong Country, a realm blessed with the protection of the Four Divine Beasts.
Here dwelled four noble families, inheritors of the omnipotent power of those divine guardians.
The Cheon-myeong Imperial Family, who revered the White Tiger.
The Geom-cheon Family, who honored the Azure Dragon and were called the Imperial Sword.
The Jeok-hyeon Family, who served the Vermilion Bird and studied the principles of all things.
And the Yak Ryeong-ga, the healing physicians who revered the Black Tortoise—masters of the medical arts.
Among them, Yak Ryeong-ga was a clan that prided itself above all on integrity and righteousness, unbending as bamboo.
Yet the fortunes of Yak Ryeong-ga began to visibly decline.
Because of one youngest daughter afflicted with a mysterious illness, her life measured in borrowed time.
Still, I survived.
Sustained by the rarest medicinal treasures in the world, which my father procured for me.
The Seol-hon-cho, which grew only in the frozen heart of Bing-seol Ridge, where hands and feet turned to ice.
The Jeok-hyeol-geun, whose roots sank deep beneath blood-soaked earth.
Precious remedies so rare that even the Imperial Household could scarcely obtain them.
Thanks to these, I crossed the threshold of death countless times.
Though I never fully recovered, I managed to draw breath like a miracle, day after day.
And so, sustained thus, I reached seventeen years of age.
“Miss, a report from the Battlefield…….”
I learned of my father’s death.
The funeral hall was filled with nothing but cold silence.
Yet that silence was closer to contempt than mourning.
“In the end, because of that child…….”
“He threw himself into such a perilous position just to save one sick girl…….”
Every whispered condemnation that drifted from behind was directed at me.
I collapsed before my father’s remains, wracked with anguished sobs.
I knew better than anyone that their words held no falsehood.
My father would go anywhere for the sake of my medicine.
For that reason, I failed to notice the tyranny my uncle, Yeon So-taek, inflicted upon me.
I squandered the family wealth and neglected to care for myself.
My father had no other children. I was his sole heir, his only direct descendant.
A useless daughter with terminal illness, incapable of becoming a physician.
Should I, broken as I was, fail to become a physician, my father would also lose his standing as Branch Family Head.
After realizing this truth, I could never ask my father for anything again.
‘I have to get better.’
My only thought was to consume the medicines he sent and recover by any means necessary.
‘Only then can I stop burdening him.’
Yet my body perpetually betrayed both my father’s will and mine.
The hours I spent alone in that cramped room grew longer, and listening endlessly to my uncle Yeon So-taek’s harsh words, I gradually shackled myself from within.
‘It’s my fault.’
I was my father’s chain, the very thing that drove him toward death.
‘If only he had never given birth to something like me from the start…….’
Thud—
Over my crumpling, grief-stricken form, Yeon So-taek’s shadow fell.
Sharp disdain pierced me without fail.
“Do you know how your father died on that Battlefield?”
He ground out the words through clenched teeth.
“They say he cursed you with his dying breath.”
Thump. My heart sank.
I stared up at him in a daze.
“If you hadn’t existed, none of this would have happened…… You regretted it so miserably.”
He lowered his head, whispering low against my ear.
“He’s dead. Because of you.”
“Ah…….”
Tears that had gathered at the corners of my eyes spilled down helplessly.
“I’m… I’m sorry….”
I whispered barely above breath.
“Sorry… sorry… hic, hic….”
But my apology found no one to receive it.
It only scattered into the smoke of candles lit for the dead.
Exhausted from weeping, I lost consciousness where I lay.
How much time had passed since then? Suddenly, my eyes opened at the sharp bite of a cold wind against my skin.
“……!”
Whoosh.
In that instant, cold metal pressed against the nape of my neck.
……It was a blade.
Sleep fled me entirely, and I jerked my body away from the sword.
As I lifted my head, a familiar man stood before me.
Crimson hair and crimson eyes.
Flawless white skin that made that burning scarlet hue all the more striking.
A mouth curved with perfect grace.
“Hello, Yeon Yeong-hwa.”
“…You.”
My one and only betrothed.
Jeok Yeon-hu.
He had been my only solace as I lived with a flaw that kept death always near.
When I turned ten.
A man who appeared like a miracle beside me, always alone.
The only person who stayed at my side and taught me what warmth meant.
“Your father, you see.”
A gentle smile played at Jeok Yeon-hu’s lips.
“To the very end, he thought only of you.”
“What……?”
It was a thing I could not believe.
“He departed resenting me, or so I thought…….”
That was why.
Even with a blade pressed to my throat, I had foolishly muttered such things.
“Heh…….”
Jeok Yeon-hu twisted his lips in a cruel laugh.
“I saw it myself.”
In that moment, thought seemed to halt, my mind going white.
“With these hands, I killed him directly.”
He met my eyes with a tenderness that was cruel even in that instant.
“Tell me — did you truly think you had a terminal illness?”
When I could not answer, his lips curved again in an arc.
As if this moment amused him greatly.
“That’s… what…….”
Jeok Yeon-hu did not answer further. He simply twisted his wrist lightly.
Whack—!
In the next instant, a scarlet streak tore across my vision.
The dreamlike reality gave way to sharp, searing pain.
Warmth spread across my throat, and the world grew distant.
“Gasp!”
My eyes opened again.
I scrambled upright, looking about in panic.
Everything was painfully familiar.
My chamber, where I had spent my entire life.
Pain crushed down upon my whole body.
And in the mirror before me — a skeletal seven-year-old child staring back.
“Back to the past…… Is that what happened?”
That was my first regression.

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