The Terminally Ill Youngest Daughter of a Medical Dynasty Is a Genius Physician - Chapter 18

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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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Chapter 18
Everyone in the hall held their breath, their faces taut with tension.
The color drained from Yeon So-taek’s face in an instant.
“……W-why…….”
He stared at the Letters as though unable to comprehend their existence.
‘I told them to burn them all……!’
“Everyone, be silent.”
The Clan Head’s voice—low and heavy—filled the hall.
Grandfather approached me.
He took the Letters from my hands and scanned them quickly, a hollow laugh escaping his lips.
“The Branch Head’s words were true.”
His judgment, delivered with finality, sent a ripple of unease through the gathered crowd.
Grandfather’s gaze turned toward Yu Jin-bok, still prostrate on the floor.
“Chief Steward. Did you know of all this?”
“I—I was afraid, sir. The Young Master held everything in his hands, and I thought that to defy him would mean……but that was no excuse. I should never have turned away from a dying man……!”
“Silence!”
Yu Jin-bok’s body shrank back.
“While a man died and Ryeong-hwa suffered for all these years, you kept your mouth shut to hold onto your position.”
“Please, take my life……!”
“Unforgivable.”
Grandfather drew a long breath and turned to face Yeon So-taek.
“Yeon So-taek.”
“Father! Father, surely you know I could never do such a thing……!”
Yeon So-taek rushed forward as though to clutch at Grandfather’s robes, but Grandfather merely looked down at him with cold, unforgiving eyes.
“I wished to believe you innocent.”
……
“But suspicion took root when Ryeong-hwa’s condition suddenly improved. No matter how talented, she is still a child who has not yet properly learned the Medical Arts.”
Grandfather’s gaze grew colder.
“Yet you insisted all along that she was gravely ill—too sick even to leave her quarters.”
‘So he went as far as to falsify his reports.’
By now, nothing surprised me.
“I sent men to investigate independently. Most of the reports you submitted were fabricated.”
Yeon So-taek’s shoulders flinched.
“You intercepted Letters between the Branch Head and Ryeong-hwa to drive wedges between blood relatives, drove a patient to death, and concealed the crime. You have not only abandoned your duty but deceived the Clan Head. Your guilt is grave indeed.”
Crack!
Grandfather brought his Walking Staff down against the floor.
“As Clan Head, I declare: effective immediately, Yeon So-taek is expelled from the Yeon Clan!”
“No!”
Geum Su-ryeon rushed forward, her face gone ashen.
But the judgment was not finished.
“And Yeon Do-pyeong.”
Yeon Do-pyeong’s eyes widened where he stood at the rear.
“You have neglected your duties to Ryeong-hwa, passing your work to her, and you have misappropriated the precious medicinal materials that the Branch Head sent for her sake—all for personal gain.”
Yeon Do-pyeong’s face turned deathly pale.
Yeon So-taek, hearing this for the first time, crawled forward urgently on his knees.
“Father! Do-pyeong is still young! It was a thoughtless mistake—please, forgive him this once!”
“Grandfather! I swear I will never do it again!”
Yeon Do-pyeong’s pleas rang out, but Grandfather’s expression did not waver.
“I revoke Yeon Do-pyeong’s credentials as a Physician. He is assigned as a Physician Assistant to the Provincial Branch, and he is forbidden to enter the main household for the next ten years.”
“That—that cannot be…….”
The Provincial Branch was where those who had committed grave errors began again from the absolute bottom.
“In consideration of your youth, I will not expel you from the Clan. Spend these ten years reflecting on your crimes, and learn anew what it means to value human life.”
“Grandfather! Please, just once more……!”
Yeon Do-pyeong tried to rush forward, but the Guard Warriors blocked his path.
Geum Su-ryeon, finally overcome, lost consciousness.
“Chief Steward Yu Jin-bok shall likewise be dismissed and expelled from the household. All who participated in or turned a blind eye to these crimes shall be investigated, and each shall face punishment proportionate to their guilt.”
Grandfather’s cold gaze swept across the hall.
“Should anyone be entangled in this matter, I will show no mercy—not even to blood.”
Even the elders stiffened their spines and held their breath.
Presently, the condemned were led away one by one by the Guard Warriors.
“Let go of me!”
“Ryeong-hwa! How dare you do this to me——!”
Yeon So-taek clawed at the floor, thrashing wildly, while Yeon Do-pyeong wailed until his voice cracked.
Geum Su-ryeon, unconscious, was carried out of the Men’s Quarter by the attendants.
The moment they disappeared, physicians and elders crowded around Grandfather as though they’d been waiting for this.
“Who will assume the duties Yeon So-taek was managing?”
“Shouldn’t the Provincial Branch be notified immediately?”
With so much work falling under Yeon So-taek’s family, there was a mountain of loose ends to tie up.
Grandfather left the Main Hall, answering their questions with a weary expression, and Father followed behind him.
Yet even then, Father turned back once to look at me.
After confirming that Ryu Jin was at my side, he gestured with his eyes for me to go rest.
‘Father, I’ll see you later.’
I answered him with a silent movement of my lips.
Before long, the commotion faded and the hall emptied.
By then, the sun had already tilted toward the west.
‘It’s over.’
Only then did it feel real.
Those who had trampled me in every life I’d lived had finally crumbled before my eyes.
My chest should have felt light.
I should have felt joy.
Yet strangely, I couldn’t breathe.
“Miss, are you all right?”
“Ryu Jin. I’m going to take a short walk. I’ll be back soon.”
I forced a smile, and Ryu Jin asked nothing more, following a little ways behind.
I passed through the Corridor of the Main Hall and made my way to the Lakeside.
The evening sun was painting the water’s surface a deep red.
Each time the wind blew, the crimson ripples shattered into smaller fragments.
As I gazed at that scene, a distant memory surfaced with stunning clarity.
It was a winter from my past life.
Burning with fever, coughing up blood, I grabbed at Yeon Do-pyeong’s sleeve as he tried to leave the room.
“Brother…… Please, give me medicine. I think I’m going to die.”
Yeon Do-pyeong looked down at me and twisted his mouth into a sneer.
“Then die.”
His foot lashed out and struck my chest.
As I crumpled to the floor, he trampled my hand.
“Why do you keep bothering me when you’re going to die anyway?”
When Geum Su-ryeon called to him from a distance, Yeon Do-pyeong turned his back on me.
Geum Su-ryeon, seeing me drenched in blood, laughed mockingly and shut the door.
That night I lay alone on the cold floor, breathing shallowly through the darkness until dawn.
To survive. Believing that someday I would heal.
But now, watching them driven out before me, the pain I’d held back all this time came crashing down, drowning out any joy.
I bit my lip hard.
I didn’t want to cry.
If I shed tears now, it felt like losing to them all over again.
Yet the crimson sunset bleeding across the water kept growing blurrier.
“Ryeong-hwa.”
A low voice came from behind.
I turned around quickly, hurriedly wiping my eyes.
“Father?”
Father stood with his back to the sunset.
“I thought you’d gone with Grandfather.”
“I went and came back.”
Father approached me slowly.
“Don’t you have a great deal to manage?”
“I do.”
“Then how——”
Father shrugged as if it were nothing.
“I handed it to your grandfather and slipped away.”
“You left everything to Grandfather?”
“He can handle that much on his own.”
Father stopped before me and spoke as though it were the most natural thing in the world.
“You come first now.”
My chest seized tight, as if struck.
You come first.
In all my years of endurance, this was the only thing I had longed to hear.
I had always waited.
Waited for him to rush to my side when I said I hurt. Waited for him to stay near when I was frightened and alone.
But the clan had always come first, then the patients, then the war.
I had accepted that I would always be pushed aside.
After all, I was a child who would die soon anyway.
But this time was different.
Father had set everything else aside and come searching for me.
With trembling hands, I gripped the hem of my skirt.
“Father.”
“Yes.”
“I’ve read all the letters…… every one.”
Father’s face went rigid.
“The letters you sent me. Where you said you missed seeing me, that you were sorry you couldn’t return…… I read them all.”
My voice shook terribly.
“I didn’t know any of it.”
Father had not forgotten me.
He had gone to the Northern Region to save my life, and even while he couldn’t return, he had sent letter after letter.
In my past life, he had died without ever seeing me again.
As that truth washed over me, my heart felt as though it would tear in two.
“…… I’m sorry.”
“Why are you apologizing?”
At the crack in his voice, I lifted my head.
Deep regret was etched across Father’s face.
“I’m the one who should apologize. No matter how urgent the front was, no matter how much I had to abandon the clan, I should have gone myself to see how you were managing.”
After hesitating for a long moment, I asked quietly.
“Then…… why didn’t you ever come back?”
……
“I waited. I waited the whole time.”
It had been Yeon So-taek who had intercepted the letters.
But if no reply had come in three years, surely he could have made the journey himself at least once.
All the hurt I had buried came rushing back, and my eyes burned.
Father was silent for a long while.
At last, his voice low and hoarse, he spoke.
“When your mother collapsed…… I stayed by her side.”
……
“I had people sent to find medicinal materials, and I never left her for a moment.”

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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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