The Baengri Clan's Unwanted Granddaughter

Chapter 3

* * *

Medicine, doctor’s visit, treatment, medicine, food, sleep, and even more medicine. Rinse and repeat.

I had probably eaten every precious herb in the world by now. Have you ever seen a ginseng root the size of a forearm? I have. Well, at least before it ended up in my stomach.

I rubbed my eyes and tried to clear my head, realizing I’d fallen asleep during my checkup. I sat up and saw that the family doctor was busy collecting his needles.

My father usually remained by my side during treatment, but I didn’t see him now. In my previous life, it had felt like surveillance, but now, I knew that he was just worried about me.

I asked the doctor, “My father?”

“He’s a fool, that one,” he tutted.

I looked at him curiously, but the doctor simply shook his head and left, leaving my question unanswered. By the time I got up and walked out of the room, he was already gone.

“What’s going on?” I wondered. The courtyard was much too quiet.

My father and I lived in the far corner of the western side of the clan compound. It wasn’t exactly a location well suited for my father’s station as a descendant of the main family. My father’s rooms used to be elsewhere, but when he brought me home, my grandfather banished us both here.

Well, at least I don’t run into any of my relatives.

I walked across the empty courtyard toward the servants’ quarters, hoping to find my father.

Figures. No one was there, explaining the deathly silence.

The servants always ran off to rest in their rooms whenever my father was out, so this was nothing new.

Where could he have gone?

I was weighing whether I should stay and wait or leave to look for him when I heard a voice call out in the distance, “Hurry! Everyone, hurry!”

All the missing workers were gathered near the white wall behind the servants’ quarters, and one of the higher-ranking manservants was ordering the others around. “Hurry up, all of you! Is everyone here?”

“What is it? I was having a good sleep,” another voice complained.

“Well, if you weren’t so busy napping, then you would already know that the head of the family has returned!”

“What? The master is back?”

“They’re going to hold a feast tonight, so the mistress wants half of us to stay here while the rest go to the main hall to help. Who’s going?”

My eyes widened as I listened in on their conversation.

My grandfather, the head of the Baengri family, was an odd and unreadable man. Though he was the go-getter responsible for raising the middling Baengri family into the ranks of the ten great clans, he was also known to seclude himself year-round to train–and when he did finally emerge, to go off on a trip at the slightest whim. While he did help out the hero in the novel, his appearances were few and far between, and all in all he basically only showed up two or three times to flex his incredible power.

Even I’ve barely ever seen him. Despite living in the same house for years, I could count the number of times I’d met him on one hand, and he’d been away traveling even while I was suffering from qi deviation. But now that he was back, that meant...

I quickly rushed out of my quarters.

Damn it, it was today! The realization shook me.

This was the day Grandfather completely turned his back on Father and me!

* * *

While a novel will hardly waste any pages exploring the origin story of a minor villain, with a childhood like mine, my descent into villainy was practically a given—and this moment, right here, right now, would prove to be among the most pivotal of those experiences.

I have to stop it. I power-walked ahead, ignoring the stares and whispers of the servants and soldiers I passed by.

By the time I arrived, I was out of breath and drenched in sweat. The old manservant standing at attention by the door looked at me with surprise. “Young miss?”

Between my pale face and bloodless lips, I must have looked like I was about to collapse.

“Are you all right?” he asked in concern. I tried to tell him I was fine, but I could only cough in response.

Sympathy swelled in his eyes as he recalled that I was only just recovering from qi deviation. “What brings you here? You’re not well enough to be out yet.”

“Fa-Father. I need to see Father—”

Before I could finish my sentence, I heard a thundering roar from beyond the door.

“Hold your tongue, Euigang! How long will you keep disappointing me? How is it that you still—”

It was my grandfather’s voice.

Shifting uncomfortably, the manservant said, “You must be here for the fourth young master. It’s just… as the young miss has heard... Now is not a good time.”

I clenched my fists in dismay. Only those permitted by my grandfather were allowed to enter this room: direct descendants who held key positions in the family or had otherwise earned his regard.

Of course, I was not included in that list.

I bit my lip anxiously.

“Is that Baengri Yeon?”

My neck stiffened the moment I heard her voice.

The servant bowed to the figure behind me. “Greetings, Miss Euiran.”

It was Baengri Euiran, my father’s half-sister and thus my aunt.

“What is she doing here?” she snapped at the old servant. “Did Euigang bring her here?”

“No, miss. She came here alone,” he replied.

“Alone...?” Aunt Euiran’s gaze shifted back and forth between the door and me. She scoffed. "What do you think you're doing here? This isn't somewhere the likes of you can just stroll into!”

The two maidservants behind her laughed mockingly.

I gazed at them in silence.

In the past, I had been terrified of my aunt. Whenever we happened to cross paths, she picked on me relentlessly. If my eyes met hers, I was insolent; if I averted my eyes, I was refusing to look at her; if I greeted her, I was presumptuous; if I didn’t, I was snubbing her... No matter what I did, she found a way to criticize me.

The verbal abuse eventually escalated to beatings.

“To think that the Baengri name was tainted by vermin like you!”

I would coil into a ball and beg for forgiveness, though I never knew what I’d done wrong.

Of course, my aunt was discreet. She would only abuse me when no one was around, and only in ways that wouldn’t leave visible marks, taking great care to ensure that my father would never hear of it.

Even if I’d wanted to tell my father, I couldn’t have. In the beginning he was never home, and after that our relationship soured and I stopped speaking to him altogether.

I was an idiot.

In the past, I thought it was natural that my aunt would despise me. She had reason to—I was useless, a Baengri that couldn’t even do martial arts.

But that was before Father’s funeral.

“That damned Euigang. I knew this would happen the moment he started to brag about his swordsmanship. Good riddance!”

My aunt had been jealous of my father, envious of his skill and fame, but too cowardly to oppose him openly.

And then I’d come along and fallen into her lap, his naive daughter with no position in the family and no martial arts ability—easy prey.

“What are you looking at? Do you think you can ignore me just because your father’s back?”

She had always been cunning with her words. Anyone listening would think that I was being arrogant.

I quickly bowed. “I’m sorry, Aunt Euiran,” I said shamefully. “I’m not feeling well, so I can’t think very clearly right now.”

My cough returned at that moment, and my aunt’s face hardened as she assessed the situation. Now the scene was one of her picking on her sick niece.

She looked like she wanted to say more, but couldn’t, conscious of the eyes on us.

I continued to cough. I think my fever is rising again.

When my coughing finally died down, my aunt finally spoke. In a gentle voice, she said, “Even so, it seems like you’re well enough to come here on your own.”

I had to think strategically. If I said that I was feeling better, she wouldn’t have been harassing a sick child after all, but if I said I was still feeling unwell, she would send me straight back to my room.

“I... That is—”

She cut me off, seeing that I was stalling. “No need to be nervous. Speak freely.”

“There was no one in my wing. I didn’t want to come alone, but everyone seemed to be away running errands. I had no other choice.”

Her eyes widened.

Managing the housework and the servants were the responsibility of my grandmother, or my aunt’s mother, so to have it be said that there had been no servants in my wing... It was outrageous. There were two standing right behind Aunt Euiran even at that moment.

The servants in my father’s wing were often lazy and neglectful, not even bothering to hide it in front of me. My grandmother knew, of course. It had occurred under her silent supervision. But no one cared. It didn’t matter—so long as Grandfather didn’t know.

But the shouting in the room had died down.

Grandfather was an excellent martial artist, as was everyone else in the room with him—he only kept company with those who were quite skilled themselves, and they all naturally could hear any conversation happening within a hundred steps with ease.

They must’ve heard everything.

We were just behind the door and certainly within hearing distance, which is why my aunt had tried to manipulate the situation to make it seem like I had been snubbing her out of arrogance. But she couldn’t have anticipated the direction our conversation was taking now.

Lips quivering, Aunt Euiran rushed to downplay the issue.

“Are you sure you’re not mistaken? The servants would never abandon their posts,” she said. “Stop speaking such nonsense and go back—”

Grandfather’s angry roar cut off my aunt’s words. “Euiran, get in here now! You too, Baengri Yeon!”