“If you walk around with your body in this condition, it will be difficult for us. Just lie in bed. Just in case, I’ll have the head chef guard the door to your room.”

Biti spoke firmly. Normally I would have been stubborn, but I could not walk around the hallways with my legs feeling weak.

Biti supported my body and moved me to the bed, then pulled the blanket up to my neck. She then locked all the windows in the room and checked the corners.

“Keep this with you.”

After checking the entire room, she placed a longsword next to me.

“Biti. Am I really…….”

“Miss. This is our job. You just recover.”

“……Be careful. If you need my help, just say so.”

“Don’t worry. Oh, and I’ll leave the door open. If anything happens, you must shout.”

She went outside after saying that. In the end, I just lay down, doing nothing. One hand was tightly gripping the longsword. I did not let go of it, as if it were my lifeline.

‘I……I will not die.’

I am different from the time when I lost my life by being caught. I cannot repeat dying miserably without fulfilling a single hope.

‘Damn it. Keeps coming to mind.’

When I closed my eyes, the faint figure of the woman appeared. Who was she to torment me this way with just a glimpse of her appearance?

I still vividly remember the day I first saw 「The Hero of the Fenton Family」. It was winter in middle school.

I impulsively bought a book that I happened to find in a used bookstore. My hands, trembling in fear at buying even one workbook, inexplicably reached out to that book.

I didn’t even like the cover. It was too clean and bland to be a used book.

The only thing I liked about it was the price. Even so, buying a book I had never heard of, from an author whose name I didn’t know, was not like me at all.

I took out crumpled bills and paid for the book. When the staff asked if I needed a bag, I said it was fine.
I stored the cherished book in my heart and headed home.

“There, there he is!”

As I entered the old residential area, a familiar voice was heard.

In front of the vacant lot where there used to be a playground, a group of men was standing, puffing clouds of cigarette smoke. My father, who had just returned from work, waved at me.

“Boha! My daughter!”

My father was uncomfortable. It had been that way since before.

I first saw my father when I was four, after my birth father had passed away and I barely remembered it, but I always felt awkward and selfconscious when I was alone with him. I wanted to turn away and pretend not to know him, but I didn’t know what would happen later if I did.

I slowly approached my father.

“Boha, these are friends who are holding hands with Daddy this time. Say hello.”

“He, hello.”

“Hello. I’ve heard a lot. You’re good at studying? Your dream is to be a doctor. You’ll make a lot of money later.”

“Yeah. Maybe it’s because she’s not my child, but she’s good at studying. Smart, huh? She learns quickly. After elementary school, she went to a baduk class once, and the teacher called and asked if she wanted to prepare for a researcher. But our child’s dream is to be a doctor, so she refused.”

I held my breath. I had never dreamed of becoming a doctor. In my ignorant childhood, I dreamed of ordinary jobs like a chef or a librarian, but I lost my future dream after elementary school’s senior year.

“A researcher? Eh, that doesn’t make money.”

“That’s what I’m saying. That XXX teacher trying to ruin the child’s life.”

Would things have changed if I had prepared to become a researcher in elementary school?

“Boha, you know now, right? Baduk, that doesn’t make money. What will you do if you fail the pro exam and go into society? Just suck your finger.”

“……Yes.”

I nodded at my father’s words that demanded an answer. That made me remember a forgotten memory. I went to baduk classes about three times as a free afterschool class.

‘Boha, you’re doing great!’

Honestly, baduk class was quite fun.

I might have liked the teacher who praised me every time I made a move.

After a few lessons, the teacher called my parents. I watched my father’s furious face as I talked to the teacher.

Although he boasted about his daughter being called a genius, he talked about a plastic surgeon who appeared on TV last weekend, not a baduk player.

He was a person living in an expensive premium apartment.

The doctor, who had a good reputation and skill, said in an interview that he had given his parents a car and a house. My father was impressed by the interview and babbled about a doctor, a word I had never uttered before.

I was embarrassed. I couldn’t bear to look at the face of the teacher who had always praised me. I didn’t go to afterschool classes after that.

“That’s right. You go home soon. Daddy has to talk to his friends.”

I bowed and left the place. From afar, my father’s laughter tore at my ears. My head hurt terribly.

Something fell on my cheek as I gritted my teeth. It was as cold as a sudden realization. Looking up at the sky, the snow was falling sparsely.

It was the first snow. At the same time, a cold wind blew. My cheeks and nose must have turned red as they were tingling, but my hands holding the book were warm.