Chapter 53: The Medicine Snatching Incident

Chapter 53: Chapter 53: The Medicine Snatching Incident

She used to think her father loved her dearly, while her mother would constantly scold her over various things and even make her stand in the corner as punishment. But now, she realized she had been wrong.

Actually, she didn’t necessarily have to eat rice porridge; she just wanted her father to care for her when she was sick. Even if it wasn’t as much as the love her mother had given her—even half of that would have been enough.

The more she thought about it, the harder Amy’s tears fell, surging like crashing waves. She tried her best to hold back her sobs, but her body still convulsed with irrepressible hiccups. Her constant, breathless sobs grated on Loki’s nerves. He even felt as though Amy’s behavior was a silent accusation of his own uselessness.

"Shut up. Cry, cry, cry—that’s all you know how to do," Loki snapped. "I never noticed you were such a glutton before. If you want rice porridge so badly, go find Ophelia.

"But don’t blame me for not warning you—your mother refuses to even acknowledge you as her daughter anymore!"

Loki impatiently left the hut, completely neglecting to urge Amy to go back to her room and rest.

Amy stood alone in the hut, quietly venting her emotions. Only when her tears ran dry did she manage to compose herself. Then, she picked up the two packets of herbal medicine next to the wooden stool and headed back to her own room.

Struggling, Amy peeled off her thick animal-hide coat and scrambled up onto the bed with her short little legs. She pulled the blanket over herself and firmly tucked the corners underneath her body to keep the cold wind from seeping in. Afterward, she wrapped the two packets of herbal medicine tightly against her chest. Only with her hands firmly clutching the medicine did she feel secure enough to close her eyes and fall asleep.

Amy’s sleep was restless; she dreamed all night long. In her dream, her mother had forgiven her. She opened her arms and called out in an incredibly gentle voice, "Amy, come here. Let Mother give you a hug."

Thrilled, she sprinted toward her mother, but just as she was about to embrace her, the figure vanished. Ophelia then morphed into the version of herself that Amy had seen earlier that day. She stood a short distance away, completely icy and expressionless. When she spoke, her tone was more piercing than the bitter winds of the rainy season.

"Even if you die of illness, it has nothing to do with me," she said. "I will not forgive you, and I certainly don’t have a daughter like you."

With that, her mother took the hand of another little female cub and walked away.

In a subsequent dream, Aunt Miche bullied her because she was sick, and her father, disgusted by her, tossed her out of the clan. She tried to go to the Golden Dragon Clan to find her mother, but she died of illness before she could even step foot outside the Snow Wolf Clan’s territory. Yet neither her mother nor her father knew, nor did they ever bother to look for her.

Amy jolted awake in terror. She was drenched in cold sweat, her cheeks flushed red. The stone hut was pitch-black—so dark she couldn’t even see her own fingers in front of her face. Blinking her large eyes, she stared up at the dark ceiling. The psychological dread combined with her physical discomfort made the hairs on her body stand on end.

In all her life, she had never slept alone. After she moved out of the stone hut and stopped living with her mother, she had always slept with Aunt Miche and her father. But now? She was sleeping all by herself in this freezing stone hut.

Amy tightened her grip on the herbal medicine and shrank deeper into the covers. She coaxed herself into closing her eyes, eventually drifting into a deep slumber after a long while.

This time, she had another nightmare. She dreamed that Galen had come to snatch her medicine away. She refused to give it to him, fighting desperately to protect it. But her tiny frame was no match for Galen. Even though her hands were scratched and bleeding from defending her medicine, and she was so heartbroken she nearly fainted, no one cared.

Even her father didn’t care that she was sick. Instead, he helped Galen and Aunt Miche bully her. In the end, her father slapped her in a fit of rage, hitting her so hard that her nose bled.

Amy woke up with another jolt. She quickly patted her body, only letting out a sigh of relief when she confirmed she was unharmed. Fear gripped her tiny body once more, and uncontrollable tears streamed down her face.

She missed her mother so much. Only now did she understand that there was truly only one person who loved her the most—her mother. But now, her mother didn’t want her anymore. She had completely broken her mother’s heart.

From the very beginning, Miche had only suffered a low-grade fever. She hadn’t even experienced symptoms like shivering. On top of that, she had put on a pitiful act in front of Loki, pretending to be miserable and crying. Once she had elicited Loki’s sympathy, he completely ignored Amy’s illness.

He gave an entire packet of herbal medicine to Miche and forgot to brew any for Amy. After taking three scheduled doses of the herbal medicine throughout the day, Miche woke up from her sleep with her fever gone, fully recovered.

Freshly recovered, she didn’t feel the slightest bit of discomfort or weakness. In fact, her body had never felt so comfortable. It wasn’t as if Miche had never been sick in her life, but every time she recovered, she usually felt lethargic for a while. She never expected to feel completely fine this time.

A venomous glint flashed in her eyes. She hadn’t expected the Golden Dragon Clan to be this capable, managing to produce such miraculous medicine. If she could claim this medicine for herself, she would never have to fear getting sick again. She could even give it to her fellow Fox Clan members. Even here in the Snow Wolf Clan, when people fell gravely ill, she could present this medicine to everyone like a savior. That way, her status within the Fox Clan would skyrocket.

The more Miche thought about it, the more excited she became. It felt as though obtaining this medicine was akin to conquering the world.

Just then, her brother Galen happened to come visit her.

"Miche, how are you feeling? Any better?" he asked.

"Don’t worry, brother. I’m completely cured," Miche said with a beaming smile.

"Really? This medicine is that effective?" Galen was still a little skeptical. After all, it was his first time seeing a medicine with such potent effects.

"It’s true! If you don’t believe me, watch." Miche got out of bed, hopped down right in front of Galen, and bounced on the floor a couple of times.

Galen was overjoyed.

"But brother, since this medicine works so well, we should keep more of it on hand," she continued. "It’s the rainy season now, and quite a few of our Fox Clan members are sick. They definitely need this medicine too."

"You’re right." Galen also felt his sister made sense. "So what do you want to do?"

"According to Loki, Laxus gave him three packets of herbal medicine, but he only used one on me. Amy still has the other two. But she’s sick and probably asleep right now. Go and steal the remaining medicine."

"Good idea," Galen agreed. He turned around and immediately headed toward Amy’s stone hut.

Just as he reached the doorway, he saw Loki inside Amy’s room. He was sitting by her bed, keeping watch, gently tucking the blanket around her. At the end of the day, Amy was still his biological daughter. There was no way he would truly leave her to fend for herself while sick.

But this threw a wrench into Galen’s plans, forcing him to indignantly retreat to Miche’s stone hut.

"Damn it, Loki is in there. How am I supposed to take them?"

"That’s a minor issue. I’ll go distract Loki. Once he leaves Amy’s hut, you can sneak in and steal the medicine. Just remember to keep quiet."

"Got it."