Doctor’s Rebirth - Chapter 278

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

Chapter 278
“Ugh.”
I tried to move my body, but strength refused to flow into my limbs.
‘Pressure points, perhaps.’
Fortunately, it seemed they had arranged things so my neck could still move.
Looking at my condition below the neck, bandages wrapped around my entire body. There was no more bleeding.
The room held only the scent of unfamiliar medicinal herbs.
Though I felt nothing below my neck, even at a glance this was clearly a luxurious bedroom.
Naturally, my weapons were nowhere to be seen—confiscated, no doubt.
Instead of my original clothes, I had been changed into simple, comfortable garments suitable for patients.
Beyond the door, I could hear the sounds of attendants moving about.
‘Why didn’t they kill me?’
When I first opened my eyes, I had expected to find myself bound in a torture chamber, my tongue held only by forceps.
Torture, after all, differs little whether in the Western Regions or the Central Plains.
They would pluck fingernails and toenails one by one, extract teeth.
Tear the tendons from limbs.
Like ants methodically dismantling a butterfly—wings first, then legs, then antennae—piece by piece.
Even masters of iron will eventually spill every truth from their bellies.
‘Why are they treating me so well?’
Is this some form of advanced psychological torture?
I found it impossible to comprehend.
Then the door creaked open.
As sparks of fury ignited in my eyes, Jin Cheon-hee spoke urgently.
“Calm yourself. I haven’t come to torture you.”
Ilkana continued breathing heavily.
“Greetings, Baek-ui Sinryong brother.”
Her smile was stiff and unnatural.
Yet her voice, thoroughly restrained of emotion, revealed the kind of education she had received.
‘Interesting—she didn’t call me Gwangryong.’
Jin Cheon-hee’s favorable impression rose slightly.
“So you know of me. Of course, information gathering is fundamental to the assassination sect.”
The way he regarded her—as if she were trustworthy—was not the demeanor of a criminal.
Ilkana simply answered calmly, her expression still guarded.
“You seem well-informed about our sect… but I’m curious why you’re leaving me like this, brother. What trap are you setting?”
No curses. No provocations demanding death.
Only a strange sense of discord lingered.
From this, Jin Cheon-hee perceived something.
The will to survive.
A tenacious, peculiar attachment to life that would not release its grip.
That is what an assassin truly is—one prepared to kill others and end themselves at any moment.
Brainwashing from childhood to the extreme inevitably strips away even self-love.
Naturally, the desire to live is never granted to them.
Yet the Ilkana before me refused to release her grip on life.
That was a good sign.
‘Hmm… I need to explain this carefully from here on.’
It meant there was a chance for her.
If I simply said, ‘I’m a reader who knows your future, you’ll die if you continue like this, I’ll save you,’ she would nod along and then stab me in the back the moment I let her go.
So I needed to get the first button right.
“Please calm yourself. I’m not setting any traps. Besides, I’ve investigated the cult to some extent, so I know a fair bit about you as well.”
This was the right way to start.
I spoke calmly.
“Ilkana, 9th Princess.”
I had debated whether to call her an imperial princess or a royal princess, and decided on the latter for now.
“….”
Ilkana still smiled, but her lips had stiffened slightly.
Beneath the doll-like, inorganic mask, I could see her lips twitch weakly.
‘Now… it would be better to seem a bit mysterious, wouldn’t it?’
I controlled my expression and began speaking in a low, measured voice.
“My name is Jin Cheon-hee. As you know, I bear the title of the White-Robed Divine Dragon, and I am a doctor and Patriarch of Baekrin Uigak. However, I possess an extraordinary ability that the world does not know of.”
Ilkana’s expression remained unchanged.
She did not open her mouth to ask a question first.
Watching her, I continued slowly.
“I can read the essence of heaven and earth to glimpse the past, present, and future in limited ways. That is how I know about you. Ilkana, 9th Princess. Daughter of the 6th Empress. And one who thirsts for vengeance. Am I wrong?”
As I maintained my serious expression, the smile on Princess Ilkana’s face twisted slightly.
“How could you possibly…?”
Through the cracks in her fractured mask, what showed was unmistakably murderous intent.
‘I’m telling her I know a secret about her that even the assassination cult doesn’t know, so it’s natural she’d be shocked.’
If I failed to explain properly, the moment I released her, a blade would find my back.
Yet this was a mountain I had to cross.
Sometimes, to gain true trust, one must cross certain lines.
In truth, Ilkana’s mind was filled with chaos.
If the assassination cult had discovered her secret, she would not have survived this long.
Her most hidden secret. The fortress that protected her life.
How could Jin Cheon-hee, the White-Robed Divine Dragon, a complete stranger, possibly know of it?
I gazed at the beast snarling within the broken mask.
‘If I don’t answer properly, she will certainly tear out my throat someday.’
I knew this, yet my expression remained unwavering.
“Our meeting was chance. When I arrived here, I had no way of knowing you would come to assassinate. But after I stopped your attack and learned something about you, I thought: perhaps… we could join hands.”
“….”
“You desire vengeance, so you did not commit ‘suicide,’ the assassination cult’s fundamental doctrine. Am I mistaken?”
Ilkana answered with murderous intent in her voice.
“You’re an interesting person. It seems modern doctors enjoy toying with people these days?”
“You flatter me. In truth, I don’t know everything. As I mentioned before, my vision is limited. So why would you believe my words?”
Jin Cheon-hee offered a faint smile.
Toward him, Ilkana spoke in a subdued voice.
“…Whether I believe or not isn’t really the issue. Rather, I’m curious what you want, brother.”
She maintained an inscrutable smile while feigning composure.
If Samjeolchuho was a straightforward hero, then Ilkana before me was a twisted schemer.
In some ways, she was several times more difficult to deal with than Samjeolchuho.
‘Sigh, saving one person isn’t easy.’
I am not Yeo Ha-ryun.
My way wasn’t to smash someone’s skull and seduce them through force.
Besides, my goal wasn’t something grandiose like Breaking Heaven.
‘That’s something only remarkable people like protagonists can accomplish.’
All I could do was save the person right in front of me, whoever I could reach.
For that, I was merely a flawed adult willing to tell a few lies.
Jin Cheon-hee grasped the atmosphere and continued speaking.
“What I want is simple. Please stay under me for just five years, five years.”
“Five years? That’s intriguing.”
From her tone alone, it seemed she was convinced, but I knew better.
If left as is, she would simply wait for the day of release, then eliminate me as a loose end and disappear.
That was Ilkana. That was her nature.
“You’re an assassin, after all. An assassin with a severed string.”
She responded with a smile instead of words. I continued.
“Even if I released you now without resistance, the sect would try to eliminate you for your betrayal. Yet you can’t simply die either. If you wanted to take your own life, you would have done so long ago.”
“So you’re assuming I have such strong attachment to life, brother?”
“I simply know you have a goal heavier than death. I also know you don’t believe in the Saerim Theocracy’s paradise.”
“….”
Touching her deepest core, I continued thinking.
“In truth, I also know that even if I release you and you seize the chance to kill me, reality won’t change. I just want… five years. Just five years together.”
‘Five years should be enough that she won’t die even if sent to Yeo Ha-ryun.’
When I analyzed the original work, ultimately her death came from becoming a shield because the enemy was too powerful compared to her strength and experience.
And….
‘Realistically, pursuing revenge with Yeo Ha-ryun while simultaneously accessing the Cheonma bloodline and training is no easy feat.’
Ultimately, Ilkana’s death stemmed from trying to catch too many rabbits at once while facing an overwhelmingly powerful enemy.
“If you wish to take revenge, I’ll help. It’s probably… the Sultan, or perhaps someone close to him.”
“Ho, so you can see such things too, brother?”
“…The stellar energy in the Saerim Theocracy is too strong, so I came to see it. A greedy stellar energy.”
Jin Cheon-hee gazed into the distance with distant eyes once more.
At my words, she burst into laughter.
“Brother, please stop this. Drop this ridiculous fortune-telling act. Fine. There’s nothing left to hide now anyway. I dream of revenge, and because of that dream, I broke the assassin’s code and couldn’t take my own life. Perhaps I will never reach heaven.”
Her laughter faded. Soon, she continued in a serious voice.
“Whatever your true intentions may be, brother… Yes. I understand you’re an interesting person.”
“You don’t believe me?”
Jin Cheon-hee asked with a bitter expression, and she shook her head.
“No, brother. This is an assassin’s intuition, but I can tell that your predictions about some point in the future are genuine. However… how do I put this? I also sense that you’re making a desperate effort to keep me alive. And….”
*Crunch—*
Her molars scraped against her teeth as she ground them.
“My choice is singular anyway. I want to live, and I’m in a position where I must be favored by you. For that, I was even prepared to lick your disgusting toes, brother.”
She closes her eyes.
Strangely, when she closes her eyes, she hears that sound from back then.
What her mother said while covering both her ears.
Her mother’s palms blocked her eardrums, leaving only muffled cries audible.
Did she beg to be saved? Or did she plead for revenge?
Or did she beg for her daughter alone to be spared?
It doesn’t matter. The starving beast cubs, addicted to the drug, were satisfied once their bellies were full anyway.
She survived because her mother’s flesh was enough to fill those creatures’ stomachs.
Even as they tore away at her, her mother held her daughter in her arms and never let go until the end.
What did her mother say while covering her ears back then?
To find that answer, something had to die.
The one who caused this incident had to be placed among those same drug-addled, starving beast cubs.
Along with his children.
Only then could she see what sounds he would make.
“It’s truly strange, brother. For some reason, my intuition tells me that if I were to kill you, not only would I fail at revenge, but something truly terrible would happen.”
Jin Cheon-hee answered calmly.
“I’m not telling you to do nothing. If you spend five years under my tutelage, I’ll teach you decent martial arts. Then you could become even stronger.”
I have no idea what assassin’s intuition is stabbing her in the back of the head like this.
But I pitched earnestly.
Elder Gungwi… I’m currently packaging a sincere new recruit.
Please pray for success!

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