Doctor’s Rebirth - Chapter 538

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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 538
The aura of someone about to kill—it’s exactly the same as Hyeon’s.
“I see.”
“I could say that both my hobby of crafting leather dolls and the achievement of reaching the pinnacle of martial mastery are entirely thanks to the Hwaju Medical Institute.”
Hahaha, I’m so grateful I could die. I’m so incredibly grateful I want to kill you~
Why did Sama Hyeon’s voice keep overlapping in my mind?
“Oh, wait a moment. Since we’re on the subject.”
Sama-hye pulled something from her bag.
A leather dog and a leather bird.
“They’re Hwang-gu and Noe Jin-i. I made them from cowhide.”
“Quite intricate, aren’t they?”
“Yes. Eun Gong. I wanted to show them to you.”
Woof woof woof!
Hwang-gu wagged his tail frantically.
From the look of it, he was asking me to throw them.
‘If this becomes a dog chew toy, it won’t last even a day.’
I pretended not to hear Hwang-gu’s request and slipped the leather figurines into my sleeve.
Woof!?
A bark whose meaning was unmistakably: why aren’t you throwing it when it’s a gift for me?
Perceptive as always, Sama-hye observed the situation between me and Hwang-gu and understood.
“Ah… Hwang-gu. Come to think of it, this would work perfectly as a necklace ornament.”
What she pulled out was a small leather pouch.
It could be worn at a person’s waist, but for something Hwang-gu’s size, it looked like it could hang around his neck as well.
Moreover, the length could be adjusted with straps, so even if Hwang-gu used his shrinking technique, it would still fit properly.
Chirp!
“Yes, yes! You have one too. You do.”
‘…No matter how I look at it, this is a pouch that can hold both a writing brush and throwing needles. The fact that she made this beforehand means Sama-hye was sincere.’
It seemed like she could send two or three people to the underworld.
Was her resentment toward the Hwaju Medical Institute really that deep?
Then Sama-hye spoke.
“It’s fine. Besides, my brother is already spreading rumors that Baekrin Medical Institute is the greatest medical institute under heaven and that the Hwaju Medical Institute is all smoke and mirrors!”
The Sama siblings? What am I hearing right now?
My head swiveled around in shock.
“B-but is that really okay? Hye-a?”
“It’s fine! The Hwaju Medical Institute spread false rumors first, claiming that Baekrin Medical Institute’s medicine was fraudulent! My brother has already gathered all the evidence. Now we’ve decided to spread every rumor—true or false—about the Hwaju Medical Institute to destroy them.”
What? Not just true things, but false things too?
“Eun Gong, you’re too kind to do something like that. An eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth. Black propaganda deserves black propaganda!”
That was it.
One must never, ever touch the small Sama-hye.
Even if she appeared to be a naive young lady who had just become a Bundata Master, as a member of the Sama clan, she would never simply accept defeat.
“Don’t worry, Eun Gong. I’ve made it my life’s goal to crush these bastards thoroughly—physically, in reputation, and in influence.”
“H-Hye-a. You’re a doctor.”
“I know. That’s why I don’t kill people, Eun Gong. I’m a very rational doctor.”
“Yes. Well, you’re doing fine…”
I decided to give up on Eun Gong.
I chose to support Sama-hye instead.
She continued speaking.
“Since we were orphans, Eun Gong has been like a parent to us. I cannot forgive those who slander him.”
Cheonwoo nodded at her words.
“Yes. I was also an orphan, so I understand that feeling.”
“Cheonwoo, you’re a swordsman.”
“So I don’t exactly refrain from killing, but I do control my strength, hyeong.”
Good. That works.
Just don’t tear up your martial robes, alright?
‘Come to think of it, there’s no one in this carriage who has parents.’
* * *
After arriving, I set up a treatment clinic in the annex assigned to Baekrin Uiseon.
Nothing grand.
Everyone needed to recover from travel fatigue first, so all I did was unpack and set down the luggage.
To do anything substantial, we’d need to wait until tomorrow.
I received quarters similar to what we had before, unpacked my things, and spent the entire day simply recovering from the journey without doing anything else.
“Hm? Why are you resting, hyeong? I thought you’d start working right after we arrived.”
Of course it was Cheonwoo.
He knows me far too well.
I felt a pang of embarrassment, but since he wasn’t wrong, my ears burned with it.
“The thing is, if I start working, the kids will have to come out and work too. And if that happens, they’ll all get sick.”
“Ah… I see.”
Cheonwoo finally understood.
True, these doctors aren’t martial artists—they’re genuine physicians.
While their stamina is better than ordinary people, they still need to recover from the fatigue accumulated during the long journey.
And if I were to start doing something on my own, the doctors wouldn’t be able to rest easy either.
“That’s a difficult problem, hyeong.”
“No, it’s simple. Well, Ha Uiwon still watches my expression. But the experienced Sang Ui-won just puts on a poker face and rests anyway.”
Wasn’t that because he’d perfectly adapted to Baekrin Uiseon?
Cheonwoo fell into thought but decided to let it go.
The two of us were assigned to the same lodging and rested well until the next morning.
Then we stepped outside.
‘Hm, I don’t see Hye-a. Did something come up?’
Despite appearances, she’s the Bundata Master, so she must have much to do politically.
Especially having risen to that position at such a young age, there would be many who look down on her.
No matter how much I fought on Hye-a’s behalf, she still had to forge her own path through struggle.
In that sense, this place was excellent for building connections.
“I should inspect the medicinal herbs first.”
Dried herbs wouldn’t spoil easily, but some required freshness to be effective.
Especially fungi—if even a trace of mold had formed and I unknowingly added it to a decoction, the patient could be endangered, so I always had to check them carefully.
‘This is something I should handle myself.’
Clink!
And I had my greatest assistant, Hwang-gu.
Especially with spoiled herbs—he could detect them with uncanny precision.
After inspecting all the medicinal herbs from dawn, the junior doctors emerged yawning and shuffling their feet.
Then they spotted me and spoke in surprise.
“Oh! Patriarch! Did you cough?”
“Ah, yes. You’re awake?”
“Yes… we woke up well.”
“I deliberately set a late waking time, yet you’re all so diligent.”
At my words, the junior doctors’ faces flushed red.
They seemed pleased by the Patriarch’s praise.
“No, no. We need to brew tea for everyone.”
Though Baekrin Uiseon was freer than other medical institutes, it still couldn’t escape the rigid Confucian society.
Since it was natural for subordinates to respect their superiors, the junior doctors brewed tea for the middle-ranked and senior doctors.
“That must be difficult.”
“Not at all. Compared to Hwaju Medical Institute, it’s easy.”
“Ah, I heard you once entered through the medical division there. You’re Cho Pal-ryeong, the junior doctor, aren’t you?”
When I remembered his name, he nodded.
“Yes. When I was at Hwaju Medical Institute, I had to heat water for washing the hands and feet of the middle-ranked and senior doctors, and the senior junior doctors who came before me. At Baekrin Uiseon, since the guards already heat water during their shift changes, simply serving tea is relatively easy.”
The junior doctors at Hwaju Medical Institute really did suffer.
Watching the junior doctors at Baekrin Uiseon serve tea to their seniors in the morning seemed difficult, but it was nothing compared to that.
‘Honestly, I’m not comfortable with even this. Is it because I’m from Earth?’
Still, when my Master said that removing this entirely would destroy the institute’s discipline, I kept it to a minimum.
Instead, before bed, I instructed the middle-ranked doctors to prepare tea leaves for brewing the next morning.
I had the guard warriors, who rotated every four hours, add wood to the fire during their shifts, and I adjusted the rotation times accordingly.
The effect was excellent.
This way, the burden on the junior doctors decreased, and the middle-ranked doctors only had to add the tea leaves, which was manageable.
The senior doctors, after drinking…
‘Well, they can’t do anything else.’
Since the senior doctors had the most work, they had to write medical records at night and in the morning, clutching their aging, stiff eyes, desperately awaiting the junior doctor’s tea.
‘Senior doctors are delicate beings. They cough at the slightest breeze.’
The more knowledge they accumulated, the weaker their bodies became.
Complaints were worst among the senior doctors.
When giving them orders, they’d start with groans, and when adjusting their robes, they’d make sighing sounds—the age where such expressions were inevitable.
That’s what the Senior Doctors are.
So even I, Jin Cheon-hee of all people, handle them carefully—having them compile medical texts, nurturing them in the research halls, using them to teach the Junior and Middle-Aged Doctors, and making good use of their talents.
The Bundata Master grows weary just keeping up with the Bundata schedule.
The medical skills of Middle-Aged and Senior Doctors are worlds apart, and whenever they do anything, their joints start aching.
‘Even though they haven’t even reached forty yet, the moment they become Senior Doctors, they start complaining that their bodies don’t feel like they used to.’
Only a rare few Senior Doctors like Hye-a move about with vigor.
In any case, I must advance alongside these aging, frail, and overly sensitive Senior Doctors who are busy every day.
That is the work of the Patriarch, the Bundata Master, and the head of the Medical Pharmacy.
The Senior Doctors always have one or two parts of their bodies breaking down, so I need to take good care of their health too.
Fortunately, the Baekrin Medical Institute’s main headquarters sits atop a mountain, so one must descend the mountain to drink alcohol—a forced monastic life—and in reality, one must eat medicinal cuisine three meals a day whether one likes it or not.
The only somewhat harmful thing is the occasional snacks I make.
Moreover, smoking is forbidden within the Institute, so one must go far away just to smoke once.
That’s the forced health regimen for Senior Doctors at Baekrin Medical Institute’s main headquarters.
And since my Master has the constitution of a cat that must warm itself in warm places, all the dormitories have ondol heating and hot springs—truly a forced health resort.
Of course, I described him as a cat, but in reality he’s a mountain tiger, and with a casual cat punch, he can snap someone’s neck.
In any case, while the headquarters is like that, the Senior Doctors at the Hangzhou branch step outside and find nothing but taverns.
Everywhere has wine shops and inns, and the doctors even give them discounts.
After all, Baekrin Medical Institute’s influence over Hangzhou’s public sentiment is absolute.
So when they drink one cup, then two, it doesn’t take long for a doctor to become a patient—no wonder Sama-hye has her hands full.
So tea is delivered to both the somewhat less frail Senior Doctors of Baekrin Medical Institute’s main headquarters and the somewhat more frail Senior Doctors of Baekrin Medical Institute’s Hangzhou branch, weakened by alcohol and tobacco.
‘Should I lend a hand too?’
Since the tea’s purpose is to wake them up, wouldn’t they wake up better if the Patriarch brewed it himself? Probably?
‘Hehehehe, a morning coffee brewed by a distant superior.’
Just hearing about it sounds like a nightmare.
I should brew it strong to sharpen their minds.
And so the oblivious Junior Doctors received the tea I prepared on a small tray and loudly exclaimed, “Thank you, Patriarch!” before hurrying off.
Just imagining these chicks cheerfully announcing “The Patriarch brewed this for us!” as they set the teacups on the Senior Doctors’ bedside tables fills me with joy. Kehehehe!
Cheonwoo, who had been staring at me intently, spoke.
“Hyeong, something’s changed about you.”
“What is?”
“You seem more at ease.”
“Is that so? That’s a good change.”

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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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