Doctor’s Rebirth - Chapter 583

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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 583
“That child from earlier….”
“…Did you think it would happen the moment we woke her? If you knew that, you should have foreseen it. Even the Holy Maiden can’t predict the future like that, can she?”
“Ah….”
Smack!
“Ow! Sister!”
“Quiet! I’m ignorant, so I don’t understand the minds of learned people. But I know nonsense when I hear it! Keep it up and you’ll get hit on the back more by your sister.”
At those words, Prince Han-bing burst into laughter.
“Now I understand why Gongseon Yeong is so popular with people.”
When Jin Cheon-hee and Gongseon Yeong looked at him simultaneously, Prince Han-bing scratched his cheek awkwardly.
“No, it’s just. Gongseon Yeong says things I could never dare to say so easily. It’s quite refreshing.”
“Are you teasing us?”
“No. It’s just. I already know how remarkable the Doctor is from being together all this time. He even succeeded in treating my illness, which no one else could. But perhaps because of that, his standards for himself are too high, aren’t they?”
“I….”
When Jin Cheon-hee questioned this, Prince Han-bing waved his hand dismissively.
“No, I’m not criticizing. It’s just that Gongseon Yeong’s words about doing what we can seem right to me. Even I, who once spent time closely with the North Sea Ice Palace Master, failed to notice. I don’t understand why he blames himself so. Is it because of the dead child?”
Jin Cheon-hee’s blue eyes widened slightly.
The prince continued.
“It may be presumptuous of me to say, but I know that the Jegallim Family’s Hyeonwon Jeondan Singeong is remarkable. However, it is surely neither omniscient nor omnipotent. If that were possible, the Jegallim Family would never have suffered calamity. So…. I wish you wouldn’t carry so much burden. The Patriarch is already a remarkable person just as he is.”
“….”
Jin Cheon-hee did not answer.
He only nodded slightly.
Gongseon Yeong asked.
“Can you breathe a bit easier?”
“I think I’ll only feel at ease once this is over.”
Seeing his complexion pale as a corpse, Gongseon Yeong sighed.
This was the kind of person he was.
One for whom the deaths of others were always heavy burdens—a child better suited to being a Doctor than a Kang Ho-in.
Yet precisely because he was a Doctor, he had to witness the deaths of others.
But did he know how to let himself break?
Like her sister, who was called the Black Ice Poison Dragon, these clever ones always slip away in an instant. That’s why someone needs to grab them and shake them awake.
‘And that means not listening to gentle words either. Can’t use courtesy.’
When they returned, she’d have to force food into his mouth.
Gongseon Hyeon clenched her fist and asked.
“So. The North Sea Ice Palace?”
At those words, Jin Cheon-hee answered calmly.
“I’ll do what I can.”
“So you’re going to destroy it completely.”
“Yes. Now that I’ve seen this.”
“Good. You magnificent bastard.”
“But we should find out whatever we can.”
“That’s the right spirit, little Jegallim. Good. Your older sister will help!”
I wiped my eyes with my sleeve and ventured deeper inside.
* * *
‘Human experimentation must serve some purpose.’
On Earth, forcibly capturing humans for experimentation always brought great tragedy.
I knew of the Nazis and Unit 731. I also knew how futile it all was.
Super soldiers don’t exist in reality.
Some claimed such human experimentation advanced humanity, but I saw it differently.
Discovering antibiotics by grinding away researchers’ lives and one’s own was fundamentally different from placing people in gas chambers to observe how long before death came.
Humans are creatures whose brains begin to cook once their temperature exceeds forty degrees.
There was no need to place a child and mother together in a heated room to experiment on maternal love, or to determine the exact temperature at which they would die.
No matter how curious one became, there was no justification for actually placing people inside to verify results.
There was no reason to inject horse urine into human kidneys, no reason to calculate the average time it took for a hanged person to suffocate—if such a person existed, common sense dictated you should run and cut them down.
That was what it meant to be human.
—Hyeolseon shall guide you to paradise.
The brainwashed voice of the dead child echoed in my ears.
I grasped my trembling right hand with my left.
Once my left hand had been troublesome, but now it had become stronger than anything.
[We’re entering the underground crossbow chamber. Please suppress your presence.]
Even in this situation, Hyeonwon Jeondan Singeong continued to provide direction.
Following my traces, the other two companions concealed their footsteps as much as possible.
Confirming this, I rushed ahead to scout the path.
Cheongi Miribu.
In the vast hall, not even the sound of rolling stones echoed.
[I sense a powerful presence in the inner hall.]
With those words, it guided the way.
[How do you navigate so well in this darkness?]
[Places like this all follow the same structure. If you can see the arrangement of pillars and the contours of the ceiling, you can roughly calculate how it was built.]
[Is it really that simple?]
[Architects typically avoid taking risks. If something goes wrong, buildings collapse and people die. So they build within established methods.]
In an era without modern concrete and H-beams, architecture was perhaps the most conservative field of all.
[Does Hyeolseonggyo do the same?]
[So do the heretical sects. Even if their martial arts are supreme under heaven, ordinary craftsmen build their structures and secret chambers.]
This perspective transcended both the ways of Gangho and the ways of the outside world—it was utterly unconventional.
Han Bing found me strange.
[What about mechanical devices?]
[The mechanisms inside are designed uniquely, but the structure that requires solving the mechanism to open remains the same. It’s like a keyhole—all keys are different, but the method of opening is identical once the right key is inserted.]
[So ‘regardless of where it’s built, the craftsmen who make it are conservative.’ Does the Jegallim Family teach such things?]
[Well, more so through geomancy—we learn to understand a building’s structure through feng shui. Whether it’s a family or a heretical sect, they all employ geomancers.]
[Ah, of course they’d hire a geomancer for such an expensive construction!]
But where did Jin Cheon-hee’s peculiar perspective come from?
Prince Han-bing grew curious but held his tongue.
Instead, he simply followed deeper into the shadows behind this strange young man.
Suddenly, what unfolded before his eyes was an enormous block of ice, and within it, a single corpse.
[Who is that?]
Gongseon Yeong murmured.
Jin Cheon-hee enhanced his vision from a distance, examining the body carefully.
And his eyes widened in shock.
‘…!!’
Two holes pierced through the chest.
More precisely, two clean sword wounds that appeared as a single injury.
This was a signature technique from my Master’s swordsmanship.
A second sword strike hid behind the first, making it impossible to block both even if one anticipated the initial attack.
The victim had failed to defend against either.
And the garments marking him as the North Sea Ice Palace’s heir.
‘…The old grudge from when Master claimed the Bing Jeong Sword through a life-or-death duel… ah…!’
An old enemy, then.
He had preserved his own son within the ice.
‘When did he begin colluding with Hyeolseonggyo?’
What was certain was this:
By the time he sent the Bing Jeong Sword—a treasure of the martial world—the connection should have been severed. It was likely that Hyeolseonggyo approached him afterward.
If he had still been obsessed with his son back then, he would have gnashed his teeth, demanding the Bing Jeong Sword be returned to his heir.
[You mentioned his changes began several years ago?]
[According to the Holy Maiden, yes.]
[Then Hyeolseonggyo must have been preserving this corpse from the very beginning.]
My Master’s words came to mind.
From that time when he had led the ailing Gueum Eum Jeol Maek to the North Sea Ice Palace.
-But at that time, parasites that should have only existed in the western wilderness were discovered in the north, and the plague grew worse.
-Now that I think about it, I wondered if that too was the handiwork of Hyeolseonggyo or the Demonic Sect, but there’s no way to know for certain.
Yes. A mere speculation, uttered carelessly in passing.
My Master’s conjecture had been accurate.
Had they been there from that moment?
Exhuming and preserving the corpse of his son—a weakness to exploit.
They had simply waited for the North Sea Ice Palace Master to waver through the passage of years.
Even a man with a heart of ice must have moments of weakness.
If the moment of greatest weakness was several years ago,
What must have been the father’s heart when he saw his son—whom he believed had been given a proper funeral and returned to the earth—frozen within the ice as if still alive?
‘I may have gone too far in my reasoning. But based on the revealed facts, it’s true that Hyeolseonggyo waited for this opportunity for a long time. And it’s true they succeeded.’
Soon, the sound of footsteps echoed.
Jin Cheon-hee and the two others held their breath.
The Gungju entered walking alongside the Masked Person.
“There is not much time left now.”
“Of course, Gungju. Your son will awaken soon. All preparations for creating the Blood Dragon Body are complete. There is not much time remaining until the Grand Technique.”
“….”
“It was delayed considerably because you provided only criminals as test subjects, Gungju. And using only the corpses of those who died from plague as materials for blood essence caused further delays, did it not?”
“Silence. The fact that I entrust my people to you is already a great privilege. Moreover, did I not provide land so that you could conduct your experiments?”
“If that is your will.”
The Prince sent a telepathic message upon hearing those words.
[He’s lost his mind. Using commoners as test subjects itself is insane. Yet your Master believes he is being rational, doesn’t he?]
Gongseon Yeong replied to that.
[People who fall into heresy always believe they are rational. They come up with absurd conclusions and claim they’re being logical?]
Somehow, it seemed Gongseon Yeong had experienced this before.
[Then is the North Sea Ice Palace Master involved in the plague as well? The elderly and children have unusually high mortality rates, while young people responsible for the nation survive well?]
[…If so, he may have chosen this disease deliberately. He culled the population.]
Jin Cheon-hee answered.
[It was a ‘selection’ among the poor at that. Wealthy people who can bathe and wash frequently have a lower probability of contracting this disease.]
It was breathtaking.
Yet at the same time, I felt my heart slowly sinking.
‘This is what true evil is.’
Evil is not loud. It does not laugh like some demon lord from a novel.
Evil is calm and meticulous.
In that moment, a voice was heard again.
The sound of a child babbling rapidly.
Like bubbles bursting in water, scattering meaninglessly, yet two characters could be understood.
Longing for home.
Should I not have awakened that child from their nightmare then?
But the child’s voice did not reach the Gungju or the masked Hyeolseonggyo devotee.
Evil is ordinary.
It stems from a failure to empathize with others.
To the Gungju, commoners were ultimately nothing more than laborers for the North Sea Ice Palace.
If he could save his son, the suffering of laborers would hardly matter.

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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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