Doctor’s Rebirth - Chapter 604

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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 604
Ten days had passed.
“Yeah, yeah, so what happened was, water just came gushing up, and Hwang-gu bit at it and we both ran away together.”
“You dug up the ground and broke through to a hot spring! At least warn us before you do something like that!”
“Hey! How is Hwang-gu supposed to talk!”
“You dummy! Hwang-gu is a spiritual creature, so he can talk! Right? Hwang-gu can talk, can’t you?”
At the hot spring bathhouse construction site.
I listened to the children recount their exploits.
It seemed they had gone on quite the grand adventure after receiving that secret(?) mission from me.
Hwang-gu had slept for two straight days after returning.
He whimpered and complained of severe muscle soreness—something I’d never seen from him before.
Wasn’t this the same creature who would normally just headbutt boulders without a second thought?
Who could have imagined he’d be so exhausted he’d sleep for days on end?
“Doctor, he kept pulling Hwang-gu’s fur!”
“I wasn’t pulling it! I was petting him hard!”
Whether they were pulling, petting roughly, or even striking with stones, a child’s strength couldn’t possibly wound Hwang-gu’s fur. After all, he was a creature who could simply ram sword energy away with his body.
So how could a child’s touch harm him?
‘Ah, now I understand why Hwang-gu suffered so much.’
I smiled warmly and handed each child a star candy as a reward.
These were special star candies made by the North Sea Ice Palace.
“Wow!”
“Can we really eat this?”
“Of course. Eat as much as you want.”
In cold regions, food was scarce, and sweets were the rarest of all.
We could make these star candies because she had opened the North Sea Ice Palace’s food storage.
As a result, precious ingredients were being distributed to the poor.
The Holy Maiden had been officially appointed as the Master of the North Sea Ice Palace.
She had abandoned her position as Holy Maiden and ascended to the throne of Gungju.
She said she was no longer a person who could hold her head high.
She had tried to return the stone staff she inherited from the previous Holy Maiden, but her family members adamantly refused, so she continued to carry it.
‘I believe one of the Elders from the Holy Ground was to come down and stay at the Ice Palace in rotation?’
-Normally, the constraints prevent us from leaving the Holy Ground, but during the Ice Palace’s crisis of existence, one person is permitted to stay there. We will rotate.
-More importantly, are you prepared to abandon the title of Holy Maiden and become Gungju?
She answered with a bitter smile.
-It has become impossible for me to live innocently as I once did. Someone must place their hands in the mud and pull out the filth.
-My hands are already soiled, so I will continue to do this work from now on.
That was how it was.
‘The North Sea Ice Palace dissolved its alliance with Sadoren.’
The fact that blood assassins had emerged due to the Demonic Cult provided a plausible justification for the dissolution.
Thus, it was resolved without damaging Sadoren’s pride, and without the dishonor of my father’s connection to Hyeolseonggyo spreading further.
‘And I’m building a hot spring bath.’
Since the civil engineering methods I designed were completely different from what they used here, I was carefully overseeing every single detail.
“The stone dimensions are off. You’ll need to cut them again.”
Because I was coaching them through every step, the stonemasons were groaning.
Still, once I laid the foundation properly, anyone would be able to access water easily and bathing would become convenient.
‘Especially since it would be wasteful to just leave hot spring water like this.’
Clear water is a resource, and hot water is a resource.
It’s wasteful for only a handful of martial artists to monopolize such water.
“So Ui-seon! Medicine has arrived from Baekrin Uiseon!”
“Ah, it’s here as expected.”
I brushed the dust from my hands and stood up.
Since the sharp-eyed So Ui-seon was leaving his post, several stonemasons let out sighs of relief.
‘Ilgwang cooks delicious food, but construction is such a headache.’
‘Tell me about it. If the materials are even slightly off in dimension, he tears into you right away. How he manages to match everything by eye alone is beyond me. Though I have to admit, the food is delicious.’
That was right.
Ilgwang, So Ui-seon.
The various nicknames people gave me based on their impressions.
But everyone agreed on one thing—the food was delicious.
“Oh, and I heard Saint Germain suddenly disappeared.”
“How the treatment center director vanished, I wonder.”
“I suspect he may have been caught up in the blood cult incident and died.”
“…We’ve lost a valuable person. Tsk, tsk, tsk.”
Those who didn’t know the details could only assume that Saint Germain had been swept up in the blood cult incident and perished.
Since his image of treating commoners for free remained, people only remembered that side of him.
Then the martial artists arrived.
“Since the important work seems to be done, we warriors will help from here on! We’re confident in physical labor.”
“Martial artists?”
At those words, the laborers looked at each other in surprise.
The North Sea Ice Palace martial artists they knew were rarely seen, and when they did show up, it was usually for something unpleasant.
Like dragging people away or collecting money.
The North Sea Ice Palace martial artists seemed equally awkward as they said this.
“Well… So Ui-seon ordered us to do this. He said he’d give us medicinal tonics instead of daily wages.”
“Since medicinal tonics made by So Ui-seon himself can’t be bought with money.”
“And he provides snacks too, so we can’t refuse.”
Looking at the embarrassed martial artists, the commoners exchanged glances and said this.
“We don’t know about tonics, but snacks… Yes. We’ll accept that.”
“Castella? That stuff! It melts so smoothly on your tongue!”
“Right, right! And what about those egg cakes!”
Finally, the North Sea Ice Palace martial artists began to move.
I knew that this alone wouldn’t resolve all the accumulated resentment from before.
However, they too had drawn their blades for the Holy Maiden, standing against the North Sea Ice Palace Master.
Everyone knew that the lives they had risked back then were not in vain.
“Once this is over, do you think we could soak in the hot springs?”
“Doesn’t a warrior like you already have a private bath at home?”
“It all burned down this time. I’ll have to rebuild it.”
An elderly commoner passing by tossed out a remark.
“Then you should learn well this time.”
“Haha, that’s true. I should learn well.”
* * *
New shoots had sprouted in the burned forest.
With the North Sea Ice Palace warriors mobilized as well, the hot spring construction progressed rapidly.
‘Once it’s completed, the sanitation in this region will improve significantly.’
Fortunately, among the disciples Saint Germain had brought, there were no Hyeolseonggyo members.
Or rather, there were no living Hyeolseonggyo members.
The moment Cheon-hee and his group charged toward the North Sea Ice Palace instead of Cheonbing Mountain, Cho Cheon-gun found himself without any margin.
He deployed every bit of military force available to stop Cheon-hee and his group.
‘In a way, that turned out to be fortunate.’
Because there was no room to preserve even a fraction of his forces, it conversely made it easier for us to root out and eliminate the Hyeolseonggyo members.
At night, Yeo Ha-ryun infiltrates with the spirits and eliminates the Hyeolseonggyo cultists one by one.
Of course, the North Sea Ice Palace warriors did not kill the demonic cultists even when they passed right before their eyes.
They only killed the Hyeolseonggyo members.
Being outsiders with a different language and closed to foreigners actually helped.
The messengers of Sadoren tried to extract information, but the locals rarely opened their mouths, and with the language barrier, they had to struggle considerably.
‘It would be difficult without a native who knows the Aisha language well. I was fortunate to have Prince Han-bing to become close with easily.’
Gongseon Yeong also played her part.
Strangely enough, she made friends well.
Even if she didn’t understand the language well, she’d gesture and get people to share drinks with her.
It seems there’s a camaraderie among drinkers.
And Cheon-hee arrived near the Cheonbing Mountain mine.
‘The village is already taking shape.’
The moment Cheon-hee arrived with numerous carts, people rushed out.
Or more precisely, they were all people with scales covering their bodies.
Yongrin People.
The Hyeolseonggyo called them by a different name, but Cheon-hee had decided on this designation.
“So Ui-seon has arrived!”
Grandmother came running barefoot.
“Were you waiting for me?”
“Yes. I was waiting with my son.”
Creak—
The filial son who had carried Grandmother on his back was now a Yongrin Person.
The fortunate thing was that reason had returned.
‘At least I didn’t conduct experiments by separating the soul and body—that’s a relief.’
I had avoided my greatest worry, which was a blessing in disguise.
To restore consciousness, I repeated experiments with tens of thousands of medicinal herbs and forcibly took pulses while holding them in place.
But unexpectedly, the answer lay elsewhere.
“I never thought consciousness would return just from striking the head with North Sea Ice Palace’s Han Bing’s cold.”
“…Y-yes, that’s right.”
Indeed.
When struck on the head with the frigid energy that Han Bing possessed, I could observe the phenomenon of intelligence returning.
When a Yongrin person who had lost reason broke free from the chains and tried to bite the doctor beside him, I accidentally swung the Bing Jeong Sword like a club and struck him—that’s how it started.
“In fact, we’re currently striking the heads of other Yongrin people with Han Bing’s cold until their intelligence returns.”
“But… won’t they die?”
“They don’t die. For some reason, our Yongrin people heal even serious wounds quickly.”
That was true.
I had heard that legendary Yongrin people possessed strength surpassing ordinary humans through the use of dragon power, and that’s exactly the state they were in.
The only method discovered when all medicines proved useless.
And so, whenever a Yongrin person who had lost reason was picked up and bound in the village square, one could witness the other Yongrin people striking him with Han Bing’s cold with utmost gravity and solemnity.
“Even a madman trying to eat human flesh regains his senses after enough beating.”
It was the moment a Yongrin tradition was being born.
In any case, Grandmother finally met her son.
Though scales had sprouted across his body, he was undoubtedly human.
I spoke.
“I’ve brought medicine that works on reptiles.”
The problem was that since this was a newly researched field, I couldn’t know how effective human medicine would be.
And I was told that Yongrin people with weak willpower occasionally lose reason.
When that happens, they get struck with Han Bing’s cold again.
“Ah, and… regarding the issue of potential rejection by people, please select a few Yongrin people with strong willpower and send them to Baekrin Medical Guild.”
“Hmm? What are you planning?”
“I’ll arrange employment for them. I’m thinking of assigning them to maritime trading post work.”
Once they mingle among sailors and frequent the docks, rumors about the Yongrin people will naturally spread.
Even if complete integration isn’t achieved, once people know they understand speech and can count like dogs, no warrior would underestimate them enough to draw a blade.
At my words, the other Yongrin people and Grandmother were moved to tears.
“Thank you… for thinking of such things.”
“It’s nothing. We have to live together.”
“Actually, I even considered hiding in the mines.”
These were people of commoner origin who once lived tilling fields.
Now they wish to live peacefully, but if people persecute them, if food runs out, if there’s nowhere to go, they too would eventually have to abandon their humanity.
‘I had considered the method of hiding like this.’
But how long could the secret be kept?
And would that truly be the best way for these people?
‘I don’t think that’s the case.’
These people would still need to venture outside to obtain salt, and they’d have to go out to find fabric if they wanted to make clothes.
Having decided to live as humans, complete isolation was simply impossible.
In that case, it was crucial to get the first button right from the start.
“I’ll send you Baekrin Medical Guild robes tailored to fit, along with a veil to conceal your face. The moment you step into Gangho, you’ll be representing the Yongrin People, so you must send someone who won’t lose their composure under any circumstances.”
“…Thank you.”
Tears welled up in Grandmother’s eyes.
Her son spoke.
“Why are you crying again, Mother?”
“I’m not crying.”
“Then your mouth’s going to twist again.”
“It won’t twist! You fool.”
Grandmother struck her son’s back repeatedly.
I laughed.
“Well then, since I’m here, let me take your pulse before I go.”
“Doctor, please come in. What kind of tea would you prefer?”
The Yongrin People crowded around me.

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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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