Doctor’s Rebirth - Chapter 608

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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 608
Previously, I had received the title of Count, and this time the King gifted me something equally precious.
A thousand-year-old snow ginseng.
Snow ginseng typically grows in cold regions, but a thousand-year-old specimen from the North Sea is known to be the most valuable of all.
‘Is this really a thousand years old? I’ve heard that wild ginseng can be measured by growth rings, but even among the same species, different ginseng hunters have different opinions.’
Whether it was a thousand years old or five hundred years old, I couldn’t say for certain, but at minimum, the inner energy it contained was worthy of the title “Royal Treasure.”
After receiving the thousand-year-old snow ginseng, I thanked the King and even gave a pulse diagnosis to his entire family before I could finally take my leave.
Compared to the thousand-year-old snow ginseng, it was a profitable transaction.
On the day I departed, Prince Han-bing spoke.
“Though we part ways today, when the day comes to elevate my martial prowess, I shall visit you both again—So Ui-seon and Gongseon, the sword master.”
“You are welcome anytime.”
Gongseon Yeong also spoke.
“You must bring good wine when you come.”
“Of course. I shall.”
Parting is always bittersweet.
Gongseon Yeong and I turned back several times as we walked away.
Yet Prince Han-bing did not turn to leave either, continuing to wave until we became mere dots in the distance.
* * *
“Next time it will be just the two of us again.”
“Yes. Just the two of us.”
“And soon we will become one.”
“That is what parting means.”
“When we return, do we become whole?”
“Because we have family waiting. That is what it means to return home.”
Gongseon Yeong and I exchanged trivial jokes throughout our journey back.
Southward, ever southward.
Before long, the snow disappeared, and trees blooming with flowers began to appear white across every mountain.
“Was it a difficult journey, but a good one?”
I answered his question.
“Since we returned with all four limbs intact, it was undoubtedly a good journey.”
Gongseon Yeong scratched his head vigorously before speaking to me.
“My young benefactor.”
“Yes?”
“Still, it was enjoyable in its own way.”
She stroked my head and then turned our direction toward the Gongseon Family estate.
From a distance, she called out.
“Don’t see me off! We’ll see each other again soon anyway! Farewell!”
As Gongseon Yeong rode the Han Hyeol-ma toward the Gongseon Family estate, I felt both the bittersweetness of parting and the relief of a safe arrival.
Woof!
“What is it, Hwang-gu?”
A whimper escaped him.
“Disappointed? Well, your sister did give you quite a lot of jerky.”
She’d given Hwang-gu her own snacks as drinking accompaniment, then stolen his jerky—made specially for him by Jin Cheon-hee—as her own appetizer, only to be gently nipped by Hwang-gu in protest.
Now that I thought about it, so much had happened.
“Those who meet must part; those who depart shall return.”
Jin Cheon-hee spoke thus and turned his horse’s head.
“Now, only the reckoning with my Master remains.”
My left pinky finger—now gone.
‘If I’m unlucky, I’ll be confined again… Should I check the Imperial Library first?’
Was there any method to regenerate the finger, or at least achieve a complete rebirth of the body?
‘…The Heuk Jeon Medical Guild… I’ll think about that later.’
If I exhausted every method and still failed, then I’d have to go with the resolve to lose eight fingers if necessary, just to find a solution.
‘First… what do I write to my Master?’
Being at the edge of the edge of the realm, news from the North Sea Ice Palace wouldn’t have arrived yet.
Jin Cheon-hee began racking his brain for a way to explain this convincingly.
‘I must prevent confinement. Confinement at any cost.’
Those accursed Eternal Iron Shackles.
He still hadn’t discarded them, had he?
* * *
After sending an extraordinarily lengthy letter to my Master, I headed straight for Beijing.
The Gongseon Family’s Liaoning was one of the northernmost regions of the Central Plains.
From there, taking a boat or traveling overland southward would lead to Beijing, where the Imperial Palace stood.
The Baekrin Medical Guild lay even further south from Beijing.
So it would be efficient to stop by on the way.
Upon entering Beijing and the Imperial Palace, Eun Wang-ya greeted me first.
“Oh, you’ve come?”
“I have arrived.”
“Now you don’t even pretend to observe formalities?”
“You told me not to.”
“Hmm, I did say that.”
He looked down at Jin Cheon-hee arrogantly and spoke thus.
“I heard about the Kingdom of Aisha. You did well.”
“…Did I do well?”
Jin Cheon-hee asked back, uncertain himself.
Yet Eun Wang-ya found Jin Cheon-hee’s response peculiar and stared at him for a long while.
“You rescued the one and only ‘proper’ successor from the Guyang Severing Meridian, went all the way to the North Sea Ice Palace to deal with the Hyeolseonggyo, and even cleaned up the aftermath without any complications from the demonic sects? Who else could have done that?”
Jin Cheon-hee answered.
“You seem to know everything. Does the Imperial Court have eyes and ears even at the northern frontier?”
At those words, Eun Wang-ya nodded.
“Everywhere. The throne is a curious thing—even sitting still, birds come chirping of their own accord to inform me. Quite convenient.”
“…The cleanup was done by Ha-ryun.”
“Hmm. Is that so? Even if you say it that way, would Yeo Ha-ryun have gone to such lengths if you weren’t there? Or would he have simply severed a few heads of the Hyeolseonggyo higher-ups and returned, claiming the mission complete?”
“…Why do you speak to me in such a manner?”
Eun Wang-ya answered.
“Because I don’t understand. If I merely recorded what you’ve accomplished, it would be insufficient even to call you a genius of this age. Now, praise for you fills the northern reaches. The North Sea Ice Palace would surely have descended into mass slaughter.”
He personally poured tea for Jin Cheon-hee.
Glug glug—
The teacup filled with golden liquid.
Like the full moon.
“Without you, that catastrophe would have engulfed the Hwa Empire. Just as it did with the Suksin Tribe.”
“I….”
“That’s why I ask, puzzled. Why are you always so humble?”
“Pardon?”
At the unexpected question, Jin Cheon-hee’s eyes widened slightly.
“I wondered if you were deliberately pretending to be virtuous with that humility, but now I see it—you genuinely believe it’s natural, which is why it seems strange to me.”
“Is…that so?”
“Actually, it’s not strange. I recognize that expression, for I’ve seen it before.”
“…?”
Eun Wang-ya answered calmly.
“You’re not the type to harbor regrets over lost fingers.”
“If you had said that, I would have called it incorrect.”
When Jin Cheon-hee answered immediately, Eun Wang-ya shook his head.
“Right. That’s not it. Rather, you’ve made the world somewhat better, yet even that doesn’t satisfy you.”
Eun Wang-ya didn’t miss how Jin Cheon-hee’s eyes wavered slightly at those words.
“Geniuses like you are greedy.”
“That is not true.”
“Your standards for yourself are too high. A man who lets ten die and saves one, versus a man who saves ten and lets one die—isn’t the latter clearly better? Yet men like you always bury that one death in your heart.”
“….”
At those words, Jin Cheon-hee ultimately couldn’t respond. Then he asked this:
“It seems there is someone like me near you, speaking in such a manner.”
“I won’t say otherwise.”
Saying so, he quietly observed Jin Cheon-hee’s blue eyes.
It was a gaze as if beholding precious jade.
The imperial palace, vast as it is, casts shadows equally vast, making it difficult for grass and trees to grow large.
Beneath those enormous beams, one could never witness such eyes.
Thinking thus, Eun Wang-ya opened his mouth.
“As the saying goes, the talented are marked for early death. You are excellent, beautiful, and virtuous. Such people always die first.”
At those words, Jin Cheon-hee couldn’t help but laugh softly.
“Why do you think otherwise?”
“It’s not that…it’s just that it feels too accurate.”
I had already died once and returned, hadn’t I?
Eun Wang-ya spoke.
“You certainly have a face full of secrets.”
“Is it only Eun Wang-ya?”
Jin Cheon-hee thought as he spoke those words.
There was much I wanted to ask this person.
Since I had regressed through time, how should I inquire about that ability?
It truly seemed we were connected by blood, but Boggi’s ability was….
‘…We’re all different from one another, after all.’
Eun Wang-ya, Ju Wang-ya, Geum Wang-ya.
All three possessed different abilities, and I was no exception either.
“Why are you staring so intently?”
“…Please open the Imperial Palace’s secret vault.”
“You’re certainly prickly.”
Jin Cheon-hee asked.
“That is…”
“Hmm?”
“After using these supernatural abilities, are there any restrictions? I mean abilities like reading people’s memories or constraining their actions through verbal commands.”
At Jin Cheon-hee’s words, Eun Wang-ya chuckled softly.
“You’re curious about everything. Why? Have you suddenly awakened to supernatural abilities yourself?”
“I don’t know what you’re talking about.”
“My, you’re trying every trick to avoid being dragged in. It would be easier if you just admitted it. Why not become someone of the imperial household? A rise in status, so to speak?”
“So are there restrictions or not?”
At Jin Cheon-hee’s words, Eun Wang-ya chuckled again.
“That’s right. You’re not the type to concern yourself with status and such things. If you were, I would have had you in my grasp long ago.”
“….”
Instead of answering, I simply stared at him intently.
At that unwavering gaze, Eun Wang-ya turned his eyes away slightly.
“Well… I suppose if you call it a restriction, using it frequently causes headaches and exhaustion.”
“Is that your answer?”
“There’s also coughing up blood.”
“…Is that all?”
“Hmm? That should be enough. What more do you want? Martial arts also exhaust you when used excessively. It’s exactly the same, I’m telling you.”
At those words, Jin Cheon-hee thought with a cold expression.
‘Why only me… like this….’
The world was indeed unfair.
Eun Wang-ya spoke.
“Oh yes, if you wish, I’ll have the finest craftsman carve you a prosthetic hand. It won’t be quite like real fingers, but it will look flawless.”
* * *
Jin Cheon-hee exhaled a sigh within the Imperial Palace’s secret vault.
I recalled the last words Eun Wang-ya had spoken.
-In any case, take whatever knowledge you desire from the Imperial Archives, younger brother Feng.
In the past, she used to make me guess whether she was my uncle or older brother, but now she’s dropped all pretense.
‘So she really is my older sister. The blood ties are closer than I expected.’
Perhaps we share only the same father. She must be one of the concubines’ children.
‘This isn’t even my real body anyway.’
I shook my head vigorously.
I was merely borrowing the corpse of this dead man—it was never truly mine.
My heart grew troubled once more.
‘If I acknowledge the blood connection, I’ll never starve, but I’ll lose my freedom.’
Occasional outings might be possible.
But it would only be the leisurely travels of a Wang-ya, fundamentally different from the life of a Kang Ho-in.
‘Ugh. What a headache.’
I wondered if I needed to be this troubled within the Archives, yet I found myself scratching my head and sinking deeper into worry.
‘Why are they being so kind to me? Even if we’re blood siblings, I’ve probably killed more than I’ve saved.’
Though I act like a friendly older brother now, who in the Hwa Empire doesn’t know what bloodshed they’ve waded through to reach the throne?
Strangulation, poisoning, beheading, execution.
They’ve probably done it all.
That’s simply how the Hwa Empire is.
Boggi burns before war, and abilities are honed ever sharper.
Thus they climb to the throne of Emperor.
Their talents will bloom to their fullest, and their schemes will grow ever more intricate.
They are those who have already slaughtered their own blood to become Emperor.
They cannot be anything but ruthless.
‘So why are these fratricidal butchers being so kind to 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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