Doctor’s Rebirth - Chapter 639

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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 639
“Right? And here’s another thing—if you want to know whether the Magistrate is doing his job properly, just look at how thin the village’s elderly have become.”
“What?”
I opened my eyes slightly in surprise.
Sama Hyeon chuckled softly.
“Usually, when food becomes available, grandparents feed their grandchildren first. Only after feeding their sons and daughters do they think about eating what’s left.”
“Is that human instinct?”
“It could be animal instinct too. Either way, food is never abundant, so it’s human nature to want to give more to your grandchildren or children than to yourself when you don’t have many days left to live.”
“Then if they’re being exploited, the elderly would inevitably become the first to waste away and fall ill.”
“Exactly. In severe cases, there are villages with no elderly left at all. Those are places where the Magistrate has tormented the people terribly.”
“….”
“Most elderly, especially those who’ve farmed their whole lives, would rather swallow a handful of seeds than eat them themselves. Even if they won’t see next year, they want those seeds planted in the fields come spring—because those seeds will be reborn then.”
It was a harsh logic.
But Sama Hyeon continued speaking without changing his expression.
“So at dawn when the family is asleep, they climb the mountain and never come back down. Often their bodies are never even found. People dress it up nicely, saying they lost their footing or their eyesight failed them—that they passed away. It sounds better than suicide.”
That was hell.
But no matter how prettily it was wrapped up, it was the life of commoners.
Sama Hyeon continued.
“When starvation becomes severe, people eat human flesh, and children and the elderly are sacrificed first. But since the new Emperor came to power, there haven’t been places like that.”
“That’s fortunate. It means humanity doesn’t have to fall that far.”
“True. And while there are still many Magistrates who squeeze the people, there are fewer of those bastards who deliberately went in for it compared to the Previous Emperor’s time. Though this is all based on information within Hao-mun’s reach.”
Sama Hyeon added one more thing.
“…But who knows. Remote villages in isolated areas might still be like that.”
There’s no communication there.
I nodded.
“Still, just from what you’re saying, things have improved considerably.”
“Yeah. It’s much better than it used to be.”
‘And even so, there’s still a long way to go.’
Reality is always like that. Somewhere between heaven and hell, in some middling place.
Now we’re just a bit further from hell, but that doesn’t mean we’re close to heaven either.
That’s just reality.
I looked around.
Even at dawn, I could see commoners hurrying along carrying children and elderly being supported as they walked.
“At least this Magistrate is still human.”
“Well, taking bribes from bandits is all the same, so he hasn’t squeezed them to extremes. The elders’ nutritional condition is good.”
I thought about it.
‘So that’s why everyone wants to come to Baek Rin Prefecture.’
Their standards for what was worst differed.
For me, a Magistrate turning a blind eye to bandits was the worst, but Sama Hyeon’s worst was different.
“Now we move quickly while the bandits are gone. Goods and people both. Oh, looking at where we’re heading, it seems we might be going to Baek Rin Prefecture.”
“People from other counties are coming anyway.”
At those words, Sama Hyeon chuckled softly.
“Right. You might still feel like it’s not enough, but it actually is. There’s no such place in the world.”
“….”
I fell into thought for a moment.
Seeing my expression grow heavier, Sama Hyeon quickly changed the subject.
“Speaking of which, we need to get our story straight. Hyeong.”
I asked after a moment of consideration.
“Based on the Bota Clan martial robes we’re wearing, are we posing as outer disciples of the Bota Clan?”
“Yep~ We’re siblings, we belong to the Unryongpyoguk, and we’re operating as two pyo couriers. That’s our story. I even forged the identification tablets~”
‘How meticulous.’
What exactly were pyo couriers?
They were couriers who operated independently, delivering goods or escorting people.
In modern terms, think of it like working as a small-scale personal delivery driver, similar to a courier app.
While you’re at it, you also transport people using the taxi app.
“Sa Jeo~ Let’s rest over there today~”
With the voice modulation, he became a completely different person.
‘…Sama Hyeon, this terrifying child. Role and character have become one.’
I myself had been quite good at TRPG since the ancient primitive internet days.
Of course, I couldn’t play often because there was too much to study,
but some rich kid kept pestering me to play TRPG with him—that guy who even installed a beam projector in his Hannam-dong mansion to set up an TRPG room—and I decided to do it properly and immersed myself in the role.
‘Later I even played Warhammer 40k… that expensive game….’
It was similar to a war game played with figurines.
Since it wasn’t well-known domestically, finding people to play with was difficult.
Actually, in Korea, the land value in Hannam, Seoul was more expensive than the figurines used for the game, but anyway.
That guy was sincere. For some reason, his parents really liked me.
I felt jealous inside.
So I made a great effort not to show it.
‘I wonder if he’s doing well. He must be doing well. With that kind of money.’
Anyway, watching Sama Hyeon, I felt a competitive spirit for the first time in a while, so I practiced my voice acting diligently.
The moon that had lingered in the sky finally set completely, and the sun began to rise.
As a red band emerged along the eastern horizon.
We gradually drew closer to the second village.
* * *
Sama Hyeon slowed the horse’s pace and spoke.
“Dan Seok-san’s residence is in Samryeong. There’s a scenic area called Tao Yuan Cave there, and he’s built a mansion in that region to live in.”
I nodded at those words.
“That area already has villas belonging to prestigious clans and is famous for it, and there’s a large temple there too, so there are quite a few people around, right?”
“Yes. You already know well. It’s a place where wealthy people with plenty of time come to rest. The scenery is so beautiful that people say immortals live there.”
“I wonder what’s good to eat in that neighborhood.”
I wiped the saliva from the corner of my mouth and spoke.
Since I’d been running since dawn, it was about time my stomach started growling.
I quickly pulled out a granola bar I’d prepared in advance from my waist pouch, ate one myself, and handed another to Sama Hyeon.
“Oh? Peanuts, walnuts, and… pine nuts? You managed to make something like this, hyeong?”
“Yeah. I deep-fried all of those, added dried persimmons, mixed in honey, and let it harden until it was crispy.”
Granola bar.
In modern times it apparently comes as a protein supplement, but I simply made it as a sweet snack packed with calories.
It was perfect for traveling.
Crunch, crunch—
“This must cost a lot in ingredients?”
I answered Sama Hyeon’s question.
“The ingredients themselves are surprisingly affordable. But it requires a lot of labor.”
“Is that so?”
Sama Hyeon’s eyes gleamed.
No matter how I looked at it, this fellow seemed intent on selling these at inns to merchants and martial artists who needed to expend significant effort.
“With this, it’d be perfect for assassins to eat while lying in ambush.”
At those words, I responded in bewilderment.
“You’re looking for delicious food while assassins are lying in ambush?”
“They’re people too. Even when they had to practice grain avoidance, the ones with honey in them always sold out first.”
Suddenly I recalled assassins waiting somewhere to strike at Jang Mun-in, slightly lowering their masks and crunching on granola bars.
Sama Hyeon spoke.
“How important is the luster of life to people. It doesn’t matter if they’re good or bad. In the first place, assassins raised by martial sects are usually orphans or children sold off young, completely stripped of life’s pleasures.”
“That’s what I’ve heard.”
One of the Four Heavenly Kings—’Why life in Gangho is as worthless as a fly’s.’
Usually they appear dressed in black and get sliced down like autumn leaves by the protagonist.
But seeing them later take poison and commit suicide on their own made me feel a bit conflicted as a doctor.
“Whether they’re conscious of it or not, they still seem to desire a little sweetness.”
It was unexpected.
Normally, for assassins, feeling emotions themselves was taboo.
In martial arts novels, whenever the protagonist is an assassin, they always come with the cold-hearted setting of being unable to feel emotions.
Unless a character retained emotions from the start within such training, emotions typically didn’t begin returning until at least the latter half of the story.
‘It’s like there’s always an episode where assassin friends who grew up together kill and are killed by each other.’
Even such people unconsciously seek out sweet things.
“…”
I thought for a moment, then spoke.
“Next time, I’ll make it properly with malt syrup.”
“Oh, hyeong. You’ve taken a liking to this business?”
“Rather than that, it’s more like rehabilitation.”
“Rehabilitation?”
I recalled a child soldier rehabilitation program I’d seen in my past life.
A chocolate bar that required shooting someone to obtain in that other place could be received here simply by attending the rehabilitation program once each time.
‘Of course, since this is Gangho, such a thing would be impossible.’
After all, wasn’t it nearly impossible for assassins to achieve complete financial independence?
Those people either got stabbed to death by their enemies the moment they set down their blades, or they were killed by their own allies to maintain secrecy.
Fundamentally, this world was in a state of continuous small-scale civil war by modern standards, and the central government—the Officials—maintained a system that allowed it to persist unchecked.
There was nothing a single person could accomplish in such circumstances.
“It’s nothing special. If you eat these one by one, you’ll end up coming to the inn more often, and the more you come, the more you’ll notice the people around you. When you’ve only been eating grain-abstinence pills and suddenly start eating something with a different shape like this, you’ll have the chance to think, ‘Oh, I must have liked things like this.'”
Sama Hyeon responded to his brother’s words.
“So when new products come out, you’ll try eating those too?”
An assassin who goes through the trouble of purchasing a new granola bar only to forget about it before leaving—I couldn’t even imagine it.
Sama Hyeon spoke.
“Well, I understand what you’re saying, but I’m going to do this because it seems like it could make money. I think ‘Honey Grain Pill’ would be a good name.”
“You’re using the character for honey?”
“Just by the sound, it could also mean secret. It only differs by one character from the grain-abstinence pill, but it looks incredibly delicious.”
“Right.”
And so, right then and there, they settled on the name Honey Grain Pill.
Crunch, crunch—
“Anyway, would it be better to get close first and then infiltrate?”
At those words, Sama Hyeon nodded.
“That’s right. It’s the orthodox approach, but it’s also an option to say we’re investigators from the Unryongpyoguk and enter through the front gate. Either way has its pros and cons.”
At those words, Jin Cheon-hee nodded.
I hadn’t done many infiltration missions like this.
Even with Princess Seon-hee, it was more about being bait than an actual infiltration mission, making it all the more difficult.
On the other hand, it was Sama Hyeon who had done this sort of work many times.
“Why don’t we do both? First arrive nearby, conduct reconnaissance and infiltration, and then also enter through the front gate?”
“Do both?”
At those words, Sama Hyeon nodded.
“When it comes to matters involving money, more is always better. Since there’s no time limit, it’s best to do everything we can.”
Sama Hyeon covered his mouth with his sleeve and chuckled.
The clothes he wore were those of a Bota Moon Swordsman, but the long robe worn over them was quite stylishly dressed.
It was impossible to tell whether he had come to work or to idle about like a man of leisure.

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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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