Doctor’s Rebirth - Chapter 663

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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 663
A larger marketplace than usual had opened in the lower village.
Fireworks burst in all directions, and children ran about excitedly with food in their mouths.
I taught Ga-won various things about the festivities.
“That’s a dragon costume. Multiple people are inside it. It moves together with them as they dance.”
“Ooh!”
“A medicine peddler has come too. I’d recommend purchasing only medicines verified by major Medical Guilds.”
Though this was the front yard of Baekrin Medical Guild, medicine peddlers still came and went freely.
That’s how marketplaces are. But if someone tries to cheat too much, the passing Medical Assistants will add a word or two, so they keep it reasonable.
That’s the proper way of things.
“Wow!”
“Usually they perform fire tricks.”
The medicine peddler put fire in his mouth and shot it out again, and everyone screamed and applauded.
She clapped along with them.
“Can I eat that spicy skewer again?”
“Hmm? Ah, you mean the spicy beef tripe skewer?”
Ga-won nodded.
“Should I wait here?”
She seemed eager to watch more of the medicine peddler’s tricks.
“Yes. You can wait here.”
With Hwang-gu beside her, there shouldn’t be any problems.
I quickly went to buy the skewers.
However, it took time to roast more after the first batch ran out. And when I returned to that spot—
‘…Right. This never happens in movies either.’
Normally this would be the route where she gets kidnapped and the culprit demands ransom.
Woof! Woof!
‘Oh, Hwang-gu’s alert system is reliable indeed.’
That’s why I brought Hwang-gu along.
I immediately threw myself toward the direction of the barking.
Whatever black cultivators these were, if I beat them with this spicy beef tripe skewer, they’d never be able to eat anything spicy again.
“Wow… crazy… why does that person look like that?”
“Is it contagious?”
An unexpected scene unfolded before my eyes.
Rather than villains kidnapping her for ransom, a group of children had surrounded her, examining her from head to toe.
“Hey, you said we only needed to coax Hwang-gu!”
“Hwang-gu is cute, but an ugly kid came with him.”
What on earth had happened in the meantime?
The straw hat that had covered Ga-won’s face had been knocked off somewhere.
“Wow, I’m really gonna catch it!”
Saying so, one child threw a stone.
At that moment, Jin Cheon-hee rushed in directly.
Thwack—
“My friend, let’s not resort to violence.”
Even I struggle with how to handle a child.
Back on Earth, the people around me were getting married and having children, and their kids were even taking college entrance exams, yet I’ve never even been married, let alone had a child.
So I don’t understand parental perspectives.
Coming from an orphanage, I’ve never experienced a normal family.
But my injured patient took priority over all that.
I turned to look at Ga-won and asked.
“Are you alright?”
“I’m fine. I suppose I got a bit too excited.”
Her eyes were brimming with tears.
“Seo Baek-ryong?”
“Ilgwang!”
“Guys, it’s Ilgwang!”
“Woooow!”
Wonder gleamed in the children’s eyes.
Yet Ga-won’s heart had broken a little.
‘I’ll probably remember this my whole life.’
That’s how these things were.
Even without physical blows, some wounds remain in memory forever.
Only those who’ve experienced it understand such scars.
But children don’t know that yet.
Then it happened.
Ga-won spoke.
“Hey, what makes you all so pretty anyway!”
Informal speech?
The moment I doubted my ears, Ga-won’s fist connected with the cheek of the boy who’d thrown the stone.
Crack!
Despite the attack carrying no martial force, the child flew in a parabolic arc.
“Huh?”
“The furry monster attacked Yuk-chil-i!”
“Furry monster? Did you really just say that?!”
As I tried to intervene, Hwang-gu suddenly clamped down hard on my sleeve.
“Hwang-gu?”
Whine, whiiine!
A signal not to interfere in the children’s fight.
I couldn’t understand it.
So when I tried to go back anyway, Noeji, who’d been quietly playing, suddenly fluttered up and blocked my view.
“No! Noeji too!”
Squeak, squeak!
In the meantime, Ga-won began beating every last one of those who had mocked her.
“You garbage! You idiots!”
Ga-won hurled every curse she could muster at the backs of the fleeing children.
Tears streamed down her fluffy-furred face.
Only then did Noeji and Hwang-gu release me. Then Hwang-gu, as if he’d been waiting for this moment, nudged my forehead lightly with his own.
‘He said not to go before, but now he’s telling me to go?’
Anyway.
I decided to go along with Hwang-gu’s intention, as if I’d been held back by him too.
Hwang-gu was always popular with the children.
When it came to understanding children’s psychology, Hwang-gu was sharper than I was.
“Are you alright?”
“…No, I’m not alright.”
She wiped away her tears with her sleeve and said this.
“But I won.”
“Yes. You won.”
“I’ve never won before.”
“I see.”
“All those who looked at me that way before were family elders, so I couldn’t fight them. They only show contempt and don’t say cruel things. But these children actually threw stones, so I could fight them openly.”
She cried again.
Soon after.
“I won. Though it was quite ugly.”
She added one more thing.
I took her hand.
“Yes. You won splendidly.”
The tears didn’t stop.
Ga-won continued wiping with her sleeve, then suddenly shouted at the fleeing children.
“I won! You idiots–! I won!”
The children who had tasted her fists wanted to argue back, but they couldn’t say a word and just kept their distance.
“Hehe, hehe, hehe. Hehe, hehe.”
Ga-won simply laughed like a fool.
She had won for the first time in her life. Even she didn’t know what she had won against.
But she felt something knotted in her chest shatter and break free.
It tasted like bitter and sour yuzu.
Yet the fragrance alone was sweet, so her laughter wouldn’t stop.
Perhaps that’s why people love yuzu.
Ga-won thought it was truly painful and foolish.
“Let’s go somewhere scenic. Somewhere with no people.”
But it was worth doing.
Because the fragrance was sweet.
“I understand.”
It was truly a peculiar outing.
* * *
I took Ga-won toward the mountains.
To the place where the waterfall flowed—the very spot where I had once slipped away to cure my Master’s illness.
The scenery was so beautiful that it had become my secret place.
Ga-won sat there, gazing blankly at the waterfall.
Roooaaar—
The cascading waters thundered like a storm, and one could easily be entranced and swept away by their power.
Ga-won hugged her knees and stared at the waterfall for a long time.
I didn’t speak to her, but I remained by her side.
I didn’t suggest staying longer, leaving, or ask if she was alright. I simply stayed.
That consideration was so kind that tears nearly came.
“Once I was confined, I had planned to take my own life.”
“…I see.”
“Yes. A firstborn son with no use to the Ga clan has no value in living.”
Had I been a second or third son, or born to a branch family, things would have been very different.
“The Emperor wishes to eliminate the Eight Great Families of the Empire. In such circumstances, the Ga clan cannot afford to show any weakness.”
One must live for the whole.
Within that, there could be no sentiment beyond utility.
In that war where the imperial grandsons fought over the throne, what choice did the Ga clan make?
Never swim against the current. Yet never show a gap in the waves either.
My mother, Ga Wan, was a skilled helmsman.
When other families began to ride the waves first, the ship she commanded never rushed ahead. And she never chose the waves before the other vessels.
Then, seeing the wave she thought would be weakest growing fierce, she swiftly seized it.
Now the Ga clan had become one of the most powerful among the Eight Great Families of the Empire.
Not only the main house but all children of the branch families entered government service and formed their power base.
They harbored no deep grudges, and when necessary, they uprooted them completely, leaving no seeds of future trouble.
Though my mother rode those waves to reach this point, she never truly trusted them.
‘Daughter, listen well. The waves favor no one. The waves are only satisfied when all fishermen become fish food. So you must never be careless. This wave, the wave the Ga clan rides, is especially so.’
That is why I respected my mother so deeply.
‘Your position is not yours, daughter. It belongs to the Ga clan. If you become useless, you will be discarded. I will die someday, and if the next helmsman is not worthy, the waves will overturn the boat.’
Everything for the Ga clan.
The current helmsman, more cautious and suspicious than anyone, had spoken thus.
Then it must be law.
All the more so, having survived even this upheaval.
“The moment my body became covered in fur, I knew the curse had begun. My mother prepared herself mentally. And I… was prepared to do the same. Because it was for the family.”
I asked.
“Is it truly a family curse?”
“I’m not certain. I’ve tried everything possible through sorcery, but it hasn’t returned.”
‘Then can it be treated through medicine?’
She spoke.
“Some say the blood on the ancestors’ hands influenced their descendants, but no one knows for certain. Since there are no answers, we simply live on like this.”
“….”
Jin Cheon-hee asked.
“Do you still intend to die if you become useless?”
“You’re quite strange, Doctor. A daughter of the Eight Great Houses of the Empire, and a confined successor at that. It’s obvious this could become bothersome, yet you concern yourself so deeply.”
A strange person.
Perhaps that’s why he’s Ilgwang. She murmured softly to herself.
Looking at Jin Cheon-hee.
This doctor—gentle and virtuous, yet possessing an obstinate streak.
People call him mad, call him eccentric, yet this peculiar man never slows his pace one bit.
“Today was truly enjoyable. Watching people play at the village marketplace was delightful, and it felt refreshing to beat those children who mocked me. It’s not a bad way to spend one’s final outing.”
“….”
“People are truly strange. To die requires countless reasons, yet to live requires only one small reason. Isn’t that odd?”
She breathes deeply.
Then she speaks.
“I want to return to the marketplace next time. Sibee doesn’t want to get caught again, but I want to see that performance. Am I foolish?”
At those words, Jin Cheon-hee shakes his head.
“I too have wanted to die when life became too difficult.”
I wanted to throw myself onto the subway tracks.
It wasn’t because the future seemed bleak or life felt lonely.
There was simply too much work, and I couldn’t sleep.
I considered catching a taxi for some comfort, but on those days, taxis wouldn’t even stop for me.
So I simply wanted to throw myself onto the subway tracks.
All it would have taken was one step forward.
When a person is so exhausted and worn, even thoughts of the train operator’s psychological trauma or the suffering of those around me couldn’t penetrate my mind.
Ironically, even that required some energy to accomplish.
Then I looked at my phone.
I turned it on, hoping to see something, anything.
What I found was a web novel.
Of course, back then web novels weren’t systematized the way they are now, but I could still read stories online.
I thought I should live until the next chapter was posted.
And I lived again.
I did so until the long overwork finally ended.
There were many times I couldn’t leave the hospital for extended periods. Yet I could still read novels.
YouTube wasn’t as widespread back then, but web novels existed.

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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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