Doctor’s Rebirth - Chapter 666

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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 666
As I stepped out of the annex, Jin Cheon-hee was waiting for me.
“We promised to eat something delicious, didn’t we?”
“You’ve been giving me delicious food every day.”
“Today we’re going to eat something really delicious, though?”
Ga-won asked with her puffy face, wondering what on earth that could be.
Jin Cheon-hee answered.
“There’s a decent opera performance at the marketplace today.”
“Are there medicine peddlers too?”
“Yes. Of course. This time we won’t need a wide-brimmed hat.”
At Jin Cheon-hee’s words, tears welled up in Ga-won’s eyes again, and she wiped them away hastily with the back of her hand.
“I turned out to be uglier than I thought. Hairless me.”
“You have two eyes and one nose and one mouth. So what?”
At those words, Ga-won burst into laughter.
“So Ui-seon is so handsome, yet you say such strange things.”
“Ah, come on~”
Jin Cheon-hee nodded and spoke thus.
“Your skin is fair. Have confidence. Everyone wants porcelain skin. And your presence is the best! You have plenty of money, so just wear flashy clothes and live boldly!”
“Hehehehe….”
She covered her eyes with her sleeve. Then she followed Jin Cheon-hee and walked.
Finally, the day to leave this annex.
Jin Cheon-hee spoke in a humming tone.
“See many good things. Eat lots of good food, meet good people.”
There was no response.
The Doctor stopped walking and suddenly turned around.
She was gone.
Whoooosh—
Only the bamboo swayed against each other.
Baekrin Medical Guild’s annex was surrounded by formation arrays, making it easy to lose one’s way.
Jin Cheon-hee rushed forward in alarm.
Fortunately, Ga-won was there.
She was simply crouched down, huddled in place.
Jin Cheon-hee carefully placed a hand on her shoulders, which trembled finely with sobs.
“There are small opera troupes in the village, medicine peddlers too… and your mother will be there.”
“….”
Some tears swallow strength and swallow steps, leaving one unable to move.
“…I thought I’d only laugh. I thought once the illness was cured, I’d only laugh.”
Why does weeping come before laughter?
Even an adult like Jin Cheon-hee could not explain that.
Human emotion was simply too deep, too vast, and too complex to be divided into the four categories of joy, anger, sorrow, and happiness.
This Han—this thorn embedded in one’s foot—hurts while it remains, but hurts far more when extracted.
Had I managed to remove it cleanly before it festered?
I cannot say. But I know now that what comes next is her burden alone.
Soon after, she wiped her tears again and asked in a hoarse voice.
“…Will I be able to see Mother again?”
The child craves warmth once more.
I answered as I watched her.
“If you wish it.”
A good day.
A good morning.
Ga-won stepped outside without her wide-brimmed hat.
The world seen through that hat is always only half.
Half the earth and half the people. She never sees their faces.
Yet today, Ga-won saw me outside.
So Ui-seon, visible in her complete vision, appeared somewhat weary, but his smile was warmer than anyone’s, and Ga-won wept again.
She thought she had finished crying, yet she was astonished to find tears still remained.
That Han must have been embedded quite deeply.
Extracting it hurt far too much.
Watching her cry with trembling lips, I spoke.
“Would you like to wash your face?”
“Yes.”
That day, Ga-won received my handkerchief.
It became her treasure.
* * *
What conversation passed between Ga-won and Gaju Ga Wan remained unknown to me.
Yet Ga Wan would remain a cold Gaju still, and Ga-won would love her mother deeply.
A relationship that pains the heart of any adult who witnesses it.
Even so, from this point forward, it is the patient’s life.
‘There is nothing more a doctor can do.’
And had Ga Wan possessed a more affectionate nature, perhaps the Ga Sect would not have maintained their seat among the Eight Great Families during the past imperial succession struggle—but such things are unknowable.
What is certain is that mother and daughter watched the marketplace opera and dragon dance for quite some time.
That they purchased many sweets on the way back.
That witnesses saw the two of them walking hand in hand.
In truth, it appeared more that Ga Wan walked while Ga-won clutched at her sleeve, yet even such courage is remarkable.
The old Ga-won would never have dared grasp her mother’s sleeve.
“Gaju Ga Wan has changed the tea she drinks.”
“A cold tea, unsuitable for a pregnant woman.”
“Indeed. Now that the next Gaju is determined, Ga Wan must prepare herself.”
They say one fisherman suffices for one boat.
‘Should the worst occur and the heir suddenly perish, would they even drag in someone from a branch family….’
In any case, right now was a time when a strong successor capable of gaining the full support of the Sega was needed. The second son had to be eliminated—that was his judgment.
In that sense, Ga-won was using even herself thoroughly as a chess piece.
“In the past, during the struggle for the imperial throne, there was an instance where she stabbed her own chest before the Emperor, claiming she would wash away the grudge.”
“A grudge, you say?”
“When the young Emperors and their Mother were assassinated, the Ga clan Sega was involved as well. Of course, it was a matter of a branch family, so the probability that Ga-won decided it was slim, and at that time, the Emperor’s Sega was weakest, so it was advantageous to kill them quickly and move on.”
“That was before Ju Wang awakened as he is now, wasn’t it?”
“Right. Without Ju Wang, the two Emperors were merely infants who would die if attacked from a distance.”
….
“Even if one can read people’s thoughts and manipulate them, Gangho is vast. Reading thoughts doesn’t change them, and manipulating people—how many exist who could be killed before they even speak? What if arrows rained down from afar? Could the two Emperors have stopped it?”
It was nearly treasonous speech, but my Master spoke without hesitation.
And the disciple was equally unrestrained.
“The role of Ju Wang-ya was significant in changing the board, wasn’t it?”
“If Ju Wang-ya had also abandoned her two younger brothers to secure her own comfort, the Empire would have taken a different form. But she did not.”
Seeing that, Ga-won made her choice.
To ride the wave of the Emperor who would hate her.
“She stabbed her chest, yet survived.”
Jegalling answered.
“Whether she truly intended to die or calculated beforehand and avoided vital points—we cannot know. But when the Gaju herself requested forgiveness for her crime and did so, the Emperor of that time had no choice but to settle the grudge with that.”
Even if calculated beforehand, it was still a human body.
Not the kind of surgery a Doctor performs, but a Warrior avoiding vital points in an urgent situation.
The location of organs and blood vessels varies slightly from person to person, and humans can die suddenly from sepsis.
How many patients have been brought to the Medical Guild in such condition? And how many of those failed to last even a day before dying?
Ga-won used her own life as a chess piece. And the Emperor had no choice but to accept it.
“It was because she had no power, wasn’t it?”
“Exactly. At that time, she had no considerable power to speak of. She needed to obtain the Ga clan Sega.”
….
“However, even after ascending to the throne, that situation never reversed. She had already granted forgiveness for those past crimes, so it was difficult to dispose of her without appearing unseemly….”
Jin Cheon-hee responded to his Master’s words.
“…The Ga clan Sega are not ones to easily change their wave.”
“Right. Until the weather changes, they will continue to row the Emperor’s wave.”
My Master fell into thought and added one more thing.
“Ga-won is a person with remarkably thin self-love. She views even the captain as a component of the ship and leads accordingly. She would do anything to maintain and prosper the Ga clan Sega. That applies equally to Ga-won and to the child in her womb.”
Jin Cheon-hee sighed.
“Indeed, it seems a difficult way of thinking for me to comprehend.”
“That’s how it is. Those from Sega families who have risen that far think differently from us. Rather, Ga-won has much affection and is easily wounded, so she will suffer somewhat.”
“Is Oseng not exceptional?”
“Yes. Oseng alone is superior to anyone. Those born with such conditions in the Ga clan Sega have always been famous for their exceptional intellect.”
“I’ve heard she also possesses martial talent.”
“Yes. That’s precisely why, generation after generation, they’ve either killed or confined those with such conditions to prevent future troubles.”
So they didn’t treat her merely as a patient, but also as a risk factor that could divide the Sega.
It was a ruthless logic.
“Perhaps… when she takes the oars from her mother, Ga-won will become another Ga Clan. A boat follows whoever holds the oars, after all.”
Then my Master added one more thing.
“The same applies to you.”
“Master?”
“The Baekrin Medical Guild I lead and the Baekrin Medical Guild you will lead shall be different places.”
“It’s difficult to imagine that far ahead.”
“True. But the rear waves of the Yangtze always push forward the waves before them.”
I shook my head at my Master’s words.
‘Even the front wave has its own merit.’
Even when it doesn’t seem so, he occasionally indulges in such dramatics.
* * *
The reward from the Ga Clan arrived.
It was truly an amount befitting the reputation of the Eight Great Houses of the Empire.
Along with several business ventures and the rights to an inn in the imperial capital.
‘Just the rights to one inn, but the imperial capital carries significant meaning.’
Even with money, land in the imperial capital is difficult to acquire. Few are willing to sell.
The landowners currently holding property in the imperial capital are traditionally those of old wealth.
The commoners who eat and sleep there are like honeybees offering tribute to them.
There is indeed an opportunity for such commoners to acquire land.
Paradoxically, when a commoner reports the treason of a landowning lord, the lord’s family cannot escape execution and the land becomes vacant.
Usually it goes to auction, but the Emperor may grant the informant commoner the right to take ownership of the land.
Of course, false accusations of treason carry severe penalties—your head flies off if you bear false witness.
Especially now, when the Emperor himself can read people’s memories.
In any case, an inn in such circumstances was truly like honey.
‘People of this era regard treatment with great weight.’
What would be considered simple medical service in modern times is called Gu Myeong-ji-eun here and treated quite seriously.
Moreover, the greater the importance of the treated person to their family, the larger the reward becomes.
At first glance, it seemed like a matter of face.
Regardless of era, such rewards function as a display of status, and because of this, many commoners wish to help great sects.
‘In a way, this is also strategy. In the fantasy dramas I once saw, the motto was always that a family’s debt must be repaid.’
This place operates similarly.
As a family’s reputation grows, it itself becomes credit, and more people will wish to help.
Because of this, doctors in Gangho carry several debt-repayment tokens with them.
In any case, the Ga Clan paid a price that lacked nothing in the eyes of the world.
If anything, it was excessive.
“This also means supporting Ga-won, who will become the new Gaju. It announces to all that Gaju Ga Wan regards her successor Ga-won with great importance.”
“Then we should participate as well.”
At my words, Jegalling nodded.
“Indeed. That’s precisely how sects move. So, what do you think we should do?”

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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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