Doctor’s Rebirth - Chapter 767

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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 767
“What do you mean? Are you saying I’ll become a monster?”
“That is not quite it. However, you may become similar to ordinary humans while also being fundamentally different.”
It was a peculiar answer.
But the Governor didn’t care much. He thought to himself.
He was hungry.
And he gazed down at his own arm.
The arm he had gnawed at to protect his son’s corpse.
“I want to bring him back to life.”
“Excellent. Then allow me to give you this.”
It was a white liquid contained in a glass bottle.
“What is this…?”
“It is a medicine that transforms you into a Rakshasa. More precisely, you die and a Rakshasa grows in your place.”
Remarkably, he had told him the truth from the very beginning. Without hiding a single detail.
“Once you become a Rakshasa… when night falls, you will crave human flesh.”
“Are you asking us to become monsters that eat human meat right now?”
“Ah, of course, if you undergo cultivation, you can also control your nature♪ If you cultivate yourself♬”
“Is it similar to Buddhist practice?”
“Yes. Meditation, learning to maintain mental clarity, reading scriptures to gain enlightenment—that sort of thing.”
Baekcheon-gun said.
“It is difficult, but entirely possible.”
“…What are the other conditions?”
“Hmm, I suppose just that you must not deceive the people but inform them of this truth? Explain everything and give them the choice. Whether to die as humans or survive as monsters.”
“How strange. It would be easier for you to deceive them and feed it to everyone.”
“Oh my~ No indeed. I am fundamentally different from those merchant types! Selling products that my customers do not desire goes against my very aesthetics.”
Baekcheon-gun laughed cheerfully and danced.
Though I couldn’t fathom what meaning this dance held, he continued speaking, lost in his own joy.
“Even looking like this, I wish to save all of you, you see? After all, to become a Hyeolseon, one must accumulate merit. Whether it be bloody karma or virtuous karma.”
He seemed to have revealed something—an important clue.
A hidden clue that explained the motives behind the actions of the Hyeolseonggyo’s Sip Cheon-gun.
Yet Baekcheon-gun continued speaking without hesitation.
“In true salvation, there must never be deception!”
“I see.”
In that moment, the Governor did not hesitate.
He immediately gulped down the white potion.
He was hungry.
He was so hungry.
His stomach continued to cry out for food.
At first, this cry would occasionally subside. When hunger grew tiresome, it would stop.
But to survive, he had to eat something, and as he prolonged his existence this way, at some point he began to understand the heart of a parent who boils and eats their own child out of hunger.
Some madness touched upon despair.
I was hungry.
My belly ached with hunger.
If only I could silence this voice, I would do anything.
“Ugh… gahhhhh…. Haahhhhh!”
Baekcheon-gun’s eyes widened in surprise.
“Wow, without a moment’s hesitation, you drink it first? Truly, you are a model leader.”
Excruciating pain surged through me.
My vision darkened. Darkened, then darkened again, and darkened once more.
In that moment.
Crack—
I heard something shatter.
When I opened my eyes again, Baekcheon-gun held up a mirror.
In the mirror was my own face—a tiger’s face.
“Kuh… kuhuk…. Truly… I am not human. This….”
“Wow, how long has it been since you transformed, and you still possess reason? Remarkable mental fortitude.”
“Yet something troubles me. By your logic, I should surely be dead, so why do I remain as I am?”
“Ah, I told you, didn’t I? It depends on how you define it. You died, and a Rakshasa that believes itself to be you exists in your place. But does it matter? Your memories remain intact.”
“….”
I gazed down at my own hands.
Claws jutted out like blades.
And fur besides. No matter how I looked at it, these were not human hands—they were the paws of a beast, a ferocious one at that.
“Have I become a monster?”
Baekcheon-gun asked.
“So you’ve come to hate your son?”
“I still wish to revive him.”
“And your people—do you hate them too?”
“I wish to save them as well.”
“What of the hunger?”
“I despise it.”
At those words, Baekcheon-gun burst into delighted laughter. “Kyahahaha!”
“There you have it. You are yourself. When memories transfer, the essence transfers with them. In the end, it is all a matter of definition.”
“Am I the Governor? Or am I a Rakshasa that believes itself to be the Governor?”
I murmured softly.
But it mattered not. I still loved my son, still worried for my people, and still despised the hunger.
“Well then, I shall rely on you for the inventory. Do explain the product well to the customer before delivery.”
“I am….”
“I do worry whether you’ll explain it well, but you have such excellent credibility. Yes, with your reputation, you’ll surely reach the Diamond grade eventually.”
“Diamond grade?”
“Yes. I’m thinking of giving ranks to those who sell these for me. Diamond grade, and below that Ruby, Jade, Sapphire, and Emerald grades. Regular members start at Gold, Silver, and Bronze grades.”
I couldn’t understand what was being said.
One thing was certain.
“How about it? Are you still hungry?”
The Governor touched his own belly.
That place, which had once tried to devour everything in the world as if a hole had been torn through it, was now merely quiet and peaceful.
“This is my first time experiencing something like this.”
“That is what Buddha is. Isn’t it peaceful, as if one had attained enlightenment?”
“If I were a true Buddha, I wouldn’t need to take such medicine.”
“Yes. So….”
Baekcheon-gun fell into thought before speaking.
“What do you think of the name ‘Sub-Buddha’ in the sense of a false Buddha, Member Geumgang?”
“Didn’t you say not to tell lies?”
“It’s not a lie. Merely a difference in nomenclature. The fact that a person dies and a Rakshasa is born in their place remains the same.”
-What am I?
Within that question, the Governor rose to his feet.
He accepted the chest filled with white medicine.
It was the key to a false paradise.
A signpost wandering through a place that was neither hell nor heaven.
* * *
The people rejoiced at becoming Rakshasas.
During the day, they felt no hunger, and those who ultimately chose not to take the medicine purely celebrated them.
However, the problem came the next day.
“Mother, mother!”
“Grandfather!”
Those who had taken the medicine devoured those who had not.
It was inevitable. When night fell, they transformed into Rakshasas and consumed people.
That instinct could not be overcome by ordinary endurance.
Most humans are ordinary. Not everyone could endure as the Governor did.
People wailed and retched at the fact that they had devoured their families.
Some took their own lives.
Among that devastation, those who had not been consumed ultimately took the medicine.
If they became the same existence as the others, they would not die.
Flicker—
It was strange.
Close your eyes in agony, open them, and you had simply transformed into a different being.
Everyone who survived in the city took the medicine. I thought it would be fine then.
“This time it’s a merchant!”
“…A relative came from my hometown, but I ended up devouring them anyway! Damn it!”
“Whenever the scent of blood rushes in at night, I lose my reason. I’m going mad…. Krraaaagh!”
The suffering continued. Hell had not ended.
They consume people.
Without choice, their mouths continued to take flesh from people, craving human bone and human blood.
How could this possibly be called an arhat?
Shouldn’t an arhat signify something far more noble?
In the end, before even a month had passed, the people returned to Baekcheon-gun once more.
“Once consumed, returns are not accepted, dear customer♬”
At his words, despair painted the faces of the people.
Baekcheon-gun continued.
“You need only cultivate your spirit. So if you polish and refine your minds now, you can become a Buddha….”
“We know that! But how can it happen overnight!”
“We ate our families, devoured our relatives. How is this living as a person!”
Amid the people’s anguished cries, Baekcheon-gun covered his ears.
“Oh my, everyone has so many complaints. After all I’ve done for you, shouldn’t you normally be satisfied?”
With that, he began another strange dance.
For some reason, the dance flowed with elegant, spinning grace.
Soon, Baekcheon-gun spoke.
“I haven’t deceived anyone, and you all consented. Normally I don’t provide follow-up services, but well. I suppose I have no choice♪”
Baekcheon-gun raised his fingers.
“I cannot revive the dead, nor can I restore you to your original forms. Ah, as I mentioned before, you are not people but Rakshasas bearing human memories. So! There is only one thing I can do for you.”
“What is it!”
“Please, tell us!”
Facing the masses surging toward him like hungry ghosts, Baekcheon-gun smiled.
“I will make you forget what you did at night.”
“Forget?”
“Indeed. If what you believe to be yourselves are merely memories of the past, then you will forget all the memories of what you did at night. Then what you did becomes something you never did. Kyahahaha! What do you think?”
It was a devil’s bargain.
They thought.
If they truly were not people but Rakshasas who merely received old memories.
Yet they still believed themselves to be those people from before because yesterday’s and today’s memories were connected.
They still loved their families, enjoyed the sunlight, cherished their friends.
Because they loved this homeland.
Because of the memories they loved.
Then if they discarded the memories they hated, if they forgot them.
Would it not be as though they never did those things?
Baekcheon-gun spoke.
“Ah, but since I’m providing this as an extra service, I must receive payment.”
“What payment?”
“A portion of your souls.”
“…What do you mean by that.”
“You won’t feel much difference. It’s merely a fragment of your soul. But… depending on how you think about it, it could be something precious, no?”
“You….”
Baekcheon-gun spoke.
“I told you. I never deceive anyone. If you offer a portion of your soul, I’ll make you forget all the memories from when you were a Rakshasa.”
He danced again like a madman.
Strangely, that dance possessed remarkable grace and elegance.
I couldn’t tear my gaze away.
* * *
“The memories end here! Thank you for watching!”
Baekcheon-gun laughed brightly and waved his fan.
A madman, through and through.
All the Sip Cheon-gun were like that, but this one especially so.
He savored everyone’s expressions.
The furious Yeo Ha-ryun and Jasi, and even Jin Cheon-hee, whose expression was unreadable.
“They became monsters of their own accord seeking salvation, and they themselves resolved to lose their memories because they lacked the will to make an effort.”
“….”
“I merely gave them what they desired. Cowardly and weak as they are, I provided the salvation they sought—the kind that turns their eyes from their own sins.”
“….”
“As you know, I have never deceived anyone even once. I stated all the product warnings correctly♬”
A merchant of death and madness, truly.
Baekcheon-gun was the most grotesque among the Sip Cheon-gun.
And yet Jin Cheon-hee gazed at him with perfect clarity.
“Ah, those eyes. How delightful. Perhaps this is why all the Sip Cheon-gun are so devoted to you.”
Within those glacial eyes, what color would the brain matter be?
The desire to collect this captivating sacrifice in its entirety surged forth.

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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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