Doctor’s Rebirth - Chapter 785

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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 785
Nanking.
Once the heart of the empire, the former capital.
‘And now it’s also the provincial capital of Gangso Province.’
The Governor of Gangso Province naturally resides in Nanking, the city maintains its own garrison forces, and several members of the imperial family live here as well.
Yet the region that has grown far more prosperous than this is Baekrin County itself. In particular, Baekrin-dong, where the Baekrin Medical Guild is located, has become the largest city.
‘This is the perfect economic snowball effect!’
Baekrin-dong has even attracted all the branch offices of the ten greatest merchant houses—establishments functioning much like banks—and naturally, the branch operations of these merchant houses, the large escort agencies protecting them, and various martial sects have all moved in.
The taxes they pay through their economic activities are enough to sustain several villages, and since their networks remain open to the Baekrin Medical Guild.
It wouldn’t be an exaggeration to say that Baekrin Uiseon Jegalling, who holds such a region as his fief, now commands a power rivaling that of the imperial family itself.
‘Isn’t this practically the same treatment as the King?’
They’re being treated generously enough to seem somewhat dangerous.
After all, the martial artists of the Baekrin Medical Guild can be viewed as little different from a private army.
Of course, within the peculiar framework of the martial world, they’re technically not garrison soldiers but martial artists—a convenient fiction—yet the Emperor is showing tremendous favor toward this arrangement.
The Jegallim Family has long held official positions and received stipends from the state.
After all, Gae Pa Josa was already a high minister of Shu.
Yet had any descendant of the Jegallim Family, who possessed no particular connection to the imperial household and even suffered near-extinction, ever risen to such heights before?
‘Of course, I received the appointment as prefect, but since Master possesses that Baekrin Medical Guild, we’ve essentially risen together.’
In the end, this revenue cannot be compared to simply operating a single martial sect.
Certainly, the expenses required to administer the fief are astronomical as well….
Remarkably, they’re earning enough to exceed even those costs.
In other words, taxes are accumulating at an astounding rate!
‘Kuhahahat! I’ll establish a civil servant pension system first. I’ll make the scholars at the academy so eager to become officials they’ll practically beg for it.’
And they’ll certainly tremble at the murderous workload. But we need bait to get our little chicks to come work, don’t we?
‘With this money as capital… I can now undertake the complete water and sewage infrastructure project for all of Gangso Province that the Emperor entrusted to me.’
Half of this infrastructure project belongs to the state, and half belongs to the Baekrin Medical Guild.
The Emperor trusts me so much that I feel a bit guilty.
I considered assigning the remaining half to Baekrin County’s share, but for now I’ve kept it under the Baekrin Medical Guild’s jurisdiction.
If I were to step down from this position, I worried that the next prefect might use these water pipes to embezzle from the people.
‘Perhaps it’s arrogant thinking. Maybe I simply don’t trust people enough.’
For now, if a system can be completed that allows water quality inspections even after I step down, I plan to sell the remaining shares to the empire and move on.
‘While I can’t cure major illnesses, I might be able to make basic necessities like cold remedies and soap easily accessible and affordable for commoners.’
The fact that there’s no one starving in the county currently is already a significant achievement.
I found myself wanting to take just one more step forward from here.
Small illnesses left untreated can lead to death, so simply helping commoners easily and affordably access these minor remedies is itself a form of medical welfare.
‘I think we can expand the doctor training system further. Looking at the research, the medicinal herb farms are showing quite promising results.’
Rather than going to the mountains to forage, I’m planning to mass-produce certain medicinal herbs directly in fields.
The various medical assistants at the Research Institute are the ones conducting this work.
Well, the medical assistants only conduct research. Those devoted solely to pharmaceuticals are too delicate for physical labor, so they don’t work the fields.
The lower-ranking medical assistants beneath them are the ones laboring in the fields with utmost devotion, despite it being work far removed from their destiny.
‘That’s right. Even if we hire workers to do the farming, there’s still plenty that needs to be done with our own hands.’
Their efforts were beginning to bear fruit these days.
Ever since my Master demolished several research facilities, they’ve been working like madmen.
If Jin Cheon-hee was the carrot, then Jegalling was the whip.
Since they’d been waving the carrot far too often until now, the whip’s effect was potent.
As I was rapidly sketching out the plans, I heard a knock at the door.
“Come in!”
Jasi entered with a cheerful demeanor.
“So you really are working.”
“During the Saeoe period, it was nothing but an adventurous journey filled with dramatic tales. In normal times, I just spend my days pushing a brush around like this.”
“You seem like a different person somehow.”
At those words, Jin Cheon-hee laughed.
Jasi gazed intently at Jin Cheon-hee.
In Saeoe, Jin Cheon-hee had been the Blind White Saint, a swordsman who fought against Hyeolseonggyo and the Rakshasa.
Yet here at Baekrin Medical Guild, Jin Cheon-hee was draped with silk blankets across both shoulders, wrestling with documents piled high as mountains.
‘I wonder which is this man’s true nature.’
But there was one thing that was certain.
‘He still speaks with that peculiar, difficult-to-understand manner of speech.’
In the Central Plains, they call him Ilgwang.
Cheonhailgwang.
“Please, have a seat and make yourself comfortable.”
“Very well.”
Jin Cheon-hee quickly cleared away the bamboo strips to make space. Then he poured tea into a cup and set it before Jasi with practiced ease.
Jasi took a sip of the tea Jin Cheon-hee had poured.
Bitter. Bitter, yet delicious.
“I decided to follow you and came here, but what is it you want me to do? Wasn’t it because you wanted something from me that you asked me to come along?”
“Ohhh!”
Jin Cheon-hee’s eyes gleamed as he looked at Jasi.
“I’m moved that you’re showing such enthusiasm right from the start.”
“…I dislike eating for free. You wouldn’t have simply called me as a guest either.”
“Yes! That’s right.”
Jin Cheon-hee burst into hearty laughter and spoke thus.
“By chance, are you interested in saving lives?”
Jasi, you understand the Way.
Your spirit is remarkably pure.
* * *
There was one fact that even Jin Cheon-hee didn’t know.
Before Jegalling prepared for his outing, Yoo Ho had apparently built a small shrine beside the research facility.
Though “built” might be too generous a term—he’d simply gathered miscellaneous items that were lying around and cobbled them together.
Back when my Master was deeply into carpentry as a hobby, he’d made various things as experiments.
What I made back then was a birdhouse.
And it was a small one at that—just large enough for a bird the size of a baby’s fist to enter and exit.
It wasn’t made by just anyone, but by my Master himself, so for a birdhouse, it was quite substantial. And it was remarkably intricate.
Yoo Ho set it up and said a spirit could dwell here.
Then he took a fox figurine that Jin Cheon-hee had once made as a hobby and fired in a kiln, placed it in front of the birdhouse, declared that this would suffice, and promptly left.
“Wait, isn’t this too small? What kind of house is this?”
When Jin Cheon-hee grumbled, Jasi spoke.
“Surprisingly, Isha seems quite fond of it. Noble… ah, no… According to Chief Manager Yoo, spirits are in some ways similar to flowerpots, so a small body requires a small dwelling. If you build it too grandly from the start, it can actually be harmful. It’s like a plant dying from overwatering because the pot is too large.”
“I… see.”
Jin Cheon-hee sighed.
“So as Isha grows, we’ll gradually expand the house?”
“That’s the idea. Thanks to Isha, I’ve been able to use sorcery again, so I’m grateful.”
“Still, since Isha is a young spirit, performing grand sorcery like before would be difficult.”
At those words, Jasi scratched his head.
After scratching for a while, he began carefully selecting his words.
“Well… you see… with Chief Manager Yoo’s support… no… encouragement, I can use nearly the same power as before. Of course, only within Baekrin Medical Guild’s territory.”
“You can do that just with encouragement?”
Jasi’s eyes rolled around.
“Well… it’s secret encouragement. It’s so secretive that if I explained it in detail, they might just rip out my liver.”
“…”
“Isha too… well… thanks to Chief Manager Yoo’s encouragement(?), she can live here now. And… that potato pig you made as a hobby… no, that…”
Jin Cheon-hee spoke.
“It’s a fox.”
That fox figurine is now beautifully displayed in front of the birdhouse, allowing her to live even more safely. Though you made it, it’s precisely because you made it that Chief Manager Yoo’s encouragement(?) is all the more imbued within it.”
Jin Cheon-hee gazed at the birdhouse with skeptical eyes.
He looked down at the moss spread beneath the birdhouse and the long pebbles arranged to suggest a stepping stone path.
It looked more like a miniature house than a shrine.
One designed with a fairy dwelling concept.
If you scooped it up and placed it in a large aquarium, it would make a perfect terrarium as is.
“Well, I understand then. That should work fine. Since Jasi says he can use sorcery, I’ll establish a Sorcery Division under the Research Hall and receive various forms of assistance from it.”
Jasi is useful.
Not merely in medicine.
Just going to the cultivation chamber and casting a growth sorcery would help, and doing the same in the Research Hall’s herb garden would bring tears of joy to the medical assistants.
Jin Cheon-hee looked down at the miniature… no, Isha’s shrine and spoke.
“If it’s alright, could I place a small side table in front of this? And plant a parasol, or rather, a large umbrella?”
Clack clack clack!
Jasi’s bone necklace shook violently.
“He likes it.”
“Could I also make small bowls, spoons, and chopsticks to match that table and place them there?”
Clack clack!
“That sounds good.”
“While I’m at it, I should make a small fried egg and place it on top.”
I am a surgeon.
Even in my past life, I was strangely born with exceptional sensitivity in my fingertips.
A talent, if you will!
‘Perhaps I should develop a new hobby.’
My master tends to craft grand and magnificent things, but I prefer making small, round, and humble creations with that handmade, kneaded quality.
“While I’m at it, a small swing too?”
“Make whatever you can.”
“Ohhh!”
I clenched my fist in delight.
“Now that I think about it, Jasi, your skin tone has become darker than before.”
“When contracting with a spirit, you offer a price. Of course, if I say it that way, it might feel similar to human sacrifice, but it’s different. What I offered when contracting with the previous spirit was pigmentation. The spirit took the pigment from my body, and I helped that region while I was there.”
“Offering your soul was truly forbidden magic.”
“You could say that. But now that the contract with the previous spirit has ended, my original pigmentation has returned.”
When I first saw him, he was a man so devoid of pigmentation that I wondered if he was albino.
So that was because of the contract with the spirit.
“Then what kind of contract did you make with Isha?”
“My hair and some of my fingernails and toenails. He occasionally cuts them and plays with them as toys.”
It seems hygienic that he cuts his own nails for me.
Looking at the hair, he doesn’t take that much either.
Just trimming the ends a little.
“Oh?”
“Chief Manager Yoo… provided support (?), and in return, I pledged my labor to Baekrin Medical Guild. So while I’m a resident employee of Baekrin Medical Guild, I can use sorcery here.”
‘That’s reasonable.’
Nothing lacking, nothing excessive.
The clean, precise arrangement resembled Yoo Ho’s nature.
So it seemed Jasi had come to me first seeking work.
Of course, even without that, Jasi probably wouldn’t want to eat for free.
I didn’t pry into the relationship between Jasi and Yoo Ho.
It might be better not to know the private affairs of graduate students.
If a professor starts digging, you could end up losing both of them in this harsh world.
‘I wish they would both stay by my side forever.’
Hehe, they won’t leave!
I ordered the construction of a sorcery chamber for Jasi.
In a world where the non-scientific reigns, sorcery—the pinnacle of shamanism—is also a subject of research, and when this sorcery is applied to science and incorporated into medicine.
I became convinced that humanity could progress further.
After Isha settled in, the research center’s cultivation chamber began operating smoothly.
Then one day, the medical assistants of the research center began placing fruits, sweets, and other foods on a tiny altar the size of a thumb in front of that small bird’s nest.
Of course, the altar was so small that it was difficult to place even one sweet on it completely.
I would cut it into roughly a quarter and place it there in small portions.
Then by the next day, acorns would mysteriously appear inside the shoes of whichever Medical Assistant had made the offering.
And so the Medical Assistants began to believe that a squirrel was living inside the small shrine.

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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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