Doctor’s Rebirth - Chapter 788

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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 788
As the massive figure began to topple backward, the woman supported his enormous frame with nothing but the strength of her foot, then slowly lowered him to the ground.
“Easier than I thought. These fools… that’s why I love stupid men. Especially rich, stupid ones~”
The man thought to himself. The sin of being stupid.
Stupid bastards without the strength to protect their wealth deserved to die.
The beautiful face transformed.
The skeletal structure itself twisted, height and build shifting simultaneously.
It became the angular frame of a man.
Muscle compressed through actual combat.
Not a swordsman’s build but an assassin’s—a body that tolerated not a single ounce of excess, packed entirely with functional muscle.
He quickly stripped off his clothes.
Then simultaneously pulled out another outfit he had prepared. A maid’s uniform.
One tailored for someone with a very small frame.
“Mm, this should work nicely~”
Then he unfurled the skirt with a flourish.
By the time he wrapped it around his body and tied it off, he had already transformed into the frame of a small girl.
Truly an art form.
A different face now stared back from the mirror.
“Something’s missing? Ah!”
With that, he picked up blood spilled by the man he’d just killed with his pinky finger and dabbed it around his eyes like rouge.
Remarkably, the dark red blood became makeup.
‘Now, soon enough….’
At that moment, explosions began erupting outside with thunderous booms.
‘Perfect~’
The girl rushed to the door and began screaming.
A sharp wail accompanied the girl’s whimpers.
“Master! Masterrrrrrrr!”
Explosions continued to ring out in succession.
Hundreds of martial arts disciples came rushing out in panic.
“What is happening!”
“The Gaju, the Gaju is under attack!”
The disciples shouted in confusion and chaos.
“What? A performer? An unknown performer killed the Gaju? Where did that performer go!”
“Find the performer! She must be an assassin in disguise!”
The disciples began to regain their composure amid the chaos and started shouting orders.
Like trained soldiers, their formation recovered quickly.
Among them, someone grasped the core issue.
“Now that I think about it, where did the maid who first discovered the Gaju’s body go?”
She had already melted into the crowd long ago.
* * *
The maid walked down the alley, removing bricks one by one.
Click—
From the first brick came a bundle.
Click—
From the second brick came a letter.
The speed was so swift and her gait so natural that no one would have noticed a bundle appearing in the maid’s hands.
The moment she passed a tree, a Black-Clothed Person appeared on the opposite side where the maid had been.
The Black-Clothed Person concealed the maid’s outfit she had just changed out of within her robes.
Just one step. In a single stride, she had not only changed clothes with remarkable speed but had even altered her very frame—a technique of extraordinary skill.
The man’s infiltration garb was equally exceptional.
For black clothing meant for concealment, the tailoring was remarkably refined, crafted from the finest silk.
Such extravagance that one could scarcely believe it was meant for a single use.
The man leaped swiftly onto the rooftops and vanished into the distance.
The letter contained a cipher.
The location to proceed to next.
Upon reaching that location, not a single guard was present—it was secure.
Sama Hyeon withdrew a honey-grain candy and crunched it between his teeth.
It was the new product flavor from the Golden Blood Hall—sunflower seeds and pine nuts.
“Good. One task complete~ But isn’t this the sort of work the Osalji Faction does?”
Another Black-Clothed Person approached him.
Im Un-heon, Deputy Master of the Silver Blood Hall.
Sama Hyeon held the position of Silver Blood Hall Master among the four halls under the Golden Blood Hall—the Gold Blood Hall, Silver Blood Hall, Iron Blood Hall, and Bronze Blood Hall.
That remained true even now.
But additionally, he had become the Minor Master, the next successor to the Golden Blood Hall faction itself.
He was both Silver Blood Hall Master and Minor Master.
Because of this, his aide Sa Jeo Im Un-heon was also thriving these days.
She spoke.
“You’re skilled at assassination too. Plus, this target had such thorough security that even first-rate assassins couldn’t infiltrate. How are you even real? You breached a manor that even elite killers couldn’t penetrate, all by yourself.”
“Ah~ my beauty is rather exceptional~ and my skin is like white jade, isn’t it so fair~”
Saying so playfully, he brushed the back of his hand across his skin.
Such coquetry emanated from that simple gesture that her gaze was drawn without her realizing it.
Feeling Sa Jeo’s gaze, Sama Hyeon smiled wickedly, and Im Un-heon grew irritated.
“Honestly, you’re always playing with people!”
Sama Hyeon laughed this time like a mischievous child.
The same laugh that moments before seemed sinister and cunning now appeared innocent and youthful.
In any case, he was an unfathomable man. The one before her eyes.
He possessed an innate talent for toying with people’s attention.
She wondered if it was merely the talent of a performer, yet sometimes he displayed insights that transcended that.
As if he could pierce through the deepest and darkest recesses within a person’s heart.
Sama Hyeon possessed an innate gift for playing with human desire.
That’s why he walked into the impregnable estate that no one from the Osalji Faction could breach, assassinated the target with his own hands, and walked back out.
“And since I’m cheap, Master keeps using me over and over~”
“True. You might actually be cheaper than hiring a first-rate assassin from the Osalji Faction. At least for now.”
These days, I sometimes wonder if this ‘service’ I provide for my Master, the Golden King, is itself a stepping stone for what comes next.
“Even so~ Master really does work me to the bone~ But Sa Jeo, what brings you to greet me in person? You wrote the letter too, didn’t you?”
“Yes. Master’s orders brought me here.”
“Oho, what kind of orders could they be~?”
For a disciple, he’s quite disrespectful.
Not that I have any intention of scolding this rebellious, anti-Confucian youth.
He’s heterodox anyway.
There are plenty like him.
The only thing frightening is that someone of Sa Jeo’s standing—a minor faction leader of the Golden Blood Hall—doesn’t even maintain basic decorum.
Im Un-heon swallowed hard. Then he took a deep breath and spoke in a dignified voice.
“Your position as Blood Crimson Party Leader is hereby removed. Master orders you to undertake a special mission as Minor Faction Leader of the Golden Blood Hall.”
“Oho? Just like that? So my seat goes to Sa Jeo then?”
“…Don’t kill him. It wasn’t my decision.”
“Do I look like a murderer to you? Sa Jeo, tell me. Do I look like the type to snap your neck just because you took my beloved Blood Crimson Party?”
The way he stared without blinking an eye made it even more chilling.
Especially since he’d just finished a major assassination, and his pupils were more dilated than usual.
‘That’s right. Master has been assigning him many assassination jobs lately.’
He can’t do the money-making work that Sama Hyeon loves so much, and instead killing people has become his daily routine.
Fortunately, he doesn’t seem to dislike assassination itself.
In fact, his natural talent has been discovered, and even first-rate assassins are left speechless.
But since earning money is what brings him the most joy, he’s fallen into a state of frustrated desire.
‘And as assassination work increases, these days whenever that bastard smiles, I feel the cold chill unique to assassins.’
Sama Hyeon spoke.
“No, no~ Sa Jeo, listen. We’re bound together as disciples of the Golden Blood Hall, thicker than blood. I’m absolutely not the kind of person who’d just kill Sa Jeo because he stabbed me in the back. I just want to understand why things turned out this way~ Maybe our Sa Jeo developed some ambitions about the Blood Crimson Party~ Understand~”
Im Un-heon thought.
If he answered wrong today, this madman might actually kill him.
“Y-yes. I trust you. So just put that hand down on the ground for a moment.”
“My hand? Why my hand~?”
Crack-
His finger joints produced an eerie sound.
“I-I didn’t do any scheming behind the scenes. Actually, there’s no one in the Golden Blood Hall who’d scheme against you! They’re all dead!”
You killed them all anyway!
“Mm~ mm~ Yeah. Sa Jeo, I know~”
Crack- crack-
Was this the sound of joints or the sound of grinding grain?
Im Un-heon couldn’t hold back and just confessed the truth.
“It’s a request from the Emperor.”
“Hm?”
Sama Hyeon finally blinked once.
Blink.
Blink, blink.
Under the moonlight, the handsome man blinking his eyes might have looked quite endearing, but Im Un-heon only felt the urge to flee far beyond a hundred leagues to escape that monster.
“The Emperor commissioned Hao-mun to secretly protect your sworn brother Jin Cheon-hee. And he specifically requested you.”
“Whaaaat?! For real?!”
Sama Hyeon made another strange sound and laughed.
Like moonlight melting away.
* * *
The next day.
Jin Cheon-hee began his duties in Nanking, which had become the Ju Wang Residence, alongside Yu Rang-hu.
The meeting between the Ju Wang Residence and Baekrin County.
Subordinates couldn’t mix their departments without the higher-ups deciding something first.
If you just covered everything and told them to handle it themselves, companies, administrations, and organizations all descended into chaos.
As I drafted the plans, I let out a sigh.
‘Nanking certainly has a larger population than Baekrin County—formerly Baekrin Prefecture—and there are many areas without proper district organization, making construction projects significantly more difficult.’
Especially the slums.
The trend showed the districts expanding as more ordinary commoners fell into poverty.
And for good reason.
In this era without medical insurance, when one family member fell ill, affording medicine became nearly impossible.
So people either chose death, or attempted treatment and fell into poverty unable to bear the costs.
At least with the Baekrin Medical Guild, subsidies were available, making treatment expenses somewhat more manageable.
But going to the Hwaju Medical Institute or other medical guilds and clinics made things far more difficult.
And even with the Baekrin Medical Guild, if a patient suffered from chronic diseases requiring lifelong management, subsidies became a money-devouring beast.
‘At least commoners belonging to Baekrin County had somewhat better circumstances.’
Baekrin County commoners received support based on the Five Relationships—filial support for children under the principle of “the father is the son’s guide,” familial support under “father and son have affection,” and state support for orphans under “the ruler is the minister’s guide.”
With justifications seemingly squeezed from nowhere, they provided benefits in grain and medicinal materials.
It couldn’t be helped.
Medical insurance was a system, and unless the entire Hwa Empire moved together, even I couldn’t change it.
Instead, I threw curveballs to prevent commoners from falling into poverty.
The reason I deliberately named it after the Five Relationships was to block the ministers’ flood of memorials.
The foundation of governance was the people.
And ultimately, for Confucian principles not to fade, at minimum food and clothing were necessary.
‘Even so, it’s difficult.’
The moment a patient appeared in a household, the family came to a halt.
Other prefectures and counties naturally had nothing like this.
Accumulating such budgets was difficult, and making it possible would require grinding governors, magistrates, and every subordinate down to a smoothie—which was mere greed in a world without electricity.
As a result, the great whale of Nanking now carried multitudes of the impoverished.
Naturally, this place teemed with various crimes—opium, theft, human trafficking, and contract murder.
‘Heh, there are even unlicensed quack doctors running rampant.’
The records of the Baekrin Medical Guild contain an account of an unlicensed doctor not on their roster who attempted smallpox inoculation, only to have the disease spread in all directions instead.
According to the records, it seems doctors from other medical guilds hadn’t even studied medicine properly.
‘Yes, I see.’
They’d caught and beaten a few with the cane, but it seemed there was more than one.
‘If they’re caught, they die. Damned charlatans!’
I clenched my fists tightly.
Unlicensed quack medicine was the sworn enemy of doctors, whether on Earth or here.

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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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