Doctor’s Rebirth - Chapter 931

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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 931
I was dreaming.
‘Strange, was this tree always so tall?’
Looking down at my hand, I saw a very small, plump pink hand. A baby’s hand.
The young child was drawing something on the ground.
Though the drawing was crude and crooked, I could tell he was holding a sword.
[What are you drawing?]
Who was asking? I couldn’t see their face.
Young Jin Cheon-hee answered.
“I’m drawing a wandering swordsman.”
The child’s speech was slightly slurred, and his pronunciation was strained.
My cheeks throbbed.
The inside of my mouth stung sharply.
This seemed to be the cause.
Had I collided with something? Been struck?
I couldn’t know for certain, but still the child was trying hard to pronounce each word clearly.
[A wandering swordsman? It seems ■■ is fond of them. What do you like about them in particular?]
“Wandering swordsmen are amazing. Even when they fall, they keep getting back up. That’s how they protect Gangho.”
Indeed, the inside of my mouth throbbed terribly.
I tasted metal.
Blood continued to flow.
It hurts, it hurts.
Yet the child did not stop drawing the swordsman.
Someone watching this laughed for quite some time, clearly amused.
Eventually, that person asked.
[If it were now, a wandering swordsman could protect Gangho simply by falling and rising again. But soon a time will come when that alone will be impossible.]
“…?”
The child’s head tilted in confusion.
I couldn’t understand what this person was saying at all.
[Is your wish to become a wandering swordsman?]
“Yes! I want to become a wandering swordsman and protect Gangho!”
Forcing my pronunciation to be correct, my cheeks and the inside of my mouth hurt terribly again.
But the child seemed satisfied.
[The person of power who struck you is also a person living in Gangho. Yet you still wish to protect people?]
The child touched my throbbing cheek.
It hurt.
But I looked down again at the drawing I had just made.
The sword I had drawn looked so magnificent.
Though it couldn’t compare to a master painter’s work.
It was merely a simple cross, but.
Still, I traced it over ten times without stopping.
A sword drawn by pressing down repeatedly.
How magnificent.
Even if some wretched eunuch came and trampled it, it wouldn’t disappear.
I’d pressed it down ten times with the hardest twig, after all.
This time it won’t disappear.
The child muttered this to himself, clenching his fists tightly.
With this sword, I felt I could become a Kang Ho-in.
Moreover, as a Kang Ho-in, I had just fallen.
One of the common trials found in tales of heroes.
I looked down at my palm again.
It was scraped raw and red.
The child wiped at his eyes with the back of his hand.
“I will become a sword master!”
Pain is still pain, after all.
This time my pronunciation slipped.
[The Gangho of now cannot simply fall and rise again—even if one dies and dies and continues to rise, it’s a terrifying thing whether one can even protect anything.]
And yet you still wish to become a Kang Ho-in?
He was asking me this.
Young children do not understand death.
Yet they do know that they cannot meet the dead for the rest of their lives.
But I was too young to deeply comprehend the concept of death itself.
The child I was then was no genius, nor did I have someone of unwavering resolve dwelling within my body.
I was simply a child.
Yet I yearned for the Kang Ho-in.
It was a position like that of a hero in modern times, an existence that all children admired.
Among the tales of Kang Ho-in I had read, there were stories of trials where they suffered hardship as children like this.
Yet despite that, they rose steadfastly.
That is what it means to be a Kang Ho-in.
[Falling hurts, doesn’t it? It hurts to be struck too.]
I did not deny his words.
“It hurts terribly, but…”
I rubbed my tingling cheeks and moved my aching tongue inside my mouth.
I looked down at my scraped palms and knees.
How many times would I have to fall to become a Kang Ho-in?
I knew that each time I fell, I would scrape myself and feel pain.
And yet.
Even so.
Yearning was stronger than ignorance.
“I still want to become a Kang Ho-in! No matter what hardships come, I will spring back up! I want to become a magnificent Kang Ho-in who protects everyone!”
[Hahahaha! Hahahahahaha!]
His laughter filled the entire space around us.
[How naive, so naive! Trusting people with a bruised cheek! Speaking of chivalry with swollen lips! Hahahaha! Is it because you’re young? Or because you’re foolish! Well, since you’re human, perhaps you’re both!]
He laughed and laughed as if he’d heard the most amusing joke.
[Why are young and foolish things so entertaining.]
He clutched his belly and laughed for a long while before finally raising his hand.
[Yes. Children your age believe in fairy tales and storybooks. No matter how difficult things become, you think everything will eventually lead to a happy ending.]
Withered and skeletal fingers came into view.
Each bone joint, even the protruding veins.
The muscle definition was so visible it seemed like the person had no fat at all.
Though I couldn’t see his face, I could sense how gaunt he was—so emaciated it was surprising he hadn’t starved.
But he was large.
His frame was remarkably huge.
Observing the dream, I pondered.
‘Perhaps he only seems large because I have a child’s body.’
That enormous hand covered the child’s face.
[Pure desire. This is why a child’s obsession is so terrifying. Ignorance and purity are two yet one. Even heaven itself moves by such force.]
The fingers touching my forehead were cold. Or perhaps burning hot.
It was strange.
How could a person’s body temperature alternate between cold and hot.
He spoke.
[Your wish has just been fixed. Baby chivalrous one. How many times must you die before you abandon chivalry? Ten times? A hundred? A thousand?]
Or before that—is chivalry even worth such a price?
Do humans truly deserve to transcend ‘the end’?
He murmured softly before speaking thus.
[When the time comes, I wonder if chivalry will still sparkle so brightly in your eyes.]
Was the being before me human?
Something divine?
Or merely a phantom?
Suddenly, I realized his voice sounded familiar.
A voice I’d heard before.
Yet no matter how hard I tried to remember, it eluded me as if blocked by a wall.
[Yes. Child. Let us make a wager.]
A wager?
[For that, you need something most precious. Bring out what you hold most dear.]
The child hesitated before going somewhere and retrieving something.
After much deliberation, he suddenly held it out.
“The wager is set. You can eat it. You look hungry.”
Perhaps because of his skeletal thinness.
He looked down at his own palm. A gaunt body with nothing but bones.
What the child handed over was his most precious treasure.
“Giving food to the hungry is the way of a chivalrous hero.”
A budding knight-errant.
Perhaps he had been moved by tales of bestowing sustenance upon the impoverished.
The child extended it with resolute determination.
It was something he had cherished and preserved until the very end.
He had guarded it so carefully that the tangerine had now half-rotted, its flesh turned soft and mushy.
That person gazed at the tangerine for a long while before finally fixing his eyes directly upon the child’s pupils.
[My mind has changed.]
“…?”
[I should still make the wager, but I’ll need to alter its terms.]
That person smiled once more.
* * *
“Huh—!”
Jin Cheon-hee jolted upright at last.
“What a strange dream….”
In that moment, nearly half of the dream began to slip away in an instant.
“No, I mustn’t forget… I can’t forget.”
I frantically scribbled across the blanket with my fingers.
But like grains of sand slipping through my fingers, only a few fragments remained.
“Was it just a meaningless dream? Or perhaps….”
A memory lingering in this body?
I cannot say.
Such ambiguity is the very essence of dreams, after all.
Thinking thus, I glanced at my surroundings and was somewhat startled.
I was lying upon a luxurious bed.
Moreover, my clothes were properly arranged.
It seemed I had fallen asleep.
‘Well, after achieving enlightenment and purging all those impurities, exhaustion was only natural.’
Isn’t sleep one of a Kang Ho-in’s most defenseless moments?
Rising from the bed and glancing to the side, I saw a table laden with food.
Truly, the Eunuch General!
‘So this is what they mean by being as attentive as one’s own tongue!’
This must be how one earns the title of the Emperor’s trusted confidant and wields such power.
-The malevolent aura has departed. Come here.
Then.
Suddenly, a familiar voice reached my ears.
I could instantly recognize who possessed this voice.
Creak, creak, creak.
The door leading to Eungryong’s quarters opened of its own accord.
Eungryong is calling for me.
‘What is it this time? And the Eunuch General is probably watching this too….’
Even as I harbored such worries in my mind.
I rose from my seat, picked up the bundle I had prepared earlier and set aside in a corner, and made my way toward the passage.
If Eungryong calls, I must go.
Besides, I had many questions to ask.
* * *
Mist rolls in.
And just as before, I felt it sweep across me before withdrawing and vanishing.
Soon after, I arrived at Eungryong’s dwelling.
Eungryong gazed down at me with the same demeanor as always.
A magnificent and solemn presence, no matter how many times I see it.
A holiness that should not dare be called a living creature.
And furthermore.
Having entered a new realm of the Five Elements Divine Art, I could perceive and feel things differently than before.
‘This is Eungryong’s presence…. It’s overwhelming!’
Even Hae-seon’s body stiffened the moment she perceived it.
There was something about that entity that could drive an ant to madness merely by being seen.
Yet Eungryong possessed an even more exalted presence.
-Your blood has grown thicker. I’m amazed you’ve managed to survive intact until now.
I open my mouth, contemplating the meaning behind Eungryong’s words.
“Have you been watching over me?”
Even before, Eungryong had said she found joy in observing the world through me.
-Originally, I could continue watching. But recently, everything appears only hazy. I can barely discern your condition now. Yes. I smell the ocean. Have you seen the frog?
A frog.
She must be referring to Hae-seon.
Is Hae-seon to this entity nothing more than a frog?
Or perhaps she simply resembles one somewhat, which is why she calls her that?
One thing I can discern is that Eungryong is not particularly favorable toward Hae-seon.
That much seemed certain.
“Well…. Our meeting was brief, so I couldn’t come to know her well.”
I hadn’t even managed a proper conversation with Hae-seon.
I merely heard her one-sided declaration.
-Despite meeting that one, she doesn’t appear to have been released. Though with your ability….
Eungryong fell into thought before continuing.
-That one despises creatures of the land. Had she been released, all the earth would have already been submerged and swept away by water.
‘As expected, even Eungryong acknowledges the big red button!’
I let out an internal sigh.
“Are there many such places?”
-Places where such entities are sealed? There are quite a few. But I cannot speak of them.
‘Sigh… Nothing ever comes easily. This isn’t mere spite, so there must be some reason behind it.’
I muttered this to myself.
-You don’t even ask why. Hehehehe. I do appreciate a perceptive one like you.
Eungryong seemed satisfied.
Watching him, I pondered.
‘Fortunate. Eungryong is capricious, but at least he doesn’t harbor hostility toward humans.’
Even when observing identical ants, how one treats them differs from person to person.
Eungryong was no different.
I unwrapped the bundle I had brought.
I set out a table, then arranged the prepared dishes, food, and wine bottle upon it.
These were offerings I had prepared in advance, for I had questions to ask Eungryong upon entering Bigho.
“I humbly present these to the great Eungryong.”
-So you’ve learned our customs somewhere. I see. You desire something, don’t you?
“There is a matter I humbly wish to ask of you, Eungryong.”
-Hoo. I grant you permission to ask.
Eungryong’s expression showed amusement.
It was fortunate.
“If the Heavenly Mechanism crumbles further, would entities like Hae-seon be able to roam the world freely?”

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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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