I Became the Oriental Doctor for Divine Beasts - Chapter 33

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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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The healer of Divine Beasts
#33
Eunpyeong-gu, late at night.
A narrow alley threaded by sparse streetlights.
Jin Do-gyeong and her Partner Detective moved cautiously through the darkness.
The area was too cramped for vehicles, so they patrolled on foot.
“This way,” Jin Do-gyeong said, raising her flashlight toward the depths of the alley.
Her eyes, normally bright and quick to smile, had sharpened into the edge of a finely honed blade.
“They’re still moving in this area. The odds are high.”
Her Partner Detective murmured in admiration.
“Do-gyeong, you’re something else, you know that? How the hell do you sniff out criminals like that?”
Jin Do-gyeong shrugged coolly.
“Just intuition.”
“That’s not ordinary intuition. When you say ‘it’s them,’ you’re always right. How many cases have you closed anyway—”
“Shh.”
Jin Do-gyeong stopped abruptly.
Her Partner Detective tensed.
“What is it this time?”
She closed her eyes and steadied her breath, pulling her focus inward.
It looked as though she were savoring some faint echo suspended in the air itself.
“……”
A few seconds passed like that.
Then Jin Do-gyeong’s eyes snapped open.
“This way!”
Her body moved faster than words.
At that very moment—
a scream tore through the alley, splitting the darkness.
“Help!”
Her Partner Detective, stunned only for an instant, broke into a run after her.
As they rounded a corner, they saw two helmeted riders on a motorcycle hovering over a fallen woman, about to flee.
“You check on the victim!” Jin Do-gyeong called out.
“Got it!”
Her Partner Detective rushed toward the woman while Jin Do-gyeong bolted straight at the criminals.
But the riders accelerated and sped away.
Her Partner Detective shouted urgently.
“Damn it! The victim’s unconscious! Do-gyeong, forget them and call 119—”
A sound like teeth grinding.
This was the chance to finally catch them.
As Jin Do-gyeong’s jaw clenched in frustration, her eye caught a bicycle lying nearby.
In one fluid motion, she grabbed the handlebars and swung herself onto the seat.
“You’re seriously chasing them on a bike?”
Her Partner Detective shouted in shock from behind.
Jin Do-gyeong didn’t answer—she just pumped the pedals with everything she had.
Her thighs burned as she drove her legs forward, and the bicycle shot through the alley like an arrow.
Wind whistled past her ears.
The riders glanced back, panicked.
“What the hell? She’s following us?”
“Crazy bitch—why is she so fast?!”
Jin Do-gyeong’s vision narrowed with focus, nothing but the bikers’ silhouettes sharp and clear ahead.
Soon—
the gap between them closed until she could almost reach out and touch them—
“Throw it!” one of the riders suddenly shouted.
Without warning, the passenger hurled a wrench backward with brutal force.
“——”
Sensing the metal tool flying toward her, Jin Do-gyeong twisted the handlebars and leaned hard.
Bang!
The wrench whistled past, missing her by inches, and slammed into the wall.
But she didn’t escape unscathed.
Crash, thud!
The sharp turn had thrown her off-balance, and the bicycle collided with a nearby dumpster.
“Ugh!”
Jin Do-gyeong tumbled across the pavement, finally coming to a halt.
A sharp pain lanced deep through her shoulder, and she gasped.
The bikers had already vanished around the corner of the alley.
“Dammit!”
Jin Do-gyeong pulled herself to her feet and leaned against the bicycle, breathing hard.
She glared after the receding taillights, her eyes burning with fury.
The tendons in her clenched fist stood out white beneath her skin.
“……I lost them.”
She bit her lip hard enough to draw blood.
A breeze swept through her short black hair.

I unlocked the Korean Medicine Clinic’s front door as usual.
In the waiting room, a few elderly neighbors who’d come early for opening waited in their usual spots, watching TV and chatting.
The wall-mounted screen carried news like this:

“The victim, a woman, is reportedly in a coma. The suspects fled the scene immediately after the incident.”

I was about to turn toward my office when I heard the elderly women’s voices behind me.
“You hear that? You know that nurse who comes in here all the time?”
“The orthopedic clinic nurse?”
“That’s the victim they just showed on the news.”
Thud—
My heart dropped like a stone.
I felt all the blood drain from my face.
I turned around reflexively.
“Mrs. Bok-soon, what are you talking about? The victim they showed… is that Jo Mi-so?”
One of my regular patients nodded.
“Yeah, that was her name. Got mugged on the way home from work at night.”
The other women shook their heads with pity—”Poor thing, poor thing”—but their voices barely reached me.
I saw her face again, bright and smiling, just a few days ago, joking that her back was killing her.
I heard her grateful voice, telling me how much better the acupuncture made her feel.
‘Jo Mi-so is in a coma?’
She’d always been so cheerful and hardworking.
Always diligent, always looking after her patients, never taking care of herself.
‘Why would someone so good go through something like this?’
My chest tightened with a strange ache.
Whether anger or sorrow, some turbulent emotion kept crashing over me.
“……”
I made it through that day somehow, though my heart felt unsettled the entire time.
Before I knew it, closing time had come around.
Ding—
The door chimed as it opened.
“I’m sorry, but we’re closed for the day—oh? Detective?”
I looked up from sweeping the waiting room floor.
Standing in the doorway was Jin Do-gyeong.
She was as tall and lean as always, her youthful face unchanged—
but her left shoulder was firmly secured in a Shoulder Immobilizer.
“Director Go,” Jin Do-gyeong said quietly.
Her eyes, usually so clear and bright, now carried a shadow of sorrow and heaviness.
“I’ve come to ask you for something.”

* * *

“There was a new attack in this area last night,” she began.

I nodded numbly.
“Yes, I heard… it was Jo Mi-so, wasn’t it?”
Jin Do-gyeong’s eyes widened.
“How did you know the victim’s name?”
“She was a regular here at the clinic. She came in often for back treatment. Did you injure your shoulder last night, Detective?”
At my question, Do-gyeong let out a long breath.
“Yes. Yesterday I used my ability as a Divine Beast and almost caught them, but I couldn’t prevent the crime. The victim fell into a coma.”
Her fist clenched so tightly that the tendons stood out white on the back of her hand.
I ventured carefully, “An ability?”
“Yes. My ability is to smell. I experience human emotions as scents.”
She continued matter-of-factly.
“Joy smells sweet to me, sorrow smells like rain. Malice smells like rot. By following the stench, I can locate the direction where criminals are.”
“Wow…! That’s quite a remarkable ability.”
I stammered in surprise.
Jin Do-gyeong’s mouth turned down bitterly.
“What good is it if I couldn’t catch the criminals yesterday? If I’d only been faster, I could have prevented the crime…”
A heavy silence fell between us, pressing down like lead.
Her self-recrimination seemed to fill the entire space.
After a moment, she lifted her head again.
“What I wanted to ask you, Director—I was hoping you might treat Jo Mi-so.”
“Treat her?”
“They always attack from behind, so no victim so far has seen the assailants’ faces. The criminals are meticulous—there’s not a single CCTV photo of them.”
Jin Do-gyeong paused to drink some tea, then continued.
“But Mi-so appears to be the only one who saw their faces. The panicked criminals attacked her again because of it.”
The image was horrifying—I shuddered involuntarily.
I leaned forward.
“You said Mi-so is in a coma?”
“Yes. The doctors say it’s traumatic brain hemorrhage. They don’t know when she’ll wake up.”
Do-gyeong nodded heavily.
Then she fixed me with an urgent gaze.
“If she regains consciousness and testifies, it will be crucial to identifying the criminals. Director Go, I’ve heard your skills are exceptional. Surely something can be done?”

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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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