The Genius Doctor Who Lives Twice - Chapter 29

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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 29
Allen forced down the sigh rising in his chest.
Twenty years had changed nothing—the man was as stubborn as ever.
“The Almighty God distinguished between man and beast in creation, and yet you would plant the filthy discharge of cattle into human flesh? It is blasphemy itself—not merely abhorrent, but unclean beyond measure.”
“Then, Father, would you permit the Inoculation Method? Cost is no concern—our clinic will bear the expense entirely.”
Allen would have emptied his own purse to see the children vaccinated.
But the priest only deepened his frown.
“The Inoculation Method carries its own doctrinal difficulties. To deliberately introduce pus into a child who has not yet contracted smallpox—should even one child perish from such intervention, it becomes a sin: man destroying life that God has granted in health.”
“Yet if we do nothing, the children may be wiped out entirely by smallpox. In communal settings like this orphanage, the spread is unstoppable. We must fix the fence before the cattle scatter.”
“That men should naturally contract plague and live or die by it—this is God’s providence and God’s dominion. But for man to actively intervene and artificially manufacture disease—that is an altogether different matter.”
……
Allen bit his lower lip.
“Which is precisely why I spoke of the Cowpox Vaccination, Father—it confers immunity without harm or side effects. The children’s bodies suffer no injury whatsoever.”
“As for that grotesque bestial medicine, I have already made my position abundantly clear—it merits no further consideration.”
The priest concluded coldly.
He looked down at his cooling tea for a moment, then continued slowly.
“As for the Inoculation Method, I have heard rumors that certain dioceses near here have begun practicing it. I shall soon petition the Higher Diocese for an official doctrinal interpretation of this matter. Should they confirm that no doctrinal obstacle exists, I will then consider its implementation with a more open mind.”
“Father, correspondence with the Higher Diocese and awaiting their response could take weeks. The orphanage’s situation is urgent now. Surely you possess the authority as a priest to approve the procedure independently.”
“My theological interpretation forbids it. I merely mean to consult the wisdom of other dioceses. As a physician, should you not be satisfied with this much concession?”
The priest drew the line with solemn finality.
He then waved his hand dismissively, as though further fruitless debate were unnecessary.
“My chronic ailment troubles me greatly these days. I lack the strength for more conversation. Let us end our meeting here and resume another time.”
Whether his indisposition was genuine or merely a pretext remained unclear.
Allen had no choice but to rise from his chair.
As he left the Head Priest’s Office, Allen recalled memories he had long suppressed.
‘Nothing has changed, Gabriel.’
During Allen’s childhood years at the orphanage, Gabriel had been nothing short of an iron-fisted priest.
Wielding his position as director like a weapon, he had ruled the children with an iron grip.
In those days, Gabriel was to the children the very embodiment of tyranny and terror.
They would go pale and soil themselves at the mere mention of summons to the priest’s office; beyond the worn wooden door, the daily crack of the rod and children’s anguished shrieks never ceased.
Allen had been clever enough and quick enough to evade most of the beatings through careful maneuvering.
Yet the visceral revulsion and dread engraved upon him were a mark that time could never erase.
‘It remains the same. Even now, my body recoils the moment I stand before him.’
Despite all the social status and medical achievement Allen had accumulated since then, the instant his eyes met Gabriel’s, a sickening pressure would clamp down from the depths of his chest.
Such is the cruel and immovable grip that childhood memories possess within the human spirit.
* * *
Allen returned to the orphanage.
William waited for him, leaning against the orphanage wall.
He needed only one glance at Allen’s expression to divine the outcome.
“He refused?”
“Yes.”
“The Inoculation Method as well?”
“He deferred judgment.”
William twisted his lips into a bitter sneer.
“Foolish men. They claim to follow God’s word, yet in practice they cause far greater harm.”
He harbored genuine hatred for the clergy.
Who had persecuted him in the past, calling him a “child of demons”?
All of it had been done in religion’s name.
But Allen’s circumstances were more complicated.
While he had encountered religious obstacles, paradoxically he owed his opportunities to the clergy’s own mercy.
‘My connection to a patron came through the clergy, after all.’
The Head Priest at the Church School—different from Gabriel entirely—had been a gentle, compassionate man who had taken notice of Allen’s unusual promise.
Through him, Allen had met a noble patron and gained admission to the Royal Medical Academy, becoming a physician.
“In any case, both the Inoculation Method and the Cowpox Vaccination remain suspended until the Head Priest receives the doctrinal interpretation.”
“A misfortune. These children have no idea their priest has abandoned them to the threat of disease.”
William shook his head slowly, gazing at the orphanage building.
“I’d vaccinate every one of them in secret if I could, but I suppose you’ll say that’s unthinkable?”
“It is.”
“Even though one of these children might well die of smallpox before long?”
“Perhaps. Yes, perhaps they might.”
Allen pressed his lips firmly together.
William caught a glimpse of his face and saw genuine sorrow etched there.
“But when a physician begins to believe only his own judgment is correct and charges forward recklessly, in the end there is nothing but ruin. Arrogance, you see, inevitably becomes poison that circles back on itself.”
For William, who viewed matters through a utilitarian lens—where results were all that mattered—the words were difficult to accept.
Yet he could not simply mock or dismiss Allen, for he remembered something the man had said days before.
‘Because you know so well that you’re right, once you cross the line, you won’t be able to stop.’
Clearly this man could see far further ahead than William himself could.
A giant so immense must tread carefully with every step.
One never knows who might be crushed beneath his feet.
In the end, William swallowed his rebuttal with a shrug.
“What a pity. If they had believed your teachings, Smallpox would have become nothing but ancient history here in Danford, at the very least.”
At William’s words, Allen fixed his gaze upon him.
It was rare for this youth, fundamentally skeptical of most things, to speak with such certainty.
“Somehow it seems you have more faith in the Cowpox Vaccination than I do. Haven’t you never actually observed a clinical case of someone vaccinated against Cowpox who did not contract Smallpox?”
“Why wouldn’t I have seen it?”
William laughed sharply.
Allen could easily read between the lines of that laughter.
…inoculated the pus directly into his own body.”
“Yes. I performed it on myself. Seeing no ill effects, I became certain. That this was genuine.”
“That’s true to your nature, I’ll grant you.”
He had conducted a biological experiment on his own person—hence his unshakeable confidence.
To make even his own body a test subject; that took a courage one might call remarkable.
“Sir.”
At the soft voice, Allen turned his head.
Two children, Rimen and Sara, stood at the Orphanage doorway, looking up at him.
“What is it?”
The two children hesitated for a moment at the question.
Allen glanced quickly at William.
“You’re scowling so fiercely the children have grown frightened.”
“No, sir—even you? Am I some sort of ogre? I came here to do good, and…”
William wrinkled his face as though aggrieved.
The hesitant children finally found their voices.
It was Rimen who stepped forward as their spokesman.
“Sir, would you please perform the Cowpox Vaccination on us?”
At the children’s request, Allen’s eyes widened.
“Do you know what the Cowpox Vaccination is?”
“Yes. We heard you and Father Michael discussing it.”
Rimen, saying this, bowed deeply along with Sara.
“We’re sorry for eavesdropping.”
“No, it concerns your very lives—of course you should know. But how much did you hear?”
“…Almost everything.”
“And you understood the content?”
“Yes. You said there’s the Inoculation Method and the Cowpox Vaccination—the Inoculation Method is dangerous because it uses pus from Smallpox patients, while the Cowpox Vaccination is safer because it uses pus from cattle with a similar disease.”
Allen nodded at Rimen’s explanation.
He’d already thought these children clever, but their grasp was remarkably quick.
“Then you must have also heard about the side effects.”
“Yes. You said the Inoculation Method could actually cause true Smallpox and death, but the Cowpox Vaccination…”
“The priests are merely foolish in their opposition—in reality it’s perfectly safe with no side effects whatsoever.”
William interjected abruptly.
Allen shot him a sharp look.
Sara spoke quietly.
“I think the Cowpox Vaccination is safe too. We understand the priests’ concern, but just because someone receives the vaccination doesn’t mean they’ll turn into a cow, does it?”
“We’d like you to do it for us first. We’ll keep the procedure secret. We’re confident it won’t be discovered.”
Desperation colored both children’s voices.
Sara added softly one more thing.
“Once we have immunity, we could care for our friends who are sick and bedridden right now.”
Allen smiled—a bittersweet expression tinged with pride.
Beside him, William’s eyes gleamed as he watched.
He was curious to see what decision Allen would make in this moment.
“Being vaccinated doesn’t grant immunity immediately, understand. It takes at least two or three weeks. Only once the Pustule forms on your arm and becomes a Scab that falls away can you truly rest assured.”
Sara and Rimen exchanged glances, hesitating.
The implication was clear: they couldn’t offer their ailing friends any immediate relief.
“But I’ll inoculate you both. You’ve asked for it of your own accord.”
The two children bowed in gratitude.
“Thank you, sir.”
“Though I’m afraid it won’t be possible just yet. I’ll need to procure fresh cattle pus.”
He would have to either extract lymph fluid from the pustules of someone infected with cowpox, or obtain it fresh from cattle.
The pustules that had formed on Allen’s group had long since scabbed over and vanished.
“You needn’t worry about that, sir.”
William smiled faintly as he rummaged through his medical bag.
He withdrew a sealed vial with a wax coating.
“I have cattle pus here. Fresh—collected just yesterday.”
“Where did you get that? And more to the point, why are you carrying it around?”
“One must always be prepared, sir. I brought it along when I came to the Orphanage, in case an inoculation became necessary at any moment.”
William’s eyes gleamed.
To him, inoculating the Orphanage children with cowpox was a grand clinical trial.
He had confirmed safety through his own body, but he wanted academic verification that the same immune response would occur in other human populations.
“Finding such pus would require going out to rural farms to locate cattle, wouldn’t it?”
“In fact, I infected some cattle on the outskirts of Danford beforehand. Under the guise of checking on livestock health, I secretly made cuts with a blade and transferred the cowpox to them.”
Allen’s expression turned incredulous.
“Why on earth would you do such a thing?”
“To spare myself the trouble of traveling far into the countryside if a patient urgently needed cowpox pus. Simple foresight, really.”
William shrugged matter-of-factly.
Allen shook his head in disbelief.
“Go inside. I’ll inoculate them in my private room.”
“Yes, sir!”
The children hurried inside the Orphanage building.
William watched Allen depart, a faint smile crossing his face.
“Since you’re evading the priests’ notice anyway, wouldn’t it be more efficient to inoculate all the children here in the Orphanage while you have your bag open?”
“You’re testing my resolve again, aren’t you?”
His tone carried reproach, but no sharpness.
It was closer to sorrow.
“Those two children understand the structure of the human body to some degree, and they have the capacity to comprehend my explanations. Above all, they declared clearly and of their own free will—without coercion—that they wished to receive the procedure. That’s why I’m doing it.”
…….
“And I haven’t abandoned persuasion. I intend to keep trying with the priests. I’ll explain to them without ceasing, until understanding takes root in their ears.”
“And if they refuse to listen to the end?”
“I’ll cross that bridge when I come to it. We don’t move through life with answers prepared for every action, do we?”
Allen swept into the Orphanage, his coat tails billowing.
William gazed at his receding figure for a moment, then followed.
And from a distant corner of the alley, someone watched the entire exchange in breathless silence.

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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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