The Genius Doctor Who Lives Twice - Chapter 32

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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 32
The summons was merely the opening move.
Robinson’s design was not simply to see Alan Wright condemned in court, but to render the Edward Clinic beyond recovery.
Moss, the yellow-toothed man, was the operative hand of this conspiracy.
The moment he pocketed his generous operating funds, he set about recruiting seasoned rumor spreaders who would work in the shadows and keep their stories straight.
“Divide Dunford into three districts. Market or alley—doesn’t matter. Just stake out wherever people crowd together. Work the rumors in from there, systematically.”
Taverns, market squares, barbershops, and the stretch outside the bakery became prime targets.
The instructions handed down to the rumor spreaders were simple and direct.
‘The Edward Clinic has been brought before the court. The charges are unlicensed practice and human experimentation on orphans. A formal summons has already been issued from the Haveln courthouse.’
There was no risk of defamation charges.
The filing of the complaint itself was verifiable fact.
By morning, the bakery storefront—with its long queue of customers—became their stage.
The rumor spreaders slipped in among the ordinary folk, speaking loudly to one another as if for their own ears, creating a commotion through sheer noise.
“I heard the judge flew into a rage and ordered them arrested straightaway!”
“Really? What are they accused of, exactly?”
“Don’t even ask. They’ve been harboring some wandering quack healer. Edward’s just the figurehead—that swindler’s actually been running the clinic, doing all manner of unspeakable things!”
“Good heavens! We’ve been putting our bodies in the hands of a fraud this whole time?”
“The truth will out, won’t it? Soon enough the court will lay bare every sordid detail!”
People glanced at them as they hurried past.
The rumor spreaders smiled.
Those passersby would carry the story from mouth to mouth.
At midday, they moved their performance to the market square.
They circled the market several times like ordinary shoppers, then stopped before a stall and began exchanging their rehearsed words with theatrical intensity.
“They say those swindlers conducted experiments, forcing the foul discharge of cattle into human bodies.”
“Lord preserve us, just hearing it makes my skin crawl.”
“They used the poor orphans from the orphanage, defenseless and alone, as test subjects for their human experimentation.”
At some point, without the spreaders needing to say another word, whispers began rising from all corners of the market square.
The rumor spreaders smiled wickedly and moved toward their next target.
The afternoon objective was the tavern.
The Rusty Anchor—the largest establishment in Dunford, and known as the rumor mill of the city.
Men seated at the back tables knocked back strong ale while raising their voices louder and louder.
“Listen, would they issue a summons from the courts if there weren’t guilt involved? And what with all these charlatan healers about lately, people’s minds are already unsettled.”
“If it’s true, then Edward’s finished. Propping up a wandering swindler as his proxy—where did he sell his conscience as a physician?”
“And that’s not even the worst—they mixed beast blood into their experiments! It’s a grave sacrilege against divine law, make no mistake.”
Their voices rang out above the murmur of the tavern, impossible to miss.
As the spreaders noticed the other drinkers’ gazes fixing upon their table, they grew bolder, raising their voices higher still.
“Now then, sirs.”
Then a heavy, coarse voice came from behind them.
Bruno, the barrel-chested tavern owner, stood wiping his hands on his leather apron, fixing them with a menacing stare.
“How many hours now have you lot been sitting there, trading the same tired story back and forth, fouling the air with your noise?”
The rumor spreaders were caught off guard by this unexpected interruption.
Bruno was known for a nature that never involved itself in the squabbles or nonsense of ordinary drinkers.
“Ah, we were simply struck by how astounding the tale circulating through town is…”
“You see that on the wall there?”
Bruno extended a thick finger toward a framed picture hanging on the wall behind the counter.
Inside the frame lay a single slender silver tube.
“Right next to the very table where you’re sitting, people from the Edward Clinic used that one tube to clear a man’s airway and save his life.”
……
“Spread rumors if you like, talk nonsense if you must—that’s your affair—but starting now, you’ll keep quiet. I can’t stomach the sight of you anymore. If you’re so aggrieved, then save a life or two like that apprentice did before you open your mouths again.”
As Bruno stared down at them with killing intent in his eyes, the rumor spreaders felt their throats go dry.
“W-we apologize. We spoke carelessly—the drink got the better of us.”
The moment they tucked tail, the regular drinkers seated nearby began rising and stirring throughout the tavern.
One man, his face flushed red with drink, slammed his cup down with a crack and shouted.
“That’s right! I’ve suffered from a chronic ailment for years, and after taking medicine prescribed by Doctor Edward, it cleared right up! What do you outsiders think you’re doing, wagging your tongues about things you don’t understand!”
Then a laborer at the next table bolted to his feet.
“Those physicians saved my son when fever had him dancing between life and death!”
“My cousin too! My leg was rotting away—I nearly lost it altogether—but the people at that clinic saved it!”
In an instant, a fierce chorus of praise for the Edward Clinic erupted from all sides.
The rumor spreaders, now badly rattled, scrambled to defend themselves.
“But no—the authorities have issued a legitimate summons…”
“Then take it to court and make your noise there—why are you spoiling our drink here?”
“Get out of here right now! Say another word and I’ll crack your skull with a glass!”
The rumor spreaders eventually scrambled to their feet and fled in disarray.
The whisper campaign in other districts had fared no better.
The fact that the Edward Clinic was entangled in a lawsuit spread widely enough, but it never crystallized into Moss’s intended narrative—that they were vile quacks and con artists.
Some people even cast sympathetic glances toward the clinic.
There emerged a groundswell of opinion insisting that the conspiracy had to be exposed in all its details, and expressing certainty that the established surgeons, bloated with profit, must have grown jealous and resentful.
Moss, the campaign’s chief, was taken aback.
He received the rumor spreaders’ dismal reports and furrowed his brow in irritation.
‘Blast it. The trust runs deeper than I thought. The agitation isn’t taking hold.’
He sensed the game had turned against him and ordered the rumor spreaders to stand down.
Instead, he shifted tactics to targeting a witness who could secure certain victory in court.
Moss, together with the Lawyer whom Robinson had hired at great expense, paid a covert visit to a residence in the Greenhills district.
It was none other than the estate of the Noblewoman who had pressed a substantial sum into Edward’s hand not long before, requesting the Inoculation procedure for her son.
The Lawyer, neat in appearance, rapped at the door of the estate with courteous bearing and stepped inside.
Seated across from her in the parlor, he first studied the Noblewoman’s complexion before inquiring after her child’s welfare.
“Madam, I understand your son underwent the Inoculation procedure recently. How has his recovery progressed?”
“Thank goodness, he suffered only a mild fever and recovered without incident.”
The Noblewoman answered while glancing at her son, who was playing with toys in a corner of the parlor.
“But what brings a legal gentleman all the way here?”
“Madam, I fear I must share a grave concern with you. Have you never suspected that the procedure your son received might not actually have been the Inoculation at all?”
The Noblewoman’s complexion turned cold and rigid.
“What on earth do you mean?”
“The Edward Clinic has openly promoted the Vaccination—a grotesque procedure using animal pus. But when no one took the bait, they likely deceived you by claiming to perform the Inoculation while actually inoculating your son with the unclean pus of cattle. They turned your poor child into an unwitting subject for their clandestine experimentation.”
The Noblewoman regarded the Lawyer in silence for a moment with a chilling gaze, then shook her head firmly.
“Impossible.”
“Madam, this is no mere speculation—it is a reasonable suspicion…….”
“Absolutely not.”
“How can you be so certain? They surely first recommended the Vaccination to you before the procedure, didn’t they?”
“Precisely because they did.”
The Noblewoman countered firmly.
“If they truly meant to inoculate my child with cattle pus, they would never have asked me in the first place. They would have done it in secret.”
……
“They asked me twice—once at the clinic and once more here at my estate before the final procedure—and they respected my wishes. That is the clearest proof that they treated their patient with a physician’s conscience.”
The Lawyer faltered at this unexpected logical rebuttal and adjusted his spectacles.
But he quickly produced his trump card, prepared in advance, and pressed on with stubborn insistence.
“However, Madam, what if there were a witness who saw Edward’s apprentice, only hours before arriving at your estate, covertly collecting ‘cattle pus’ from the udders of livestock tethered at the Market and packing it into a container?”
The Noblewoman’s pupils trembled for an instant.
The Lawyer seized his opening and moved to drive the wedge deeper.
“Madam, was the pus your son received truly human pus? It may well have been the foul discharge of beasts. In court, the truth…….”
“Listen here, Lawyer.”
The Noblewoman narrowed her brows and cut him off mid-sentence.
“Do you take me for a fool?”
……
“I know perfectly well whose pus was used on my child. I even offered them my gratitude and a gift of money after the procedure was complete. Did you really think I could be deceived by such crude lies?”
“No, Madam. My intention was never to insult you, but truly for the sake of the greater good…….”
“Enough! Men who claim to practice law, yet traffic in such base slander in broad daylight? I cannot abide it. Now leave!”
The woman pointed a finger trembling with anger toward the door of her estate.
“If you wish to undo the Edward Clinic out of jealousy, then compete fairly through skill. But cease this vile scheming!”
The Lawyer shuffled out of the estate, deflated and cowed.
Moss, who had been lounging against the wall beside the gate gnawing a cigarette between yellowed teeth, spat and greeted him.
“Well? How did it go?”
“Not a chance. The trust is stronger than imagination. We’re fortunate if she doesn’t countersue.”
“Damn foolish woman.”
Moss spat roughly onto the ground.
All the cards he had so confidently prepared were going straight into the trash.
The public opinion campaign had failed, and securing a solid witness had been demolished in ruins.
The Lawyer cleared the dust from his spectacles by blowing on them and straightened his coat.
Then, regarding the anxious Moss, he smiled.
“Still, there’s no need for despair. We have Gabriel, the Chief Priest, on our side. One testimony from a man of the cloth whose sanctity has been profaned—the Judge of Haveln won’t be able to do anything but favor us.”
“Will one old man’s testimony really be enough?”
“The most spiritually authoritative clergyman in this city has signed the complaint filing himself. That alone is more than sufficient to secure a conviction.”
The Lawyer waved a dismissive hand as though the insult he’d endured from the Noblewoman were beneath his notice, then climbed into the carriage.
It was simply the nature of lawyers willing to wade through mud for victory’s sake.
Left alone, Moss bit his lip.
‘What if the Duke collapses entirely and I have to disgorge every last coin of the retainer fee I’ve already spent?’
A man who had spent his whole life crawling through back alleys, who believed that scheming and collusion ran deeper in the human heart than trust, now found that conviction cracking.
Yet today, confronted with the steadfast reputation of the Edward Clinic, he felt those old certainties splinter for the first time.

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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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