The Genius Doctor Who Lives Twice - Chapter 5

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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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Episode 5
“Who is that?”
At Allen’s question, Pare let out a knowing chuckle, as though about to divulge some tremendous secret, and produced the name.
“Edward Gordon. A young surgeon who opened his practice four blocks from here.”
“Is his handiwork poor?”
“No. His handiwork is quite good. There was someone whose leg was crushed in a carriage accident some time back, and since they were outsiders who knew nothing, they went to the nearest place. But he amputated cleanly and well.”
Allen tilted his head.
“Then why absolutely must I not go there?”
“Because there’s nothing to learn from him.”
“But you said his handiwork was good, didn’t you?”
“Do you think a surgeon is someone who only performs surgery? A market barber can do that. The real thing that matters is the Master’s Secret Method.”
Pare’s eyes gleamed.
He tapped the table sharply, as if rebuking the other’s ignorance.
“Surgeons make their living from that—the master’s clinical secrets. Surgery, you improve at by doing. But those methods? They can’t be found anywhere else. They’re true hidden arts.”
“I see…….”
Allen, who already possessed that “secret method” in his head, merely smiled.
“In any case, this Gordon fellow comes from a military physician background. Being from such an ignorant crowd, he knows nothing of modern medical theory. Humoral Theory, Vitalism, and even the latest pharmaceuticals—mercury and lead compounds—all he likely knows is bloodletting.”
Pare shook his head in disapproval.
“Even for a provincial place, it’s shameful how far he falls behind. And I know these things, at least!”
At those words, Allen’s lips curved slightly upward.
“Perhaps such a man might be exactly whom I’m looking for.”
Allen bowed politely and left the shop.
The apothecary Pare watched his departing figure for a moment in silence, then shook his head and resumed organizing his medicine bottles.
“Lord, there are plenty of mad ones in this world.”
* * *
On a quiet street in Dunford stood a two-story building of faded red brick.
Unlike the exterior walls mottled with moss here and there, the large window and wooden door on the first-floor facade appeared freshly painted.
A small brass plate hung by the entrance creaked in the wind.

Stepping through the front door revealed a short corridor, and opening another door there finally brought one into the interior of the clinic.
On the wall cabinet, finely honed silver scalpels, surgical scissors, and forceps were arranged in a line, and one shelf held jars of ointment and bottles of compounding herbs in abundance.
On the large consulting desk sat a single inkwell with a quill pen, before it a patient’s chair, and in the corner a leather-padded examination bed.
A squat man lay on that bed—the very bed where patients ordinarily reclined for examination or bone-setting—snoring away.
Snore-rumble.
None other than Edward Gordon, the clinic’s proprietor.
The reason he slept despite it being the middle of the day and proper consultation hours was singular.
There were simply no patients at all.
Passing idle hours seated in the chair, one’s gaze naturally drifted to the bed, and the resolve to rest one’s eyes for just a moment inevitably crumbled before sleep’s tide.
“Confound it! Form a line, would you! How can I possibly see all these people!”
In his dream, he cried out as patients pressed forward.
Did not patients come like clouds from north and south alike, even from the Island, seeking out Edward the celebrated physician whose name was renowned across the land?
“I only have one body…. Snore-snort!”
As his muttering and snoring tangled together, a long shadow fell across the sleeping man.
The shadow paused, regarding Edward for a moment, then withdrew and took a seat in a chair at the corner of the clinic.
How long passed thus.
“Kh-kh, hack!”
Edward jolted upright with a strangled sound.
Still dazed, he wiped his mouth, then immediately swore.
“Blast this! I’ve done it again. That’s why I can’t sleep at night….”
As he rubbed his eyes with the hand that had wiped his mouth, he suddenly paused.
As his vision cleared, he noticed someone sitting in the corner of the clinic.
“Good lord!”
Edward cried out and scrambled down from the bed.
He jumped to his feet and hastily wiped away the traces from the corner of his mouth.
“Patient! If you’ve arrived, you should have said something! What, where does it hurt? Please, tell me!”
“I haven’t come as a patient, Mr. Gordon.”
“…D-debt? If it’s about debt, please wait just a little longer. The clinic has only been open a few months!”
Edward, mistaking the visitor for a creditor, spoke hastily.
“Have you taken on much debt?”
“Well, initial settlement expenses were necessary! Nothing too substantial. I’m hardly a deadbeat—well, I am, but. In any case, who are you?”
Edward, who had been rambling in and out of sleep, gradually came to his senses.
The man before him was tall and broad-shouldered, a stark contrast to Edward’s own squat frame.
Beneath chestnut hair, his features were neat and pleasant, bearing an impression of genuine refinement.
Yet the clothes he wore were threadbare, seams fraying and splitting in places—the worn garments of someone who had wandered long.
“Allow me to introduce myself. My name is Allen Light.”
“I’ve no interest in your name. State your purpose.”
“I’ve come to become your apprentice, Edward.”
Edward’s expression hardened at once.
“An apprentice?”
“Yes.”
“Did someone give you a letter of introduction?”
“No. I stopped by a nearby herbalist and asked about you. He said you had considerable skill with your hands, so I came.”
“Which herbalist?”
“Pare at the Market District herbalist shop.”
“That gossiping old coot! I don’t even associate with him. And there’s no way he’d have spoken well of me—”
Edward was, at least where his own reputation was concerned, painfully clear-eyed about reality.
“What is a weakness in one person’s eyes can be a strength in another’s.”
“Look, I’m hardly in a position to take on an apprentice. I can barely manage the clinic alone as it is—”
Suddenly aware he’d revealed too much of his predicament to a stranger, he rushed to recover.
“What I mean is, I run the clinic perfectly well on my own! Don’t misunderstand!”
“I harbor no misunderstanding. If you find an extra mouth burdensome, I’m fully prepared to pay tuition.”
“That’s not—”
Edward scratched his head vigorously.
He couldn’t bring himself to admit that teaching was impossible because he had so few patients.
“But tell me, you seem rather old to be taking up an apprenticeship. How old are you?”
“Twenty-eight.”
“Hm, same age as me then. But why take up an apprenticeship so suddenly? At your age, that path doesn’t suit you. Look into something else.”
Edward waved his hand dismissively, but this was not a man easily discouraged.
“I have prior experience in a related field. I’m not starting entirely from nothing.”
“Did you abandon an apprenticeship partway through?”
“No. I was a Physician.”
“…What?”
Edward paused, head tilted in thought for a moment, before his eyes widened.
“A—a—a Physician?”
“Yes. I practiced as a Physician on the Island.”
“That’s madness! Are you here to mock me? Get out this instant!”
Edward flared with anger, gesturing sharply toward the door.
It was a natural reaction.
A Physician held a ‘degree’—a genuine member of the gentleman class.
They ranked one tier above a Surgeon in the hierarchy of medical practitioners.
A Physician would never seek to learn anything from a Surgeon.
He could set up practice here immediately and rake in money—so why on earth would he?
Besides, a small town like this had no Physicians at all. They were far too rare, too valuable.
“May a Physician not learn from a Surgeon?”
“…”
Faced with such a direct question, Edward found himself without words.
“I wish to learn how to perform Surgery. Physicians do not wield the Scalpel, do they?”
“I simply cannot fathom why a Physician would come to this backwater and seek instruction from a Surgeon—especially from me. Prove it. Produce your degree.”
He could, of course.
The problem was he didn’t have it with him now.
Retrieving the documents he’d left in Calden would take a full fortnight.
“I can show you, but it will take time.”
“Nonsense! You’re a fraud, aren’t you?”
“Why would I perpetrate such a deception? What could I possibly gain by deceiving you?”
“…”
Edward had nothing to say to that.
To suggest he was a spy sent to ridicule him was absurd—he was already ridiculous enough.
A clinic where only flies gathered, the disdainful glances of those who mocked his military service record.
No one with even a shred of reputation would orchestrate such an absurd farce just to heap mockery upon the already debased.
“If you doubt me, bring any medical text now and quiz me on any section. Anatomy, Herbalism—I care not which.”
His words only made Edward shrink further into himself.
In truth, the only books he possessed were a worn Anatomy Textbook and a thin Physician’s manual.
Reading the medical texts of the ancients required knowledge of classical languages, but Edward’s grasp of them was woefully inadequate.
“Then—then I’ll test you on Anatomy! If you lie, you’d best be prepared for the consequences.”
Edward unfolded the Anatomy Textbook that he’d been using as a pillow.
“Tell me about the course of the femoral artery! Where it originates and how it divides.”
Allen answered fluently, as one would expect.
And more than that, he rattled off information about the neighboring muscles and nerves, details Edward hadn’t even asked for.
His answers to the next few questions were equally flawless.
Edward found himself breaking into a cold sweat.
The man before him knew Anatomy better than he did.
It was shameful for a Surgeon.
“Is that enough?”
“…You’re quite well-versed in Anatomy, I’ll grant you that.”
“The same holds true for other fields of study.”
It was an outrageous display of confidence, but Edward had no grounds to refute it.
“Allen—or rather, I suppose I should call you Teacher now. Why are you doing this to me? I’m just a country doctor who likes to nap, and suddenly you arrive to torment me. What’s your aim?”
“I want to become your Apprentice. I’m sincere about this. I’ll share my knowledge of internal medicine with you, and in return, you’ll teach me Surgical technique. It’s a fair exchange, isn’t it?”
“But why me? There must be plenty of skilled practitioners in this city.”
“I thought you needed me most, and I believe the same is true of my need for you.”
Whether true or not, those words stirred something deep within Edward.
When was the last time anyone had needed him like this?
Even his own patients barely showed him any respect.
“Is it because I have no patients and seem foolish enough to be easily manipulated?”
But the words that actually came out were sharp and bitter.
Edward wanted to slap his own mouth.
“Most of the Surgeons in this city are incompetent. They don’t practice medicine properly. I judged you to be someone who would listen to me without prejudice.”
“Truly… are you sincere?”
“If I weren’t sincere, would I waste my time coming all the way out here in broad daylight? If you truly cannot trust me, then I’ll simply find another teacher.”
Allen brushed off his coat and rose from his seat.

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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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