The Immortal Duke’s Physician Is an Internist - Chapter 7

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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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Someone called it God’s Curse.
Someone else called it God’s Blessing.
But she was the first to call it a disease.
“I’ve killed plenty of people and saved plenty, but not a single one has ever come back saying they owed me debts from a past life. I don’t believe in such things.”
“So you’re saying you won’t kill me—that you’ll keep me alive?”
The woman’s eyes widened as she asked. Blasion nodded in affirmation.
“Not that I’ll keep you alive forever. I’m giving you one year. Find me a way to die within that time.”
“And if I can’t find one?”
“Then you’ll have to die for real, to keep me silent.”
At those words, the woman asked something Blasion hadn’t anticipated at all.
“What will you do with your remaining fortune after you die?”
“……Your fortune?”
“Yes! You’re enormously wealthy, aren’t you? Once you’re dead, you can’t take it with you anyway, so give it all to me. Then I’ll gladly become your personal physician.”
Hadn’t she just said she was ready to die? Yet now she was flipping her hand over and laying bare her greed just like that?
The woman spoke with such confidence, as if she already owned this estate.
“Your Grace, since it’s come to this, I’ll stake everything I have and grant you a peaceful death. So won’t you trust me in return?”
“You’re brimming with ambition to swallow this estate whole, and yet you speak such saccharine words.”
“But you’ve already decided to hire me, haven’t you?”
The woman shrugged once. In that gesture of hers, now free from the threat of death, there flowed an ease that seemed boundless.
“Don’t worry too much, Your Grace. I’m certain there’s a reason I fell into this world. So let’s start by trusting each other. Because…….”
And with that, the woman extended her hand. Small like before, pale and utterly ordinary, and yet…….
If he took this hand, might his true wish come true?
It seemed possible.
Hope without reason made his heart ache.
“……True healing begins when patient and physician trust each other!”
Blasion finally grasped her small hand.
There, in the heart of spring when all things bloom, he made his declaration.
“Lionel Frencia. From today onward, I employ you as the Personal Physician of the Karceido Duchy.”
“Thank you, Your Grace. I pledge my best efforts to your health and that of the estate!”
* * *
The next morning.
I counted the zeros on the cheque one more time. The amount written there was enough to make me grin like an idiot just looking at it.
The debt was completely erased. The fact that I’d gained complete independence from the Frencia Estate made me even more elated.
‘The only flaw with this job is that they serve nothing but dried meat and juice for every meal…… but let me set that aside for now. First, I need to sort out the situation.’
With paper spread before me, I methodically wrote down the contents of the Undefeated Flower.
First, the heroine. By now, she would be training at Cresto Monastery.
‘But in the original work, there was never a story about someone attacking the duke’s household like this. The heroine and the duke were just going back and forth about dying, and then my failed stock-market-obsessed love interest gets involved…… That was the main story.’
There were two possibilities.
Either this wasn’t the world of the Undefeated Flower, or my intervention had completely twisted the course of events.
Either way, my task was clear: as the duke’s personal physician, I would do my utmost to unravel the secret of the Immortal.
‘The most likely approach seems to be using the heroine’s bodily fluids or saliva…… but if I mobilize all my medical knowledge, I’m certain I can find other methods too.’
So now that it’s come to this, let me completely block any meeting between the heroine and the duke.
The duke gets his wish safely. I secure the fortune. The heroine becomes the priest she wanted to be. Wouldn’t everyone be happy in their own way?
“……Let me do my best, Lionel Frencia. I’ll make sure to survive even after one year.”
I made the promise to myself once more.
* * *
“Shall we start with a medical questionnaire?”
What Lionel held out before Blasion was a comprehensive health screening form familiar to modern office workers.
“Question one: How do you assess your current state of health? Excellent, good, fair…….”
“Exceptionally excellent. I’ve suffered no particular ailments over the past seven hundred twenty years and have no family history of disease. Neither tobacco nor alcohol has ever done me any harm whatsoever.”
The questionnaire was finished in five seconds flat. Lionel set it aside with an awkward expression.
“I see…… Well then, let me listen to your breathing sounds with the stethoscope.”
Just as Lionel was fitting the stethoscope to her ears and turning her head—
“Wait, I only meant for you to unfasten a few buttons. Why are you taking off your entire shirt?”
“Nothing can obstruct a proper examination.”
“Sigh…….”
Admittedly, the duke’s attitude and demeanor were exemplary as far as patient conduct went.
Lionel recalled the various patients she’d encountered in the hospital of her past life. Most had been good people, but no matter where you went, there were always those who simply wouldn’t listen.
“Did you fast properly for the ultrasound examination today?”
“Of course! I thought I’d starve to death. Why are you starving an old woman like this?”
“Huh? Why is there white stuff around your mouth……. There’s a yogurt bottle in the trash?”
“Yogurt isn’t meant to be eaten. You drink it, so it’s fine!! I slurped down the strawberries inside myself!”
……Like Grandmother Kim Bok-soon in Room 903, who managed to give me a headache like this.
“I did tell you to quit smoking for sure, didn’t I?”
“Of course! I really did my best to quit!”
“……You didn’t smoke even once, correct?”
“Well, I can smoke one! You can smoke one even while you’re quitting, can’t you?”
……So Patient Park Young-chul in Room 701 ended up getting an earful from the professor.
Ah, recalling those memories makes my stomach ache. In comparison, our male lead is such a conscientious patient.
Of course, in other respects he does make me develop certain selfish motives.
“Why are you doing that?”
Lionel scanned his torso from top to bottom, and the duke asked.
“Oh, just admiring it, really.”
Blasion let out a soft chuckle.
But something felt off. Lionel, whom I’d expected to show embarrassment, was instead scrutinizing his body with increasing brazenness, her reactions flowing freely.
“Your musculature looks like something straight out of an anatomy textbook. It’s truly fascinating!”
“……Is that your only reaction?”
“Good heavens, it’s such an ideal teaching model that I’d like to stand him on a medical school podium wearing nothing but shorts.”
Lionel didn’t notice Blasion’s expression subtly shift. Instead, she promptly asked what she was curious about.
“Did you have a body like this even before becoming Immortal?”
“……The same body as when I became Immortal at twenty.”
“I see. Then, let me listen for a moment.”
Lionel carefully brought the stethoscope to his chest. She concentrated all her attention, but she heard no heartbeat.
“Is it possible you haven’t had your heart beat even once since you turned twenty?”
“My heart beat when I was gravely injured.”
“How gravely?”
“When my arm was severed. When my legs were severed. My heart beat powerfully as I regenerated. I don’t remember when my head was severed, but it probably beat then too.”
“……Do you still feel pain?”
“Even if I don’t die, I feel pain just the same.”
Lionel, having grasped something, raised one hand and explained.
“It seems your heart is normally at rest, but in life-threatening situations, it pumps to aid your body’s Regeneration. So I think it would be worth investigating whether we might stimulate your heart some other way. I’ll look into methods going forward.”
The first examination ended like that.
While Blasion buttoned his shirt, Lionel fell into thought.
‘What could stimulate the heart? In the modern world, I’d start with a Defibrillator at 200 joules, but there’s no such thing here.’
While her mind churned, Blasion finished dressing. Once he’d fastened the final button, he suddenly spoke.
“Usually people panic in a situation like this, but it seems I chose my Personal Physician well.”
“……What do you mean?”
“Plenty of them touch me with ulterior motives during examinations. That’s why Personal Physicians number 2, 7, 18, and 24 were dismissed. Number 5 tried to seduce me outright.”
“That’s insane…….”
“I won’t need to worry about needless concerns with you. So I’m returning this.”
Lionel shot to her feet when she saw what Blasion pulled from his pocket.
It was the Pocket watch she’d given Ailey a few days ago.
“Why—why is this here?”
“I got it back from Ailey.”
“You took back something I gave her?!”
“Don’t worry. Once she learned it was your mother’s keepsake, she asked me to return it to you directly.”
Though elated, Lionel couldn’t shake her complicated feelings.
“No matter what, it feels odd to receive back something I’d given away…….”
“I gave Ailey an Emerald necklace the same size as the watch, so you needn’t concern yourself. If you continue to be bothered by it……, then you can pay for the emerald’s value.”
“I’m grateful for your great consideration, Your Grace. I’ll cherish the returned watch dearly.”
Lionel made a swift decision and bowed deeply.
Blasion, standing at the pinnacle of capitalism itself, responded with ease.
“I appreciate your understanding.”
Just as their conversation reached a natural pause.
Knock, knock. With the sound of a knock, Kaelyun entered.
“You have a visitor in the drawing room. He says his name is Adrian, the eldest son of Marquis Dorset.”
“I don’t know him. What does he want?”
“Well……, precisely speaking, he asked to meet not you, Your Grace, but Miss Frencia.”
Kaelyun and Blasion’s gazes turned toward the same person at once.
Lionel Frencia answered with an expression of utter distaste.
“A stalker.”

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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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