The Physician of Traditional Medicine Returns from Murim - Chapter 68

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This chapter was translated by Lunox Team. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
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Chapter 68

At my confident words, color returned to Yun Jeonghun’s face.

“Thank you! I’ll pay whatever it costs, so please take good care of him with the best medicine.”

Perhaps because stomach cancer was discovered early thanks to me, his trust was high from the start even though he hadn’t seen my skills yet.

I do like patients with this kind of attitude.

They’re comfortable to treat, and patients who completely trust their doctor actually have much higher recovery rates.

But unfortunately, dumping syndrome isn’t the kind of condition that can be completely cured with one best medicine… Though perhaps that’s exactly why the Yun father and son following me might shine.

I explained honestly about what I could do within my capabilities.

“Of course I’ll prescribe well for you. The reflux symptoms, burning sensation, and nausea you mentioned as uncomfortable will be considerably controlled with medication. The fatigue will definitely improve, and the dizziness will also reduce to some extent.”

“Ah, I’m not expecting a complete cure right away. Even just that would be truly grateful.”

I shook my head.

This wasn’t something I was saying to save face in case I couldn’t treat him.

“The most important thing is changing your eating habits to a dumping diet. You heard from the doctor to eat little and often, chewing thoroughly, right?”

“Yes. They said low-carb, high-fat, high-protein diet to not raise insulin. I am eating slowly during meal times.”

Yun Hanbyeol answered.

Seeing how he slightly avoided eye contact, it seemed he wasn’t following it thoroughly either. He also didn’t seem to understand what it meant about not raising insulin.

I drew a simple diagram on paper.

Esophagus, stomach, and small intestine.

“You learned that consumed food goes down from the esophagus through the stomach to the small intestine, right?”

“Yes.”

“Originally, food that comes down from the esophagus stays in the stomach for several hours to digest once, then gets sent down to the small intestine little by little. But right now, the control mechanism that regulates this is missing.”

“…Yes.”

Yun Hanbyeol’s expression became slightly dejected.

It seemed like he was realizing the fact that more than half his stomach was gone.

‘Hmm, this isn’t good.’

I changed my expression a bit.

Rather than explaining things too literally, it would be better to make it easier to understand.

“When we raid, the High Priest spits out mobs little by little, right?”

“Huh? Oh, that’s right.”

I drew a raid boss from Jungyeon Online next to the digestive system diagram. And I represented the Makyeo remnants with stick figures.

When I suddenly changed the subject, Yun Hanbyeol looked puzzled but nodded his head.

I could tell that his eyes definitely regained their sharpness.

“When you kill 70% of the mobs, it automatically moves to the next phase and even stronger mobs come out, right? But what do you think would happen if all of them came out at once as soon as we meet the High Priest?”

“Uh… with our current specs, we’d all die, right? Unless we’re all wrapped in mythic-grade equipment from this raid and everyone hits max level.”

Yun Hanbyeol said, tilting his head.

Right. We couldn’t handle it. As he said, with our current guild specs, clearing would be impossible.

“That’s the situation happening to Kkyu Kkyu… I mean, Hanbul right now.”

“…Yes.”

“What I’ll do is raise our party’s specs. Like when I gave you that armor last time.”

“Ah, I was really grateful for that.”

“And there’s something Hanbul needs to do.”

I drew an Enforcer following the High Priest next to the High Priest drawing.

In Jungyeon Online’s setting, the High Priest is one of the top powerhouses and authority figures in Makyeo, and the Enforcer is a position arbitrarily appointed by the High Priest. Something like an attendant, I guess? Anyway, in the story, they didn’t seem very strong.

“An Enforcer?”

Yun Hanbyeol immediately recognized my crude drawing.

“Yes. Instead of the function where the phase changes when 70% of mobs die being gone, this guy’s remaining HP controls the mob summoning.”

“Oh…”

“But this guy is too weak. If you use a skill once, his health suddenly drops this much.”

“Ah.”

He understood my analogy very well.

I asked Yun Hanbyeol.

“So what should we do?”

“Hit with basic attacks, kill mobs, then hit with basic attacks again?”

As expected, he’s smart because he’s good at games.

He understood perfectly.

“Exactly. White rice, noodles, snacks – these carbohydrates are too strong, so if this many remnants pour out, we can’t handle it with our current specs. You need to eat meat little by little. So that the party members, the various organs in your body, don’t suffer, Hanbul still needs to control it for now.”

“I understand.”

“Even if it’s a bit troublesome, carry food with you and eat little by little. Eat a little at the start and end of lunch time, and a little more during break time. Eating just slightly slower than your friends won’t be enough.”

“Yes.”

“You won’t have to keep doing this forever, so let’s endure for just a few months! Fighting like this will raise your level, and other organs will adapt. From then on, you can go all-out with your attacks.”

Yun Hanbyeol burst out laughing.

Yun Jeonghun didn’t seem to understand my analogy, but since Yun Hanbyeol was happy, he nodded along and smiled.

“Besides the symptoms I just mentioned, are there any other uncomfortable points? Like not being able to sleep, or feeling cold a lot…”

I decided on a prescription after a brief examination.

Yukgunja-tang (Six Gentlemen Decoction).

It was an excellent prescription for replenishing energy weakened by surgery while resolving phlegm-fluid symptoms like dizziness, nausea, and reflux.

I’ve equipped him well, so if he takes time to level up, he should adapt.

‘This should be enough for Hanbyeol to be careful on his own, and what’s left is the diet.’

I sent Yun Hanbyeol off first, then gave Yun Jeonghun more detailed teaching on management methods.

“…I’ll do that. Thank you for explaining it in detail.”

Fortunately, the father who loved his son dearly said he would gladly take on the troublesome tasks.

* * *

After visiting the Oriental Medicine Clinic, Yun Jeonghun’s daily routine began at 6 AM.

Director Han Yewon recommended dividing meals into at least 6 portions to minimize Yun Hanbyeol’s symptoms for the time being.

So he was now packing two lunch boxes for school meals, excluding the school lunch.

‘Phew, I thought I just had to grill things, but it’s not easy.’

She had told him about several Oriental Medicine Hospitals that would prepare individual meals if hospitalization became too difficult, but Yun Hanbyeol didn’t want to be hospitalized.

It was probably because he had become close with friends at his new school.

Instead, one of those Oriental Medicine Hospitals had posted meal plans on their website, so he cooked directly using that as reference.

“…Dad made this? Really?”

Yun Hanbyeol was very moved when he saw the lunch box.

“My son is having the hardest time, so I should naturally do at least this much.”

“Ah….”

When Yun Jeonghun smiled and handed over the lunch box, Yun Hanbyeol’s face contorted.

‘Ugh.’

For a moment, the voice of his son pouring out harsh words flashed by.

Just die, I never want to see you again, do you think you can live well alone after abandoning me….

Back then too, that child had exactly that kind of expression.

Drop.

A tear fell.

“Thank you, Dad.”

But the words that came from Yun Hanbyeol’s mouth were completely different from before.

“Thank you. Really, thank you.”

The tears that had been welling up flowed down his cheeks.

“….”

What had he been doing all this time?

To this fragile child, how much hurt had he caused?

He had been so busy aching from the dagger stuck in his heart from becoming a father that he didn’t even have the courage to see how tattered his son had become.

I’m sorry.

Those words rose to the tip of his chin.

But what was he apologizing for? For leaving you alone? For not understanding? Or… for resenting you?

Yun Jeonghun didn’t want to seek forgiveness for all the wounds he had inflicted with that simple phrase “I’m sorry.”

He should apologize. But not now.

He didn’t want this act of packing lunch boxes every day from now on to become atonement.

“Dad always loves you.”

Yun Jeonghun said while hugging Yun Hanbyeol tightly.

This is just natural.

Because I’m your dad.

Yun Jeonghun smiled as he saw his son off to school.

Yun Hanbyeol sniffled as he got on the bus.

* * *

Gulp.

Yun Hanbyeol drank down the prescribed herbal medicine.

He finished his meal very slowly, took his medicine, and was sitting in his chair resting.

It was a noisy lunch break, but he couldn’t join the boys’ soccer and had to wait for digestion in a slanted position.

‘I only cleared a little, so fight hard!’

Thinking about running raids with his Party members made this waiting time not so boring.

“Is that herbal medicine? It must be really bitter! Are you okay?”

A group of girls approached him and started talking.

“Ah… I expected it to be, but it’s better than I thought. After taking the herbal medicine, I don’t feel stuffy anymore either.”

Since he didn’t know her name, he sneakily peeked at her name tag. He had become friends with some boys, but it was still hard to connect the girls’ names and faces.

Anyway, he was grateful that she was talking to him out of concern.

Since he had stomach cancer surgery and even collapsed once in front of his classmates, weren’t they all looking after him with pity?

Honestly, he didn’t really dislike it.

“Really? That’s a relief!”

Then the girl who had spoken suddenly pulled out a macaron from her pocket.

“Eat this. I bought it yesterday when I went to Seomyeon with these girls, and it’s really delicious. If you came from the countryside, you probably don’t know Busan’s good restaurants yet, right?”

“Ah! Jeom Soon, what are you doing!”

“Your house doesn’t have these, right?”

The girls next to her burst into laughter and teased her.

She protested that she was giving it to him because she felt sorry for him being alone like this, but the girls were too busy teasing each other to pay attention.

“Ah…”

Yun Hanbyeol stared intently at the macaron.

Honestly, he really wanted to eat it.

‘If I eat that, I’ll one-shot the Executioner.’

But he endured it with transcendent willpower.

He couldn’t kill all the party members.

“I’m really grateful, but I still can’t eat snacks well. Actually, I’m eating my meals in portions too.”

“Oh really? I didn’t know, sorry!”

When he briefly explained his symptoms, the girls felt very sorry.

“If you don’t want to eat it, give it to me.”

And that macaron went into the mouth of the girl sitting next to him.

Leaving them behind, Yun Hanbyeol fell into thought again.

‘Come to think of it, even when I was in the countryside…’

There was a classmate who had worried about him.

When he was feeling a bit nauseous and retching in the restroom, a boy had spoken to him.

– Hey, are you okay? Don’t you need to go to the hospital?

Thinking about it now, it was concern. But at the time, those words made him feel so bad.

Maybe it was because he wanted to go to the hospital but couldn’t.

– Where would there be a hospital in this rural corner?

– …Who are you to look down on us?

They fought.

And after that, no one spoke to him.

Thinking about it again, it wasn’t that those kids disliked Yun Hanbyeol, but that he had disliked them first.

His classmates had even made a rolling paper and sent it to the hospital.

The surgery had ended really quickly, so he hadn’t even been hospitalized for a week.

‘I transferred schools without even saying goodbye.’

In truth, it wasn’t his classmates he had disliked, but reality.

He had vented his anger in the wrong place, and felt wronged when no one accepted it.

Yun Hanbyeol thought for a moment, then took out his phone.

Fortunately, he had contact information saved from early in his transfer.

‘Hmm. The guild master would probably know a cool way to say this.’

But bothering him with something like this would be a bit much, right?

Yun Hanbyeol just sent a brief greeting.

That he was grateful back then, sorry for picking a fight, that the surgery went well, and asking if he could visit during vacation.

The reply came right back.

‘…It was this simple.’

While he was at it, he also sent greetings to his grandmother and a message to his mother.

Mother.

He had thought that after remarrying, she had completely forgotten about him.

He had been very surprised to learn that she had been continuing to pay his insurance premiums. She had even come from Seoul to Busan to see him during his surgery.

Greeting such precious people made him feel somehow proud.

Lunch break ended quickly as he used his brain to choose what to send in text messages.

* * *

One month later.

“Aaaaah! No, Cheongpung. How could you use your ultimate there?”

“I thought we could win…”

“Do you think Cheongpung is the guild master? How could you hit that!”

“Waaah. Kkyu Kkyu, please help me! Father is bullying me!”

Yun Jeonghun, who had started Jungyeon Online to spend time with his son even after work, quickly became able to pull his weight in the party.

It had been suggested to help the father and son restore their relationship, but unintentionally the party’s strength had been enhanced.

“How are both father and son so good at games?”

“I was flying around in my younger days. Where do you think his skills came from?”

“Even so… how in just one month…”

Ah, now I won’t have to worry about damage even without me!

I smiled very contentedly and made my character perform a clapping gesture.

“Come to think of it, how did yesterday’s hospital visit go?”

Then I suddenly remembered and asked.

It had now been two months since Yun Hanbyeol’s surgery ended, but he was still visiting the hospital periodically for follow-up observations.

“Ah, I told that doctor everything too! That the dumping symptoms completely disappeared after taking herbal medicine! He was very surprised!”

I had asked about the test results, but Yun Jeonghun started talking about what had happened the day before.

No, I had emphasized so much that eating in portions was more important, so what if he goes around saying it was cured with medicine?

What the doctor would have replied was obvious without even seeing it.

“At first, didn’t you tell me not to take herbal medicine? He got angry about that, but when I got completely better right after taking it, didn’t his expression change? He said you must be an amazing person!”

…There’s no way that could be true, right?

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This chapter was translated by Lunox Team. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
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