Chapter 167: It’s Not a Disease That Can Be Cured Anyway [2]
Chapter 167: It’s Not a Disease That Can Be Cured Anyway [2]
It did not take long for word to spread that Kanghyeok had gone with Katō Kiyomasa to meet O-no-dono and Tsurumatsu.
If it had been some ordinary matter, everyone would have let it pass.
But this was no such issue.
So Hwang Yungil and Kim Seongil came to Kanghyeok’s quarters, bringing along Seojeonggwan Heo Seong as well.
“I heard about it.”
The first to speak was Hwang Yungil.
A deep vertical crease had formed between his brows.
“They say you examined Tsurumatsu?”
This time it was Kim Seongil.
He wore a similar expression.
Even Heo Seong, who was silently recording the conversation behind them, did not look much different.
Only Kanghyeok looked perfectly at ease.
“Yes. They said he was sick, so I took a look.”
Hwang Yungil shook his head as he listened to Kanghyeok’s bright, almost cheerful voice.
By now, throughout the diplomatic mission, he knew very well that Kanghyeok had been treating people continuously.
And not just common rabble, either.
He also knew that among those treated were many generals and daimyō whose names anyone would recognize.
But then suddenly Tsurumatsu?
How could that not make his head ache at once?
“It… wasn’t just an examination, was it?”
“Pardon?”
“They said… you told them surgery was necessary.”
As he spoke, Hwang Yungil suddenly gripped his perfectly fine forearm.
It seemed the spot where blood had once been drawn was throbbing again.
Kanghyeok shook his head at the display.
There he goes again.
Whenever it rained, the man had come looking for him several times, saying that very spot hurt.
It had nothing to do with anything, and saying it was all in his mind had not helped in the least.
“Is that true? Did you say surgery was necessary?”
Kim Seongil also asked with a face full of worry.
The only surgery the two of them had ever seen was that fearsome one performed aboard the ship, so their reaction made sense.
The abdomen split open, blood spurting everywhere.
The kind of surgery that made everyone watching go weak in the knees.
Well, it’s not exactly a misunderstanding.
In reality, Tsurumatsu’s surgery would not be all that different.
Of course, Kanghyeok was not planning to cut him open on a ship.
He answered as though it were no big matter at all.
“It’s needed, so I said so.”
The person who had caused the problem was far too relaxed.
Suddenly heated, Hwang Yungil sprang up from where he sat and shouted, “Good heavens, you…! Did you say something like that while knowing who Tsurumatsu is?”
“I heard he’s Toyotomi Hideyoshi’s heir.”
Kanghyeok still looked entirely unbothered.
How could Hwang Yungil and Kim Seongil not grow frantic?
It seemed to them that this young, foolish physician in front of them still did not understand what kind of matter this was.
If he really understood it, should he not have been unable even to sit still by now?
“That’s right. He is the son of Japan’s king… in our terms, the Crown Prince!”
“That’s true.”
Kanghyeok had already sliced open and stitched back together the wrist of Gwanghae-gun, the man who would one day become king.
There was no reason for him now to be afraid of operating on some prince of another country.
“No, but if you come here as part of the diplomatic mission and something goes wrong while operating on another nation’s Crown Prince, what do you mean to do then? I heard his condition is already poor to begin with.”
“Ah… well, don’t worry too much. Do you think I’d have handled it carelessly?”
“Carelessly… good grief. Assistant Baek, this is not something to think of so lightly. If things go wrong, it could become a diplomatic issue.”
Kim Seongil’s expression was like that of a minister submitting a memorial before the king.
Only then did Kanghyeok adjust his own attitude a little.
Looks like I should at least reassure these two pitiful elders a bit.
Did he really think those two had come all the way here out of concern for his personal safety?
They were men who had already written their wills before crossing the Korea Strait.
Surely all they cared about, day and night, was the country and the king.
At least, that was how it looked to Kanghyeok after spending the past half year with them.
“First of all, first of all, please hear me out.”
Kanghyeok changed his tone of voice, expression, and manner of speaking at once.
It was something he used to do back when he was a university professor, whenever he had to scold subordinates or get them to do something.
It had worked perfectly then, and the effect was no different now.
Hwang Yungil and Kim Seongil stopped their separate tirades and looked at him.
“I know very well that Tsurumatsu is important. I hear the Kanpaku, Toyotomi Hideyoshi, dotes on him beyond measure. Enough to name him heir the moment he turned four months old, even though the child wasn’t healthy.”
“That’s exactly what I mean. Think about it. Hideyoshi is already past fifty. Wouldn’t a son gained at that age be precious?”
Tsurumatsu had in fact been born when Hideyoshi was fifty-three, so he was no ordinary late-born child.
On top of that, he was a son welcomed after a lifetime spent roaming battlefields, so it would have been strange if Hideyoshi were not delighted.
“That’s why they paid tremendous attention to the child’s health. They even summoned physicians from foreign countries… but it all seems to have been useless. The child is clearly dying.”
“Is that so? Then if you touch him carelessly now, won’t everything get dumped on your head? From what I’ve heard, the Kanpaku’s temperament is no ordinary thing.”
At Hwang Yungil’s words, Kanghyeok gave a faint smile.
Toyotomi Hideyoshi’s temper.
If he had been a mild and decent man, the Imjin War would never have happened.
Kanghyeok had never seen him in person, but he was certain the man’s character was filthy.
“Well… I can’t say that possibility doesn’t exist. But who am I?”
Kanghyeok abruptly cut himself off there.
Then he looked at Hwang Yungil and Kim Seongil with eyes full of expectation.
Anyone could tell from his expression that he was demanding a predetermined answer.
“An outstanding physician.”
The first to answer was Hwang Yungil.
After all, it was a fact that Kanghyeok had treated Kim Simin astonishingly well.
“I agree.”
The next was Kim Seongil.
Kanghyeok was the one who had saved his nephew.
Though he was basically fishing for praise, Kanghyeok looked quite satisfied.
Smiling like that, he continued, “That’s right. I am an outstanding physician. So the moment I saw the child, I understood his illness.”
“Is that so? What illness is it?”
“It is a disease in which bile cannot be discharged from the liver. Since it cannot come out and only keeps building up, the liver is ruined.”
“Huh. If you know the cause, then surely you can cure it.”
Only then did Hwang Yungil brighten and nod.
But Kanghyeok gave an unexpected response.
He immediately shook his head.
“No. It cannot be cured.”
“What? Didn’t you say you knew the cause?”
In Hwang Yungil’s thinking, everything in the world had a cause, and if one knew the cause, then one ought to be able to change the result.
It was an extremely Neo-Confucian way of thinking, and in theory, quite a proper thing to say.
But anyone who had lived even a little knew full well that the world did not work that way.
“If I had seen Tsurumatsu two months before he was born… then there might have been more possibility. At that point, even if the bile had been blocked, the liver would not yet have been damaged.”
“Then…?”
“Now the liver is already damaged. A damaged liver can never be restored.”
Of course, if there were someone with the same blood type, a liver transplant could be done.
In fact, in recent times, it was not uncommon for patients with congenital biliary atresia to undergo living-donor liver transplant.
But a liver transplant was an extremely difficult surgery.
That meant it was hard enough even with everything fully prepared.
Doing it in Joseon is out of the question.
To begin with, the method of taking part of the liver from a living person and transplanting it—a so-called living-donor liver transplant—was simply impossible here.
That technique was at least ten times more difficult than transplanting a liver from a dead person.
And it’s not like I can say transplanting from the dead is easy either.
Given the local customs, they would obviously kill someone and bring the liver over if he gave them the idea.
He had no intention of doing something beneficial for Hideyoshi at that cost.
I do feel sorry for the child… but at most I’ll give him life-prolonging treatment. Well, I’d be making a child who would die right away live a year or two more comfortably, so he probably won’t think badly of me.
While Kanghyeok privately sorted out his schemes, Hwang Yungil and Kim Seongil were turning over what he had just said in their minds.
Not just turning it over, but amplifying it.
“The liver… then what in the world are you proposing surgery for?”
“When you know this well that it cannot be cured…”
“This won’t do. I need to go tell them right now.”
At last, Hwang Yungil even sprang to his feet in a hurry.
It ended there only because Kanghyeok grabbed and yanked him back down with a strong hand.
“Come on. You have to hear a person out to the end. I can’t fix the liver, but I can make him better than he is now.”
“H-how?”
“Because I can make the bile come out. That part isn’t so difficult.”
“Huh… then what happens?”
“He’ll live another year or two. And for a while, he’ll be much better than he is now.”
“And after that?”
“He dies.”
Without a liver transplant, there was no other outcome.
In this world, the only person who could even imitate a liver transplant was Kanghyeok.
And even he thought that in these terrible conditions, it would be hard to make it succeed.
“I see… hmm.”
“But while we are here—until we receive the reply to the state letter and leave—the child will be much better.”
“That is, at any rate, a good thing.”
“I suppose so.”
Kanghyeok did not expect Hideyoshi to postpone or cancel the war because of this.
Thinking of Yoshitaka’s case, it seemed the man had already made up his mind long ago.
But if Tsurumatsu dies right in the middle of the war… it’ll probably unsettle him quite a bit.
There was no need to say how important a commander’s role was in war.
Even with the same army, the outcome changed entirely depending on who the general was.
Thinking that he was going to use a child who knew nothing did make Kanghyeok feel a little guilty, but that was not the only way to look at it.
Whatever else happens, he’ll at least be more comfortable than he is now.
Not long after Kanghyeok persuaded the two elders and sent them away, Hideyoshi returned.
In the original history, he had refused to grant them an audience for no less than five months, using the absurd excuse that the palace needed repairs.
But this time things were different.
Because he believed his son’s life was at stake.
Of course, he did not immediately declare that he would hear the royal command.
“He says he wants to see Assistant Baek first. Once the treatment is finished, then he will receive the royal command.”
Seojeonggwan Heo Seong relayed the message that had come from Hideyoshi.
Kim Seongil bristled at those words, but there was no particularly good solution to be had.
This was Japan, not Joseon.
“Ah… then, Assistant Baek, I leave it in your hands. Please do well, no matter what. We must deliver the royal command.”
“Yes, do not worry. I will go at once.”
Carrying his house-call bag and bringing his disciples with him, Kanghyeok set out for the palace.
Normally, Kanghyeok would have ridden on horseback, while the rest went on foot.
But perhaps because Hideyoshi dearly wanted his son’s treatment to go well, he sent palanquins for everyone.
Thanks to that, even Dolseok and Makbong got to ride in palanquins, something not fated for men like them.
“Wow, this is… to think we’d live in such luxury here.”
Dolseok said it with an excited face.
Makbong was not much different.
“I’m liking this place more and more.”
Even Yeoni was the same.
“It’s all thanks to you, Young Master!”
The only indifferent one was Kanghyeok.
No matter that Hideyoshi had sent palanquins, once Kanghyeok thought about who had sent them, even his backside felt strangely uncomfortable.
“What’s with all the fuss? Let’s just hurry up and go.”
“You’re happy about it too, and yet you’re getting angry…”
“Ah, shut up.”
“Yes, yes.”
Hideyoshi had sent not only palanquins but even a band to lead the party.
Thanks to that, they were able to ride the palanquins all the way into the palace, guided by horn music and reed pipes.
Once they reached the place Hideyoshi had designated, Kanghyeok was finally able to see Hideyoshi himself, seated on the floor.
For Kanghyeok, who had only ever known the man through dramas and portraits, it was a moment he had rather looked forward to.
All right, let’s see what the bastard actually looks like.