Chapter 188: Some Pasts Cannot Be Changed [1]
Chapter 188: Some Pasts Cannot Be Changed [1]
“R-Ryu Seong-ryong?”
Kang Hyeok shot to his feet at once.
Whether he received Dongpa’s visit while sitting or lying down did not really matter.
But if it was Ryu Seong-ryong, that was a different story.
He’s the Left State Councillor.
A mere Cheomjeong of Junior Fourth Rank could not casually brush off someone that high.
And not just any Left State Councillor.
He was one of the great men whose name would remain in history.
There was no way such a man had come merely to look for Kang Hyeok.
Especially not the very day after his return from Japan.
So Kang Hyeok first poked at the sides of the sprawled-out Dolseok and Makbong.
“Hey, hey. Get up, you bastards.”
“Ugh... I really can’t get up.”
Dolseok pointed at his legs, which were still trembling.
From Kang Hyeok’s point of view, it was a little absurd.
Dolseok had only participated in the experiment enthusiastically for barely five minutes total.
“Hey. Makbong’s already up and dressed, so what exactly did you do to end up like this?”
“What do you mean, what did I do? I did hard labor.”
“Labor? Hey... you’re already over twenty, and if even that counts as labor... no, actually, you did kind of look like that.”
Kang Hyeok grimaced as he recalled Dolseok’s part of the experiment.
It was the most miserable-looking experiment he had ever seen in his life.
To be honest, he had even wondered whether he should perform CPR or not.
In the end, Kang Hyeok gave up on taking Dolseok with him.
There was nothing that slave bastard needed to do there anyway.
“Then you stay here and rest a bit.”
“Ah, yes... thank you.”
“And if I get the time... I’ll fix that rabbit thing for you.”
“Huh? That’s the kind of illness that can be fixed?”
“Mm. Well, it depends how you think about it. But I think you’ll need it.”
“Yes, yes.”
While the two of them bickered, Makbong had already finished getting ready to leave.
Patting the sword at his waist, he spoke.
“Young Master, let’s go.”
“Yeah, right. At times like this, you really do feel dependable.”
“I’m a lot better than that weakling, right?”
“Well, if I’m taking someone around with a sword at his waist, then of course. But don’t give Dolseok too hard a time. He’s... kind of an inva— no, more like an invalid.”
“An idiot?”
“No, an invalid.”
Leaving behind Dolseok, who was somewhere between idiot and invalid, Kang Hyeok set out.
Since they had left the horses behind, Kang Hyeok had no choice but to walk side by side with Dongpa and Makbong.
Dongpa seemed to think the timing was perfect and started talking like a storm.
It looked like he had an awful lot to say to the master he had not seen for a year.
And so their conversation began.
“Master, some time ago I saw a patient like this...”
“Yeah? And then?”
“I cut there just as you taught me, but something was different.”
“Ah, I see.”
“And then I got it immediately. This must be the anatomical variation you told me about!”
“Oh, right.”
For the most part, the pattern was Dongpa bragging about himself while Kang Hyeok nodded along indifferently.
Anyone who looked could tell Kang Hyeok felt no real excitement; his nods were that perfunctory, but Dongpa did not seem to care.
He simply looked starved for conversation.
“So then I—”
“Ah, wait. Right, I had something to tell you, Dongpa.”
Kang Hyeok cut off Dongpa’s story, which looked like it might go on forever.
Dongpa could not hide his disappointment, but he also could not disobey Kang Hyeok.
Kang Hyeok chuckled as he looked at Dongpa, who had at last fallen silent.
“You accomplished something huge this time.”
“Accomplished... something?”
“Yeah. The whole Japanese archipelago is in an uproar because of you.”
“But I never went there.”
Dongpa tilted his head.
Over the past year, he had not even gone outside the capital, let alone to Japan.
That was because Kang Hyeok’s name carried such weight that there were many people who wanted treatment even from his disciple.
Thanks to that, Dongpa had even earned the tremendous honor of examining Gwanghae-gun’s wrist, Ryu Seong-ryong’s anus, Kim Simin’s face, and so on.
Thanks to Kang Hyeok’s ghostly surgery, none of them had any real problems, of course.
In any case, Dongpa had spent an insanely busy year like that.
So he could only look baffled.
“You didn’t go, no. But your famous prescription crossed over.”
“My famous prescription...? Did I ever have something like that?”
Long ago, Dongpa had received severe criticism for the steroid decoction that could be called his private formula.
He had also personally witnessed many of its side effects.
So Dongpa, the man who had invented it, no longer used the steroid decoction at all.
He had stubbornly pushed it so far out of mind that he nearly forgot it.
“You know, that one. The decoction made with licorice root and gobon.”
“Uh... wasn’t that the very thing you told me never to use, Master?”
“That’s right. You mustn’t use it on a proper patient.”
“Are there patients who aren’t proper?”
Dongpa looked at Kang Hyeok with round eyes.
Was Dongpa not, for all his uncertain skill, actually rather admirable in his attitude toward patients?
He was a quack who caused many accidents through sheer earnestness, but still.
So he found it hard to understand what an improper patient might be.
Kang Hyeok smiled quietly at him.
Of course there are people like that. The kind who, if allowed to live peacefully, go on to kill others...
For some reason, the manga Monster, which he had enjoyed as a child, came to mind.
Maybe I made a better choice than the protagonist in that story.
Wearing that inscrutable smile, he walked on, and before long they reached the clinic.
The front gate he saw again after a year still looked new.
No, it was new.
“Hey, what’s this?”
“Ah... that.”
Dongpa scratched the back of his head with an embarrassed expression.
“I actually made a lot of money.”
“Well, I knew that. Of course you did.”
How could he not, when this was the only proper clinic in the capital?
He had even heard that several other physicians had come by threatening to kill Baek Kang Hyeok.
Of course, now that he had become Cheomjeong of the Royal Medical Bureau, they could not pull that sort of thing anymore.
“But I didn’t have any time to spend it. I was always stuck in here.”
“Mm.”
That too was only natural.
With Dongpa as the only proper doctor in the capital, how could he possibly not be busy?
“So I indulged a little. The gate even gives off a scent.”
Dongpa flared his nostrils proudly.
Now that he mentioned it, a faint fragrance really did drift from the gate.
“Oh... I didn’t even see anything like this in the palace.”
“Right? It was imported from Ming, though apparently Ming imported it from somewhere else too.”
“So it crossed water to get here.”
“Yes, Master.”
Still sniffing repeatedly, Dongpa pulled the gate open.
Perhaps because it was expensive wood, even the sound of it opening was smooth.
There was none of the usual squeaking friction.
“Your clothes look better too, don’t they? Is that a uniform?”
“A uniform?”
“Ah, I mean, did you have them made to match?”
“Yes, yes. I wanted even Dorikkae’s lot to have a sense of belonging.”
“Hmm. Good. Very good.”
Kang Hyeok looked around the inside of the clinic, which had become far better than when he left it.
First of all, from the gate to each room, the entire path had been paved with flat stone flooring.
And in front of each room that lined the path stood one of Dorikkae’s men, dressed neatly.
They looked truly dependable.
“Oh! Young Master!”
Dorikkae, who had spotted Kang Hyeok from afar, came running up at once.
Over the past year, he had become almost unrecognizably refreshed and well put together.
Compared to the days when he had lived like a mountain bandit, he looked like an entirely different person.
“Wow, Dorikkae. Looks like life’s been treating you well.”
“I don’t really have much to do. Physician Dongpa had the hard time.”
Dorikkae pointed at Dongpa, who had grown gaunt over the year.
As he said, Dongpa really did look like a man who had gone through every hardship possible.
Suddenly filled with guilt, Kang Hyeok patted Dongpa on the shoulder.
“You’ve worked hard. Get some rest now. Leave the consultations to Yeoni or Yeoju.”
“No, that’s all right. I like seeing patients.”
“Really? Then do that. But don’t overdo it.”
“Yes, yes. Ah, Daegam is in the innermost room.”
Dongpa pointed toward the room set up at the very back of the clinic.
It was the room Kang Hyeok had used before leaving for Japan, and naturally it was the largest and best room.
“Ah, right. He must have waited a long time.”
Kang Hyeok hurried straight there.
Before going in, he looked at the stone steps and found, unexpectedly, more than one or two pairs of shoes.
It seemed Ryu Seong-ryong had not come alone.
Unless someone had opened a shoe shop while he was away.
Slide.
Growing even more hurried, Kang Hyeok flung the door open and went inside.
He did not ask questions or hesitate. He simply bowed his head deeply at once.
Then the formidable figures inside, starting with Ryu Seong-ryong, received his greeting one after another.
“Ah, Kang Hyeok. No, Cheomjeong Baek, you’ve come. Sit down.”
Ryu Seong-ryong spoke first in a dignified tone.
“So you went there the moment you arrived? You must have been itching badly.”
It was Yi Hangbok who welcomed him in a tone that would have suited some wastrel.
Even after a year, he still looked like the same playful older brother type.
“We saw each other yesterday too, didn’t we? Sit.”
The other two were Hwang Yungil and Kim Seongil.
“Ah, yes, yes.”
Kang Hyeok dropped onto the cushion set out in the very corner.
Judging by the look of things, they seemed to have waited even longer than he had thought.
It was easy enough to infer from the empty wine bottles lying scattered around.
“Well now, I’m terribly sorry. I’m late.”
“No, no. We lost track of time talking about you.”
Ryu Seong-ryong waved a hand gently as if telling him not to mind it.
At that, Yi Hangbok laughed heartily, looking thoroughly delighted.
“Exactly so. Really, what a remarkable man you are. Thanks to you, we now understand Japan’s true intentions very well.”
The string of praise made Kang Hyeok feel rather good.
After all, the men praising him were all great figures whose names would remain in history.
“Ah, it was nothing.”
“In any case, after hearing what Yungil and Seungji Kim had to say, the situation sounded extremely grave.”
Ryu Seong-ryong’s face changed almost instantly from laughter to seriousness.
Perhaps because he was a man concerned with the affairs of the state, this expression suited him better.
“So I intend to recommend Yi Sun-sin, who is currently Hyeongam of Jeongeup, for the post of Naval Commander of the Left Jeolla Navy. A talent like that should not remain a mere magistrate.”
“Ah, that is truly an excellent decision.”
Though Kang Hyeok was no deep scholar of history, even he could tell that Yi Sun-sin’s appointment as commander was being moved forward a little earlier.
That could only be a good thing, and naturally it was welcome.
“I have also decided to recommend Kim Su as Governor of Gyeongsang Province, Yi Gwang as Governor of Jeolla Province, and Yun Seongak as Governor of Chungcheong Province. They are each men deeply experienced in frontier affairs, so they will do well.”
Those three meant nothing to Kang Hyeok personally.
But hearing Ryu Seong-ryong speak of them that way, they sounded like very capable men.
And it made it clear that the court was indeed taking the prospect of war seriously.
“You have done well.”
Seeing Kang Hyeok nodding again and again, a faint smile appeared on Ryu Seong-ryong’s face.
But it quickly faded, because the issue before them was too grave.
Yi Hangbok was the one who spoke of that issue.
“However... it seems Daegam Jeong Cheol is preparing to stir something up again. I did tell him that now is not the time for factional strife... but he said this was not factional strife, but something that had to be done.”
“That is what troubles me. Though His Majesty has lately been complaining of dizziness more often, he is still alive and well. So why bring up the matter of a successor already...”