Chapter 195: It’s Not Something You Should Recklessly Cut, But [1]
“For what reason did you summon me so urgently?”
As he hurried along, Baek Kanghyeok asked Kim Gyehan, who was leading the way ahead of him.
“I do not know the details either, but... His Majesty seems quite angry.”
“Angry... This is bad.”
“Still, do not worry too much. I have already spoken well on your behalf.”
After saying that, Kim Gyehan hurried forward again. Even though part of his lung had been cut away, and despite being far older than Baek Kanghyeok, he was remarkably quick. From the palace entrance onward, he was practically running.
Is that why he was able to carry Seonjo on his back and run during the flight? No, no. This is no time to be thinking about that kind of thing.
What did it matter whether the man in front of him had once carried Seonjo on his back or not? The king was in a rage right now. If anything, the one who might soon have to flee was not Seonjo, but Baek Kanghyeok. At least Seonjo might be able to cling to Ming, but Kanghyeok had nowhere obvious to go.
If I get the chance, I’ll bolt to Tsushima if I have to.
While these thoughts ran through his head, the two of them arrived where Seonjo was. The Seonjeongwan he had seen yesterday was standing guard out front, but his expression was far worse than it had been the day before.
“Ah, Cheomjeong Baek. You came quickly.”
“Yes. Just why exactly has His Majesty summoned me...?”
“I do not know the precise reason either. But...”
Trailing off, the Seonjeongwan pointed behind him. Something was lying scattered in the yard before the stone steps. On closer look, it was a meal table.
“He overturned it in the middle of breakfast.”
“Ah.”
Only then did Baek Kanghyeok understand why Seonjo was angry. He had clearly flown into a rage over the shocking taste of the no-salt meal.
It was absurd. Had Baek Kanghyeok not clearly tried to stop him yesterday? And the one who had brushed that aside and insisted on a completely salt-free diet had been Seonjo himself.
I was not even the one who recommended it... No, more than that, he called me here because the food tasted bad?
Baek Kanghyeok looked up at the sky in disbelief. It was still dawn, before the sun had even properly risen. Naturally, he had not even had the chance to lift a spoon before being dragged out. And the reason was tasteless food. Meanwhile, the person summoned had not even gotten to taste that tasteless food himself.
“Mm. Come along.”
“Ah, yes.”
But what could he do? The other party was the master, and Baek Kanghyeok was the subordinate. No, he might not even qualify as a proper subordinate. In this era, the king was a being who could be said to hold almost everyone’s life and death in his hands.
Kim Gyehan hurried up to the door and knocked carefully on the wall.
“Your Majesty, it is your servant Kim Gyehan.”
“What is it?”
They had said Seonjo was angry, and sure enough, his voice was quite different from yesterday’s. But Kim Gyehan, like the seasoned eunuch he was, showed no sign of being startled and continued calmly.
“I have brought Cheomjeong Baek Kanghyeok.”
“Hmm. Let him in!”
At the order, practically a bark, the door was immediately opened.
“Come now.”
“Yes, yes.”
“Do not worry too much. If he were truly enraged, he would not even do this.”
After trying to reassure the tense Baek Kanghyeok, Kim Gyehan entered first. Kanghyeok followed him in and stood opposite Seonjo.
And then, quite unusually for him, he offered a respectful morning greeting. Or rather, he tried to.
“Your Majesty, may you have passed the night in peac—”
“I did not.”
If only Seonjo had not cut him off with a sulking face.
Really, sulking was exactly the right word for Seonjo’s expression. That a man nearing forty could still make that kind of face... In a way, it was impressive.
If he were a junior under me, he’d be dead, seriously.
Suppressing his irritation, Baek Kanghyeok bowed his head.
“What has happened...?”
“When I rose from my bed this morning, I nearly fell.”
Still pouting from before, Seonjo pointed at his palm. To be honest, even a doctor like Baek Kanghyeok would not have known what was wrong with it. It looked completely fine. But from the context, it seemed Seonjo meant that he had hurt it a little.
“Ah, then let me take a look at it.”
“No, there is no need. In all my life, this has never happened. No matter how dizzy I was, I have never nearly fallen, I tell you.”
“Did that happen after taking the medicine I gave you yesterday?”
“Exactly so!”
Seonjo shouted angrily, full of certainty. The more certain he sounded, the more ridiculous it felt. Had Baek Kanghyeok not told him plainly enough yesterday? That he had to rise slowly after taking that medicine. That if he did not, he might feel a blacking-out kind of dizziness.
But Seonjo seemed to have forgotten every bit of that advice. He truly was the worst sort of patient.
This is pissing me off...
Baek Kanghyeok had thought Seonjo was merely incompetent, but now it seemed his temper was rotten too. The urge to say he was quitting rose all the way to his throat.
But it went no farther, because of the pride Baek Kanghyeok held as a physician.
Once my hands are on a case... it has to get better. Even if the patient is Seonjo.
Those who did not need to get better were the people over in Japan. But if he wanted to cure him, Seonjo had to listen. This could not continue as it was.
So Baek Kanghyeok decided to gamble.
“Ahem.”
Suddenly, he cleared his throat. Kim Gyehan’s eyes went wide at the sight. That was not the expression of a subject standing before the king.
“B-Baek...”
Flustered, Kim Gyehan tried to stop him, but Baek Kanghyeok had already moved first.
“Your Majesty.”
“Hmm?”
A low voice. A firm tone.
Seonjo was naturally used to hearing the words “Your Majesty,” but never like this. No one had ever said them in a scolding tone.
Looking straight at the startled Seonjo, Baek Kanghyeok continued.
“Your Majesty, did I not clearly tell you yesterday that after taking that medicine, you must not rise too quickly? Yet not even a full day has passed, and already you speak to me like this. How am I supposed to cure Your Majesty’s illness?”
“W-what?”
Now Seonjo’s expression had gone beyond surprise into outright shock. But Baek Kanghyeok paid no attention to that and pointed outside. The attendants were cleaning diligently, but the traces of the overturned breakfast table still remained.
“That meal as well. Did I not tell you that a meal with no salt at all would be hard for you to eat? The one who rejected that warning and decided to eat it anyway was Your Majesty. Then how can you blame me or anyone else?”
“Wha... this...”
Seonjo hurriedly fumbled around as if looking for something to grab. It looked as though he meant to throw whatever he could seize, whether it was an inkstone or anything else.
But fortunately, there was nothing there. The days when he had shown enough zeal for learning to keep brush, ink, paper, and inkstone by his bedside had long passed.
Baek Kanghyeok continued speaking.
“Your Majesty. As I told you yesterday, this is a truly nasty illness. It is very difficult to cure, and its symptoms only grow worse with time. Your Majesty must have felt it yourself. That the symptoms are becoming far more severe than before.”
“U-ugh...”
What Baek Kanghyeok said was the plain truth, without a shred of falsehood. At first, it had merely been one or two dizzy spells a month. But lately, there had been many times each day when the spinning became unbearable. And what of the noise in his ears? There were often times when, if he could, he wanted to cut the ear off entirely.
Baek Kanghyeok kept hammering facts into the cornered Seonjo.
“If this continues, the time will come when ordinary daily life itself becomes difficult. There will come a day when the sound in your ears keeps you from sleeping, and the dizziness leaves you unable to take even a step.”
That was an exaggeration. Ménière’s disease was certainly a difficult illness, but not every case progressed that far. Still, when someone who had said nothing but correct things until now suddenly said something false, few people would suspect it. And even more so when that person was a subject, and the listener was a king. As a result, Baek Kanghyeok’s words burrowed into Seonjo’s ears with tremendous force.
“I-is that so?”
“Your Majesty. In the whole world, I alone know this illness. And not only that, I alone can treat it.”
That part, at least, was true. Because he spoke in this way, weaving truth and falsehood together, Seonjo had no way to steady himself. The anger that had boiled in him all morning had long since vanished. In its place, only fear of the illness and trust in Baek Kanghyeok were rapidly taking root.
And the moment he saw Seonjo’s expression, Baek Kanghyeok understood that at once.
As expected, you really do need to come down hard on patients sometimes.
But the man before him was not an ordinary patient, which meant it was about time to soothe him a little. So Baek Kanghyeok decided to say something rather cringeworthy.
“Your Majesty, are you not the one who must bear responsibility for all the people under heaven? Then please take care of your sacred body. Follow my treatment, and continue to bestow the same wise governance for many years to come.”
While speaking those brief words, Baek Kanghyeok had to untwist his tongue several times. Because he was saying things he did not mean at all, his true thoughts kept trying to slip out instead. Things like telling Seonjo to just listen to Ryu Seong-ryong, or if that proved impossible, to hand things over to Gwanghae-gun.
Unlike Baek Kanghyeok, who was sweating buckets, Seonjo looked extremely pleased.
“Haha. Yes, yes. I had forgotten my proper duty for a moment.”
Naturally, because Baek Kanghyeok had chosen only pleasant things to say. Of course, someone with a bit of sense might have listened more carefully. But Seonjo was not that sort of person. He merely nodded.
“Yes, yes. I will follow what Cheomjeong Baek says. Then I shall do as you instructed yesterday.”
“Yes, Your Majesty. Thank you.”
“But if the treatment has no effect, there will be severe punishment.”
“If Your Majesty follows my instructions, that will not happen.”
“Mm. Very well.”
After that, Seonjo truly kept his promise. Not only did he send Baek Kanghyeok to the royal kitchen to regulate the salt content of the royal meals, he also ate the low-salt meals prepared that way without complaint. He took the medicine faithfully, and he did not once rise too suddenly. He listened so well that even Baek Kanghyeok found it surprising.
Then again, the symptoms really are improving quite a bit.
The dizzy spells that had struck three or four times a day had already been cut nearly in half. The tinnitus and ear fullness were following a similar pattern.
But it was not enough to be satisfying. Not for Baek Kanghyeok, and not for Seonjo.
“Cheomjeong Baek, compared to the effort I have been putting in, this seems somewhat lacking.”
As usual, Seonjo was half reclined backward. Before him stood Chief Royal Secretary Yi Hangbok, Right State Councillor Ryu Seong-ryong, and Cheomjeong Baek Kanghyeok. At first it had been an unfamiliar sight, but now that a month had passed, it had become completely ordinary.
Baek Kanghyeok nodded as though in agreement.
“That is true, Your Majesty. Your illness has already reached a severe stage, so medicine alone is no longer sufficient.”
“I have heard that the lord of Tsushima, So Yoshitoshi, had symptoms similar to mine. Yet did you not cure him in no time?”
“That is true, but... though Your Majesty’s illness and his may seem alike, they are very different in important ways.”
“Then are you saying there is no other method for me at all?”
That was not the case. Ménière’s disease was certainly one of the difficult illnesses. But there was a way to get rid of symptoms like dizziness and tinnitus. It was simply somewhat crude and frightening.
What do I do...?
Baek Kanghyeok looked at Seonjo, who was even now talking with his body tilted to the right. As expected, the hearing in his left ear was almost certainly ruined. Taking that into account, surgery might be worth attempting.
If Seonjo would only agree.