Chapter 197: The Procession to Suwon [1]
Chapter 197: The Procession to Suwon [1]
With Seonjo’s support, Baek Kanghyeok was able to obtain not only the materials needed for Seonjo’s surgery, but also the other materials he needed for private use as well.
“Young Master, I think about half the toads near the capital must have been caught this time.”
“I think so too.”
“His Majesty really is frightening. The moment he said they were needed, the soldiers...”
“Mm. Yes. His Majesty is frightening.”
Baek Kanghyeok nodded repeatedly. The sight of the elite soldiers guarding the capital moving in perfect order to hunt toads was a spectacle of its own. He felt a little sorry for Suwon Busa Kim Yungil, but the speed and level of training of these soldiers were on an entirely different level.
“But are you satisfied with what we extracted?”
Jeong Yeoju, seated beside Yeoni, pointed at the seomsu spread out in the yard. At the sight, Baek Kanghyeok let out a broad laugh.
“Of course I am. I felt the reward of training disciples more than ever this time. Hahaha.”
Unlike last time, when he had had to dissect every single toad himself, Baek Kanghyeok had personally done it only once this time. That was thanks to the three disciples other than Yeoni and Jeong Yeoju, who had thrown themselves into the dissections without rest. As a result, even though they had caught twice as many toads this time, it had taken less than half the time.
“What about the pufferfish?”
“The pufferfish is good too. It was cleaned very well.”
“I am really looking forward to it, since Dolseok said he would even cook it.”
Jeong Yeoju, who unexpectedly had a hearty appetite, covered her mouth and laughed.
Just as she said, Dolseok and Makbong were showing off their skills in the kitchen. They said they could not simply leave alone the precious pufferfish bestowed by His Majesty. So, together with the kitchen women, they were preparing fried pufferfish, clear soup, and stew. Since Baek Kanghyeok knew the taste of pufferfish, it was something he could only welcome, but at the same time, it also made him uneasy.
“It seems like the poison itself was removed well enough... but there is no chance any was left in the flesh, right?”
“Come on, no way. Ah, there they are bringing it out.”
With the hand that had been covering her mouth, Jeong Yeoju pointed ahead. Dolseok and Makbong were really bringing over a lavish spread. The smell drifting over was so delicious that Baek Kanghyeok forgot all his worries and practically lunged at it.
“Young Master, what do you think?”
“I-it’s delicious.”
“Yes. We really showed off our skill.”
“What part is this? It’s fried, but inside it’s soft like whipped cream.”
Well, fried pufferfish was delicious in general, but among its parts there was one that tasted particularly extraordinary. Even for Baek Kanghyeok, who counted himself among gourmets, it was a mysterious flavor he had never tasted before. It was so delicious that, for the first time in a long while, he felt genuinely grateful to Seonjo.
Is it different because this was tribute?
Meanwhile, the very people who had cooked it, Dolseok and Makbong, looked baffled.
“Huh? Is there a part like that?”
At their question, Baek Kanghyeok laughed and showed them the cross-section of the piece he had just bitten into.
“Here, this. This white...”
But as he spoke, something felt a little strange. Now that he had bitten into it, the cross-section looked oddly familiar. At the same time, his tongue began to twist little by little.
“Th-this... don’t tell me this is the liver?”
Baek Kanghyeok looked back at Dolseok and Makbong with the kind of expression Julius Caesar might have made when he saw Brutus.
Clearly flustered, Dolseok turned to Makbong.
“Huh? Why is that in there... Hey, you said you threw that away!”
“I did. Didn’t I?”
“Ugh.”
Baek Kanghyeok did not even have the chance to get angry. He simply toppled straight backward.
If this had been an ordinary noble household, he would have gone straight to the Yellow Springs. But fortunately, this was the famous clinic of Baek Kanghyeok, and it had ample equipment and manpower.
“Hey, hey! Keep him breathing first!”
“Bring Young Master’s bag just in case! We may have to cut his throat open!”
“Have you ever done it before?”
“No! But I’ve seen it done plenty of times.”
“Would a rough cut do?”
“Uh, horizontally.”
Naturally, Baek Kanghyeok remained fully conscious. Pufferfish poison was not a poison that took consciousness away; it caused paralysis. Hearing this conversation in the middle of it all made him think he would rather have taken some other poison instead.
So this is what real torture is like.
Now that he was experiencing it himself, it was no joke.
“Uh... air’s going in fine.”
Makbong muttered as he pumped air in with the iron balls bag. That process, too, was more unpleasant than expected.
Makbong... you have a lot of spit. Very healthy... very.
For one thing, having that hot breath blowing in was already disgusting enough. And on top of that, the one blowing it in was Makbong. If it had been Yeoni or Jeong Yeoju instead, it might have been much easier to endure. But since he had become someone who could not even part his lips, there was nothing he could do.
Ugh...
Above all, even Makbong’s powerful breaths were slightly insufficient to keep Baek Kanghyeok fully conscious. If they had been far more insufficient, he might at least have fainted. Being only slightly insufficient was the real killing part.
Within that barely sustained consciousness, Baek Kanghyeok was able to look upon a somewhat unfamiliar scene. No, rather than simply unfamiliar, it was more accurate to say it was now a scene that had become unfamiliar.
Here... this is...
The scent of pu’er tea prickled at the tip of his nose, along with the dusty smell rising from old antiques. A white-haired gentleman in a suit stood above him, looking down at him. The gentleman wore an expression that made it hard to tell whether he was worried about Baek Kanghyeok or pleased.
Baek Kanghyeok could not see his face properly, but he somehow knew.
T-the Chairman...?
He desperately tried to raise his body, but it would not move.
The Chairman said one thing to Baek Kanghyeok. He did it while glancing back and forth at something.
“Not yet. It seems it’s still not time. That is good. There is still much for you to do.”
At those words, Baek Kanghyeok lost consciousness completely.
“Young Master... are you feeling a little better now?”
“Ugh.”
Lying sprawled on the floor, Baek Kanghyeok merely shook his head. He could not properly see the faces of Dolseok and Makbong looking down at him. That was because his extraocular muscles had not yet fully recovered.
Diplopia...
As if no one could deny he was a doctor, even in that moment he diagnosed his own condition.
As expected, I’m a genius.
And, as if no one could deny he was Baek Kanghyeok, he immediately praised himself.
“If you are all right, try blinking your eyes!”
“Oh dear, what a thing this is.”
“The Young Master of all people chewed up pufferfish liver, no less.”
Makbong, Dolseok, Jeong Yeoju, and Yeoni were all sweating in worry over Baek Kanghyeok. It was only after the disciples had made a great fuss for quite a while that Baek Kanghyeok was finally able to sit up straight.
He clicked his tongue as he looked at the fried pufferfish, which had been reduced to exactly half of what it had been before he collapsed.
“I collapsed, and you people still wanted to eat this?”
“W-well...”
Makbong, poor with words, scratched the back of his head. Then Dolseok, who was somewhat better with words, stepped in.
“But... wasn’t this something His Majesty bestowed? It did not seem right to just throw it away without eating it.”
“My, you sure speak well. You little bastard, huh?”
The moment he regained his strength, Baek Kanghyeok tried to carry out what he had intended when he first collapsed. Namely, to beat up Dolseok and Makbong soundly.
He was just grabbing up a broom when Makbong immediately flung himself flat to the floor.
“I-I’m sorry!”
“Sorry? You nearly killed a man, and all you’ve got is sorry?”
“Ghk.”
Baek Kanghyeok first smacked Makbong across the back. Then, with the broom, he pointed at Dolseok, who was still standing.
“You, you come here too.”
“Th-that...”
Instead of throwing himself down beside Makbong, Dolseok came up with another method: changing the subject. From long experience, it was a surprisingly effective method against Baek Kanghyeok, who was unexpectedly scatterbrained in certain ways. He was sure it would work again. After all, Baek Kanghyeok had been saying something strange while he was unconscious.
“Young Master, by the way, earlier you said something about a Chairman. What is that?”
“What?”
“You shouted ‘Chairman.’ Right before you woke up.”
“Chairman...? Ah.”
As expected, Dolseok’s gamble worked. Baek Kanghyeok immediately dropped even the broom he had been holding and sank into deep thought. Thanks to that, Makbong, who had been getting thoroughly beaten, was freed.
“Th-thank you.”
“No, I thought of it while you were getting hit. I should be the thankful one.”
“But wasn’t it you who put the liver in there?”
“I threw it away.”
“Then why was it in there?”
“How should I know, idiot? I was terrified. I thought the Young Master was really done for.”
“You think you were the only one terrified? I was terrified too.”
Even while the two of them kept bickering, Baek Kanghyeok paid no attention at all. He was too busy being flustered by the memory that seemed to have been deliberately erased.
What was that? Chairman... Right, this is the Chairman’s house-call bag.
Baek Kanghyeok looked down at the bag that was always attached to him like a limb. A scalpel was sticking partway out, which suggested they had meant to cut him open if things had gotten worse. It was a scene that should have made his hair stand on end, but Baek Kanghyeok could not even spare thought for that.
But I can’t remember the Chairman. And... it feels like that person said something to me?
He could not remember it. For Baek Kanghyeok, it was a very unfamiliar experience. He had been born with an excellent mind and had never once in his life suffered because he could not remember something.
But this time was different. That part of his memory was simply gone, as though someone had cut it away with scissors.
Before Dolseok brought it up... I had even forgotten the Chairman himself.
It was strange. What was even stranger was that the more he kept thinking and thinking, the more it felt as though fog were filling his head. It felt as though, if he lost concentration for even a moment, everything would go dark.
“Cheomjeong Baek!”
At that moment, someone rushed hurriedly into the clinic. It was the now-familiar Chamsanggwan of Senior Fourth Rank. The Chief Seonjeongwan would be with the king, so this was effectively the highest-ranking Seonjeongwan who could have come outside.
“Ah, yes.”
“You’ll be late! What in the world were you doing...? Your face looks terrible. Are you sick?”
“Ah. No. There was just a bit of an accident.”
“An accident? Before the royal procession? Will that be all right?”
“It is all right. Everything has been resolved now.”
Checking that his eyesight had finally fully returned, Baek Kanghyeok nodded. The Seonjeongwan’s face relaxed a little at Baek Kanghyeok’s calm reaction.
At first glance, it had looked as though bandits had come through. His clothes were completely disheveled, his face was red and swollen, and his eyes were half unfocused. Even taking into account Baek Kanghyeok’s usual strange antics, this was a complete mess.
“Th-then can you leave right away? Shouldn’t you arrive before His Majesty?”
“Ah. The time...”
Without thinking, Baek Kanghyeok looked up at the sky. He had clearly only meant to eat breakfast, yet the sun was already high overhead. He must have been down for at least two hours. To think he had survived that long relying on Makbong’s breath. It was absurd all over again.
“Come now, don’t look at the sky. Let’s go. We’re late!”
“Yes, yes. Understood.”
Baek Kanghyeok hurriedly straightened his clothes. The rest of the group tried to follow him just as they were.
At once, the Seonjeongwan roared at them.
“You lot are going like that? No, where did you put all the official uniforms you were given?”
“Ah, right. We were granted office.”
Only then did they all rush into their respective rooms. Then they came back out wearing their official uniforms, awkward as could be. Commoners through and through, now in official dress.
That was entirely thanks to Ryu Seong-ryong.
“Since Cheomjeong Baek cannot perform the treatment alone, the hands of his disciples are needed. However, it would not do for men without office to lay their hands upon His Majesty’s body.”
And so, even if only as temporary appointments, the entire group had been granted office.
Given the situation, even their procession to the palace was quite a sight. There were no fewer than six mounted men, including the Seonjeongwan. Seen from afar, one might have thought a grand minister was passing by. It was a scene that naturally made them swell with pride, but the highest-ranking Seonjeongwan among them felt nothing but discomfort.
“Quickly, quickly, let’s go. His Majesty has already been saying for five days now that he intends to go to Suwon and receive treatment there today!”