Reverse Life Reversal
There are far more people in South Korea who dream of becoming doctors than you might think.
There are many reasons, but for most of them it comes down to money.
In a capitalist society, that was only natural.
"It wasn't like I went to medical school without thinking about money either."
But for me, money wasn't the top priority.
Of course, it also wasn't some lofty sense of duty as a student of medicine, or a noble spirit of sacrifice about saving lives, that made me choose this path.
I'm no Schweitzer, after all.
The reason I decided to become a doctor was simple.
The mysteries of the human body.
I just wanted to study the discipline most directly connected to that elusive thing.
So I hunted down more and more knowledge.
Internal medicine or surgery—I didn't discriminate.
I even went as far as Eastern medicine.
It wasn't because I particularly wanted to climb higher than everyone else.
I was purely curious, and I wanted to understand it more deeply.
But as I chased knowledge further and further, there came a moment when my mind and hands were operating on a completely different track from other people's.
Talent.
Some called it genius. Others sent jealous looks my way.
Even I had to admit my rate of absorption was abnormally fast.
When my years as a resident ended and I breezed through the specialist exam, I applied for a critical care fellowship and chose the path I had always envisioned.
It meant burying myself in a university hospital ICU—where the line between life and death was drawn most clearly—and grinding myself down for two brutal years.
Honestly, I could have picked an easy department and made comfortable money.
But that wasn't why I became a doctor.
And so I threw myself into the places others avoided, diving headfirst into real practice, and before long I passed the subspecialty exam on the first try as well.
After that, of course, the hospital wasn't about to leave me alone.
Would you believe they created an entirely new department for me—Emergency Life Support?
"Youngest professor title, huh…"
Just like that, I leapfrogged countless seniors and peers, and the word professor attached itself to my name.
Other people played politics and rode the right lines to reach this seat.
I had simply been exploring the human body—and somehow I found myself sitting in the place everyone else dreamed of.
Yeah. Up to that point, I was pretty satisfied with my life.
"…I just never expected to get reincarnated out of nowhere."
I never thought picking up a hobby for web novels would turn me into a damn kid overnight.
Overnight, I became a damn kid.
Meaning: I opened my eyes in another world.
In a ridiculous situation like this, shouldn't there at least be some kind of plausible setup?
That's how it works in webtoons and web novels, right?
A truck suddenly flying out of nowhere and slamming into me.
Collapsing from overwork after nights of nonstop relay surgeries.
Or maybe getting stabbed by some thug over a grudge I didn't even deserve.
But that wasn't me.
I had gone home like any other day.
Taken a quick shower, skimmed the materials for the next day's seminar, and lain down in bed.
That was it.
Truly, that was my last memory.
I had simply closed my eyes in the middle of an utterly ordinary day—and when I opened them, I was staring at a ceiling I had never seen before, trapped in a kid's body with an eye level far lower than usual.
This is seriously fucking unfair.
It wasn't as if I had poured enormous effort into climbing to a professorship.
Still, the fact remained that I had become the youngest professor, and I had taken a certain amount of pride in that.
And now all of that achievement was going up in smoke overnight?
No matter how I look at it, I can't accept this.
What stressed me out even more was the growing sense that the current me wasn't anyone particularly impressive.
Right now, "ordinary extra number one" was about the right description.
After all, I didn't even know what kind of world this was.
Hearing that the Northern Grand Duke's daughter's full name was Selene Grimwald didn't ring any bells.
Hearing that the Northern Grand Duke's full name was Rudiger Grimwald didn't either.
"This isn't going to be easy."
I had to survive without knowing a thing—and my status was that of a butler.
More precisely, an apprentice butler.
Because of my young body I wasn't thrown into heavy labor yet. My entire day consisted of trailing after senior butlers and maids, watching them work out of the corner of my eye—basically a permanent field trip.
On top of that, this was the North, where bone-chilling winds whipped through at the drop of a hat.
So here I was: a young apprentice butler named Jian in a cold, barren fantasy world.
And an orphan, at that.
…Once I roughly sorted out my circumstances, they looked even more hopeless than I had imagined.
But the fishy part wasn't only the situation I was stuck in.
"Something… something about…"
The people around me felt a little dim, somehow.
They were clearly normal human beings, yet it was as if their intelligence was just a bit short—there were moments when I felt a dissonance I couldn't put into words.
If I had to name it…
"I guess you'd call it mass-produced romance fantasy vibes."
A few years passed after that realization.
I had long since dropped the "apprentice" title and was working as a full butler.
By my rough estimate I was about fifteen now.
The other butlers didn't know my age either, so I just watched my bones thicken and figured I had to be around there.
"Not like I can measure bone age, either."
There wasn't much a mere butler could do in this cold, barren northern territory.
Even so, I hadn't completely let go of the discipline I had devoted my life to.
Of course, that didn't mean I was studying the latest modern medical knowledge in this world.
No internet, no medical journals, and barely a single proper anatomy text to be found—how exactly was I supposed to study?
The method I chose was pure review.
Every day I dug out the knowledge packed tight inside my head and chewed it over again, so that none of it would erode.
If I didn't do at least that much, it felt as if everything my previous self had built was being denied.
I hadn't completely stopped acting as a doctor, either.
For the butlers who couldn't call a healer, I would examine them whenever they felt unwell.
Like right now.
"Jian…"
Late at night, the door to my room opened to reveal a senior butler wearing a thoroughly pained expression.
"I— hic! My hiccups— hic! Won't stop— hic!"
He had been like this for hours already, shoulders jerking wildly. It was pretty funny, honestly.
Without a word I stood up, filled a cup with lukewarm water, and brought it over.
"Bend at the waist until your back is at a right angle, keep your head down, and drink from the far rim of the cup."
"…Hic! What? L-like this?"
The man shot me a suspicious look, but he still hunched over awkwardly.
While he gulped the water in that bizarre posture, I traced through the knowledge in my head—again, so I wouldn't forget.
Hiccups are involuntary spasms caused by sudden contractions of the diaphragm and intercostal muscles…
The weird pose I had just ordered him into was a fairly scientific prescription.
Swallowing water with the head thoroughly lowered relaxes tension in the esophagus.
At the same time it delivers a strong stimulus to the vagus and phrenic nerves running through the neck, forcibly breaking the abnormal reflex loop that had been causing the spasms.
Gulp.
After the last mouthful, the man carefully straightened up.
"……"
A brief silence followed.
The rhythmic spasms that had been bouncing his shoulders had vanished as if they had never existed.
"…Huh? It actually stopped…?!"
He patted his chest a few times in disbelief, then broke into a broad grin.
"That's our Jian for you!"
He looked at me with eyes so full of praise it was almost burdensome. Once I finally managed to send him away—
"Haa…"
—a sigh slipped out.
Years had passed, and I still missed the professor's office with its blasting air-conditioning and heating.
…Was this what they called a life reversal?
No.
A reversal usually implies a comeback win by default.
"It's a reverse life reversal."
Right now I had successfully pulled off a reverse life reversal.
"I wonder if they even need doctors here."
From what I could tell, magic restored wounds without scars and all that.
"Pursuing deeper knowledge is just impossible…"
Not nearly impossible—truly impossible.
So I had to set a different goal from my previous life.
If my old goal had been to master every branch of medical knowledge, then now…
"I'd like to open a hospital, make some money, and retire."
Living out the rest of my days in quiet peace—that was the goal.
…Or so I had thought, a mere two weeks ago.
"J-Jian…! You have to fix this as fast as possible…!"
"……"
Why on earth was something like this happening?
Sitting demurely in front of me, pale and pouring cold sweat, was a young girl.
There was no way I wouldn't recognize that face.
She was the master of this enormous mansion we lived in.
The Northern Grand Duke's precious daughter.
Selene Grimwald.
Recognizing her was fine and all, but…
Why was someone so important sitting in the servants' stinking quarters?
And with her face white as a sheet, no less.
Besides…
Isn't this place off-limits originally?
The Grand Duchy's buildings were divided into two main parts.
The luxurious Main Building where the direct northern bloodline lived.
And the Annex where butlers and maids like me lived.
Naturally, direct family members were forbidden from entering the Annex.
So how had this kid gotten here?
I pressed my temple and turned to the senior butler who was glancing around, tense as a wire. It was the same man who had come to me last time about the unstoppable hiccups.
"How did Her Ladyship end up here?"
"I-I snuck her over…! She said her stomach hurt terribly, and the priests came yesterday and used holy arts but it still wouldn't get better… so I thought maybe you'd know something."
"……"
This guy's completely out of his mind.
I barely swallowed the stream of curses that tried to leave my mouth.
As far as I knew, divine power was even better at healing than magic.
And he had brought an unknown illness that even divine power couldn't touch to a mere butler?
No—before that, he had secretly smuggled the young lady all the way to this shabby Annex just because holy arts weren't working?
Are both of them dead set on getting their heads chopped off?
If the Grand Duke found out about this, what would happen to us?
It wouldn't end with a simple dismissal.
By tomorrow morning our heads would be rolling side by side on the cold northern snow.
My peaceful retirement life…
On top of everything, this was a time when the butlers were supposed to be extra careful.
Something about a training ceremony—the head butler had specifically told us to watch our conduct.
I let out a silent sigh and met the young lady's eyes.
Even at a glance, her face looked like she could barely endure the pain.
"My lady, may I ask you a few questions?"
"……"
She stayed silent but managed a difficult nod.
"Before the symptoms appeared, did you overeat?"
At my question she bit her lower lip hard, then slowly nodded.
"……"
I closed my mouth for a moment.
…Looks like indigestion.
From a modern medical perspective, "indigestion" isn't classified as a disease.
It's simply a broad symptom of digestive discomfort.
For that reason, even the latest medicine has no clear research or perfect treatment established for it.
Normally the best option is to give a digestive aid that promotes gastric motility—but there was no way such a convenient medicine existed in this primitive fantasy world.
The surest, fastest method, then, was to empty the stomach.
In other words, induce vomiting…
That's an absolute last resort.
Making a body this precious throw up in the servants' quarters?
If the Grand Duke ever learned of that, my life would end that very day.
Which left only one remaining method.
Eastern medicine…
On a global scale, Eastern medicine isn't considered proper medicine.
Outside of Korea and China it's classified as alternative medicine.
But to solve the present situation I had no choice but to lean on it.
Two options.
Prick the fingertips with a needle, or massage the acupoint between thumb and index finger.
But pricking the hands inevitably meant drawing blood.
In Joseon-dynasty terms it would be the equivalent of a lowly servant daring to stick a needle into the royal body and wound it—high treason. Instantly rejected.
In the end, massage was the best I could do right now.
"Pardon me."
Without hesitation I took the young lady's small white hand in both of mine.
Then I began pressing firmly with my thumb into the hollow where the thumb and index met—the Hapgok Point.
The area around the Hapgok Point was definitely hard.
"Ah… nn…"
As the acupoint was stimulated, a soft sound of pain slipped from the young lady's lips.
I didn't stop, continuing the massage with steady pressure.
Hoping even a little that the blocked energy in her stomach would open.
After what felt like about ten minutes—
Urrp.
A very faint belch escaped between the young lady's small lips.
"……"
"……"
Silence settled over the room for a beat.
I lifted my head and looked straight at her.
Her cheeks and ears had turned red, as if she was embarrassed by the bodily reaction—but that didn't matter to me in the slightest.
Color's coming back.
The fact that life was gradually returning to the face that had been pale and stiff was the only thing that mattered right now.
All that remained was…
How do I send her back?
Getting the young lady back to the Main Building.
Truthfully, from this point on it was outside my jurisdiction.
I wasn't the one who had snuck her here—it was the guy standing in front of me.
He should be the one to take her back.
But before that thought could even settle—
Bang!
My door was flung open in an instant.
"……"
"……"
I found myself staring into the sharp eyes of the elderly head butler.