It’s None of My Business (4)
“Open the door!”
“……”
“I said open this door right now! You people are sick, aren’t you? I’m a doctor! I need to check your condition, so open it this instant! Hurry up!”
“……”
No matter how many times she called, there was no answer. Just as Baek Cheon sighed and turned away, Dang Soso lifted her brows.
“Sasuk.”
“Hm?”
“Break it.”
“……”
“What are you waiting for? Break it already!”
“Ah, got it!”
With a crack, Baek Cheon grabbed the door and tore it off by force.
No sooner had the door come loose than Dang Soso stormed straight inside. Baek Cheon, tossing the door aside, hurried after her.
“D-don’t come in!”
Two people inside shouted in terror. A woman trembling like a leaf while clutching a poker, and another person…….
An…… child!
Fire flashed in Dang Soso’s eyes.
“Move!”
“M-my child can’t!”
“I’m not here to hurt them, so get out of the way! At this rate, the kid will die!”
When Dang Soso barked the words, the woman who had been desperately shielding the child flinched. Then, with confused eyes, she looked back and forth between Dang Soso and Baek Cheon.
“If you don’t move, I’ll have to drag you away by force. If you don’t want to be manhandled, step aside!”
“……”
Even while terrified, the woman looked confused, tears gathering in her eyes. Dang Soso stared straight at her and said,
“I’m a doctor.”
“……”
“I’ll definitely cure them, so let me see the child.”
Dang Soso slowly took out the needle case from her sleeve and showed it to her. The woman, her eyes hollow and red-rimmed, trembled as she asked,
“A-are you really a doctor?”
“Yes.”
“R-really?”
“While you’re standing there dithering, the child is dying.”
Only then did the woman lower the poker and step aside weakly. Dang Soso hurried to the child’s side and took the pulse.
“……”
Weak.
The pulse was faint, fragile, as if it might stop at any moment.
Dang Soso lifted the blanket without hesitation and began stripping the child’s clothes away.
“What are you doing, Soso?”
“I need to check the body!”
“The cold air is getting in……”
“Then go block it!”
“Yes!”
Baek Cheon shot over like the wind and used the torn-off door to seal the entrance. Jo Gul, who had been standing farther back, also jumped and helped hold it in place.
I don’t know what to say.
Shh. Be quiet. You’ll get hit.
The moment Dang Soso confirmed that an illness might be spreading through the village, she seemed to become a different person. Her manner was so fierce that even Yu I-seol couldn’t casually speak to her.
After checking the child’s body, Dang Soso frowned.
“Red patches…… small petechiae, with congestion.”
She covered the child again, then pried open the mouth to inspect inside.
“……The gums have receded.”
The symptoms were almost identical to those of the man she’d examined earlier.
“Since when has this been happening?”
“A-about a month ago.”
“Was the child conscious?”
“They became sleepier, but they were conscious. Lately, though, they haven’t been coming to much at all……”
“What about before they collapsed?”
“B-before they collapsed?”
Dang Soso looked at the woman and said calmly,
“Don’t panic. Take your time and think. Anything unusual is fine.”
“Y-yes!”
At her gentler tone, the woman seemed to relax a little and opened her mouth.
“Well…… the child suddenly became weak and started sleeping a lot. And…… they kept getting nosebleeds.”
“Nosebleeds?”
“Yes. They’d just be sitting there, then suddenly……”
Dang Soso fell into deep thought, then bit her lip hard.
“Gather people…….”
Bang, bang, bang, bang, bang!
But just then, someone began pounding violently on the door.
Baek Cheon turned to look at Dang Soso, alarmed. After glaring at the door for a moment, Dang Soso nodded.
“Open it.”
Baek Cheon and Jo Gul moved the door aside, and there stood several men draped in animal pelts, spears leveled with menacing intent.
“What do you think you’re doing!”
“How dare outsiders make a scene in this village!”
Their eyes were full of caution and killing intent.
Baek Cheon looked at them with a troubled expression. Their eyes were sharp, and the spears in their hands looked even sharper, but in the end they were only common villagers.
Besides, perhaps they were all suffering from the same illness—their faces were deathly pale, and even the hands gripping their spears trembled weakly.
“Step aside.”
“Village chief!”
“I said step aside.”
The men parted to either side, and an elderly man with a face lined by countless wrinkles came forward, leaning on a cane.
“……What is this about?”
“Are you the village chief?”
“I am. You people are outsiders. I don’t know what’s going on, but leave the village immediately.”
“No.”
“……No?”
“No, we can’t.”
Dang Soso checked the child’s forehead and rose to her feet.
“Can’t you see? Everyone here is sick.”
“I know.”
“If they don’t get proper treatment, they’ll die like this!”
“……It can’t be helped.”
“What?”
Dang Soso’s eyes widened.
What on earth was this old man saying?
But the elder shook his head as if she was the one who understood nothing.
“If it becomes known that outsiders are staying here, we’ll all die anyway. If you have even a little thought for us, leave the village right now.”
His attitude was uncompromising. Baek Cheon opened his mouth, hoping to persuade him.
“Elder, we’re here to cure this illness and help……!”
“Can you people withstand the demonic sect?”
“……”
“If you do not leave, we will suffer a great calamity.”
At that, Dang Soso said coldly,
“The calamity has already happened.”
“……”
“This sickness is the calamity. If this keeps up, everyone here will die before long! Can’t you see that? It isn’t the Ice Palace or whatever that matters right now—the disease is the problem!”
The old man let out a sigh.
“It’s nothing a human being can do anything about.”
“What?”
“There are demons in the Northern Sea right now. Since this illness was spread by those demons, there’s no cure by human hands.”
“……What in the world……”
Then Baek Cheon whispered softly,
“Could he be talking about the Demonic Sect?”
“……You mean the Demonic Sect spread this disease?”
The elder nodded, his wrinkled eyes fixed on Dang Soso.
“I’ve never seen a disease like this in my lifetime. It began after those demons started appearing here more and more often.”
“……”
“There’s nothing humans can do.”
“Don’t talk nonsense!”
Dang Soso shouted sharply.
“There’s no such thing as a disease that can’t be handled by human hands!”
“……”
“Even if such a disease exists, there’s no way I’d accept just giving up. This isn’t some trivial matter—it’s lives we’re talking about! Stop spouting nonsense about demons and whatever else. A doctor doesn’t back down from illness.”
Dang Soso stared straight at the elder.
Under that gaze, fierce as a fire, the old man let out a low, pained sound.
“……We have already done all we could. Still…….”
“Then it wasn’t enough yet.”
“Can you guarantee that you can cure it?”
“Even if I can’t cure it, I won’t abandon them like you have.”
Dang Soso and the elder’s gazes tangled in the air.
After watching her for a long while, the old man finally sighed first.
“……Do you truly have the confidence to treat them?”
“I’ll do my best.”
“Your best……”
The elder suddenly turned his head and looked through the open doorway to the blue sky. The snow had already stopped.
“……That’s a phrase I haven’t heard in a very long time in this Northern Sea.”
He sounded faintly bitter as he looked at the sky, then spoke quietly.
“Yim Hyo.”
“Yes, village chief.”
“Tell the villagers to let this doctor take their pulses. Tell them to cooperate in everything they can.”
“B-but if we do that……”
“It’s all the same whether we die one way or another.”
“……”
“Do as I say. I’ll take responsibility.”
“……Understood.”
The elder turned back to Dang Soso.
“If there are any problems, come find me.”
“……Thank you.”
“I’m asking you. Please save the people of our village.”
“I’ll do my best.”
After hearing Dang Soso’s answer, the elder gave a quiet nod and turned away, stepping outside.
The Mount Hua disciples unconsciously let out breaths they hadn’t realized they were holding. But only for a moment—soon, determination began to show in their eyes as well.
“Soso! What do you need me to do now? Order me around—I'll get it done somehow!”
“Sasuk!”
“What?”
“Go bring back Chung Myung. Right now!”
“……”
That……
Wasn’t that a little too much, right from the start?
Huh?
People each had their own roles.
Farmers had to farm well, swordsmen had to wield their swords well, and scholars had to be skilled in learning.
And no matter how he looked at it, this was not a task that suited him.
“So…….”
Chung Myung muttered, half dead inside.
“……you’re saying this is something I absolutely have to do?”
“Yes.”
“Me, specifically?”
“Yes.”
“Seriously?”
“Ugh, would you just shut up? You’re making me dizzy!”
“……”
At Dang Soso’s shout, Chung Myung clamped his mouth shut and looked up with a faintly wounded expression. But all he could see was not the blue sky, but a pitch-black, soot-stained cauldron.
“Hey!”
Chung Myung barked, grabbing the cauldron balanced on his head.
“You think firewood is for making soup later or something? Huh? Why the hell am I the one who has to keep this thing hot? Why me!”
“There isn’t a furnace here big enough to hang a cauldron like in the Central Plains!”
“There were furnaces all over the houses over there!”
“Because you’d have to smash the chimney to use them! And they’re not even the right sort of place to set a cauldron on!”
“Then build a furnace!”
“Oh, you’re so noisy! Seriously, I could just—!”
“Oh?”
Chung Myung stared at Dang Soso in bewilderment.
“You, you little—”
“What’s with you? There’s no hierarchy in Mount Hua, old man!”
“……”
With that decisive blow, tears welled in the corners of Chung Myung’s eyes.
Sect Leader Senior Brother.
This is how I live.
This is how I live, you know!
- Well, it’s not wrong.
“Kahhh! You old bastard! Is that something you should be saying?”
“What are you whining about?”
“Grrrgh.”
Chung Myung hung his head.
If he was going to suffer, he might as well die.
As Dang Soso placed the medicinal herbs into the cauldron, she said, “A furnace made on the spot won’t let us control the heat. The only person who can keep a steady fire going all day and brew the medicine properly is Senior Brother!”
“……”
“This is about saving lives. Please help me out. It really has to be you, Senior Brother. If not, everyone here will die. It’s the kind of thing only someone like you can do!”
As her words went on, Chung Myung’s shoulders rose ever so slightly.
“What…… did I say I wouldn’t do it?”
He straightened the cauldron.
“An entire day? Make it two if you want—just hurry up and get started!”
“Thank you, Senior Brother! Please heat the cauldron a little more first.”
“Right!”
Chung Myung poured his heat-attribute qi into the cauldron. In an instant it grew scorching hot, and the water inside began to boil furiously.
Watching from a distance, the others gave one admiration after another.
“He handles him well.”
“She’s really good at sweet-talking him.”
“We should’ve tried that sooner.”
“Amitabha. As much as Dang Soso is impressive, doesn’t Chung Myung also look rather human when seen this way?”
“Ah, no, I wouldn’t go that far.”
“……”
What Dang Soso was doing was truly no easy thing. It was extraordinary.
Chung Myung was the sort of man who was horribly weak to praise, but once you came to know him properly, there was no way you could praise him in good conscience.
Especially not the disciples of Mount Hua. That was impossible. And yet she was manipulating him so naturally with compliments…….
“But looking at her brewing the medicine, has she already figured out what the disease is?”
At Jo Gul’s question, Yu I-seol shook her head.
“Not yet.”
“Then……?”
Baek Cheon let out a sigh and answered for her.
“For now, the situation is urgent, so she’s saying we need to use tonics to at least restore their strength. It isn’t a fundamental cure.”
“……”
“Good thing we brought plenty of medicinal herbs from Mount Hua. If not, we really would’ve been helpless.”
The Mount Hua disciples once again felt grateful for Hyun Young’s foresight.
“But…… tonics won’t cure the disease in the end.”
“First we put out the fire, then we find out what the disease is.”
“……What if it’s a disease we don’t even know?”
“Even so, we do our best.”
Yoon Jong, who had been listening quietly, spoke in a low voice.
“Anyone who looks lightly upon saving lives is unfit to hold the sword of Mount Hua. How can one who will not save the person before their eyes speak of righteousness, or speak of the Dao?”
“……No, I’m not saying we shouldn’t do it, just…….”
Jo Gul sighed and said,
“Most of the villagers seem to have symptoms…… Isn’t this an infectious disease? What if we get it too? Then this trip to the Northern Sea……”
“Enough.”
But Baek Cheon cut him off firmly.
“You may be right, but I don’t want to say something like that in front of Mount Hua’s youngest, who’s doing his utmost like that.”
“……Yes, Sasuk.”
Watching Dang Soso pour the herbs into the cauldron with utter concentration, Baek Cheon quietly closed his eyes.
That child must not be hurt.
The burden resting on Dang Soso’s shoulders was far too heavy.