It’s None of My Business (5)
One day passed, then two, but the situation did not improve much.
“Soso.”
Baek Cheon looked at Dang Soso with a worried expression.
“Go rest a little.”
“I’m still fine, Sasuk.”
“If the one treating people collapses first, then the rest of them are as good as dead.”
“……”
“If you’re not all right, then the patients won’t live either.”
“……Then just a little longer.”
Watching his junior cling on so desperately, Baek Cheon could not hide his pity and distress.
In the sickroom set up in the largest house in the village, the worst patients and a number of children lay there half-conscious. Dang Soso examined them without pause for even a moment.
She fed them medicine and kept on needling them with acupuncture without rest. But their conditions did not improve easily.
Bang.
Just then, the door opened and Chung Myung came in with Hye Yeon in tow.
“I checked around outside, and nothing looked especially strange.”
“Are you sure?”
“I’ve got eyes, don’t I? Ah, and the ice too.”
“……”
Hoping for some different answer, she turned to Hye Yeon, but he only let out a heavy sigh with a grave face.
“I searched thoroughly, but could not find anything that might be the cause.”
Dang Soso let out a deep sigh.
“Here.”
Chung Myung walked over and held out the bowl he was carrying.
“What is it?”
“An herbal tonic. Boiled it a little while ago.”
“……I’ve already given one to everyone here.”
“No. This is for you.”
“……”
“You look more like a patient than anyone in here. You’re the one who should be drinking it.”
“I’m fi—”
“Drink it!”
“I said drink it!”
“Just listen for once, damn it!”
When the disciples all barked at once, Dang Soso flinched and reluctantly took the bowl.
“I-I’ll drink it, all right.”
Then she swallowed it in one go.
“……Bitter.”
Sticking out her tongue, she looked at her senior brothers and sisters with a slightly complicated expression. For the past two days, when she stayed up all night, they stayed up too; when she rushed about in a frenzy, they helped without pause and never stopped moving with her.
Really, they were all fools…… but they were helping.
Fools, but still.
Baek Cheon, seated in front of her, spoke quietly.
“So. Anything that comes to mind?”
Dang Soso shook her head weakly.
“I don’t know.”
“……Not even a guess?”
“……No. I’ve never seen anything like this in Central Plains.”
“Hmm.”
Yoon Jong’s expression also darkened.
“If it’s a disease no one knows, then it must be hard to treat.”
“……The disease aside, their physical condition is far too bad. Even the ones who don’t have symptoms are all terribly starved.”
“……”
“I don’t know whether their bodies are failing because of the disease, or whether the disease appeared because their bodies were already failing.”
“For now, we’re making porridge from the grain we brought and handing it out, so the ones who are conscious should start improving a bit, shouldn’t they?”
“I hope so……”
Trailing off, Dang Soso buried her face in both hands.
I’m so useless.
The helplessness of it made her feel like crying.
If she’d known it would come to this, she should have studied medicine more diligently. If he had been here instead of her—if her father, Tang Gun-ak, had been here—the situation would have been much different.
No, she didn’t even need to go that far. If there had been even one proper physician here who had truly studied medicine, then she certainly would not have felt this powerless.
“Don’t blame yourself.”
Then that cold voice reached her ears.
She lifted her head and found Chung Myung staring at her with a serious expression.
“If you’ve done everything you can and it still doesn’t work, then that’s not a person’s fault.”
“……”
“To put it the other way around, blaming yourself is something you can only do after you’ve tried absolutely everything. Have you really done everything you can?”
“……No, Sahyung. Not yet…… not yet.”
“Good. Then instead of beating yourself up, think. Don’t miss even the smallest thing. Blaming yourself makes you feel better, but regret will crush a person for a long, long time. Don’t create something you’ll regret.”
“Yes.”
Dang Soso bit her lip hard and nodded.
But that did not change the fact that she had no real solution.
The Mount Hua disciples, looking at her like that, all started wracking their brains and throwing out ideas together.
“……An endemic disease?”
“The village chief said he’d never seen anything like it.”
“Then did those Demonic Sect bastards really spread the disease on purpose?”
“Uh…… I don’t think so.”
“Hm?”
Everyone turned to Chung Myung.
“Those bastards aren’t that smart, and they sure as hell aren’t good at sneaking around. They’re just crazy.”
“……”
For some reason, it sounded weirdly convincing. Didn’t they say that a crazy person recognizes another crazy person?
“Then what on earth……?”
At that moment, Yu I-seol, who had only been listening quietly, spoke up.
“No. A plague.”
“Hm?”
Baek Cheon turned to Yu I-seol and asked again.
“Sago, what do you mean?”
“Plagues spread more easily to weak people.”
“That’s true.”
“Village chief, was fine.”
At her unexpected words, Baek Cheon’s eyes narrowed.
Come to think of it……
The village chief was an old man who looked so frail he could collapse tomorrow without anyone finding it strange. And yet there had been no sign of sickness in him at all.
If this really was a plague, why had it passed over such a frail old man?
“Come to think of it, there were a few other old people who were fine too.”
Everyone nodded in agreement.
Baek Cheon looked at Yu I-seol again, newly surprised.
She didn’t seem interested in anyone else at all.
And yet she must have been observing her surroundings closely the whole time.
“Could there be any common point among those old men?”
“I don’t know that.”
Then Chung Myung suddenly spoke up.
“Oh? I think I know.”
“Hm?”
Baek Cheon’s head whipped around so fast it looked like it might snap. This was even more surprising than the fact that Yu I-seol had been watching the people around her. Chung Myung had noticed something like that?
“What is it?”
“You’re talking about the old people who didn’t get sick, right?”
“Yeah!”
“They were rich.”
“Huh?”
Chung Myung grinned and made a circle with his thumb and index finger.
“They had money. At least by this village’s standards.”
“……”
All emotion drained from Baek Cheon’s face like water ebbing from the shore.
Of course.
I was the fool for expecting anything.
I should have known better.
With one accord, everyone gave up on expecting anything from Chung Myung.
“No, why are you all making those faces?”
“It’s nothing.”
“Amitabha. Why blame him? In a pig’s eyes, only pigs can be seen.”
“Then in your eyes, we all look bald, do we? Huh?”
“A-Amitabha! This is a shaved head!”
“That’s none of my business!”
Everyone brushed off Chung Myung’s words lightly.
But one person, Dang Soso, did not dismiss them so easily.
“……They were rich?”
“Yeah. Looked like they lived fairly well, at least. Though they were just village elders and all……”
“……Wait a minute.”
Dang Soso muttered to herself for a moment.
“Being rich means having plenty to eat. Then nutrition…… no, if it were just starvation, feeding them medicine and porridge should show improvement…….”
Then, as if something suddenly struck her, she jerked her head up.
“W-wait, hold on a second!”
“Yes?”
One of the villagers who was in the best condition and helping with the care turned to look at Dang Soso.
“When we came to this village, everyone had their doors bolted shut, didn’t they?”
“Yes, that’s right.”
“Was that because of this strange illness?”
“No. Not that. They’d been doing that before then too.”
“Why?”
“……People kept disappearing, and there was a rumor that black-robed demons were roaming outside, so for several months now everyone’s avoided going out.”
“Several months ago? Then before that?”
“Before that, it was normal……”
“H-how did they get food?”
“It’s winter now, so they’ve been making do with dried meat and the grain they had stored.”
Dang Soso’s eyes trembled wide.
“Th-this……?”
Her mouth slowly fell open as she stared blankly ahead, looking stunned.
Baek Cheon asked a little urgently, “Did something come to mind?”
“……It did, but no…… why would this happen to common villagers?”
“Hm?”
Dang Soso sprang up and checked the patients’ conditions again.
“……Right. It is, isn’t it? Then why is this happening?”
After examining each patient again, she turned back to her senior brothers and sisters with a very flustered face.
“S-Sasuk.”
“Hm?”
“Th-this isn’t a disease these people should be getting, but their symptoms are exactly the same.”
“What are you talking about? Explain yourself properly.”
“This…… this is bi-gwan disease.”
“Hm?”
Baek Cheon tilted his head.
Bi-gwan disease? There was such a thing……?
“Ah!”
But Jo Gul seemed to have heard of it, because he shot up from his seat.
“N-no! Huh? Why is that!”
“Right?”
“……Why is this happening?”
The two of them just kept throwing “why?” back and forth, which only made Baek Cheon more frustrated.
“What is it? At least be shocked together with me!”
“Sasuk! It’s bi-gwan disease, bi-gwan disease!”
“Then what the hell is that?”
“It’s a disease that people who’ve spent too long in seclusion get struck with!”
“……There’s even something like that?”
Jo Gul thumped his own chest in exasperation.
“It’s a disease that sometimes hits promising juniors in prestigious clans that stockpile wall-sealing pills and spend years in seclusion! They get lethargic like they’re possessed by a ghost, their noses bleed nonstop, their gums collapse, and their teeth fall out!”
“……The symptoms are exactly the same.”
“But this is supposed to be a kind of deviation from qi deviation, so why would these people……?”
Baek Cheon looked at Yoon Jong with a confused face. Yoon Jong looked similarly bewildered. The two exchanged glances, then nodded at the same time.
I don’t understand a single thing you’re saying.
I should just keep my mouth shut.
Whether they understood their feelings or not, Dang Soso and Jo Gul had already launched into a heated discussion.
“But bi-gwan disease only appears in young people, doesn’t it? Like promising juniors.”
“No, no. If you think about it, older people who go into seclusion are just masters, so maybe they don’t get sick.”
“Ah, that makes sense! These people don’t practice martial arts!”
Then Chung Myung tilted his head, as if something had just occurred to him.
“Is that a disease?”
“Yes! It’s also called clan disease, by another name.”
“Why?”
“What kind of place can spend years in seclusion stacked up with wall-sealing pills and dried beef except a prestigious clan? So it’s a disease that only strikes the juniors of famous noble clans……”
“Ah……. So it was a disease. That was a disease.”
Chung Myung stared blankly out the window with a subtle expression.
I hit them for lacking guts.
Sorry, brothers and sisters.
I didn’t know…….
You should’ve just said so.
As if he would ever have listened back then, of course.
“Anyway, that’s not the important part. So, is there a cure?”
“Yes! It’s super simple.”
“What is it?”
“Vegetables!”
“……Huh?”
Dang Soso’s face was now shining with something beyond relief, almost radiating joy.
“This disease can kill someone if it gets bad, but the treatment is absurdly easy! Just give them fresh vegetables, raw food, or fruit!”
“Ah……. That simple?”
“Yes! The treatment is really simple. They got better just by eating regular meals.”
“……How did you know vegetables were the cure?”
“People who came out and only ate meat to build up their bodies died.”
“……”
Not knowing that…… while I was……
A trace of guilt crossed Chung Myung’s face.
“I don’t know if the disease is exactly the same, but this is worth trying!”
Dang Soso shouted excitedly. It was only natural, since her long torment had finally found an answer.
But Chung Myung’s face, in contrast, was utterly indifferent.
“Oh, really?”
“Yes!”
“Then where are we supposed to get those vegetables?”
Dang Soso, who had been nodding enthusiastically, froze.
“……Pardon?”
Chung Myung jerked his chin toward the outside.
“In this winter?”
“……”
“Out in this field of snow?”
“……”
“If we went all the way to Central Plains and back, everyone here would already be dead.”
“……”
Dang Soso’s eyes shook violently.
“N-no……”
At this rate, it would almost be easier to catch a tiger and bring it back. In the middle of winter, where in the Northern Seas was she supposed to get enough vegetables or fruit to feed this many people?
Hope, which she had only just found, was instantly smashed down into the depths.
No, it would almost have been better not to know the disease at all. What was more hopeless than knowing the cure, yet being unable to use it?
“No. This can’t happen. It can’t…….”
Dang Soso muttered in utter despair, when Yu I-seol, who had been silent until then, suddenly spoke.
“Again.”
“……Pardon?”
“Treatment. Again.”
Dang Soso stared at her blankly, then muttered weakly.
“Vegetables or fruit.”
“Not that. Another?”
“Huh?”
“There was one more. You said it.”
Dang Soso tilted her head, then gasped.
“Raw food!”
“Right.”
Dang Soso’s eyes widened.
Bi-gwan disease was something usually only seen in prestigious clans, so most physicians did not know it well. But as someone from a great Tang Family, she was supposed to know it.
Most cases were treated with vegetables or fruit, so the mention of raw food had only been something she had memorized from the Tang Family medical texts.
“R-raw food, then……”
“There.”
Yu I-seol pointed through the window.
The lake.
The vast lake of the Northern Seas spread out there before them.
“Fish is raw food too. As long as you don’t cook it.”
“Ah!”
Everyone’s heads turned in unison toward the same place.
Receiving those fervent, burning gazes, Chung Myung smiled with satisfaction.
“Chung Myung!”
“Go catch them now!”
“A lot! As many as you can!”
“They have to be fresh, so catch them alive if you can! Do whatever it takes!”
Chung Myung looked up at the ceiling with an absurdly bright face.
Sasuk. Sect Leader Sasuk.
At this point these bastards are ordering me around way too naturally. What do you think of that?
Can Mount Hua really keep turning upside down like this?
If you don’t hurry up and go catch them, you punk!
……Fine. We’ll see about that when I get to the Immortal Realm, Sasuk.
I’m going to pluck out every last one of your whiskers.
Every last one.