Chapter 238
Chapter 238
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Translator: Ebonarch
Chapter: 238
Chapter Title: 12 - Treatment
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"Ugh... tch."
A small clinic tucked away in a remote rural village.
The lone doctor there—a woman—grunted as she hauled a heavy box of medicinal herbs, then rubbed her aching back.
It had been five years already since she'd inherited the clinic from her master and started running it on her own.
Sure, there had been folks who looked down on a young woman managing a place like this, but her skills had earned her respect, so those types were rare nowadays.
Still, when it came to lugging around heavy stuff like this, she couldn't help but feel the downsides of going solo. She often thought back to the disciples who'd dropped by, begging to study under her...
'But I'm not skilled enough to teach anyone yet.'
She wasn't anywhere near ready to take on a disciple.
Taking one on with her current level of expertise? She'd have no face left to show her master later. She'd need at least another ten years before even considering it.
By then, her own health would start failing anyway. If she didn't want to wither away alone, she'd better line up someone to help out.
Truth be told, an even simpler solution was just finding a decent partner.
She wasn't bad-looking, capable, and still young—snagging someone wouldn't be hard if she tried.
Even in a tiny village like this, there were dozens of young men around. Pick a good one, and she'd solve both her loneliness and her future worries in one go.
It wasn't like she hadn't had a few prospects while running the clinic over the years.
She was still young enough now, but give it a few more years until she hit prime marriageable age, and the difficulty would skyrocket. If she wanted one, now was the time...
"...Haa."
The problem was, there wasn't a single man she liked.
It wasn't that she was some militant spinster or had impossibly high standards for men.
Back in her training days, she'd brushed them off because cultivation came first, but deep down, she wanted to savor a proper woman's happiness someday...
'It's all that guest's fault...'
This all started about two years ago, with that one visitor.
A Taoist woman who showed up in the dead of night, carrying someone draped in a Bloodstained Cloak on her back, pleading in a frantic voice for emergency treatment.
The Taoist herself wasn't the issue. The problem lay with her patient.
The cloak hid the face so oddly that curiosity got the better of her, and she'd asked them to remove it for the exam.
Thinking back, she should've left it alone.
It definitely wasn't a masculine look.
Manly enough if you called it a man, but feminine enough if you insisted otherwise—an ambiguous beauty with no muscle to speak of and a slight build that lacked any typical male charm...
-Gulp
'I should've treated them somehow back then...!'
Even two years later, she couldn't get it out of her head.
Just recalling that moment brought back the strange, intoxicating scent wafting from the patient's body, lingering at the tip of her nose.
The first few weeks, she'd chalked it up to the patient being so memorable. But when it kept haunting her months later, she'd wondered if she had some dangerous tastes and secretly spied on the local kids to check.
Good thing she hadn't ended up in a coffin yet—no weird inclinations there, apparently...
"Haa..."
At this rate, marriage was probably off the table for life.
And now that she'd thought about that scene again, sleep was ruined for tonight too.
She wouldn't pull an all-nighter like before, but she'd probably only nod off around dawn...
-Thud thud!
"Hey! Anyone in there? Doctor around?"
-Startle!
The patient's voice from outside snapped her back to reality.
Personal woes or not, a patient in need meant the clinic stayed open.
"Y-yes! Come on in!"
Someone showing up this late at night? The situation had to be dire.
She scrambled to prep her tools, then a sudden thought hit her.
'...That voice sounds kinda familiar.'
It felt like she'd heard it—and that tone—somewhere before.
.
.
.
"Ah. Still here, I see. Good thing. I was out cold and the only clinic I could think of nearby was this one..."
"Y-you're the Taoist lady from two years ago, right?"
"You remember. Must see a lot of patients, though."
"Ahaha... Of course we remember them. It's our job."
"I get we're acquainted, but could you check the patient first? Somewhere to lay them down?"
A slightly prickly voice cut in as she exchanged greetings with the Taoist, who looked utterly unchanged by time.
The voice came from a striking blue-haired girl carrying a woman even larger than herself.
"Ah. Right over there. Don't worry about dirt; we can clean it up. Just set her down."
"Ugh... tch."
She pointed to a blanket spot, figuring it looked tough for the girl.
Stronger than she looked—the girl easily lowered the woman onto it.
"..."
-Blank
Her mind went blank the instant she saw.
The golden hair with its faint unnatural tint was surreal enough, but the face... even with eyes closed, the features were beyond perfect.
-Huff... huff...
'Whoa... those...'
For a second, she'd thought they were fake, stuffed in her clothes. But no—all real flesh.
Even just lying there breathing, they jiggled up and down hypnotically, defying gravity in a way that held even her—a woman—captivated.
Anything that size usually sagged under its own weight. How did she maintain this...?
"...Um... aren't you gonna examine her?"
"Ah!"
She shook her head to clear the daze and grabbed her tools.
"I'll start the exam, but for a smooth check-up, mind if I ask a few questions?"
"Go ahead."
"Mm... simplest one first: what happened? Fight with another martial artist? Fell somewhere? Details help pinpoint the cause."
'Breathing seems steady at least...'
Irregular breathing would've been near-hopeless, but she still seemed salvageable.
Next, heartbeat...
-Squish
"..."
'If she wakes up, maybe ask her favorite food.'
Silly thoughts aside, she did her job properly.
Heartbeat was...
'A bit slow?'
Something was off.
Definitely not a healthy human rate.
Maybe if it were a hibernating animal...
"W-well... there was an accident fighting an enemy. Got hit with some weird energy."
"What kind of enemy?"
"Mm... Blood Cult remnants, let's say."
"...Ugh."
A terrifying name.
Supposedly wiped out over twenty years ago, yet remnants lingered.
She'd need to dig into her master's records for this.
Nothing she'd ever encountered personally.
"Hold on... I might need to check my master's books too..."
She stepped away to rummage through the storage for the tomes her master left behind.
All she could do was pray there was something in there.
While the doctor was off hunting books, Yeo Socheon and the Sword Empress exchanged grim words.
"Think this doctor knows anything? This is worlds apart from treating him back then."
"No choice but to try. Closest clinic around, after all."
"Damn it... That white witch pulls her stunts and vanishes without a word. She hijacks someone else's body on a whim, leaves her like this, and doesn't even provide a cure...?"
"That 'channel' thing—we don't have it, so no contact. You think she did it on purpose?"
"With that damned woman? Wouldn't put it past her. Couldn't lay a hand on him herself, but this one's had ten years of it—maybe jealousy."
"Ahem..."
The Sword Empress stayed quiet, figuring she had no room to talk, but she didn't delude herself that things between him and her were innocent.
Her temperament left her blushing and coughing awkwardly at the blunt mention.
"Anyway. Any idea on her condition? You've got all that weird knowledge."
"I know. Problem is, things look real bad right now."
"...That so?"
"See this? It's her fox bead."
Yeo Socheon pulled a glowing blue orb from the fallen woman and showed it to the Sword Empress.
"The higher a fox yokai's realm, the more they merge with their fox bead. At her level, it's basically her second self."
"...Looks murky."
"Yeah. Should be pure, natural blue from pristine energies... but."
Inside swirled blue light tainted by a nail-sized blot of dark crimson.
Like ink spreading in a water bottle, the dark red was slowly expanding.
Given that the bead mirrored her true state, it screamed trouble.
And sure enough, the red-and-black streaks in her golden hair had grown a bit.
"...What if that dark red takes over the whole bead?"
"..."
The Sword Empress posed the hypothetical carefully.
"...She won't be the one we remember, that's for sure."
Yeo Socheon dodged a straight answer, eyes fixed on the storage room.