Hey, Me Too!
The next day dawned. And from the morning, I was in the middle of performing a 5,100-gold eyebrow transplant surgery.
Tok—Todok—Tododok—
There are two major things to watch out for in eyebrow transplant surgery: alcohol and smoking. For patients scheduled for eyebrow transplants, I ask them to abstain from alcohol for at least a week before the procedure and to quit smoking for one or two weeks. Especially smoking—it's directly tied to graft survival rates. Smoking causes blood vessels to constrict, and the nicotine and other harmful components from tobacco enter the bloodstream, so I recommend at least two weeks of no smoking and no drinking even after surgery.
'But the lady said she doesn't drink. And it seems like cigarettes don't exist in this world.'
Todok—Tok—Todok—
Non-incisional eyebrow transplants follow almost the same process as non-incisional hair transplants. But unlike when I was transplanting follicles into Jeff's shiny bald dome, I was proceeding with extra caution here. Eyebrows grow differently depending on the angle at which the follicles are implanted, and unlike hair transplants, they don't need to look overly lush.
Todok—Tok—Tok—Todok—
'Doing surgery without a nurse is exhausting. The young ladies who come just for haircuts are one thing, but I desperately need more medical staff. Isn't there another doctor who got kidnapped out of nowhere like me?'
I've already done Jeff's hair transplant, so I'm used to solo procedures, but operating alone without a nurse or another specialist is tough. Especially without an anesthesiologist. And this surgery had been particularly tricky from the prep work onward.
When I explain follicles to patients, they think of it as simply transplanting seedlings, but it's not that straightforward. A single follicle doesn't just grow one hair strand— it can produce two, three, four, or even five. For East Asians like Koreans, it's usually two to three strands, rarely more than four.
'But this lady's follicles mostly had four to five or more strands. Jeff would've been jealous.'
Of course, if Jeff had that, his hair loss would've accelerated even more.
I'd transferred the photo the lady brought onto a tablet, zoomed it in, and used it as a reference to shape her eyebrows as similar as possible to her family's— but just a touch more beautiful.
Tok—Tododok—Todok—Tok—
Since we'd only done local anesthesia on the surgical site, the lady only winced briefly when I injected it. She didn't twitch at all during the procedure.
'Good thing she's not scared or in pain.'
I felt a swell of pride at the young girl's composure—no movement, not even a faint groan.
Maybe because of that, transplanting follicle by follicle was laborious but mentally refreshing.
'Or maybe because each one is worth one gold.'
With my heart feeling abundant, my hands moved with delicate precision yet the relentless speed of a sports car blasting down the Autobahn.
Five hours after starting, the eyebrow transplant surgery was complete.
"Lady, the basic phase of your eyebrow transplant is finished. Now we'll move to the finishing touch with cutting-edge medical technology. Please wait just a moment."
"……Yes."
The girl's short reply trembled with emotion.
I went down to the first floor, fed one gold to the dragon hatchling, and brought him back to the operating room.
'No matter how many times I see it, it's amazing.'
The warm energy emanating from him next to the lady even seeped into me. Magic... no matter how many times I witness it...
"It feels just like receiving healing magic, doesn't it?"
Gweh-eeng!Gweh-ee-eeng!
"Hey! Be careful! I told you no talking during surgery!"
"S-Sorry……."
While the hatchling cast his healing magic—roughly mid-level mage or priest quality, worth about five gold each—I had nothing much to do, so I fired up a noisy medical device into the air for no reason, distracting the lady's mind. With the hatchling's level, turning this into a 100-gold treatment meant I couldn't let anything slip.
—Maener! Looks done. Should I head back down?
I nodded at the hatchling's telepathy, and I felt him vanish out the slightly ajar operating room door, cloaked in invisibility.
"All done now. Take it slow getting up."
I removed the cloth covering her eyes and helped her sit up carefully. Her grip on my arm was fierce. She must be tense, naturally.
"Did the surgery... go well?"
"We'll head to the mirror. See for yourself."
I escorted her out of the operating room. She stared at her reflection for a long while, speechless.
"In the mirror... I see my mother's face."
"You did great. Now you can confidently show your eyes to the world."
"Really... how can I ever thank you……."
She dabbed her eyes with the handkerchief I handed her, and my own heart warmed. The results exceeded even my expectations.
Feeling her thrill of emotion vicariously, I spoke from the heart.
"While you're here, let me fix up your hair texture too. That's my specialty."
* * *
Today is Friday, July 22nd in the Ailene calendar. Three days had passed since Melanie, daughter of the Windsor marquis family, received her successful treatment and left.
After removing Ollie's stitches and treating Walter early in the morning, I closed the clinic earlier than usual today.
Now we were heading to the adventurer's guild together for an early dinner.
"Food! Food! Foooood!"
"Are you nervous, Walter?"
"……It'd be a lie to say I'm not."
As the guild came into view, Walter couldn't hide his tension at Cache's offhand remark.
'Can't blame him. This is his first time going to the guild with his treated face.'
Exactly one week ago, after finishing Walter's neurofibromatosis surgery, I'd steadily carved out time amid the stream of young ladies coming for haircuts to complete his scar reconstruction.
And we'd set up this dinner not just to celebrate his joining us, but because today's reconstruction surgery was perfectly finished.
'Wish this world had SNS.'
Back in Korea before isekai, these results would've blown up social media with Walter's before-and-after photos.
'No big deal, though. Without SNS, word-of-mouth rumors spread even more intensely here.'
Kiiik—
With satisfied smiles, we entered the adventurer's guild, still buzzing with raucous laughter and noise.
"Cache, mage, hatchling. Back again?"
"Hello, Guild Master!"
"Not a mage, a doctor...... whatever."
"My name's Res! Call me Res!"
The guild master, in her usual tight crop top, curled one lip in a welcoming smirk.
"But... who's this guy? Looks like an adventurer from his gear."
"......It's me."
"This punk's rude for a first meeting... Huh? Wha-wha?! P-PoDoSongi?!"
"……."
The guild master's eyes bulged, mouth agape in stunned silence as she stared at Walter.
"What, PoDoSongi? That monster's back?"
"Where? I don't see him."
Her shout at max volume drew every adventurer's gaze to us at the entrance.
'Whoa, whoa. I didn't expect this much. They're rolling out the red carpet themselves?'
The order was a bit off, but everything was going according to me and Cache's plan.
Just as the guild master's gaping mouth hadn't closed yet—
Blink—
I winked at Cache, and she cleared her throat like revving an engine for takeoff.
And then.
"Oh my goooosh! Our guild master doesn't know yet?!"
Cache, signal received, raised her voice shrill and clear like a dolphin's sonar—loud enough for the whole guild to hear.
"That's right! This is the Walter you called the PoDoSongi mercenary—!!"
"What, PoDoSongi? That demon's here?"
"Damn, when'd he show up?"
"She means that sleazy-looking Easterner next to the unlucky bastard, right?"
"Huh? That make sense? But look at him, tsk. Sword-for-hire types with faces prettier than a girl's."
The guild erupted in murmurs at Cache's words. Most couldn't believe Walter was the PoDoSongi mercenary.
"Cache, what the hell are you—......?"
The man in question, Walter, couldn't hide his bewilderment. This whole scheme was just between me and Cache.
He tried to stop her, but once Cache had pocketed her five silvers from me, there was no stopping her.
Cache shifted her gaze from the guild master to the crowd, cranking her volume higher.
"Everyone said it! Walter's face was a contagious disease! A curse! The devil's mark! Ha! Zi! Maan! It was just a simple tumor!"
"What's this girl babbling about?"
"Tumor? No way that's really the monster."
"Pfft, nonsense!"
The guild's unrest grew fiercer. But Cache's mouth, paid in full five silvers, kept chattering on.
"Of course, not your average tumor. It was a rare neurofibromatosis! But our continent's top hospital, the Beauty Tower's Director Maener, cured him perfectly!"
Finishing with a grin, she turned back to the guild master.
"Curious? Go ahead and touch his face."
"Oh! Can I? Alright then."
"Wh-What the?!"
At Cache's words, the guild master set down her beer mug without hesitation and started pinching Walter's cheek where the neurofibromatosis lumps had been.
Too sudden—Walter froze solid.
But that was just the start.
"What! It's really that demon?! Lemme touch!"
"Move! Lemme see up close!"
"Hey, me too!"
Female adventurers from nearby tables swarmed like hyenas spotting prey.
"Ca-Cache! What the— Director!!"
Surrounded, Walter reached desperately for me, but I didn't see or hear a thing.
His micro-expressions read more embarrassment than panic anyway.
I settled lightly into an empty seat with Cache and Res.
"Success, Director."
"Kids bond best by glomming on without conditions."
"Foooood! Fooooood!"
"Hold on, Res, no separate orders here—"
"Continent's top hospital, huh? Intriguing."
"……?"
As the commotion died down and we waited for food, a robed man approached our table.