Chapter 57
Chapter 57
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Translator: Vine
Chapter: 57
Chapter Title: A Public Demonstration
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***
Shutting up the naysayers is simple. You just have to prove you have the skills.
A moment later, as if she'd grasped the situation, Jeok Yunha appeared and set the stage.
‘My, what a show! Something like this should be seen by everyone, don't you think?’
Thanks to her, a woman of considerable influence in the market, excitedly spreading the word all over town, the whole affair grew much larger.
I looked at the new patients who appeared before me.
‘Are they homeless?’
Their shabby, worn-out clothes and unwashed appearance were similar to those I'd seen sitting listlessly in the city's back alleys.
There were clearly people in this city who received no aid.
For the record, I wasn't the one who brought the patients.
To leave no room for doubt, I had told Physician Peyman to bring the patients himself, and his side had agreed.
Of course, just in case he tried to flee, I'd asked Dad to keep an eye on him with the wind, and sure enough, that physician's apprentice was the one who dragged the patients here.
‘Those bastards.’
Seeing them bring the patients tied up with ropes made anger surge within me, but I had to swallow it for the sake of what was to come.
And so, five patients were gathered before me.
“You bwought the patients youwself, so you shouldn't have any complaints.”
Peyman looked utterly flustered, as if he hadn't expected the situation to escalate this much.
But when his eyes met mine, he acted brazenly.
“Hmph, I w-wonder what you'll look like when your fraudulent act is exposed for all to see!”
He's scared but trying to hide it.
‘He's an intermediate-level physician. He must think backing down now would be too damaging to his pride.’
Even if he senses something is wrong, there's no turning back.
The higher up you go, the more guys like this you find. I've seen countless men fall because they insisted they couldn't possibly be wrong.
‘Now it's your turn.’
I inwardly raised the corners of my lips into a smirk.
“And you tweat them too.”
“…”
“What, scawed?”
I grinned.
I'll enjoy watching that confident face of yours crumble.
***
Peyman was bewildered.
‘This wasn't supposed to happen…?’
Having had an Easterner as his master, he had been renowned as a skilled physician in his youth.
His master was a master of acupuncture.
Peyman studied diligently under him, and though not as skilled as his master, he struck out on his own once he had reached a certain level of proficiency.
His skills were more than enough for the common people. But that was the extent of his golden age.
Peyman himself knew it.
His skills were only top-tier in a small village or a minor city.
Becoming an intermediate-level physician was purely a matter of luck.
To be precise… it was because he had treated a relative of a prestigious family in a certain village.
It was a reversal of fortune that could change one's life.
The high-ranking noble he had saved was none other than a member of the Sinion family, one of the empire's eight great families!
‘One's hands are bound to get rusty. Do not neglect your training. The same will be true even when you are sixty.’
He no longer listened to his master's advice.
After that, wealth and fame rolled in on their own, even without effort, as long as he revealed his connection to the Sinion family!
Patients trusted the physician recommended by the Sinion family implicitly, even if the treatment went wrong or the medicine was strange.
Peyman had come to ‘Heuklim’ eight years ago on the orders of the Sinion family, who told him to establish himself there.
They had told him to build a reputation, saying he would be of use someday, and now he had finally received his orders, but!
‘Didn't you say I just had to handle a simple request…!’
The high-ranking knight from the Sinion family had told him to grant Kaniel's request.
Kaniel had told him he just needed to teach an insolent young physician a lesson!
‘Master… this is strange. There's no reply from Kaniel.’
He first felt something was amiss when he saw the little baby who appeared, claiming to be a physician.
A playful-sounding name like ‘Heuk Biyu’.
To dare use the ‘Heuk’ surname in the Heuk family's territory was tantamount to impersonation.
…But the warrior who appeared with her was unmistakably a member of the Heuk family.
Only then did Peyman realize that the Sinion knight and Kaniel had not given him proper information, and he felt a sense of dismay.
But it was already too late.
He was a man who had grown complacent. Proper judgment was beyond him, and his hands had stiffened, losing the once-remarkable acupuncture skills he had possessed long ago.
The apprentices he had trained well in his youth trusted him, but at some point, a hint of doubt had begun to blossom in their eyes as well.
As such, Peyman lacked the skill to recognize anything unusual about Heuk Biyu's medicine.
He was merely bluffing even now.
Until now, there had been no problems because his backing was so powerful.
However, he did not know.
That when no one makes an issue of it, it isn't an issue…
But once someone starts to, even an iron fortress can crumble uncontrollably fast.
That time was now.
“Awe you going to wefuse?”
Cold sweat beaded on his back.
That brat should have been intimidated by his reputation and confessed her wrongdoing.
Even if that failed, Kaniel or the Sinion knight should have appeared here to back him up…!
Why? How did it come to this?
‘You said you'd come! You said you'd help! Damn it, damn it all…!!’
Peyman glanced around.
People were watching. About half of them still trusted him.
His apprentices sensed something was off, but they weren't doubting their master yet.
What if he ran away now?
His neck was drenched in cold sweat.
‘I'll lose everything.’
There was no escape route. He clenched his fists tightly.
“Hmph, w-who said anything about refusing? You'd better not act so cocky just because you have that Heuk family warrior behind you.”
“I'm pwetty suwe you heawd me call him 'Dad'. Awe youw eaws clogged…?”
“What?”
“Nevew mind. Even if you win, I won't do anything to huwt you.”
The baby physician Biyu smiled sweetly.
A sharp, un-baby-like glint flashed in her curved eyes.
“Because we…”
The nervous Peyman didn't hear her words.
He was just relieved that the menacing man, presumably ‘Heuk Bihu’, wasn't stepping in.
‘There's no way I'll lose anyway!’
The patients his apprentice had brought were all people with the same symptoms.
Their bodies were covered in spots, causing some of the onlookers to frown.
They were patients prepared in advance.
When preparing the patients, Kaniel had confessed that he would take other measures beforehand.
‘Just in case that little wench tries anything, we'll need a surefire way to win, won't we? Oh, I'm not doubting your skills, Physician, not at all. But it's always good to be… certain.’
Kaniel had said he would poison the patients he prepared beforehand.
He had even explained in detail how to activate the poison and what would cause the patients to die.
‘Ah, and of course, the patients won't even know what they've ingested, hahaha!’
A few of his apprentices had helped administer the poison in the process, so they were all in it together.
‘…The poison was deadly.’
So those patients—no, those homeless people—were destined to die anyway.
The plan was to intimidate the little physician into treating them, and then kill them right after.
But now Kaniel, the mastermind behind the entire plan, was nowhere to be found.
The Sinion knight hadn't appeared either.
“Now, now, are all our physicians ready?”
Jeok Yunha, acting as the host, beamed.
She had cleverly moved the medicinal herbs here as well, so more people could see.
Thus, in the middle of a circle formed by the crowd stood the five patients, Heuk Biyu, Heuk Bihu, and Physician Peyman.
“I'll go fiwst.”
Heuk Biyu, having left her father's arms and descended to the ground, waved her hand.
Peyman's eyes widened.
“You said they have the same illness, wight? I'll tweat thwee of the five.”
Without waiting for an answer, Biyu clapped her hands. *Clap!* Contrary to the cute sound…
“Whoa!”
A huge wave rose. It was Biyu's specialty.
The wave, seemingly gentle yet drawing a rough curve, swept over the patients.
The patients looked bewildered.
“Don't be supwised. I'm just diagnosing.”
Peyman's eyes widened as if they would tear.
‘What in the world is this?’
Peyman had seen his fair share of physicians over the years.
But he had never seen anyone with healing abilities of such a massive scale.
For a nature-type ability user, scale was a measure of power.
Three patients were trapped in the water. But at a glance, it looked as if they were trapped in a vast ocean.
The baby, with her cute and lovely appearance that could make one believe she was a doll, stared blankly at the water.
Her large eyes widened for a moment before twisting into a fierce glare.
“Huh? What's this?”
Even that expression earned cries of admiration for its cuteness from some, but regardless, streams of water churned behind Biyu.
*Swish, swish.* Moving faster than ever, the streams of water gulped down the medicinal herbs.
The streams, initially dyed green, turned blue, then faded again and sparkled with a golden light.
The onlookers exclaimed in mesmerized wonder at the mystical light, as if they had entered the world of immortals.
‘The speed at which she's making… the medicine…’
Peyman's jaw dropped.