Chapter 128: If That's the Case, Then You Should Grant Him an Official Post [1] Even as Yungil asked the question, his eyes kept darting around the room.
Only then did Kanghyeok realize that the state of the room was a complete mess.
Until just moments ago, he had been so overjoyed at having finished the surgery properly that he had not noticed anything else.
Ah... Blood splattered everywhere. Since it's wood and paper, it won't even wipe off easily. This is going to be a problem...
Anyone who saw it might mistake it for a gruesome murder scene.
There was no way he could examine another patient in here now.
It was not just ugly to look at. Infection was also a concern.
Solid wood is great and all, but it's not exactly a material resistant to infection...
It was not as if water had splashed on it.
It was blood.
It would be full of nutrients bacteria loved, so there was no telling what kind of germs might grow.
He was already worried about where he would operate in the future.
Not every operation would bleed this much, of course.
But whenever blood did splatter, it would end up like this again.
And it was not as though he could change rooms every single time.
Should I call Daeroya and have the surfaces finished in metal... Or maybe stone? What a headache.
While Kanghyeok was briefly lost in thought, Kim Simin opened his eyes with effort.
The wound looked much better now that the old scar had been cut away and only clean flesh had been sutured together.
There was a slight pulling sensation, but that much would resolve itself with time.
"Mmm... You're here."
"Oh, right. You know who I am, don't you?"
"Of course I do. Haha. Anyone would think I'd nearly died and come back."
"They say once you take the medicine, you sleep without knowing the world. It seems that really is true. There was quite an uproar while you were being treated. I was in the sarangchae, then chased all the way over here."
Yungil pointed to the blood splattered all around the room.
Only then did Simin get a look at the state of the room.
"This... is all my blood?"
At that, Kanghyeok quickly cut in.
"It only looks like a lot because it spread widely. The amount wasn't that great. You're not dizzy or anything, are you?"
In truth, he had lost quite a lot of blood, and that was why they had even given him a transfusion.
But Kanghyeok did not mention that part.
Why create that sort of controversy for no reason?
He shot a silent look toward Dongpa, who lay collapsed in exhaustion behind them, telling him to keep quiet.
Dongpa had already been warned in advance and had no strength left anyway, so he merely nodded.
Simin tilted his head a few times, then finally spoke.
"Hmm? Mmm... My head does feel a little foggy."
"That's because of the medicine."
"Other than that, I can't really tell."
Nodding, Simin slowly pushed himself upright.
Little by little, clarity returned to his eyes, and within only a few minutes, his usual expression had returned.
"Hmm."
"Is there somewhere you feel uncomfortable?"
"No... Hmm."
After that, Simin spent quite a while groaning and frowning deeply.
It was an expression he had rarely made even when the sharp pain from the trigeminal nerve was striking him, so no one could hide their worry.
Especially not Kanghyeok, who had just taken a blade to him.
That's strange. The surgery was perfect... wasn't it?
Had he not removed the aneurysm pressing on the nerve?
And done it with a skill bordering on the miraculous.
He had even confirmed that the nerve had fully relaxed and that the useless abnormal response was gone.
And yet Simin's expression looked anything but normal.
Was the nerve damaged because it had been compressed too long?
It was possible.
But according to the flood of papers written on the subject, the trigeminal nerve was one of the thicker cranial nerves, and because of that, it was very durable.
Unless it suffered direct injury, one could almost say with certainty that its function would not be completely ruined.
Did I stab it?
There was a possibility that the underlying structure had been damaged while he was cutting out the aneurysm.
No matter how much of a master physician Kanghyeok was, it was not as though he had never made a mistake.
He was human too, and he had committed his fair share of errors.
Most of them had been in the days when he was younger and less experienced, but still.
Damn it, don't scare me like this. Sitting there like that with no explanation.
Kanghyeok stared at Simin, who still only groaned and frowned.
"Hmm."
"What is it? Is something wrong?"
Unable to bear it any longer, Yungil asked again.
Only then did Simin relax his tightly furrowed face and look ahead.
Then he smiled brightly.
It was an expression none of them had seen even once during the more than ten days they had spent together.
"No. The pain is gone. Well, it still aches a little strangely... but this is a different kind of pain."
"It doesn't hurt anymore?"
"Yes. I was counting the time just in case. Usually, before I could count to ten, there would be a stabbing jolt once. But now... even after counting past twenty, nothing like that comes."
"Huh. Then this is truly cause for celebration. The treatment really did go well."
While Hwang Yungil rejoiced as though it were his own matter, Simin struggled to rise to his feet.
He had lost quite a bit of blood, but the blood he had received from Dongpa had not been a small amount either, which made it possible.
Of course, it also helped that he had never neglected his training and still had enough strength in his muscles.
"Kanghyeok, thank you. Truly, thank you. To be honest, when Elder Yungil told me I should come see you, I was against it. It was an illness no physician under heaven could make sense of, so I thought there was no way you would be any different."
"Haha. Elder brother, no need to thank me. A doctor... healing patients is only natural."
And he had received appropriate compensation for it too.
Kanghyeok thought of the furs Yungil had sent as payment for treatment.
There had even been a scarf made from high-quality fox tails, and he had never seen anything of that level even in twenty-first-century South Korea.
Well... back then, I wasn't rich.
How much money could a university hospital professor in his early thirties really have had?
People called him the finest doctor and a master physician, but when it came time to negotiate salary, they constantly offered him amounts that were not even half what small private hospitals paid.
The reason, they said, was that he did not perform the kinds of surgeries that made money, and since that was too true, he had never been able to argue.
What could he say, when he had constantly performed operations that did not even cover cost?
Honestly, this life might actually be better.
While Kanghyeok briefly drifted into memories of the past, Kim Simin kept pouring out his thanks.
"I never dreamed it would heal this cleanly."
"That's also thanks to elder brother enduring it so well. And now that the wound itself is much cleaner, you won't need to wear that gat anymore."
Kanghyeok pointed to the gat Simin had taken off before the surgery.
It was the kind of hat whose one side hung down strangely, suspicious enough that anyone would notice.
That was why Simin usually wore a satgat rather than a gat.
With that, his face could not be properly seen at all.
"Ah, is that so? Can I see my face?"
"Go ahead."
Dolseok, standing beside them, quickly held up a mirror.
In sixteenth-century Joseon, a mirror was a kind of luxury item.
Glass-working technology had not spread widely, and mass production was unthinkable.
But Kanghyeok had quite a few mirrors he had bought or received from here and there, so he kept several in the treatment room as well.
"Oh."
Simin could not hide his admiration as he looked at his reflection.
And no wonder.
The grotesque wound that had turned so hideous because he had taken a blade and never received proper treatment had vanished without a trace.
In its place remained only a single incision line with several tied knots.
"This really is... This is remarkable."
"Since I was doing it anyway, I cleaned up the wound too."
"You're like some sort of Taoist immortal. Is such a thing even possible?"
"If a doctor of my level were doing it, anyone could."
"But you said there is no doctor of your level."
"That's right. So at present, only I can do it."
Kanghyeok laughed shamelessly as he bragged about himself.
To Confucian scholars, it would have looked unbearably arrogant.
But his disciples felt a little differently.
If it had been before seeing the surgery earlier, they might have grumbled a bit.
That their master was someone who simply did not know how to be humble.
But after seeing that miraculous technique, their mindset had shifted somewhat.
So all they did now was nod.
As expected, he's the one for Japan.
Hwang Yungil, who had fallen into that completely unrelated misunderstanding, was no different.
"Brother Sun-sin will be arriving soon... At this point, elder brother probably won't need to worry anymore."
"Yes. No one will think it was a scar from being struck in the head by a blade."
"He blamed himself badly at the time. Even though it was not his fault."
"He always... cared very deeply for the people under him, didn't he?"
"That's right. Ah, if only there had been more men like Brother Yi Sun-sin in court, I would not have resigned either."
With a bitter expression, Simin shook his head.
Hwang Yungil's face turned similar.
Though he held the rank of a senior court official, he was unable to guide affairs of state as he wished.
To begin with, the pressure from the Westerners, the faction he belonged to, was too strong, and the Easterners, who had suffered greatly once before, opposed everything at every turn.
It was only because this was still a time of peace that things had not already fallen apart, and he often thought as much.
If there had been several men like Yi Sun-sin, they would have won the war easily. But... Even the great men in Joseon right now are no joke. It can't be that talent was lacking when Joseon suffered so badly in the Imjin War.
Originally, Kanghyeok was the sort of great man who knew nothing and cared nothing not only about history, but even about real-world politics.
But after coming to Joseon and meeting and befriending so many great figures, he had begun to change little by little.
Once he met them personally, were they not all such exceptional and admirable people?
In fact, the biographies written about them often failed to capture their true character fully.
If the people who are here now could just be united and made to fight together... they would win for certain. Though that does look almost impossible.
Had not Ryu Seong-ryong lamented exactly that when Kanghyeok met him not long ago?
That all useful memorials were pushed aside, and everyone devoted themselves only to factional fighting.
That even while the country's economy was collapsing and enemies watched hungrily for a chance, no one seemed to care much.
It's serious. It really is serious, but...
What could he do?
If anything, it was too large a problem for one individual like Kanghyeok to do much about.
Setting aside those complicated feelings, he changed the subject to something pleasant.
"Anyway, it's good to hear that Brother Yi Sun-sin will be coming soon. We should hold a banquet."
"That would be good. Once he leaves for Jeongeup, it will be hard to see his face again for quite a while."
"Yes. Since we only exchange letters, I miss him all the more."
"Haha. Brother Yi Sun-sin always talked about you too. When you meet, you'll have a great deal to talk about."
The two of them went on talking about Yi Sun-sin for quite some time.
Since Hwang Yungil had never personally met Yi Sun-sin, it was difficult for him to join in, so he deliberately stepped back.
For a dignified senior court official, it was a somewhat pitiful sight, but he had never been the sort to care about such things.
From what I hear, this Yi Sun-sin is no ordinary man either.
If affairs of state were discussed in front of him, it seemed likely things might tilt somewhat more favorably.
Asking Ryu Seong-ryong alone would probably have been enough.
But if one wanted things to go properly, should one not always prepare two or three routes?
Having made up his mind, Hwang Yungil cleared his throat to draw their attention.
That finally drew the eyes of Kanghyeok and Simin, who had been happily talking.
"Ah, sir."
"We got so excited talking among ourselves..."
"No, not at all. From what I know, that Yi Sun-sin fellow is no ordinary man..."
No ordinary man?
He was a hero without equal.
Kanghyeok quickly nodded.
"Yes, that's right."
"Would I be able to come to that banquet as well?"
"Huh? Of course. If you come, elder brother will be pleased too."
"I see, I see. Thank you. I'll help with the banquet preparations as well."
"Ah, thank you."
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