Chapter 155: So Yoshitoshi [2] Kanghyeok brought up surgery with a face that truly looked as though nothing was the matter at all.
It would have been much better if he had explained it in normal surgical terms.
But Kanghyeok was a little different from ordinary physicians.
"What… did you say you were going to do?"
So Yoshitoshi muttered as he wiped the vomit from the corner of his mouth with his sleeve.
"For now… get some rest."
Sayaga was already supporting him with a towel dampened in water in hand.
After helping the staggering Yoshitoshi lie back down on the bedding, he turned to Kanghyeok and asked, "I did not hear clearly either. What exactly are you going to do?"
Looking down at Yoshitoshi, who now looked as though he were on the verge of death, Kanghyeok answered, "I said I'm going to cut him open."
"Cut him open…"
For a physician, the words he used sounded astonishingly vulgar.
Sayaga tilted his head and thought back on everything that had happened so far.
Yoshitaka's head was "opened up," and now this time he said he was going to "cut him open."
As everyone knew, Korean was not Sayaga's native language.
So it always took him some time to interpret the slang Kanghyeok usually used.
One fortunate thing was that Sayaga had, by now, become somewhat accustomed to Kanghyeok's way of speaking.
He cannot possibly mean simply going somewhere with that expression.
After all, had he not literally opened up Yoshitaka's skull instead of just talking about kicking something or prying something loose?
"Then… that means…"
"Yes. I have to cut from here to here."
Kanghyeok's face had remained utterly indifferent the whole time.
Without much change in expression, he traced a line with his finger from behind Yoshitoshi's ear down to the area of the Adam's apple.
"Ugh."
Yoshitoshi let out a groan, looking as if his skin had crawled.
To Kanghyeok, it was only a light stroke with a fingernail, but to the one on the receiving end, it was quite different.
Because it was so unnecessarily precise, it really felt as though his skin were being sliced.
"You… you are going to cut that much?"
No matter how one looked at it, the range was far too large.
Sayaga spread out his palm wide with a look of utter disbelief, measuring the length of the line Kanghyeok had drawn.
It was almost exactly the length of Sayaga's palm, which was about average for an adult man.
Kanghyeok also thought the scope of the incision was rather excessive.
But what could he do?
There was no other way.
So he simply nodded.
"Yes. About that much exactly. I will not cut any farther than that, so do not worry too much."
"No… if you cut any farther than that…"
Sayaga barely swallowed the question, Wouldn't that mean his neck gets cut off?
It was because he was mindful of Yoshitoshi, who was breathing quickly right beside them.
It might have been better if he had said it in Korean, but even then it was still worrying.
Yoshitoshi had not spent only a day or two in Joseon, after all.
"It's fine, it's fine. You've seen me do this a few times already, haven't you?"
"I have seen it."
"So you can trust me, right?"
"Yes, well… of course…"
Sayaga still looked gloomy, but he nodded anyway.
He had seen Kanghyeok's almost miraculous skill with his own eyes.
The surgery on the rocking ship had been shocking enough, but opening and closing Yoshitaka's skull had been no less shocking.
"Then trust me."
Kanghyeok patted Sayaga on the shoulder.
But it was not merely a gesture of encouragement. It meant, more strongly, move aside.
For someone as relatively small as Sayaga, there was no choice but to be pushed helplessly off into the corner of the room.
"Now then…"
Kanghyeok took the very spot where Sayaga had been sitting until just moments ago.
Then he examined Yoshitoshi's face.
"Ugh."
Yoshitoshi still had his eyes tightly shut, as though the dizziness had not fully faded.
Watching him, Kanghyeok felt a slight pang of guilt rising in his chest.
I did shake him a bit too hard.
It had been such a long time since he had done this that he had lost the feel for it.
He only needed to shake him enough to provoke dizziness.
After all, it had already been certain that one side's function was impaired.
Since he had shaken him with all his strength, it made sense that Yoshitoshi now looked half-dead.
But Kanghyeok was far too impatient by nature to leave necessary work undone.
"Excuse me."
After saying that out of courtesy, he flipped Yoshitoshi's eyelid open.
The eye that was still jerking greeted him.
"It's still jerking. This really is worse than useless."
"What? His eye?"
At Kanghyeok's words, Sayaga jumped and hurried over.
Kanghyeok shoved the clingy Sayaga back again.
"No, are you insane? Why would I take out his eye when he's dizzy?"
"You said it would be better if it were gone while looking at his eye…"
"Oh."
Kanghyeok laughed as though the idea were absurd.
Then he turned around.
He was curious whether any of his disciples might be thinking the same thing.
Sayaga, who knew nothing at all about medicine, could not really be blamed.
But it would be a problem if his disciples thought so too.
"You lot didn't think I meant plucking out his eye either, did you?"
"Come on, of course not."
Makbong, the one Kanghyeok worried about most, burst out laughing.
Kanghyeok was about to turn back in relief when Makbong added something strange.
"You're trying to fix that shaking eyeball, so why would you pluck it out? You just need to hold it still so it stops shaking."
It was certainly a novel theory, and naturally it was complete nonsense.
Kanghyeok sighed and shook his head.
His fierce kick had already landed in Makbong's stomach.
"If you fix his eyeball in place, you little brat, how is he supposed to live after that?"
"Urgh."
Makbong, having been struck squarely in the solar plexus without warning, collapsed to the floor.
The pain was apparently so severe that he was gasping for breath.
Watching him, Dolseok smiled smugly.
"Good grief. After learning all that, and you still don't know even this."
"Oh? So you seem to know something?"
This time Kanghyeok's gaze turned toward Dolseok.
When the arrow turned toward him, Dolseok hurriedly clamped his mouth shut.
But it was already too late.
He had to answer somehow.
Kanghyeok hated silence more than nonsense.
"Mm."
"Mm? Want to die?"
"N-no. It's just… the goal of the treatment is to make sure his eyes don't jerk even when his head moves, isn't it?"
"Hmm."
His focus was somewhat off, but it was not entirely wrong.
Kanghyeok lowered the fist he had been idly spinning and listened.
At the same time, Dolseok's eyes gleamed.
Got it. This is the right direction.
No matter how he thought about it, Makbong was an idiot.
Had he not seen Kanghyeok trace the surgical site with his hand just earlier?
The eyes were not even included in that area, yet he had babbled nonsense about fixing the eyes in place. It was no wonder Kanghyeok had gotten angry.
It's neck surgery, you moron.
Dolseok smiled smugly, then proudly spoke.
"So you just keep the neck from moving."
"Hmm?"
What sort of fresh nonsense was this now?
Kanghyeok forgot even about hitting him and listened first.
Encouraged, Dolseok became even more excited and kept going.
"If you fix the neck firmly in place, then he won't get dizzy, right? To think you came up with an operation like that, Young Master. Truly, you are a genius."
"Hah."
Kanghyeok nodded because he had temporarily forgotten what to say.
Listening to that, he suddenly felt his head growing heavy.
But the others did not think so.
So after all, Dolseok really is the top disciple.
No wonder Young Master keeps him around for so long.
The deeper the misunderstanding grew, the higher Dolseok's nose rose.
Maybe that was why.
He failed to notice Kanghyeok's fist rising high into the air.
Thunk.
Soon, Kanghyeok's fist came crashing down like judgment from heaven, and Dolseok was knocked flat without even managing a squeak.
"I'll explain it during the surgery later, so listen carefully. What do you mean, fix the eyes and fix the neck?"
"Yes, yes."
After tearing his eyes away from his disciples, who were bowing repeatedly, Kanghyeok looked back at Yoshitoshi.
A somewhat different concern from before rose in his mind.
Should I mess around with this one halfway too, like I did with Yoshitaka, or not?
Half-curing someone would have been easy.
But Sayaga and Yoshitoshi were people Kanghyeok personally found likable.
So likable that, when he thought of crossing blades with them later, it made his chest ache a little.
"Hmm."
Yoshitoshi laboriously opened his mouth toward Kanghyeok, who had grown much more serious than before.
"Physician Baek."
"Yes."
"Is that surgery… very dangerous?"
"Well, it is, somewhat. Since I have to touch the head."
"I see."
"But do not worry too much. I am the one doing it."
Even while looking at Kanghyeok's confident expression, Yoshitoshi could not easily nod.
After a long pause, he spoke again with difficulty.
Since the dizziness had already passed, this difficulty could only be described as psychological.
"Physician Baek."
"Yes."
"As you know… Tsushima has long been a vassal domain of Joseon."
"That is what I have heard."
"Even now, though not as much as before, we still strive to maintain good relations."
"Mm."
Kanghyeok did not know what to say.
So he answered only with an ambiguous sound, and Yoshitoshi continued.
"But on the mainland… that is, the Kanpaku… does not much share that thinking."
"My lord?"
At Yoshitoshi's words, Sayaga hurriedly stepped in.
But Yoshitoshi waved aside the interruption.
"Enough. As you just saw, my illness is not a light one. To cure it would be a great favor, would it not?"
"T-that is true. However…"
"That is why I have a duty to convey these words to Physician Baek."
"A duty…"
"You said it yourself, did you not? Physician Baek is an extraordinary physician, and to show him one's body is an honor. This is my way of repaying that."
"Understood."
Sayaga stepped back with an extremely troubled expression.
He did not stop there, but even opened the door and checked whether anyone was eavesdropping.
When he nodded, Yoshitoshi continued what he had been saying.
"Physician Baek. I have heard of your character from Elder Hwang Yungil and Elder Kim Seongil."
"Yes."
"I do not know much else, but they say that no one surpasses you in the qualities required of a physician."
"That is probably true."
Seeing Kanghyeok nod so easily, Yoshitoshi smiled faintly.
"And they say you also value loyalty quite highly. Is that true?"
"That…"
Suddenly Kanghyeok remembered all the times he had stabbed people in the back while getting by in life.
There had been no shortage of days when he had kept faith, but just as many when he had betrayed it.
"It depends on the person."
So he gave a deeply ambiguous answer.
It was the sort of answer that sharply lowered his credibility, but Yoshitoshi still seemed intent on revealing something important.
He showed no sign of hesitation at all.
"That would only be natural."
"What exactly are you trying to say?"
"Hear me out. It is something I could not even bring myself to tell your king. You will not feel wronged even if it takes some time."
"Hah."
At the mention of King Seonjo, even Kanghyeok had no choice but to straighten his posture and listen.
The same went for Makbong, Yeoni, and Yeoju behind him.
The only one who had no interest at all was Dolseok.
He was still lying flat on the floor.
"The Kanpaku… intends to strike the Ming. That is also the reason I was sent as an envoy to Joseon. He told me to demand that Joseon open the road for him, as he meant to attack the Ming."
"Mm."
"But I could not bring myself to say such words to your king. As I said earlier, Tsushima is also a vassal domain of Joseon."
"A vassal domain…"
"But until now, if the Kanpaku ordered us to strike Joseon and then strike the Ming, I fully intended to obey."
"Until now?"
At Kanghyeok's words, Yoshitoshi's eyes drifted off into the distance for a moment.
It felt as though he were recalling Joseon.
"But… I have changed my mind. Even if the Kanpaku commands it, Tsushima will not actively cooperate."
"What?"
"There are those who agree with the Kanpaku's plan to strike the Ming, but there are many who do not. From ancient times, it has never been right for a small country to attack a great one. In any case, you need not worry too much about Tsushima. I give you my word."
Yoshitoshi even bowed his head with difficulty.
At that point, Kanghyeok could no longer help but change his own thinking as well.
"I understand. I too will do my utmost to treat you."
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
Read 175 more chapters ahead on NovelDex!
https://noveldex.io/series/doctor-goes-back-to-joseon
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━