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7
8.
Except for the few people remaining in the academy building, it is practically empty.
The instructors and school leaders each go on vacation, and the school cafeteria also takes a long break with only a minimal number of staff remaining.
Among them, the place that becomes the least crowded is Uiyakdang.
There are hardly any people who visit the Medicine Hall when there are no exams or duels.
Moreover, the few remaining personnel were also training alone in a manner akin to seclusion, so there was no chance of them getting seriously injured.
However, half of the female physicians, including the head of the Uiyakdang, had to remain in preparation for any unforeseen circumstances, so the Uiyakdang kept its doors open every day even when there were no customers.
Today as well, Sama Jeong, the head of the Medicine Hall, arrived at work early in the morning and looked around.
Snow piled high in the courtyard of the pharmacy before I knew it.
The female doctors and servants tried to clear the snow, but were stopped.
Since there were no guests coming anyway and nothing to do, I wanted to at least look at the piled-up snow to my heart’s content. ‘What a lonely scene.’ I don’t think I felt this way when I saw snow before.
The snow this year feels particularly lonely, more so than ever.
“Should I just quit everything…….”
Sama Jeong, watching the snow falling heavily, unconsciously murmured, and the female physician cutting herbs next to him shouted in surprise.
“What are you talking about, Master!”
“Huh? Ah… did you hear that?”
“Please don’t say such things. There are so many doctors here at the Murim Alliance, and specifically at the Medical Hall.”
Sama Jeong chuckled at the female physician’s rebuke.
I guess so.
He does occupy the position everyone wants, though.
“Lady Physician, do you happen to know how many people die from frostbite this winter?”
“……
yes?”
This happened while I was studying. Whenever winter came, I would be drenched in sweat all day long due to the constant influx of patients.
The female physician, who had momentarily failed to understand the context of what Sama Jeong was saying, nodded her head, making a guess.
So, you reached such a good position after all that hardship.
Sama Jeong chuckled without saying for sure whether it was true or not.
That’s right.
Abundant medicinal ingredients and leisurely treatment time.
During the winter or summer break, there are no visitors, making it suitable for conducting research on one’s own.
If my master saw this, it would be an environment worthy of great praise.
Because my master always used to say, ‘You should do things like this.’
but.
So maybe I wanted to do more.
Of course, I had no intention of just watching patients die in poor conditions like my mentor did.
How helpless I felt watching people die because they couldn’t even obtain a single common medicinal herb.
That is why I came to the Murim Alliance.
Because I wanted to build my skills and reputation here, and use the medical fees I received from the rich to treat the poor.
Because I thought that if that happened, we could save more people.
This place makes me feel just like a doctor residing in a wealthy household.
The medical staff does not treat outsiders.
No, to be precise, it is correct to say that they cannot. After all, outsiders are not allowed to enter the Murim Academy in the first place.
It felt as if, before I knew it, I had drifted too far from the journey I had envisioned.
The female physician who was cutting medicinal herbs stopped her hands, looked at Samajeong, and made a fuss.
“So isn’t that wonderful, Assemblyman? Please make sure you stay in power for a thousand years, forever and ever! We like you very much, too.”
That’s right. Haha. Thank you.
Sama Jeong swallowed a bitter smile at the innocent reaction.
If only I hadn’t made that item back then.
She repeated to herself over and over again how much better it would have been if she hadn’t been so greedy, thinking she would give it as a gift to promising children. ‘Will I ever be able to escape this place?’ She liked idly watching the snow, but she wanted to be someone who worked while being showered with it.
But how cold it is to step on beautiful snowflakes barefoot.
He was not sure if he was the kind of person who was prepared to that extent.
I felt like I had become too weak before I knew it.
at that time.
Thump, thump, thump.
There was a figure approaching, walking on the snow as clear as paper.
“uh?”
The female physician looked at the man with surprised eyes.
Then, Sama Jeong’s eyes also opened wide.
“You are…….”
It’s been a long time since I last saw you.
The figure who had previously visited the Medicine Hall in a very impressive manner was smiling while letting the falling snow fall directly on him.
“The tea looks delicious. May I have a cup?” Snow continued to fall in the courtyard of the Medicine Hall.
Jin So-un and Sama Jeong sat side by side with a brazier between them, gazing at the falling snow for a long time.
By the time the snow piled on Jin So-un’s shoulders and head turned into raindrops and disappeared.
Sama Jeong spoke first.
“What brings you here? You don’t look sick… Besides, there is no way you would have come all the way here just to get some tea.”
What do you do in the winter?
“winter?”
Sama Jeong stared intently at Jin So-un at the sudden question.
You must know the intention to have a conversation.
However, Sama Jeong could not guess the intention behind the question just now.
“Well, I guess I’ll just spend my days killing time like this. Surely you didn’t come all the way here just to ask that?”
relief
Aren’t you going out?
“…….”
Sama Jeong’s face hardened.
“What are you talking about?”
I heard that when you were at the Divine Pavilion of the Murim Alliance, you went out to provide relief every vacation season. ……
Is it because you came to this academic building that you have fallen out of favor?
Sama Jeong’s face contorted in displeasure.
Generally speaking, the status of a student at the academy is a position that those active in the martial arts world cannot help but be concerned about.
However, from the very beginning, Sima Zheng was a person who did not care much about such things.
“Did you look me up? Because you want to take something from me? I’m sorry, but things aren’t going to go the way you want.”
Did it look funny that one of the assembly members was growling?
Jin So-un smiled faintly.
“That’s impossible. I just asked because I wanted to know what kind of person you are.”
“I hear that Sinui-gak is a place where people from the Sinui-bang have traditionally occupied key positions for generations, isn’t it? I also heard that they had a significant influence when naming Sinui-gak.”
Those from the Sinuibang mainly settle in the Sinuigak, leading and supporting one another to firmly secure their own power.
No matter how hard Sama Jeong tried, he could not blend in among them.
“After all, how could I possibly associate with people who place their medical skills on the same level as their wealth?” Sima Zheng said, now a little calmer. “It was an opportunity to realize once again just how great my master is.”
“He did not associate with them and frequent brothels, but instead spent his own fortune to treat the poor, so it was enough to make him fall out of their favor.”
I calmly pour out the frustration I couldn’t confide in anyone until now, capturing it in the falling snowflakes.
“In their eyes, I was someone who helped just anyone, someone who belittled the art of medicine.”
“Hmm… then were you kicked out to the Medicine Hall because of that?”
Sama Jeong slowly shook his head.
“That’s not it. I created an English group for prospective students, and that became a problem.”
Are you talking about Jeongsimdan?
Do you know that?
Yes. I ate it.
Sama Jeong’s eyes drooped.
“How was it?”
It was excellent.
Excellent.
Sama Jeong let out a chuckle as he briefly recalled the past.
Don’t just pay lip service. As I told you earlier, there is nothing to take from me.
I don’t know the reason.
However, without realizing it, I was calmly speaking to the student in front of me about a story I hadn’t been able to tell anyone before.
“The efficacy was terrible compared to the cost of the herbs and preparation. That is why I was disciplined.”
You’re quite lucky for a disciplinary action.
Sama Jeong looked around the courtyard slowly.
The snow looked softly piled on the surface. However, it was clear that it would be extremely cold if stepped on.
Isn’t it possible that a warm sanctuary for one person might feel like a suffocating prison to another?
Is that so?
Jin So-un thought for a moment and nodded.
I think the clan head made a mistake.
What are you talking about?
“I speak of relief work. From their perspective, you clearly paid a high price to learn medicine only to sell it off cheaply, so wouldn’t you have appeared as a hypocrite, Master?”
Sama Jeong’s brow furrowed deeply.
“Do you know how many people are dying outside that gate right now because they cannot take even a single dose of medicine? What about those who have to cut off their fingers and toes every time it snows? Are you someone who wields a sword merely to kill?”
As he spoke, his face gradually turned bright red.
He cornered Jin So-un as if pouring out all his pent-up anger.
“Medicine belongs to everyone. If it is only to treat those with money, power, and strength, then what reason is there for medicine to advance? Even the powerful will eventually lose their strength, so when that time comes, I will simply behead them without mercy!”
After his shout echoed in all directions, silence returned once again.
Sama Jeong, having vented his frustration while fuming, thought that he had unnecessarily vented his excitement.
Because Jin So-un was quietly drinking tea without any change in expression.
“If that is your thinking, shouldn’t you not be in the Murim Alliance?”
You should go out into the streets right now and save the people.
And soon, he contradicted himself with the logic he had spouted
I realized that I had fallen into it.
Jin So-un smiled gently as he watched the silent Sama Jeong.
It seems the weather is too cold to do that.
Sama Jeong’s face flushed red with shame, and he rose from his seat.
“Fine. Just as you said, I’m all talk and no action, a hypocrite. Is that enough? If you feel satisfied, go back now.”
Jin So-un leisurely caresses her teacup despite the clear order to leave.
I am not finished saying what I have to say yet.
Do you have anything more to say in this situation?
It is precisely because of the situation that I have something to say.
Hurry up.
Sama Jeong barely suppressed his anger and urged him on.
I want to get this guy out of my sight as soon as possible…
How about coming to Taeeulmun?
“what?”
What did I just hear?
Sama Jeong’s eyes were filled with bewilderment. It was unexpected from the start that the Heavenly Divine Medicine was at the academy.
And when I heard that the reason was the Jeongsimdan I had eaten in the past, it felt like the pieces of a story I hadn’t known before were finally falling into place. ‘Because even if the Murim Alliance begged and pleaded later, they wouldn’t make Jeongsimdan for me.’ Cheonmyo Shinui, who had been active in the Murim Alliance for a while, for some reason quit the Alliance—which was considered the best workplace for a physician—and ventured into the secular world.
It was exactly ten years later that he made a name for himself.
It was from the time those who had eaten Jeongsimdan began to free themselves from their internal energy deviation on their own.
Afterwards, Sama Jeong was revered to the point of being called the Divine God of Heaven, but he never created a spirit elixir.
No, even though countless sects and families visited with bags of money, no elixirs were made for them.
Those ten years were enough time for Sama Jeong to turn the Murim Alliance into an enemy.
“Hahaha…… Hahahahahaha!”
Sama Jeong burst into laughter for a long time.
Hmm, was what I said really that funny?
I never knew I had a talent for making people laugh.
“Hehe…….”
He, who had been laughing so hard his shoulders were shaking, finally managed to stop laughing and asked me.
“Me, to the Taeeulmun?”
“yes.”
“Do you know how the members of the Murim Alliance are treated?”
I understand that he started at the seventh rank and receives a higher monthly salary than ordinary warriors.
As I answered fluently, the sneer on his face deepened even more.
“You’re telling me to come to Taeeulmun?”
We have quite a decent amount of money.
“Hahaha… You’re impossible to reason with. Go back now. Talking to you is giving me a headache.”
The reason I deliberately provoked him was to check if the current version of him shares the same thoughts as the Heavenly Divine Doctor from his past life that I know.
He relief
“If his efforts to help the poor began after he was expelled from the Martial Arts Alliance, he wouldn’t come now no matter what conditions were offered. However, it seems that is just his nature from the start. In that case, recruiting him is no problem.”
Because in this world, people who aren’t moved by money are eventually moved by something else.
“I will open a private clinic for you. Please work for our Taeeulmun while simultaneously providing relief. Taeeulmun will cover all expenses.”
flinch.
Sama Jeong, who was about to leave, sits back down.
As expected, I’m getting a bite right away. Good.
Do you think I would believe such a preposterous story?
“Why do you think it is a far-fetched story?”
Because it is a promise that is difficult to keep in the first place.
Why is this old man so suspicious?
Well, they are a hundred times more trustworthy than someone who just accepts things obediently, though.
Anyone can make a plausible story. But it is human nature to quickly feel reluctant to spend money on people who have nothing to do with you.
That can happen.
“But you’re telling me to go to Taeeulmun based on just a few words from you?”
I took out the book I had prepared and placed it in front of him, who was still unable to shake off his doubts.
How about this?
“What is this?”
You saw me treat Yelu Ke before, didn’t you?
His face stiffens.
To begin with, I wouldn’t sit at the negotiating table without a backup plan… no, I wouldn’t resort to blackmail.
Look at that saliva-swallowing sound echoing everywhere. I’m telling you, it’s already a fish in my hand!
I calmly revealed the true identity of the book.
It is a medical book about him.
Soon, Sama Jeong opens the medical book with trembling hands.
One of the three parts into which Manchoborok was divided.
He frantically examined the Manchoborok, forgetting that I was right in front of him.
“Th-this is…….”
“Yes. I have written down a method for treatment using inexpensive medicinal herbs.”
They called it Manchoborok.
Sama Jeong, who had been flipping through the book repeatedly with an excited look, asked me with a stern face.
“You’re going to… give me this?”
Yes. If you want, the rest of it too.
“Why?”
I shrugged my shoulders.
Well, let’s consider it the price of being invited to the Taeeul Sect.
Sama Jeong stared intently at me with a look of incomprehension.
“This… this is an absurd medical book. If even half of what is written in it were actually realized, it would change the landscape of medicine.”
I think so too.
Perhaps the Murim Alliance hid this book away because they feared such chaos.
But what good is all this if you don’t use such good medical skills yourself?
Moreover, if everything is going to be lost during the Great War against the Demons, it would truly be like hoarding something only to have it turn into trash.
I looked straight into Sama Jeong’s eyes.
You just need to do that, Assemblyman.
Are you saying it’s okay if I use this?
“Yes. That is exactly why I am giving it to you. Ah, of course, you must proceed with announcing it to the world little by little, gradually. If you were to blurt it out all at once, places like the Shinuibang or the Dangga wouldn’t sit idly by.”
Sama Jeong kept his mouth tightly shut for quite a while.
Then, he cautiously asks me.
“In return, do you want a position as a physician in the Taeeul Sect?”
Hey, come on, there’s no way that’s the only thing.
There is one more.
Sama Jeong makes a face as if he has absolutely no idea.
“You know that brilliant move that got you kicked out of the Shinui-gak, Assemblyman?”
“huh?”
I looked at him and smiled sweetly.
Please make some more of that.
As soon as I finished speaking, Sama Jeong wore a look of astonishment.
Hey, why are you so surprised?
Jeongsimdan. It was very effective.
So let’s just churn it out like crazy.
