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TL: ALT
Chapter 7 – A Korean Medicine Clinic in the Countryside?
When I woke up the next morning,
I felt more refreshed than usual.
But then…
“Nureongi is gone.”
Nureongi, who had been sleeping beside me, had disappeared.
“Was it all a dream?”
That my father’s field was actually a medicinal herb garden?
That I had met Nureongi.
And that my tremors had been cured?
I wondered if it was all a dream.
Then—
Tap, tap, tap!
Footsteps were heard outside.
I opened the window when I heard them.
There, diligently tending the field, was Nureongi.
“Oh, young master! You’re awake?”
Nureongi greeted me cheerfully.
Seeing him like that made me chuckle softly.
“It wasn’t a dream after all.”
Nureongi’s bright smile put my mind at ease.
Honestly, I was scared.
I was scared that it might have all been a dream.
But when I noticed that the trembling in my hands had stopped, I realized it wasn’t a dream.
“You’re up early, aren’t you?”
“Hehe! Now is the time for me to shine!”
“Come to think of it, Father was like that, too.”
Mornings in the countryside come quickly.
People usually started moving before dawn.
Now that I’d settled in, I had to get used to it.
“Well, then. I’ll start preparing breakfast.”
I slowly got up and stood in the kitchen.
I began laying out the ingredients I had bought beforehand.
This morning’s meal was doenjang-jjigae.
[T/N: soybean paste stew.]
When I was little, my father often made it for me.
Chop, chop!
I sliced the potatoes skillfully.
I used to slice them very carefully because of my tremors.
But is that because the tremors have disappeared?
“Slicing potatoes has gotten easier.”
It was completely different from before.
Because the shaking had stopped, my speed increased tremendously.
Watching that, I smiled contentedly.
“The tremors were just the beginning.”
I will steadily heal my body.
The coughing up of blood, the body chills, and the frequent headaches.
Finally, I intend to change my entire constitution.
Thinking of that future, I hummed a tune.
Bubble, bubble!
The deliciously simmering doenjang-jjigae.
At the same time,
“Young master! I’m back!”
Nureongi returned with perfect timing.
“Nureongi, you’re just in time. Set the table for me.”
“Table? What’s that?”
Right. He’s never eaten at a table before, has he?
I chuckled hollowly as I set the table.
I set out two rice bowls, spoons, and chopsticks.
Then, I served kimchi and doenjang-jjigae in a bowl for each of us.
Nureongi’s eyes widened.
“Ma-Master, may I eat too?”
“Of course. We’re family now, aren’t we?”
“Family! That’s right! Master and I are family! Hehe!”
“By the way, are you sure you can eat doenjang-jjigae?”
“I’ve never gotten sick from anything I’ve eaten. I’ll be fine! Besides…”
Nureongi picked up a spoon and said,
“Didn’t you name me Nureongi, young master?”
“That’s right.”
“Nureongi is a name that wishes for me to eat well, no matter what! So I will eat well!”
“Hehe! Yeah, eat up. Let me know if you need more.”
And so, Nureongi and I began to eat heartily.
Back when I was a doctor living in the back alleys…
I usually only fill my belly with expensive food.
But none of that food tasted better than this doenjang-jjigae right now.
“I’m glad I came here.”
Honestly, I had agonized over it many times.
Was settling in the countryside really the right choice?
I was a renowned doctor in the back alley.
Was it right to abandon my patients and the city’s infrastructure?
But I finally realized that
All of those choices had been correct.
“This spoon thing is easy to use!”
“What about chopsticks?”
“Still feels awkward, I suppose. Hehe!”
And just like that, we devoured breakfast in no time.
Nureongi’s belly was swollen like a mountain.
He patted his belly and laughed.
“After all, sharing a meal is the best!”
“…Right?”
I thought the same as Nureongi.
Doenjang-jjigae shared with others tastes better than steak eaten alone.
It’s probably an immutable law.
“Time to do the dishes.”
I stood up from the table.
“Mr. Heo Jin, are you home?”
That voice came from beyond the gate.
I immediately put on my slippers and opened the gate.
And there stood…
“Good morning! Mr. Heo Jin!”
It was the village chief’s granddaughter.
Park Haneul was standing there.
* * *
I brought Park Haneul inside.
She couldn’t see Nureongi anyway.
So, I let her sit down comfortably.
“Looks like you had some doenjang-jjigae.”
“Haha, you figured it out?”
“If I hadn’t eaten breakfast, I’d be craving it now. Hehe.”
It was surprising.
I don’t know about the past, though.
These days, women living in the city don’t really like Korean food.
There’s more delicious stuff in the city, after all.
“Here’s a cup of peppermint tea.”
“Oh, thank you!”
I placed the tea in front of Park Haneul.
She immediately took a sip of the tea.
At the same time, she opened her eyes wide.
“I feel kind of drowsy.”
“Peppermint tea is good for fatigue recovery. Healers like you are always busy, right?”
“Right! How did I even get this vacation? Now, my jerk of a boss is following me… Gah!”
She covered her mouth as if she had said too much.
“It’s fine. Jin Young-seok lives pretty far away.”
“Oh, really? Hehe!”
Park Haneul smiled brightly.
“But more importantly, what brings you here?”
“Ah, I feel like I didn’t thank you properly yesterday.”
She said this while extending her arm.
Simultaneously, her arm plunged into something.
It was none other than her inventory.
It was an exclusive possession of awakeners.
“Where is it?”
She rummaged through her inventory.
“Ah, here it is!”
She withdrew her hand.
In her hand was a large beef gift set.
“This is in return for healing Grandfather’s back.”
“I was merely repaying his kindness. I can’t accept this.”
“Oh, come on! Besides, I’m a B-rank healer, so I make plenty of money!”
“…Then I’ll gratefully accept it.”
I held back a smile and took the beef.
“Ah, and this too!”
Saying that, she pulled something else out.
It was none other than an amulet.
It radiated a mysterious power.
“This amulet is an artifact called the Protective Amulet.”
“An artifact…”
“I made it myself. It absorbs a certain level of impact.”
“Is it really okay for me to accept something so precious?”
“I can make another one in 30 minutes. So take it.”
Park Haneul kept handing things over.
Honestly, I was grateful.
What if a gate opened in this rural area?
I wouldn’t be able to protect myself.
“I’ll use it carefully.”
“And it’s disposable, so you should throw it away after one use?”
“I’ll remember that.”
Even though it’s disposable, I’m grateful.
I carefully tucked the talisman into my pocket.
Then, Park Haneul drank her peppermint tea in one gulp and stood up.
“Well, I should head up soon. I need to go back today.”
A B-ranked healer is busy.
She had come up last night and needed to return by lunchtime.
Seeing her like that made me feel sorry for her.
That’s why I packed her some peppermint tea leaves.
“Drinking it regularly should help.”
Those peppermint leaves weren’t ordinary.
They were grown right in my herb garden.
They should be ten times more potent than regular peppermint.
Park Haneul gave a warm smile when she received the peppermint leaves.
“I suppose this is what country kindness feels like? Hehe!”
A life of giving and receiving.
This is the spirit of the countryside.
She bowed her head in thanks after receiving the peppermint tea leaves.
“Mr. Heo Jin, you’ve returned to the countryside to farm, haven’t you?”
“Yes, I came to tend the medicinal herb garden.”
“Hmm, that seems like a waste of your skill.”
Indeed.
My skills are too good to be wasted here. I was one of the top practitioners in the city.”
“How about opening a clinic here?”
“A clinic?”
“Anyway, the patients would all be elderly folks. It could be like a hobby.”
“Hmm.”
Besides the herb garden and the dimensional gate, I don’t have anything else to do.
Rather than wasting time, opening a clinic wouldn’t be a bad idea.
If I kept it small, it wouldn’t be too much of a burden.
“Besides, regulars might come looking for me.”
Of course, they wouldn’t come all the way out to the countryside.
But if there were truly urgent cases—
—who needed treatment, even if it meant coming this far,
Then, running a clinic would be the right choice.
“Opening a clinic doesn’t sound so bad, does it?”
Park Haneul’s casual suggestion led me to decide to open a clinic in the countryside.
* * *
In a dark, shady back alley.
A woman wearing sunglasses and a mask walked through it.
Yet, an aura of refined elegance emanated from her.
Thugs approached her, drawn by that aura.
“Hey, Noona! Wanna come with us to a nice spot?”
[T/N: It means “older sister,” but it’s specifically used by a man to refer to an older woman.]
“We’ll show you a good time!”
Such clichéd thugs.
She frowned at them.
Then, at the flick of her finger.
Crack!
The thugs’ feet froze solid.
“Huh! Suddenly, my feet—”
“Could she be… an Awakener?”
The thugs were stunned by the sudden turn of events and fell flat on their backs.
But it didn’t end there.
The ice spread steadily through the woman’s magic.
The thugs screamed in terror.
“P-please spare us!”
“I don’t want to die!”
With that final scream,
Crack!
The thugs were completely transformed into ice statues.
But regardless,
The woman walked past them, moving forward.
She stood before a building.
Clang!
A single sign hung limply on the old building.
The sign was simple.
It had only three words written on it: “Korean Medicine Clinic.”
But this sign was different than usual.
“Is that rumor really true?”
It was a sign that should have had lights on it.
Right now, however, there is no electricity at all.
It looked like it wasn’t open for business.
Feeling uneasy, she abruptly pushed open the door.
“Master Hua Tuo!”
But the only thing greeting her was the deafening silence.
“…It really was true.”
She recalled the recent rumor.
Hua Tuo had suddenly vanished.
That was it. He was the renowned doctor of the back alleys.
Regardless of one’s status.
He treated people regardless of their circumstances.
He would treat people first and ask questions later.
What if they had no money for treatment?
He would treat them for free.
Thanks to that, he had become a pillar of the back alleys.
“Master Hua Tuo suddenly vanished like this.”
She, too, owed Hua Tuo a great debt of gratitude.
On top of that, she deeply respected him.
For someone like her, hearing that Hua Tuo had vanished was a huge shock!
“Where on earth have you gone, Master Hua Tuo?”
She muttered, touching the sofa where he used to sit.
Then, closing her eyes, she spoke to the air.
“Lapis lazuli.”
In that instant, a young brother and sister appeared from the shadows.
They appeared so quickly that it seemed like teleportation.
The siblings immediately knelt before the woman.
“What is it, Your Majesty?”
“Give us your orders, Your Majesty.”
Seeing the siblings, the Empress spoke with a fierce glare.
“This is an emergency.”
“An emergency?”
“Put everything else aside, starting now. Find Master Hua Tuo first.”
“What? But what about the ongoing A-rank dungeon occupation?”
“A-rank dungeon? Is that important right now?”
The Empress gritted her teeth and snapped.
“That A-rank dungeon can be obtained at any time! But Master Hua Tuo is different!”
She would have thrown her life away for him.
Therefore, nothing was more important to her than he was.
At the Empress’s command, the young siblings knelt and bowed their heads.
“I will now issue a search order to all members of the organization.”
“One hour. Find Master Hua Tuo within one hour. Understood?”
“Yes, understood!”
With those words, the brother and sister disappeared. The woman sat down on the sofa where Hua Tuo often sat.
“Wherever you go, I’ll follow you.”
Her eyes held a look of obsession as she spoke.
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