Chapter 17: The Blade [1] He resembled someone, but Kanghyeok could not quite place who.
To get a better look, Kanghyeok walked closer to the man.
The man then handed over the order token marked 23 that he had been holding.
"My apologies for coming so late."
Seen up close, the man's face looked remarkably resolute.
Was he only around thirty at most?
And yet there was a strange air about him that made him hard to approach casually.
Without realizing it, Kanghyeok replied in polite speech.
"It's alright. How is the injury?"
"It is nothing serious, but I have ended up troubling you against my intentions."
The man showed him his right leg as if it were truly nothing.
It looked like someone had treated it already.
A rough splint had been strapped to it.
To Kanghyeok's eye, it was a complete mess.
This is… the shinbone is completely displaced. No, how is he even standing?
From a medical standpoint, it was an impossible posture.
He was clearly remaining upright through sheer superhuman endurance.
Looking more closely, Kanghyeok saw beads of cold sweat on the man's face.
"For now… come inside. Dolseok, looks like we'll be sleeping here tonight."
Dolseok, who had been delighted at the thought of having a drink.
At this bolt from the blue, his face went pale.
"Ah…"
"This is the man the Busa asked us to see. Enough talking and spread out the bedding."
"Yes, young master."
Dolseok ran inside with a face on the verge of tears.
Quick-witted Yeoni immediately moved in to support the man.
"Young master, I'll help."
"Ah, good. Makbong, you come help too."
"Yes, young master."
The man was fairly large, so even with all three of them supporting him, moving him was not easy.
How he had gotten here, and how he had remained standing until now, was a mystery.
He was a man of tremendous endurance.
Not even a groan…
Even when he bumped his injured leg against the threshold, he made no sound.
Kanghyeok, who was not easily impressed by people, could not help admiring him at this point.
"There. That's good. Rest your head here and lie down."
"Very well."
The man frowned slightly and followed Kanghyeok's instructions.
Under brighter light, the injury looked even worse.
The entire calf was swollen blue.
Yeoni and Makbong instinctively turned their heads away.
"Alright, you two can go now. You worked hard today."
"We can stay longer, young master."
Yeoni replied briskly.
She looked ready to do exactly that if he told her to.
"There's nothing for you to do anyway, so go. It's fine. Dolseok is here."
"Then, understood."
Yeoni was not one for empty words.
And she was not the sort to make him repeat himself two or three times.
She left the room without lingering, together with Makbong.
Now only Dolseok was left, and he became busier.
"Heat some water, and warm this too over hot water. Don't let it get too hot. Understood?"
Kanghyeok handed him an empty basin and a small IV bag from the medical bag.
"Yes, young master."
Dolseok had become fairly useful by now.
He was good enough that Kanghyeok did not need to follow and watch him for something like this.
"This may hurt a little."
"It is alright."
Kanghyeok carefully felt along the man's leg.
The leg had already looked strange while he was standing.
Now that he touched it, the abnormality was unmistakable.
As expected, the shorter right leg isn't a coincidence. The bone broke and shifted.
Kanghyeok kept examining the wound.
They had said he was a man skilled in martial arts, and indeed his calf muscles were excellent.
Even injured, they still carried a heavy solidity.
There's no way I can just set it like this. And besides…
The color of the leg was not normal.
A small blood vessel inside had clearly ruptured.
Otherwise there was no reason for it to be this bluish.
And no reason for the leg to be swollen this badly either.
I'll have to cut it open. What do I do?
No matter how excellent a surgeon Kanghyeok was, he could not make pain disappear entirely.
Anesthesia… I need proper anesthesia.
At the very least, it seemed like spinal anesthesia would be necessary.
The problem was that he had neither the facilities, nor the drugs, nor the staff for that.
While he was hesitating, Dolseok brought in a basin of water.
The IV bag had also been warmed to just the right temperature.
Even if I mix in a painkiller here, it'll still be rough.
Bone pain was not something that could be managed with ordinary painkillers or local anesthesia.
He could go into shock from the pain.
He could even die.
But leaving it as it was meant he might die anyway.
It'll start rotting soon. And then he dies.
A decision had to be made.
Kanghyeok decided to trust the superhuman endurance the man had shown so far.
In old novels, did they not say Guan Yu had his bones scraped without anesthesia?
After entering medical school, Kanghyeok had thought that was all nonsense.
But looking at this man, he began to think perhaps it might not be entirely so.
"Listen carefully."
"I am listening."
"Right now, your shinbone is broken and displaced. I have to set it, but it cannot be done in its current state."
The man only nodded silently.
"On top of that, a blood vessel inside has been injured. That is why your leg is this swollen."
"I understand."
"I will have to cut open the leg with a blade, drain the pooled blood, tie off the damaged vessel, and set the bone."
Even while saying it, Kanghyeok watched the man's face.
Normally, when people heard something like that, instinct made them recoil in horror.
But the man remained calm.
"Then do it that way."
He was so calm that even Kanghyeok, the doctor, was taken aback.
Did he not understand what I said properly?
Otherwise there was no way he could remain this unconcerned.
He had just been told that flesh would be cut open and blood drained out.
Perhaps the pain had made his mind somewhat hazy.
But the man's eyes were still full of clarity.
Instead, it was Kanghyeok who repeated the question with a foolish look.
"Really?"
"I heard from Lord Kim Yungil. If you cannot do it, then no other physician can heal it either. I trust the lord's judgment. Do as you think best."
"I'll have to put a blade to it."
"It is alright. I am a man who chose the path of a warrior."
His eyes did not waver in the slightest.
Kanghyeok found himself newly impressed by the man, and by Kim Yungil as well.
Who would have thought a lecher like that old man would inspire this much trust in a man like this?
Apparently he had not become the Suwon Busa for no reason.
Then again, even I admit that Kim Yungil is loyal in his own way.
He did have a tendency to pocket a bit of money under the table, but when it came to taking care of his own people, he was reliable.
Kanghyeok decided to answer the man's trust.
"Understood. Then… first, I'll administer something to ease the pain a little."
From the house-call bag, Kanghyeok took out a narcotic painkiller.
What in the world did the chairman intend to use all this for?
There was no way to know.
Come to think of it, even the chairman's face was growing hazy now.
Strangely, only the memory of that day and of the chairman himself was fading more and more.
Still, it's better to have it than not.
At least with this, the man would be able to endure it somewhat.
With uncanny skill, Kanghyeok found a vein, mixed the drug into the IV, and let it flow in.
"Dolseok, take your clothes off."
"Ugh. Yes."
The two of them stripped off their clothes while the patient lay there.
It was an indecent sight, but there was no helping it.
Trying to perform surgery in loose hanbok was difficult beyond measure.
"Young master, if possible, we really should get clothes suitable for wearing at times like this…"
"Alright. But for today, we have no choice. It has to be like this."
"Look over there. Even the patient is startled. A gentleman who came all the way here with a broken leg, no less."
As Dolseok said, the man did look somewhat surprised.
Though he soon returned to his usual calm expression.
"Quiet. Let's wash the leg first."
"Yes, young master."
"It may feel cold."
"Do not worry."
The man fixed his gaze on the ceiling.
The area around his lips trembled faintly; it seemed even he could not avoid tension entirely.
"Now this will sting."
Kanghyeok carefully injected local anesthetic around the area where he would make the incision.
It was a very different sight from what he had done for the Hyeongam.
If that man had seen this for comparison, he probably would have set fire to the clinic.
"Hoo."
A sigh escaped him naturally.
Even Kanghyeok had never performed surgery of this scale under local anesthesia.
And there's no blood…
There was no possibility of a transfusion either.
In terms of psychological difficulty, this was almost the hardest case he had ever faced.
Still, I have to do it.
Seeing the man lying there, trusting only in him, he could not hesitate.
Slowly nodding to himself, Kanghyeok picked up the scalpel.
"Dolseok, today you really need to do well."
"Yes, yes, young master."
"Good. Then let's begin."
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
Read 84 more chapters ahead on NovelDex!
https://noveldex.io/series/doctor-goes-back-to-joseon
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━