Chapter 19: The Blade [3] Wasn't it absurd on the face of it?
Who would ever need to perform surgery on a house call?
There could certainly be instruments for simple wound dressing or minor treatment.
The director definitely said the items had been packed at the chairman's request.
The director was not the sort of man who would lie over some trivial matter.
He might be cautious in all things, but he was not the sort to put a plate into a house-call bag on his own.
So it had to mean the chairman had requested it.
Why would he do that? No, more than that—who exactly was the chairman?
No matter how hard he tried, he could not remember.
For Kanghyeok, who had lived his whole life with a mind sharper than others, it was an utterly unfamiliar experience.
Just as with being thrown into Joseon, he could only think that some strange force was at work.
"Young master, my arm is about to fall off."
"Ah, right, right."
Kanghyeok quickly came back to himself.
There was something more important right now.
He brought the plate against the shinbone he had just set.
In truth, this was where the real work began.
"This is really going to hurt now. There is not much I can do to help with that."
"It is alright. It feels far better than before."
The man nodded with a satisfied look.
That made sense, since the dead blood that had been pooling was out, and the displaced bone had been realigned.
Though the process itself had been painful.
"I'll trust you, then. Dolseok, hold it steady."
"I am truly doing my utmost, young master."
"Good."
Kanghyeok fitted a screw into the plate and began turning it in.
The bone was strong, so the screw did not go in easily.
—Kkiiiik.
Beads of sweat began forming on Kanghyeok's forehead.
In an operating room, he could have drilled it in with a power tool.
Here he had to do it with a manual driver, which was exhausting.
For Dolseok, who was only watching, it was hardly any easier.
Anyone would suffer with the sound of live bone being scraped right before their eyes.
That grating noise only made it worse.
At least it was fortunate that the man was no ordinary person.
"Mm."
He let out only a low groan and did not move at all.
He really is incredible.
People often said the internal organs were dull in sensation.
If that were not so, surgery would have been much harder.
Bones, however, were an exception.
No, it would be more accurate to say they were quite sensitive.
And yet even while his bone was being scraped, he did not move.
"Mm."
The frequency of those groans was gradually increasing.
He had been holding his head up the whole time, which also looked deeply uncomfortable.
In the end, the man was still human.
Finish this quickly.
As a doctor, the only thing Kanghyeok could do was shorten the painful part as much as possible.
—Kkiiiik.
With another skin-crawling sound, the screw continued to bite its way in.
Fortunately, the screws were of fairly high quality, because not a single one broke.
"Good. Now it's really done. I only have to close it."
"Y-you have… worked hard."
With those words, the man let the back of his head fall back onto the pillow again.
Looking at the man, who had collapsed as if he had fainted, Dolseok clicked his tongue.
"I've been thinking it since earlier, but this man is really no ordinary person."
"Right? I've never seen anyone like him either."
"Oh… his palms are bleeding."
"What? Ah, I see. Of course."
How could anyone simply endure pain like that?
He must have clenched his fists so tightly that his nails had dug into his palms.
Bright blood had stained part of the bedding.
"Leave it for now. The wounds themselves don't look that serious."
"Yes, young master."
Kanghyeok shifted his gaze back to the man's leg.
The bluish color of the skin had begun to return somewhat.
The blood that had been streaming out had stopped as well.
Most importantly, the shape of the calf was normal again.
Compared to how it had looked at first, it was almost a miracle.
As the tension left him, fatigue began crashing down.
"Let's finish the urgent part. I'm about dead myself."
"I was from the very start—ugh!"
Kanghyeok rapped Dolseok on the head with the driver hard enough to make a thunk, then tossed it aside.
There was no need for it anymore anyway, so it did not matter if it got contaminated.
"You hit a person in the head with something you were just digging around in another man's bone with?"
"Then who told you to run your mouth in the middle of surgery?"
"You're the one always saying whatever you like."
"I'm the operating surgeon."
"The operating what?"
"Forget it, you fool. Just pull the flesh."
"Who would know I'm getting treated like this?"
Had he not been almost painfully respectful when they first met?
By now Dolseok had grown bold enough to fool around in front of his master.
Kanghyeok did not bother correcting him.
This was easier, if anything.
Master and servant.
To Kanghyeok, who had lived in the twenty-first century, that was far too strange.
The relationship of teacher and student, though, that was perfectly fine.
He had always liked teaching to begin with.
Especially with someone like Dolseok, who at least had the attitude of wanting to learn.
"Is this enough cutting?"
"Yes. Make the length match the intervals where I stitched. That's good, right there."
"Thank you."
"That's because I teach well."
"Oh, please."
Dolseok shook his head.
Then, suddenly impressed, he lifted the scissors slightly.
"Still, these scissors really do cut well."
He said it while peering at the scissors from inside the bag.
Kanghyeok thought of the old scissors Dolseok sometimes used to trim his nails.
Crude, battered scissors, rusty in places, frightening enough to look at.
The first time he saw them, he had thought the man was trying to cut off his hand, not his nails.
"Why? Are you amazed?"
"Of course. I even tried them on my nails, and they're uncanny."
"What? When?"
"Yesterday, while you were asleep, young master."
"I told you to guard the bag, and you went rummaging through it?"
"Rummaging? I put everything back exactly where it belonged."
Dolseok looked as though he genuinely had no idea what he had done wrong.
The whole thing was so absurd that Kanghyeok let out a short laugh.
Well, whatever. It doesn't matter.
He had already done enough experiments on the bag.
No matter where I leave it, by the next day it ends up back in my hands as if by magic.
Which meant he did not really have to worry about it being stolen.
That doesn't mean I can let people handle it carelessly, though.
There was no knowing what might happen.
"Fine. Using things from it here is one thing. But don't go giving anything to anyone. Understood?"
"Do you think I'm mad? Why would I hand out your things to just anyone?"
"Ha. It's done now. What do you think?"
"The wound?"
"Yes."
Dolseok looked at the calf Kanghyeok had stitched tightly shut.
Just moments ago, the wound had gaped wide open.
He himself had been pulling it apart with all his strength.
Now all that remained was a single straight line.
"It's closed up like magic."
"Right? Touch the calf once. See what feels different compared to earlier."
"Uh… it's gone soft."
Dolseok's eyes widened as he nodded over and over.
"Mm."
The man frowned and opened his eyes again.
It seemed Dolseok, carried away, had pressed a little too hard.
"Oh dear."
Dolseok instinctively covered the back of his head.
At times like this, Kanghyeok usually smacked him there.
But this time Kanghyeok did not bother.
He had been planning to wake the man anyway.
"How does it feel?"
Instead, in the gentlest voice he could produce, he asked after the man's condition.
The man struggled up halfway and looked down at his leg.
"The pain is less."
To have fixed such a terribly mangled leg, only to get such a dry answer.
Kanghyeok was newly struck by just how taciturn the man was, and went on.
"For now I intend to wrap the leg with bandages. This fool and I will sleep here tonight, so if your body feels strange, you must tell us immediately."
"I will."
It was not a very reassuring answer.
One could already tell from his behavior so far.
He would probably just endure any ordinary pain in silence.
"You really must tell us. For now, the leg… Dolseok, can you lift it a little?"
"What? Ah, yes, young master."
Dolseok, who had been listening blankly to the explanation, hurriedly moved when suddenly called out.
"Like this?"
"Yes. I'm going to set it up on the pillow like this. If we leave it down, it will swell horribly."
"Thank you."
The man bowed his head in gratitude.
For some reason, Kanghyeok felt oddly humbled by it.
—Deng, deng, deng.
The surgery had taken so long that the curfew bell could be heard in the distance.
Even in a wealthy house, lamp oil was precious.
It would be best to put out the lamp soon.
I'm going to be woken again at dawn anyway.
The damned bell rang so insistently there was no chance of sleeping through it.
This place was close to the market too, so it was bound to be even louder.
"Then get some rest. We'll sleep as well."
"Very well."
"Dolseok, spread out the bedding. Maybe I'm getting old, but I'm worn out."
"Young master, I'm twenty this year too."
Dolseok stroked his scruffy beard and put on airs about his age.
Naturally, to Kanghyeok, that was nonsense.
"You're twenty, you fool. That makes you a baby. Hurry up and lay it out."
"Calling a grown man a baby, honestly."
"Do you want to be rolled up in a mat?"
"No, no. I'll lay it out. I'm laying it out."
Grumbling, Dolseok spread out the bedding.
"Then sleep well, young master."
"Alright. Thanks."
It had been a truly exhausting day.
As Kanghyeok flopped onto his back, he thought,
Tomorrow I'll have to close the clinic. Ah, speaking of which…
Had he not gone and operated on the man without even knowing his name?
When he turned his head, the man still did not seem to be asleep.
Perhaps his thoughts were troubled, because he was staring fixedly at the ceiling.
"Um, patient?"
"You mean me?"
"Yes. Might I ask your name? I am Baek Kanghyeok. I am twenty-four this year."
"Ah, I have been discourteous. I am Yi Sun-sin. I am twenty-eight."
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