Chapter 61: Geoncheon-dong [2] Sun-sin's house was plain to the utmost.
It was so small that it almost reminded one of Changgwon's house.
In fact, Yeoju seemed to have thought of that house as well.
She sniffled for quite a while before finally managing to move her feet.
Kanghyeok was already far ahead of her, so he did not notice at all.
He merely looked around in every direction with a deeply moved expression on his face.
So this is Admiral Chungmugong's house.
To think he had come to the house of the man he had only ever seen as a statue at Gwanghwamun.
And to be standing side by side with him, at that.
There was no reason for the likes of Yeoju to enter his eyes.
"It seemed you had started practicing martial arts again."
Kanghyeok pointed at the scarecrows placed here and there in the yard.
Several of them had been sharply cut down and were lying on the ground.
"Yes, that's right. How could I not work hard, after you fixed my leg?"
"I see. But where did you get all this straw?"
"There was an elder I was close to, so I had been asking that person for help."
"It did not seem the amount was quite enough."
"I was the one asking a favor. Even this much was something to be grateful for."
"Hah..."
Kanghyeok's voice was filled with pity.
Was this not the future general who would save the entire nation?
And yet such a man was in circumstances where he could not even get enough straw.
"Starting tomorrow, I'll have the fellows I brought along let loose and gather it."
"No, there's no need to go that far..."
"No. They're the sort who don't shy away from hard labor. Right?"
With a sly tone, Kanghyeok turned around.
The bandits shuffling about came into view.
Somehow, they looked even scruffier than when they had been living in the mountains.
Every day they fetched water for the party to wash with, chopped firewood to heat it, and waited on them, so they had ended up like that.
"Hey, hey, the young master is asking you something, so why aren't you answering? Want another round today?"
Of course, that was not the only reason.
Makbong and Yeoni constantly hounding them every single day had also played a part.
"Yes, yes! We like hard labor!"
They had been beaten so often that now they could control their emotions at will.
To say they liked hard labor.
Was that even a human thing to say?
Still, it was an answer Kanghyeok liked very much.
"You heard them, right?"
"Haha. Then I'll have to impose on you a bit."
"It's an honor to be able to help."
"Come, then. Step inside."
"Yes, hyungnim."
"If the rest of you stay here, I'll have the table brought out."
Kanghyeok slipped straight into Sun-sin's room.
The others remained in the daecheong, and from Dolseok's perspective, that was actually better.
From what he had experienced before, Sun-sin was no ordinary difficult man.
Even though they were both yangban, he was worlds apart from Kanghyeok.
Compared to Sun-sin, Kanghyeok was so easygoing he could practically be called a mere stone-bred commoner.
His room is really cramped too.
The word cramped suited Sun-sin's room perfectly.
In some places, the red yellow earth showed through as it was.
At least the floor itself was spotless, without a speck of dust, and that was probably due to Sun-sin's temperament.
It was a good thing I had the Busa lend me a house in advance.
The Busa truly was a man of great wealth.
When Kanghyeok asked whether he had a house in Hanyang as well, the man had practically asked which part of Hanyang he meant.
He even had one in Geoncheon-dong, and its scale was beyond comparison with Sun-sin's house.
"Well? It's shabby, isn't it?"
"What? No, not at all. It's nice."
Kanghyeok flustered like someone whose inner thoughts had been exposed.
"Sit. I made a special effort to prepare something since you were coming, though I don't know whether you'll like it."
If Yi Sun-sin had prepared it, how could he possibly not like it?
Even if Sun-sin scooped up dirt and served it to him, Kanghyeok would have been willing to eat it.
"Oh, it's coming."
Sun-sin pointed at the servant bringing in the table.
Even the movements of a mere servant were marked by discipline.
He was different from Dolseok, who did not have even a hair's worth of military bearing.
Whether that was because he came from a distinguished family or because Sun-sin had taught him, Kanghyeok did not know.
Come to think of it, Yi Sun-sin's family had been incredible too.
Embarrassingly enough, it was something he had not known at all before coming to Joseon.
If Seungmun had not told him separately, he still would not have known now.
Though that family is poor now, if you trace it back, it was a very great family.
He had heard that his great-grandfather Yi Byeon had served as Daejihak of the Hongmungwan, and that his grandfather's father Yi Geo had served as Byeongjo Chami.
Then, by the time of his grandfather Yi Baengnok, the family fortunes had declined after the Gimyo Literati Purge.
While Kanghyeok was smacking his lips in regret, the servant set the table down.
"Well? What do you think? I heard you liked meat, so I personally went hunting."
"Hah, this is..."
It was pheasant.
And roasted directly over an open flame, at that.
Even now the oil was still sizzling, enough to make drool spill at the sight.
"Do you like it?"
"Of course. It's the best, hyungnim."
He would already have counted himself blessed even if he had been served dirt, so to be given meat—
Kanghyeok felt as if he wanted to prostrate himself flat on the ground.
He was so overwhelmed with gratitude that he already felt full.
"There, there. At this rate, you'll bore a hole through the meat with your eyes. The liquor is quite good too."
"Oho."
"Come, let's have a drink after so long."
"Yes, hyungnim."
Kanghyeok chuckled and downed the cup Sun-sin poured for him.
At first he had considered knocking it back in one go, but the moment the liquor touched his tongue, that thought melted away like snow.
What is this?
It was, at the very least, the best liquor he had drunk since coming to Joseon.
Clean, deep, yet not overly heavy.
It was a fine liquor that did not suit Sun-sin's impoverished life in the least.
"Hyungnim, this liquor is far too good."
"Really? Then I'm glad it suits your taste."
"Where did you get it?"
"Get it? My mother brewed it herself."
"Hah... She's truly remarkable."
"My mother was very curious about you as well. Unfortunately, she has gone to Asan now."
"Ah."
No matter how ignorant Kanghyeok might have been, he knew quite a lot about Sun-sin in particular.
Most of it had been things he had picked up from Seungmun or seen in dramas.
Considering that he usually forgot most of what he heard on the spot, saying he knew a lot was not an exaggeration.
His mother... was her surname Byeon?
She was a figure of whom it would not have been an exaggeration to say she had contributed the most to Sun-sin becoming the extraordinary man he would one day become.
She truly was someone for whom the words wise mother were not wasted.
"Anyway, I was glad to see your face."
"I was glad to see yours too, hyungnim."
The two of them emptied cup after cup in turn.
The liquor was good, the food was good, and the company was even better, so the speed at which they were draining it was no ordinary thing.
With a faint flush of drunkenness on his face, Yi Sun-sin opened his mouth.
"Haha. There was something I wanted to boast about to you, but it didn't feel quite right to tell you in a letter."
"Is that so?"
Something Yi Sun-sin could boast about—what in the world could that be?
Without realizing it, Kanghyeok leaned forward.
Lately, there had been nothing he had been more curious about than this.
"Now that I've brought it up, it feels as though I may have caused a fuss over nothing much."
Then he clamped his mouth shut.
Now that Kanghyeok looked at him, his push-and-pull skills were no joke either.
"What is it?"
"Oh, it's nothing."
If this had been a friendship of equals, Kanghyeok would have smacked him on the back of the head by now.
But the other party was the great hero Yi Sun-sin. Just having entertained such a thought already counted as irreverence.
Silently repeating apologies in his heart, Kanghyeok asked one last time.
"Haha. Since you're acting like this, hyungnim, I'm even more curious. What in the world is it?"
If he still did not answer this time, Kanghyeok had already decided he would give up on it.
He had come to see his face anyway, not just to ask after recent news.
Fortunately, Sun-sin was not so cruel a man.
He smacked his lips for a moment, then finally spoke.
"I'll soon be going to the northern frontier."
"The northern frontier?"
"Yes. I'm saying I'll be going to Hamgyeong-do."
At that time, Hamgyeong-do was not a place one could easily call a good district.
Life was harsh there, and the Jurchens were active just a stone's throw away.
It was not easy to think of being sent to such a place as something to boast about.
That's strange.
Without thinking, Kanghyeok looked at the leg he had fixed.
It hasn't even been a full year since I fixed it, and he's already being given an office?
Wasn't it when Yi Sun-sin was thirty-two that he first entered official service?
That meant there were still four years left.
Or not? Did I get it mixed up?
He had lived so far removed from history that it was possible.
Seeing Kanghyeok's shocked expression, Sun-sin grew curious as well.
"Why are you so surprised?"
"No, it's nothing. Someone like you ought to enter official service, hyungnim."
"Haha. It's all thanks to you. If my leg had stayed broken, how could I have taken up the post?"
"But was there another state examination?"
As far as Kanghyeok knew, the military examination was held in the spring of the triennial year.
So the timing did not match.
Sun-sin laughed heartily as he replied.
"There was a special examination."
"A special examination?"
"That's right. It seems a man named Heo Jun, who recently entered the Royal Medical Bureau, cured Imhae-gun's ague."
"Ah, Heo Jun... ague?"
"Yes. It seems he saved someone who had been on the verge of death. So there was a special examination. I was fortunate."
"I see. Ague."
As expected, Teacher Heo was simply a different kind of person.
How long had it even been since he entered the Royal Medical Bureau, and yet he had already accomplished such a great feat?
I did tell him about sweet wormwood...
But Kanghyeok had not expected him to use it right away and save Imhae-gun.
So the butterfly effect made Yi Sun-sin enter official service—is that it?
If so, that was a relief.
It was proof that the era had not gone off track.
If the era had gone off track...
And if, because of that, the Imjin War broke out earlier than expected...
That would have been the worst possible outcome.
"Why did your face suddenly turn so serious?"
"Oh, it was nothing. I just couldn't help but worry when I thought of you going to Hamgyeong-do."
Even amid the confusion, his head spun at full speed.
That much was clear from how he kept producing lies in that brief instant.
"Haha. Worry about what? Isn't it only natural for a man who becomes a warrior to go to dangerous places?"
Now that he heard it, that was true.
A man like this was exactly why he had performed such astonishing feats in the Imjin War.
Feats so remarkable that it would be difficult to find anything comparable even if one searched through all of world war history.
"When I think of it that way, that's true too."
"Ah, and I heard it from Elder Kim Yungil."
"What do you mean?"
"I heard they tried to recommend you to the Royal Medical Bureau, but you refused?"
Kim Yungil—this gentleman truly did have a loose mouth.
A man who would one day become Ijo Panseo, yet he went around blabbing in every direction.
It even seemed he had sent a separate letter to Sun-sin.
If KakaoTalk existed, he'd be the kind to make noise through his profile status.
At least it was fortunate this was not an age that had such things.
Kanghyeok gave a bitter smile and nodded.
"Ah, yes."
"You truly are a genuine physician. Still, if you entered official service, wouldn't there be other things you could do as well?"
"Since you say it like that, hyungnim, I suppose I should think about it again."
"Yes, yes. There's no need to decide in haste."
"Yes, yes."
Sun-sin had no intention of forcing the matter anyway.
Even a provincial governor was nothing if a man did not want it, so why should Kanghyeok not be able to refuse a place in the Royal Medical Bureau?
It was not as though he had stopped treating people and was simply wandering around.
"Ah, come to think of it. I heard you even dealt with smallpox?"
"Yes. It just happened that way."
"Haha. I hear it's all the talk that a cow that catches smallpox is a tonic."
"When it comes to smallpox, it can indeed become a medicine."
The problem was that such a thing was not always there when one needed it.
If it were possible to mass-produce it even as a vaccine, they could distribute it widely.
But right now, that was impossible.
For now, they could only vaccinate in advance when there happened to be a cow with cowpox.
—Creak.
While the two were talking, someone opened the outer gate and came in.
At the same time, Sun-sin hurriedly rose to his feet.
"Ah, it seems the daegam I mentioned earlier has arrived."
"Daegam?"
"Yes. You should get up as well and prepare to receive him."
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
Read 40 more chapters ahead on NovelDex!
https://noveldex.io/series/doctor-goes-back-to-joseon
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━