Chapter 80: Gichuk Purge [1] Dolseok slowly opened the house-call bag Kanghyeok had brought.
Beside him, Makbong also unpacked the bundle he had carried in.
Clatter.
The sound of metal striking metal spread in every direction.
Even Kanghyeok, standing right there watching, felt chills crawl over his skin, yet the Pyeonsu actually looked calm.
Who exactly is this man, to stay this composed?
Naturally, curiosity arose.
He clearly was no ordinary person.
"Hey."
At Kanghyeok's voice, the man slowly lifted his eyes.
But he did not bother answering.
Kanghyeok had not really expected an answer anyway.
What would a man say to someone who had just announced he was about to torture him?
Kanghyeok ought to count himself lucky the man had not spat at him.
"What's your name?"
Again, there was no answer.
With a faint smile, Kanghyeok went on talking to himself.
"I'm not asking because I'm trying to find something out. I'm just curious. I wouldn't say I'm particularly loyal myself, but I do like people who are."
"Hmph."
The man snorted and turned onto his other side instead.
Even that simple movement seemed to hurt all over.
Judging by the faint groans slipping out of him.
"Young Master, it's ready here."
When Kanghyeok turned, Dolseok had laid out several surgical instruments.
"Good grief."
Now that he was actually about to torture someone, the whole thing felt absurd.
Had Kanghyeok ever tortured anyone in his life?
Of course, he had caused plenty of pain before.
But never once had pain itself been the purpose.
He could swear to that.
It had always been an unavoidable side effect in the course of treatment.
"I don't even have a grudge against him, and now I have to make him suffer. This really is something."
Kanghyeok idly fiddled with the surgical tools Dolseok had handed him.
A clattering sound rang out wherever they caught against his nails.
"Young Master, shouldn't we tie him up first?"
Dolseok was actually far calmer than he was.
Now that he mentioned it, it sounded quite reasonable.
He had even prepared the tools in advance.
Lord Yi Hangbok gave me something for that.
Kanghyeok pulled several leather straps from his sleeve.
"Uh... tie him up with these."
"Yes, Young Master."
With their rough, powerful hands, Dolseok and Makbong bound the man's limbs.
He had already not been in any condition to move properly, so he could not even offer much resistance.
"Uh... watch the color of his fingertips while you tie them. If you do it wrong, they'll rot."
"Ah, yes. Um... is this all right?"
"Yeah. You tie well. Have you done this a lot?"
"It's my first time, but Makbong's pretty skilled."
Just as Dolseok said, there was something distinctly different about the way Makbong tied knots.
Judging by speed alone, he was at least twice as fast as Dolseok.
And yet the quality did not suffer at all, which was rather surprising.
More than anything, the man's face did not change much when Makbong was the one tying him.
Which was proof it hurt less.
"Where did you learn to do this?"
"I didn't exactly learn it... but when you go around giving service at night, you meet all kinds of customers."
"Customers? Huh. People ask for this?"
"Yes. Depending on the person, sometimes I'm the one being tied up too. Well. That sort of thing happens."
"What kind of Joseon has S&M in it?"
"Pardon?"
"Nothing. Finish tying him up."
"Yes, yes."
Watching Makbong, a craftsman of binding limbs, Kanghyeok tilted his head.
The scene unfolding before his eyes looked like something out of one of those porn videos downloaded by mistake.
If there were a few differences, it was that both of them were men, and the pain about to unfold would be no joke.
Ah... damn it.
Why had he so readily said he would do this?
But even if he could go back to that moment, he did not think he would have come up with a different answer.
Yi Hangbok's resolve had been firm, and Jeong Cheol's intent had been just as unwavering.
If I pull this off properly, I'll be protecting Yeoju too, and my backing will grow stronger.
At the moment, it would not have been an exaggeration to say the realm under the king was divided in two.
One side was the Easterners.
That was the faction led by Ryu Seong-ryong, Yi Sanhae, and others, and was Kanghyeok not already on very close terms with Ryu Seong-ryong?
The other side was the Westerners.
That was the faction headed by Jeong Cheol, with whom he had now become entangled.
There's that saying too, about not putting all your eggs in one basket.
The best ship was one that did not sink no matter which side came out on top.
To do that, would it not be better to have ties with the Westerners too?
In a way, this could even be called an opportunity that had come by chance.
Yi Hangbok was probably thinking of it as a kind of gift.
"Hm."
Kanghyeok's hand paused over the scalpel.
It was the instrument best suited to the purpose of "destroying" the human body.
"No... no."
Even at a glance, the man's body was already covered in injuries large and small.
At this point, it did not seem like cutting him with a scalpel would make much difference.
Nor was it something Kanghyeok particularly wanted to do.
"With this...?"
The next thing his hand stopped on was the forceps.
Normally, it was used to clamp blood vessels to stop bleeding, or when some piece of tissue needed to be held in place.
Naturally, it was extremely sturdy, and could easily be used for all sorts of other purposes.
For example, pulling off fingernails, or even grabbing and tearing flesh.
I don't want to go that far...
He did not want to inflict pain by causing actual damage if he could avoid it.
If it absolutely had to be done, that was one thing.
But this was only the first round.
Right.
Kanghyeok turned his gaze to the bundle Makbong had brought.
He decided he would try using those first, and only use the surgical instruments if it proved useless.
"Makbong."
"Yes."
"You're confident with blowing into these too, right?"
"Uh..."
Makbong looked troubled as he stared at the pouch Kanghyeok was shaking in his hand.
It was true that he was the best among them at it, but that did not mean he wanted to be.
No, not once in his life had he ever thought he ought to get good at something like this.
But when Kanghyeok pressed him, there was not much he could do.
"You're good at it. I brought you because you're the best."
"Ah. Is that so. Yes, well. If Young Master tells me to do it, I have to do it."
"Good. Dolseok, you're confident too, right?"
"Uh... mm. Yes."
For some reason, Dolseok had developed a competitive streak toward Makbong.
Since Makbong had readily nodded, he could not exactly say he could not do it.
"Good. Then that settles it."
Kanghyeok filled the syringe with pufferfish poison.
Five milliliters should be enough to paralyze one person.
Over the last few days, they had accumulated far more clinical data.
"All right, this is going to sting now."
Kanghyeok spoke as he flicked the syringe with his index finger.
The man snorted and shook his head.
"You think something like that will make me open my mouth?"
"We'll see about that."
If Kanghyeok was not mistaken, this would be more terrifying than any torture the man had suffered so far.
His mind would stay clear, yet he would not be able to breathe.
Clicking his tongue without realizing it, Kanghyeok wrapped a rubber tube around the man's arm.
Since he had decided to torture him, he had to do it properly.
Right. This is your fault for plotting rebellion in a time like this, when the Japanese bastards are just waiting for their chance to invade.
Kanghyeok rationalized it as best he could and tapped at the man's vein.
Thanks to the torture he had already endured, the veins in the man's gaunt arm swelled up immediately.
In fact, they were even easier to find than those of a sturdy laborer.
Pshk.
With practiced hands, Kanghyeok drove the poisoned solution into the man's vein.
This made the effect hit much faster than injecting it into muscle or fat.
"Is that all?"
The man laughed as if it were laughable.
But that laugh truly was all there was.
Dolseok and Makbong, each holding a ball sack, clicked their tongues with expressions full of pity.
"Tsk, tsk."
"Poor bastard."
"What's so pitiful? This... this worthless... this... this?"
The expression on the man's face, which had been overflowing with laughter, gradually began to twist.
Because the lethal pufferfish poison had slowly begun to spread.
No matter how diluted it was, if you shot it directly into a vein like this, there was no way it would not take effect.
Just like now.
"Keh... kek. You... what the hell..."
Kanghyeok, with an indifferent expression, was feeling the man's pulse.
To put it in more medical terms, his radial artery.
Heart rate rising...
His eyes were fixed on the man's chest.
Respiration rate falling.
Exactly as expected.
Never before had Kanghyeok felt so grateful that pufferfish poison affected only skeletal muscles and the respiratory muscles.
If it had been a poison that stopped the heart too, then many people really would have died.
No matter how delicious pufferfish was, perhaps no one would have eaten it at all.
So the smooth muscles are unaffected.
Looking at it now, it almost felt like a poison made specifically for torture.
The man's face was slowly turning red.
He looked as if he alone had taken on all the pain in the world.
Dolseok asked with a worried face,
"He looks like he's about to die."
"No, no. He's still fine for now."
Kanghyeok was still taking his pulse.
The man was actually fairly healthy.
His heart rate still showed no sign of dropping and only kept climbing faster.
Which meant his body could still endure it.
It was struggling desperately to overcome the severe hypoxia.
"Be ready."
"Yes, Young Master."
At Kanghyeok's order, Dolseok and Makbong blew air into the sacks.
Even when the sacks had swollen so full they looked ready to burst, Kanghyeok gave no further instruction.
He simply kept alternating his gaze between the man's chest and face.
His hand still holding the pulse all the while.
"This is hard, isn't it?"
Again, he did not expect an answer.
Even if the man was desperate to answer, he could not have.
There had to be breath going in before breath could come out.
"You feel like you're dying, don't you?"
Kanghyeok continued speaking as he felt the heart rate crest and begin to fall.
If left like this now, the man would lose consciousness and die.
"I'm not going to let it happen, so don't worry. Makbong, give me the sack."
"Yes, Young Master."
Kanghyeok blew the breath from the sack Makbong handed him into the man's mouth.
Then he used the breath from Dolseok's.
After repeating that several times, the man's heart rate returned almost to its normal level.
"All right, let's rest a little now."
Kanghyeok merely muttered that while continuing to feel the pulse.
At those words, both Dolseok and Makbong lowered their sacks.
Just as Kanghyeok had said, it was time to rest.
For everyone except one person.
"Hrrk!"
The man's face began to flush red again.
His heart rate also started racing toward another peak.
Once again, Kanghyeok waited a long time before blowing breath into him.
Only after this process had repeated more than ten times did the pufferfish poison finally wear off.
The man stared at Kanghyeok as if he had seen a demon.
"Y-you... I'll tear you to pieces..."
"That was hard, wasn't it?"
"You dog..."
"What's your name? And what exactly are you people planning?"
"Sh-shut up."
The man clamped his mouth shut again.
"He really is tough."
If Kanghyeok had been in the man's position, there would have been no need for both sides to suffer like this.
He probably would have spilled everything before they even tied him up.
"Dolseok, hand me the rubber tube."
"We're doing it again?"
"What else can we do?"
"Yes, Young Master."
Kanghyeok slowly tied the man's arm.
The man watched him silently.
Now with a fear he had not shown before.
"All right... oops."
Kanghyeok deliberately dropped the syringes he had inside his robe.
To be exact, twenty syringes.
The second injection went in just as the man's eyes filled with despair.
"Let's just get this over with quickly. If I keep doing this, you'll never be able to die. Not until you tell me everything you know."
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