Chapter 90: Gwanghae [2] Gwanghae waved his hand and asked Kanghyeok to continue the lecture.
With a flustered expression, Kanghyeok cautiously studied Gwanghae.
A face darkly tanned in a way unfitting for a prince, and a muscular build plainly visible even beneath his thick robes.
For some reason, he looked like Lee Byung-hun from the film Masquerade.
That style was on another level.
Surely nothing like that had actually happened in real life.
Still, for an ignoramus like Kanghyeok, information absorbed through films and media was extremely important.
Had it not long been said that the most dangerous person was the one who had read only a single book?
Kanghyeok, too, was feeling quite naturally favorably disposed toward Gwanghae.
"Mm. Then... I will resume the lecture."
"Yes, yes."
Gwanghae laughed heartily and simply settled into a seat.
Because of that, Heo Jun, Heo Im, and the others beside him had no choice but to scatter and sit farther away.
Quick-witted Dolseok had already slipped behind Gwanghae and hidden himself behind a pillar.
If anything happens, that bastard is the type who'd abandon his master and run.
Compared to him, how loyal Yeoni and Yeoju were.
They had stepped back a little, but they were still not somewhere completely out of Gwanghae's sight.
Yeoju in particular was still unsettled because of the recent Jeong Yeo-rip affair, yet even so, she remained there.
Well... anyone looking at her now would take her for a man.
Her skill at disguise had improved day by day, to the point that even someone who knew her might fail to recognize her.
Only after confirming that Makbong was in place as well did Kanghyeok manage to recall what he had been lecturing on just before.
I was just about to explain the different kinds of stool.
Seeing the expectancy in Gwanghae's eyes, he found it impossible to bring up the subject of feces.
Even if the prince was much younger than he was, he was still the prince of a nation.
He had not yet been invested as Crown Prince, but still.
Did Kanghyeok not know it?
That among all the princes, the one who would become king was Gwanghae.
He did not know how long he would remain in Joseon, but he wanted to avoid meeting him for the first time only to ramble on about stool.
I can't become some shit-doctor.
First impressions mattered too much for that.
Kanghyeok hesitated for a moment.
Then he nodded and resumed the lecture.
"All right, then... let us wrap up the previous lecture there for now. Next, let us learn about the wris—... the wrist."
Kanghyeok had started speaking casually out of habit, but after becoming aware of Gwanghae's status, he quickly corrected his tone.
Habits truly were frightening.
This place is too small to feel like a lecture hall... it really feels like I'm teaching students out on clinical practice.
No matter how much of a character Kanghyeok was, he could not go around speaking informally in a real lecture hall.
That kind of aura only belonged to endowed professors on the brink of retirement, or already past it.
But a small-group lecture for students doing surgical clerkship was a different matter.
It was not that there was any less respect, only that there was more familiarity.
The difference was subtle, but definite.
"As you can see, the wrist is one of the parts of the body with extremely free movement."
Kanghyeok spoke while rotating his wrist freely.
That was possible because no fewer than eight small bones were interlocked in the joint.
In fact, aside from the shoulder, it had the widest range of motion.
Which also meant the risk of injury was high.
Gwanghae, who was currently suffering from a wrist injury, lit up at once.
The same was true of Heo Jun, who was acting as his physician.
The others were bewildered at this sudden talk of wrists, but soon found themselves drawn into Kanghyeok's lecture as well.
Once a master reached Kanghyeok's level, there was always something worth hearing, no matter what he spoke about.
"And the hand too... it has all these varied movements."
Kanghyeok said this while moving his fingers rapidly.
A few people copied his motions, but Gwanghae merely flinched and did not dare imitate them.
He was probably afraid of the pain.
Catching his eye, Kanghyeok continued the explanation.
"The muscles that control these movements of the hand all begin in the forearm and extend down to attach to the fingers."
After rolling up his sleeve, Kanghyeok pointed to his forearm.
His forearm, even more powerful-looking than Gwanghae's, was revealed for all to see.
"Oh."
Gwanghae nodded, clearly pleased by the sight.
He seemed to think Kanghyeok had trained in martial arts.
In truth, it was merely muscle built through working out, and his taekkyeon was at a level too embarrassing to even call learning.
Still, appearances alone made him look like a master.
"All of those muscles' tendons pass through the wrist into the hand. So a very powerful ligament holds all of those tendons in place."
Kanghyeok pointed to the wrist ligament, which looked almost like a brace.
Most of the listeners did not understand it exactly, but Heo Jun and Heo Im both wore expressions suggesting that something had clicked for them.
Gwanghae, too, was listening in a state of intense concentration.
"Because there are so many tendons packed in there, all kinds of problems can occur."
Remembering his own pain, Gwanghae nodded.
He had never dreamed that a problem in such a tiny wrist would keep him from even drawing a bow.
He had no idea what the cause was, and since it would not heal, the frustration had only been building.
The little pills Heo Jun had begun bringing him at some point did help a little, but only for that moment.
After a little time passed, the pain always returned.
Or if he overexerted himself.
"Especially in people who lift excessively heavy things, or repeat the same movement over and over, problems occur often."
Kanghyeok looked at Gwanghae and made a wiping motion with his hand.
At that, Gwanghae startled and looked down at his wrist again.
He likely had never imagined that that motion had been worsening his illness.
"The symptoms usually appear as numbness in the hand, or sharp pain severe enough to be unbearable. Has anyone here experienced it?"
At Kanghyeok's question, Gwanghae quietly raised his hand.
Someone else, lacking sense, started to raise a hand as well, then quietly lowered it again.
Only after seeing Gwanghae raise his hand did that person realize why this lecture had started in the first place.
"Mm... For Your Highness to develop wrist pain, it seems you do not spend your time on book learning alone."
At Kanghyeok's bold remark, Heo Jun's mouth fell open.
He had not even spoken the words himself, yet he clapped a hand over his mouth anyway.
Was there not an old saying that when dealing with royalty, one had to think of oneself as riding on a tiger's back?
He turned fearful eyes toward Gwanghae, but Gwanghae was actually smiling.
Rolling up his sleeve, he bared a thick, powerful forearm.
"I shoot bows, wield swords, and paint too."
"Hah. Impressive."
"But perhaps because of that, my wrist is a bit..."
"Would it be all right if I took a look?"
"Ah, please do."
Kanghyeok moved toward Gwanghae's wrist with perfect naturalness.
And Gwanghae, just as naturally, offered his wrist to him.
"Hmm."
Kanghyeok examined it carefully.
In truth, there was a quicker examination method.
You only had to bend the wrist slightly.
But he did not have the courage to commit such irreverence against a prince.
Besides, it was not something he ordinarily did even in the clinic.
It was merely the sort of test one might try jokingly among classmates.
Why did anyone even come up with that test, and why does it keep popping into my head?
Gently shaking his head, Kanghyeok stepped back from Gwanghae.
Then he demonstrated by pressing the backs of both hands together.
"Your Highness, could you try this?"
"Mm. Like this?"
"Yes. Normally, even if you hold this position, there should be no symptoms. But if there is a problem, an abnormality appears right away. Please try."
"Mm... does it hurt?"
"Yes. It hurts a bit."
"Mm."
At the mention of pain, Gwanghae hesitated for a moment.
Avoiding pain was exactly why he had sat down to listen to the lecture in the first place, so to have to hurt again was rather contradictory.
Still, for some reason, he trusted Kanghyeok's words.
This man may really be able to treat it.
Gwanghae knew not the slightest thing about medicine, let alone modern medicine.
But listening with his keen mind, Kanghyeok's words were logical and systematic.
There was none of the vague hand-waving that tried to slide past details.
That appealed to him.
"Very well, I'll try it. Have the others try it too."
"Yes, Your Highness. All of you, please copy the posture I just took."
At Kanghyeok and Gwanghae's words, the audience began imitating the posture Kanghyeok had shown them.
A few frowned, but not a single person gave up halfway.
Not a single person except Gwanghae.
He could not endure it for even a few seconds and had to pull his hands apart.
"Ugh."
"Your Highness, how was it?"
"My hand is tingling badly."
Gwanghae said this while shaking out his right hand repeatedly.
Then he pointed at the others and asked,
"How is it that those people are fine? And how can you hold it so long?"
"It is simply the difference in wrist health. Your Highness's wrist appears to be in very bad condition. You have overworked it too much."
"Overworked it."
Gwanghae nodded quietly at Kanghyeok's words.
All the while still shaking out his right wrist.
Thinking back, the word really did fit.
He had swung a sword day and night, shot bows, painted.
And while doing all that, he had also studied diligently in order to win Seonjo's favor.
In other words, his wrist had not had a single day's rest.
"That's true enough."
"Yes. I imagine it is."
Kanghyeok nodded as well.
Gwanghae was still only in his mid-teens.
For a wrist to end up in this state at that age, it was difficult to imagine just what he had been putting it through.
Kanghyeok himself had spent over ten years exercising thirty to forty minutes a day, and even he was not like this.
Well... if you exercise without anything like a wrist support, it could happen.
In fact, adolescents in the growth stage were more vulnerable.
Even taking that into account, Gwanghae's condition was far from ordinary.
But what could be done?
It had already become this way.
"But why does this happen?"
Gwanghae asked with a dissatisfied look.
He had seen many military men up close, including Shin Rip and others.
They trained harder than he did, yet none of them showed symptoms like this.
"As I said before, many tendons pass through the wrist. If you move it too much, those tendons will swell, won't they? Just as when we are struck, we bruise and swell."
Gwanghae had never personally been beaten, but he had seen the eunuchs assigned to him flogged in his place countless times.
And he had often seen their bodies swell afterward.
"I see."
"But the space inside the wrist is limited, is it not? So when the tendons swell in there, the blood vessels and nerves passing through that same space are compressed. Naturally, that causes pain and numbness."
"Hmm."
He did not understand every word, but he understood enough.
That it was an illness caused by overuse, and that this Baek Kanghyeok seemed capable of treating it.
"Then what should be done?"
"Mm."
This time it was Kanghyeok who let out a groan.
Gwanghae's illness, in medical terms, was called carpal tunnel syndrome.
Naturally, it was not a matter of life and death, and there were many possible treatments.
For now, let's postpone cutting as long as possible.
Judging by their conversation so far, this prince clearly held him in favorable regard.
He did not know how far that favor extended.
Even so, he could hardly start by cutting him open.
Not when there were plenty of other treatment methods.
"It can broadly be divided into two approaches. One involves the knife, and one does not. First... it would be better to try the method that does not involve a knife."
"Mm. That sounds preferable. Can it be done at once?"
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