The class was over.
"Ah, today was a complete waste of time."
As usual, there was nothing particularly valuable to take away from the lecture. Most of what was said was just empty chatter from people who didn't even have proper knowledge, to the point where listening to it felt more like a distraction.
But what could I do? Cover my ears?
That wasn't an option.
- "Make sure to memorize this. There will be a test."
Robert Liston.
The giant of a professor had announced that there would be an exam.
The thought of having to memorize this nonsense was unbearable.
Maybe it was because my rational mind knew this was absurd, or perhaps my inner doctor was filtering it out, but it was exhausting.
"Pyeong. So, are we starting anatomy again today?"
It was Alfred who snapped me out of my frustration.
Even though he was a bit of a dimwit, he had a good heart.
He was holding the gloves he had received from the factory yesterday and spoke to me, his face already turned toward the dissection room.
He was always so eager.
'Stupid but diligent people are the ones who cause the most trouble...'
But in this era, it seemed like everyone was like that, so what could I do?
If he was lacking in intelligence, I could just cover for him.
'Can I really do this?'
At first, I had my doubts.
But as soon as I stepped into the dissection room, my worries vanished, replaced by excitement.
Feeling excited while looking at rotting corpses, flies, and maggots everywhere...
It made me seem like a bit of a pervert, but...
'I guess I'm just a surgeon at heart.'
Thinking about holding a scalpel again after so long...
Haha.
"Ah... a new body has arrived!"
At that moment, Joseph shouted with an excited face.
A new body meant someone had died... Should a medical student really be that happy about it?
But in this era, it was unavoidable.
It seemed like formalin wasn't even a thing yet.
Even if it existed, it wasn't something we could use right away.
If I suggested pouring it on the bodies... I'd probably be suspected.
That was something to consider later, after I had made a name for myself.
"Here it is. Payment."
"Yes, yes. Thank you."
The supplier took the money from the professor and left.
I had heard that some of that money would go to the deceased's family, so I didn't feel as uncomfortable as I used to.
"Three bodies have arrived, I see."
Professor Robert Liston nodded, scanning the room, and then his eyes landed on me.
"Finally made up your mind? I was thinking of cutting you off if you kept skipping."
He said something chilling.
Cut me off?
This guy...
I'm the hope of this era.
If you cut me off, you'll be indirectly responsible for many deaths.
"Yes, thank you. Ah, and this... a gift for you."
Of course, I couldn't say that to his face.
It wasn't even a conscious thought—my tongue just moved on its own.
Thanks to my training at the university hospital, I was able to flatter him so naturally.
"What's this?"
"Gloves."
"Gloves...? Winter's still far off. And it's not exactly the right season for this."
Robert Liston rambled on, but his body was honest—he took the gloves anyway.
What a guy.
"I made them for you to use during dissections."
I had even estimated the size by eye before bringing them.
It wasn't like I could make them with precision anyway.
It's not like we were performing surgery, so they didn't need to fit perfectly.
"For dissections?"
"Yes. It's a bit uncomfortable, isn't it? The miasma sticking to your hands... It could even be dangerous."
My tongue was spinning like a motor.
I hadn't prepared a script, but I was desperate.
Anyone standing in front of Robert Liston would have been the same.
"Hmm... That's a good thought. But won't it be annoying to clean if they get wet?"
"They won't get wet. They're waterproof."
"Oh ho."
Fortunately, Professor Robert Liston seemed to like the gift. He tilted his head and immediately put them on.
It was only natural.
Who in their right mind would want to touch a corpse with bare hands?
No one would do that.
"Alright, then... Let's divide the work."
Professor Robert Liston was as thorough in repaying favors as he was in saving lives.
Just as he had treated me well based on the money he received from the supplier, he was equally fair in his treatment of the gloves.
"The dissection..."
"I'll give it a try."
Our team consisted of five people: me, Joseph, Alfred, Colin, and Colin's lackey, whose name I didn't know.
Colin was already fiddling with the scalpel, confident that either he or Alfred would lead the dissection.
From his perspective, it made sense.
He had been working hard, after all.
'Idiot...'
What's the point of working hard in the wrong direction?
"Alright, Pyeong. You'll take the lead this time."
The professor handed me the scalpel.
Colin looked shocked but didn't dare object.
Of course not.
He'd be dead if he did.
"Thank you, Professor."
And so, I naturally took the scalpel.
Then I looked down at the body.
The person couldn't have been more than thirty years old.
Or maybe even younger.
In the 19th century, under the harsh sunlight and poor living conditions, people aged much faster than in the 21st century.
"Hey... why are you doing this? Doesn't it bother you, senior?"
As I was looking down, Colin started complaining.
The professor had left the room, but he wasn't completely gone, so Colin whispered, but it was loud enough for our team to hear.
Among them, Alfred, whose pride had been hurt, heard it clearly.
"Yeah, not really."
But the response was completely different from what Colin had expected.
"What...?"
"You might not know this, but... Pyeong is a genius. He's a noble from Joseon."
"What...? Even so, he's just a monkey..."
"Watch your mouth. He's my lifesaver."
It wasn't just a casual response—it was outright aggressive.
Colin probably only saw me as a monkey from Joseon, so he must have been shocked.
'Look at that, his hand's trembling.'
But what could he do...
Nothing had even happened yet to make him tremble.
'Watch this. My power.'
Where should I start?
Where should I cut to make these guys amazed?
'My original specialty was the abdomen, but...'
The abdomen was a completely unknown world to them.
They might know what organs were inside, but they had no idea about the blood vessels or nerve distribution.
In fact, even their knowledge of the organs was superficial—they didn't know their structures, functions, or secretions.
It was understandable for the era.
They didn't perform abdominal surgeries.
They called cutting someone open without anesthesia "surgery," so what would happen if they opened the abdomen?
'Sigh.'
Just thinking about it made me shudder.
But I had been in this 19th-century medical school for several months now.
I no longer tortured myself with unnecessary imagination like before.
"Then... shall we start with the arm? We've studied that a lot."
"Yeah, sure."
"What...? What do you even know...?!"
"Shut up, do you want to die?"
In this era, the limbs were the most well-understood part of the body.
But even then, it was only superficial—they knew what the bones looked like, but anything deeper was a mystery.
It wasn't like they were cutting with any real knowledge, and the rapid decomposition of the bodies didn't give them much time either.
At least in London, there were suppliers for bodies, but in other places, getting a body was like trying to pluck a star from the sky.
*Sssk.*
I made the first incision.
The exact location was the upper arm.
In medical terms, the area with the humerus bone.
If I cut too deep, I could damage the internal structures, so I was careful.
"Why are you so slow? Just cut through it!"
Colin, frustrated with my pace, started ranting.
I guess he had a point.
In this era, dissection didn't involve considering layers.
Surgery was about boldly cutting through things, so there was no reason to think about such details.
'From now on, things will be different...'
Given that anesthesia wasn't available, it was true that such considerations weren't practical.
But just because it wasn't feasible in reality didn't mean a doctor shouldn't know about it, right?
At the very least, a doctor should know what they're cutting and how, in my opinion.
"..."
I first made an incision through the skin.
Beneath it, reddish muscle was visible.
'Looking at it like this... it really looks like a living person.'
This was actually my first time dissecting a body that had only been dead for a short time.
It felt completely different from working with formalin-preserved bodies.
It was more... vivid, I guess.
*Sssk.*
At the same time, it allowed for a more realistic dissection.
I slipped my fingers between the skin and the muscle.
This was only possible because I was wearing gloves.
*Sssk.*
With a tearing sound, the skin and muscle began to separate.
"What...?"
"How did you... how did you do that?"
In medical terms, I was performing a dissection.
The dermis, the layer beneath the skin, and the subcutaneous fat and muscle fascia weren't tightly attached, so I could peel them apart with my fingers.
There was almost no blood.
The capillaries weren't connected, after all.
But the thicker vessels were clearly visible to the naked eye.
*Sssk.*
As I pushed my fingers along the incision, the muscle became even more exposed.
"How... how did you do that?"
This must have been quite shocking.
To the point where Colin was speechless, and even the others gathered around.
Even Professor Robert Liston came over.
'If this were normal... I'd have made a joke about Joseon, but...'
If I slipped up, I'd be dead.
So I decided on a strategy.
'From today, I'll play the genius card...'
It wasn't entirely a lie, was it?
I was called a genius multiple times when I was a surgery professor.
Well, maybe not to the extent that these people would accept, but still.
"There were... three distinct layers where the sensation changed as I cut."
"Not one, but three?"
It was all a lie.
The gloves were too thick to feel anything, and I was mostly going by sight.
But what did they know?
I was the only one wearing gloves today, and even then, only four of us were wearing them.
"Yes. When I cut through this thin layer."
If I were a true genius, I could have cut through just the epidermis, but unfortunately, I had to go through the dermis as well.
"And then this thicker layer..."
Next was the subcutaneous fat.
It must have looked distinctly different.
Subcutaneous fat is a yellowish mass of fat.
Given that the body was young and male, and it was just an arm, there wasn't much, but still.
"The muscle. But the muscle felt different, so I stopped. When I pulled it up, I saw these white fibers, so I pushed them aside with my fingers."
"And then beneath that..."
"Wow!"
Professor Liston's mouth fell open at my explanation.
The others?
They were just stunned into silence.