'Ah...... I'm gonna die.
Robert Liston.
I thought he was just a big guy, but he turned out to be a great drinker too.
I didn't know Joseph was like that either.
Alfred?
Honestly, I don't even remember my senior that well.
One thing's for sure, though: that bastard Colin suddenly started bleeding while drinking, and we had to leave the spot because of it.
'Was he my savior?'
If it weren't for that bastard, I would've really died.
Why the hell do they drink so much?
They're not even Vikings.
Wait, are they Vikings?
Anyway, if anyone starts talking about England being a gentleman's country in front of me, I'll kill them.
"Ugh."
"Hey, you're gonna die."
Of course, I'll probably die first.
....
No, it's morning, and I'm throwing up.
Water. Give me some water."
"Shouldn't you have some hangover cure?"
Meanwhile, our proud senior was talking about hangover cures.
Of course, it wasn't entirely without merit.
If you get drunk again, you can forget about the headache from the hangover.
Though it's also a shortcut to alcoholism and a sign of dependency.
So...
...
It's not something a doctor should be saying so confidently.
"Should we go to that bar from yesterday? I think we need to do some 'dog fur.'"
"What... what are you talking about?"
Then the conversation started going in a weird direction.
Why is 'dog fur' coming up while we're talking about drinking?
Judging by Joseph's expression, he had no idea either.
Even though he's a Quaker who sells alcohol, or rather, a nylon believer, he's never seen or done anything like this hangover cure before.
"You don't know about dog fur?"
"I know dogs, and I know fur... but I have no idea what you're talking about."
"When you're sick from being bitten by a dog, you pluck the fur of the dog that bit you and apply it to the wound. It heals, you know?"
"What the hell...."
"Anyway, I heard that if you drink at the bar where you got drunk, your headache will go away. That's what I heard, at least."
"Uh... gulp."
Wow.
I learned something new.
Not through nonsense like 'dog fur' or whatever, but I learned that when someone says something annoying after drinking, your headache gets worse.
"Ah... I can't go........
""
I was already in too much pain to go earlier, and now it's even worse.
So I felt like giving up.
Honestly, even if I go, there's nothing to learn, so why bother?
These thoughts were bubbling up, and both Joseph and Alfred were staring at me with shocked expressions.
"What are you thinking?"
"You've got some real guts."
These guys have been doing weird things for a while now, so it's strange to be surprised at this point...... but this reaction was new.
"Why?"
When I asked, they looked at each other and then back at me.
Then, as if they understood something, they nodded.
"You don't remember, do you?"
"Yeah, there's no way you'd act like this otherwise."
"What are you talking about?"
"You're supposed to do a dissection with Dr. Liston today. If you skip that... you're dead, right?"
"Oh. You were all excited and said you'd definitely meet him today. I thought you were really confident, but it turns out you're just out of it."
"Ah...... I...... I made that promise, huh."
Why did I do that?
I should've said I'd take a break today.
Ah, my head hurts so much today!
I think I'm dehydrated too!
Click.
Of course, all of this is just meaningless regret now.
I'm really in deep trouble, and I can't just skip it because I feel like I'm going to die.
So I got into the carriage.
Anyone who's been in a car with a bad hangover knows how painful it is, but this was even worse.
"Ah."
A groan that sounded like a scream escaped.
It really came out on its own.
"We're here. Oh my, Noble Kim. You look like you're about to die... Is this really what it takes to become a doctor?"
The coachman, who saw my face when we arrived, tapped my shoulder with a worried expression.
I'm grateful, but my head is spinning so much that I feel like throwing up.
Thud.
"Ugh."
"Ah."
No, I threw up.
"I'm sorry・・ I'm sorry."
"No, no. It's just on my shoes, no big deal."
And when I realized that quite a few people had already left their marks on his shoes before me, I felt like throwing up again.
Anyway, the hygiene standards of the 19th century—no, the hygiene standards of London—were something I could never get used to, no matter how much time passed.
"Uh, over there."
I fixed my head as much as possible and went inside, where Dr. Robert Liston was.
Unlike usual, he was surrounded by a lot of people, and they looked like reporters.
Reporters in the 19th century?
I was a bit dumbfounded when I first saw them, but London was indeed fast-paced.
The problem was that it was disgustingly fast...
"Doctor. Did the anesthesia really work yesterday?"
"How many times do I have to say it? It worked."
"But...
...
You used the laughing gas from our parties, right?"
"That's right. Everyone vaguely knew about it, didn't they? If you've been to a laughing gas party, you've experienced how your senses become dull. No one thought to use it as an anesthetic, that's all. Ah, right. Look who's here."
The doctor noticed me and pointed with his finger.
"Huh?"
"That's Dr. Pyeong. He's the one who came up with the idea. A very promising young man."
"Oh."
Then the reporters swarmed over.
My yellow face must have already caught their attention, but with the doctor saying that, it was only natural.
"How did you come up with this idea?"
"Where are you from?"
"Are you a doctor?"
"Are you British?"
From my perspective, with a headache that's killing me, this wasn't exactly a welcome situation.
However, having seen the power of the media in the 21st century, I couldn't just ignore their questions.
'If they're on my side, it's a jackpot...
...
But that's not going to happen.'
People who think they can control the media always end up in a bad place.
Journalists are usually rebels, after all.
Do you think it's any different now?
Just by looking at them, I could tell they weren't exactly good people.
So my goal was to avoid making enemies.
And that included our senior, Dr. Robert Liston.
"It's thanks to Dr. Robert Liston's teachings. Especially the party he took me to, which was a turning point."
"What happened there?"
"I inhaled the gas and bumped into something, but it didn't hurt. It should've hurt, but..."
"Wow. So that's where you got the idea?"
Colin wasn't there.
So I conveniently left out the part about Colin, who had contributed to the idea.
"I'm from Joseon. It's a country to the east of here."
"The east? Near India?"
"No, no. It's further east than Qing."
"Ah... So you're from the Far East."
"That... yes."
The Far East, huh.
Bastards.
Do you think you're the center of the world?
That's what I wanted to say, but I'm good at compromising and also quite cowardly, so I just nodded.
"I'm not a doctor yet, but... I'm studying hard under Dr. Robert Liston's guidance."
"Ah, I see... Is that so?"
"Ah, wait a moment."
As I was about to continue answering, Robert Liston interrupted.
Actually, I also realized I'd made a mistake.
The hyena-like expressions on their faces were unmistakable.
But if they were hyenas, Robert Liston was a lion.
He grabbed the fountain pen of the guy who had said 'Ah?' and squeezed it.
It broke.
It really broke like something out of a cartoon.
"Uh...?"
"Sorry. My mistake."
It couldn't have been a mistake, but if the lion says it's a mistake, then it's a mistake.
The quick-witted ones quietly erased the sentence they had written about me not being a doctor.
Fountain pens aren't cheap, so it must've been really frustrating to have it broken like that.
Robert Liston continued, dominating the room.
"He'll be one soon. He's more than qualified."
"No
...
From what we've heard, Dr. Pyeong? This person has only been here for a few months, right?"
A guy standing a bit further away asked this.
Robert clenched his fist and then released it.
He probably wanted to solve it with physics, as a scientist would.
But the guys in front of him were all humanities majors, weren't they?
It was better to change his approach.
There's a reason why the pen is said to be mightier than the sword.
If these guys started spreading rumors, I might end up hanging in the square, even if Dr. Robert Liston wouldn't.
.
"
People
exist, right?"
Doing something and being good at it are two different things. Just look at me. Among experienced surgeons, there aren't many who are better than me, even after all these years."
"Hmm. That's... But you're London's greatest genius, aren't you? It's hard to compare...."
"Pyeong is someone who can stand shoulder to shoulder with me. If you don't believe me...."
Whether he had the same thought or not, Robert calmly continued.
Of course, he couldn't maintain his patience for long.
He wasn't used to holding back.
"Why don't you see for yourself over there."
"Over there...?"
Robert pointed to the dissection room.
The entrance, which exuded an aura that would make any ordinary person's knees weak, came into view.
A dark hallway leading to a tightly shut door.
Gas masks and cloth scraps placed beside it.
Bloodstains dripping on the floor.
It looked more like the entrance to hell or a dungeon than a university.
-Those who enter here, abandon all hope.
Even I, who had been here several times, felt like I was looking at the gates of hell every time I saw the entrance.
"You want us to go in there?"
"Yes."
"What・・
What are you going to do."
"Watch a dissection."
"Ah."
The reporters probably thought of death too.
But Robert, despite his intimidating appearance, was a doctor.
And a pretty good one at that.
He was serious about saving lives.
He walked toward the entrance, looking annoyed.
Creak.
Then he opened the door.
"Ugh."
The reporters who had mustered the courage to follow him all turned their heads away.
They hadn't even experienced the full grandeur of the dissection room yet, but the smell alone was enough to make them tremble in fear.
In contrast, I was surprisingly fine.
'Is it because my mucous membranes are swollen? Or am I still drunk...... I can't smell anything?'
Several reasons came to mind, but in any case, stuffing a cloth in my nose made it bearable.
The only problem was that my hand shook a little when I did it, but that was fine too.
The gloves were so thick that no one would notice the trembling.
"Let's do this one."
Meanwhile, Dr. Robert sat down in front of a corpse.
It was the corpse I had touched earlier, and naturally, it had started to decompose.
It was unsettling, but since I needed to impress the reporters, I sat down as if nothing was wrong.
"Shall we?"
"Yes. Everyone, come and watch."
"No, we're fine."
"There's no need to........
"Come and watch."
"Uh...okay."
"And write your articles. Watch how well he does and write your articles. Don't even think about causing trouble."