Born As The Daughter Of A Lowly Concubine [EN]: Chapter 129

I could understand having PTSD from not being able to treat the children.

‘But I saw that the other children at the school were fine now.’

So, is it because I’m a Princess?

Well, maybe. But they couldn’t have known my status the day they fainted when they first saw me.

‘I resemble my birth mother more than the King.’

I still vividly remember Song Bi saying since childhood that we looked like a mother and daughter, and that even strangers would recognize our blood ties at a glance.

So, the possibility of them recognizing that I was royalty was slim.

‘Of course, I have no reason to feel good about someone looking at me with such a sullen face.’

Maybe Seong Gyeom-sabok is worried about that too.

As I headed to Siyeongwon [a medical relief center] with that thought, Cheonho said something ridiculous with a slightly sulky face.

“It seems that Agassi [a respectful term for a young lady] trusts Seong Gyeom-sabok very much.”

“Well, he’s trustworthy. We’ve been together for years.”

“Then, if I’m with you for that long, will you trust me too?”

“Well, we’ll have to see about that, won’t we?”

No, is this already a fight for position?

Of course, it’s a waste to keep Seong Gyeom-sabok as my guard, but it’s also a bit of a waste to just give him to the Crown Prince.

Thinking of the Crown Prince, I suddenly remembered something and asked.

“Come to think of it, you delivered the news surprisingly quickly the day I was kidnapped. You didn’t run all the way from there to Hyeminseo [a government-run medical facility], did you?”

“No, of course not. That’s Gyeonggi-do [the province surrounding the capital]. I may be fast on my feet, but not that fast.”

Ah, I thought so.

“I happened to meet a scholar riding a horse nearby, and he willingly lent me his horse when I told him that there was a patient in critical condition and I needed to get to Hyeminseo quickly. Thanks to that, I was able to meet Agassi’s brother.”

“That was lucky. So, what did you do with the horse?”

“I left it at Hyeminseo, telling them that he would come to pick it up. Later, I went back and he had indeed taken the horse.”

It’s not like horses are cheap. Why would he lend his horse so readily to a potential swindler?

He’s truly like a refreshing rain in this harsh world. I was saved thanks to him, but I was honestly a little worried that he might get scammed.

“Hmm. To think there are such kind people in the world. Tell me if you ever see him again. I should offer him something in return.”

“Yes, Agassi.”

I don’t know if I’ll ever see him again.

‘What’s going on?’

Seongji couldn’t understand why his uncle was suddenly taking him home.

Wasn’t he in the middle of an important discussion about smallpox?

And at the same time, he had some questions.

Today, while talking with Sehwa on the way back to the school, he heard about something called cowpox (牛痘) [a disease similar to smallpox, but much milder, that can provide immunity to smallpox], and Sehwa herself said that she had been inoculated with cowpox and had a mark on her arm.

As soon as Seongji heard that, he couldn’t help but think about a similar mark on his own arm.

He had thought he had smallpox when he was young, but now he wondered if that was the case.

‘I clearly remember my uncle doing something to my arm when I was young, saying it would make me feel better.’

He didn’t remember exactly when it was, but he remembered being sick for a few days then.

It was painful, but he seemed happy that his uncle was by his side all day, which was rare.

Even when he was young, his uncle spent a lot of time taking care of him at home and teaching him.

But as Seongji learned medicine on his own and became able to care for patients, his uncle spent more and more days away from home. And when he came back, he was always drunk.

He was worried that he might one day collapse on the street and die alone.

‘He even seemed to have nightmares sometimes.’

The turning point for his uncle was unexpectedly his meeting with Agassi of Siyeongwon.

The day he fainted on the street after seeing Agassi.

When his uncle woke up, he didn’t look for alcohol or go to sleep for some reason.

When he told him Agassi’s wishes, he just nodded blankly and muttered.

‘If she tells me to do it, I have to do it.’

He didn’t know if Siyeongwon Agassi originally knew that she was a Princess, but his uncle had changed little by little since that day.

He no longer collapsed and fell asleep anywhere while drunk, and he began to rummage through medical books, saying that he didn’t know if he could teach someone again.

Was life in the Royal Clinic that difficult?

While Seongji was lost in thought, Heo Yeontae and Seongji had already arrived home. The two had moved near Siyeongwon as the school became more established. Agassi of Siyeongwon had provided a house for the doctors to live in, so they were renting out their old house instead of selling it.

As soon as they entered the house, Heo Yeontae went into his room and took out a bundle that was deep inside the chest. Seongji remembered it because his uncle had been holding it preciously when they moved.

He didn’t bother to check the contents, but he could tell from the outside that it was a book, so he wasn’t particularly curious.

He just didn’t want to touch it, thinking it was something with memories.

But for some reason, his uncle untied the knot without hesitation and took out the book.

“Uncle, what is this book?”

“Your mother… wrote it.”

“Mother?”

Seongji couldn’t help but be taken aback.

Had his uncle ever mentioned his mother before?

He was surprised, but there must be a reason why his uncle was giving him the secret book that he had been hiding all this time.

Seongji took the book from his uncle and hurriedly turned the pages. And he quickly realized that the contents of the book were extraordinary.

Seongji repeatedly asked Heo Yeontae in a trembling voice, as if he couldn’t believe it.

“Did my mother really write this book?”

“Yes.”

“But this is…”

A Book on Smallpox Treatment (痘瘡方書) [a medical text].

It was a plain title, but it was literally a book written about smallpox.

To be precise, it was a book that summarized the treatments written in medical books about smallpox and researched people who had smallpox. It even contained information about cowpox (牛痘), which he had just heard from Sehwa.

It even stated that people exposed to smallpox were inoculated with cowpox, and that they had mild cowpox instead of developing smallpox.

According to what was written here, even those who had been in contact with the courtesan infected with smallpox might be able to avoid smallpox with this method.

“Uncle, why haven’t you taken this out until now?”

“Didn’t I tell you, your mother wrote it.”

Seongji retorted, feeling frustrated by his uncle’s blunt words.

“You’ve never told me about my mother before.”

“……”

Heo Yeontae, who had been silent for a moment, swallowed a sigh and barely opened his mouth.

“Your mother was a female doctor.”

“My mother… was?”

Of course, if she wrote such a book, she must have been a female doctor, but Seongji was hearing this for the first time today.

But when he thought about it, he had heard people say, ‘You look a lot like her,’ when he was learning medicine as a child. Was that referring to his mother?

“Yes. But… you must not tell anyone about that fact. Do you understand?”

“……Is it because I’m not your real nephew?”

“……Yes.”

It was something he had suddenly realized one day.

His uncle had been telling people around him that Seongji was the daughter of his deceased older brother and his wife, but he had never told Seongji to observe ancestral rites for his parents. He had never told him stories about his parents.

After Seongji grew up, he would leave home for a few days around the same time every year, so he had assumed that he had gone to visit their graves.

But if he had a real daughter, there was no reason not to take her to visit the graves, even if he didn’t hold ancestral rites.

So, what was he?

“Your mother tenaciously sought a way to treat the smallpox that had taken her parents away when she was young. This is the result.”

“Then why did you hide this book until now?”

“Your mother… passed away not long after completing this book. And I was going to bury this book as it was.”

“Pardon?”

“It’s not that I hid this book from the beginning. I showed it to several doctors. But it was already hard to believe the method of inoculating with pus from a cow, and since it was a medical book written by a woman, no one believed it. How could they call a mad woman’s writing a medical book?”

Seongji bit his lip.

It was not strange that people were reluctant to inoculate with cowpox.

Moreover, Seongji had heard countless times that a woman’s medical skills could not be trusted, so if the person who advocated cowpox was a woman, the disregard would be even greater.

But even so, he couldn’t understand his uncle for hiding this until now.

“What are you saying? Still, you could have persuaded them and treated them according to what’s in this book.”

“Yes, maybe that would have been possible. But if I did, wouldn’t that become my achievement? I didn’t want to do that.”

“But people’s lives are at stake.”

“So, at first, I tried to pretend I didn’t see it. But I couldn’t do that. So, when there was a patient suspected of having smallpox, I treated them as if I were a wandering doctor and pretended it was another disease, not smallpox.”

“Pardon?”

Come to think of it, he had rarely heard of smallpox outbreaks in the capital. Could that be related to it?

He couldn’t believe that his uncle, who always drank, had been secretly doing such a thing.

“It’s just what I did within my reach. Yes, as you said, I did something selfish.”

“Then, why are you suddenly giving this to me?”

“It’s because I’m foolish. And, hasn’t it changed now?”

“Yes? Ah.”

That’s right. It’s different.

Unlike then, female doctors (女醫) [yeo-ui, female doctors] could become officials just like male doctors.

And above all.

“Princess will believe it, won’t she?”

“Uncle.”

That’s right. Princess will believe it.

Even the same women rarely believed that women could do as much as male doctors, but Agassi of Siyeongwon had never said such a word of doubt.

She was the one who argued that more women could be treated if female doctors treated women, and that female doctors should receive ranks because male doctors received ranks, and she even made it happen.

Because if she thought it was necessary, she would do things that people around her thought were impossible, and then clean up the mess in ways that no one else could have imagined.

‘Besides, she cleans up the mess in ways that no one else would have thought of.’

When Siyeongwon was first created, who would have imagined that it would become the size it is now?

Everyone thought that it would be reduced to a poor relief center and fizzle out, or that it would become a private estate of Princess, but no one thought that she would teach children to read and write and even train doctors.

“Moreover, since Female Doctor Sehwa is saying almost the same thing as the contents of this book, you will have more faith in this book.”

“Yes, that’s right. But Seongji, above all, I don’t want this credit to be taken away by someone else.”

“Pardon?”

“The method to treat smallpox and the method to prevent smallpox through cowpox were discovered by that person. If someone gains credit for this, if their name remains, it must be you. How can I let someone other than you, the daughter of that person, receive that praise instead?”

“Uncle.”

The content may be far-fetched, but Seongji heard his uncle speaking in such an agitated voice for the first time.

The content was absurd, so he honestly laughed, but he couldn’t help but understand his heart.

“You can scold me for not telling you sooner. But……”

“No. Uncle… you raised me, who is not even your blood relative, as your nephew.”

“……”

“You raised me to be a doctor.”

“Yes.”

After a moment of silence, Seongji carefully opened his mouth.

“Can you tell me about my mother?”

“……No. It’s better not to know. You are just my nephew. Do you understand?”

At his uncle’s firm words, Seongji obediently nodded. He only asked one more question.