He Opened A Matchmaking Agency In 18Th Century London [EN]: Chapter 200

< 200. The World I Returned To (1) >

The doctor in charge rushed over immediately.

Examining Tae-oh’s vital signs, the doctor asked, “Are you feeling more conscious?”

After staring blankly around for a while, Tae-oh’s eyes met the doctor’s.

“What is your name?”

“Pray, for what purpose do you inquire after my name…?”

Before he knew it, Tae-oh was speaking in the English used in the 18th century.

The doctor, flustered, asked the nurses, “What’s going on? Isn’t this patient Korean?”

“Huh? We understood him to be a native Korean speaker.”

“But just now, his pronunciation sounded completely foreign.”

The doctor tilted his head, then asked Tae-oh again, “Can you not speak Korean? Do you speak Korean?”

Only then did Tae-oh realize he was hearing Korean for the first time in over twenty years.

Come to think of it, the medical staff around him were all Korean as well.

‘Here… the 21st century… South Korea? What… have I returned to the modern era?’

Still unable to distinguish between dream and reality, Tae-oh slowly opened his mouth in Korean.

“Where… is this?”

“Ah! Yes. This is Jeil University Hospital. Do you remember your name?”

“My name? …My name is… Hyun… Tae-oh?”

The doctor, looking relieved at Tae-oh’s answer, continued to ask questions.

“Do you remember what year it is?”

Searching his memory, Tae-oh cautiously opened his mouth.

“20…23? Is it perhaps 2023?”

“Yes, that’s correct. Then, do you remember how you came to the hospital?”

“That… I don’t remember. How long… have I been in the hospital?”

“It’s been almost two weeks. You collapsed from a heart attack and have been unconscious ever since. For the past few days, your breathing has been irregular. This is truly a miracle! A miracle!”

The doctor rejoiced at the miracle, but Tae-oh’s mind was in complete turmoil.

Just moments ago, he had been facing death in a typhoon.

Even now, he felt as if he were still battling the storm, standing in the middle of the ship.

But a hospital?

He had been unconscious for two weeks?

Rolling his eyes, Tae-oh looked around the intensive care unit, gradually recognizing reality.

No matter how he looked at it, this was clearly a hospital in 21st-century South Korea.

“Heart attack…? Did I perhaps… collapse at the wedding reception…?”

The doctor, checking the medical records, smiled and replied, “Yes, that’s right! It seems your memory is returning properly now?”

“……”

Tae-oh looked around once more.

Various high-tech machines and medical equipment hung all around… everything looked modern.

There was no trace of the 18th century to be found anywhere.

‘Two weeks? So, in just the two weeks I was collapsed, I entered the 18th century and had a bizarre dream that lasted over twenty years? Was it really… all a dream?’

It was hard to believe.

The memories of those 20 years were too vivid to simply dismiss as a dream.

*

His parents and younger sibling, who rushed over as soon as they received the call from the hospital, burst into tears, saying heaven had helped him.

“Oh, Tae-oh!” His mother sobbed.

“Thank you! Thank you for holding on until the end!”

“Haha—What did I tell you! I said my brother would wake up, didn’t I?”

Tae-oh was moved to a 24-hour observation room and underwent thorough examinations all day long.

When the detailed diagnosis revealed nothing abnormal, he spent another day in the observation room before being moved to a shared room with two beds.

“You must be so tired from getting examined right after waking up, right?”

“It’s okay, Mom.”

“Hyung [older brother], there were no private rooms available, so I got you a shared room. I barely managed to get this one. There aren’t many empty rooms these days, apparently.”

“Okay. Thanks for your trouble.”

His mother was overjoyed, her eyes constantly welling up with tears, and his father looked gaunt, showing how worried he had been.

As he was catching up with his family, his younger sibling handed something to Tae-oh: a smartphone.

“Here, Hyung! This is your smartphone.”

“……”

“It was found on the balcony of the reception hall the day you collapsed. I’ve been keeping it safe.”

“…Oh, okay… Thanks.”

*

After two hectic days, his parents decided to visit again tomorrow and returned home.

His younger sibling, who volunteered to be his caregiver, went down to the hospital convenience store in the basement to get some necessities.

Tae-oh leaned against the bed, fiddling with his smartphone.

It was something he had been attached to for nearly two years, but it felt both familiar and strange.

‘Seeing the smartphone, it really does feel like the 21st century. Sigh… were the events of the 18th century all a dream? It felt so real…’

Memories that felt so vivid, as if he could reach out and touch them, filled his mind, making it hard to believe it was just a dream.

However, as he underwent various tests, it became clear that he had been unconscious for a long time.

Ultimately, judging only by reason, the events in the 18th century were most likely a two-week dream.

Perhaps his habit of reading history books had unconsciously manifested itself.

‘But… it’s too vivid to be just a dream… When I first saw my parents and sibling, it felt like I hadn’t seen them in 20 years, not just a few weeks.

Could it be the opposite? What if this is the 18th century, and I’m dreaming of returning to the modern era?’

Tae-oh pinched his cheek hard enough to hurt.

A dull pain arose.

‘Ugh—What am I even doing? The 18th century… that’s absurd.’

Tae-oh’s mind, mixed with the 18th and 21st centuries, was in utter confusion. He even felt his identity, which era he belonged to, was wavering.

After agonizing for a long time, Tae-oh stared blankly at his smartphone.

Suddenly, he became curious about the people he had met in the 18th century. He had the absurd thought that, even though he thought it was impossible, something might have changed.

‘Should I… check it out?’

Tae-oh reached for his smartphone, then chuckled and lowered his hand.

‘Ha—Right. What am I trying to check right now? There’s no way the things I did in the 18th century in my dream would be recorded in the 21st century, right? I’ll really be called crazy if I keep this up.’

He had met James Watt, invested in the steam engine, persuaded King George to stop the war with America.

He had fought against General Howe’s rebels, led and finalized the Sanderson Treaty, and created Theo School to educate students and prepare for a treaty with Joseon [historical Korean kingdom].

Also, he had met and married Princess Maria of the Kingdom of Naples and even fought a war with Napoleon.

‘I annihilated Napoleon’s 50,000 troops? Ha—These are all just ridiculous stories…’

Tae-oh knew better than anyone that events in dreams felt real, no matter how absurd.

He had seen countless patients who couldn’t distinguish between such delusions and reality, and he had even treated them directly.

‘Is it some kind of hallucination from narcolepsy…?’

Narcolepsy is a condition where one cannot control sleep, falling asleep during the day even after sleeping at night.

This condition occurs when hormonal imbalances or abnormalities in the brain’s neurotransmitters arise due to health problems, leading to more frequent and unusual dreams.

If narcolepsy worsens, many people may feel as if dreams with many characters are real, and sometimes they may suffer from hallucinations or auditory hallucinations, confusing them with reality.

‘While collapsing, I may have been in a prolonged state of intense REM sleep, which made me feel like the dream was real…’

Of course, considering other symptoms, it was unlikely to be narcolepsy.

However, the fact that he had been lying unconscious for two weeks, delving into a deep inner world, and was therefore confusing reality and dreams, seemed similar.

As he thought about it, the events in 18th-century London now felt like a distant dream.

‘Yes… it was just a dream. But because I was unconscious for so long, I was in a deeper inner world than usual.

And combined with the historical knowledge in my head, that dream became longer and more elaborate, making it feel real.

If those things really happened, history would have changed, and I wouldn’t be here right now.’

Tae-oh listlessly placed the smartphone in his hand on the table and turned to his side.

‘……’

But suddenly, a part of his chest ached painfully.

The sad eyes of Princess Maria on the morning he left for the Kingdom of Naples suddenly came to mind.

‘My wife’s birthday is not far away… On the morning I left for the Kingdom of Naples, she showed tears, saying she would be counting the days until I returned… But that day was our last.

So many of our Theo School children left at school, our company… There are still so many places to fix in Theo Street… Sigh—’

Even though he recognized it was a dream, a deep sigh escaped Tae-oh’s lips.

‘Damn it—If it was a dream, I should have woken up after finishing everything neatly.

No, no… How fortunate is it that all these things were just a dream?’

If all of this were true, he would really go crazy.

Tae-oh forced himself to sleep, grateful that it was a dream.

He even entertained the futile hope that if he closed his eyes, he might return to that dreamlike 18th century and meet those he missed again.

“Next is news from the arts and culture scene. The National Museum of Korea will be holding an exhibition of ancient artifacts starting on the 21st…”

A shared room with two beds.

Because it was only separated by a thin curtain, the sound of the TV that the patient in the next bed had turned on was clearly audible.

Tae-oh, feeling bothered, wondered if he should ask them to turn down the volume a bit.

But…

“…The Philharmonie Opera’s ‘Pilgrim’s Journey’ has brought the curtain down on its Korean performance.

‘Pilgrim’s Journey,’ also famous as a song by the legendary British tenor ‘Patrick Bogart’ in the late 18th century, was written by Bach to honor his father…”

At that moment, Tae-oh’s eyes, which had been closed, snapped open.

‘Bach’s… Pilgrim’s Journey? Patrick Bogart? What… what is all this?’

He remembered it as an opera that clearly did not exist in the history he knew. The same went for Patrick Bogart.

‘Am I… so ignorant about music that I didn’t know? Patrick was originally an 18th-century tenor singer in history, but is it something I saw somewhere and appeared in my dream?’

Something felt strange, but he tried to find his own reasons, saying that historical masterpieces and figures that had passed through his subconscious had manifested in his long dream.

‘But… could I have such a specific dream with an opera song I didn’t know at all? The melody of Bach’s ‘Pilgrim’s Journey’ is even drawn in my head? Is that even possible?’

The story of Bach and Patrick Bogart was such a vivid memory.

It wasn’t just a fleeting memory; he could even feel the breath of Patrick Bogart, who was belting out terrifying high notes.

‘……’

Creak—

Tae-oh, grabbing the bed’s safety rail, sat up and stared at the smartphone placed next to him for a long time.

He thought it was absurd, but he felt like he wouldn’t be able to sleep unless he checked it out.

Tae-oh picked up his smartphone and opened the search bar.

‘What should I look up first?’

After a moment of contemplation, Tae-oh began typing someone’s name into the search bar.

Tap. Tap.

His hands, pressing the smartphone keyboard, became busy without him realizing it.

‘Surely not? If it’s true… either history has changed, or I’ve gone crazy.’

It was a very short wait, but it felt like a long time had passed.

Soon, the screen changed, and letters and pictures unfolded before his eyes.

.

.

.

【George III】

[Born on June 4, 1738, as the son of Frederick, Prince of Wales, the eldest son of George II, he was the monarch of Great Britain and Hanover during the British Empire…]

[…By accepting Duke Theo Sanderson as his strategist, he was able to decide to end the war with the North American colonies…]

At that moment, Tae-oh was so surprised by the name ‘Theo Sanderson’ that he almost screamed.

‘Du…Duke…Theo…Sanderson?!’

Tae-oh’s trembling eyes frantically scanned the contents of the smartphone screen.

[In particular, Duke Sanderson’s role in the Joseon’s Muo Reform is a well-known fact…]

‘No… No way…’

Tae-oh felt his breath catching in his throat, but he didn’t stop and clicked on ‘Theo Street,’ which was floating as a related search term next to it.

【Theo Street】

[Theo Street is a street located in Kensington, London, England.

The origin of this street was that Duke Theo Sanderson, a prominent British businessman, created the street for his marriage business, and King George was greatly impressed by the beautifully created street and named it Theo Street after him. Meanwhile…]

Tae-oh, with trembling hands, clicked on the linked name ‘Theo Sanderson’ and went inside.

Soon, the screen changed, and new information unfolded.

【Duke Theo Sanderson】

[In the late 18th century in England, it is said that the modern society began with Theo Sanderson and ended with Theo Sanderson. He was a businessman, politician, and legendary war hero who led the British Industrial Revolution.]

[Theo Sanderson led the Intelligence Club, where the best intellectuals of England gathered in the late 18th century. Starting with the then-unconventional marriage information business, he accumulated enormous wealth through steam engine and mining investments, coffee trade, etc., to an extent that was unprecedented for an individual.

Later, based on his enormous wealth, Duke Sanderson carried out projects such as the creation of Theo Street, poverty relief projects, scholarship projects, etc…

…Theo University, whose mother was Theo School, is a world-renowned prestigious university along with Oxford University…]

[In 1797, Duke Theo Sanderson, who led a great victory over Napoleon in the Battle of Montecassino, went missing in the Mediterranean Sea on his way back to England on a warship of the Kingdom of Naples.

At the time, the Kingdom of Naples and the British government dispatched large-scale search vessels, but no evidence related to the shipwreck was found.

Later, King George recognized his contributions during his lifetime and bestowed the title of Duke on Sanderson.]

[In 1798, as his body was never found, a state funeral was held through his relics. It is recorded that more than 50,000 mourners visited the funeral, which lasted for several days.

On the morning when the relics were moved to the cathedral, the road stretching several kilometers to St. Paul’s Cathedral was filled with mourners, and it is said that more than 800,000 London citizens came out to mourn his last journey together.]

[It is said that 8,000 people, including King George, attended inside the cathedral, and countless children, students, and poor people followed the funeral procession passing through Kensington Theo Street, wailing.]

Thud—

Tae-oh put down his smartphone.

He felt like his heart would burst if he kept looking at it.

‘It wasn’t a dream… Is this even possible? In the short time I lost consciousness… I went into the 18th century and made history progress differently… and woke up again and returned to the 21st century that had changed because of me? Does this… does this even make sense?’

Clearly, this world must have been the world he had lived in before he lost consciousness and collapsed.

But why can’t he know the world that has changed after waking up?

Is the 21st century he lived in and the current 21st century he woke up in different?

But his name, age, and family were all the same as in the old 21st century, and his family was naturally accepting him.

‘Am I, am I really… going crazy due to the accident?’

Tae-oh couldn’t figure out how things were going.