I could finally understand why even those prideful Department Heads deferred to Yoo Ho.

But I need him.

If there were anyone who could replace him, I would have done so long ago.

Jin Cheon-hee turned his head to look at the penicillin.

“Please, just have a proper effect. You have to. If you don’t work, can you imagine the fit that man’ll throw?”

Jin Cheon-hee prayed deep in his heart, to a god he’d never once believed in.

***

Syphilis.

While its causes are varied, the greatest factor is infection through sexual contact.

Back on Earth, it was a disease of the West Indies. The prevailing theory when I studied was that it was transmitted to Europe by Columbus’s crew—the very men who opened the Age of Discovery—and subsequently spread to the rest of the world… but recently, evidence has been found suggesting it already existed in Europe a hundred years before Columbus, so it’s a mystery once more.

Either way, it doesn’t really matter to me.

The problem was the treatment of syphilis.

In this era, contracting syphilis was usually a death sentence. Furthermore, separate from its high mortality rate, the treatments were worthless. Poisonous concoctions containing mercury were often used as a cure, but they had no real effect, and it was far more common for patients to die in even greater agony from mercury poisoning.

As a result, until the development of penicillin, syphilis remained a cursed disease that killed countless infected people.

The same was true in this world, in the Hwa Empire.

There was no way of knowing if it had originated in the West Indies as it had in real history, but the fact was that syphilis existed, and it was a disease killing countless people within the Hwa Empire even now.

An incurable disease.

So, when Jin Cheon-hee asked for syphilis patients to be gathered, the news naturally spread throughout the entire Medical Pavilion.

“I believe in you, Young Master.” Phantom Archer said, his eyes filled with trust.

Wang Gak-yeon also clenched her fists. “I want to help too, Dad!”

“You should rest. You haven’t fully recovered yet, have you?”

She had her father’s personality, and her drive to act was second to none. In the past, she had played the part of the good daughter because she had to protect her precarious father, but things were different now. With Phantom Archer’s life stable, she was at an age to find what she wanted to do.

“But you can’t do any work until you’re fully healed. That’s the policy. If you break it, Elder Phantom Archer will get scolded by my Master instead, won’t he? For ‘why is he making his daughter who isn’t even fully healed work?'”

At Jin Cheon-hee’s logical words, Wang Gak-yeon puffed out her cheeks. “But I can help…”

Jin Cheon-hee just laughed. “Haha, help me after you’re all better. By then, you’ll probably be crying that there’s too much work.”

There was another reason Jin Cheon-hee was so desperately trying to stop her.

I heard a lot of people from the Hao Sect might be coming… It’s not good for a child’s education, Gak-yeon…

Syphilis was a venereal disease. Naturally, members of the Hao Sect, an Unorthodox Faction centered around brothels, would gather in droves.

Jin Cheon-hee and Phantom Archer exchanged a look.

***

The Hao Sect

In Murim, the Unorthodox Faction oversaw the taverns and red-light districts. Wherever there were people, there was always alcohol, and wherever there was alcohol, the Hao Sect had its presence.

Even the most stoic person would eventually loosen up after a drink. The Hao Sect profited by selling the information collected in these places, and sometimes, they would place spies to take advantage of a target’s carelessness.

The challenge lay in the harsh reality of this era. Human rights were nothing like modern Earth’s. Most members of the Hao Sect were children sold at a young age. Some were born orphans, but many were given up by families too poor to feed them. In the end, there was little difference.

Each child was evaluated for physical strength and appearance, then assigned a role—some became guards, others spies, and some were treated as expendable pawns. The chosen ones were trained in the martial arts of the Unorthodox Faction and taught to sing and dance.

Being part of the Unorthodox Faction meant living without limits. Death could come at any time, and so the children led lives completely separate from the ordinary world.

This was why people said, “Once Hao Sect, always Hao Sect.” The debt of being sold could never be repaid, and the children never learned to survive outside the skills the Hao Sect gave them.

They say the ‘best-case scenario’ is becoming the concubine of a high-ranking official.

It was a place from which one could never wash their hands.

“We leave ourselves in your care, Young Master.”

A man and a woman, both wearing thick makeup, entered. Both were strikingly beautiful, but the syphilis had ravaged their features. The makeup had only grown thicker to cover the damage.

Some hid their faces with veils, and many others, unable to move on their own, were carried in on the backs of martial artists. However, the distinct odor clinging to them was unmistakably that of the gravely ill, and all the physicians present couldn’t help but grimace.

Even in the Murim, the Hao Sect always handled the dirtiest work. The treatment of those who lived in its brothels was predictable.

Only Jin Cheon-hee replied with a perfectly composed expression. “Thank you for making this valuable trip.”

“This body isn’t worth a single coin anyway. We’re just grateful you’ll make use of it like this. Huhu…”

It wasn’t a joke to be made to a child. But in the world they had lived, even this was a joke.

Jin Cheon-hee replied, “I had intended to treat you in the clinic at the base of the mountain. Is there a reason you came all the way up here?”

“Is there anything more frightening than the eyes of other people? Knowing in your head that something is ‘dirty’ is different from seeing that filth with your own eyes.”

The Hao Sect members spoke of themselves with such casual self-deprecation. The woman added another word. “You truly are an eccentric one, Young Master. To gather such filth for the sake of medicine.”

Her words were barbed. It was only natural, as she was a patient who had climbed a mountain, even if she was a martial artist. But her tone was laced with a self-mockery for the circumstances that had forced her to do so.

It was a strange, twisted resentment.

Jin Cheon-hee replied calmly, “You don’t have to believe whether I will succeed in treating you or not. I will simply do everything I can.”

The patient’s circumstances belonged to the patient. The physician simply did their best to provide treatment.

The Hao Sect members found Jin Cheon-hee’s attitude fascinating. They exchanged glances with one another.

‘We’d heard the White Qilin Divine Physician’s disciple was an oddball, but it’s true.’

‘He’s not pitying us, but he’s not ignoring us either…’

‘He’s so straightforward, it’s actually harder to read his intentions.’

These were Hao Sect members who had seen and experienced everything life had to throw at them. But even to them, Jin Cheon-hee was a real specimen.

It was strange enough that he’d offered to treat syphilis and sought out patients, but he wasn’t ignoring them for being “filthy,” nor was he pitying them for their “pitiful lives.”

“We haven’t introduced ourselves. My name is Mu Hwa, Junior Pavilion Master. My younger brother’s name is Mu Wol. The two of us will be leading the Hao Sect members who have come.” Mu Hwa flashed a crimson smile, her voice sweet.

Jin Cheon-hee asked, “Do you both have symptoms of syphilis?”

“Yes. Both my brother and I were infected around the same time, though the severity differs.”

Jin Cheon-hee nodded. “Understood. Chief Steward Yoo Ho, please guide them all to their hospital rooms.”

With that, Jin Cheon-hee began his work.

***

“I’ve spent my entire life in the red-light district, but I’ve never seen a child like that.”

“Sister. Your jests toward the Junior Pavilion Master of the White Qilin Medical Pavilion went too far.”

After being assigned a room, Mu Hwa and Mu Wol stepped outside to talk. The two were siblings, sold off by their poor family. As both had been exceptionally beautiful since childhood, the Hao Sect had invested heavily in raising them. They were talented in dance and song, and adept at painting and calligraphy. They had once risen to the position of Branch Leaders, only to be demoted to the back rooms after contracting syphilis.

“Mu Wol. Why don’t you just tell the truth now? That you’re perfectly fine.”

“You know what happens to patients who contract syphilis in the Hao Sect, Sister. If I’m not here, who will look after you?”

“You are such a fool, Mu Wol.”

“You’re the fool, Sister. If you had just run away with me when I asked, we both would have been fine…”

At those words, Mu Hwa laughed for a long time. “Our parents told us, didn’t they? To consider the Hao Sect our home from now on. They were the ones who grabbed our hands when we ran and delivered us right back to the Hao Sect.”

“Sister.”

“Where would we go, even if we ran? And do you really think the Hao Sect would just wave goodbye and wish us well?”

A wind blew. The sound of the bamboo rustling was like rain. Beneath her thick makeup, the pustules that were the evidence of her syphilis were clearly visible.

“That Young Master…”

“Let’s not get our hopes up, Mu Wol.”

“Sister.”

She shook her head. “It’s just the bravado of a young master. We just need to offer our bodies and steal their information. That is our job.”

A request had come to the Hao Sect. An investigation into the movements of the White Qilin Medical Pavilion and its young Junior Pavilion Master. Everything from his reputation in the area to his medical skill. It was fine if they couldn’t find a weakness. Just find out anything and everything possible.

It was a fairly broad request.

As always, the siblings had no idea who had made it. When they were Branch Leaders, they might have known, but now, they were just disposable pawns.

That was why Mu Wol was so desperate.

“The request is just a request, Sister. Why don’t you focus on your treatment?”

“Do you think they call it an incurable disease for no reason, Mu Wol? You should stop worrying about someone like me and go do what you want to do.”

“Taking care of you is more important than selling smiles.”

“You’re hopeless.”

With those words, she closed her eyes.

‘It’s impossible, but if… what if… what if that Junior Pavilion Master actually succeeds in treating me? Then I…’

The thought stopped there. She scoffed at herself again.

‘I’m the hopeless one, as always. Knowing full well that there’s nothing more foolish than dreaming a dream that can never come true, and yet…’

When she was young, she had dreamt so many dreams.

The first dream she dreamt was of eating delicious food until she was full. But that was something even the most popular courtesans in the brothel couldn’t do. They couldn’t even train with a sword every day like other martial artists in the Murim.

It was because if they gained weight, they would become ugly.

‘After that, I dreamt of earning lots of money and becoming rich.’

But that, too, was impossible. It was the Hao Sect that got rich, not the courtesans. For some reason, the more popular she became, the more her debt piled up. She realized that no matter how beautiful she became, she would never be free from that debt.

So she changed the direction of her dreams.

‘I dreamt of escaping this place, too.’

She had watched as the fingers of a runaway courtesan were seared with a branding iron.

She and the other children had been forced to heat that iron together.

It was an example.

As they heated the branding iron in the fire, she and her younger siblings had all cried. Even now, some of the children still woke up crying in the night.

The branding iron had left a scar not only on the runaway courtesan, but in the hearts of all those who had been forced to watch.