Chapter 166: It's Not a Disease That Can Be Cured Anyway [1] Katō Kiyomasa's attitude was extremely respectful.
Judging by his utterly solemn expression, the child before them was truly Toyotomi Hideyoshi's son, without a doubt.
And not merely a son, but one formally acknowledged as his heir.
But whether the child was such a person or not did not matter much to Kanghyeok.
Even if Hideyoshi himself had been standing before him right then, Kanghyeok was not the sort of man to show proper deference.
What, am I supposed to kneel too?
He did not particularly want to.
Why should he, when it was not even a Joseon prince?
Kanghyeok merely stood there blankly, looking back and forth between Kiyomasa's face and the child's.
Kiyomasa then gave a bitter smile and nodded.
He had not known Kanghyeok for very long, but even after only about ten days, he had gotten a rough sense of what kind of temperament he had.
So he decided to just continue the introductions.
"And this is O-no-dono, Lord Hideyoshi's secondary wife. Please greet her."
"Ah, pleased to meet you. I am Baek Kanghyeok."
"I am O-no-dono. I ask for your favor."
Japan, after all, was a country less influenced by Confucianism than Joseon.
So Kanghyeok was able to look directly not only at the child's face but even at the face of O-no-dono, who was holding him.
Being able to look at another man's wife like this was something difficult to imagine in Joseon, at least.
Even while Kanghyeok was thinking such useless thoughts, Kiyomasa's mouth showed no sign of stopping.
"O-no-dono, this Physician Baek is a famous divine doctor even in Joseon. I think it would be good to let him examine Lord Tsurumatsu."
"Hmm… I have certainly heard as much."
O-no-dono spoke in a very composed manner.
She carried herself with enough dignity to compare with any high minister or grand official.
Only then did Kanghyeok begin to understand a little why Hideyoshi had wanted to take her as a secondary wife.
"But the Kanpaku is not here at the moment… so I hesitate to entrust Lord Tsurumatsu rashly."
"I will send word separately to the Kanpaku. He will not refuse. After all, it was the Kanpaku himself who invited countless physicians to come examine him."
"That is true. But not a single one of them gave a truly satisfying answer."
O-no-dono's voice was thick with bitterness.
At the moment, Kanghyeok was only making rough guesses, but Hideyoshi's love for Tsurumatsu was truly extraordinary.
The fact that he had confirmed his position as heir only four months after his birth was no ordinary matter.
And once he realized Tsurumatsu was ill, he had desperately searched in every direction for physicians.
As a result, he had summoned not only physicians famed within Japan, such as Manase Gensaku, but even doctors from Portugal and the Netherlands.
Yet as O-no-dono had said, not a single one of them had given a clear answer.
"But this man is truly a little different. O-no-dono, you know very well how much I have suffered from shoulder pain all this time."
"I know. For a while, you could not even hold a spear. That is why you are not with the Kanpaku now, is it not?"
Considering how much Toyotomi Hideyoshi usually favored Katō Kiyomasa, it made no sense that he would leave him behind even for a minor campaign.
But there was a private reason understandable to those who knew, namely Kiyomasa's shoulder injury.
"Be sure to recuperate well and return in robust health by the time I come back."
That was part of the message Hideyoshi left behind when he departed for Dosando.
O-no-dono had also been present then, so she knew well that Kiyomasa's shoulder injury was no minor matter.
"Physician Baek cured it completely."
"Is that so? No one in Kyoto was able to do anything for it."
"Yes. But now it is perfectly fine. Look."
Kiyomasa grabbed the practice spear hanging on the wall in his right hand and performed a flourish.
Though it was clearly nothing more than a fake spear to anyone looking at it, once it was in his hands, it showed tremendous power.
Even Yeoni and Makbong, standing behind, instinctively moved their hands to the hilts of their blades.
"Huh. He truly looks exactly as he did before the injury."
"I was surprised as well. This physician, Baek Kanghyeok, is a divine doctor without equal under heaven."
At those words, Kanghyeok smiled faintly.
No matter how shameless he was, he could not help feeling a trace of guilt at words like that.
All he had actually done so far was feed Kiyomasa steroids beyond the acceptable limit and inject an anti-inflammatory into the shoulder joint cavity as a temporary measure.
If Kiyomasa kept abusing that shoulder, he would probably become crippled in less than a year or two.
I have no personal grudge against him, but it can't be helped.
In truth, Kanghyeok tended to like straightforward people like Kiyomasa.
Having spent time with him, he found that Kiyomasa was not especially bound by etiquette, was openhearted, and above all treated Kanghyeok very well.
Part of him even wanted to do the surgery properly for him, but he forced himself to refrain.
This man was simply too outstanding a commander.
From what I saw in the drama, on land there was hardly anyone who could match him.
Of course, Joseon hardly had any commanders who won any significant victories on land back then.
Even taking that into account, Katō Kiyomasa was undoubtedly an excellent general.
If Kanghyeok ruined this man too, following Yoshitaka, it was obvious that things would become considerably more favorable in the coming war.
If he looked this formidable even in the eyes of the enemy, then how would he appear in the eyes of his own side?
O-no-dono nodded silently.
"You are not a man who speaks falsehoods."
"It would be excessive to say it twice."
"Good. I will entrust the examination to you. However… if there is any abnormality, or if any treatment must be done, you are to do it only after the Kanpaku returns."
"Understood. Please do not worry about that."
O-no-dono watched Kiyomasa, who was repeatedly bowing deeply, for a moment, then turned her gaze to Kanghyeok.
Then, without the slightest hesitation, she handed over Tsurumatsu, whom she had been holding.
"Then I leave him in your care."
"Ah, yes. I will do so."
Without even thinking, Kanghyeok stretched out his clumsy hands and received the baby with the utmost respect.
He had been overwhelmed by the atmosphere embedded in O-no-dono's attitude and way of speaking.
Of course, he came back to his senses soon enough.
Huh. I almost got completely swept along there.
Kanghyeok shook his head to clear away his stray thoughts, then looked at Tsurumatsu.
Light.
Even though the child was already nearly one year old, he was extremely small.
And he did not weigh much either.
At most, he felt comparable to a baby around four months old.
Let's… take a look.
Just from outward appearance alone, it was clear the child had some serious problem.
First, the whites of his eyes were yellow.
His belly was swollen and protruding.
And every time he exhaled, there was a faint smell of ammonia.
Whatever the cause was, the child already appeared to have almost completely lost liver function.
"Hmm. I roughly understand it."
"Is that truly so? You can tell just by looking like this?"
At Kanghyeok's words, Kiyomasa could not hide his excitement.
And no wonder. Every physician they had summoned so far had only shaken their heads and left.
Of them, only the Portuguese physician had mentioned that it seemed there might be a problem with the liver, while the rest had not even been able to guess that much.
And even that had only come after dragging things out for more than ten days.
But Kanghyeok had said he knew the moment he saw him.
Even O-no-dono standing behind them now had brightened eyes.
"Well, the exact reason needs more checking… but first, would it be all right if I show him to my disciples?"
"Disciples? Ah, this… what should we do?"
No matter that it was Kiyomasa, he could not simply hand Tsurumatsu over to just anyone.
So he sought O-no-dono's permission, but O-no-dono coolly nodded at once.
"She says it is fine."
"Thank you. All right, everyone, gather around. Lord Kiyomasa and O-no-dono, please come closer as well. I'll explain."
"Ah, let us do that."
At Kanghyeok's words, everyone gathered around Tsurumatsu.
"Well… for convenience, I'm going to speak informally. It's easier to explain that way."
"Do as you please."
O-no-dono readily allowed even informal speech.
Kanghyeok slowly nodded and pointed to the child's eyes.
"If you look here, his eyes are yellow, right? Why do you think that is?"
"Uh… isn't it jaundice?"
The one who answered, as expected, was Dolseok.
When it came to theory, there was no disciple among them who could match him.
"Right. Why does jaundice happen?"
"Because the liver is bad? Ah, so that's why the belly is swollen like this."
"Right. There's ascites. And this smell… sniff him once when he breathes out."
"Ugh. This… doesn't it smell like urine?"
"When the liver fails, this kind of smell comes out."
At the mention of the liver, Kiyomasa and O-no-dono's expressions brightened a little more.
After all, the Portuguese physician had said something similar.
At the very least, it meant Kanghyeok was not just spouting nonsense.
"Then what's the cause? A child this small couldn't have been drinking alcohol… and he couldn't have done anything already."
"You really do have a good memory. Right. Usually hepatitis comes from alcohol or venereal disease. But… this isn't hepatitis at all."
Of course, in the case of hepatitis B, it was also possible for the child to be infected by the mother during birth, a kind of vertical transmission.
But in such cases, it usually progressed into a chronic state or carrier status, not this kind of rapid liver failure.
So there had to be some other reason.
And Kanghyeok had grasped it the moment he saw the child.
"Then what is it?"
Dolseok kept pressing, as though impatience had gotten the better of him.
The others wore similar expressions too, even if they kept their mouths shut.
Kanghyeok's habit of cutting himself off mid-explanation did not seem entertaining right now, only irritating.
"Wait. First, what color is the child's stool?"
"Why are you suddenly asking about stool…"
Unlike Dolseok, who asked back with a deflated face, O-no-dono's expression brightened even more than before.
That was because Tsurumatsu's stool really had been somewhat unusual.
So much so that she had kept some, just in case.
"H-here it is."
"Mm. As expected. It's gray."
"Th-then… do you know what the problem is?"
O-no-dono's attitude had changed one hundred eighty degrees from when Kanghyeok first met her.
After all, no mother could remain detached when it came to her own child.
Kanghyeok answered with a bitter smile.
"Of course."
"Is that… really true!"
This time it was Katō Kiyomasa.
He was rejoicing as though it were his own child's matter.
That only showed how loyal he was, and also why Kanghyeok had no choice but to ruin him.
"The child has an illness in which the bile is blocked somewhere and cannot come out. This does not arise after birth, but is simply a congenital problem. His stool was probably this color continuously from the moment he was born."
"Th-that's right."
"Bile is produced in the liver, but if it's made and can't come out, then it accumulates. Then the pressure destroys the liver."
"Ah…"
"That's why the child's eyes are like this and his belly is like this. And lately… he has probably also been showing shortness of breath."
Kanghyeok rattled off Tsurumatsu's past as though he were some fortune-teller in magical underpants.
Not a single thing he said was wrong, so the expressions of O-no-dono and Katō Kiyomasa, who were listening, only grew more desperate.
"I-I see. Then how do we treat him…"
"We have to open his abdomen. From what I heard earlier, that will probably only be possible once the Kanpaku returns."
"The Kanpaku… understood. I will send someone at once."
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
Read 164 more chapters ahead on NovelDex!
https://noveldex.io/series/doctor-goes-back-to-joseon
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━