WeTried Translations
Translator/Editor: LilGuyBlastoise
Discord: https://dsc.gg/wetried
◈ Plague Doctor in a Peaceful World ◈
Chapter 25: What Difference Does One More Make?
──────
“Gah...!”
[System]
-Your MP is insufficient, so attack power is greatly reduced.
-‘False One’ enters the ‘Silence’ state for 3 minutes.
-‘Divine Punishment’ Proficiency +0.5
-Experience +1%
Thud.
“Urgh...”
The charlatan monk flailed in midair before sprawling awkwardly on the ground. Scarlet text slowly appeared over their gleaming head.
[False One]
The ‘Silence’ status icon glowed as well.
“...”
“...”
“Ha...”
Lee Mun-yeong, Mr. Sato, and the Hashimoto father and son all stared at me.
But I was the most surprised.
‘False One’?
What was that, and why had ‘Divine Punishment’ activated on its own?
Was it because they were a fraud?
Then I was no different... No, I was different.
I had never introduced myself as a religious person.
Making the sign of the cross or pressing my palms together were things anyone could do without being religious.
Or was it fine because I was Awakened?
I needed to experiment.
I needed more examples to get a definite answer.
But before that...
“Mr. Plague Doctor...”
How was I supposed to explain lightly tapping someone and sending them flying roughly two meters?
“...Agh! ...Aaaagh!”
Despite being in a ‘Silence’ state that was anything but silent, the charlatan monk pointed at me and did nothing but let out strange cries.
I looked back at Lee Mun-yeong, the Hashimoto father and son, and Mr. Sato.
“...”
Ah, whatever.
My ‘Plague Treatment’ skill was already ridiculously overpowered. What difference did one more make?
I quietly clenched both fists.
First, the front double biceps pose.
“Hup.”
Then I struck a side chest pose.
“Hnng.”
It was my rough way of saying I was very strong.
“...”
“...”
“Ha ha ha!”
Unlike Hashimoto Kenichi and Mr. Sato, who had no idea how they should react, old Mr. Hashimoto burst into hearty laughter.
The predawn sky was still dark.
I elegantly twirled the cane, caught it crisply, and calmly started walking.
I needed to get out of here before the charlatan monk called the police.
“...Mr. Plague Doctor.”
Lee Mun-yeong called to me.
“That way is wrong. This way.”
* * *
On the way back to the hotel.
Heh heh.
Lee Mun-yeong glanced at me through the rearview mirror and quietly laughed.
“I’m sorry. I just remembered that fraud’s expression.”
I nodded.
It had been funny.
I held the bag I had received for treating old Mr. Hashimoto in my arms.
It contained a full million yen.
As an apology for the charlatan monk’s rudeness, I had also received a herbal tea set and an expensive-looking bottle of sake.
It was heavy.
[Please take this.]
Before getting out of the car, I held the sake out to Lee Mun-yeong.
“What? It’s all right. It was a gift for you, Mr. Plague Doctor. This is quite rare and expensive liquor...”
I shook my head and urged her to take it.
Sake wasn’t to my taste. And even if I brought it home, people would definitely ask where I’d gotten the money to buy it.
Lee Mun-yeong hesitated before accepting it.
“Thank you, Mr. Plague Doctor.”
Scratch scratch.
[Did you receive your brokerage fee?]
Lee Mun-yeong smiled and nodded.
“Yes. Thanks to you, Mr. Plague Doctor, our president has been able to secure additional shares. I’ll be properly rewarded for making this happen as well.”
That was a relief.
“Then I’ll see you in Korea.”
I waved as I got out of the car.
As yesterday, I waited until Lee Mun-yeong’s car had disappeared from sight before removing my bird-beak mask and heading to the hotel.
I stayed alert in case a car or someone had been assigned to follow me.
“Heh heh.”
I couldn’t stop smiling.
What should I do with this money?
The moment I entered my room, I turned on my laptop. I redid my travel plans and packed my suitcase and bag properly.
I was about to put the herbal tea set into my suitcase when I tilted my head.
This.
Had they chosen it deliberately because I was the Plague Doctor?
Actual plague doctors had stuffed herbs like lavender into their bird-beak masks.
“Should I try one?”
It looked expensive, and I thought Mom would like it, so I had accepted it...
But I had never had herbal tea in my life.
Would it be similar to green tea?
I boiled water in the electric kettle provided in the room. I pulled out a random tea bag, put it in a paper cup, and poured in the hot water.
“It smells nice and floral.”
Phew.
I blew on it until it had cooled enough. Then, as I watched the sky brighten, I took a sip.
“...Ugh.”
It just felt like drinking water steeped with grass.
It definitely wasn’t to my taste...
[System]
-You drank herbal tea.
-‘Immunity’ increases by 10 for 1 hour.
-MP recovered by 10.
[MP 17/130]
“...”
I took another sip.
...
Nothing happened this time.
My mind went blank.
A surge of irritation welled up inside me.
If only...
If only I had known about herbal tea’s effects earlier, I would’ve been guzzling the stuff ages ago!
“Ugh, this system. Status window!”
...
“Right, it still won’t appear. Status! Explanation chatbot! Herb tea item description! Explain the ‘Silence’ effect!”
...
“Sigh...”
I calmed myself by drinking the grass-flavored herbal tea.
Think positively.
At least I knew now.
No, perhaps it was my fault for failing to properly investigate the herbs that always appeared in descriptions related to plague doctors.
“Ha ha.”
I laughed pointlessly as I put the herbal tea set in my bag instead of my suitcase.
“Ha ha ha.”
Then I looked at the cane and considered it for a moment.
It was longer than my suitcase, so it wouldn’t fit. But carrying it around in my hand...
I was afraid it might activate on its own again, claiming it had detected a ‘False One.’
It would probably get caught at airport security too.
More importantly.
The people I had met while treating old Mr. Hashimoto might identify me if they saw it.
“Let’s throw it away. It only cost a thousand yen anyway.”
Day had fully broken.
I threw the cane into the hotel trash and left Nagasaki.
* * *
Hashimoto Kichiro received a medical opinion from his attending physician, then personally went to a law firm to rewrite his will.
He had intended to do it earlier, but catching the flu had delayed it.
If an old man burning with fever and clouded senses rewrote his will, certain people would surely try to twist his true intentions.
In the chairman’s office of the company he had built over his lifetime.
“In the end, you received help from the ‘Plague Doctor’ you suspected. How does it feel?”
Hashimoto Kichiro looked around the chairman’s office before sitting on the sofa.
His son, Hashimoto Kenichi, smiled awkwardly.
“I have no excuse, Father. But even thinking about it again, it is truly astonishing. Not even the finest medical staff could perform such a miracle overnight.”
“Do not look for him.”
“Pardon?”
“Do you think I do not know what is going through your head? I said do not look for the ‘Plague Doctor.’”
“Have you not assigned someone to follow him either, Father?”
Hashimoto Kichiro calmly drank his tea before answering.
“No.”
“Why not? If we ever need his power again, we will have to go through Kang-geon Pharmaceuticals every time.”
“Do not investigate the ‘Plague Doctor’s’ background. That was Lee Mun-yeong’s condition, along with strict confidentiality. Watch your tongue, and do not think of doing anything foolish. I mean it.”
After another drink, he warned his son.
“If you do not wish to be turned away when you desperately need his help.”
“...”
“Have you forgotten the strength with which he lightly sent that swindling monk flying? Ho ho. Unlike the fraud you brought, he may truly be God’s messenger.”
Hashimoto Kenichi recalled the dawn several days ago.
The monk had floated through the air after the ‘Plague Doctor’s’ light resistance, then could barely speak properly for several minutes, as though cursed by the very curse they had talked so much about.
Seeing that, Hashimoto Kenichi had once again suspected that the ‘Plague Doctor’ might have used some sinister trick...
But nothing out of the ordinary had happened so far.
His father’s cat, Miko, had also been promptly examined on the ‘Plague Doctor’s’ advice and really had been sick from some infection.
“Yes, I will remember.”
Meanwhile.
The moment Amagi ended the call, they let out an enraged scream inside the car. Still, they could not bring themself to throw their phone.
“This job got canceled too!”
Suzuki, the monk who had visited the Hashimoto household a few days earlier, sat in the back seat.
“Suzuki, word has already spread everywhere that you were shamefully thrown out of the Hashimoto household.”
“...”
“What exactly happened? You are not actually a con artist who only talks big. You said you clearly saw it, that pitch-black thing! But...!”
Amagi repeatedly struck the steering wheel.
“It was a job worth three million yen! Three million! And some strange guy whose origins we do not even know stole it from us?!”
“That...”
Suzuki finally opened their tightly shut mouth.
“Is that not partly your fault too, Amagi? You did not know former Chairman Hashimoto had connections like that. As an intermediary, you should have found out that much.”
“I checked again and again through President Niwa that he did not have connections like that. What more was I supposed to find out?”
“Then what about investigating that man?”
Amagi fell silent, then sighed.
“I do not know. If you had contacted me sooner, I would have followed him immediately!”
“I told you. After I fell because of that bird-beak mask, I strangely could not speak properly.”
“What? Then he really is...”
Amagi, who had been looking at Suzuki through the rearview mirror, turned around.
“More ‘real’ than you?”
“The dark energy beside former Chairman Hashimoto briefly withdrew. Perhaps... he is more ‘real’ than I am.”
As Suzuki spoke, they rubbed their arm.
Even now, remembering that dawn gave them chills.
The ringed staff and cane had only collided lightly.
Yet in that moment.
An unknown, powerful force had sent them flying.
Suzuki had felt fear.
The ‘Plague Doctor’ standing with the room’s lights behind him.
For a brief moment, a blazing red gleam had been visible through the goggles of his bird-beak mask.
“One thing is certain... He was not Japanese. The woman who came with him and Sato were interpreting in Korean, so he must either be Korean or posing as one.”
“That is at least a relief.”
Amagi let out a long sigh.
“If he is not someone settling in this country permanently, there is less chance we will cross paths again. Still, we should give up on jobs in the west for the time being. Just in case, tell me his distinguishing features.”
Suzuki slowly explained.
“He was nearly 180 centimeters tall, with a lean build. Unlike when he first arrived at night, he carried a cane about this big at dawn. Its pattern looked extremely antique, so it seemed like a valuable object.”
“You acknowledged him as the real thing. It must have been no ordinary item.”
Suzuki gave a low groan and nodded.
“I suppose so.”
All the while thinking that they never wanted to encounter the ‘Plague Doctor’ again.
* * *
From Nagasaki to Osaka and Kyoto.
I enjoyed my travels while being reasonably frugal.
[This is a Contagious Disease Patient. Would you like to treat them?]
“Treatment, yes.”
Whenever I saw a [Contagious Disease Patient], I treated them and slowly earned Experience.
A week later, I returned home.
“Kang Bongsik is back.”
Woof! Woof!
When I got home, Arong greeted me by wagging his tail wildly.
My sister had classes and her part-time job today, while my parents were at work, so only Arong was home.
“Aro-rong. I bought you lots of clothes too. Want to see?”
Woof!
I shoved my suitcase, bag, and gifts into my room for the moment, then played with Arong by dressing him up.
Click, click.
I took plenty of pictures too.
“Let’s take a walk in your pretty new clothes.”
Woof!
Only after returning from our walk did I unpack and upload a few humble-brag photos to social media.
Park Jaeyoon called me right away.
-[Wow, traitor. Are you happy going on a trip alone and leaving me behind?]
“Why would I bring someone along? What a hassle.”
-[What about my gift?]
“Did you put in an order?”
-[Heartless bastard. Did you watch Unknown Singer last week?]
“I didn’t.”
-[My mom watched with eagle eyes, and she said neither of us appeared. This week is the Special Stage episode too, so maybe we’ll be on it then?]
Ding.
“Yeah. I got a message, so I’m hanging up.”
Click.
I checked the DM from Lee Mun-yeong.
Since I had earned a million yen thanks to her, I was somewhat glad to hear from her.
-[Hello, Mr. Plague Doctor! Have you returned to Korea by any chance?]
[Yes. I am currently in Korea.]
Was this another treatment prayer request?
-[That’s a relief, haha.]
-[First, there is something I would like to ask...]
Lee Mun-yeong only sent her next message after a long while.
-[Can you perform treatment prayers for animals too?]
-[A tiger...]
Bonus Experience from a cat?
Definitely yes.
Join our discord at https://dsc.gg/wetried
