WeTried Translations
Translator/Editor: LilGuyBlastoise
Discord: https://dsc.gg/wetried
◈ Plague Doctor in a Peaceful World ◈
Chapter 4: I’ll Drive Away Your Bad Illness
──────
Senior year of high school.
By chance, I heard a song by Happy Quokka, and it soothed my heart, worn down by the stress of college entrance exams.
The realistic lyrics did not blindly preach hope, while the refreshing voice and gentle melodies were easy on the ears.
I kept listening after getting into university, and whenever I had time, I went to see performances too.
Today was the first performance I would see since being discharged from the military, so I’d been secretly excited...
A cold.
I could cure that.
No.
I’d only cured one person so far.
It was too soon to be sure there were no side effects.
And what would I even say as I approached her?
“I’ll cure your cold, yes?”
I’d be lucky if she didn’t take me for a cultist or a lunatic.
I scrolled down.
A post announcing that she would perform at a university festival in ten days caught my eye.
What would happen if an indie singer just starting to gain popularity canceled a university festival performance because of health issues?
“Hmm...”
Just as I was wondering whether there was a good way to go about this...
“Hello! We’re holding an event!”
I spotted someone in a mascot costume handing out store flyers.
“Ah.”
That was it.
* * *
Summer vacation, two years ago.
I’d boldly tried working part-time in a mascot costume.
I nearly got roasted alive.
Still, the strange relief and freedom of knowing nobody could recognize me gave me the courage to act as cute as I pleased around strangers.
“This is much shoddier than I expected.”
I sighed at the Plague Doctor costume set that had just arrived.
“No wonder it was cheap.”
Instead of goggles, the beaked mask had round black pieces of cloth attached like eyeballs. The inside of the beak was hollow, but it was surprisingly secure.
I tried it on.
Like when I wore a mascot head, I could see through the eyes.
[System]
-Effect of equipping the Plague Doctor Mask: Skill MP cost reduced by 20%
“Seriously?”
This shoddily made thing counted as equipment?
Startled, I took it off.
[System]
-Plague Doctor Mask unequipped
When I put it back on, the message about skill MP costs being reduced by 20% appeared again.
Maybe...
I put on the entire set. However, the beaked mask was the only item with an equipment effect.
“Then...”
I changed out of the costume clothes and into the black shirt, black pants, and black coat I already owned.
“Now this is better. It’s easier to move in too.”
I stood before the mirror and checked my appearance.
It looked convincing.
A black shirt, black pants, and a black coat. Add the beaked mask, wide-brimmed black hat, and black gloves.
Once I added a cross necklace and cane, I no longer looked like just some lunatic. I looked like someone cosplaying a Plague Doctor.
Even if I did look like a lunatic, it was fine as long as nobody discovered who I was.
“Ah! You scared me. What are you doing, Kang Bongsik?”
“Could you knock first?”
My older sister, who had barged into my room, hesitated and looked me over.
The [Contagious Disease Patient] label above her head was gone.
She’d completely recovered without me doing anything.
“Are you going to some event? Or are you working part-time?”
Too lazy to explain, I gave a vague answer.
“A job.”
“What kind of job?”
“Promoting a game.”
“What game?”
Whoosh.
I spun the cane dramatically and pointed it at my sister.
“No more questions.”
“You little...”
She snatched it away and hit me with it instead.
The next day.
In front of a subway station with a moderate stream of passersby.
“What’s that?”
“Cosplay?”
People glanced at me in my Plague Doctor outfit as they walked by.
I opened my sketchpad.
[I’ll Drive Away Your Bad Illness.]
Ten minutes passed.
Nobody approached.
I closed the sketchpad and walked a little farther to a park.
Then I approached some homeless people.
“Fuck, you scared me! I thought you were the Grim Reaper! Cough, cough.”
I silently held up the sketchpad to a homeless person labeled [Contagious Disease Patient].
I’d seen this person get taken away by the police after drunkenly causing trouble before.
[I’ll Drive Away Your Bad Illness.]
The homeless person grinned, showing yellow teeth.
“What, a bad illness? You mean a goddamn illness?”
Another homeless person snickered.
“You a doctor?”
I turned to the next page.
[I’ll Say a Short Prayer for You.]
“You some cult freak?”
I gently held out my hand.
“You want to shake hands? Sure. Here. Go on, cure me.”
“Kids these days sure are strange.”
[This is a Contagious Disease Patient. Would you like to treat them?]
[(Expected MP Cost: 90)]
Huh?
Why was the expected MP cost 90 this time?
I panicked for a moment, but quietly moved my lips inside the mask.
“Yes.”
...
“Treatment, yes.”
As when I cured the car burglar, a warm-colored haze flowed from my hand and was absorbed by the homeless person.
[System]
-Used Plague Treatment.
-Plague Treatment proficiency +1
-Experience +28.3%
[MP 28/100]
The experience gain was slightly higher than when I cured the car burglar for 80 MP. The mask’s effect had reduced the MP cost by 20%, too.
I pulled my hand away.
“What? That’s it?”
I learned one more thing.
Other people couldn’t see the haze from Plague Treatment.
If they could see it, I’d planned to insist they were hallucinating from drinking too much.
I gave a small bow and quickly left.
The homeless people laughed behind me.
“What a boring lunatic.”
“Hey! At least give us a thousand won before you go!”
Once I reached somewhere empty, I removed my mask and hat and got into my car.
“Phew...”
A wave of embarrassment hit me.
Was this really right?
The next day, I approached another [Contagious Disease Patient] who looked like trouble.
[System]
-Used Plague Treatment.
-Plague Treatment proficiency +1
-Experience +23.3%
[MP 36/100]
And the day after that.
[System]
-Used Plague Treatment.
-Plague Treatment proficiency +1
-Experience +23.3%
-Level up!
[MP 105/105]
“Oh.”
Leveling up completely restored my MP.
My maximum MP had increased by five too.
As I hurried away, I muttered to myself.
“Status window... No, skill window.”
[Kang Bongsik’s Skills (Plague Doctor Lv. 2)]
[Passive Skills]
-Immunity Lv. 1
[Active Skills]
-Plague Treatment Lv. 1 (4/100)
-Bloodletting Lv. 1 (0/100)
It was frustrating that I couldn’t see my experience progress.
Did I need to calculate it separately from the logs?
I had stopped for a moment to look at the skill window when a small hand grabbed my coat.
“...?”
Some child stared at me with eyes full of curiosity, then suddenly turned their head.
“Mom! A bird! A crow!”
“Oh! Hyunjin, come here. You shouldn’t do that to strangers. I’m sorry.”
The child’s mother hurried over and gathered the child up.
As the child was led away, they waved.
“Bye, Crow~.”
I waved back.
I must have looked scary to most children.
They were brave.
I turned back to search for another skill test subject.
* * *
The day of the university festival performance Happy Quokka was participating in.
Yesterday, I checked on everyone I’d treated so far except for the car burglar.
Most were homeless people who rarely left their usual areas, so they’d been easy to find. Aside from being drunk, they all seemed perfectly fine.
In the meantime, I’d reached level four.
Whenever my MP recovered, I went out and used the skill, and Plague Treatment proficiency had reached 20. The Plague Doctor Mask’s reduction in MP cost had helped greatly.
If I hadn’t had plans in between, I could’ve raised it even further.
“They haven’t said they won’t perform yet.”
I muttered while checking Happy Quokka’s social media.
I hoped her cold had gotten better by now.
I hadn’t found any side effects so far, but I was still a little uneasy about using the skill on someone so important to me.
“I don’t know. I’ll go and decide after seeing her.”
I packed the hat, gloves, beaked mask, and a gift into my bag.
* * *
Festival preparations were in full swing at K University.
Students decorated booths while listening to the sounds of performance rehearsals.
“That voice is shot. Who is that?”
“I heard she’s a singer-songwriter. Happy... what was it again?”
“Huh? What’s with that person?”
The students turned toward one spot.
The long beaked mask caught their attention first. The wide-brimmed hat and completely black outfit came next.
The person carrying a black briefcase instead of a cane was heading toward the stage.
“Are they from the comics or gaming club? They must be cosplaying a Plague Doctor.”
“That Black Death doctor? They got dressed up early.”
The students soon stopped paying attention and returned to what they were doing.
After all, festivals always brought out all kinds of strange costumes.
Meanwhile, the singer-songwriter Happy Quokka came down from the stage, desperately holding back tears.
‘How hard did I work for this opportunity?’
For an indie singer-songwriter, performing at a university festival was meaningful in itself.
It was a chance to present her songs to countless people who weren’t already fans.
For her, it was a dreamlike opportunity that had come four years after debuting with nothing but a guitar.
‘After all the effort it took to get here, and it’s all because of a cold.’
Even if people blamed her for failing to manage her health properly, she would have nothing to say. An excuse that she didn’t know where or from whom she caught it wouldn’t work.
Ten days ago, when her body aches were so bad that she had to cancel a scheduled busking performance, she’d still thought she would recover before the university festival.
“Cough.”
But she was still coughing.
Her once-prized clear voice became rough and metallic whenever she raised the pitch even slightly, ruining the song.
‘Should I say I can’t perform today?’
She would feel terrible toward the university that had booked her, but wouldn’t it be worse to ruin the festival atmosphere with a terrible performance?
As she thought that, tears blurred her vision.
‘No, pull yourself together. Crying will only make my throat worse. Instead of this, I should go to the hospital and at least get an IV. There’s still time...’
Sniff.
Happy Quokka wiped her tears with the back of her hand and looked up.
She froze.
‘A Plague Doctor...?’
Among the band scheduled for the next rehearsal, staff members, and university representatives, someone wearing a beaked mask, black hat, and black coat was looking at her.
The Plague Doctor gave small bows to the people around him and approached Happy Quokka.
With hesitant steps.
“...?”
He took out a sketchpad from his briefcase and opened it.
[Hello, Happy Quokka. I’m a fan.]
The next page.
[Is your cold okay?]
At the word fan, Happy Quokka’s face crumpled again.
He must have heard the terrible song she’d sung earlier.
‘This is so embarrassing...’
A deeply hoarse voice came out.
“I’m sorry you came all this way...”
The Plague Doctor stared at her briefly, then flipped the sketchpad back to the first page.
[I’ll Drive Away Your Bad Illness.]
“...?”
Still sniffling, Happy Quokka looked into the round black eyes of the mask.
The Plague Doctor gently held out an index finger.
It was a familiar pose.
‘E.T.? The Creation of Adam?’
Confused, Happy Quokka extended her own index finger and touched it to the Plague Doctor’s.
“...”
“...”
One second.
The Plague Doctor murmured something quietly, then pulled his finger away.
He put the sketchpad into the briefcase, handed her a small gift box instead, waved, and walked away.
Happy Quokka waved back without thinking.
‘What was that...?’
Bzzz.
Then her phone rang.
-[Quokka, how’s your throat? Are you okay?]
“No, not yet. I think I’ll have to go to the hospital... Huh? Huh? Ah, ah, ah~?”
As if by magic, her voice had returned to normal.
Happy Quokka covered her mouth in surprise.
In the distance, the Plague Doctor had begun running away as if fleeing.
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