Even the Sword God Needs Paternity Leave

Chapter 23: It Wasn't Coincidence

Night passes.

A night of meeting Taebok every shichen (about 2 hours).

Nights with a baby don't just pass by.

"Ungae."

I had Jayeong sleep in the next room.

Now it's entirely Taebok's and my time.

When Taebok wakes, I check his diaper relying on a small oil lamp in the darkness.

"You went pee-pee."

Strangely, words like pee-pee and poo-poo stick perfectly to my mouth.

I felt no desire to call the baby's excretions urine and feces.

Is it just me?

"I'm going to change your diaper. I'll change your diaper for you."

While saying so, I shake the diaper to show him.

Elder Jeong says if you establish set procedures, the baby will understand later.

"Now, like this..."

Soft cloth, soft ties, soft touch.

The touch of parents handling a newborn baby.

Truly contains much carefulness and hesitation.

Being careful and again careful about how to touch a small, fragile life, then eventually hesitating little by little while gently reaching out.

They say being too careful isn't good either—perhaps I'm timid.

After finishing changing the diaper.

His mouth opens—bba-kkeum.

"Yes, are you hungry?"

I prepared medicine warmed to proper temperature.

Slightly warmer than body temperature—when dropped on my skin, warmth is slightly felt.

"The medicine ends today too. When day breaks, mommy will give you milk."

Whether he knows or not—of course he doesn't know—he looks up at me with moist eyes.

"Now, yum yum. You must eat medicine well to become strong."

I spend time with Taebok like this.

Time that originally didn't exist.

Time I desperately tried to obtain.

Our time flows beneath the yellow oil lamp.

.

.

"Taebok's face is different from yesterday."

Jayeong was looking down at Taebok.

In her arms, Taebok opened his mouth again.

"Hehe, babies at this time have different faces every day. Look at him a lot."

With Elder Jeong beside her, Jayeong was about to do her first nursing.

Our couple spent the past five days both laughing and holding each other.

But the fact that Taebok couldn't drink milk kept weighing on one corner of our hearts.

"He only drank medicine for five days—will he suckle well? Won't it be difficult?"

Jayeong asked worriedly.

Since this situation hadn't existed before regression, I was worried too.

Taebok had only tried medicine and never sucked on anything. To us, even his mouth seemed too small.

"Now, don't worry too much. Hold the baby like this, this way... yes, so he can suckle as soon as his mouth touches."

Elder Jeong adjusted the posture.

Jayeong embraced Taebok in that posture.

Chu-ap chu-ap.

"Oh my."

He's suckling vigorously.

His face turns red from exertion as his mouth and cheeks move fiercely.

"Taebok."

At that sight, I unknowingly called the baby.

"Hehe, this is the strength from nursing."

As Elder Jeong said.

A small baby's small strength and simultaneously a small baby's all strength.

So this is the strength when they say using even the strength from nursing.

All strength staking life.

"Now, the other side too."

Following Elder Jeong's guidance, Jayeong put her other breast in Taebok's mouth.

When the breast separated, Taebok seemed whiny, but soon vigorously sucked milk again.

"The breast pain feels better."

After childbirth, as breast milk comes in, the mother's breasts become knotted and painful in places.

When the baby starts nursing, this pain decreases.

"Mother and baby care for each other. They help each other from birth."

Elder Jeong smiled contentedly and tossed a remark to me too.

"From now on, parents will raise Taebok, but Taebok also raises the parents. The baby gives parents the opportunity to become greater people. Well, baby's father is sincere and gentle, so you'll do well."

I couldn't do that.

I only answered inwardly.

Taebok also raises me.

How could I not know?

I failed to grasp the opportunity to become a greater person and walked the wrong path.

"I must do well. I still don't know about becoming a greater person, but I'll walk the proper path."

Elder Jeong heard it as what baby fathers typically say and nodded.

Chu-ap chu-ap chu-ap.

Taebok strains,

Jayeong looks down at Taebok with reddened eyes.

And I watched those two people.

The proper path.

***

After the joy of first nursing passed.

We sat with Elder Jeong over a cup of tea.

"Taebok has stabilized much. I should soon prepare to leave too."

"I see..."

Elder Jeong was originally a midwife.

She stayed seeing Taebok's sick appearance, but couldn't remain at our house forever.

"So hire a separate nanny or something. Since it's the first child, the baby's mother alone wouldn't know much."

"I'll do that. Do you have anyone to recommend?"

"Recommend? Hmm, I know several people, but they're all probably working at other houses. Let me inquire a bit and tell you."

"Please do."

Elder Jeong nodded then brought up another topic as if suddenly remembering.

"Speaking of recommendations, it comes to mind. The physician I was going to call when Taebok was sick hasn't been seen lately."

"Hasn't been seen?"

"They say he closed his practice. There was no sign of it, then suddenly did so—everyone was bewildered. He was a physician we midwives frequently called."

Midwives frequently calling means he treated babies well, doesn't it?

Suddenly I remembered being asked to find news of a physician at Oga Pharmacy.

Jang Huigun is a physician who gets medicinal ingredients from our Oga Pharmacy. Since he's good with children, when your child gets minor illnesses, Ink Sword Hero can visit him.

A physician good with children.

Before the full-scale spiritual medicine journey, I'd planned to create an environment for Taebok.

Safe, abundant, and healthy.

Among these, health in our case couldn't be thought of without a physician.

Regardless of Severed Meridian, when the child has minor ailments, there should be at least one physician to visit.

For that reason too, I'd thought to find Jang Huigun.

"Elder Jeong, is the physician who disappeared named Jang Huigun?"

"No. A physician named Sang Jeogo."

Not the same person. Well, it'd be too coincidental if they were the same.

Jayeong sipped tea while looking at me.

"Honey, who is this physician Jang Huigun?"

"I don't know who he is. A name I learned while going to the pharmacy—they say he's a physician who treats children well."

"Then we should find out where he is too."

Right now, two things I need to do in Luoyang.

Finding physician Jang Huigun.

Going to the Alliance to ask about the childcare leave rejection.

Since it came up, I should find the physician first.

"I'll go out and inquire."

***

And I arrived at physician Jang Huigun's front gate.

One word was written large.

[Closed for Business]

"Mm. Closed for business."

Had he simply quit work?

Then contact could be cut off.

It's not an obligation to greet people you did business with.

Since the door is closed, I can't help it either.

I'll have to find another physician.

About to turn away like that.

"Hmm."

My eyes went back to the characters saying closed for business.

"Either poor handwriting or written hastily—one of the two."

The writing was very crooked.

When closing business, there's no reason to write hastily, so poor handwriting?

The physicians I'd seen had calm temperaments and neat handwriting, but Jang Huigun seemed somewhat different.

"..."

Handwriting was no problem at all.

Still, something weighed on my mind.

Just a feeling.

An unclear feeling.

A faint feeling I could ignore if I wanted to.

However, having crossed countless death lines, I knew.

If I ignored this feeling, results wouldn't be good.

Before a martial artist's intuition, as a person my instinct was telling me something.

And I had many means to track this feeling.

Click.

Some sound reached my hearing expanded with Eight Sensations.

From inside the physician's office.

I moved as soon as I heard.

Leaping over the wall into the physician's office.

"Aaak! Wh-who are you!"

A middle-aged man stood inside the physician's office.

"I should ask that. Looking at your appearance, you don't seem to be a physician."

Wearing thin clothes like someone doing physical work with pants legs rolled up.

Too light and cold for a physician to wear in this weather.

In his hands were furnishings from inside.

"A petty thief?"

When I smoothly brought my hand to my sword applying pressure.

"I'm not! I was someone who ran errands at the physician's office!"

"And?"

"Physician Jang left but I didn't receive my monthly salary. So I thought to take something instead."

His appearance earnestly waving hands didn't seem like a lie.

I lowered my hand from the sword and asked.

"Did something happen to Physician Jang?"

"Yes. Something happened."

Evading.

I brought my hand back to the sword.

"I'll speak! It's not an honorable matter for Physician Jang, so I hesitated. They say Physician Jang gambled."

"Gambling?"

"He fled at night because of gambling. He didn't seem like that kind of person usually. But well, does gambling discriminate?"

Was the writing on the front gate not poor handwriting but written hastily?

"I understand. I came looking for physician Jang Huigun. Now that I know he left, my business is done. Handle your business yourself."

"What? Is that okay?"

"Too bad you didn't receive your monthly salary."

Leaving those words, I came back over the front gate.

I worried needlessly over the handwriting.

About to glance one last time and leave.

"?"

The word Closed for Business has many strokes.

Someone with little learning would easily confuse it. Writing it as different characters, or like right now—

"The strokes are insufficient."

I realized the identity of the unclear feeling.

Because of the scribbled writing, I hadn't noticed, but the characters themselves were written wrong.

When rushed, you can scribble.

But would someone at a physician's level get the characters completely wrong?

Thinking this far, one more doubt.

Would someone fleeing at night bother writing "closed for business" before running away?

Elder Jeong's words also came to mind afterward.

The physician I was going to call last time when Taebok was sick hasn't been seen lately.

That physician was named Sang Jeogo, she said.

"I should go see."

Asking around to find physician Sang Jeogo's office.

[Closed for Business]

Identical.

Insufficient strokes and crooked writing.

It wasn't that the physician had poor handwriting or wrote hastily.

Neither.

Someone who doesn't know writing well wrote it instead.

For what reason?

At that moment.

"Please give just one coin."

"Please give just one coin."

Today too, young beggars wandered around begging.

"Ah, it's the Ink Sword Hero."

"Ink Sword Hero, hello!"

I'd saved Jogon and young beggars from Black Path last time, so we were acquainted.

"Kids, can you guide me to nearby physicians?"

Of course not for free.

I took out coins from my chest and poured them into the bowls the children held.

"Wow, thank you!"

"Receive many blessings!"

"There's a physician nearby. We'll take you right away!"

When Golden Cloud Trading revives commerce, these children can settle down too.

Though their faces are dirty with grime, their eyes are bright. With sufficient support, at least some of them could change their circumstances.

I can't help these children one by one, but I can lend strength to changing Luoyang's environment.

However, at the third physician's office where the children led me.

[Closed for Business]

Right now in Luoyang, something strange is happening.