Taesu could not go on feeling apologetic forever, so he offered a promise instead.
“When we get back, let’s clean out the PX. My treat.”
“I’ll be counting the days until I hear you’ve returned.”
“Be careful on the road.”
“Sir. That, I promise. Haha. Then.”
Snap.
Squad Leader Sam saluted cheerfully and walked away.
As soon as he climbed into the truck, the vehicles began setting off in a line.
Vrooom.
The sight of the military trucks moving in single file with the sunset at their backs was always reassuring.
Taesu waved broadly as he saw the soldiers off.
They waved back in the same way.
This time, Raku approached Taesu’s side.
“Well now, a doctor trusted by the PKO. Impressive.”
“They’re probably just worried because I’m a greenhorn.”
“Hmm. Is that really all?”
Raku asked with a meaningful look.
At that, Taesu gave an oops expression and greeted him first.
“First of all, thank you for interpreting. Things were so hectic that I’m only saying this now.”
He bowed.
It was an abrupt change of subject.
Yet Raku responded with surprising composure.
“Not at all. It was a valuable experience for me as well.”
“Then I’m even more grateful.”
Taesu accepted it in an easygoing manner.
Raku, on the other hand, raised his eyebrows and commented on Taesu’s face.
“You look as if you have many questions about me.”
“Mm. I’d be lying if I said I didn’t.”
“You seemed quite sharp-eyed. I wonder how much you’ve figured out.”
Raku lightly probed him.
Since there was no malice in it, Taesu answered plainly.
“I got the sense that you’re not from this village. And I guessed that you’ve had quite a wide range of experiences.”
“Remarkable.”
“But the real heart of the matter is still completely in the dark.”
There was a question mixed into Taesu’s words.
Raku, seeming to have no intention of hiding it either, answered easily.
“I’m a merchant.”
“A merchant?”
“I go around from village to village selling daily necessities and buying local specialties, things like that. You see my partner over there?”
Whoosh.
He pointed behind him with his thumb raised.
Taesu glanced over his shoulder and saw a rather flashy-looking truck parked to one side.
After confirming it, Taesu’s curiosity was not resolved but only grew stronger.
“Alone?”
“Alone in this battlefield? That’s absurd.”
“All I can see is the truck.”
“The rest of my companions are in the small town down below.”
His answer made Taesu even more curious.
“You don’t travel together?”
“We deal in different goods. Otherwise, we’d fight.”
“Ah, I suppose that makes sense.”
“In any case, under the shell of a merchant caravan, we travel while protecting one another.”
As Raku explained calmly, Taesu understood it more easily than he expected.
“Now that you mention it, I think I saw one in another village too.”
“It’s an honor to have caught the eye of the hero of Izambark.”
“What?”
When Taesu was startled, Raku’s smile deepened.
“Our area of activity covers all of Kashmir. We hear rumors just as quickly.”
“In this battlefield?”
“Not every region is dangerous. There are dangerous areas, but if there’s money to be made, a merchant goes anywhere, doesn’t he?”
Raku spoke calmly.
Taesu, however, could not listen to it so casually.
He went anywhere.
Hidden within those words was the meaning that he had seen more of the horrors of this war than anyone else.
Only after Taesu grasped that meaning did all the questions he’d had until now clear away.
“I see.”
“Still, I never imagined Makut would suffer a bombing. It’s such a quiet, peaceful village.”
Slowly.
Raku swept his deep gaze across the village.
His eyes stopped on the building half-destroyed by the bomb.
Taesu was the same.
“What in the world are those extremist armed groups thinking?”
“They’re sons of bitches.”
“What?”
“They’re utter trash who can’t stand to see anything peaceful.”
Irritation and anger were contained in Raku’s voice.
It was not merely criticism.
“……”
Taesu silently watched him.
Then Raku smiled bitterly and spoke again.
“Our caravan doesn’t trade with that side, so don’t worry.”
“That’s not something I’m in any position to comment on.”
“At any rate, I hope your curiosity has been satisfied.”
Raku calmly brought the conversation to a close.
The timing was a little odd.
But perhaps there was a reason, because he pointed behind him.
Tap, tap.
It was a gesture of poking the air with his index finger.
Following the end of that finger and turning around, Taesu’s expression turned awkward.
Sturdy village men were approaching, each carrying a large basket.
At a glance, it was clearly a meal for the medical staff.
Taesu let out a small exclamation.
“Ah.”
“They look heavy. It seems they prepared them with great care.”
“Oh no.”
Taesu let out a bitter sigh.
A meal.
Looking back on the day, he could hardly accept it with a happy heart.
But Raku, paying that no mind, added,
“The food here is quite good. They’ll want you to set your worries down for a moment and enjoy it in peace.”
“Is that really what they’re feeling?”
Taesu carefully voiced his uncertainty.
As if he understood that feeling, Raku asked back with a serious face.
“What do you think they want?”
“That’s……”
“It seems you already know.”
“……”
Taesu could not bring himself to utter the words lingering in his mouth.
Instead, Raku said them for him.
“My health, and the health of my family.”
“But we couldn’t give them that.”
“If they thought that was your fault, they wouldn’t be bringing you food like that.”
“That’s……”
As Taesu trailed off, Raku continued.
“Yesterday, this village was full of groans. Today, it will be quiet. For that alone, they won’t consider anything too precious.”
“Hmm.”
“I trust you’ll accept their hearts. Then, I’ll take my leave.”
Raku slipped away from Taesu.
The villagers filled the empty space he left behind.
Their movement was so perfectly timed that Taesu was helplessly surrounded by the villagers.
Each of them stood looking at him, holding a basket.
The distinctive scent of Middle Eastern spices wafted up.
Growl.
His stomach made a sound too.
Thinking about it, he had eaten nothing until now.
Even so, he wondered whether he should refuse.
But in the end, Taesu could not push them away.
He was not alone.
His colleagues’ surgeries would be over by now as well.
For tomorrow’s sake, those exhausted people, and he himself, needed to replenish their strength.
In the end, Taesu turned toward the building.
As if they understood the meaning contained in that small action, the villagers’ faces instantly brightened.
A little while later.
They were seated at the table in the room.
Before them were baskets covered with colorful cloth. In Korean terms, there was so much that one might worry the table legs would break.
“I’m grateful, and embarrassed, and all that.”
Taesu was muttering bitterly to himself when it happened.
Creak.
The door opened, and Jeong Minsu entered with sunken eyes.
At the same time, Jeong Minsu’s hollow gaze suddenly sparkled as his nostrils flared.
“Wow, wow. That’s the smell of food.”
“Food? Where?”
“Dr. Kim. Let’s not shove.”
Kim Hyeokgwon and Brad Kim came in behind him, bickering.
They all looked so worn down with exhaustion that it was enough to make one worry about their health.
But Taesu checked on something else before their health.
“The surgery?”
“We laid him down in the next room. Oof. We finished it, at least.”
Brad Kim straightened his back with a groan.
It did not sound very relieving.
As if it had struck a nerve, Taesu asked next.
“Why? Did something go wrong?”
“He’d been left too long, so we had to cut out part of the intestine.”
“Ah, so that’s how it turned out after all.”
As Taesu’s expression turned regretful, Brad Kim smiled bitterly.
“As he grows, his intestines will grow too, so it shouldn’t become a major problem.”
“That’s a relief.”
“Anyway, Dr. Choi, you must have had a hard time handling everything afterward. Were there any problems?”
Brad Kim asked about the time he had been absent as he sat down in a chair.
At that moment, Kim Hyeokgwon grumbled with a face full of drool.
“That’s all well and good, but can’t we do this while eating?”
“You’re right. Let’s eat first.”
“Then let’s uncover them.”
Rustle.
As if they had been waiting, they quickly pulled back the colorful cloths.
Inside the baskets were large portions of meat and vegetables.
At the sight, everyone was startled.
“Meat?”
“It must be precious.”
“There are a ton of vegetables too.”
Brad Kim’s eyes in particular went wide.
“Wow. This is food I haven’t even had at the NGO camp.”
“They have a separate cafeteria there.”
“That’s exactly my point. This is my first time having local food. Mm. It smells incredible too.”
“Don’t just let the smell be incredible. Put it in your mouth. Ahng.”
Kim Hyeokgwon picked up a large piece of meat and bit into it with gusto.
At that moment, his sharp expression turned gentle.
“Mm.”
That exclamation was a measure of the taste.
At his rapturous expression, everyone’s suppressed appetite exploded.
“Let’s eat.”
“Dig in.”
The sight of them holding vegetables and meat in both hands and eating them by turns was utterly ravenous.
But considering they had gone the entire day without eating anything, it was entirely understandable.
As plentiful as the food was, the meal continued for a long time.
As if acknowledging the care with which it had been prepared, only bones remained in the baskets.
In proportion to that, everyone’s stomachs had swollen as big as Namsan.
“Burp. I’m dying.”
“But it really suited my taste perfectly.”
“The meat especially is amazing. What kind of meat is it?”
It was a little odd that they were curious after eating everything.
Kim Hyeokgwon answered the doctors while picking his teeth.
“Mountain goat.”
“Ah, this is my first time eating mountain goat.”
“They don’t serve it unless it’s a truly special day. It’s their means of livelihood.”
At that, everyone’s eyes turned toward Kim Hyeokgwon.
And Taesu asked,
“Their means of livelihood?”
“The local specialty here is cashmere. What we ate was, to be precise, a cashmere goat.”
It seemed he had heard it from someone.
The doctors’ eyes went round.
“Cashmere, isn’t that, you know?”
“Yeah, yeah, the expensive stuff.”
“It depends on the grade of the fabric, but isn’t it considered high-end material?”
Brad Kim slipped in the last question.
Kim Hyeokgwon answered their curiosity in an indifferent voice.
“The finest cashmere is probably worn in India by Kshatriyas and Brahmins.”
“What?”
“I’m saying only people with money, connections, and power wear it. Lowborn people like me will never even get to look at it in our lives.”
When Kim Hyeokgwon answered with a sidelong glance, Taesu replied with an awkward expression.
“I-is that so?”
“At any rate, that’s what we ate. Hic. As expected, expensive things taste good.”
Kim Hyeokgwon looked at the empty baskets and gave a thoroughly worldly assessment.
But the doctors’ expressions turned a little awkward.
Taesu spoke first.
“They gave us something this precious?”
“Tomorrow, we’ll really have to work ourselves to death.”
“You’re right.”
Jeong Minsu and Brad Kim added, steeling themselves with grave resolve.
To them, it was one delicious meal.
But to the people here, it was the same as cutting open the belly of a goose that laid golden eggs.
They had treated them to food that precious. As human beings, there was no way their consciences could remain untroubled.