Chapter 27

Chapter 27 < Dissection >

‘Of course, coal can’t be used as it is.’

Just like wood had to be turned into charcoal, coal also had to be processed to be utilized in the iron industry.

Coal was sealed and dried at high temperatures to produce coke. Coke was essential for ironmaking.

But that didn’t mean Kim Ki-woo had to be involved in every step of making coke.

“Send this to the Imperial University.”

“Yes, Your Majesty.”

The inner minister Brave Sky bowed and took the booklet.

After the Ministry of Internal Affairs was fully established, Straight Tree gradually moved away from the role of serving Kim Ki-woo.

He was too busy with the affairs of the Ministry of Internal Affairs.

As the scale of the budget increased day by day, he had no choice.

‘They should be able to research it on their own since I wrote everything down.’

A report would surely come up when the research was finished. All he had to do was wait quietly until then.

The booklet that Kim Ki-woo sent to the Imperial University contained the concept of coke.

In fact, the current university was more like a research institute than a university.

The school system of the Wakan Tanka Empire was as follows:

Elementary school, where basic letters, numbers, and standard language were taught as attributes.

Middle school, where the known knowledge was taught.

And university, where they researched subjects that were not yet known or insufficient.

Elementary and middle schools did not have separate departments, but universities did.

Many departments were created, and they were still being created.

As society became more advanced, more departments would emerge.

‘The university is the cradle of imperial scholarship.’

It was true that Kim Ki-woo laid the foundation for various fields such as mathematics, literature, science, etc.

Of course, he could still help a lot in the future.

But he couldn’t lead and develop everything himself.

In other words, for the advancement of scholarship, many intellectuals who were stationed in the university had to work hard.

‘I wonder how they are doing these days.’

He hadn’t paid attention for a while because he was busy.

Thinking of the university, Kim Ki-woo wanted to check the reports that came from there.

“Can you bring me some documents from the university?”

“I understand, Your Majesty.”

Soon after, Brave Sky came in with a bunch of documents.

But…

Thud!

He just put them on the desk, but a heavy sound echoed.

The amount of reports was not normal.

“Hmm!”

Kim Ki-woo swallowed his saliva as he looked at the huge pile of documents.

“Are these all reports from the university?”

“No.”

“No?”

Were there other documents mixed in?

But this thought of Kim Ki-woo was soon shattered.

“Yes. This is not all. The other inner ministers have gone to get more.”

“Haha…”

Kim Ki-woo let out a hollow laugh.

Brave Sky’s words were true.

The amount of documents he brought at first was only a quarter of the total. The same thing happened three more times.

Kim Ki-woo’s expression became slightly gloomy.

‘The research fields of the university departments have increased a lot.’

Among these research reports, there must be some that went against Kim Ki-woo’s purpose.

For example, experiments on whether dangerous substances like mercury were beneficial to health.

Or subjects that hindered scientific development.

‘I can’t tolerate those things.’

Kim Ki-woo tried to sort out those things while thinking of ways to make scholarship develop more correctly and faster.

The result he came up with was this:

Receiving reports on what each department was researching or wanted to research.

Among them, if there was something he could help with, he would write a brief comment and give some direction,

And he would stop the research altogether if it was trivial and useless for the development of the empire.

As he read through various documents,

‘Huh?’

He saw a document with a very interesting content.

The sender was from the medical department.

‘Please allow us to dissect the corpses of convicts?’

In this era, it was radical to suggest such a thing.

Each tribe had different funeral customs.

Some placed them on cliffs and let them decompose by wind, some threw them into the sea, and some even collapsed their houses with corpses inside them.

But in the current Wakan Tanka Empire, cremation was becoming mainstream.

He had indoctrinated the imperial citizens through newspaper serials that spirits wanted cremation.

This education became stronger as newspapers became more popular. Without knowing it, things were going as Kim Ki-woo intended.

‘I can see the backlash from the imperial citizens.’

No matter how academic the purpose was and how they targeted only convicts’ corpses, it was obvious that people would think that dissecting corpses was an insult to the dead.

But still…

‘It is necessary.’

He wanted to meet the proposer of this research.

He wondered what kind of person he was.

*

“Wow, it’s an honor, Your Majesty!”

“Haha. Why are you shivering so much?”

“I’m just so moved…”

The proposer of the corpse dissection was surprisingly a young woman.

‘I thought it would be an old male researcher.’

You know, like the mad scientist that often appears in movies.

But no matter how he looked at her, she seemed sane.

“How old are you?”

“Nineteen, sir.”

“Ho. You’re not even twenty and you’re already in college.”

The empire adopted the age of maturity. Even so, nineteen was very young for a scholar in college.

Not everyone who wanted to go to college could go.

It only took two months for most people to graduate from elementary school.

But graduation from middle school varied a lot.

Some graduated in three or four years and experienced various practical skills, and some graduated later to learn more advanced courses.

Only those who were excellent scholars or those who proved themselves in various practical skills could enter college.

For example, people like Sharp Eye who made glasses or Solid Hammer who made the first metal type.

She, Dark Flame, belonged to the former category. Her test scores were very outstanding.

“Take a deep breath. Then we can have a conversation, right?”

“Ah, yes. Hoo! Hah…”

Kim Ki-woo waited patiently until she calmed down.

The more she breathed deeply, the less Dark Flame trembled.

Then, the conversation began.

“I called you because your report was very interesting.”

“Gasp! I’m sorry!”

“What are you sorry for?”

“Didn’t I bother your eyes by sending you useless stories?”

She seemed to know that dissecting corpses would cause backlash.

“I didn’t call you to scold you, so don’t worry too much.”

“Then…?”

“I’m just curious why you came up with this idea. Can you tell me the reason?”

At Kim Ki-woo’s question, she organized her thoughts for a moment and began her story.

“I’m an orphan. Both of my parents died when I was young.”

“Hmm…”

He already knew her background.

She was from one of the tribes that resisted fiercely when he went on an expedition during the Creek era.

That is, Kim Ki-woo might have been involved in her parents’ death without knowing it. He was the one who made the final decision on the expedition.

Dark Flame seemed to notice this too, and quickly corrected herself.

“It wasn’t for the reason you think, Your Majesty. They both died of illness before becoming imperial citizens.”

“That’s unfortunate.”

She looked up at the sky as if recalling the past.

“I never forgot the moment when my mother and father passed away. They withered and shriveled day by day until they died. The healer in our village said he couldn’t save them.”

Her voice grew louder as her emotions fluctuated more.

Society might be developing, but medicine was still lagging behind in the empire.

It was like this now, but how much worse was it in her backward tribe?

“I swore to the spirits that I would become a healer then. I wanted to save the lives of many patients like my parents. So when I entered the Imperial University, I chose medicine as my major.”

She paused for a moment and continued.

“I saw many patients in the medical department. I classified their diseases and researched herbs that were effective for them. But at some point, I had a doubt.”

“What did you doubt?”

“We medical scholars only looked at the symptoms of diseases and their treatments, but we didn’t care why they made people sick. There must be something that affected some part of the human body badly to cause diseases, but there was no medical scholar who questioned this.”

“Ho.”

Kim Ki-woo read a profound genius from her doubt.

All knowledge starts from doubt. The question was why the biggest driving force that allowed humanity to progress.

“I wanted to solve that doubt. I think we need to know more about the human body first in order to treat people.”

Dark Flame’s face was filled with intense desire. The kind of person who was ready to devote his life to research.

‘Sure enough, medicine developed through dissecting human bodies.’

Her story resonated with Kim Ki-woo very much.

But he couldn’t make a hasty decision.

“I sympathize with your intention. But this is not something I can easily approve. If you back off now, it will end quietly. But if you really want to continue this research and take responsibility for it, I will put it on the agenda at the imperial meeting. With your name as the proposer. What do you say?”

Then she would be criticized by many imperial citizens.

But Dark Flame was firm. The girl who was trembling at first was gone.

“It doesn’t matter. As long as I can save more people, I’ll accept even wearing dirty rags.”

“Good. I hope you don’t lose that will.”

*

“This is unacceptable. How can you insult the dead, even if they are convicts? The spirits will surely curse you!”

“It is the will of His Majesty, the sacred spirit. Isn’t it too presumptuous to say that the spirits don’t like it?”

“Ha! Many imperial citizens will look at you with disdain!”

“They will surely do. But how did the empire develop? Didn’t we get here by learning new knowledge? Many imperial citizens understand this!”

“I think it is a necessary process to understand the relationship between hygiene and disease.”

“No, you are in favor of it because you are in charge of education and hygiene! Do you think the imperial citizens will just let this go?”

“Hey! That’s harsh!”

The meeting turned into a mess for the first time in a long time.

That’s how powerful the shock of dissecting human corpses was.

“If you’re worried about hygiene, regulate the people who flock to the waterworks. Don’t try to find answers from the corpses of the dead.”

“That’s not the responsibility of the hygiene department. The problem is that everything, factories or whatever, is in the waterworks. If you move the factories somewhere else, everything will be solved.”

“Heh. Why are you dragging factories into this?”

The argument about corpses led to hygiene in the waterworks, population density in the waterworks, and even factories, making the industrial director’s face turn incredulous.

“No, isn’t that true? Many imperial citizens are living by breathing smoke from burning wood. And it’s also true that the hygiene of the waterworks is getting worse because of the factory workers.”

“Are you done talking?”

“Enough.”

Kim Ki-woo stopped their argument. If this went on, each department’s faults would come out and the fight would go on endlessly.

< Dissection > End