Chapter 123

Chapter 123: Regret.

After his first audience, Swift Rope was able to stay in the palace.

And whenever he had time, he continued to interact with various nobles.

“Tsk. What a degenerate age! To be so friendly with a barbarian from across the sea.”

Sometimes, there were some nobles who were so stubborn that they disliked the meeting itself, but most of them were not like that.

“Wow. To be able to record so easily on such stiff paper. Really, it’s amazing.”

“Haha! I really liked the soap you gave me last time. It peels off the old dirt so easily, my wife loves it.”

“And how about these sturdy and comfortable shoes? Thanks to them, my feet are very comfortable.”

“More than that, the glasses are more amazing. My eyes have been dim lately, but it’s much easier to read now.”

The items that Swift Rope brought were truly a paradise.

They all filled the gaps that had been lacking until now, and made the nobles feel a great satisfaction.

Thanks to that, Swift Rope met with many people and exchanged information.

‘Neo-Confucianism… It seems to have a lot of good words, but.’

But Swift Rope could not sympathize with Neo-Confucianism.

There were too many biased arguments, and many cases where they believed in errors that had already been scientifically proven in the empire.

Swift Rope was much more interested in the identity of Hangul than that.

The reason why he visited Joseon first, not the wider continent, was because of Hangul.

But the more he investigated Hangul, the more he fell into a maze.

‘I don’t get it.’

The letters that a king named Sejong created with his ministers because Chinese and Joseon’s languages were different.

But there was no evidence that Hangul had anything to do with spirits other than Hangul itself.

There should have been at least a small clue if there was a connection.

Just as Swift Rope was wrapped in doubt, Lee Yeok was also engulfed in deep confusion when he heard the reason why the imperial delegation visited Joseon.

“How can the letters that King Sejong created and distributed be used in the Wakan Tanka Empire across the sea?”

“…It’s truly an incredible thing. The shape of the letters is exactly the same.”

At first, he thought Swift Rope was lying.

But after seeing various books and documents brought from the mainland, he could not deny it.

The languages were different, but the letters written on paper were the same.

And even the creation time was similar.

With this strange phenomenon, Lee Yeok’s curiosity increased.

As a result, Lee Yeok called Swift Rope whenever he had time and continued to have deep exchanges.

“Is it true that there has been no change of emperor since the empire was established? The emperor who made Hangul?”

“Our great emperor is a living spirit who defies the flow of time. He has not changed at all since he first came down to this land.”

“A spirit… I can hardly believe it.”

“When you return this time, you will be able to see him if you are among the dispatched personnel. His appearance is engraved on not only this gold coin, but also on countless statues, paintings, and artworks of the empire.”

To be honest, Lee Yeok did not believe in Kim Ki-woo’s existence no matter what, but he could not strongly deny Swift Rope’s confident answer.

“I see. I guess I’ll naturally find out when the delegation comes back.”

After that, many questions and answers came and went.

Lee Yeok seemed to want to solve all his curiosity, and threw countless questions.

“The reason for banning sailing was to deal with the plague from other continents…”

“That’s right. His Majesty saw through this with his wise insight and issued a ban.”

“Then did it work against the plague?”

“Of course. I also received several vaccines made in the empire before I came here.”

“Vaccines? Tell me more about what they are.”

Swift Rope explained the existence of bacteria that cause infection, immunity, and the concept of vaccines.

“…”

Even after all the explanations were over, Lee Yeok could not speak for a while.

The plague was also a scourge in Joseon that killed countless people.

But to be able to prevent these things!

If this was true, it would destroy all the common sense so far.

‘Come to think of it, after suffering from an epidemic, I didn’t catch the same disease again.’

He had this thought, but he wanted to know more precisely.

“Can you show me the proof of this unbelievable thing? Can you show it to me?”

“It’s easy to show you the proof. On our way here, we saw many people with scars on their faces. Perhaps they were the ones who had smallpox?”

“Hmm… Are you talking about the pox?”

“Probably yes.”

“Then it must be true. The people who had the pox had their faces horribly changed.”

“And once they had it, they wouldn’t get it again. This is what immunity is. And smallpox is one of the easiest diseases to make a vaccine for. You can probably make it easily in Joseon.”

Bang!

“What!”

He was so surprised that he jumped up from his seat.

How many people had died and were dying because of smallpox so far?

Every time there was a big outbreak of an epidemic, the surrounding areas were devastated.

Until now, all he could do was hope that he could survive if he got smallpox, but the words that he could prevent it were shocking.

“What is that, what is that? Tell me quickly!”

“Haha. It’s not hard to tell you. So calm down.”

Since germs and vaccines were not classified as secrets, the Swift Rope had no hesitation in sharing them.

“Do you know that cows also suffer from a disease similar to smallpox?”

“Really?”

He didn’t know much about it, so he tilted his head.

“You’ll find out if you investigate. It’s called cowpox, and if a person gets cowpox, they get over it lightly for a few days and then recover. The scars are hardly left.”

“Are you saying that people who get cowpox don’t get smallpox?”

“That’s right. If you want, I’ll tell you in detail how to make cowpox, how to inoculate it, and how much to inoculate per person.”

“Huh…”

If this was true, it was amazing.

“Then you don’t get smallpox either?”

“That’s right. I got cowpox too.”

“Hmm. Then are you saying that even if you wear the clothes of people who have smallpox, there’s nothing wrong with you?”

“Haha. If you want, I’ll prove it to you with my body.”

“…No need. I just said nonsense. You don’t have to do that.”

“I’m fine. It’s not a hard thing to do.”

***

The conversation of that day quickly spread beyond the palace to the nobles and the people of Hanyang.

And questions poured out to the Swift Rope and his party.

“Did you really get cowpox on purpose?”

“Are you really going to take smallpox into your body?”

The Swift Rope answered the barrage of questions calmly and waited for the day.

And the promised day came.

“…You can still back out now. There’s no need to treat your body so harshly that your parents gave birth to.”

“You don’t have to worry about me.”

“If that’s what you think, I won’t stop you.”

After passing the last dissuasion of Lee Yeok, the Swift Rope and his party went to a house in the city where a person infected with smallpox lived.

The house was isolated because of the outbreak of smallpox.

And inside there were two patients with smallpox lying down.

“Tsk!”

The Swift Rope looked at the two men who were suffering from fever and blisters and clicked his tongue.

If they had known about cowpox, they wouldn’t have gotten smallpox.

“Come this way.”

Following the gesture of the guide who had already survived smallpox, Swift Rope and his companions approached the smallpox patients.

And they began to make contact with them.

Time passed.

Unfortunately, both of the patients who had contracted smallpox died without overcoming the disease.

But no matter how much time passed, Swift Rope and his companions did not catch smallpox, nor did they show any signs of change.

And finally, the promised date passed.

“My goodness… It’s true that they can prevent smallpox!”

“It’s not just one or two people, but none of them got smallpox.”

The people who had witnessed the whole process could not help but marvel at the astonishing result.

And so did Lee Yeok.

“Your words were true. Indeed, the knowledge of the Wakan Tanka Empire is admirable and amazing.”

“It’s because we have explored many kinds of knowledge under the great emperor. And even now, countless scholars are conducting research in their respective fields to find the truth. Immunology is just one of them. Of course, thanks to immunology, the imperial citizens were able to escape from the fear of epidemics to some extent.”

“I see. I’m really envious.”

Lee Yeok was very envious of the reality of the Wakan Tanka Empire that he had heard.

Across the distant sea, such a brilliant civilization was flourishing, but in this land of Joseon, there was a constant struggle for power.

‘The emperor of Wacantanga must be a great person. How nice it would be if I had such absolute power.’

He had heard that no one in the empire could defy the emperor’s name.

He was also the living spirit itself, and the founder who had created such a dazzling civilization.

‘A spirit…’

Speaking of which, he had heard that the letters in Wacantanga, which were exactly the same as Hangul, were recognized as the letters of the spirits.

Thanks to that, Swift Rope treated him so well because he was a descendant of King Sejong.

King Sejong could have been a descendant of a great spirit.

‘…Maybe through this, I can strengthen royal power like the Wakan Tanka Empire?’

He had this thought for a moment, but it was not an easy thing to do.

Unlike the empire, Joseon was a country of scholars.

‘But… It seems like there is no better way than this in the current situation.’

He felt it after experiencing many failures.

If he tried to strengthen royal power like this, he would never be able to achieve absolute monarchy no matter how much time passed.

Of course, this was just a thought in his head.

He didn’t know what kind of trouble would happen if he said it out loud.

He might even be driven out like Yeonsan-gun.

Lee Yeok erased his thoughts and said to Swift Rope.

“Then I’ll try to inoculate some of the people who haven’t got smallpox with cowpox first. After some time, the efficacy of cowpox will be confirmed.”

“It will surely be recorded as a brilliant choice. As time goes by, there will be no more people who fear smallpox in this land.”

Of course, many people opposed this proposal later, but thanks to Lee Yeok’s firm determination, a trial cowpox inoculation began.

And soon after, it was proven that cowpox could fight off smallpox.

However, there were many people who were reluctant to get vaccinated because of the rumor that if they took cow’s pus into their body, they would become cows.

But thanks to the excellent efficacy of cowpox, cowpox vaccination gradually took root in Joseon.

After that, Swift Rope and his companions stopped by China and bought many relics, books, tea, silk and other things in exchange for imperial goods.

Although there was a ban on trade at that time, it was not very difficult to smuggle because the Ming Dynasty’s national fortune was very weak at that time.

‘It was a very satisfying voyage. Time to go back.’

With this, Swift Rope’s first voyage came to an end.

On the returning ship, there were quite a lot of foreigners on board, including Japanese people led by Hojo Ujitsuna , Joseon’s envoy group, and Ming Dynasty’s merchants.

It was just before foreigners began to visit the empire in earnest.