The Genius Physician Princess

Chapter. Prologue

The girl sensed her own death approaching.
A chronic illness that had plagued her since she was five was now taking its final toll, draining her muscles of all strength.
The end was near.
‘Brother, I think this is really the end now.’
With a faint smile, her eyelids gently closed.
‘I wonder if my brother felt like this at the end too.’

At that moment.
Beep beep beep beep-
The loud alarm of the patient’s monitoring device went off.
Fifteen-year-old Yeo-ul breathed her last breath alone in the hospital room.
* * *
When she woke up in an old wooden house, Yeo-ul thought she was dreaming while in a coma.
The scenery outside the window was so familiar.
“This is the setting of ‘The Emperor of Ashes’……”
‘The Genius Doctor Becomes an Emperor,’ or ‘The Emperor of Ashes’ for short.
This novel, which reeked of overpowered characters from the title, was a story Yeo-ul wrote with her brother while she was ill.
Yes, Yeo-ul was a patient.
A severe patient suffering from a rare muscle disease, unable to move even a fingertip for years.
Her last memory was the alarm sound from the monitoring device signaling her heart had stopped.
Suddenly, she had become a strange child.
Looking into the mirror.
Yeo-ul murmured as she saw a cute child with mysterious silver hair and light green eyes.
“I can move……”
More astonishing than being a child or dreaming was the fact that she could move her body freely.
“I can move my hands and legs as I wish.”
Yeo-ul could barely move because of her illness.
Even in her dreams, she was either carried on her brother’s back or in a wheelchair.
But now, she could move as she wanted.
Taking a few steps, her nose tingled.
She wiped her tears and laughed.
“For a last dream before dying, this is the best.”
Of course, this was all a dream.
It wasn’t possible for her body to miraculously recover overnight.
“Moreover, being in ‘The Emperor of Ashes’.”
She had entered her favorite novel, the one she knew best.
What a perfect dream!
“Let’s live as happily as possible until I wake up!”
Since it was a novel dream, she decided to enjoy the story fully.
Yeo-ul quickly recalled the plot of ‘The Emperor of Ashes.’
* * *
‘The Genius Doctor Becomes an Emperor,’ shortened to ‘The Emperor of Ashes,’ is a novel about a doctor who falls into a fantasy world and lives well, eventually becoming an emperor.
Why was the protagonist a doctor?
‘Because my brother was a doctor.’
Yeo-ul’s brother was a medical genius.
Foreign hospitals competed to recruit him even though he was just a trainee.
But he stayed in Korea for only one reason.
To take care of his little sister who had a rare disease.
Despite his efforts, no medicine or treatment worked on Yeo-ul.
Her muscles gradually lost strength.
First, she couldn’t walk, then she couldn’t sit up, and eventually, she could barely move her fingers.
As the disease progressed, so did Yeo-ul’s despair.
The most painful part was losing the ability to do anything by herself.
「Yeo-ul, how about writing a novel?」
One day, her brother suggested.
「How can I write or type?」
「I’ll write, and we’ll come up with ideas together. How about it? It sounds fun, right?」
By then, Yeo-ul’s vocal muscles were so weak that talking was hard.
Yet, her brother’s suggestion fascinated her.
Coming up with novel ideas was the only thing she could do.
Her brother always valued her ideas, which made her happy.
「Since I’m a doctor, let’s write a novel about a doctor. A skilled doctor falls into a fantasy world and lives well.」
「Include a time travel aspect too, brother.」
「So the doctor protagonist travels to another world and then time travels back?」
「No, the time traveler is someone else. The protagonist helps the time traveler.」
「Oh, so the protagonist helps the time traveler who failed the first time? That sounds fun.」
Recalling the discussions with her brother brought a smile to her face.
But there was one regret.
“Why am I dreaming of the first timeline?”
Outside the window, two small moons floated beside the sun.
This was the definitive evidence that Yeo-ul was in the first timeline of ‘The Emperor of Ashes.’
One of the moons would be destroyed just before the second timeline began.
In the novel, the first timeline appeared briefly in flashbacks.
Experiencing it so vividly was both fascinating and a bit disappointing.
‘The protagonist won’t come here.’
The protagonist would appear in the second timeline.
Yeo-ul transferred the honey she found in the small house into a wooden bowl and smiled.
‘At least I can help my favorite character directly.’
At the beginning of the novel, the protagonist helps a character in this world.
The great mage Lantus.
The protagonist’s most powerful ally, who fought the main villain the longest.
A man of unyielding beliefs, who never gave up on what he thought was right, no matter the hardship.
Despite being a fictional character, Yeo-ul admired his integrity and determination the most.
Without the protagonist in the first timeline, Yeo-ul was the only one who could help Lantus.
Looking down at the half-filled wooden bowl of honey, Yeo-ul’s heart fluttered with excitement.
It may look insignificant now, but soon this would save her favorite character, Lantus.
“Alright. Let’s go save the great mage.”
* * *
A dark alley.
A man staggered inside.
“Damn it. Of all bodies to enter, it had to be this useless one.”
The great mage Lantus, or rather, Lantus in someone else’s body.
Gagging, Lantus leaned against the wall and collapsed.
“This bastard must have drunk so much this morning…… ugh.”
Watching from the shadows in a gray hood, Yeo-ul’s heart raced.
‘Wow. This is crazy. It’s so vivid!’
The scene of Lantus collapsing was something Yeo-ul had read dozens of times, yet it felt incredibly real.
“Excuse me. Are you alright? Can you see me?”
Of course, there was no time to just admire.
Hesitating could cost a critical moment for treatment.
Yeo-ul, acting as a concerned passerby, spoke to Lantus.
“Please don’t lose consciousness!”
“Ugh.”
Lantus, pale and gagging, kept vomiting.
‘His original form had blonde hair and red eyes, right?’
Yeo-ul was already eager to see Lantus’s real face.
For now, the reason this great man collapsed.
‘It’s alcohol-induced hypoglycemia.’
Pale face, sweaty forehead, ice-cold body, trembling hands, the strong smell of alcohol with each breath, and occasional retching.
Classic symptoms of alcohol-induced hypoglycemia.
‘In short, he has a problem because of the alcohol!’
The owner of the body Lantus inhabited must have drunk heavily before Lantus took over.
It was an episode Yeo-ul suggested after hearing about drunk patients from her brother.
‘But I get to treat Lantus myself.’
Hiding her excitement, Yeo-ul spoke kindly.
“Hello? I’m just a passerby from the neighborhood, but I think you collapsed because of low blood sugar. I have honey, would you like some?”
The basic method to raise a patient’s blood sugar quickly was to give them fast-digesting sugars.
If the patient was conscious, improvement could be seen in minutes.
‘But the patient must be conscious.’
Forcing food on an unconscious person could be dangerous.
In the novel, the protagonist saved Lantus with a glucagon injection (a blood sugar-raising shot).
“This is just honey. There’s nothing else in it.”
To ease Lantus’s suspicion, Yeo-ul dipped her finger in the honey and tasted it herself.
Acute hypoglycemia needed prompt treatment as it could lead to brain damage or death.
Seeing her effort, Lantus reluctantly opened his mouth.
Yeo-ul carefully placed the honey-coated spoon under Lantus’s tongue and waited.
After several minutes, his complexion improved rapidly. The cold sweat stopped, and his breathing steadied.
Seeing the clear signs of recovery, Yeo-ul held back a cheer.
‘I did it!’
Even knowing it was a dream, Yeo-ul smiled.
Soon after, a recovering Lantus spat out the spoon and leaned back against the wall.
“Damn it. They make me enter this body and then seal my magic? I’ll kill those elders when I get back.”
Cursing fiercely, Lantus suddenly noticed Yeo-ul’s wide, innocent eyes and paused.
Clearing his throat awkwardly, he spoke seriously.
“Little one, you saved my life. Tell me what you want. I’ll grant any wish.”
“A wish?”
“Yes, you saved my life. Wish for anything. Even something big. Tell me what you want to become.”
“My wish is…….”
Originally, Yeo-ul wanted to visit the land of wizards, Wizardian.
Solving other episodes would be nice, but Yeo-ul wasn’t a doctor like the protagonist.
She planned to reveal she knew Lantus’s identity and visit Wizardian before the dream ended.
But then, she remembered a scene.
A hospital room bathed in moonlight.
Her brother holding her hand, chatting softly.
Talking about which patient the protagonist would save next, how her ideas were reflected in the story.
The precious memories of laughing and creating the novel together.
Yeo-ul found herself speaking.
“A doctor……”
She whispered as if enchanted.
“I want to become a doctor who saves people.”