This line felt familiar.
He had heard it at least once a week during his university hospital days.
If you're that proud of who you are, get it tattooed on your forehead. Why grab random people and demand they recognize you? Humans really are a hassle.
Whether the man was the President or the Prime Minister, Kwon Minseong couldn't care less.
So, sir, please stop doing this in a bankrupt clinic and go yell at another doctor somewhere else. And where the hell is your husband while his full-term wife is wandering around?
"Ugh..."
The mysterious patient groaned.
Kwon Minseong tilted his head and opened his eyes.
Not because of professional instinct lingering in the back of his mind.
For a completely different reason.
The patient... is a man?
As his eyes adjusted to the darkness, the patient's face gradually came into view above the enormous belly.
Blink.
Blink.
Even after opening and closing his eyes two or three times, the patient was unmistakably male.
He wasn't overflowing with rugged masculinity, but the prominent Adam's apple and angular jawline left no room for doubt.
Kwon Minseong swept a hand across the ground.
The marble flooring he had acquired after four days of negotiation was nowhere to be found.
Only red brick blocks remained.
The rough texture scraped against his fingertips.
Looking closer, he noticed an eagle clutching a sword engraved into the bricks.
Apparently paving roads isn't enough anymore. Now they're carving bizarre patterns into them too. There's really nothing about my damned country that I like.
The thought vanished a second later.
Kwon Minseong stared at the scenery surrounding him, unable to close his mouth.
Impractical and exotic buildings that could never be constructed on expensive Seoul real estate.
Brick roads instead of concrete or asphalt.
Streets that looked as though an old European city had been lifted wholesale and dropped here.
Primitive automobiles that somehow felt out of place even among them.
And clothing straight out of a historical Western drama.
Where the hell am I?
It was too orderly to be hell.
Too realistic to be heaven.
"AAAH! My stomach!"
While he was trying to determine whether he was in heaven, hell, or some bizarre dream world, the pregnant man clutched his mountain-sized belly and cried out in pain.
His hair was bright yellow, like forsythia blossoms.
"Huff, huff, huff... Quickly... a doctor... huff, huff... If you go down that alley... huff, huff..."
"Is this some new reality show?"
"A doctor... please...! It's coming out...!"
"What's coming out?"
"Can't you tell?! The baby's coming out—AAARGH!"
"No. No, that's impossible. You can't have a baby."
Come on.
Who would believe that?
A man getting pregnant?
This had to be ascites or—
"Then are you saying the little bastards at my house aren't babies but dogs? Though... now that I think about it, they might actually be dogs..."
Splash!
A gush of hot fluid poured between the man's legs.
At that point, even Kwon Minseong could no longer deny reality.
Just as he had spoken.
Just as he had wished.
He had fallen into that world.
A world where men could become pregnant.
Humans were adaptable creatures.
Among them, Kwon Minseong was exceptionally adaptable.
That was why he didn't panic when helping deliver a baby for a male pregnancy patient he had never seen before, or when boarding a vehicle that looked suspiciously similar to one of humanity's earliest automobiles.
The only thing he had failed to adapt to was the closure of the clinic he had spent five years building.
"So this place is called Elunem... and it's a kingdom?"
At his question, the blond patient from yesterday clicked his tongue while rocking the newborn in his arms.
"It's an empire, not a kingdom. Your medical skills are impressive, but your fundamentals are hopeless."
"My medical skills are more than impressive."
The problem was that he'd lost the opportunity to put them to use.
"You shouldn't be moving around right after giving birth."
"I told you yesterday to get out of the way, didn't I? I was on my way to find a doctor, and because you blocked my path, I ended up giving birth in the street."
"I wasn't exactly in my right mind either."
He had emptied an entire bottle of soju despite rarely drinking.
Then he had fallen into a world unlike anything he had ever seen.
Maintaining his sanity under those circumstances would have been impossible.
Kwon Minseong glanced out the window.
The new world looked exactly like a steampunk movie set.
If he hadn't personally helped the blond man sitting across from him deliver a child, he would have been convinced that this was all part of a film production.
"You really do speak far too casually."
The patient made his displeasure obvious.
"You don't exactly sound formal either."
"Insolent fool. Not 'you.' It is Adelgius Eickhalden Visha, Your Grace."
Adelgius glared at him as he revealed his identity.
"If you hadn't helped bring Cordette into this world, I would have thrown you into the dungeon immediately. Consider yourself fortunate."
"Cordette?"
Instead of answering, Adelgius gestured toward the newborn in his arms.
"So Your Grace means you're a noble?"
"Honestly, people these days! They're so obsessed with eating and entertaining themselves that they can't even recognize a member of the Imperial Family's house name. Tsk!"
"If you're part of the Imperial Family, why were you wandering around looking for a doctor to help with childbirth?"
The Imperial Family sounds like a mess.
When Kwon Minseong replied dryly, Adelgius shot him an irritated look.
"I wasn't searching for myself. I was looking for another Omega."
"Omega? You were looking for a doctor because of nutritional supplements? I guess pharmacies and clinics still aren't separated here."
"What are nutritional supplements? Is that what people call Omegas nowadays?"
The previously domineering Adelgius suddenly looked concerned.
"The Court Physician informed us that the birth was imminent, but not a single doctor was willing to take the case. I had no choice but to search for one personally."
"Are doctors really that scarce? Enough that a full-term patient has to go looking for one himself?"
"The issue isn't their number. The problem is that not one of them has any courage."
Adelgius ground his teeth.
"Male Omegas of advanced maternal age like Reiner face significant risks during childbirth. None of them wanted the responsibility. Cowards."
"How old is he?"
"Reiner turned thirty-five this year."
Thirty-five.
The same age as Kwon Minseong.
Undeniably an advanced maternal age pregnancy.
Still, that was absolutely not grounds for refusing treatment.
Clicking his tongue, Minseong shook his head.
"They should revoke every medical license in this country. Some people have to close their clinics because they don't have enough patients, and these idiots are refusing treatment? They've gotten far too comfortable."
"Hmm... You said you closed your clinic?"
"Yeah. Completely closed. It'll never reopen. Not until I've paid off all my debts, anyway..."
Adelgius studied him carefully before pressing a button protruding from the vehicle's ceiling.
A small brass tube beside it suddenly emitted a human voice.
—His Highness Visha's call has been received.
"We'll arrive in five minutes."
—Understood, Your Highness.
Adelgius pressed the button again, ending the communication.
Then he adjusted the infant in his arms and smiled bitterly.
"Tillio will probably faint when he hears that a member of the Imperial Family was born in the middle of the street."
"The baby's father?"
"Good heavens. The state of education in the Elunem Empire leaves me speechless. You don't recognize the name Eickhalden, and now you don't know who Tillio is either. How have you managed to walk this earth and breathe air?"
Adelgius was remarkably expressive.
A minute ago he had been angry.
Thirty seconds ago he had been smiling.
Now he was clutching his forehead like a stage actor delivering a dramatic performance.
"They say a peaceful empire is one where the people don't know their Emperor's face or name, but this is absurd. What kind of environment did you grow up in? I'm beginning to doubt your medical credentials as well."
"Six years of university, one year of internship, four years of residency. Eleven years in total. That's where I learned my medicine. You'd be wise to trust it."
"Residency...?"
Adelgius tilted his head.
"I don't know what a residency is, but somehow you managed to graduate from university?"
"I practically bled from the nose studying to get in."
"Hmm... You look far too young to have attended university. Twenty at most. Are you claiming you started studying medicine when you were nine?"
People had told him he looked like he was in his twenties.
But this was the first time anyone had suggested he looked too young to have even entered university.
The compliment was so excessive it felt like an insult.
As Kwon Minseong struggled to respond, Adelgius returned to his usual overbearing tone.
"Regardless. You graduated from a university. That's enough."
"It's not enough for me. I've been wanting to ask this for a while now. Where exactly are you taking me?"