Chapter 27: The God of Dissection [2]
Chapter 27: The God of Dissection [2]
“This truly is a God-given talent!”
“Lord, thank You.”
“Ha ha. You truly are a devout young man!”
“Ha ha, you flatter me.”
Robert Liston, who had seen through my talent, burst into hearty laughter and called upon God.
He had always seemed to attend church diligently, and as expected, he looked completely taken in by what I said.
“Could it be that the Lord brought you and me together here for a reason, Professor?”
Encouraged by that, I cautiously took one step further.
If he had been born in the Middle Ages, he would have used a real sword rather than the Liston knife he was holding now and cut off the heads of quite a few people.
A born knight.
He seemed like the sort of man who would have become a knight even if he had been born a peasant....
If I firmly made a man like this my ally, what would happen?
Then no one... would be able to stand in our way, would they?
If your strength and my brains joined forces, the synergy would be a hundred times greater than that of Lü Bu and Chen Gong.
While I was looking at him with thoughts like that, Robert Liston opened his mouth with an expression that made me feel a slight pang of guilt.
“It truly is the Lord’s will.”
If we had not been in the Anatomy Room, he probably would have dropped to his knees.
He really looked like he would.
“Anyway... good. If you have the talent to distinguish things like this, it will surely help in surgery one day.”
“Yes, I will press forward with all my might.”
“Good. Ha ha. Come assist at the next operation.”
“What? I’m still....”
“What use is school year in the face of talent like this? Come when I tell you to.”
“Uh... yes.”
Of course, even with that God-intoxicated expression, Robert Liston’s face was one better suited for making people repent than for converting them.
He was genuinely terrifying.
When someone like that barked for you to come, could anyone really say they would not?
Even someone who shouted that they could would just nod the moment they stood in front of him.
I was no different.
Damn it.
Does that mean... I’m going to take part in that act of slaughter...?
All sorts of worries started surfacing.
For now, I only wanted to do dissection.
If someone would make an anesthetic, then I would do it.
No, let’s wait until the concept of disinfection is properly established first.
More than that, couldn’t I die too...?
If I got cut by that enormous knife covered all over with germs....
There would be no one to treat me the way I had treated Alfred.
And if anyone did step forward to treat me, would I not die even faster because of that?
It was too frightening.
“For now, continue.”
“Ah, yes.”
The one who pulled me out of my distracting thoughts was Robert Liston, the very one who had thrown me headfirst into them.
It was not exactly a humane method.
He just told me to keep dissecting.
As I have said time and again, with that face, there was no refusing.
He was too scary.
“Knife....”
I had been planning to continue anyway.
The corpse was in good condition for now, but if a little more time passed, would it not end up like the ones lying behind us?
Even I felt like I would have trouble telling what things had originally looked like if I dissected bodies like those.
They had been rotting for too long, so the internal structures had long since fallen apart as well.
I had to see as much as possible before that happened.
No. It’s not that I’m the one trying to see it.
As it was, if it came to anatomical structures, was I not someone who could sketch them out smoothly even with my eyes closed?
That did not apply only to the abdomen.
The limbs were the same.
Among these people, the phrase “a crane among chickens” was nowhere near enough.
Calling them chickens was too generous.
Sliiick.
Anyway, I reflected the skin back and peeled it off completely.
This one thing was far easier than with a formalin-treated cadaver.
Besides preventing decomposition, formalin also hardened tissue, did it not?
Compared to that, this body was completely fresh, so for a seasoned surgeon like me, it was nothing at all.
“Waa....”
“So that’s what it looks like.”
“Good heavens....”
Everyone was marveling at the muscles of the upper arm now revealed.
For one thing, the corpse had been a young man, so the muscular form was quite good to begin with, and besides, how many people could have peeled away the layers as perfectly as I had?
As far as I knew, this had to be their first time seeing something like this.
Deltoid... Pectoralis Major. Hm... and beneath this goes the Biceps.
Me?
For me, it was a sight so familiar it was absurd.
How familiar?
The names of the muscles visible to the eye were practically scrolling past in my head the instant I saw them.
In the back... yes, the Deltoid still covers it.... Beneath that, the Triceps, and to the side... the Brachioradialis. Wow... I really am a genius.
The back was the same.
“Wow....”
Leaving behind Joseph and Alfred, who were still staring in amazement, and Colin and his lackey, who had suddenly started to look uneasy, I picked up the knife.
Because of the Deltoid—in other words, the triangular muscle—you could not see much.
I would have to cut some of it away to see the inside.
So just as I brought the knife down, a deep voice rang out.
It was Robert Liston, and I froze on the spot like a mouse caught in a trap.
I was not someone bold enough to move my hand any further in a moment like this.
“Uh... yes, Professor.”
“It’s rare for it to be exposed this cleanly.... Would it not be better to do a drawing first? I know a painter. I’ll contact him at once.”
A painter.
So instead of a photograph, he meant to have this drawn.
That was only natural, given the times.
The first camera had apparently appeared, but... the photos it took were only at the level of wow, that’s a photo.
The resolution was so poor that it would not even be an exaggeration to say it had no academic value at all.
So what Robert Liston was saying was reasonable.
If it were anyone else saying this, I’d ignore them... but what do I say...?
I wanted to refuse, but I needed a reason.
What should I do?
Lord....
When I looked up at the heavens, all I saw was a dim ceiling.
Whitish things were moving about here and there.
Maggots.
Would those things not soon swarm over this as well?
Then we would probably no longer be able to see its proper shape.
As expected, I’ll have to make use of the wisdom the Lord gave me.
Growing anxious, I decided to make use of the genius act I had pulled earlier one more time.
It did not seem like mere words would be enough, so I even added a bit of strange theatrics.
“Mm... hmmm.”
“What are you doing?”
“I’m memorizing it.”
“Memorizing?”
“I’ve memorized this form.”
Was there not talk about photographic memory or whatever?
I had never once seen it in a medical school or hospital full of supposedly smart people, but somehow it was always one of those legendary things that existed even in a comment section with only a few replies on internet forums....
Anyway, I decided to borrow that idea.
“Memorize? This?”
“Yes. I’ve always been good at memorizing things since I was young. I’m especially confident with things like this.”
A look of doubt appeared on Joseph’s face at my words.
Bastard.
Keep your mouth shut.
Regardless of my wishes, Joseph really did keep quiet.
Naturally.
No one would dare cut in while Robert Liston was speaking.
Perhaps only the Queen herself could step in without minding the consequences.
“Confident, you say... hm.... It is certain that you are a genius, but even so, no. There isn’t much more beneath this anyway. At most, a few muscles and some blood vessels.”
“Ah....”
What could I do?
If he said no, what was I supposed to say?
Did you just say a few muscles? There are several more rotator muscles underneath there! Do you know their functions and shapes?
In my head I was shouting like Lü Bu possessed me, but my head had already bowed of its own accord.
“Yes. I’ll wait.”
“Good.”
As though it was exactly the answer he had expected, Robert Liston nodded.
Maybe in his entire life he had never once gotten a different reaction.
Still, perhaps because what I had said earlier about God connecting us was lingering in his mind, he moved his lips while looking at me standing there with the knife lowered, unlike usual.
“Mm.”
He seemed to have something he wanted to say.
At the same time, it seemed like something a bit awkward to bring up.
Whatever it was, I was ready to listen.
No, I was ready to say yes.
“Have you ever been to a party since coming to London?”
Oh.
Now that went far beyond what I had expected.
A party....
Was that not a culture for insiders only?
Who on earth would invite someone with a yellow face like mine...?
“No, I haven’t.”
“Not even once?”
“No.”
“No, but how... Did you not know it’s party season these days?”
Those thoughts were not mine alone.
Joseph and Alfred were surely thinking the same thing.
The racism in nineteenth-century England was far worse than one might expect.
Among acquaintances it was a little better....
But strangers often openly acted like complete bastards.
Since this was the era of the British Empire, it was probably even worse than in other European countries.
Anyway, since I had nothing to say, I just kept quiet, and perhaps Robert Liston sensed something too, because he continued.
“Well... if you go with me, there won’t be any unpleasantness. It’s not some pretentious party, just a small gathering among people I know. They’re decent people in their own way... it won’t hurt to know them.”
This was consideration.
Or rather, was it an opportunity?
Honestly, I was not eager at all.
Anyone who had experienced racism knew how filthy it made you feel.
If I go with Robert Liston... and Robert Liston introduces me, would anyone dare say anything?
But this was Robert Liston’s invitation.
If anyone treated me carelessly there, that person would probably be near the center of the British Empire.
Even if I suffered a bit of discrimination, seeing such faces once would still be a gain.
Fine, why not.
Actually, it seemed more accurate to say that no one would dare openly say anything.
The word dare came to mind all on its own.
“Yes, then I’ll go. May my friends come too?”
“As many as you like. All the friends in this team may come along.”
Ah.
Not Colin and his lackey, though.
But if I said no in this atmosphere, I would probably die....
“Yes, thank you.”
“Yes, Professor.”
Apparently Colin had the same thought, because he bowed his head with the most polite expression he could manage.
Then he glared at me.
I glared back.
Bastard.
What was I supposed to do about it?
I hated it too.
“All right, then let us go.”
The painter came running the moment Robert Liston called for him.
For some reason he looked extremely nervous—so much so that it would not have been an exaggeration to say he looked frightened.
“Yes, Professor.”
Anyway, after that ended, we followed the Professor to where the party was being held.
He had said whose house it was, but I did not remember.
I had just come along thinking he would introduce us once we got there....
“Whoa.”
The atmosphere was a little strange.
Since it was a party that doctors also attended, I had thought the mood would be stiff, but laughter was already booming from outside.
“Ha ha ha ha ha ha ha!”
I wondered whether some incredibly funny incident had happened, so I peeked through the open door, and the sight made no sense.
Three old men were sitting there.
Old men who looked truly uninteresting.
But they were laughing like mad.
As question marks floated across my face, the Professor said, “Ah, there’s a thing called Laughing Gas. It puts you in a good mood when you inhale it.”