The Full Examination
"That's precisely why I need you."
"…I'm sorry?"
"The quacks back in the Imperial Capital only have names to their credit. You know my body's condition better than anyone, and no one alive is more skilled. I'm asking you to become my personal physician."
Gulp.
Elise's throat bobbed audibly.
Skill Charming Speechcraft is stimulating Elise von Kleist's intellectual curiosity and her sense of duty as a physician.
Elise von Kleist accepts your proposal.
"…Very well. I swear it."
Her cheeks flushed a deep crimson.
"As your personal physician… I will do my utmost. This secret will never leave this room."
Success.
I let out a breath of relief and replied,
"Excellent. Then we have a deal."
Click.
And as if on cue, the door to the hospital room swung open.
"Captain! I've brought your medication!"
Hannah hurried in, out of breath. Elise rose from her seat as though nothing at all had happened.
"Ah, thank you for your trouble, Sergeant. I'll set up the IV and attach the needle—give me a hand for a moment, will you?"
"Yes, ma'am."
The two women turned their backs and busied themselves with the equipment.
I leaned back against the head of the bed and leisurely admired the view from behind—my personal adjutant, still with a touch of girlish freshness about her, and the brilliant, beautiful military doctor.
"I'll mix the vasodilator. It may sting a little."
Satisfied that my secret was now safely locked away, I closed my eyes.
Three more days passed.
Rosenheim's makeshift field hospital was no longer a hospital. It had transformed into something closer to a pilgrimage site for some new faith.
"To the Commander of the 2nd Company, 1st Battalion, 7th Infantry Brigade—from all the officers and men of the 3rd Division!"
"Captain Jaeger! The supply corps sends their finest ham and cheese!"
"This is a plaque of gratitude from the Mayor of Rosenheim!"
In one corner of the ward, canned goods, liquor, flower bouquets, and gift baskets of every conceivable origin had piled up into a small mountain.
I leaned back against the bed and watched Hannah peel an apple.
"Hannah. What are we going to do with all of that?"
"Don't worry, Captain. Anything that won't spoil will be packed up and sent to your personal storage. And the liquor…"
Hannah narrowed her eyes and drew the paring knife through the air with a slow, deliberate swish.
"Dr. Elise has imposed an absolute prohibition, so I will confiscate it and keep it safe myself."
"…Surely one glass now and then wouldn't hurt."
"Absolutely not. Your body is now under management at the level of national infrastructure."
Hannah firmly popped a slice of apple into my mouth.
Crunch.
My body still creaked and groaned, but thanks to periodic self-treatment with Touch of Attunement, I could at least get around on my own.
That was when it happened.
BANG!
The door burst open and a booming voice rolled into the room.
"Hahaha! How's the body, my friend? Hero of the Empire!"
It was Karl von Dietrich, Brigadier General and commander of the 7th Brigade.
I reflexively tried to sit up.
"I'm hono—"
"Ah-ah, stay down! You are currently the most expensive body in the entire Empire."
Dietrich pressed a burly hand down on my shoulder.
Status Analysis.
Name: Karl von Dietrich
Condition: Extreme elation, greed, sense of victory
Hidden Desire: To ride this momentum straight into a core post at Central Command.
This old fox's mind was as predictable as ever.
"You heard the reports, surely? The moment news of the Defense of Rosenheim reached the Capital, it threw the whole place into an uproar! 'The Ghost of Rosenheim.' 'The Miracle Commander.' The newspapers are papering their pages with your name!"
He pulled a crumpled Imperial Daily from his coat and waved it about. On the front page: the Imperial flag flying over Rosenheim's ruined city hall, and beneath it, standing before an 88mm anti-aircraft gun, the backs of a certain Major Hermann and myself—though who had taken the photograph, I had no idea.
"You flatter me, sir. It was entirely thanks to your decisiveness in authorizing the use of the 88s."
I deflected the credit out of habit. Dietrich's mustache quivered with delight.
"Of course, of course! My eye for talent has never failed me. Ah, and this is something I'm telling you first, so keep it under your hat…"
He lowered his voice and leaned in close.
"High Command is reviewing your promotion favorably. A special advance from Captain to Major is practically a done deal, and there are whispers that even the Imperial Guard has its eye on you."
A promotion to Major. And the Imperial Guard.
A sweetly coated piece of bait. If I went to the Guard, I'd likely end up a plaything for the Emperor or the Princess. No—I needed to keep sucking the honey right here, in my own territory: the 7th Brigade.
"I wish to remain under your command, sir. Nowhere trusts me the way the 7th Brigade does."
"Oho! Loyal to the end, as ever! Don't you worry. Did you really think I'd let you go? We're going to become stars of the Capital together, you and I!"
Dietrich seized my hand in a crushing grip and pumped it up and down.
"Rest well! If you need anything—anything at all—just say the word!"
With that, he strode out of the ward with hearty laughter trailing behind him. It was like a storm passing through.
I sighed and kneaded my aching hand. Handling a superior drunk on ambition was easy enough—but God, was it exhausting.
Knock, knock.
This time it was the polar opposite: a calm, measured tapping at the door.
"Come in."
The door opened, and Captain Elise entered in a white coat.
She came to my bedside and flipped through the chart, reviewing the records with meticulous care.
"How is the wound site feeling, Captain?"
"It still throbs, but nothing worth dying over."
"You're understating it. A wound like that should have kept a normal man comatose for three full days."
She replied dryly and produced her stethoscope.
"Excuse me for a moment. Could you pull your shirt up, please?"
I undid the buttons of my hospital gown. Hannah watched with an odd look in her eyes, then promptly stepped aside.
"Breathe in… and out."
"Hoo."
"Again."
The examination ran longer than expected. Little by little, Elise's brow furrowed.
"……"
"Is something the matter?"
I asked, feigning perfect nonchalance.
"The matter? No, nothing at all. Your body is truly… remarkably healthy, Captain. Uncannily so."
A faint glimmer of curiosity lit her eyes.
"Ordinary recovery is a wasteful process. A wound triggers inflammation and fever, and pain signals scatter the body's energy in every direction."
She explained in a low murmur, almost to herself.
"By the time the energy is actually needed to regenerate cells, nearly all of it has been squandered on that commotion."
Her cool fingers brushed across the skin around my wound, where the red inflammation had all but vanished.
"But your body… that process simply doesn't happen. It's as if someone is directing traffic."
"Directing traffic, you say."
I swallowed a wry smile.
She had deduced the mechanism of Touch of Attunement with pinpoint accuracy. Not that she realized it—she clearly believed this was some peculiar constitution born of my malformed mana circuits.
"…I'm glad it was me who treated you. As a physician, and as a scholar."
Elise's brown eyes settled into a calm stillness for a moment. Then she spoke again.
"But Captain, good condition alone isn't enough. Your circuits right now are a dam that could collapse at any moment. The channels were forced open, after all—so we must know exactly where the erosion is occurring, and which sections are under the greatest strain."
Elise took a step closer to the bed.
"A full, precise examination is required."
A precise examination, was it.
Status Analysis.
Target: Elise von Kleist
Condition: Excitement, nervousness, professional absorption
Professional curiosity, no doubt. I nodded slowly.
"Understood. I'll place my body in your hands, Doctor."
"A wise decision."
Elise drew the curtains around the bed.
"Please take off the gown completely."
I obediently undid the buttons and slipped the garment off. Elise stared intently at my bare torso, at the scars and the lean muscle beneath.
"Sit up straight on the bed. With your back toward me."
I turned and sat as instructed. A moment later came the rustle of fabric, and then the sensation of the mattress dipping behind me. Elise had settled in close at my back—so close I could feel her breath.
"…It may be cold. Bear with it for a moment."
Her slender fingers traced slowly down the line of my spine.
"Your muscle contractions are abnormal. Especially between the fourth and seventh thoracic vertebrae… that's where the mana circuits are most severely tangled."
Her fingertip pressed down hard on a particular spot.
"Ngh—!"
"It hurts, doesn't it? Take a deep breath in, then let it out slowly."
Elise leaned in until her chin nearly rested on my shoulder, whispering close to my ear. Her soft breasts brushed lightly against my back, then pulled away.
"Hoo…"
"Good. Your pulmonary expansion is fine. But your heart rate is far too fast. Whether that's from the strain on your mana circuits, or…"
Elise stopped mid-sentence and pressed her fingers to the pulse near the nape of my neck. Her hand was trembling faintly.
"…whether it's from some other reason. I'll need to check."
Her hand slid down toward my pelvis, to the very edge of the hospital gown's waistband.
"…Pardon me for a moment. I need to check the pulse near your femoral region."
Her cool fingers slipped just inside my trousers and pressed against the inside of my thigh.
That was the moment.
It twitched.
Oh, damn it all.
Skill Iron Virility is now activating.