Reverse Life Turnaround (2)
“…….”
The middle-aged man whose hair was just beginning to gray fixed us with a freezing stare.
No—more than freezing. It was the look of a man who wanted to kill us on the spot.
I had seen that exact expression before.
Quite a few times, actually.
It was the precise gaze professors reserved for interns and residents who had thoroughly screwed up.
Of course, I had never been the one on the receiving end—my colleagues had.
“Haaah….”
The murderous glare that had been pinned on us shifted toward the young lady.
The middle-aged man—the head butler—let out a sigh so soft it was barely audible and approached her.
“My lady, are you feeling all right? How did you ever end up in a place as shabby as this….”
His voice was the complete opposite of the one that had been ready to tear us apart moments earlier. Worry, not reprimand, filled every word.
The young lady, her face still flushed, answered falteringly.
“I-I’m fine now. Nothing hurts or feels nauseous anymore.”
“…….”
His relief lasted only a moment. The head butler’s sharp eyes flicked back over us once more.
“…I trust the butlers did not commit any discourtesy toward you, my lady.”
Startled, she hurriedly waved her hands.
“N-no! Absolutely not! If anything….”
Her clear eyes lingered on me for a moment.
“He helped so it wouldn’t hurt….”
A flicker of doubt clouded the head butler’s gaze. His brow furrowed slightly as he looked my way.
What are you looking at?
The reason was obvious…. How could a mere apprentice butler fix something the priests’ healing arts couldn’t?
They sent the servants and maids to me readily enough when they were sick. But the moment it involved someone important, they didn’t trust me.
Well… I understand how the old man feels.
I’d been there myself. Mild ordinary patients got handed off to residents. Serious chaebol patients, I took myself.
In any case, the head butler didn’t voice his suspicion or distrust.
“So it wouldn’t hurt… I see.”
He quickly returned to his usual fastidious expression. What mattered to him right now wasn’t how I had treated the young lady. It was the fact that she had set foot in the annex at all.
“His Grace still does not know that you are here in the annex, my lady.”
He approached her carefully and draped a coat over her shoulders.
“We should return at once.”
Fortunately, the head butler was a competent man. He didn’t waste time interrogating me or assigning blame. He simply chose to bury the situation quickly and quietly.
“…….”
The young lady hesitated for a moment, then quietly nodded and rose to her feet. At the same time, she glanced at me once. She looked as if she still had something left to say.
Please just leave.
I desperately lowered my eyes and stared hard at the grain of the wooden floor. If I carelessly built any unnecessary rapport here, my peaceful retirement life might truly become nothing more than a dream.
Thankfully my silent prayer seemed to reach her; she didn’t linger any longer and followed the head butler out.
Creeeak—. Click—.
The old door of the annex closed, and the sound of their footsteps completely faded away.
“Huuu….”
Only then did I finally let out the long breath I’d been holding. I felt more exhausted than after twelve straight hours of surgery in the OR.
But I still couldn’t rest.
“Hey.”
“……?”
“What was your name again?”
“…Yulian.”
“Right, Yulian.”
The root cause of this entire mess, that bastard Yulian, was still in my room.
“Even if you’re sick, never come looking for me again.”
I kicked Yulian out of the room on the spot. He was older than me, but… you only get treated like an older brother if you act like one.
A few days passed.
“I didn’t get chewed out or anything.”
Nothing had happened to me. Of course, the head butler, Yulian, and I had gathered for a conversation. Yulian might have been an idiot, but he wasn’t a bad person, so he took full responsibility for everything.
That didn’t mean Yulian’s head got chopped off, either. Just a verbal warning, more or less. Since only four people knew about the incident—me, Yulian, the head butler, and the young lady—it was quietly swept under the rug.
Anyway. I felt the need to organize the situation a little. Yesterday’s events had made the class system here sink in on a visceral level.
If I wanted to enjoy the rest of my life properly….
I needed to save enough money to live out my days somewhere like a resort area of this world—that is, of the Empire. That was the first condition.
And the second condition was getting out of the North. That was the real problem. Money I could somehow earn. But leaving the North wasn’t something I could do on my own.
“Butlers are the Grand Duke’s property, huh.”
Butlers weren’t hired for wages like in modern society. Their very bodies belonged to the Grand Duke. So how could I just leave whenever I wanted?
“Running away in the middle of the night….”
…That would be suicide. How was I supposed to cross this barren, freezing northern snowfield with nothing but my bare body? I’d freeze to death or become some wild beast’s meal.
The best method was….
“Stripping off the butler title.”
Becoming something other than a butler. Something connected to the direct bloodline. For example….
“A personal physician or something.”
That kind of thing. But being a personal physician wasn’t a position you could just decide to take. No matter how outstanding my medical knowledge was, it wasn’t a seat you could climb into on pure ability alone.
For starters, my status wasn’t even that of a commoner—I was property of the Grand Ducal house. If I went around saying “I’m pretty good at medicine,” who would just plop me into the personal physician’s seat? I’d just get labeled a weirdo.
In the end, there was only one way. Like being chosen by a stray cat in a back alley. I would have to be chosen directly by someone of the direct bloodline. Those exalted people would have to open their own mouths and say they wanted to keep me by their side and use me.
…Easier said than done.
To be chosen by someone high up, I had to catch their eye. To catch their eye, I needed some kind of achievement. For instance, a situation where people got hurt a lot….
“……Oh.”
My mind snapped clear. Come to think of it….
“They said there was some joint training exercise or whatever.”
.
.
.
I went straight to find Yulian and asked about the training exercise. According to his answer, the Joint Training Exercise was a large-scale event where the Imperial Knights and the Northern Knights competed in martial prowess together. It was meant as a way for the Imperial Family to express their gratitude to the North for guarding the Empire’s front lines.
Gratitude, my ass.
It was probably nothing more than political fluff dressed up to sound nice. Usually the real purpose of these things was to keep each other in check and size up each other’s forces. But the complicated political games of the high and mighty, or the grand purpose of the event—none of that was my concern. What mattered to me was something else.
Knights gathering in droves to compete with force of arms.
Dozens, hundreds of people fighting with weapons until blood flew. Naturally, that meant large and small injuries would keep cropping up. Even with healing magic and divine power existing, those near-superpowers didn’t fix everything. Just look at the young lady’s acute indigestion a little while ago. Divine power couldn’t resolve a gastrointestinal problem. Magic and divine power were probably only miracle cures for external wounds.
Was this a heaven-sent opportunity? If I could somehow hang around nearby and put my medical knowledge to use, if I played it well, I might catch the eye of someone in the direct line.
“Can butlers even get into the training exercise?”
At my question, Yulian cleared his throat and shook his head.
“You want to go watch?”
“Something like that.”
“You can go watch if you want, but of course it wouldn’t be sitting comfortably in the stands like normal….”
Yulian trailed off slightly.
“But?”
“There’s a group of people drafted to attend the knights. Hauling water, wiping up blood, doing odd jobs. It’s pure hard labor so everyone tries to get out of it… but if you get drafted for that, you can watch the training exercise up close.”
“Hmm.”
That was good enough. As I nodded in satisfaction, Yulian’s lips moved.
“But, Jian.”
“Yeah?”
“…Didn’t you used to speak formally to me? Why have you suddenly been using informal speech since last time….”
“…….”
True enough. Last time I’d been so angry that informal speech just slipped out. Right now there was no need for it again.
“…Would you like me to speak formally, sir?”
When I answered awkwardly, Yulian shook his head firmly.
“Nah, I was just asking. If that works better for you, keep doing it.”
“…….”
Why is this guy so nice. Now I feel a little bad for being so prickly last time. Of course last time it was 100% Yulian’s fault….
“…….”
I slowly approached Yulian and patted his shoulder.
Pat—. Pat—.
“If it hurts, make sure to tell me.”
That was the greatest kindness I could show right now.
The training exercise began.
My role was to keep hauling drinking water for the knights on the training grounds. While I was repeating the menial work for a while, a small figure in a secluded corner suddenly caught my eye.
…Selene?
It was the young lady. Until just a moment ago she had been in the middle of the training ground, swinging a sword as big as her body and receiving applause from everyone. Now she was crouching in a deserted corner, clutching her arm tightly.
What the. Normally when a precious Northern young lady like that got hurt, shouldn’t the Emperor or a prince rush over making a fuss asking if she was okay? Why was she stuck in a corner like this?
I quietly set down my load and approached her.
“Is something the matter, my lady?”
Before she could even lift her head at my question, a healer who had been struggling uselessly nearby snapped at me sharply.
“This is none of a lowly servant’s business! Get lost already!”
Did I ask you?
Why does everyone lose their minds the moment they see me. After chewing him out lightly in my head, I treated the yapping healer like he was invisible. Then I met the young lady’s eyes again.
“What are the symptoms?”
She frowned, cold sweat beading on her forehead, and answered in a shrinking voice.
“There was a… pop sound in my arm. It won’t move well, and if I force it, it throbs like my heart is pounding and hurts….”
Hmm. The pain pattern was textbook. Dislocation.
“Does His Grace know?”
At my question she bit her lip hard and shook her head.
“He doesn’t. A-and you can’t tell Father or Gilbert either…!”
Gilbert was the head butler’s name, right?
At such a young age, fretting over not wanting to disappoint or worry her parents. As a reward for that admirable mindset, I would personally put the bone back in place myself.
Without delay I stepped right up in front of her. The ones who had been wasting healing arts on useless things panicked and tried to stop me.
“You crazy bastard, how dare you touch her precious body…!”
“I-it’s fine!”
At the young lady’s cry, the healers’ movements froze. In that gap, I carefully took hold of her arm.
At a young age, joints aren’t fully developed and ligaments are flexible, so arms pop out easily. And when a child’s arm is dislocated like this, the technique is a little different from reducing an adult’s shoulder.
“It may hurt a little.”
With one hand I lightly supported and bent her elbow. With the other I took her wrist and gently rotated it outward so the palm faced toward her torso. Then, still in that position, I lightly pushed the arm up toward her chest.
Pop—.
A very light, crisp friction sound. The sound of the displaced bone sliding back into place along the ligaments.
“Could you try rotating your arm once?”
The young lady slowly raised her arm and made a stretching-like motion.
“…Thank you.”
Confirming the bone was properly seated, she expressed her gratitude.
If you’re that grateful, how about dropping a little hint to the Grand Duke?
Something like how that butler is truly capable, or how he fixed my body with mysterious power—that would be enough.
“How could a servant ignore his master’s distress?”
While thinking that inwardly, I bowed my head to the young lady. Meanwhile the ones who had been flinging magic around all wore faces of incomprehension.
They thought healing magic could basically fix everything when it came to trauma….
And yet they were floundering over a single dislocation. Healing magic was more of a trash skill than I imagined. Divine arts might be different. That borrowed the power of a god, after all.
As I floated that hypothesis, the young lady was already heading back to the training ground. Confirming that her gaze was no longer on this spot, I flipped off the idiots who couldn’t even treat one dislocated patient. The middle finger must have tasted pretty sweet, given how dumbfounded they looked.
I slipped away from the spot at a leisurely pace. If I delayed any longer, I had a feeling the head butler would give me an earful.