What Only Medicine Can Do
“……!”
For a moment Selene simply stared with dazed eyes. Then she realized at once what had risen from her hand—an Aura Sword. She fixed her gaze on the blue-glowing blade for a long while.
I was much the same.
Willpower was actually necessary?
When I made a scalpel I had just thought something like, “Might as well try holding one again after so long.”
Is forming Aura a matter of talent, too?
Some people needed a crystal-clear will, while others could simply think “I want this” and it appeared. Or so I wondered.
But… from what the teacher and the Chancellor said, that wasn’t quite it.
Of course they had called me a genius. Yet the part they praised wasn’t any sharp will I possessed—it was how perfectly I had shaped the mold. So talent for manifesting Aura hinged more on the design inside one’s head than on willpower…
But with Selene, willpower really was the problem.
My head was a tangle. In these fantasy matters I knew only scraps, and no amount of guessing would yield an answer.
That train of thought broke when the blue sword wavering in Selene’s hand slowly scattered and vanished. Having fully withdrawn her Aura, she stared blankly down at her empty palm, then lifted her head and looked at me.
“Thank you.”
Her voice was small and trembling.
“Really… thank you.”
The gratitude she offered me carried far denser emotion than usual. She looked as if she were fighting back tears, her expression tightly overflowing.
Was Aura that important to her?
To Selene, born and raised in the Northern Grand Duchy—a knightly house—Aura must have held a far greater meaning than I had imagined.
She pressed her lips together, then spoke again in a serious tone.
“You helped me first, so… I want to do something for you too.”
Selene rummaged in her pocket and held something out.
“Want… another one of these?”
Cupped carefully in her small hands was the very dried persimmon I had chewed and swallowed with such relish earlier.
Hmm.
I did want another dried persimmon. It had been ages since I’d seen a snack like that. Still, once I became a doctor in the capital I could eat them whenever I liked. Accepting a dried persimmon as payment for helping her manifest Aura felt a little…
I thought a bit further. Was there anything I could receive from Selene that would actually help me reach the capital? As far as I could see, no. Better to build a friendship and secure a useful connection for when I got there.
For people to grow close…
In the end the most important thing was seeing each other’s faces often. Even frequent meetings alone created a sense of inner familiarity; add conversation on top of that and friendship was as good as forged.
Decision made, I moved my lips.
“If Your Ladyship were to give me a great many dried persimmons, someone with as little self-control as I would finish them all in a single day.”
“…….”
“So… would you share them with me one a day, slowly? It doesn’t have to be dried persimmons—any sweet snack would do.”
Selene’s eyes went wide.
…Asking a child for one snack a day might have been too much.
Children with underdeveloped consideration often feel reluctance about sharing something they like. That thought was still running through my mind when—
“You know about dried persimmons?”
Her face drew closer.
“…Pardon?”
“Dried persimmons are only made in the capital, so the other servants barely know what they are. Gilbert’s about the only one who does…”
They’re that rare even though this isn’t the Joseon era?
Rare enough that among the servants only the head butler knew of them. After a brief chain of thought I offered a suitable answer.
“The head butler told me. He said dried persimmons are Your Ladyship’s favorite treat.”
A lie. The only time Gilbert and I had ever spoken about the young lady was during that sleepwalking incident—first and last.
“Ah, Gilbert…”
Fortunately the lie held water; Selene nodded. Conversation returned to its starting point. After a short pause she said,
“One a day is enough?”
She had accepted my request.
“One is plenty.”
“…Okay.”
All that remained was to grow close to Selene.
…Of course that would be the hardest part. Becoming friends with a twelve-year-old girl. Just reading the sentence made it sound difficult. But I couldn’t give up. Trying anything at all was what mattered.
“Then… I’ll come here again tomorrow.”
That same evening, at dinner.
Only two people sat facing each other at the wide table: Rudiger, Grand Duke of the North, and his daughter Selene.
For a family, sharing a meal at one table should have been the most natural thing in the world. Strictly speaking, though, this arrangement had been set up to narrow, even a little, the distance between father and daughter.
The only sounds above the table were the clink of dishes.
When my wife was alive we at least talked.
Rudiger swallowed a short sigh. After her death, conversation between father and daughter had all but severed. No—they still spoke, but emotional exchange had virtually vanished. The thought left a bitter taste in his mouth.
Just as he was about to swallow a piece of cut meat—
“…Father.”
Selene broke the silence at the table. Rudiger hid his surprise and set down knife and fork.
“You have something to say.”
“Yes, well…”
She stole a glance at his face, hesitated, then took a small breath and carefully parted her lips.
“I… manifested Aura.”
“…….”
Rudiger’s eyes widened a fraction.
…Aura?
Aura, from a child of only twelve? Of course he himself had manifested it at the freakish age of eight—which was why he bore the title of the Empire’s greatest knight and upheld the North’s prestige. Yet manifesting Aura at twelve was still a talent rare enough to be counted on one hand across the entire Empire.
She truly is of my blood.
Astonishment mingled with deep pride rose in his chest. Rudiger smoothed his frozen expression and spoke.
“That is truly admirable.”
At the brief praise Selene’s small shoulders gave a tiny jolt—unaccustomed to compliments, no doubt. Yet a moment later, while she kept her head bowed and fiddled with her utensils, a faint smile she could not hide spread across her lips. Anyone could see she was thoroughly pleased.
Among the knowledge Rudiger had studied in order to close the gap with Selene was the advice “Do not stint on praise for a child.” He had tried to offer praise often, only to fail repeatedly…
So this is how it’s done…
Rudiger gave a small inward nod and began considering how to praise her next. Aura was a power that usually manifested only after deep anguish and some form of enlightenment. Selene must therefore have gained some fine insight. He would ask about it in detail and then praise her for it.
Having decided, Rudiger spoke again.
“How did the Aura come about? Did you gain some special realization?”
“…….”
Only silence returned. Clear panic showed on Selene’s small face.
Did I ask the wrong thing…?
Rudiger swallowed his own fluster and hesitated—then Selene carefully opened her mouth in a voice that nearly sank into the floor.
“…Jian helped me.”
“……?”
Rudiger’s expression went momentarily blank. A name he had never imagined had tumbled out.
Jian…
Of course he already knew the boy was no ordinary person—the butler who had miraculously saved a dying knight commander and then manifested Aura himself in an instant. He had even spoken at length with Gilbert about him. But helping someone else manifest Aura…
As his thoughts deepened, Rudiger’s brow furrowed. The silence stretched, and across the table Selene’s face grew visibly darker. Only then did Rudiger grasp the situation: his brooding expression must have looked thoroughly unpleasant to her.
He rather resented his own blunt face at times like this. Rudiger quickly cut off the thought and broke the quiet.
“If you received help from another, it is only right to offer fitting recompense.”
Selene looked at him a moment, then answered in a small but clear voice.
“So… I promised to give him one dried persimmon every day.”
“Well done.”
Rudiger offered immediate praise to reassure her.
“Growing close to that boy… or not only him—becoming friendly with the servants in general—would be good.”
“…….”
“Servants are human too, and in the end so are we. There is surely something to learn from them as well.”
He met Selene’s eyes squarely and added,
“Just as you manifested Aura thanks to that boy.”
The joy of watching his daughter grow, and the pride that she was forming her own bonds and trying to repay kindness—those feelings mixed together, and a faint smile slowly spread across Rudiger’s lips.
“If you have finished eating, you may rise first.”
. . .
After a satisfying meal Rudiger returned to his office. What met his eyes was…
“…Gilbert is still absent?”
“Yes, Your Grace.”
Another butler who would serve as Rudiger’s hands and feet in place of the ailing head butler. The corner of Rudiger’s mouth returned of its own accord to its usual state.
“Four days have passed.”
Four full days since Gilbert had been excused from duty. Yet far from improving, his symptoms grew worse by the day. Rudiger heaved a deep inward sigh.
When Gilbert first showed symptoms, the healers and the saint who had been assigned to the training exercise had not yet returned to the capital. In other words, neither healing magic nor holy arts had improved his condition.
Someone who could cure an illness that healers and a saint could not—Rudiger could think of only one such person.
“…Bring Jian.”
He closed his eyes and recalled the words Jian had once spoken.
It was time to borrow the power of medicine.