The Dung Beetle Prince (2)
It had been a few days since my sudden encounter with a 2nd-Circle Black Mage and my curious meeting with an old mage named Fitch. Since then, nothing particularly special had happened. I had been descending into Limbus Pit with Eri to treat the people.
“Para-bam, para-bam~”
Down there, I even shattered my own calm character, humming a ridiculous tune. It was because my current patient was an eight-month-old baby.
“Bibbidi-bobbidi-boo….”
The greatest natural enemy of a doctor is a baby. It’s because no conversation or compromise works with them. —Are you the world’s greatest doctor who graduated from Harvard Medical School? So what. I’m going to cry. In front of a baby, all of a doctor’s skills and knowledge are useless. To a doctor, babies are invincible gods. Therefore, while dealing with them, one must set aside all dignity and authority.
“Lilili, lallala….”
And this song is a skill created by pediatricians to administer injections to babies. First, you distract the child completely with a song or a toy, then you give the shot before they even realize it. For the record, I didn’t think this skill shattered my noble character. A doctor should be willing to act like a clown for the sake of a patient, bang their head against the hospital floor, or throw a tantrum in front of a politician if necessary. At least, that’s how I was taught. Even if my peers from my own era were a bit too stiff-necked.
“Doctor….”
Fortunately, my efforts didn’t lead to a collapse of Julian’s calm character. If anything, I could feel both Eri and the baby’s mother looking at me with eyes full of respect. …That is a look of respect, right? It’s not pity, is it?
“Ethan, look at this? What is this?”
“Bab-bab-ba!”
Anyway. After about fifteen minutes of effort, the baby’s defensive posture crumbled. The baby’s gaze became fixed on the beak of my mask. Taking advantage of the distraction, I pricked the baby’s thigh with a 3x3 grid of needles. It was a vaccine made by mixing bovine pus with diluted holy water to weaken the virus. While technically a bit different, I called it vaccination for convenience.
Prick.
A dotted mark remained on the baby’s thigh. Perhaps realizing they’d been tricked, the baby blinked, but the injection was already done.
“Ethan is healthy. You don’t need to worry about syphilis.”
“Oh my, thank you, Doctor.”
The baby’s mother let out a sigh of relief. I pinched the cheek of the baby, who was staring at my beak with wide, sparkling eyes.
“But Doctor, what was that you just did to Ethan’s thigh?”
“It’s like a spell to make him healthier. You can think of it as a reinforcement engraving.”
“Ah, I see.”
Ethan’s guardian nodded. It was still a bit too early to preach the concept of a vaccine to the world. So, for babies reaching 1, 3, 6, and 12 months, I made them come to the clinic periodically under the pretext of checking for syphilis, and secretly administered the vaccinations. It could lead to being burned at the stake if I were caught, but… well, wouldn’t the power of the misunderstanding trope take care of it somehow?
“You may go, Mother.”
“Thank you, Doctor.”
After sending off the eventful eight-month-old patient, Eri, who was tidying up the needles, spoke to me.
“By the way, Doctor. Is that really a reinforcement engraving?”
“Yes.”
It was a reinforcement engraving, technically. It granted immunity to several types of plague-based curses. Even nobles wore holy relics all over their bodies to block plague curses. Considering that, couldn’t a vaccination be called a reinforcement engraving?
“Doctor, were you a Carvedoc too?”
“I’m not a Carvedoc, but I have studied that field.”
Carvedoc is the term for people who perform engravings. For the record, even though the word ‘doc’ is in it, they weren’t medical professionals. They were closer to tattoo artists who engraved tattoos on people’s bodies. I hadn’t known that, but since it had ‘doc’ in the name, I had studied it diligently. By the time I realized the truth, it was too late, so I just finished studying it.
“A true genius really does study things as a hobby….”
But that study wasn’t a complete waste. Thanks to it, one more misunderstanding about me had been added to Eri’s collection. Well, if I think of it as an element that reinforces my character, it might not be such a bad thing.
I was preparing to welcome the next patient when Eri, who was organizing the records of Ethan, who had just left, clicked her pen and opened her mouth.
“But Doctor. I’m asking seriously, wouldn’t it be better to just take off that mask instead of putting your heart and soul into acting like a clown like you just did?”
“…….”
“Honestly, I think that’s why the kids cry as soon as they see you.”
I silently stroked the beak of my plague doctor mask. Then I shook my head.
“I don’t think it would change anything even if I took it off.”
The evidence was our youngest, Freed. That child always tried to cry whenever he saw me. This face was certainly quite gloomy-looking.
“Freed didn’t seem to like my face much either.”
“I heard from Freya, but it seems that’s because you prick his thigh with a needle every time you see him, Doctor.”
“…….”
I ignored Eri’s words and turned my body toward the entrance.
“Next patient.”
***
After the clinic closed, I headed to Wangcho’s restaurant for my research for the first time in a while.
“Wangcho. I’m here.”
“Doctor, you’ve arrived? But what kind of research are you doing to buy so many eggs? And only fertilized ones at that?”
“I have a use for them.”
The research I was obsessed with this time was vaccine research. The reason was none other than the grimoire of the Black Mage Belgian. The grimoire he left behind contained detailed descriptions of ghoul-type magic and plague-curse-type magic. Among them, I focused on the plague curse side.
‘Biological immunity neutralized the magical curse.’
If so, could the opposite be possible? The research started from that idea. The biggest reason I couldn’t make vaccines in this world was that there was no way to control viruses or bacteria. Smallpox vaccines had the method of cowpox, but other vaccines didn’t. In that situation, the plague curse Belgian left behind was a very welcome guest.
Finally, I had a means to control viruses or bacteria as I pleased.
‘Of course, I can’t directly cast this on people.’
Existing curses had no concept of adjustment. It was a curse designed for killing in the first place, so there was no way the power could be adjusted. If I went around casting this on people as a ‘vaccination,’ I wouldn’t be the protagonist—I’d be the Hitler of this other world.
So, I decided to refer to the method of making vaccines in the 21st century.
‘Fertilized Egg Cultivation Method.’
It was the most common and traditional method used for mass-producing flu vaccines in modern medicine. It was literally a technique of injecting a virus into a fertilized egg before it hatched to cultivate it.
With this method, I didn’t have to do the crazy thing of casting a curse directly on a person. My plan was to cast the plague curse on the eggs, then later extract and purify only the weakened virus from them.
“Doctor. Can you really not tell me?”
“I cannot. It is classified.”
Naturally, I was conducting this series of research in secret, all by myself. Black magic itself wasn’t a taboo. If you asked who was more cruel, burning a person to death or letting them die of a disease, it would be difficult to determine superiority. Likewise, as long as black magic wasn’t used directly for crime, the research itself as an academic discipline wasn’t completely banned by the church or the empire.
However, considering the primal disgust and rejection that people in this world held toward black magic, it was difficult to receive a good look even in these back alleys. Furthermore, in a world without the concept of a vaccine, I couldn’t just say I planned to inject a curse into a human body.
Of course, that wasn’t the only reason. Originally, safety is the top priority in research dealing with viruses or bacteria. But in this world, where even the concept of hygiene was lacking, finding someone who would follow all the safety protocols was a difficult task. So, for the sake of safety, I was conducting this research alone.
“Sigh… I understand.”
Perhaps my sincerity was conveyed; Wangcho nodded, though he still looked displeased. But he didn’t seem fully convinced, so I lowered my voice as much as possible and said.
“I’m sorry, Wangcho. This research is one where everyone involved could be in danger if things go wrong.”
Upon hearing my words, Wangcho’s complexion turned ashen in an instant.
“Hiiik!”
But contrary to my intentions, Wangcho seemed to have misunderstood in a different direction.
“I understand. I will never, ever let anyone wander near the laboratory. And I will make sure no one can steal a peek at your research, Doctor.”
“There’s no need to go that far….”
Sigh. As soon as the misunderstanding that I didn’t have burn scars was cleared up, a new one was added. I debated whether I should explain again, but I decided to just leave it. I realized during the Belgian incident that misunderstandings couldn’t be solved with words. When the research is finished, the misunderstanding will naturally clear up. It doesn’t matter if it doesn’t, either. I was too lazy to make excuses, so I just nodded appropriately. It seemed like such misunderstandings would sometimes be much more helpful for maintaining security.
“Eri. Take the eggs. We’re going to the clinic warehouse.”
“Are you going to use all of these for research?”
“…I’ll cook the unfertilized ones separately for you, so don’t feel bad.”
“Then I want an omelet.”
“I shall.”
Excited, Eri picked up baskets full of fertilized eggs in both hands. Her strength, which grew stronger by the day, was now at a level I couldn’t match. We headed to my small, private laboratory prepared behind the clinic. My private laboratory located in Limbus Pit was a place made by renovating a warehouse.
“Eri. Go outside.”
“Okay~”
Confirming that Eri had left the laboratory, I locked the door tightly and began preparing for the experiment in earnest.
‘First, Belgian’s grimoire.’
I turned the dial of the safe and took out the bovine pus and Belgian’s grimoire that were inside. Then I opened the lid of the bottle and spread out Belgian’s notebook next to it.
[Sanio et Putro. (Pus, decay.)]
I felt magic power draining from my body. I couldn’t cast magic in other places, but I could cast appropriate magic within the laboratory. The reason I couldn’t become a mage in the first place was that I lacked the talent to grasp the state of variables in an uncontrolled environment. In other words, in a controlled environment, I could cast magic as much as I wanted.
‘I can at least call myself a wizard, if not a mage.’
Most research-type mages who didn’t become mages were of a similar type to me. They could all cast magic to some extent within their own laboratories or workshops. Even then, it required very strict conditions, like the magic failing the next day if a cleaner came by to clean once.
[Morde Cuten Eos (Gnaw at their skin)]
As the incantation continued, a whitish smoke rose from the bottle containing the pus. It was a smoke of a different color than Belgian’s black smoke. I didn’t know why there was such a difference when only the catalyst was slightly different. That was a task I had to solve later.
[Efflora, Morbiflos (Bloom, flower of the plague.)]
Eventually, the incantation ended. The white mist followed the spell values I had set and wrapped around the tray of eggs on the experiment table. I looked at the eggs carefully and picked out ten.
“Twenty eggs are duds….”
Since I was changing a curse originally intended for humans into one for eggs, the failure rate was quite high. I soaked those ten eggs in holy water. No matter how much I weakened the power with the spell, it was a curse designed to kill people in the first place. For the eggs to withstand such a curse, they needed the help of holy water.
‘To think I’m making a vaccine with a biochemical weapon.’
Usually, the order would be the other way around. I smiled self-deprecatingly and put the remaining ten eggs into an incubator. I wrote today’s date on the box and pushed it into a corner of the laboratory. And I took out the box that had been sitting there, which had the date from four days ago written on it. They were the ones I had injected with the curse in the same way four days ago, suppressed the power with holy water dilution, and put into the incubator.
“Now, let’s see.”
There were six eggs in the box. With a bit of anticipation and tension, I brought the eggs under a light. If it had succeeded, the chick embryo would be wiggling inside when I shone the light through the egg.
‘First one….’
The inside of the egg through which the light passed was muddied in a dark black-brown color, like sewer water. It was strange even before I shone the light through it. That was because there were fine cracks all over the shell, as if it were rotten. I smiled bitterly and threw the first egg into the disposal bin.
“Next….”
The second egg. It was a pretty shell on the outside. But when I shone the light, there was nothing but pus inside, let alone an embryo. It was a failure.
“Next.”
Third… fourth… and sixth.
“Is this a failure too….”
I let out a hollow sigh and held my forehead. Not a single one of the six fertilized eggs had survived. They were all blackened and rotten, or the pus had burst and was giving off a stench, or they had dried up and shriveled.
‘Either I set the power of the curse too high, or the inhibitory power of the holy water was too weak.’
But I couldn’t use too much holy water, either. If I did, the curse would die instead. ‘There are too many things to adjust.’ First, I needed to modify the spell to work better on chicks, find a way to lower the power further, and balance it with the holy water.
‘Whew….’
It had been a long time since I felt so lost, ever since the quinine incident. I had struggled, thinking the sap was the raw material, only to discover later that the bark was the raw material in this world.
‘Well, that’s what research is.’
Magic research was especially so. Unlike science, there was no feedback even if you failed. If magic fails, it only takes your magic power, and it doesn’t give you any clues as to why it failed. This was also written in detail in the grimoire handed to me by the mage named ‘Fitch’.
‘That old man also failed thousands of times in his research on holy water.’
The grimoire he handed over contained a detailed account of the journey to discover magic using holy water as a medium. The research journal, which seemed to still be in progress, had the 5214th record written last.
‘Compared to that, I’ve only failed fifteen times.’
Isn’t scholarship originally a record of failure? So, even if I failed today, I wasn’t particularly impatient. I was only twelve years old, and I had too much of my life left.
‘Above all, I’m the protagonist of a misunderstanding story.’
I chuckled and organized the box. And I wrote today’s experimental content in the research journal, along with future improvements.