The Saint of the Lantern and the Black Saint
“...Archbishop.”
“What is it, Helmut?”
Archbishop Lailic, who was in the middle of saving patients, was approached by one of his acolytes.
“The… Director has done it.”
“Done what?”
“He has saved three patients with abdominal penetrations….”
The Archbishop checked his watch without realizing it. 10:41 AM. It had been about an hour since they had sent the patients with the black flags.
“Huhu….”
He didn’t know what kind of magic he was using, but Director Shun had pulled it off. In a situation where resources and time were both in short supply.
“The Director says he will soon save the fifth patient as well, and asks that we continue to send more.”
“Is he truly not using Regeneration?”
“He says Lesser Heal is sufficient…. Ah, he also says that since his own healers’ holy power is running low, he requests a few priests who can cast Lesser Heal.”
Of course, he had to send them. That sentence rose to the Archbishop’s throat. He was performing miracles close to Regeneration using only Lesser Heal. There was no reason not to send them. In fact, if he asked who wanted to go, the priests would likely compete for the spot. He didn’t even have to look far; the acolyte currently reporting to him was already fidgeting with excitement.
“Um… Archbishop….”
“Helmut, go ahead. Learn much there, and report back to me.”
“Thank you! Archbishop!”
Watching his acolyte beam with excitement, the Archbishop gave a bitter smile. It was only natural to react that way. Holy magic was, after all, a branch of magic. Just like any magic tower or noble family, every clinic had its own secret techniques. Depending on the symbols, catalysts, nerves, tissues, and principles used, the results of holy magic varied. Even the specialized treatments differed by sect. That was why healers would train at various clinics to learn those secrets, and in some cases, even send spies to rival clinics to steal them. In such emergency situations, some clinics even refused to let outside healers in. There was no need to mention how exclusionary clinics usually were.
But Director Shun was different.
‘It’s as if he wants other healers to learn.’
No, it wasn’t a guess; it was a fact. Typical clinics strictly forbade healers from joining rival clinics upon leaving. But the Merkur Clinic was different. They didn’t block those who entered, and they didn’t hold onto those who left. Other clinics didn’t even need to send spies. They welcomed anyone with open arms if they said they wanted to learn. Ironically, because of this, there was a situation where applicants were competing so fiercely that even those who wanted to enter couldn’t.
In any case, Director Shun’s actions were in a completely different league from other healers.
‘Huhu…. I wonder if our priests should reflect on themselves after seeing this.’
Thinking this, the Archbishop began to select the priests to send to the Merkur Clinic. In his heart, he wanted to fill the ranks with his own people. But that would be an insult to Director Shun’s noble intentions. Therefore, the Archbishop randomly selected healers who had some spare capacity in the field and dispatched them equally.
‘… Huhu. I’m at an age where I shouldn’t be, but I want to join them too.’
In his heart, the Archbishop wanted to join the group naturally. He had a desire to learn various things as a healer, and as a religious man, he wanted to witness the miracles firsthand. Naturally, he didn’t put this into action. He had his own work to do here.
“Helmut. Make sure to learn a lot, and tell me all about it when you return.”
“Understood, Archbishop.”
He smiled warmly as he watched his acolyte climb into the carriage, as if he were sending a student to study abroad in the Holy Kingdom.
Clatter, clatter.
After sending the priests to the D-1 clinic, the Archbishop checked the black-flagged patients once more. And then,
“Director. Is it possible to save a patient who has lost their lower jaw and a quarter of their head?”
[Is the brain intact?]
“The skull is shattered, but the brain seems to remain.”
[It is a bit difficult, but worth a try. Please classify patients with head trauma where the brain is preserved, or those with destroyed lower jaws, as red and send them over.]
“Understood.”
[Oh, when you send them, please make sure they are lying face down.]
“…Understood.”
The Archbishop answered, but he looked hesitant. A patient with a shattered jaw and exposed brain. Why was such a patient classified as red? How on earth did he intend to save such a person? Countless questions followed one after another. But he set the questions aside. A genius chosen by God must have methods he didn’t know. Thinking this, the Archbishop began to sort the patients again.
***
After he began changing the patients who were classified as black to red, the field started sending all sorts of rare cases.
“A male patient in his 20s, with massive head and facial destruction caused by a magic beast’s claws; multiple comminuted fractures and defects of the mandible and skull. In particular, a large skull defect of approximately 9x11cm is confirmed in the right parietal and temporal bone area, with the brain directly exposed. The left mandibular ramus and body are shattered and missing, and the intraoral soft tissue is severely ruptured, exposing the airway.”
This patient had been struck in the head. A patient whose lower jaw and head were destroyed. Originally, such a person would have to be classified with a black flag. But after operating with Ayla, I figured it would be fine to classify them as red.
“Did you anesthetize with cocaine?”
“Yes, he is anesthetized.”
I started the surgery immediately.
“Student Joel.”
“Then I will call time-out. 12:08 PM. I will begin the surgery.”
The first thing I checked was the tongue. Generally, the tongue is a structure supported by the lower jawbone and a bone called the hyoid bone. At this time, the muscle attached to the lower jawbone, called the genioglossus, pulls the tongue forward, and the rest of the muscles pull the tongue backward. In this situation, what happens if the lower jawbone disappears?
‘No matter how much strength you put into the tongue, it will curl backward.’
Since the lower jaw is gone and there is no force pulling it from the front, the tongue curls backward due to gravity. That is how the tongue blocks the throat, causing suffocation and death. That was why I told them to have the patient lie face down when sending them. To prevent it from curling backward due to gravity. I was changing the direction of gravity to the front from the patient’s perspective. Of course, this was also a temporary measure. Eventually, I needed to solve this first.
“Hold the tongue firmly.”
I stitched the tongue to create a loop and fixed it to the front. And to ensure they could breathe even if the tongue curled back, I made a hole in the neck through a tracheostomy. Then I inserted a tube into the neck so they could breathe.
“Now let’s deal with the head.”
What to do with the head was the same as what I usually did. Craniotomy. I just applied it slightly differently. The cross-section of the missing skull was sharp and could pierce the brain, so I filed it down. I incised the dura mater to alleviate brain edema. However, there was one difference from a normal craniotomy.
“Director. We are short on skull and skin to cover it….”
Kou, a healer who had observed countless craniotomies in the past, said. That was right. This patient was currently short on bone and flesh to cover the brain.
“Perhaps we should use holy magic here….”
“There is no need for that. Give me Goldbeater’s skin.”
Goldbeater’s skin is a cloth used by gold leaf artisans. It is a cloth used to cover gold leaf to protect it when hammering it for gilding. I was going to cover the head with this. Later, when the brain edema subsided, I would replace the skull with iron, and for the scalp, I would use skin from the buttocks and thighs. In a world with holy magic, grafting was much easier.
Snip, snip.
I cut and attached the cloth to fit the brain. And to prevent the brain fluid from leaking out, I covered it once more with oil-soaked silk cloth.
“Now let’s fix the lower jawbone.”
This wasn’t difficult either. I just had to tinker with the remaining Goldbeater’s skin and wire. To be more specific, so it wouldn’t look like I was being lazy by saying it was too simple,
“Student Ayla, Refresh.”
“Yes, yes! Refresh!”
First, I removed the necrotic tissue without hesitation, then washed it once with holy water.
“Refresh one more time.”
“Refresh!”
Then I covered the wound areas with scrap cloth to prevent bacteria from entering. Finally, I wrapped the wire in a figure-eight pattern to fix the remaining jawbone, and tied the remaining jawbone and tongue together with thread to fix the tongue as well. With this, the patient’s surgery for today was finished. Tomorrow and the day after, I would have to reconstruct the lower jawbone. I would have to think about whether to use ribs or just a steel jawbone made by dwarves. In any case, surgery over.
“Please sign out.”
“I will sign out. Total surgery time is 38 minutes, 12:46 PM.”
38 minutes. Not a bad time. About the time I could spend on one patient in a general code black situation. Originally, it was a major surgery that required at least an hour. Because the neck area had many blood vessels and structures, it was a place where blood gushed out. Since I couldn’t see anything, I had to spend half the surgery time just stopping the bleeding. But with holy magic, I could shorten the surgery time like this.
‘Of course, it’s thanks to the team doing well.’
I looked around the operating room. Joel and the other healers, who were now used to the surgery, just nodded calmly. Instead, the new healers sent by the Archbishop couldn’t close their mouths. It was a quite satisfying reaction.
‘Yes. Watch my surgery and spread it far and wide.’
That way, the burden of having to do a one-man show by myself would decrease. It would be even better if those people grafted this surgical method onto holy magic and developed it further. It would be even, even better if they spread the name of Director Shun far and wide.
“Then, shall we move to the next operating room?”
Thinking that, I threw off my surgical gown. The shirt inside the gown was soaked with sweat.
“…I will change my clothes and come back down.”
Not only my shirt, but the inside of my crow mask was full of sweat. I wanted to take off the mask too, but the problem was that I couldn’t because of Director Shun’s identity even in this situation.
‘Should I install an air conditioner later?’
I wondered if I should even imbue it with something like ice magic. At that moment, I felt a warm sensation on my back. When I turned my head, I saw Ayla casting Refresh on me.
“…Student Ayla?”
“No… it’s just… the Director looked a bit tired… I’m sorry if it was a waste of holy power….”
“No, thank you.”
Waste, what waste. I think I’ve used Refresh hundreds of times so far. She still seemed to have plenty of holy power. At this point, it was safe to say she possessed holy power comparable to a high-level healer.
‘Well, at this point, I think I have to see that she has awakened the talent of a saint.’
Moreover, I saw Ayla as someone who could go beyond a high-level healer and even aim for the position of a saint. So, a single Refresh was nothing. Rather, if it could reduce my fatigue, shouldn’t she use it without hesitation?
“Are you okay, student? I’m worried that I might be overworking you.”
“I’m okay, Director.”
“That’s a relief. Then I’ll go change, so Student Ayla, get some rest too.”
“Yes! Director!”
I walked toward my office, seen off by the healers and students.
***
A week had passed since then. For patients with abdominal injuries, I reconstructed their internal organs and closed their abdomens. For patients with head injuries, I reconstructed their skulls and jawbones using ribs. Besides that, there were people whose esophagi were damaged by corrosive poison, people whose lungs were penetrated, people whose hip bones were shattered, and so on. In any case, there were truly diverse patients. Among them, the most impressive was the electrocution patient.
‘Wow, he survived this.’
He was an A-rank adventurer, and he was brought in grilled after a soul-to-soul fight with a lightning-breathing magic beast. Originally, in principle, that patient would not be treated because the possibility of resuscitation was low. But since most of the patients had been treated, there was some leeway, and he was a superhuman with high strategic value. So, I placed my hope in him and treated him. And one week passed.
‘Holy magic is indeed the best.’
In the end, he survived. To be precise, I didn’t save him alone. I only did the initial treatment, and the priests poured Lesser Heal on him every day. But in the end, he survived. Still, the initial treatment was something I had done truly brilliantly, so my share was by no means small.
‘I’m hitting a career high in another world.’
A high-voltage electrocution patient is a high-difficulty patient that would make the news even in trauma surgery if they were saved. If it were my past life, I would have published this in the Journal of Trauma and Acute Care Surgery (JTACS). If I had, I would have become a professor immediately. …The more I think about it, the more unfair it is. Well, of course, it would have been impossible in my past life. In the end, it was thanks to holy magic. And there was another contributor besides me.
“Kou. You saved this patient.”
“No, Director. I just did as you taught me.”
“Even so, I wouldn’t have been able to control the blood sugar like this.”
Our blood sugar specialist healer, Kou. This person brought the electrocution patient back from the Jordan River. Since the electrocution patient’s entire body cells were thoroughly cooked, a systemic inflammatory response occurred. As a result, the body continuously secreted cortisol and catecholamines, which caused blood sugar to skyrocket and inflammation to worsen. In this situation, the most important thing was blood sugar control. And it was Kou who accomplished this.
“Kou, please manage that patient until the end. I have to see other patients.”
“Understood, Director. Please get some rest now.”
“Yes, thank you for your hard work.”
It was a pity, but I handed over my career-high patient to Kou. Now that patient would return to daily life soon, just like the other patients. Once I kept the lives of the emergency patients who poured in during the first few days, the rest was easy. Because if they were still breathing, I could save them again with the miracle of God, holy magic. I just had to cure them in order of rank and send them to the battlefield. Since that A-rank adventurer was a valuable strategic resource, he would receive high-level holy magic first. So if I just kept them breathing, the rest would somehow work out.
‘Should I get some sleep?’
I had put out the urgent fire. I should be able to sleep soundly tonight. I headed to my office, which also served as the on-call room. When I opened the office door, I saw Ayla and her friends fast asleep on the sofa.
‘In the end, they didn’t go home until the end.’
They were truly excellent students. They had helped me by my side for a week. They didn’t have any particular obligation to do so, but they contacted their homes and stayed here to save patients. Sometimes their parents even came to the clinic and brought them lunch boxes. This is why I like an era where romance is alive and breathing.
At that moment, Ayla rubbed her eyes and lifted her body from the sofa.
“Umm… Director?”
“Student Ayla. Why did you wake up?”
“Ah, that is….”
She checked the clock. Then,
“It’s time to cast Refresh on the patients….”
“Have you been doing that all this time?”
I had only been in the operating room, so I didn’t know. She nodded at this.
“Yes… I thought it might help…. Oh, I should have asked for permission….”
“No, you did really well.”
In the end, the most important thing before and after surgery is physical strength. A doctor’s skill is only important during surgery. In the end, what determines survival is the patient’s physical strength. It’s not for nothing that doctors check if patients eat well or exercise before and after surgery.
‘No wonder. Even for a misunderstanding fantasy, the survival rate was too good.’
Since Ayla was casting Refresh every day, it had to be that way. I felt like I had found another reason for the misunderstanding that I hadn’t known about. Or not? Is the misunderstanding grammar unrelated to this? Anyway.
“Good, Student Ayla. I’m also due for rounds. Shall we go together?”
“Yes! Director!”
I started walking side by side with Student Ayla. I checked the personal information of the patients that the other students had organized and went on rounds.
“Ah, Mr. Theodore. How is your stomach? Is your digestion okay? The wound… hasn’t opened. You are recovering well. You know Student Ayla? Ah, she cast Refresh on you every night?”
“You are Cordelia’s fiancé? You are worried that the patient might become unable to have children? Please tell her not to worry. The uterus was preserved, so there will be no problem once she recovers. Thanks to Ayla’s help, we were able to avoid a hysterectomy.”
“Mr. Casimir, you woke up yesterday, right? Do you remember where this is? Ah, this student looks familiar? What? She looks like the angel that appeared in your dream… and… is it delirium…?”
I wondered if the last patient was in a slightly strange state. Fortunately, it was a misunderstanding. He was unconsciously remembering Ayla’s nightly visits in the form of a dream. After finishing the rounds, I took Ayla to a place other than the office where her friends were. It was the conference room. The name was grand, but it was just a space where desks and supplies were thrown.
“I have a gift I want to give you.”
There, I took out five medals. Each was for Ayla and her four friends.
“This is for the honorary healers of our guild. Originally, I wanted to hold a formal award ceremony, but I don’t think we’ll have the capacity for that for a few months.”
“I… me?”
Ayla pointed at herself and opened her eyes wide. She looked back and forth between the five medals on the desk and me.
“I… I…. I really haven’t done anything…. Compared to the other healers, I only cast Refresh….”
“Hmm. Student Ayla.”
“Yes!”
“Do you remember the fact I taught you at the D-3 clinic before?”
“Small and trivial facts gather to become knowledge….”
“That’s right.”
There is a fact I emphasized several times at the time. The personal information of each patient might not have the value to reduce medical expenses. But when those numerous pieces of information gather, a single research result emerges. And when those research results accumulate, they become knowledge. Knowledge that cannot be replaced even with a thousand pieces of gold.
And that logic also leads to what I want to say now.
“Student Ayla. Why do you think miracles happen?”
“Yes?”
“People think miracles only happen when there is the intervention of a massive being.”
But I think differently.
“But I am different. A miracle starts from all the trivial things.”
“All… trivial things?”
“Yes.”
In trauma surgery, you can witness countless miracles. From the patient shot in the heart—which I use like bone broth—to the patient who fell off a motorcycle and had half of the front part torn off, to the patient who fell while climbing Bukhansan Mountain and broke their neck. Trauma surgery is a place where such patients survive with a roughly 30 percent probability. (Assuming they arrive on time.)
At this time, all the conditions that save the patients are trivial. Is the wound infected? Is that small blood vessel alive? Is there a scratch on the internal organs? Is this person young? A patient can die from one very small hole, and a patient can survive just by missing it slightly. And all of that gathers to create a 30 percent miracle.
It was the same this time.
“Student’s Refresh might be trivial to regular healers.”
It’s only at the level of recovering fatigue and stopping micro-bleeding. But if the frequency is close to infinite and you can use it without hesitation, the story changes. That Refresh gave the patients the physical strength to wait for surgery, stopped trivial bleeding during surgery to shorten the surgery time, created the basis for judging which organs to save and which to give up, and gave the patients the physical strength to recover quickly after surgery.
“But even if one Refresh is trivial, if it all gathers, it is a miracle.”
Didn’t they originally say the devil is in the details? All these trivial things gather to cause the miracle of patients surviving. In that sense, Ayla’s share in this ‘miracle’ was by no means small.
“Above all, thanks to the Refresh Student Ayla cast in the middle, I was able to endure.”
After all, it was thanks to her that I was able to not collapse for a week. I have experience dying from overwork, so I know that people can die from working. There is no order in going before overwork.
“So take it. Student Ayla, and your friends too. Because you were a really big help.”
“…Thank you, Director.”
Ayla took the medals for her friends as well.
“And this is a gift I am giving Student Ayla personally.”
One more thing here. I handed her the cloak worn by the healers of our guild. A white cloak decorated with gold thread. Nobody wears it because it’s cumbersome when working, but the cloak seemed to approach Ayla in a different sense.
“…Thank you so much, Director.”
I draped the cloak over her shoulders. With that, we finished our own small award ceremony.
“I look forward to your future activities, my disciple.”
“Director… no, I will do my best not to bring shame to my master’s reputation.”
I patted her shoulder lightly, and we headed back to the office.
A few days later.
Around the time the smell of blood flowing in the square of the North Gate was still rising from the sewer, the entire imperial capital was full of people wearing mourning clothes. Depressing newspaper articles placed in front of their houses.
— Northern Subjugation 2000 Expeditionary Force, catastrophic damage confirmed —
— Rescue team casualties more than double the attack force —
— Subjugation front beyond the wall, switching to defense for the time being. Emergency organization of reinforcements for the wall garrison —
The appearance of mutant magic beasts. This was enough to make humanity tremble in fear again. This was a history that had been repeated for a thousand years. Just when they were getting used to the magic beasts, hope would be mercilessly trampled by a sudden variant magic beast. Heroes, knights, and nobles would be slaughtered all at once or suffer permanent defects, and humanity would hide behind the walls passively until they recovered from the damage. And when a new generation headed outside the wall again, they would have to face magic beasts that had grown in strength over a long period of time.
Those who had repeated such tragedies over a long period of time thought it would be the same this time. Until one piece of news was delivered.
— 2000 casualties. Among them, 100 deaths. Far below the expected number of deaths —
The imperial family and the military. They estimated the death toll of this expedition failure at 1200 people. Holy power has limits. Therefore, it is natural for it to be concentrated on people of high rank, which is a precious strategy for humanity. Even if there were people abandoned in the process, they thought it was unavoidable. Some of the patients saved this way even died from an unknown fever. As a result, they thought it was the way to maintain the front line even if the mortality rate among the casualties approached 50 percent.
However.
— Out of 2000 casualties, 100 return to the front line in order of rank —
There were too few deaths. 100 people, not 1200. People of low rank were not sacrificed to concentrate holy magic on high-ranking superhumans. Even high-ranking superhumans were not sacrificed. Their return to the front line was not delayed. There was even hopeful news that those who were injured and obtained permanent disabilities could somehow return if they received holy magic in the distant future.
This was a miracle. People immediately began to take interest in the source of that miracle. And in that interest, the Archbishop made a groundbreaking announcement.
“All of this is thanks to the ‘Black Saint’ and the ‘Saint of the Lantern’.”
Saint and Saintess. With the new miracle heard in the gloomy times of the empire, the whole world’s attention was focused on the two people.