Arm Treatment (2)
Somehow, I had ended up with connections like these, but my master’s words had a powerful effect on me. The restless anxiety that had been gnawing at me over the possibility of something happening to him settled down easily.
In truth, it would have been stranger not to feel uneasy when he claimed to be on friendly terms with the Pope. After admitting my master for treatment, the heretic inquisitors listened to his account regarding Prince Loras and immediately set out to pursue him. However, they tried to leave one of the inquisitors assigned to guard me behind, so I hurriedly stopped them.
“My master’s skill is second to none. Yet someone managed to sever that very person’s arm. Even if you don’t believe a demon has possessed Prince Loras’s body, there’s a clear difference between going prepared and going unprepared, isn’t there?”
The inquisitors eventually accepted my advice to value their own lives. After all, they were already leaving two behind to monitor my master. If they left even more inquisitors to guard me, the number of people available to chase Loras would drop sharply, which must have been a burden for them as well.
“So it seems Melody will have to take up my guard duty again. I’m sorry for burdening you once more.”
“Not at all.”
Melody’s expression was one of pure relief, as if she had finally had a rotten tooth pulled. In fact, I had also found the constant presence of those gloomy inquisitors incredibly burdensome, so returning to the way things used to be felt incredibly refreshing.
“I wonder where Prince Loras might be right now. And I’m worried about whether I should tell her about this.”
By “her,” I meant Princess Reciel, who was currently staying at Marichel’s house. She was there contacting the other labyrinth team members. They were preparing to enter the labyrinth once again.
I wonder if she managed to sort out everything related to her sister.
Since we had agreed to have dinner together, I could check then. For a while, I hadn’t been able to contact those people because of the inquisitors. Relations with the Deltrack Empire were rapidly deteriorating, so they had judged that showing the princess to them carried far too much risk.
In a situation like this, there’s no such thing as being too careful.
While working, I moved between tasks to visit my master’s hospital room. Even with painkillers, how could losing an arm not hurt? His mood would surely be foul, he would be experiencing phantom pain, and the unhealed wound would keep causing constant agony. It was only natural for his nerves to be on edge.
“Master, how have you been?”
“What’s all the fuss over an injury like this? I told you not to come, yet here you are again.”
“It’ll still hurt even after the painkillers. Please don’t just endure it. If it hurts, tell me it hurts so I can treat you properly.”
“Are you managing your patients well?”
“Yes. Thanks to everyone’s consideration, I’m handling paperwork instead of treating patients right now.”
“Paperwork? Ugh—”
He pretended to retch, as if old memories had resurfaced.
“Not all the patients have been discharged yet. I have to help with the paperwork at least. After all, this is something I caused.”
“Didn’t you all agree to share the burden? So why are you struggling to take everything on yourself? I’ve told you to fix that habit, but you just won’t listen.”
“It seems this is just the kind of person I am. Let me check on your arm.”
The bandages had to be changed three times a day to prevent the wound from rotting. Thanks to consistent disinfection, the wound hadn’t festered, but that didn’t mean his overall condition was good. For a patient who had lost an arm and hadn’t received complete treatment, it was actually on the positive side.
“You have a slight fever.”
“Mmm.”
“I’ll infuse you with a bit of divine power.”
To manage his condition, I carefully channeled an appropriate amount of divine power into his body. If I poured in too much, the arm might heal prematurely, so the amount I could use was limited.
“How do you manage to use exactly the right amount every time? This is the first time I’ve been treated by you, so I didn’t realize before, but your skill is truly remarkable.”
“I told you, didn’t I? Not just anyone becomes the youngest chief healer. You can be proud of yourself for raising such an excellent disciple.”
“Haha! What a funny kid.”
“Actually, I think you’re the amazing one, Master. Just imagining enduring that kind of pain is horrifying. I don’t know how you’re holding up.”
If I had been in his position, I would have been delirious, unable to speak, and simply groaning in misery.
“It seems we always think the other person’s burden looks heavier. That’s only natural.”
Before wrapping the new bandage, I examined the wound. This was the process of gauging how much preparation would be needed to regenerate the arm in one go. Honestly, my intuition told me it was possible even now. But I didn’t attempt it recklessly.
Imagine if my divine power ran out midway and I had to stop. The newly sprouting arm would be left incomplete, forced to remain in that unfinished state.
That would be truly horrific.
The sight alone would be gruesome, but considering the pain the patient would suffer… That was why, even though I felt it might be possible, I had set the time at three days. Of course, I had lied to the inquisitors and told them it would take a week.
“Please wait just a little longer.”
“Of course. If I can’t trust my own disciple, who in the world could I trust? I’m waiting with full confidence.”
“Have you thought about what I mentioned before?”
“Hmm? Are you asking about that again? I told you, the investigation isn’t as dangerous as you think.”
Why wouldn’t a police investigation be dangerous? It seemed he thought I didn’t know much about the inquisitors. It was true that I hadn’t known before, but the situation was different now.
“Well… I think I have a pretty good idea of what that investigation will feel like.”
“How would you know that?”
My master looked uncomfortable at the fact that I knew about the darker side of the inquisitors.
“It just sort of happened.”
“It’s her, isn’t it? The only person I can suspect of teaching you about the inquisitors is her. You two seemed awfully close.”
“Um… we did get closer than I expected.”
We had even gone on something resembling a date. Of course, neither of us considered that time a date. How should I put it…
“I consider Melody a friend.”
A close friend. There were many advantages to having memories from my previous life. While others my age wanted to play, I had studied diligently, thinking about the future. But that didn’t mean there were no downsides. Especially when I was younger, it had been the worst possible environment for making friends.
In my eyes, the other children were no different from adorable babies, yet I was supposed to play with them at that level? It was impossible.
I was basically a nanny back then. A nanny.
Thanks to that, the teachers liked me. They could leave the children with me and finally catch their breath. In that sense, I thought I had finally reached an appropriate age to make friends.
“Friend?? Friieeend???? How many times do I have to say it? That’s not what a friend is!”
I had happily bragged to my master about making a friend, but his reaction was completely different from what I had expected.
“The person herself says we’re not like that, so why are you acting this way? Neither of us has any romantic feelings for the other. You’re the only one insisting this is a romance, Master.”
“Fine, that’s probably for the best. A heretic inquisitor is the worst possible choice for a lover anyway.”
“I said we’re friends, not lovers.”
“Right. Stay friends with her for life. You absolutely must.”
“Why are you so impatient about my love life? I’ll do it when the time is right.”
“Why wait for the right time? In my day, people had children in the middle of war.”
“!!”
I had heard that during my master’s prime, the world had been in complete chaos. Still, babies must have been born even then.
“But if you compare now to back then, isn’t it roughly similar? The labyrinth has appeared, after all.”
And it wasn’t just the labyrinth. I had somehow gotten caught up in the imperial succession struggle of an entire empire and was fighting because of it. The international situation wasn’t good either. Ever since the labyrinth opened, every nation was keeping each other in check and engaging in psychological warfare in the neutral zone.
“Anyway, I’ll handle my own romance, so stop worrying. And our relationship is purely platonic, so please don’t look at us with strange eyes. There, treatment complete.”
Even while listening to my master’s nagging, I didn’t slow my hands as I disinfected the wound and wrapped it with a fresh bandage.
“Just remember that there are many people who like you. I’m definitely going to attend your wedding and eat some wedding noodles.”
If they liked me, why were they telling my master instead of coming to me? I had no idea.
“Understood. I’ll treat you to some later, so please wait. And if you want to see me get married, you’ll have to get through this situation safely, right? Weren’t you saying you wanted to grow old gracefully and die peacefully?”
My master’s marriage pressure was as unpleasant to hear as a relative’s nagging during the holidays.
“Mmm…”
“And are you really going to rely solely on him?”
If the Pope were to turn his back on my master, he could end up suffering during the investigation. When my master had sounded confident, I had thought it would be fine as long as it was the Pope, but I kept feeling like we should prepare at least one backup plan.
“I give you countermeasures, but you keep telling me to think of different ones. What exactly do you want me to do to satisfy you?”
“Hmm.”
He had a point. It seemed my worry for my master had been excessive.
“Have a good investigation.”
“Will do.”
“I’ll treat you well, but you won’t be able to use the newly grown arm as skillfully as your original one right away. You must be careful and do your rehabilitation exercises properly.”
“I know. You’re already nagging me when you haven’t even fixed it yet?”
Right. Who was it that told me not to nag about his love life?
“It’s just how we show affection through back-and-forth nagging.”
And so three days passed in the blink of an eye, and the time came to treat my master’s arm. During that time, I had prayed for eight hours every day to refine both my body and mind. My divine power was, of course, completely full, and since I had slept deeply in preparation for today, my mind was clear. I was perfectly ready to treat my master.
Of course, treatment wasn’t something only the healer had to work hard at. The patient’s mindset was just as important as the healer’s.
“Are you ready? Ready to regain your arm?”
Having keenly felt the absence of his arm for the past three days, my master welcomed my arrival with open enthusiasm.