The First Operation
I succeeded.
“It’s not too late yet. But… this is going to hurt way more than you’re imagining.”
“…What? What exactly are you planning to do? Don’t tell me you’re actually going to try this yourself? Please stop… If you touch it, it’ll only get worse…”
“Don’t worry. Trust me. I can use magic now, you know.”
“…What?”
“If we leave it like this for a few more days, you’ll die for sure. So I’m going to use my magic to scrape out and cut away all the rotten flesh that’s pooled inside the wound. I won’t touch a single bit of the healthy tissue. After that… I’ll cauterize the remaining cut surface with fire to seal it so it doesn’t get infected.”
“W-what?! Cut out the flesh and burn it?! Are you insane?! You’re not even a doctor! And have you ever done anything like this in your entire life?! Of course you haven’t! You’re definitely… definitely going to fail!”
“That’s right! I’ve never done it before! But what choice do we have? Can we call a doctor right this second? Do you have the money?! If you just sit here doing nothing, you’re going to die anyway! One hundred percent! But if I do this… at least you’ll have a fifty-fifty chance of surviving!”
“B-brother… Is… is our brother really in that bad of a condition…?”
“Just look at him. If we leave it like this for a few more days, the rot will spread through his whole body and he’ll lose his life.”
“U-uuu… Brother. Let’s trust Vita just this once, okay?”
“F-France…? Why are you suddenly taking her side like this… She’s not a doctor, she’s just…!”
“I don’t want you to die, Brother… I hate the idea of you suffering like this and then just dying. It’s too scary…!”
The sight of France finally breaking down into loud, heartbreaking sobs made Prin’s pupils tremble endlessly, as if struck by an earthquake.
“…Why don’t you two talk it over? You’ll need to prepare yourselves mentally, so I’ll wait outside for a bit.”
When I stepped outside, the air was cold. The sunset had already vanished, and the world had turned into a pitch-black night where only moonlight illuminated the darkness overhead.
“Haa…”
I leaned my back against the shabby wall and slid down until I was crouching on the ground.
This is insane. Seriously…
It was only natural that Prin was terrified and freaking out. The idea of some kid with zero medical knowledge carving into his body with unknown magic no one had ever heard of, without any anesthesia, and then burning the wound shut. Any sane person would refuse.
Still… hadn’t I done everything I possibly could? I’d tried my best to persuade him.
If Prin kept stubbornly refusing until the end, there was nothing more I could do.
I couldn’t tie him down by force and perform the surgery anyway. All I could do was wash my hands of it and leave it to fate.
But what if… what if Prin actually agreed to go through with it?
Could I really excise only the rotten flesh with perfect precision, without a single mistake?
A broken doll could just be remade, but if I slipped up with a person, an artery would rupture and they’d bleed out and die instantly.
If Prin gave his permission, this would be the first real combat use of my clumsy magic—not on an object, but on a living, breathing human being with blood flowing through his veins.
If I failed… I would be the one who killed Prin with my own hands.
And if Prin died, France would surely resent me for it.
Haa… No matter how much I banged my head against the wall out here worrying, nothing would change right now.
The only way he had any chance of survival was if I picked up the knife.
The answer had been set from the very beginning.
I lightly slapped both cheeks to psych myself up, then stepped back into the house.
Creak.
The moment the door opened, the siblings who had been sitting by the candlelight turned their gazes toward me.
France’s eyes were puffy and swollen, but she wasn’t crying anymore.
“Vita. Please… take good care of my brother.”
“I will.”
Instead of empty words or empty comfort, I deliberately gave a short answer. Without hesitation, I walked over to the pile of straw spread across the floor.
Prin was already lying there flat on his back, staring at the ceiling with a grim, resolute expression. His eyes were squeezed shut, and cold sweat poured down his forehead.
A thick wad of cloth was stuffed into his mouth like a gag, clenched tightly between his teeth so he could endure the horrific pain that was coming with a clear mind.
I took a deep, slow breath and knelt down beside him.
“I’m starting.”
I closed my eyes tightly once, then opened them wide as I exhaled.
The mana I forcibly drew from every part of my body surged madly toward my eyes.
Extreme vision enhancement and shadow manipulation. It was the moment I simultaneously cast two spells I had never attempted before using multi-casting.
My vision, amplified to its absolute limit by mana, grotesquely magnified the wound site down to every single hair, making it look utterly repulsive.
Ugh…!
The blackened, necrotic skin. The yellowish pus and rotten blood vessels clotted thickly in the gaps. The stench that stabbed my nose with every breath made my stomach twist violently, and a wave of nausea surged up my throat. I wanted to run away right then and there, but I bit down on my lip until it bled and forced the urge to vomit back down.
Endure it. You have to endure.
I reached a trembling hand toward Prin’s arm. Thin, razor-sharp shadows sharper than a hair slithered out and began digging into the wound like scalpels.
Carefully, precisely, I scraped away only the dead and rotten flesh, making sure not to damage any living tissue.
“Mmph…!! Mmmph!!! Mmph!!!”
At that moment, Prin let out a silent scream. Without anesthesia, the pain of having his flesh carved out burned through his brain. His eyes rolled back and he began thrashing violently.
Dangerous!
If he moved this wildly, my shadows might sever an artery!
The moment a warning bell rang in my panicked mind, the mana inside me burst out unconsciously like a rampaging explosion.
“Stay still…!”
Blood vessels rose red in my eyes.
The shadows swirling in the air swelled in an instant, wrapping around Prin’s limbs and torso like snakes. They crushed him perfectly, pinning him down completely!
Vision enhancement, shadow blades, and a massive shadow to restrain the patient.
The instant I cast three spells at once, a horrific pain like a fuse burning out inside my head slammed into me.
And I instinctively realized it—my body and mental strength could never endure this insane overload for long.
Would I lose consciousness first from the brain-melting agony, or would I finish cutting away all his rotten flesh and complete the surgery successfully?
In short, it was a time attack.
I had to finish before my brain melted away!
Without even time to wipe away the bloody tears beginning to flow from my eyes, I started accelerating like a madwoman.
“Mmmmmmph!!!!!!!! Mmmmmmmmmph!!!!!!!!!!!!!!”
In proportion, every time the shadow blades dug deep into his flesh, Prin’s screams grew even more ferocious. Eventually his eyes rolled completely white, foam bubbled from his mouth, and his body convulsed wildly.
Just a little more… just a little more…!
One single mistake and it was over. The more Prin thrashed, the harder I had to tighten the shadow’s grip to hold the wound steady, crushing down with bone-crushing force.
But that brutal pressure only doubled his pain, causing him to struggle even more insanely. A horrific vicious cycle had begun.
Then, from behind me, the sound of the door opening and a trembling sob reached my ears.
“B-brother…”
Haa, this is seriously driving me crazy.
I had strictly told her not to set foot inside the house until my surgery was completely finished. But Prin’s screams must have leaked outside. France, her mind broken by the sound, had finally opened the door and come in.
“I told you not to come in until I was done!! Argh…!!”
The moment I whipped my head around in fury and shouted, my focus shattered for a split second. The thread of extreme concentration snapped, and the mana backlash from my blood vessels slammed into the back of my head. The world spun.
I had nearly dug into the wrong spot and severed an artery.
“I-I’m sorry…! B-but there’s so much blood coming out of Brother! C-can’t I help with something?!”
“No!! You’re only getting in the way, so get out right now!! Do you actually want to watch your brother die?!”
At my desperate, rage-filled scream, France’s face turned deathly pale. She hiccupped and backed away, fleeing out the door as if running for her life.
Bang!
“Huk, huuuk…”
The cold sweat dripping from my forehead ran down my eyelashes and into my eyes. It stung like hell. Forcing down the headache that felt like my skull was splitting open, I fixed my gaze back on Prin’s wrist.
“Ugh, uuugh…”
My head throbbed as if it were being split in two. When I forced my heavy eyelids open, my vision swam and a burning pain surged from both eyes.
What the…? Don’t tell me I… passed out?!
Wait, then what about Prin? What the hell happened to Prin?
“Huk…!”
I shot up from where I lay and looked around frantically.
A faint bluish sunlight was now filtering into the house. It was already early morning, with the sun having risen.
At the same time, the thick metallic smell of blood hit me. When I looked down, the floor around the straw pile where I had collapsed was completely soaked with blood and chunks of flesh.
“Haa, haa…! France! France, where are you?!”
“Vita, you’re awake…”
The voice came from the far corner of the room. France, looking utterly exhausted, stepped forward. Her face and clothes were also covered in blood, just like mine.
“What about Prin?! How did my surgery end?!”
“W-well… the thing is… I didn’t actually leave. I hid and kept watching through the crack in the door…”
“Right after you scraped out all the rotten flesh, you suddenly collapsed and lost consciousness. But you said earlier that after wiping away the blood, you had to burn the wound to save him…”
“…Wait, don’t tell me?”
“Yeah. So… I was the one who burned the wound shut. I pressed it down hard with fire… hehe… Thank you so much, Vita. The surgery must have hurt terribly because Brother passed out halfway through too, but now his burning fever has gone down and his breathing sounds comfortable. He’s okay.”
At France’s tired, relieved, and somewhat silly laugh, the ringing in my ears that had been buzzing finally began to fade.
I could see Prin’s chest rising and falling faintly but steadily where he lay in the corner. The wound surface looked horribly charred, but we had saved him.
I had saved him.
“Haaaa… Thank god. Thank god…”
Only then did the strength leave my legs, and I collapsed onto the floor. My head and eyes hurt like they were going to explode, but I was too exhausted.
I slowly closed my eyes once more.