Chapter 53: Entering High Society (6) |
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After exchanging farewells with Charlotte, we entered the room.
The Inspector and Father were in the middle of hearing the circumstances from the count for their investigation.
Meanwhile, Charlotte had left her father, the Inspector's, side and was slowly circling the room.
Her golden eyes were scanning the objects in the room one by one.
And I sat with my legs crossed in a chair, quietly watching her investigate the scene.
I recalled the introduction of this work for the first time in a while.
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#Fantasy #FusionPunk #Misunderstanding #Medical #...etc
[Please do not trust the Crow Doctor. He is not the good person you think he is.]
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'The plot of the original work was probably a story about him just providing normal treatment, getting misunderstood, and rising all the way to the position of a Saint.'
If so, then in the original work, Yulian probably used Charlotte to achieve success.
I could roughly predict the contents.
— "Good heavens! He stopped the curse!"
Yulian would have treated a baby having a convulsion in his clinic as usual with an anticonvulsant, and
— "Just how did you do it?"
he would have caught the eye of Charlotte, who was tracking the Newborn Serial Sudden Death Incident, and been interrogated by her.
— "Star anise... I see. This is the first I've heard that star anise had such a risk."
He would have provided knowledge about star anise that Charlotte didn't know.
Then, a few days later, Yulian's reputation, who was practicing as usual, would have suddenly soared.
As the healer (doctor) who solved the Newborn Serial Sudden Death Incident with Charlotte Hausen, the Inspector's daughter.
— "Wh-what is this, it's scary..."
Yulian, the misunderstanding-genre ordinary-citizen type protagonist, would have been worrying inwardly over all that interest.
Somehow.
I wondered why my high society debut of all things had to be an incident where I couldn't reveal the truth even if I knew it.
It was because the one to reveal the truth wasn't me, but Charlotte.
'Unlike me, Charlotte has no problem revealing the truth.'
I know the truth.
But I lack the authority to make the victims' parents accept the truth.
It was a matter of course.
Where in the world would you find parents who could easily accept the truth that they had driven their own baby to death with their own hands?
They would probably not accept it and continue to search for the truth they wanted from the rival faction.
But unlike me, Charlotte, the Young Lady of the Inspector's family, had definite authority.
Therefore, if she revealed the truth, the parents were more likely to accept it.
And with this incident as a starting point, Charlotte and I would have made our high society debut at the same time.
'Alright. Then what I have to do is clear.'
No matter how great Charlotte was, she couldn't deduce things she didn't know.
Because this was a world where medicine and chemistry were less developed, she must have needed a 21st-century doctor by her side.
That was likely why the original Yulian was cast in the role of Watson.
'After all, even Gordon Ramsay needs ingredients to cook.'
In other words, my role in this incident was to provide the ingredients so that she could make the right deduction.
However, I had no intention of remaining in an assistant's role.
'If I had intended to just go with the flow of the misunderstanding genre, I wouldn't have made Quinine in the first place.'
The original Yulian was an ordinary citizen, so he would have been swept along by the current.
He'd want to run away when an incident broke out, be flustered when it was solved by chance, and worry inwardly when his fame grew.
But from the beginning, my goal was different from the original Yulian's.
The original Yulian might have dreamed of a peaceful doctor life, but my goal is to break the ceiling within the flow of the misunderstanding genre.
There was absolutely no reason to refuse the wealth and glory and rise to fame and fortune that was approaching me.
To do that, I couldn't stick to the original work's development.
'From the start, I have to become more than just an assistant to Charlotte.'
Simply giving her clues by chance wasn't enough.
I had to become an indispensable existence in her investigation.
'Good. I'll go with being a rival.'
The more I clashed head-to-head with her in this incident, the more the image of Yulian remembered in high society would change.
Afterward, the more she succeeded, my own fame would inevitably rise in tandem, even if I just sat back and rested.
The so-called 'I was Charlotte's Rival' Strategy.
Having finished my calculations, I revised my plan.
Instead of reporting to Father, I would compete with her in deduction.
Having finished my thoughts.
I slowly rose from the chair and approached Charlotte.
She had stopped in front of a bookshelf in the corner of the room.
Her golden eyes were scanning the books.
I pointed to the book her gaze was resting on and spoke.
"A bookshelf is a good way to quickly grasp the owner's disposition."
The girl's eyes widened slightly.
She seemed surprised that I had pinpointed exactly why she was looking there.
"You know that well?"
"I always look at the bookshelf first when I make house calls."
Of course, it was a bluff.
I'm not as observant as Charlotte.
I just said it because it seemed plausible.
My bluff might be called later, but...
I figured the power of the misunderstanding genre would take care of it somehow.
I put on my gloves and pulled a book from the bookshelf.
Her golden hair brushed against my sleeve.
Charlotte tensed slightly but didn't pull away.
The book I took out was a thick, leather-bound one. The title was embossed in gold leaf.
Imperial Western Aristocracy Directory, 7th Edition
"The latest edition of this is the 9th, but they have the 7th edition here."
I swept my finger across the book.
Dust coated my fingertip.
"The dust has settled evenly. It seems it hasn't been opened for at least half a year."
I opened the book.
There was no bookmark, no folded pages, no underlines.
"Buying a directory of nobles and not reading it. An edition that's two versions out of date, at that... The count is either not interested in high society, or he has already memorized all the necessary information."
Charlotte nodded.
"It's the latter. You can tell by looking at the letters on the fireplace mantel. There are signs they've all been opened, but no sign of any replies being written. He's a person who reads his mail meticulously but doesn't reply."
"I suppose we should see him as the type who gathers information but doesn't maintain relationships."
Charlotte's eyebrows twitched.
Her competitive spirit must have been sparked by me keeping up with her deduction.
Convinced that things were going as intended, I put the book back and spoke.
"Miss Hausen, what kind of books do you usually read?"
"Ancient documents. I especially like researching grimoires."
It was an unhesitating answer.
A young lady from a typical noble family would have answered with something like flower arranging or reading poetry.
Charlotte seemed quite a bit different from ordinary young ladies.
'Well, it is very Charlotte-like, I suppose.'
"If you're into grimoires, does that mean you research the principles of magic?"
"I explore the recorded knowledge rather than the principles. Even for the same magic, the records differ by era, and the knowledge used also changes. Tracking those changes helps me acquire knowledge useful for deduction."
"I can certainly see that. Then do you not read literature or history books?"
"Of course I do. Only looking at grimoires would narrow my perspective. Understanding people is also helpful for deduction, so I read literature from time to time."
She tore her gaze from the bookshelf and looked up at me.
"Then, Lord Nihilrit, do you have any hobbies?"
"I'm similar to you, Miss Charlotte."
"Similar how?"
"I enjoy studying the healers' scriptures. By researching the runic formulas they use to invoke divine magic, I can get a glimpse of the knowledge they've accumulated. It's also fun to see how it changes with each era."
"That's a good hobby."
Even as we spoke, her scan of the scene wasn't over.
Having finished scanning the room, she now moved her gaze to the baby sleeping in the bed.
The baby was sleeping peacefully with soft breath sounds.
Charlotte's gaze started at the baby's face and slowly moved down.
"May I ask what condition the baby was in? It was already asleep when I arrived."
"It was having a convulsion. I first administered medicine to stop the convulsion and then supplied IV fluid to prevent dehydration."
Of course, there was another reason for supplying the IV fluid.
The baby was currently poisoned by star anise.
So I had put it on an IV so that the remaining star anise component in its body would be expelled as urine as quickly as possible.
But if I told her that, it wouldn't be a hint but the answer, so I deliberately kept that fact to myself.
After hearing my explanation, her gaze scanned the baby's surroundings.
The IV line fixed to the wrist, the IV bag the line was connected to,
and the house call bag on the table next to the bed.
I left the bag open.
So that the syringe and thin rubber tube inside were visible.
Charlotte pointed at the contents of the bag and said,
"So you sort the tools you've used into a different pouch like that."
"Yes, that's right. I can't have them getting mixed up when I wash them later."
"Then may I ask about the medicinal ingredients you used?"
"Is this knowledge necessary for your deduction?"
I could have told her right away, but I played hard to get.
With the nuance of, why should I tell this to my rival?
As if my intention was conveyed, her smile deepened.
"I won't know until I hear it."
I nodded.
Well, even if she didn't know the medicine I used, she'd have no problem reaching the truth about the star anise.
Still, it was an opportunity to show off my knowledge to her, so I didn't refuse.
"It's a medicine called Chloral Hydrate."
"Chloral Hydrate?"
"Yes. It's a medicine that was apparently created by the Merkur Trading Company while they were trying to make an anesthetic."
"Indeed. Anesthetics are the dream of every healer."
Humanity's effort to create anesthetics began in the age before Christ.
This world was no different.
That's why I had been trying tirelessly to introduce 20th-century anesthetics to this world.
I am a trauma surgeon, after all, and I need an anesthetic to perform surgery.
Among them, I first challenged myself with chloroform, which had the lowest difficulty.
But unfortunately, I failed.
I still hadn't been able to make an anesthetic.
Chloral Hydrate was an anticonvulsant created by accident in the process.
I hadn't intended to make it either.
After it was made, I tried it on a rat just in case, and it turned out to have an anticonvulsant effect.
So since it was made, I've been putting it to good use.
"A lot of babies are born in D-Sector of the Limbus Pit. When the babies have convulsions, this medicine helps a lot."
"What's the principle behind it?"
"According to the trading company, this medicine was made by accident while trying to create an anesthetic. It's just a guess, but if convulsions occur because the brain is creating excessive stimulus, I suppose this incomplete anesthetic anesthetizes that stimulus, making it effective."
Phew.
It's giving me a headache trying to give hints without using expressions like the principles of convulsion and GABA receptor.
It feels like I'm playing a forbidden word game.
But I didn't let it show and gave her a bright smile.
"Was my explanation helpful for your deduction?"
"Yes."
Huh?
What did she figure out from that?
"If what Young Master Nihilrit said is true, then divine magic didn't work on this baby, but the medicine did, which means a curse wasn't the cause."
"I see."
"Did you not know that when you did it?"
"I merely did what I could. The baby was similar to patients I've seen, so I just did what I always do."
"But it doesn't change the fact that your choice has created a stepping stone toward the truth."
She turned her body toward the door.
"Under the premise that it's not a curse, we can deduce that the problem with the babies until now was caused by some poisonous substance."
"And the adults are fine, but only the babies were affected."
I said, cutting her off.
Charlotte also continued her deduction competitively.
"If it was food the whole family ate, the adults should have been affected too. But only the babies. All six families."
"...I'll concede. Please continue."
"It means that what was fed only to the babies was the problem."
Oh. That was a pretty surprising deduction.
As for me, I'm already heavily armed with 21st-century diagnostic algorithms and medical knowledge, so I'm just laying out what I already know.
But she, despite being limited to the knowledge of this era, was getting closer to the truth with pure deductive reasoning.
Before she could speak, I headed for the door first.
"We're going to the kitchen, right?"
Charlotte's eyes narrowed.
"...Have you perhaps been there already?"
"I went down earlier to check the baby's diet. You have to be careful what you feed them right after a convulsion."
It wasn't a lie. I just didn't tell her everything.
Charlotte silently glared at me.
Soon, she went through the door I opened and led the way to the kitchen.
I followed her down to the kitchen.
As soon as we entered the kitchen, Charlotte's eyes got busy.
Barley flour. Honey. Distilled water. Chamomile.
The ingredients I had the head maid confirm earlier were still on the countertop.
"What's this?"
"These are the ingredients fed to the baby. I asked for them to be checked earlier for dietary guidance."
Charlotte checked the ingredients one by one.
"Is this all?"
"There is one more thing."
As if I had been waiting, I pointed to a shelf.
On the top shelf, there was a wooden box.
It was the same box the head maid had brought out earlier.
As soon as Charlotte saw the box, she quickly deduced.
"There's dust on the shelf, but there's no dust around that box. It means someone has been frequently taking it down and putting it back up recently."
"An excellent deduction."
"Shall I check inside, Young Master Nihilrit?"
"Even if I answered, wouldn't you check it together with me anyway?"
"That's also true."
Charlotte smirked and headed for the shelf.
She stood on her toes and reached for the box.
But she couldn't reach it.
So I took the box down for her instead.
"Thank you."
Charlotte opened the lid.
Star-shaped dried fruits were neatly arranged inside.
"It's star anise."
The girl mumbled as she picked up one of the fruits.
"In the Western Region, it's customary to brew this and feed it to babies for colic. This count's family must be from the Western Region."
She said that and looked my way.
"You said there are many babies who have convulsions in D-Sector, right?"
"Yes. I did."
"Could you perhaps tell me what causes them to have convulsions?"
Okay.
Now was the perfect time to naturally give her a hint.
"The causes are varied. Malnutrition, infection, trauma, fever. Babies in the slums are surrounded by risk factors from the moment they are born."
"And what's the most common cause among them?"
"Let's see. Surprisingly, it often comes from what they eat."
Charlotte's pen stopped.
"What they eat?"
"Yes. D-District is an Eastern cultural sphere with many Beastkin, so they eat a lot of, well, strange things. What's harmless to Beastkin can be harmful to a normal human, and the reverse is often true as well. So mixed-blood babies often suffer from dietary issues because of that difference—"
Before I could finish, the look in Charlotte's eyes changed.
The languor in her golden eyes vanished, and a raw curiosity was revealed.
And the girl put the fruit she was holding in her hand into her mouth.
Crunch.
The sound of chewing on star anise echoed in the kitchen.
"—What are you doing?!"
I reflexively grabbed her wrist.
Charlotte swallowed the star anise with a composed face and said,
"If star anise is the problem, it's faster for me to prove it."
"Even so. Isn't it too dangerous to eat that?"
"It's fine."
Charlotte said as she rinsed her mouth with water.
"I've been experimenting with various poisonous herbs and medicinal ingredients on my body in small doses since I was young. Thanks to that, I've developed a tolerance to most poisonous herbs. I've also learned detoxification magic just in case, so it'll be fine."
The girl showed me the inside of her wrist.
A faint magic pattern was engraved on her skin.
It looked like a type of runic formula that automatically activated when a certain level of toxicity was detected.
"If it gets really dangerous, I can just press my uvula."
"...Do you do this often?"
"Occasionally."
"Hah."
I let out a sigh.
Whether she was prepared or not, watching someone put poison in their mouth right in front of me was bad for my heart.
"If you ever do that in front of me again, I will perform a gastric lavage myself."
"Gastric lavage?"
"I mean it will be a much more unpleasant experience than vomiting."
"Is that a threat?"
"Let's just call it a doctor's advice."
Charlotte chuckled.
Then she spat out the residue in her mouth and said,
"Anyway, I've confirmed it now."
The girl pointed to the half-eaten fruit on the bowl.
Her fingertips were trembling faintly.
"I'm losing strength. If this gets worse, it could certainly look like a convulsion. Considering a baby has less tolerance than I do, it's entirely possible."
"You don't seem to realize you just ate rat poison."
"I have a healer by my side who will treat me like a baby if things go wrong, so what's the worry."
At those words, I let out another sigh.
No wonder Watson was portrayed as the one suffering from Sherlock's eccentricities in so many works.
It seemed things were no different in this world.
Working with this girl would probably make me sigh a lot more in the future.
"First, show me your hand."
I took Charlotte's hand and checked her pulse.
Slightly fast, but not irregular.
Her pupils were normal, too.
It seemed the detoxification formula was doing its job.
"There's no major problem. However, the tremor in your fingertips might remain for a while, so don't overdo it."
"Thank you."
"Still, just in case, it would be good to set you up with an IV..."
Charlotte's hand flinched.
It was a subtle reaction, but since I was touching her, I definitely knew.
"...An IV is fine."
"What do you mean, fine? You just ate poison."
"The detoxification formula is working, so it's fine."
"Are you ignoring the words of a skilled healer?"
"..."
Charlotte's eyes avoided mine ever so slightly.
From that reaction, I could tell.
Charlotte is afraid of syringes.
Hmm. This is unexpected.
I thought she'd be the type to be injecting herself in the arm alone in her room all day.
"Are you afraid of injections?"
"Of course not. An injection is no problem at all, you know?"
"I heard that the Merkur Trading Company recently developed a way to administer IV fluid without using a needle."
"Really?!"
"As if such a thing exists."
"..."
Charlotte clamped her mouth shut.
The tips of her ears turned red.
The face that looked up at me, biting her lip, finally seemed like that of a 16-year-old girl.
I chuckled and put the syringe I was about to take out of the house call bag back in.
"I understand. If you really don't want it, I'll leave it be until I deem it necessary. Other things are more important right now."
As the syringe disappeared into the bag, I could see the tension leave the girl's shoulders.
She said she wasn't scared.
"So, did you find the culprit?"
"Ahem. Yes. Thanks to you."
She tried to lift the star anise box with a trembling hand.
I picked up the box first.
The girl looked up at me for a moment but turned her head without a word.
Then, walking toward the kitchen door, she said over her shoulder,
"When you have eliminated the impossible, whatever remains, however improbable, must be the truth. This incident is no different."
The girl turned around and smiled.
It was a purely joyful smile.
"Let's go up, Lord Nihilrit. The people we need to tell the truth to are waiting."
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