Chapter 82: Good Healer (10) |
"...Diocesan head."
"What is it, Helmut?"
An acolyte priest approached Archbishop Raylick, who was busy saving patients.
"D-Director Schun... he did it."
"Did what?"
"He saved three Patients with Abdominal Penetration..."
The Archbishop unconsciously checked his watch.
10:41 AM.
It had been about an hour since he sent the Black Flag Patient.
He didn't know what kind of sorcery was used.
But Director Schun had managed to pull it off.
In a situation lacking resources, time, and everything else.
"The Director says he's about to save the fifth patient, and to keep sending them."
"Are you saying he really didn't use Regeneration?"
"He said a Minor Heal is enough... Ah, and that his Affiliated Healer's Divine Power is about to be depleted, so he's asking for a few priests who can use Minor Heal."
Of course, he had to send them.
The words rose to the Archbishop's throat.
He was performing a miracle akin to Regeneration with a Minor Heal.
There was no reason not to send them.
In fact, if he asked who wanted to go, the priests would compete for it.
He didn't even have to look far.
The acolyte priest reporting to him was fidgeting impatiently.
"Uhm... Diocesan head..."
"Helmut, you may go. Learn as much as you can there, and please let me know as well."
"Thank you! Diocesan head!"
Watching his excited acolyte priest bow, the Archbishop gave a bitter smile.
That reaction was only natural.
Divine Magic was, after all, a branch of magic.
Thus, just like any Magic Tower or Noble Family, each Infirmary had its own secret methods.
The results of Divine Magic varied depending on the Symbol, Catalyst, Nerve or tissue, and Principle used.
Even the specialized treatments differed slightly by Sect.
So healers would train at those infirmaries to learn their secret methods, and in some cases, even send a Spy to a rival infirmary to steal them.
Some infirmaries even refused to let in External Healers in an Emergency Situation like this.
Needless to say, the infirmaries were incredibly exclusive.
But Director Schun was different.
'It's as if he wants other healers to learn.'
No, it wasn't a guess; it was probably the truth.
A typical infirmary would strictly forbid a departing healer from joining a rival infirmary.
But the Merkur Infirmary was different.
They didn't stop anyone from coming, nor did they hold on to anyone who left.
Other infirmaries didn't even need to send spies.
It was a place that welcomed anyone who wanted to learn with open arms.
Ironically, for this very reason, Applicants were competing so fiercely that people couldn't get in even if they wanted to.
In any case, Director Schun's path was on a completely different level from other healers.
'Hmph... I wonder if our priests should watch him and engage in self-reflection.'
With that thought, the Archbishop began to select priests to send to the Merkur Infirmary.
If he had his way, he would have filled the place with his own people.
But that would be an insult to Director Schun's Noble Goodwill.
Therefore, the Archbishop randomly selected available healers from the scene and dispatched them evenly.
'...Ho ho. I want to join them too, unbecoming of my age.'
If he could, the Archbishop would have gladly joined the group himself.
He had a desire to learn many things as a healer,
and a desire to witness a miracle as a Religious Person.
Of course, he did not act on it.
He had his own job to do here.
"Helmut. Be sure to learn a lot, and tell me all about it when you return."
"I will, Diocesan head."
As if sending him for Studying Abroad in the Holy City.
He smiled warmly, watching the excited acolyte priest board the carriage.
Rattle, rattle.
After sending the priests to the D-1 Clinic.
The Archbishop once again checked the Black Flag Patients.
And then,
"Director. Can you perhaps save an injured person with their lower jaw and a quarter of their head missing?"
[Is the brain intact?]
"Only the skull is broken; the brain seems to be intact."
[It will be difficult, but it's worth a try. Please classify Head Trauma Patients with Preserved Brains, or patients with destroyed lower jaws, as Red and send them over.]
"Understood."
[Ah, when you send them, make sure they are lying face down.]
"...Understood."
As the Archbishop answered, he showed a hint of hesitation.
A patient with a broken lower jaw and an exposed brain.
Why would such a patient be Red?
How on earth was he planning to save such a patient?
Countless doubts followed one after another.
But he set his doubts aside.
A genius chosen by God must have a method unknown to him.
With that thought, the Archbishop began to select patients once again.
***
After he started reclassifying patients who had been marked Black to Red.
The scene began to send all sorts of rare cases.
"Male patient in his 20s. Massive Facial Trauma from a demonic beast's claw, with Multiple Comminuted Fractures and defects of the mandible and skull. Specifically, a large skull defect of about 9 by 11 centimeters is confirmed on the right parietal and temporal bone region, with the brain directly exposed. The left mandibular ramus and body are crushed and missing, and the intraoral soft tissue is severely ruptured, exposing the airway."
This patient had suffered a head injury.
A patient with a destroyed lower jaw and head.
Normally, a person like this should be classified with a Black Flag.
But after operating with Ayla, I figured he could be classified as Red.
"He's anesthetized with Cocaine, right?"
"Yes, he's been anesthetized."
The surgery began immediately.
"Student Joelle."
"Then I will start the Time Out. 12:08. We will now begin the surgery."
First, I checked the tongue.
The tongue is a structure generally supported by the mandible and the hyoid bone.
At this time, the muscle attached to the mandible called the Genioglossus pulls the tongue forward,
while the rest of the muscles all pull the tongue back.
In this situation, what happens if the mandible is gone?
'No matter how much you flex your tongue, it'll just roll backward.'
With the mandible gone, there's no force pulling it from the front.
The tongue rolls back due to gravity.
It then blocks the throat, and the person suffocates to death.
That's why I told them to send the patient lying on their stomach.
So it wouldn't roll back with gravity.
It changes the direction of gravity to the front, from the patient's perspective.
Of course, this is just a stopgap measure.
Ultimately, I needed to fix this first.
"Hold the tongue firmly."
I stitch the tongue with thread to make a loop and fix it to the front.
And to allow him to breathe even if the tongue rolls back, I perform a tracheostomy, creating a hole in his neck.
Then I insert a tube into his neck so he can breathe.
"Now, let's take care of the head."
The job for the head is the same as what I usually do.
A Craniotomy.
I just apply it slightly differently.
The cross-section of the missing skull is sharp and could pierce the brain, so I shave it down.
I incise the meninges to relieve the cerebral edema.
However, there was one difference from a normal craniotomy.
"Director. There isn't enough skull and flesh to cover it..."
said Kou, a healer who had observed countless craniotomies in the past.
That's right.
This patient lacks the bone and flesh to cover the brain.
"Perhaps here we should use Divine Magic..."
"There's no need. Give me the Goldbeater's skin."
Goldbeater's skin.
It's a cloth used by gold-leaf artisans.
It's a cloth they cover the gold leaf with to protect it while hammering.
I'm going to cover the head with this.
And later, when the brain swelling goes down, I'll replace the skull with steel and use flesh from the buttocks and thigh for the scalp.
Transplantation Surgery is much easier in a world with Divine Magic.
Snip, snip.
I cut the cloth to fit the brain and attach it.
And to prevent cerebrospinal fluid from leaking, I cover it once more with an oiled silk cloth.
"Now, let's fix the lower jaw."
This part isn't difficult either.
I just need to fashion something with the leftover Goldbeater's skin and some wire.
In case that sounds too simple and insincere, let me be a bit more specific.
"Student Ayla, Refresh."
"Yes, sir! Refresh!"
First, I remove all the necrotic tissue without hesitation,
and then wash it once with Holy Water.
"Refresh, one more time."
"Refresh!"
Next, I cover the wounded areas with scrap cloth to prevent germs from entering.
Finally, I wrap the wire in a figure-eight shape to fix the remaining jawbone,
and then tie the remaining jawbone and tongue together with thread to also fix the tongue.
With that, this patient's surgery for today is finished.
Tomorrow and the day after, I'll reconstruct the mandible.
I'll have to think about whether to use ribs or just a steel jawbone made by Dwarves.
Anyway, surgery's over.
"Please begin the Sign Out."
"Beginning Sign Out. Total surgery time, 38 minutes. It is 12:46."
38 minutes.
Not a bad time required, all things considered.
About the amount of time you can spend on one patient in a typical Code Black situation.
This is a major surgery that would normally be expected to take at least an hour.
The neck area is full of blood vessels and structures, so it bleeds profusely.
You can't see anything, so you have to spend half the surgery time just stopping the bleeding.
But with Divine Magic, the surgery time could be shortened like this.
'Of course, it's more thanks to the teams doing a great job.'
I looked around the operating room.
Joelle and the other healers, now used to surgery, just nodded calmly.
Instead, the new healers sent by the Archbishop couldn't close their mouths.
It was a rather satisfying reaction.
'That's right. Watch my surgery and spread the word far and wide.'
That way, the burden of having to do a one-man show will be reduced.
It would be even better if those people also happened to adapt this surgical method to Divine Magic and develop it further.
And it would be even better still if they spread Director Schun's name far and wide.
"Well then, shall we move to the next operating room?"
With those thoughts, I threw off my scrubs.
The shirt under my scrubs was soaked with sweat.
"...I'll change my clothes first and then come back down."
Not just my shirt, but the inside of my crow mask was also full of sweat.
I wanted to take off the mask, too.
The problem was that even in this situation, I couldn't take it off because of Director Schun's social status.
'Should I install an air conditioning function later?'
I wonder if I should enchant it with something similar to Ice Magic.
Just then, I felt a warm energy from behind me.
When I turned my head, I saw Ayla casting Refresh on me.
"...Student Ayla?"
"No... uhm... You seemed a little tired, Director... If it was a waste of Divine Power, I'm sorry..."
"Not at all. Thank you."
A waste? Hardly.
She must have used Refresh hundreds of times by now.
Yet she still seemed to have plenty of Divine Power to spare.
At this point, it was safe to say she possessed Divine Power comparable to a High-rank Healer.
'Well, at this point, I guess you could say she's awakened the talent of a Saintess.'
Besides, I believe Ayla can aim beyond being a High-rank Healer, even for the position of a Saintess.
So, what's one Refresh?
If anything, if it can reduce my fatigue, shouldn't she use it generously?
"Are you okay? I'm worried I might be overworking you."
"I'm fine, Director."
"That's a relief. Well, I'm going to go change, so you should rest a bit too, Student Ayla."
"Yes! Director!"
Seen off by the healers and students, I walked to my office.
***
A week passed like that.
The patients with abdominal injuries had their organs reconstructed this way and that, and their abdomens were closed.
The patients with head injuries had their skulls and jawbones reconstructed with their ribs.
Besides them, there was someone whose esophagus was damaged by corrosive poison, someone with punctured lungs, someone with a shattered hip bone, and so on.
Anyway, there were truly all sorts of patients.
Among them, the one that left the biggest impression was the electrocution patient.
'Wow, he actually survived this.'
He was an A-rank Adventurer, a patient brought in after being turned into a whole roast during a soul-baring one-on-one fight with a lightning-spewing demonic beast.
Normally, according to principle, such a patient has a low possibility of resuscitation and wouldn't be treated.
But most of the patients had already been treated, so we had some leeway, and he was a superhuman with high strategic value.
So, we took a chance and treated him.
And a week passed.
'Divine Magic really is the best.'
In the end, we saved him.
To be precise, I didn't save him alone.
I only performed the initial treatment, and the priests just poured Minor Heals into him every day.
He eventually survived.
Still, I did a truly fantastic job with the initial treatment, so my contribution was by no means small.
'To think I'd hit a career high in another world.'
A high-voltage electrocution patient is such a high-difficulty patient that saving one in Trauma Surgery would make the news.
If this were my previous life, I probably would have published this case in the Journal of Trauma and Acute Care Surgery (JTACS).
If I had, I could have become a professor right away.
...The more I think about it, the more unfair it feels.
Well, of course, in my previous life, it would have been impossible.
After all, he was saved thanks to Divine Magic.
And there was another contributor besides me.
"Mr. Kou. You're the one who saved this patient."
"Not at all, Director. I only did as you instructed."
"Even so, I can't manage blood sugar control to this extent."
Our Blood Sugar Specialist Healer, Kou.
This man brought the electrocution patient back from the Jordan River.
An electrocution patient's cells are cooked throughout the body, causing a systemic inflammatory response.
As a result, the body continuously secretes cortisol and catecholamines, which causes blood sugar to spike and worsens the inflammation.
In this situation, the most important thing is blood sugar control.
And the one who achieved it was Kou.
"Please continue to manage that patient until the end, Mr. Kou. I have to see other patients."
"Understood, Director. Please get some rest now."
"Yes, you've worked hard."
It was a shame, but I handed my career-high patient over to Kou.
Now that patient will soon return to his daily life, just like the others.
As long as I kept the emergency patients who flooded in for the first few days alive, the rest was easy.
As long as they were breathing, they could be saved again with God's Miracle, Divine Magic.
All I had to do was have them completely cured in order of rank and sent to the battlefield.
That A-rank Adventurer is a valuable strategic resource, so he'll probably receive Advanced Divine Magic first.
That's why as long as you keep them breathing, the rest will somehow work out.
'Maybe I should get some sleep.'
I've put out the urgent matters.
I'll probably be able to sleep soundly tonight.
I headed to my office, which also served as my on-call room.
When I opened the office door, I saw Ayla and her friends passed out on the sofa.
'They didn't go home in the end.'
They are truly excellent students.
They helped me by my side for a whole week.
They had no such duty, yet they contacted their homes and stayed here to save patients.
Sometimes, their parents even came to the clinic and brought us lunch boxes.
This is why I like an era where romance/nostalgia is alive and breathing.
Just then, Ayla rubbed her eyes and sat up on the sofa.
"Uhm... Director?"
"Student Ayla. Why are you awake?"
"Ah, that's..."
She checked the clock.
And then,
"It's time to cast Refresh on the patients..."
"Have you been doing that this whole time?"
I had only been in the operating room, so I didn't know.
She nodded in response.
"Yes... I thought it might help... Right, I should have gotten permission..."
"No, you did really well."
In the end, the most important thing before and after surgery is stamina.
A doctor's skill is only important during the surgery.
Ultimately, what determines survival is the patient's stamina.
It's not for nothing that doctors check if patients are eating and exercising well before and after surgery.
'No wonder. For a Misunderstanding Genre and a fantasy, the survival rate was too good.'
With Ayla casting Refresh every day, it couldn't be helped.
It felt like I had found another element of plausibility for the Misunderstanding Genre that I hadn't known about.
Or not? Is the convention of the Misunderstanding Genre unrelated to this?
Anyway.
"Alright, Student Ayla. It's time for me to do my ward rounds. Shall we go together?"
"Yes! Director!"
I started walking side by side with Student Ayla.
I did my ward rounds, checking the personal information of the patients organized by the other students.
"Ah, Theodore. How's your stomach? Are you digesting well? The wound... hasn't opened. You're recovering well, too. You know Student Ayla? Ah, she cast Refresh on you every night."
"You're Cordelia's fiancé. You say she's worried she won't be able to have children? Tell her not to worry. We preserved her uterus, so as long as she recovers, there won't be a problem. Thanks to Miss Ayla's help, we were able to avoid a surgical removal of the uterus."
"Casimir, you woke up yesterday, right? Do you remember where you are? Ah, this student looks familiar? What? She looks like the angel who appeared in your dream... Is this delirium...?"
I thought the last patient's condition was a bit strange.
Fortunately, it was a misunderstanding.
He was unconsciously remembering Ayla's nightly visits in the form of a dream.
After finishing the ward rounds,
I took Ayla not to the office where her friends were, but to a different place.
The conference room.
It sounds grand, but it's just a space with a desk and some supplies thrown in.
"I have a gift I want to give you."
There, I took out five medals.
One for Ayla, and one for each of her four friends.
"These are for the Honorary Healers of our merchant guild. I originally wanted to hold a formal award ceremony, but I don't think we'll have the capacity for that for a few months."
"M-Me?"
Ayla pointed to herself, her eyes wide.
She looked back and forth between the five medals on the desk and me.
"I... I... really didn't do anything... Compared to the other healers, all I did was cast Refresh..."
"Hmm. Student Ayla."
"Yes!"
"Do you remember what I taught you at the D-3 Clinic?"
"That small, trivial facts gather to become knowledge..."
"That's right."
There was a fact I emphasized several times back then.
The personal information of each individual patient may not be valuable enough to warrant a discount on their medical bill.
But when that vast amount of information is gathered, it yields a single research result.
And when those research results accumulate, they become knowledge.
Knowledge that cannot be replaced even by a great fortune.
And that logic leads to what I'm about to say now.
"Student Ayla. Why do you think miracles happen?"
"Huh?"
"People think miracles only happen through the intervention of a great being."
But my thoughts are different.
"But I am different. A miracle is something that starts from all the little things."
"All the... little things?"
"Yes."
In Trauma Surgery, you can witness countless miracles.
From the patient shot in the heart, a story I tell over and over like a bone broth,
to the patient whose front half was ground away after falling off a motorcycle,
to the patient who broke their neck falling from a hiking course on Mt. Bukhan.
Trauma Surgery is a place where such patients survive with a roughly 30 percent chance (assuming they arrive in time).
At that time, all the conditions that save the patients are trivial.
Does the wound get infected?
Is that tiny blood vessel still alive?
Is there a scratch on the internal organs?
Is this person young?
A patient can die from one tiny hole, and a patient can live just by it being slightly off.
And all of that gathers to create a 30-percent miracle.
It's the same this time.
"Your Refresh might seem trivial to official healers."
Just enough to recover fatigue and stop micro-bleeding.
But if the number of uses is near infinite and can be spammed without reserve, the story changes.
That Refresh gave patients the stamina to wait for surgery,
it stopped minor bleeds during surgery, shortening the operating time,
it provided the basis for deciding which organs to save and which to give up on,
and even after surgery, it gave patients the stamina to recover quickly.
"But while one Refresh may be trivial, when they all gather, it becomes a miracle."
Don't they say the devil is in the details?
All these little things gather to create the miracle of patients surviving.
In that sense, Ayla's contribution to this 'miracle' was by no means small.
"Most importantly, I was able to endure thanks to the Refresh you cast on me in the middle of it all."
No matter what, it's thanks to her that I didn't collapse for a whole week.
Having experienced death from overwork, I know that people can die from working.
When it comes to death from overwork, there's no taking turns.
"So please, take them. You and your friends. You were all a really big help."
"...Thank you, Director."
Ayla took the medals, including her friends' shares.
"And this is a personal gift from me to you, Student Ayla."
One more thing.
I handed her the cape worn by the healers affiliated with our merchant guild.
A white cape decorated with gold thread.
No one really wears it while working since it's cumbersome.
But to Ayla, the cape seemed to have a different meaning.
"...Thank you so much, Director."
I draped the cape over her shoulders.
With that, our small award ceremony was over.
"I will look forward to your great performance in the future, Disciple."
"Director... no, I'll do my best not to tarnish my Teacher's fame."
I patted her shoulder lightly once, and we headed back to the office.
A few days later.
Around the time the smell of bloody water from the plaza at the North Castle Gate still lingered from the sewer.
The entire Imperial Capital was filled with people in mourning clothes.
The depressing newspaper articles placed in front of their homes.
— 2,000-Strong Northern Expeditionary force, Devastating Damage Confirmed
— Rescue team Killed in Action More Than Double the Attack Team's
— Subjugation Frontline Beyond the Wall to Switch to Defense for Now. Wall Defense Force Reinforcements Urgently Assembled
The appearance of a mutant demonic beast.
This was enough to make humanity tremble in fear once again.
This was a history that had repeated for a thousand years.
Just when they would adapt to the demonic beasts to some extent, a suddenly appearing variant demonic beast would mercilessly crush all hope.
Heroes, knights, and nobles would be annihilated all at once or suffer a permanent disability,
and humanity would passively hide behind the walls until the damage was restored.
And when a new generation headed outside the wall again, they had to face demonic beasts that had grown stronger over a long time.
Those who had repeated this tragedy over long years believed it would be the same this time.
Until one piece of news was delivered.
— Over 2,000 Injured. Among them, about 100 Deceased. Far Below the Expected Number of Deaths.
The Imperial Court, and The Military.
They had estimated the death toll from this failed expedition at 1,200.
Divine Power has a limit.
Thus, it was bound to be concentrated on people of high rank, a precious strategy for humanity.
They believed it was unavoidable that some would be abandoned in the process.
Some of the patients saved like this even died from an unknown fever.
As a result, even if the death rate among the injured approached 50 percent, they considered it the way to maintain the frontline.
But.
— Among the 2,000+ injured, about 100 returned to the frontline in order of rank.
The number of deceased was far too low.
Not 1,200, but 100.
People of lower rank were not sacrificed to concentrate Divine Magic on superhumans of high rank.
Not even the superhumans of high rank were sacrificed.
Their return to the frontline was not delayed either.
On top of that, there was hopeful news that even the injured and those with a permanent disability could somehow return if they received Divine Magic in the distant future.
This was a miracle.
People immediately began to take an interest in the source of that miracle.
And amidst that interest, the diocesan head made a shocking announcement.
"All of this is thanks to 'The Black Saint' and 'The Saintess of the Lamp'."
A Saint and a Saintess.
At the news of a new miracle in the Empire's dark times,
the attention of the whole world focused on those two people.
