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Volume 1 Chapter 9-2: Village Doctor

 

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「Okay who’s next?」
「Please heal my son. Last week he got a stomachache and it’s gotten worse to the point he can’t even walk. Not even our family’s secret medicine could cure him.」
「Mom it hurts…」

The next people to visit was a nearby neighbor of mine. She was a voluptuous middle-aged woman who had brought her son who was slightly younger than me.

The young boy was breathing roughly as cold sweat flowed off his forehead.

Elves age slowly after the first half of their teens so this mother looked as if she was still a beauty in her twenties. That raised my spirits a bit.

「Do you remember him eating anything bad?」

The boy was in too much pain to talk properly so I asked his mother instead.

「I don’t.」
「Did he have vomiting, fever, loss of appetite, or diarrhea?」
「Everything except diarrhea.」
「Kid put your hand on where it hurts.」

The young boy pressed his hand down on the right side of his abdomen.

Based on the symptoms he most likely had appendicitis.

Usually stomach pain and diarrhea come together. If there’s no diarrhea and the pain continues for a long time it’s usually appendicitis. Furthermore the pain was focused on the right abdomen. It was the exact location for it.

Just in case I scanned his body with magic and saw the issue.

「Umm…Cyril-san can you heal him?」

The mother helplessly asked.

「I can. However, I will have to open up his abdomen to remove the source of his pain. As long as you are willing to allow me to do that…I can fix it.」
「You’ll cut his stomach?」
「That’s right. Otherwise it can’t be fixed. Your son has contracted an illness that is like a demon settling down in his guts. Unless I cut it out nothing we do will help.」

The mother hesitated and didn’t answer for a while.

According to my knowledge as Cyril, surgery wasn’t really a thing in this world.

It was understandable that she was resistant to the idea.

「If you don’t want the treatment then please head back. My other patients are waiting. Let me just tell you, if you leave your son’s condition as is, it’ll become something really bad. The demon in his guts will go into necrosis…when that happens the pus and intestinal fluids will leak into his body inflaming his internal organs. When that happens he will endure unbelievable pain and may die.」

At my words her face paled.

「I’m not trying to frighten you with my words. I’m simply warning you of the consequences. Either way, if you don’t trust me then staying here is useless.」

Although I may seem coarse, I’m the only doctor in town and I didn’t have time to convince each and every person. There were people out there waiting for my help.

「Mom, I…want to get better. If there’s no other option…I want to bet on Big Bro Cyril.」

The boy said with grim resolution. He seemed to be trying to say ‘leave it to Cyril’.

「………Then please…save my son.」
「Alright. Leave it to me.」

I lifted the boy onto onto a wooden cot that I’d prepared inside the tent.

I wanted to perform the surgery in a sterilized room, but there was no such thing in this world.

Also I wasn’t going to do it inside our home because I didn’t want our home stained with blood.

Furthermore there would be sick people visiting. I didn’t want Lucy to catch an illness. That’s how I ended up seeing people in this tent.

I would cut open his stomach and utilize a magic membrane to keep everything except his abdomen from moving. We didn’t have any anesthetic so I would have to do it while he was awake. If he moved around too much I could possibly kill him.

「It’ll look scary so close your eyes. You should bite this as well.」

I put the cloth in his mouth so he wouldn’t bite his tongue and got to work.

This was my third time treating someone. It’s just a shame they were all guys.

「Preparations should be set with this.」

I pulled a knife out of my pocket and the alcohol I had used when treating Rick.

I poured alcohol on the cloth and wiped it on the knife to disinfect it.

Then I wiped his stomach with the alcohol.

「Ma’am I’ll be cutting the boy’s stomach. If you’re afraid you may close your eyes or look away. Please don’t interrupt me. If you cause me to mess up it could cost him his life.」
「Alright, I understand. I won’t look away and I won’t bother you.」

Quite the stouthearted woman. It might be women become stronger for their children.

I removed his shirt properly and took the knife. I made an incision 10 cm long.

He didn’t have any anesthetic and he was conscious so the pain made his body want to jump and writhe…however the magical membrane I deployed didn’t let him.

I used my magic to restrict his bloodflow keeping the blood from obscuring my vision. I stuck my hand inside to search.

Thanks to the scan I knew where his appendix was.

I found it quickly and grasped the root of his appendix. Then I removed my hand after securing the appendix with magic before taking my knife to the appendicitis growth.

Since I had secured the root of the appendix blood wouldn’t spout out.

I quickly utilized 【Healing】 and limited it to his appendix. I healed the wound that came from removing the appendicitis.

Then I removed my hand as well as what I had cut out. I stuck his skin together and once again used 【Healing】 to close up the cut.

His stomach wound closed without leaving a scar and he looked just like he did before the treatment.

「It’s over. Does your stomach still hurt?」
「Uhhh? It…it doesn’t hurt! It doesn’t hurt Mom!」

The boy lifted his body as he cried out joyfully.

It had been a while since I performed surgery so I let out a sigh of relief.

「Thank you so much for saving my son.」
「Don’t worry about it. I’m happy to save one of my fellow villagers.」
「How can I…」
「I told Roleau before, but I won’t accept anything now.」
「But, I have to give you my thanks…」
「No. If I accept from one person I’ll have to accept from everyone. If you have something to give me, instead let the boy eat a nutritious meal. He should be quite weak after being unable to eat. His illness is treated but he needs nutrition.」
「I will never forget this favor.」

The woman said tearfully as she bowed her head with her son and left.

I could tell that the people outside were getting excited.

Two patients that they didn’t think could be cured had gone inside the tent and were healed. Their expectations had been raised.

「Okay, who’s next?」

And so I treated 8 people before noon came around.
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The time I had set aside for treating people was over, but the number of patients hadn’t decreased.

Even now someone I told to come back tomorrow was pressing me.

「Can’t you please treat me today? My back is killing me.」
「Sorry. I only open the clinic in the morning.」
「Can’t you do something!?」

Even after treating so many in the morning, the patients had only increased.

Up til now I had used every trick I knew to heal old wounds, bodily injuries, and everything else I could fix.

Many people had come to request things of me.

「I’ll be treating people again tomorrow morning. I’m sorry, but I have other work to do. I only have 5 days to make a weapon that can pierce through armor or I’ll be tied up and handed over to the Empire. Sorry but I can’t treat people all day.」

I put a look of honest apology on my face as I said that.

「That’s right…you did have to do that Cyril. Sorry to take up your time like this.」
「Alright we won’t be unreasonable.」

Everyone calmed themselves after seeing my modest attitude.

「I can’t do it in the afternoon, but I’ll be back tomorrow. You can come then.」
「Is that okay Cyril?」
「Yeah, I was the one to propose treating people. It’s a change of pace. I want to do everything I can for the people in this village. Healing illness and injury is part of this, but making weapons to fight against the Empire is to protect all of our lives. I can’t ignore either of them.」

Did I go a little too far with my cheesy lines?

I thought as I peeked at their faces…but they seemed to have accepted my words.

「Good luck Cyril. I believe you can do it.」
「Yeah, everyone’s cheering you on. You’re an amazing guy so you can make weapons no problem.」

The elves were basically all good people so they easily became my allies.

The real test was after I had made the weapons, but at this rate I believed we would be able to work together.

「Thank you all. I’ll…work hard.」

I hid my inner thoughts and tried to make a smile that would improve their opinions of me.

I guess you could say my first step was a success.

I had laid some groundwork for the big job that lay ahead. These efforts will come to fruition in the future.

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