BDPVF 8

Chapter 8

Ever since I was little, I absolutely hated pain and scary things.

I was the type to panic even over popping a tiny pimple.

If becoming a doctor changed anything about me, it was probably that I started projecting those feelings onto other people too.

“H-How do I…?”

I stomped my feet anxiously.

I wanted to help, but I was terrified that I might die too if I acted recklessly.

That fear kept me from stepping outside the room.

I want to help. But…

I might die.

I had learned how to save people.

But I had never learned how to save someone from a person trying to kill them.

“A doctor stakes their life even on a one percent chance of saving someone.”

Why did that quote have to pop into my head right now?

I tried desperately to suppress the thought, but once it appeared, it kept tormenting me.

“No… nooo…”

I shook my head violently and paced around the room in circles, trying to shake off the thought.

It was an ambitious attempt to calm my anxiety, but my heart refused to settle. If anything, my thoughts became even more tangled.

Perhaps God took pity on me.

Suddenly, something red sitting proudly on the bookshelf caught my eye.

A round glass bottle filled with crimson liquid.

A potion…!

If it was a potion, then things changed.

Why had Silas been able to walk around perfectly fine even after suffering such a huge wound before?

It was something modern medicine could never replicate.

The power of magic.

So if I sprayed a potion on her quickly after everything was over…?

It was possible.

I nodded rapidly and hurriedly grabbed the potion.

“I-I’ll do it!”

Clack.

Throwing open the door, I rushed toward the Duchess’s room.

The countless rooms Lisa and I had walked past the day before blurred by as I ran.

Soon, I arrived in front of the Duchess’s door, decorated with beautiful roses.

Thump. Thump.

My heart pounded wildly out of rhythm, like it had broken.

It was probably adrenaline flooding through my body.

“Hoo… I can do this.”

After reciting the words I always used before entering surgery, I opened the door.

“……!”

Whoosh!!

The moment the door opened, a thick smell of blood hit me, along with a murderous aura so intense it sent chills crawling up my arms.

And then—

“What the hell? It’s just a brat.”

“Iri…s… run…”

Thud.

Selena collapsed weakly like a snapped rose, while the assassins pulled their blades from her body.

My legs nearly gave out on the spot, but I somehow forced myself to stay standing.

I had come too late.

My face turned deathly pale.

“The gap’s getting smaller. Finish it quickly.”

One assassin sat casually on the windowsill as he spoke.

His tone sounded as calm as someone discussing what to buy at the market.

But the words coming from his mouth were orders to kill me.

That was not something anyone should say so calmly.

I have to run…!

Both my reason and instincts screamed at me to flee.

“I wanted to play with her a little longer… what a shame.”

“I told you we don’t have time.”

“Yeah, yeah. I got it.”

One shadowy figure—judging by the voice, probably female—grinned brightly at me.

Her face was completely covered, but the eyes visible through the gaps were filled with madness.

“Ugh… ah…”

My body wouldn’t move.

It felt as if something had tightly wrapped around my feet and pinned me in place.

With trembling eyes, I looked down.

Sure enough, black mist-like tendrils were coiling around my ankles and body.

Is this how I die?

I desperately searched for a way to survive, trying to shove away the negative thoughts, but nothing came to mind.

“Nice meeting you…”

Meanwhile, the assassin raised a small dagger and aimed it at me.

I’m going to die.

The words repeated in my head like a broken radio.

“Goodbye.”

I squeezed my eyes shut.

Thud.

At the same moment, searing agony exploded from my shoulder, like someone was stabbing burning needles into my flesh over and over.

Crash!

The pain was horrifying.

The potion slipped from my loosened grip and shattered against the floor.

“That’s—”

“The potion broke. Good enough. We’re out of time.”

“No, wait—!”

The assassins who had thrown the blade at me vanished from sight in an instant, as though they had teleported.

Thump.

All the strength drained from my body, and I collapsed to the floor.

“Hngh… it hurts…”

The black dagger embedded in my right shoulder hurt terribly, but something hurt even more—my heart.

Just like in my previous life, seeing someone die right in front of me was unbearable.

“Iri…s…”

Then I heard a faint voice beside me, weak like bubbling blood.

Ignoring the pain in my shoulder, I hurried over to her.

Selena lay on the floor, looking at me with difficulty.

“J-just… wait a little…”

Her condition was critical.

There was a deep stab wound in her abdomen, about a handspan deep, and an even deeper wound near her lung.

Her organs were probably damaged, and her lungs were likely filling with blood.

Even with modern medicine, survival would’ve been unlikely.

“I-I’ll figure something out somehow…”

“Iris…”

Despite her condition, she slowly raised a hand and gently stroked my head.

“Don’t move…!”

“I’m alright. Iris… don’t be sad.”

Not knowing that those words only made me sadder, she smiled softly.

That smile made my chest feel like it was being torn apart.

Even in my previous life, when I lived emotionally detached, death had always hurt deeply.

And now that I was a child again, my emotions felt even stronger.

Which only made this harder.

“The blood… it’s still…”

Flowing.

Unable to finish my sentence, I crawled toward the shattered potion bottle.

The spilled potion on the floor hadn’t dried yet, but there was far too little to gather by hand.

Still, even that tiny amount looked like hope to me.

A doctor risks their life even for a one percent chance.

“Please…”

After desperately gathering it, all I managed was a single drop.

Afraid it would dry up, I quickly let it fall onto her wound.

Of course, such a pitiful struggle couldn’t heal torn organs or stop the bleeding.

“It’s okay… you’re hurt too, Iris…”

Had she finally reached her limit?

Her voice was faint, like a candle about to go out.

The smile on her face gradually stiffened and turned cold.

“Ah… ahh…”

Honestly, there was no reason for me to grieve this much.

I knew that logically.

To me, Selena should’ve been nothing more than a passing acquaintance.

But what did Selena think of me?

Even while dying, she still tried to smile at me.

That shook my heart.

“Don’t make that face.”

Selena stretched her trembling hand toward me.

When we first met, even conversation between us had been awkward.

Yet in only two weeks, she had opened her heart to me.

Her once pale white hand was now stained red with blood.

Stroke, stroke.

That bloodied hand gently patted my head.

But I could do nothing.

My medical knowledge was utterly useless right now.

“…Hic.”

Tears rolled down my cheeks.

Drip.

The endless tears finally fell to the floor as tiny droplets.

“Huh?”

At that moment, my blurry eyes widened.

The dagger embedded in my shoulder.

Blood was dripping from it.

That was the problem.

The blood flowing from my shoulder—

It was glowing with a bright golden light.

No way…

I had read the novel.

And in the novel, there were many scenes where the Saintess saved dying people.

But unlike ordinary priests, the Saintess possessed no divine power.

The Saintess’s blood.

It had healing properties greater than even the finest elixir, surpassing top-grade potions.

However, the Saintess could never heal herself with her own blood.

A Saintess was someone who sacrificed herself by sharing her blood.

“……”

I had neither divine power nor even basic magical knowledge.

And of course, I wasn’t a Saintess.

But I was a doctor.

“Into whatever houses I enter, I will go into them for the benefit of the sick.”

I still remembered the Hippocratic Oath I once swore.

And right now, my blood was glowing just like the Saintess’s blood.

Did I really need more time to think?

“Ugh…!”

I pulled the dagger from my shoulder.

The moment it came out, blood burst from the reopened vessels like water exploding from a broken dam.

There was so much blood that I felt like I might faint on the spot.

“Iris…”

Selena’s dim eyes pleaded with me not to do it, but it was already too late.

The blood from her wound and the blood from my body began to mix together.

The blood touching her wound suddenly shone brilliantly, as though announcing its existence to the world.

I didn’t know why my blood was the same as a Saintess’s.

But the mission was successful.

Because Selena’s wounds were healing at a visible speed.

Crash!

Then, with the sound of something breaking apart, my consciousness snapped away.

Flash!

Silas grabbed his sword and sprinted madly toward the woman he loved most in the world.

Please.

Even he, who was always calm, felt like he was losing his mind with anxiety this time.

He was terrified of losing someone he loved again.

And for good reason.

In the dead of night, he had sensed a strange energy coming from her room.

The energy itself felt warm and comforting.

But the problem was the barrier.

The Duke’s estate was protected by defensive magic barriers that absorbed outside mana.

Which meant that sensing power from within the manor—especially from Selena’s room, where the barriers were strongest—could only mean that something had happened to her.

Bang!

His mouth went dry as he kicked the door open.

The door flew apart helplessly under his strength, and the thick scent of blood immediately flooded his nose.

Filling his mind with desperate hope, he turned toward the source of the presence.

Praying that what he feared had not happened.

“……”

His wife, covered in blood from her abdomen.

And a child collapsed on the floor.

The platinum-blonde hair told him immediately that the child was Iris.

He wanted to know why Iris was here, but neither of them looked alright.

Crunch.

Silas gritted his teeth hard enough to crack them and rushed to Selena.

Pop!

He uncorked a potion with a sharp sound.

Just as he was about to pour it onto Selena—

Fwoosh!

A powerful light burst from her body.

Warm and comforting.

He had felt this sensation once before, six years ago.

When his baby had been born.

That child had emitted this same light.

And in the end, because of that light, the child had…

“Silas…”

“Selena.”

At her faint voice, Silas hurriedly poured the potion over her.

“I’m fine… Iris first.”

Selena stopped him.

Just as she said, her body was completely unharmed now.

Which meant all this blood was…

Silas gritted his teeth once more.

Losing his composure whenever his family was involved was his only weakness.

Even now, he failed to see the bigger picture and focused only on fragments.

“Iris.”

He poured the potion over Iris’s shoulder.

The wound slowly began to close.

A scene only a top-grade potion could create.

“What in the world happened here?”

Convinced they had survived the worst of it, Silas carefully lifted Iris with one arm and asked Selena.

“Assassins infiltrated the manor. I was attacked, and Iris…”

“That’s enough. Rest for tonight. I’ll take you to my room.”

With those words, Silas gently picked Selena up from the floor.

Holding Iris in one arm and Selena in the other, he strode steadily toward his room.

Click. Click.

The sound of his black shoes echoed quietly through the hallway.

“Silas… Iris…”

“……”

Selena glanced once at Iris before her gaze shifted elsewhere.

Toward the ring glowing with blue light.