Chapter 3 …

“Seriously. Who told him to tease me first?”

Crash, bang, thud!

Tomi even tripped over a rock while running away. He must have been really startled. Oops, did I tease him too much?

‘Still… his status window said enteritis.’

I paused for a moment to think.

Telling Tomi, “You have enteritis, so go home and get plenty of rest,” would definitely sound suspicious and strange.

‘Well, it’s probably just mild enteritis, so I guess I don’t need to worry too much. Something like that usually gets better if you rest.’

Without thinking too deeply about it, I turned around and continued on my way.

Still, this whole status window thing was becoming more and more puzzling.

‘He was shocked just because I knew his name. That means Tomi probably can’t see the status window.’

I looked around at the people nearby.

Come to think of it, not everyone had a status window above their head. I occasionally saw them above a few elderly people, but I almost never saw them above younger people.

It seemed like only sick people had them.

‘How fascinating. I still don’t really understand how this status window works. I need to learn more.’

Tilting my head, I decided that while selling the herbs I had gathered from the mountain to the village herbalist, I would casually ask about it.

“Hello, sir.”

When I carefully greeted the herbal shop owner I remembered from Ailet’s memories, he welcomed me warmly.

“Oh? Isn’t that Ailet from up in the mountains? You haven’t come down in a long time—did something happen?”

“Oh, well… I was sick for a while.”

I gave him an awkward smile and brushed it off vaguely.

It seemed Ailet had actually kept in touch with the villagers.

Especially considering how many medical and herbalism books there were in the cabin, she must have traded with the herbalist quite often.

While I was thinking that, the herbal shop owner looked genuinely shocked and examined me from head to toe.

“You were sick? But for that long, when even you couldn’t treat yourself?”

“Huh?”

I asked blankly, and the shop owner replied as if I were the strange one.

“What do you mean ‘huh’? Your treatment skills are incredible. Everyone says they’d love to go to your house for treatment. But since you never tell anyone where you live…”

“Oh, it’s… not that amazing. Even I got sick, so I guess I couldn’t treat my own body.”

“True enough. Just like how a barber can’t cut his own hair very well. Still, you look fine now.”

“Yes.”

Ailet really was a strange woman….

‘So she must’ve been exceptionally skilled at healing.’

She was really such an outstanding physician? Well, that would explain how she became the personal doctor of that villainous Grand Duke.

‘Damn it. Now I feel wronged again.’

Seriously, if I was going to transmigrate into Ailet’s body, couldn’t she at least have left me her medical or herbal knowledge too? Instead, she only gave me the body and language skills before disappearing.

‘That’s why I’m studying everything from scratch now, Ailet.’

Grumbling internally at the original Ailet, I sighed and finally got to the point.

“By the way, there’s something I’m curious about, sir.”

“What is it?”

“Can you see that thing above Tomi’s head over there?”

I pointed toward Tomi, who had apparently already forgotten about falling and was happily running around the plaza again. The herbalist turned to look.

“What? Tomi?”

Tomi’s complexion looked worse than before, but apparently he couldn’t give up playing with his friends, because he was still energetically running around the village square.

“Hm?”

But the herbal shop owner only tilted his head, looking completely confused about what I meant.

“What are you talking about? There’s no bird above his head, no butterfly, nothing at all.”

“You really don’t see anything?”

“See what?”

The herbalist narrowed his eyes and looked more closely before snorting.

“What, are you trying to make some lame joke about seeing ghosts?”

“Haha. I thought maybe you’d be scared of ghosts, but I guess not.”

“How ridiculous.”

Of course, the bluish square status window was still floating above Tomi’s head, but I just pretended otherwise and laughed awkwardly.

Then the herbal shop owner said:

“Still, I’m glad you’re smiling more than before. After Mr. Rinken ended up like that… you hardly ever smiled, so I was worried. What did you bring today? Oh~ Mendran herbs. They’re in good condition. I’ll pay generously.”

“Thank you.”

With the money he gave me for the Mendran herbs, I bought bread and butter in the village.

As I made my way back up the mountain, I kept thinking about what the herbalist had said earlier.

‘After Mr. Rinken ended up like that….’

I searched my memory carefully.

‘If Mr. Rinken means my father…’

The name Rinken had been written throughout the house, and I had wondered who it belonged to. So that was Ailet’s—my—father.

‘Wait. But that’s strange.’

I couldn’t understand why people said it was hard to find my house.

All they had to do was follow the mountain path straight up this way.

Too many things felt odd.

‘And it’s definitely true that the status window only applies to me. Is this some kind of benefit exclusive to transmigrators? Though honestly, it doesn’t seem all that helpful….’

The status window.

And the reason people had trouble finding my house.

I didn’t know how either of those things might help me, but for now, I decided I needed to hide both of them from everyone as much as possible.

‘Because if I’m not careful, someone might use me.’

After reaching that conclusion, I returned home and, for the first time in a while, enjoyed a luxurious meal of bread and butter instead of potatoes and sweet potatoes.

I also shared some with the fox waiting for me.

“Kyaang.”

Nom nom—.

Despite looking like it would only eat meat, the fox happily ate bread too.

It was unbelievably adorable.

Together with the fox, I ate well, studied happily, and spent peaceful days.

Then a few days later, after gathering herbs once again, I headed down to the village to sell them.

“I’m off!”

“Kyung kyung!”

This time, the fox properly saw me off, even wagging its tail, and I smiled before heading down.

But when I arrived in the village, I heard shocking news.

“This is terrible. There’s no hope.”

“What happened?”

The herbal shop owner clicked his tongue and immediately explained.

In just those few days, Tomi was dying.

“What?! Why Tomi?!”

“That poor child… goodness… Maybe he drank bad water. Or ate something spoiled by himself.”

I immediately left the herbal shop and grabbed person after person, asking questions until I finally understood Tomi’s condition.

He had been vomiting constantly and suffering severe diarrhea. He couldn’t keep anything down, and no matter how many injections he was given, his body rejected them all.

Even the physician had given up.

They said he was suffering terribly and on the verge of death.

‘That status window… could it be?’

Could it be that it only appeared above people whose lives were truly in danger?

Remembering how it had appeared above only Tomi’s head, I hurriedly asked for directions to his house and ran there as fast as I could.

Then I rushed through the open front door.

“Tomi!”

“Ailet?”

A man and woman—presumably Tomi’s parents—were sitting beside him in tears, and they turned around in shock.

Tomi’s parents knew me too.

Ailet really must have been more famous in this village than I realized.

After greeting them quickly, I immediately checked Tomi’s condition and looked at the status window floating above him.

Tomi (7 years old): Bacterial enteritis, sepsis, will die if not treated immediately (Gauge 20/100)

The contents of the status window had become horrifyingly worse.

I frowned.

It wasn’t simple enteritis?

Sepsis?

Sepsis was a terrifying illness where bacteria spread throughout the body, causing blood pressure to drop until death.

Damn this stupid status window! It should’ve told me it was bacterial enteritis from the start! Then I could’ve treated him sooner!

‘Ah….’

Now I understood.

This status window only appeared for those approaching death.

I rolled up my sleeves and moved right next to Tomi.

“I’ll treat him!”

“Ailet… you?”

Tomi’s parents, whose tears had nearly dried up from crying so much, sniffled as they stared at me.

“Yes! Please trust me!”

A chill ran down my spine from how accurate the status window had been.

I immediately pulled out every herb I had and began brewing medicine for Tomi.

‘I’ll save you! No matter what!’

Tomi’s fever was severe.

Raising his gauge from 20 to 100 would not be easy.

If I hadn’t spent all this time desperately studying this world’s basic medicine and herbalism with the determination of my former civil service exam self, Tomi might have died almost immediately.

‘Please!’

Time passed both slowly and quickly at once.