Prologue

Prologue

A courtroom in the Lindhaven Empire.

A stout man stepped forward as if he had been waiting and pointed at a woman.

“Your Honor. That woman there, who invokes the gods while practicing false medicine, must be severely punished!”

As soon as he finished speaking, the doctors in the witness stand rose and began to voice their agreement.

Soon, the courtroom became noisy. The judge immediately struck his gavel twice.

“Silence, everyone. Defendant, do you have any fact of practicing false medicine?”

At his words, the woman, whose hands were bound, chuckled and replied.

“Ha! False medicine? That’s nonsense. I treated him with the best of my ability! In fact, the ones who administered the wrong treatment are those very men!”

The woman’s rose-colored eyes stared directly at the man.

The man’s name was Prad. He was a professor at Bernuk University, the Empire’s only medical college.

As the courtroom began to stir at her words, Prad face flushed bright red as he shouted.

“Th-this is absurd! What does a quack who has never even properly learned enemas and bloodletting know to spout off like that? Your Honor, there’s no need to hear more. You must punish that quack immediately!”

At Prad’s words, the doctors standing behind him chimed in.

“That’s right! Not only did she push aside the attending physician who was present, but someone without proper qualifications performed medical acts!”
“It’s an act of insolence towards a noble! She must be punished swiftly to set an example!”

Faced with the public sentiment boiling over, the judge furrowed his brow.

Then he waved his hand as if to tell them to stop.

“But isn’t it a fact that Letemia Apenus treated Damian Bernuk of Count Bernuk estate?”

The judge tapped the paper lying before him. It was a letter that an attendant had just hastily brought.

〔If you punish Miss Letemia, we will not stand idly by, staking the honor of the Count Bernuk household.〕

The Count Bernuk family, which ruled the easternmost territory, was a prestigious family that had produced Imperial Guard Captains for generations.

Especially for the Count, who usually paid no mind to others’ affairs, to go this far.

The judge soon handed the petition on his desk to Prad, who received it and clicked his tongue in annoyance.

‘From that countryside village to the capital, how did they…’

All his efforts to expedite the trial to avoid some troublesome situations had been for nothing.

But he hadn’t come all this way to be pushed around by some country count, had he?

He steadied his breath and spoke in a calm tone.

“Esteemed Judge. With patients, sometimes illnesses resolve naturally over time. Especially in the case of Damian Bernuk, the eldest son of the Count’s family, isn’t he quite young? Children have strong recuperative powers, and their symptoms often improve even without special treatment.”

“Huh?”

Letemia let out a hollow laugh, as if she could no longer hold back.

“You’re saying it heals naturally because he’s a child?”

Her rose-colored eyes instantly flashed with a strange light.

“Children heal naturally, and commoners are forsaken by the gods so they don’t need treatment either… Then, are those who call themselves doctors only here for the nobles?”

“What? You…! You ill-bred quack!”

Prad immediately started foaming at the mouth, pointing his finger at Letemia.

But Letemia, undeterred, lifted her chin. Her deepened rose-colored eyes blazed like flames.

“Your Honor. A person has one heart, two kidneys, one head. Ah, of course, I wouldn’t expect that stupid man standing over there to know that.”

Her gaze then turned to Prad.

“What I mean is, whether commoner, child, or noble, everyone’s heart is just one.”

“…”
“When that one and only heart has stopped, does it really matter so much whether the person who touched the noble’s body was a commoner or a noble? Enough to gather all these people?”

Letemia charge was performing emergency CPR on the Duke.

The act of making the Duke’s heart, which had stopped after he clutched his chest and collapsed, beat again had brought her to this courtroom.

‘I knew something like this would happen, which is why I tried not to get involved.’

But it was water under the bridge now.

The situation had been so urgent that her body had moved on its own.

“But there was an attending physician present, Miss Letemia. Was there a reason you had to touch the Duke’s body, even stopping his treatment?”

The judge asked Letemia, looking somewhat intrigued.

‘Was it called the Divine Art of Medicine?’

Everyone knew that recently, all the nobles in the Empire rumored to be terminally ill had been revived by her hands.

You could tell just by the number of observers, larger than usual.

The flicker of curiosity in the judge’s eyes as he recalled this was brief, as Letemia pointed boldly at Prad.

“That’s because this man here was about to attempt bloodletting on a patient whose heart had stopped, claiming he needed to draw out evil spirits.”

“What? This man? Look at this quack! There were evil spirits, that’s why he clutched his chest and collapsed! So, quickly performing bloodletting to…”

“Why didn’t you just hold the funeral instead?”

“What?”

“In all my life, I’ve never seen such a terrible quack as you, sir. Here the patient is in cardiac arrest, and you pull out a bloodletting needle to drain his blood?”

“…”

“If you had drawn blood like that, he would have died from shock.”

At the word ‘death,’ the courtroom immediately buzzed.

As public opinion swayed rapidly due to her fluent speech, Prad, feeling a sense of crisis, bit his lower lip.

After hesitating for a moment, something seemed to occur to him, and he asked her a question.

It was the most powerful weapon he possessed.

“So. Did the Duke. Survive because of your medical skills?”

“…”

“I’m asking if you can mention the Duke’s current condition here.”

This time, it was Letemia lip that was bitten.

Everyone in the Empire knew.

That the Empire’s only Duke had clutched his chest and collapsed.

‘If only that one thing, I don’t know either!’

The Duke’s surgery had ended well.

The amount of blood transfused into his body exceeded 20 liters, and she hadn’t slept properly for a week straight.

Yet, the Duke’s body was not recovering, strangely enough.

Occasionally, when he regained consciousness, he would merely blink his eyes to express himself.

Naturally, this was not a condition that could be announced to the outside world.

A doctor who fails to properly treat a patient has no ground to stand on, no matter how eloquent.

Recalling this fact, Letemia shoulders slowly slumped.

Prad, with a satisfied expression, shouted towards the judge.

“See that, Your Honor! This quack has nothing but a sharp tongue!”

“…”

“Your Honor! I earnestly request that you severely punish this quack who acted presumptuously based on her shoddy skills!”

As Prad bowed his head, the doctors standing behind him began to bow their heads in unison, following his lead.

“Hmm.”

After pausing for a moment, the judge struck his gavel twice and spoke.

“I will now pronounce the verdict. The defendant, Letemia Apenus, is charged with the crime of recklessly touching the body of His Grace the Duke, a man of high honor, and endangering him.”

As the verdict began, the corners of Prad’s mouth turned up towards the sky.

‘Did you really think you could survive after daring to take my patient?’

She had been a thorn in his side.

The thought of not having to see her for the rest of his life felt like a congestion that had been building up was finally clearing.

But then.

With a loud crashing sound, the large doors swung open.

At the same time, knights began pouring into the courtroom.

“W-who dares enter this sacred court…!”

Prad, trying to stop them, was forced to doubt his own eyes.

The man who appeared among the knights was…

“D-Duke?”

It was none other than Duke Quais, who was supposedly hovering between life and death.

“Good heavens! The Duke?”
“You mean His Grace has awakened?”

At his appearance, the courtroom stirred in disbelief, and the Duke looked upon them with his usual dignified demeanor.

Watching this, a smile spread across Letemia’s lips.

She turned to Prado who was flabbergasted and at a loss, and asked triumphantly.

“Well then, who’s the quack now?”