🔊 TTS Settings
Chapter 66
Viscount Morius rarely showed a serious expression as he asked Erna back.
“Do you think that woman can afford the cost of the medicine used to treat Calsif disease?”
“……That is.”
Erna’s eyes shook violently.
She glanced at the middle-aged woman.
The woman only lowered her head heavily.
She could not bring herself to answer that she could pay for the medicine.
At the same time, I realized.
‘Ah, so that’s why.’
The reason Viscount Morius was stopping Erna from walking the path of a doctor.
It was because.
‘Maybe he doesn’t want her to feel that kind of frustration.’
A doctor was not a god.
They could not save everyone they reached out their hands to.
There were many limits.
Diseases that still had no cure, or a lack of money and resources.
There were countless reasons.
Viscount Morius knew a method to completely cure Calsif disease, yet he suggested a cheaper alternative that the middle-aged woman could accept.
After dealing with countless patients over and over again.
Perhaps he finally understood that this was the best option.
A treatment that the patient, and the patient’s family, could actually afford.
“……”
I looked back and forth between Viscount Morius and Erna with complicated feelings.
Viscount Morius had a bitter expression.
Erna was biting her lower lip so hard that it looked like it might bleed.
Realistically, I understood why they had no choice but to make such decisions as doctors.
They had to continue living as doctors in the future.
If they did not establish clear standards and act accordingly, they would continue to suffer every time they treated patients.
However.
‘I can lend them a hand.’
It was not even difficult.
It could be solved by simply spending a little money.
It meant I could show a little bit of meaningless kindness at least once.
But then.
I stopped.
‘However, in a way, I am…… just someone who happened to receive good luck.’
Like a beggar finding a single coin someone dropped on the street and being able to satisfy their hunger for the day.
That kind of luck.
Suppose I paid for this woman’s treatment.
By meeting me, this woman would luckily be able to treat her child.
But if this society could not guarantee treatment for the child, and it could only be solved by relying on the kindness of an individual like me.
Then.
What would happen to those who never met someone like me?
‘Of course, I don’t have the time to question the Empire’s welfare system right now.’
Because there was a great crisis right in front of us.
The ‘destruction of the world.’
Naturally, I had to support the Blue Radiance Knights first and make this world safe.
But if we managed to overcome that crisis.
‘It is something I should seriously think about at least once.’
Even so, I did not want to intentionally turn away from this woman and child when I could help them right now.
So I opened my mouth.
“About that Satini herb. Where can I get it?”
“……Princess?”
Viscount Morius looked at me with a startled expression.
At the same time, Erna spoke with a desperate voice.
“The largest medicinal herb shop in Diaz Duchy is the one operated by the Philonet Trading Company. They might carry Satini herbs.”
“Is that so?”
After nodding, I turned around.
“Then I’ll go to the Philonet medicine shop. If they don’t have it, I can ask the Philonet Trading Company to search the surrounding territories as well.”
“Is that really possible?!”
Erna looked at me with a brightened expression.
However, she soon became worried again.
“Are you really okay with this? Satini herbs cannot be cultivated, so they are extremely expensive……”
Erna came closer to me and whispered quietly.
Perhaps she was trying to hide her trembling hands.
Her thin fingers were tightly gripping the edge of her white coat.
“It’s not something that can be prescribed only once. It has to be taken for at least a month. And that person probably……”
Erna glanced at the middle-aged woman.
“Won’t be able to afford the cost.”
The middle-aged woman, who had not known what to do, happened to meet my eyes.
Her eyes, completely filled with tears, looked at me desperately.
“I, I……”
The woman tried to say something, then tightly clenched her teeth.
A complicated expression.
She could not ask me for help, but she also could not refuse help.
I quietly looked into those eyes and spoke.
“It’s okay.”
“Huh? What is okay……?”
“I have no intention of receiving payment from her. So tell me whatever is needed.”
At those words, joy appeared on the middle-aged woman’s face.
It was an expression as if she had witnessed a miracle.
“Thank you. Thank you!”
The woman bent her waist ninety degrees and bowed to me.
Tears like a spring stream flowed down both of her cheeks.
“So Erna, just focus on treating the child.”
Leaving only those words behind, I tried to leave.
But then.
“Um, Princess.”
Even after calling out to me, Erna hesitated for a moment.
‘Erna is probably afraid too.’
Whether the treatment method she chose was truly correct.
Whether she could really save that child.
The price of the herbs must also be a burden.
‘Well, it can’t be helped.’
Whether she was second-ranked or not, she was still a young doctor who had only recently graduated from medical school.
I lightly tapped Erna’s shoulder.
“Ah.”
Erna sucked in a short breath and turned toward me with a surprised expression.
“Princess……?”
“Not Princess. Astrid, the administrative and supply officer.”
After correcting her way of addressing me, I smiled.
“We are going to become coworkers soon. Are you saying I can’t even help this much?”
“……”
At my words, Erna lightly bit her lower lip.
My smile deepened.
“So relax your face.”
“……I am.”
“Erna looks much better when she smiles.”
Erna’s face turned the color of a beautiful peach blossom.
After finishing my words, I walked toward the entrance with large steps.
At the same time, Giscar and Terrence naturally tried to follow behind me.
“Let us go together, Astrid, the administrative and supply officer.”
“No. I will escort you.”
However, I shook my head and stopped the two of them.
“I’m fine, so both of you stay here.”
“But……”
Giscar looked dissatisfied, but I firmly added.
“The person who needs help the most right now is not me, but Erna.”
The two men looked as if they had been caught off guard.
I smiled warmly.
“So please help Erna. Understood?”
After Kasia left for the Philonet medicine shop.
“First, we need to weaken the symptoms through symptomatic treatment.”
Erna’s eyes changed completely as she began properly treating the child.
“First, let’s give her some fever medicine.”
Viscount Morius quickly made fever medicine using the herbs Erna had prepared beforehand.
“Please bring some lukewarm water. And clean towels as well.”
Erna also began giving orders smoothly.
Giscar and Terrence became the hands and feet of the two doctors, running around the clinic busily.
Meanwhile.
“Are you uncomfortable?”
Terrence suddenly asked a question.
Giscar, who was taking clean towels from the cabinet, turned toward him with a puzzled expression.
“What do you mean?”
“You are someone of the status of a knight commander, yet you are doing this kind of menial work.”
At those words, Giscar shrugged.
“Not at all. It is something that needs to be done, and it is something I can help with.”
In truth, because the position of the Blue Radiance Knights was extremely poor, they had suffered all kinds of disrespect.
However, someone at the level of a knight commander was a high-ranking position within the Imperial Army, receiving treatment equal to that of a deputy commander.
‘And yet…… he is surprisingly humble.’
A strange light appeared in Terrence’s purple eyes.
Just by looking at this side of him, it was hard to believe he was the same person who had fiercely pressured the First Prince to hand over the purification agent.
But then.
“Yet Sir Heinemann, who says that, is also obediently following Lady Morius’s orders.”
Giscar calmly continued.
“Sir Heinemann himself is a promising officer who is rising quickly within the Central Command Headquarters.”
