Chapter 17

“Well, that was a fine job, Elma, by the way. Thank you.”

“You’ll see,” shouted Dennis as he ran off, then often.

Finally, remembering the passage of time, the knights had begun to celebrate Theo’s recovery and helped him clean up.

In the meantime, the one who spoke to Elma with a big smile on his stern face was a huge man with short-cropped black hair and striking eyes of the same color – the deputy company commander Dirk.

He patted Elma’s back with his thick hand and incidentally looked at Lucas, who had been watching the whole thing.

“Lucas you have done a great job bringing her here.”

As far as status goes, he would be Lucas’s subordinate. Still, because Dirk is more than ten years older than him and Lucas himself wanted him to, he spoke casually.

Lucas raised his eyebrows slightly and shrugged.

“Yeah. I didn’t feel good when I heard that Theo’s leg was almost destroyed. All I can say is thank you to her.”

“I didn’t think the consequences of not practicing the ceremony would happen like this.”

Dirk nodded back at Lucas as he stated that, with a severe expression on his face.

“It’s a good thing Theo has recovered well, but this is not something we can afford to overlook. A spell gear that can even bypass the healing arts. And on a horse that we know, the Second Prince will ride. I don’t think it’s possible, but the first prince is rumored to be a horse lover.”

“Dirk.”

But his thoughts were interrupted by Lucas.

There was only the usual sarcastic smile on his manly, neat face.

“Such speculative talk is not to be discussed in front of a woman. That’s why they say you’re tactless.”

“Lucas.”

It’s clear that this prince, who is fussy about women’s tastes, doesn’t see the dusty, bespectacled woman in front of him as a woman.

But Dirk swallowed down the words that followed, understanding even the intent of daring to blame him for such a manner of speaking.

“I’ll take care of the rest of the spell gear fragments. You mustn’t tell anyone that it was in the shape of a horseshoe.”

“Yes, sir.……”

“In a straightforward exchange, we’ll discuss the stance we should take in the future.”

When Lucas and the others glanced at her, Elma was nonchalant.

“I haven’t heard a thing, sir. Hothouse makes me deaf.”

She said. She was a ready-made maid.

Dirk gratefully slapped Elma on the shoulder again.

“Thank you again, Elma. By the way, I think it’s time you took off that duster and the mouth cloth. It’s hot enough for you.”

“Yes. I was quite uncomfortable with the heat in the air.”

“Hahaha. Take it off, take it off!”

Dirk used his momentum to pick up the alcohol he had been using to disinfect earlier and pour it into a copper mug he had taken from his subordinate, lapping it up.

Then he turned away and offered it to Elma, who had turned away and removed her apron and duster.

“Here, drink! You must be thirsty. It’s the best drink I’ve ever tasted.”

“I’ll take you up on your offer.”

She seemed calm, but in fact, she was exhausted from concentrating for so long, and the summer temperature must have robbed her of energy.

Elma didn’t even smell it but tipped the mug with a gulp as she removed the mouth cloth in the same vein.

After a few seconds, she stopped moving with a snap.

Dirk whistled as he looked at Elma, who had downed the strong drink in one go.

“You’re drinking like a champ.”

“Really? Is that even remotely out of the ordinary?”

Lucas is no longer in a state of giggles.

That was not the drinking skills of a fifteen-year-old girl. With a gallon, the copper mug slipped from their hands, and they both looked at the moment when it began to roll down the cobblestones.

The right hand still stiff with the mouth cloth removed.

Her left hand, which had dropped the mug, instead wobbled and covered the girl’s small mouth in a wobbly motion.

–Wobbling motion?

Elma blurted out to the two stunned men.

“I. My tongue is more smooth than usual, if not mindlessly. I can use it for flambe and disinfection.”

The voice was entirely inappropriate for her age and that of a girl.

“I don’t like heavy, boozy stuff.”

“Hey!”

“Are you okay?”

The two men changed their tune as Elma lowered her arms.

She announced in a strangely calm voice to Lucas and the others, who reached out to her in a hurry.

“I’m sorry, but I’ll be out cold in three seconds.”

As declared, precisely three seconds later, Elma collapsed with a thud in the outstretched arms of Lucas and the others.

*****

“I’m back.”

He ran away from the pavilion and headed for the Holy Medical Guru’s station, where he found a rare group of colleagues and senior Guru’s who had just finished their other work.

Dennis, the youngest, stepped into the room with a light bow and went for his seat.

The Holy Medical Guru was an honorary position.

Many people were entrenched in aristocratic connections, like Dennis earlier. There are factional struggles and foot-dragging, like the aristocratic society itself.

The good news is that you don’t fit in any more than you have to.

And as he sat down at his assigned seat, a voice called out to him from the entrance.

“Oh, you’re back, Mr. Dennis.”

“Marquis!”

He was Marquis Clemens von Rotner, a marquis, priest, and an advisor to the Holy Medical Guru.

At the appearance of his ever-calm guardian, Dennis got up in a hurry and rushed over.

“What can I do for you, sir?”

“No. I was worried when I heard that you were called out on an urgent matter. As I recall, I had already asked you to treat the Knight at the Mock Battle today. Was the burden of dealing with that on top of it okay?”

“Ha. You’re too kind, sir.”

Dennis was moved by the Marquis’s compassion.

“I’ve only heard rumors, but I heard that your healing magic didn’t work at first, after all. I do not doubt your ability, but I think that it was quite unreasonable, after all.”

“Yeah, that’s—“

He almost made a reluctant face at the Marquis’s words.

‘I know it’s well-intentioned, but I don’t want you to openly say the words “the healing process didn’t work” or something like that in front of my colleagues.’

They were bound to try to pull Dennis’s leg by telling him that as soon as Clemens was out of the station.

“It wasn’t so much my ability as it was the spell gear.”

“A spell gear? That doesn’t sound very peaceful.”

“Yes. At first glance, it was like a work of art—“

After almost explaining that much, Dennis suddenly stopped talking.

Reporting is essential, but is it something that should be done in public as such?

No, I’m sure bringing up the subject of spell gear will cause more rumors for these guys than my blunder, so that’s a big help to me.

If it had been Dennis a few moments ago, he would have gleefully talked about the shape of the spell gear and how disastrous it was.

All because of that. He might also have added, speculatively, that the horseshoe was of good quality as if it were “like something from the collection of the first prince.”

That would quickly turn Dennis from an incompetent who didn’t help with the unforeseen to a key person who held all the gossip.

As far as comfort goes, this one was far better.

But–

‘How’s that? As a doctor.’

Denis asked himself, remembering the handmaid who had just shouted at him angrily.

She scolded him for having “no common sense” about covering up the stench by bathing in perfume and biting his nails to cover up his irritation.

I thought you were still a doctor.

‘Then, I’m sure it is far from ideal to cover up one’s lack of skill by gossiping about it.

The horseshoe was in possession of Prince Lucas.

I haven’t even allowed myself to examine it at length, and I’m not confident that the first prince, Felix, had that horseshoe.’

In the first place, one’s primary purpose should be to treat patients, not to make downright speculations about their background.

Dennis corrected himself as he traced his vine trimmed thumbnail.

‘No. Yes, I could not do anything.’

“Dennis?”

“There were some concerns, and I will provide you with another written report on this treatment and the findings we have obtained.”

When he said it clearly, the Marquis widened his eyes a bit and eventually nodded.

“–I see. But if there’s anything you don’t want to put in writing, I’m always happy to listen to you.”

Even with words like that.

After bowing again to the Marquis’s kindness and seeing him leave the room, Dennis returned to his seat and took up his pen.

Put together a report.

Soo, he had just dipped the quill into the inkpot, but he suddenly had a question.

At first, he wondered how on earth the Marquis had heard the rumor that his healing techniques hadn’t worked in such a short time.