episode_0002

Episode 2. The Royal Physician Gets Beaten Up (2)

****

The princess looked down at me.

“I’ll lock you up in the palace. You don’t even have to go to work. I’ll just lock you up so you can’t leave the palace. Do your work or not. ”

Huh? I should have just kept quiet. I reviewed my word choice for today. What went wrong? When I thought about it, there were more than one or two.

I opened my mouth for nothing and ended up losing my investment.

“Your Highness, please put the Empire first. Wouldn’t it be better for the world if I saw more patients and taught more students?”

“Not really.”

This was a weak argument, even in my opinion.

The princess is not a person who can weigh her own safety against that of an unspecified number of people. By the way, she is a person who chooses her own safety.

Rather than saying she’s a bad person… … . I wonder if she has some aspects that are typical of a petty bourgeois person. Of course, the princess isn’t a petty bourgeois person. I thought it might be because of her painful experiences.

Princess Mint shook her head.

“How many times do I have to say it? It’s just my heart. Let’s say you go somewhere far away. What if my condition suddenly worsens?”

“Then I’ll be back.”

“Asterix. That’s the problem. You have to stay around the palace no matter what. The other royals too. You are the best healer in the country, and you have to stay in the palace.”

“Your Highness, please.”

“… … .”

Princess Mint was quiet for a moment.

“Let’s hear it. Where are you going?”

“Academy Hiller Department. I’m going to be a professor.”

I’ve already received word from the Academy that I can come. I’ve also received a letter of recommendation.

The Academy said they would be very grateful if I came. Now, I just need to get permission from the princess, who feels like my direct superior… … .

What is your direct supervisor?

He is effectively a slave owner.

“Hey. Are you going with a letter of recommendation from the royal family?”

“Uh… ….”

I received it from the prince a few days ago. Without the princess knowing. I decided to keep it a secret from the princess, but this time again, the princess was smart.

“Shameless bastard. You ran away against my opinion as a member of the royal family, and yet you received a letter of recommendation from the royal family and want to become a professor. What’s wrong with you?”

I lowered my head.

“I’m sorry.”

“I don’t really like it. But I have to go to the academy someday anyway. If you go to the academy, I’ll go with you.”

Hey, wait a minute.

In the end, isn’t that what you’re saying? I quickly lowered my head before the princess changed her mind. Mint still had a cold expression.

“Thank you for your grace, Your Highness.”

“Get out quickly. I don’t want to see your expression, bragging that you’ve achieved your goal.”

I ran out of the audience room as if I was running away.

This time, I went in prepared.

He did make it out alive. There was the problem of the princess following him, but it doesn’t seem impossible that he’ll head to the academy.

It’s only half-assed, but it’s liberation.

“Finally, I’m free from this beggarly palace!”

“Shut up, you stupid kid!”

The answer came right from behind me.

The royal family seems to have keen ears. I thought they wouldn’t be able to hear me because the audience room door was closed.

****

Manfred, the first prince of the empire.

As a side note, the royal family and royalty do not use surnames. I remember the reason being that there was no reason to use surnames when the country was their guarantor.

Usually, it is referred to as ‘country name’ or ‘person’s name’. In fact, the country’s name is used as a surname. The same goes for some high-ranking nobles.

“Hey, you punk.”

“Your Majesty, hello.”

The prince calls me a sprout. I can guess why, but I honestly don’t know if I did something wrong to that extent.

Honestly, I don’t think so.

“What’s going on?”

Still, he is the one who wrote the letter of recommendation for me to become a professor at the Academy. To be exact, the prince signed the letter of recommendation that I wrote.

The prince, or rather his lord, was leaning against the door of my office. He seemed to have some business to attend to, so he was dressed in his knight’s uniform.

“I heard your little brother is going to the academy because of you. What kind of nonsense are you talking about?”

Are you angry?

I shook my head for a moment.

“I wasn’t the one who persuaded you. My goal from the beginning was to run away from the princess. And wasn’t the academy a place I had to go anyway?”

“Is that so.”

Surprisingly, he was a person who didn’t think much of anything.

Maybe it’s because the royal family only has one son, but he’s a good person without any flaws.

It is inevitable that there is an arrogant attitude that everyone in the world is beneath me.

Unfortunately, most people in the world are below Prince Manfred. It is not wrong to call someone your subordinate.

“Anyway. Take good care of her. She’s not feeling well. Don’t make her suffer for nothing.”

“Is there any possibility?”

“I don’t believe what you say.”

“I’m sorry. I’ll do my best.”

“Well. Since he has such a serious chronic disease, it might be safer for him to be around you.”

“Thank you.”

Manfred left the office.

****

This is the palace infirmary. The palace healers are spending their time playing cards as usual. Today’s game seems to be poker.

“Oh, Mr. Asterix.”

“Where are you going?”

“Aren’t you leaving work?”

I looked at the gambling table.

“I have decided to take up a professorship at the Academy this time. I am also planning to leave the Imperial Infirmary soon.”

The gambling healers seemed much more interested in their own gambling than in me, but they showed some reaction when I told them I was leaving to become an academy professor.

“Recommendation letter?”

“I just wrote it. The prince signed it.”

The second in command of the Imperial Medical Corps, Violet, looked at me. Violet’s hand, seen from behind, was a four of a kind. Wow, I’m going to win some money this time.

“Huh? Really?”

“That’s going to be hard.”

“Isn’t there a lot of work?”

Well, I shrugged.

“You’ll know if you try it.”

“The fastest way to heaven.”

“You can’t die there. My professor would collapse from overwork, and his colleagues would almost always revive him. I’ve seen him do that three times.”

That’s a bit scary.

“If Mr. Asterix goes this time, will I be the chief healer of the palace?”

“Right.”

When I go, Violet is the leader.

“No, you don’t have to go. I don’t feel comfortable dealing with the royal family, but Mr. Asterix is good at talking to them.”

“You figure that out yourself.”

“Anyway. Have a nice trip.”

What do you need?

I searched through the cabinets in the infirmary one by one. There were medicines that I had taken long ago but never used, drafts of papers that I had written long ago, and so on.

There was more to pack than I thought.

“Betting starts.”

“Mr. Asterix. Please be quiet and stop making noise in the office. I’m playing a game.”

“Miss Violet, you have a four card deck.”

A look of absurdity. Violet glared at me and put the card down on the floor.

****

Time passed quickly.

The princess is ready to move. The servants will do it. I, who was living in the palace, didn’t have much luggage. We finished preparing to go to the academy almost as soon as the decision was made.

A carriage heading to the academy.

There is something that modern people probably do not perceive: they do not often get to feel how smooth a work of art a road paved with asphalt is.

Even if you only drive on a concrete road, it’s different. What’s more, if you have a carriage without suspension and wooden wheels, it rattles more than you can imagine.

The palace carriage must be the highest quality thing in the world. It moves around like an off-road quad bike or tractor.

“The weather is nice, Your Highness.”

“It’s noisy. Be quiet.”

The princess pretends to be strong, but she is very timid. She is pretending to be deep in thought, but her hands and feet keep moving as if she is anxious.

Are you nervous about going out of the palace?

“Are you feeling motion sick?”

“No.”

“Put this on your ear. It’s motion sickness medicine.”

“Really?”

The princess accepted the motion sickness patch without saying anything.

“A drug called scopolamine. It is absorbed through the skin with a patch. It is a drug that blocks muscarinic receptors, and has the effect of blocking the connection between the balance organ of the inner ear and the vomiting center of the brainstem, thereby reducing dizziness.”

Mint nodded.

“Asterix. If I had a hobby of sitting around listening to things I didn’t understand, I would hire a foreign escort.”

“If you weren’t going to listen to me, you should have taken a separate carriage. I’ll tell you.”

These are not words that I specifically want the princess to hear. They are words that I want to confirm and remember.

“Do you know what Asterix means?”

“I don’t know.”

“Low-dose aspirin for antiplatelet action. It also has a slight analgesic effect and has the effect of reducing the risk of cardiovascular disease.”

“Okay. Talk as much as you want.”

And silence.

I looked out the carriage window. The princess was pretending to read a book, but she hadn’t turned a page for several minutes.

I took motion sickness pills, but it was so bumpy that it would be too disorienting to read a book.

“Your Highness. What kind of place is the Academy?”

“You seem to be talking a lot today. Are you nervous?”

“A little bit.”

It’s a projection. He’s asking me if I’m nervous because he’s nervous. After all, he’s a kid.