Ch.134Episode 7 – Daily Life

If asked who the most famous group in the world is right now, nine out of ten people would unanimously answer that it’s the person who crossed over from another world and their companions.

The representative of God.

The first offspring of the Mother.

Guardian of the Precepts.

Apostle of the Foreign God.

Dragon Slayer.

War God.

Hero.

Though they are called by different names depending on the culture, currently all these titles refer to just one person. And around her are a total of three companions.

Lucia, the priestess who was born in an orphanage and became the 59th Saint of the Order.

Francesca, the alchemist who experienced the downfall of her family and a de facto exile before becoming an administrator in the Magic Tower’s Secretariat.

And Frederick, the resident financial officer who was serving ordinarily until he was chosen by God and recruited.

The last person was far less remarkable compared to Lucia or Francesca mentioned earlier. And that was truly the case.

He couldn’t use magic, couldn’t enhance his body with magical power, and wasn’t born with any mystical qualities. All Frederick had was a major’s rank insignia and the hollow title of resident financial officer. His background was similar. While his family couldn’t be called bad, they weren’t a prestigious house with widespread fame like the Ranieri family, nor were they a clan that had produced countless political figures.

However, in Veronica’s opinion, such public assessment was complete nonsense.

There were more than a few questionable aspects about calling him an ‘unremarkable person.’

The Abbas Intelligence Agency ranks among the top in the world alongside the Empire and the Order, operating not just on the continent but globally, and that man belongs to it. The Abbas government provides him with considerable behind-the-scenes support, and he even has a father who is a high-ranking official in the Treasury Department and a mother who assists the Abbas royal family. Above all, he once blew away a cardinal and put the Imperial Guard’s internal factions in their place. In Veronica’s judgment, with over ten years of experience as an intelligence officer, that was no ordinary feat.

Regardless of what others said, that man had something peculiar about him, and Veronica had long decided to place her bet on him. At the very least, he wasn’t the type to cause trouble and harm those around him.

“……”

And now, as Veronica looked out into the hotel corridor, she thought:

“AAAHHH! Help! Help! My colleague is chasing me with a club!”

“Ah! I won’t hit you, just stop for a moment!”

“Why would I stop when you’re like this?!”

“Just! Stop right there!”

It seems that judgment might have been wrong after all.

“…Is he insane?”

Episode 7 – Daily Life

Camilla is undergoing basic intelligence officer training. She’s learning everything an intelligence officer needs to know, from basic techniques to theory, and that includes physical training.

But Camilla has a habit of eating snacks, bread, and drinks on top of her three regular meals, and naturally, training won’t yield results when she eats like that all day.

So after coming to an agreement with Camilla, I promised to adjust her diet, but…

“How can you not resist and eat cake in such a short time? And two pieces at that?”

The agreement has fallen apart.

“No matter how much exercise you do, it won’t help if you keep eating like that.”

“I’m sorry…”

Camilla apologized in a small voice, looking dejected.

When I was carving the oak wood in the office, I didn’t realize it, but now that we’re face to face, it’s awkward to scold her.

In the end, instead of giving her a severe scolding, I could only let out a light sigh and admonish Camilla.

“You can’t even run 10km properly, and if you keep this up, I’ll really chase you with a club.”

“Yes…”

“If you understand, then start carrying those items.”

My official schedule today is supporting medical volunteer work. Helping Lucia with her medical service.

To be precise, it’s an itinerary added by the Ministry of Defense after accepting a proposal from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs suggesting that it would be good publicity to show how well Abbas and the Order get along by having me, a resident financial officer, and Lucia, the 59th Saint, working together.

According to the Foreign Affairs officials stationed at the Magic Tower Representative Office, ‘the image of a young man and woman who will lead the future of the country and the Order working together on relief activities is too good not to use for public diplomacy’… In my view, they’re just dumping their work on me. All this talk about a handsome young man and beautiful young woman. At least there’s the justification that I’m Camilla’s colleague.

The Foreign Affairs proposal was nonsense to anyone who looked at it, but the Ministry of Defense thought it was a worthwhile activity with its own merits, so they ordered me to accompany the medical volunteer work. Thanks to that, I’m now doing volunteer work that I never signed up for.

Of course, the Foreign Affairs and Defense ministries gain their own benefits from such events, but there’s nothing in it for me.

“Should I report them to the Labor Department…?”

I seriously considered reporting the Ministry of Defense to the Labor Department, but the consideration remained just that. After all, I already had the excellent Hassan to work in my place.

I pushed a wooden box toward Camilla.

“Get to work, Camilla. If you don’t move all of this by lunchtime, you’re skipping lunch today.”

“Eeeek…”

*

To cut to the conclusion, Camilla didn’t end up going hungry.

Promises about diet control or skipping lunch honestly have no real enforcement. It’s not like money was exchanged or documents were drawn up with a lawyer’s certification.

The decision to receive intelligence officer training was entirely Camilla’s will, and whether to keep that promise or not was also up to her judgment. In other words, it’s a matter of personal choice.

Despite me moving half of the boxes, Camilla couldn’t finish the sorting work before lunchtime, so she should have skipped lunch as promised, but…

It was impossible to refuse food offered by the Order’s Saint in a hospital with many watching eyes.

“Both of you should eat before continuing.”

“Thank you, Lucia.”

“Thanks, Lucia!”

“Enjoy your meal.”

Camilla, exhausted from moving boxes, accepted the basket with a bright smile. She removed the white cloth and took out a sandwich, taking a hearty bite.

“Nom nom.”

“…Is it good?”

“Yes!”

Oh boy.

“I won’t take it away, so eat slowly. Drink your milk too.”

I handed her the milk that was still warm thanks to magic.

I brought her to the medical volunteer work to make her burn calories through work and to educate her on various things, but somehow, instead of losing weight, she seems to be gaining more.

I reached into the basket for a sandwich, but suddenly lost my appetite and grabbed cold water instead of bread.

So I took a sip of cold water and let out a sigh.

“Haah…”

It’s frustrating.

From the moment I decided to train Camilla, I knew it wouldn’t be easy, but I’ve encountered obstacles in unexpected places.

And that’s not the only problem.

The still silent Military Intelligence Service and Clevins, the Imperial Reconnaissance Command that suddenly vanished while plotting something, and Leoni whose true intentions are impossible to guess.

I was worried that the National Security Agency led by Sophia might question my relationship with Francesca, my head ached at the thought of controlling Francesca who might be dreaming of revenge against our allied nations, and I was concerned about the Imperial Guard watching from the blind spots for an opportunity.

Additionally, thinking about the two colleagues whose whereabouts are still unknown, the countries and organizations that might be targeting Camilla, Lucia, or Francesca, and the complexly intertwined interests, endless worries flood in.

Whether aware of my feelings or not, Camilla is busy devouring the sandwiches Lucia brought.

“How can you eat like that? I can’t even swallow food when I’m stressed…”

“People need to eat to live.”

“You’re quite positive. How many have you eaten?”

Camilla held a sandwich in her mouth and spread all five fingers.

“…You’ve already eaten five?”

At my dispirited question, Camilla hesitated for a moment, then slowly moved the index finger that was holding the sandwich.

Oh, it was six.

“Oh my, well done, our little glutton.”

“Hehe.”

“That wasn’t a compliment.”

*

“By the way. Didn’t you say we were going to do some training here today?”

That’s right.

I didn’t just bring Camilla to the hospital to dump work on her and make her exercise. I had a different purpose.

“Medical training.”

“Medical?”

“Yes.”

I nodded lightly in affirmation.

“When you join an intelligence agency, you also receive medical training. Not to the level of performing surgeries or examinations, but knowledge necessary for first aid.”

“Ah, like TCCC?”

“Similar.”

Tactical Combat Casualty Care. In short, first aid.

It’s nothing fancy. It’s similar to the CPR, making triangular bandages for bleeding control, or treating fractures with improvised splints that they always teach students in middle and high school auditoriums. The only difference is that intelligence agencies teach it a bit more professionally due to their nature. There’s hardly any particularly difficult content.

Camilla tilted her head and spoke up.

“Is there a need to come all the way to a hospital to learn that?”

“Today I’m going to teach you about pharmaceuticals, which are difficult to obtain quietly. That’s why we’re training in the hospital.”

“Pharmaceuticals? I’m a liberal arts major.”

“It’s okay. I was too.”

Perhaps because it was lunchtime, the hospital was sparsely populated.

After giving a small gift (snacks as bribes) to the nurses on duty, we went up to the upper floor using the emergency stairs to find the pharmaceutical storage room.

“We don’t have much time, so I’ll explain briefly.”

I began explaining as I walked around the storage room with Camilla.

“Going to a hospital is the best choice when injured, but if you need to perform emergency first aid on the spot, you need to know how to handle pharmaceuticals. There’s no time to whine about when the ambulance will arrive when an artery bursts on a battlefield with bullets flying around. Basically, if you’re performing first aid on the scene, you’ll need to use tools more than drugs. If you need to suture a laceration, the most common methods are using a skin stapler to staple the skin or directly stitching with sutures. If you don’t have medical thread or even a needle, you can use substitutes to close the skin.”

“Substitutes? What do you mean?”

“You can use fishing line or dental floss as a substitute for sutures, or you can stick the skin together with tape or super glue. If you don’t like that, you can also just tie it off with a tourniquet.”

“Oh…”

Camilla covered her mouth and quietly exclaimed.

“Do you really have to go that far?”

“If you don’t want to die, yes. Of course, using a tourniquet is the conventional method. Anyway, in the field, it’s important to first control bleeding that immediately threatens life. Since an arterial rupture can kill within 5 minutes, you first stop the bleeding, then transport to the rear for antibiotics and painkillers, and formal surgery. If the situation doesn’t allow for that, you need to be able to obtain antibiotics and painkillers yourself. So today, let’s just look at antibiotics and painkillers here.”

I explained each item to Camilla as we navigated through the pharmaceutical storage.

“There are various types of antibiotics. Iodine, chlortetracycline, fusidic acid, mupirocin, gentamicin, metronidazole, and so on. The most commonly used is iodine. It’s often administered by injection, taken as pills, or applied as ointment, but ointment shouldn’t be used on wounds that need suturing. Also, some antibiotics can cause allergic reactions, so be careful.”

“There are so many types of antibiotics.”

“There are many painkillers too. Of course, the most commonly used is a drug called ketamine, which is widely used in the military and emergency rooms. Especially the US military, they favored ketamine in Iraq and Afghanistan.”

“But don’t painkillers contain narcotic components? I believe anesthetics are the same.”

“That’s right. That’s why drugs like ketamine are also abused for crimes, and in South Korea, where narcotics are hard to obtain, propofol was sometimes used as a substitute for drugs.”

That’s why all these medical narcotics are stored separately in pharmaceutical storage rooms that only authorized personnel can access. Of course, security was lax enough that we could easily enter.

Camilla and I amicably examined the drugs in the storage. Some were familiar drugs I had used before, some were drugs I only remembered by name, and some had names that were completely unfamiliar.

While I was continuing my explanation, recalling from memory, Camilla picked up one of the pharmaceuticals.

“What is this drug? It looks like eye drops.”

“Ah, don’t touch that. It has side effects.”

Side effects? Camilla muttered, staring at me.

“All drugs have side effects originally.”

“What Camilla is holding now are paralyzing eye drops. If they get in your eyes, you won’t be able to see for several hours.”

“Ugh.”

Camilla hurriedly put down the drug and rubbed her hands vigorously. I examined the eye drops she had put down and briefly explained.

“These are eye drops containing anticholinergic components. Have you ever had an eye procedure at an ophthalmologist?”

“No? I haven’t.”

“These eye drops are used for examinations before eye procedures. They’re anticholinergic eye drops that inhibit the action of the neurotransmitter acetylcholine, restrict eye movement, and simultaneously dilate the pupil to make examination easier.”

“You’re quite knowledgeable about drugs?”

“Because I was trained.”

By the way, one of these anticholinergic drugs is atropine.

“In the South Korean military, there’s a nerve agent antidote kit called KMARK-1, which includes an atropine injection. When chemical shells fall, that’s the first thing you inject, and it’s an anticholinergic drug. If I had received that injection when I collapsed from nerve toxin at the Order last time, I would have been fine.”

“Do they teach that in the military? Chemical weapons can’t be used, right?”

“How could they not teach it when North Korean troops would fire chemical shells first if war broke out? Their artillery ammunition warehouses are filled with chemical shells… By the way, these anticholinergic drugs are also used by intelligence agencies for torture. Just know it as general knowledge.”

“Torture?”

Camilla reacted as if it was an interesting topic. I nodded and took out one eye drop to start explaining.

“As I said earlier, anticholinergic drugs have the side effect of inhibiting eye movement and dilating the pupil, making vision blurry. Remember?”

“Yes.”

“When spies or terrorists are captured, and there’s no time to extract information, torture is usually employed. There are various types of torture, and one method involves threatening the eyes.”

“Threatening with the eyes?”

“Holding a knife and threatening to gouge out their eyes. It’s not actually done, just a threat.”

That’s when drugs like these are used.

“Antipsychotic medications containing anticholinergic components and eye drops containing atropine inhibit neurotransmitters, dilate the pupil, and restrict eye movement. If you beat a spy or terrorist until they pass out, administer such drugs, and wrap them in bandages, they’ll think their eyes are really gone. Some drugs have side effects that last more than a week. If you then grab their other eye and threaten them, most will spill the information.”

“Is there a reason to go that far…?”

“Don’t think about it too hard, just think simply. People fear a life worse than death, and intelligence officers are people too—who would want to live as a blind person for the rest of their life? They’d rather defect and talk. So usually when torturing, threatening to maim someone is more effective than threatening to kill them.”

Dying is easy, and if you’re going to die anyway, it’s better to resist without answering.

After finishing my explanation, I looked at Camilla to take questions, but her reaction was unusual. Camilla was silently glaring at me with a furrowed brow and a displeased look.

“Why are you looking at me like that?”

“No, saying such things openly… Isn’t that a bit much?”

“Oh come on. It’s education, education! Why are you staring at me like I’m Hitler?”

“When did I look at you like that…!”

“Anyway! Just know it as general knowledge. It might be necessary later.”