Ch.1Rest assured, this is a hospital.

“Ughhhh….”

“Please don’t move, Master. You’re badly injured.”

My head feels like it’s about to split open. The headache is so severe that it might actually be cracked, and all I can do is roll my barely open eyes and groan in pain.

Thankfully, I must be either a nobleman or the master or young lord of a wealthy household.

Otherwise, I wouldn’t be receiving such dedicated nursing and care…

SLAM!

“Is my lord safe?”

Just then, the door opened and a robust middle-aged man’s voice was heard.

I had my eyes tightly shut due to the headache, so I couldn’t see his face, but the clanking footsteps audibly informed me that he was wearing armor.

“He has regained consciousness, but… he’s in severe pain…”

“He suffered such serious injuries that his brain was exposed… Has he been given painkillers?”

“Yes… a while ago…”

Hearing their conversation in the darkness, I was utterly shocked.

Injured badly enough that my brain was exposed?! Me?!

If that’s the case, it’s a miracle I’m even alive right now…

Clank… clank…

“Haa… haa…”

As I let out a long groan from the unbearable pain, the armored man sat down beside me with a clanking sound.

“My lord. I’m not sure if you can hear me, but please be at ease. All the traitors who tried to harm you have been beheaded.”

“Hnnngh…”

Hearing those words, I felt somewhat relieved.

At least it meant my status was high enough to be called “my lord” by someone in armor, and that those who threatened my life had been eliminated, at least on a primary level.

“Who… who…?”

“My lord. It’s me, Ignatz von Jäger. You personally presided over my appointment ceremony. Do you remember?”

“Kuk! Urrrgh!!”

“Are you sure you gave him painkillers…?”

Though my head still hurts, I now understand what kind of world this is.

Polistory…

I’ve been transported into my favorite game, and at that moment, I absorbed all the memories of Tiberius von Adler, the original owner of this body.

Naturally, along with an excruciating headache.

I lost consciousness again.

*

When I opened my eyes again, it had been a full month since my injury.

Given the severity of my injuries, I should have been suffering for a year rather than a month, but I was the lord of a city, and naturally all the city’s resources and personnel were mobilized to help me recover.

“Ugh…!”

“Master, please don’t strain yourself.”

“I’m… fine.”

Having barely opened my eyes, I quickly surveyed my surroundings.

Though it was a private room, it wasn’t very spacious, and judging by the groans coming from all directions, I seemed to be in a hospital rather than a castle or mansion.

“You… what’s your name?”

“This humble one is called Michaela, my lord.”

“I see… Michaela. Is this a hospital?”

“Yes, it is. You were ambushed while hunting with your knights, and they hurriedly brought you here.”

“I see… so that’s what happened. How is it outside? Is it spring or winter?”

“Winter is approaching soon.”

From the dedicated maid named Michaela, I was able to gather various pieces of information.

First, my situation exactly matched the introduction of Polistory’s scenario mode.

The scenario mode begins with advisors worrying about the protagonist who has survived an assassination attempt, and the cause of my injury was indeed from assassins, so it matched the scenario mode.

Second, the approaching winter indicated the beginning of sandbox mode.

It’s the tutorial section that teaches players how to prepare for winter, which could be skipped if annoying, but considering that scenario mode always starts in spring, it seemed that the two modes had been appropriately(?) mixed.

“My knights… where are my knights?”

“Please wait a moment. I’ll call them right away.”

After Michaela seated me in a chair and left the room, I immediately suffered from extreme weakness.

How should I put it… like gravity was crushing me?

Just as I was about to collapse to the floor, finding it difficult even to sit, the door opened again, and a knight with a magnificent beard, along with soldiers in quilted armor, approached me.

“My lord! I’m glad you’ve regained consciousness. Are you alright?”

“Haha… I feel like I’m dying, but I’m still alive. Would you help me up?”

“Of course… heave-ho!”

“Urrrgh…”

With Ignatz supporting me, I looked like a quadruped pretending to walk on two legs as I was laid back on the bed.

For some reason, once I was lying down, the extreme weakness seemed to subside a little.

“Ignatz… go tell my vassals that I’ve regained consciousness.”

“Yes, my lord. Will that be all?”

“That’s enough for now.”

I said this while holding my head with my hand.

…This isn’t good at all. A heavy drowsiness was pressing down on me again, making me feel like I might lose consciousness at any moment.

Surely I won’t die so quickly after falling into a game world, right? Right?

*

When I regained consciousness again, it was about two days later.

Somehow I’d spent more time unconscious than conscious since being transported here, but if I think of it as paying for my life with sleep, it might seem quite reasonable.

Still, sleeping for two straight days seemed to have had an effect; my weakness had subsided to the level of a general malaise, and I could at least get up from bed and sit in a chair by myself.

“Master, your breakfast… Oh! You’re awake?”

“Michaela, is it?”

Since she mentioned breakfast, I could tell it was morning. However, the bigger issue was that the breakfast she brought looked terribly inadequate.

Just a bowl of thin rice porridge… Even if you can’t serve steak to a patient, you should at least provide some side dishes.

“Michaela.”

“Yes, Master?”

“Bring me a proper breakfast right now. With meat in it.”

“B-but this is a hospital, and there’s no meat…”

“Then bring it from the castle! Can’t you think of such things on your own?!”

“Eek?! I-I’m sorry. But since preparations are needed, I’ll leave this here for now…”

Click!

“…”

Oh dear… I ended up raising my voice without meaning to.

But what can I do? I’m the lord and Michaela is a maid. If the master raises his voice, she should bite her tongue and endure it.

“Anyway…”

Unable to resist my hunger, I tried a spoonful of the thin porridge. To be honest, it wasn’t rice porridge but something like very watery persimmon soup. Texture aside, it smelled so strongly of earth that I feared eating it might give me an upset stomach.

Still, it was thanks to regularly consuming even this that I was alive, making it my life’s benefactor, but I couldn’t forgive the earthy smell.

“Sigh…”

Well, this is what hospital food is like in this world.

At least as a lord, I could freely eat bread or meat, but commoners would have to gratefully consume food like this as a matter of course in this world.

By the way, this food made me realize something.

“At least I wasn’t transported into the middle or late stages of the game.”

The city I ruled was still using the basic hospital and church that come with the game at the start.

How do I know? There’s an easy way.

The most important thing is, of course, the poor quality of this food.

The fact that they would serve such terrible food to literally the head of state, even as hospital food, proved that this city wasn’t well-off, and the church’s broken bell kept making that distinctive cracking sound that was hard to miss.

“Ah… the road ahead looks bleak.”

My head started to throb again.

When I touched the back of my head, I could feel the bumpy sutured flesh and the texture of fluffy threads. The moment these stitches were removed, my skull would probably open like flower petals.

Knock knock.

“Master? Your meal is ready.”

“Come in.”

“Yes.”

As Michaela opened the door and entered, the fragrant aroma of steak began to torment my nose.

Clatter… clatter…

As Michaela placed the plate with bread, soup, and steak on the table, I quickly grabbed the fork and knife, cut the steak, and put it in my mouth.

“Mmmmm…”

I don’t think I’ve ever felt so alive.

The steak was hot, but not too hot to chew.

Just as I was swallowing a piece of steak that I had chewed thoroughly as if intending to break down each protein molecule, the door to my hospital room was roughly thrown open.