episode_0055

Episode 55. Threshold of Pain (3)

****

The priest, Tyrael, sat peacefully on his sickbed, reading the newspaper he had asked to be brought.

Istina and I stood at a distance, looking at the patient. He seemed calm now, but he was not a drug dealer.

Shouldn’t you call them drug addicts? In any case, you shouldn’t trust drug addicts. It’s not because they’re bad people, but because their thought processes are completely different from those of ordinary people.

When you are tortured, you end up selling out your friends, colleagues, and even your country. That’s just because you are human. Pain is not something you have to endure.

Many people die for their country, but few endure torture for it.

It is an objective fact.

In fact, modern water torture has become so effective that it has become problematic because the subjects are forced to divulge too much information.

I digressed a bit, but anyway.

What I was trying to say was this.

A drug addict is no different from someone who is constantly being tortured to get drugs by any means necessary. It goes without saying that you shouldn’t trust them. They’re still under surveillance.

“I hope you’re okay?”

“My ward doesn’t use opium. At least that patient won’t become addicted to opium while he’s hospitalized.”

Tyrael is only taking vitamins now.

Originally, naltrexone could only be used after a week had passed since the last opioid use. It is a drug that can be used after a week of not taking the drug.

If you don’t do that, you may experience a similar pain to the seizure you had when you took naloxone earlier. Why are the two drug names so similar?

I don’t know that either.

Isn’t it because their mechanisms of action are similar? Naloxone is used for acute treatment, while naltrexone is used to prevent relapse from taking the medication.

Istina tilted her head.

“But is it really necessary to keep someone who isn’t sick in the hospital?”

“It’s not that he’s not sick, his brain is sick. Even if he looks like a normal person, it’s only on the outside. Did you see him last time?”

“Were you having a seizure when you were admitted?”

“Yeah.”

Of course, a normal person wouldn’t do that. Istina thought about it for a while.

“It’s difficult. Patients who seem fine can be seriously ill, and patients who seem like they’re about to die can be surprisingly normal.”

“Right… … . Often.”

Tyrael quietly turned the page. He wouldn’t have hidden any drugs, would he?

Istina looked at me.

As if something had just occurred to him.

“Right, I thought about it.”

“What?”

“A gift for the princess.”

“Ah. What would be good?”

“You probably already have a lot of clothes. It would be better to buy them yourself, and it wouldn’t be as impressive, right? The same goes for accessories that you buy with money.”

“Probably so.”

“How about a doll? Something that you can buy with money, or something that someone you know for work or public purposes would give you.”

“Is that so?”

“Yes.”

“Haa… … . I think you’re probably already really annoyed about missing your birthday.”

“This may be a rude question, but.”

What are you trying to say?

“Just try it.”

“Why does the professor have to celebrate the princess’s birthday? There has to be a reason to do that… … .”

Ah… … . I guess it’s understandable to wonder. The reason why you should bring mint. There were many reasons that came to mind, but the most important one was this.

“Because he’s my lord. What else can I do?”

“I see.”

“I decided to do my best to accommodate your birthday.”

Although her expression was not satisfactory, Istina nodded. Buy me a doll?

Where did you get the doll? This is going to be hard.

****

Mint came to the lab today too.

It’s a relief that there’s no more endless waiting in the lab. Mint looked a little tired, perhaps because she had just finished class.

“Teacher.”

“Hello, Princess.”

It seemed like he had a lot to say.

“I was a little tired today. They said there were mana bugs in the library of the Academy Magic Department, so we had to evacuate for a while and it was chaos. Do you know what a mana bug is? It’s a bug that lives in magic books-”

Mint was babbling about some unknown subject. Something like what class she took, or that there were bugs at school.

If it’s a bug, isn’t it smaller than a fingernail? I wonder if it’s something to evacuate just because it came out.

I wasn’t listening closely.

“I see.”

As I was daydreaming, Mint turned her head towards me, as if to check my reaction.

“What did you do today, teacher?”

It’s a surprise.

I met Mint’s eyes.

“I just saw an opiate addict. It seems like drugs are scary.”

“Yeah… … . Are you alive?”

The princess looked at me with bored eyes.

Still, it seemed like he was going to give a polite answer. In the past, he wouldn’t have asked about the other patients’ well-being. No, it’s questionable whether he would have tried to talk about topics other than himself.

But not now, though!

“Save me.”

“Thank you for your hard work.”

“That’s right, Your Highness.”

“Hey. ‘That’s right’ is informal speech.”

The princess had her mouth covered, but her eyes were smiling. Was she just saying it once?

“Princess.”

“Yeah.”

“I prepared a gift. I was worried because I didn’t know what to prepare… … .”

Mint looked at me.

“What is it?”

“It’s a doll. I hid it behind the door.”

The princess waved her hand, and a doll appeared behind the door. It was a light brown teddy bear, slightly smaller than a person.

“Still treating me like a child.”

I knew this would happen.

“I thought that other people might have given me a lot of adult gifts, right? That’s why I’m giving it to you after much thought.”

“Interpretation is better than dream.”

“No, Princess. What does dolls have to do with treating people like children? What’s wrong with liking cute and pretty things? Do all people who raise dogs and cats do that? ”

“Is it better for you, Teacher, to just fight with me?”

“That’s not it.”

Today, I also had the thought that she was the one who started whining about being treated like a child and all. She was like a foolish princess.

Adults should be more patient, I guess.

“You’re narrow-minded, teacher.”

“I’m sorry. If you don’t like it, just give it to someone else.”

Mint shook her head at that.

“I’ll take care of it. Thank you.”

It took a lot of effort just to ask her to bring a gift. It was the first time in a long time that Mint had raised the white flag. It was almost the first time I had seen such a sight.

If a normal person had just had the same reaction, they would have been quite disappointed.

Mint has a strange personality to begin with. It’s fortunate that she received a gift.

“You know I’m just saying that, right?”

“What is it, thank you?”

“No. I’m picking a fight.”

I checked Mint’s expression. The princess still had a blank expression. She must have said it without thinking. When I think about it, it was only natural.

“I think it’s about tennis. More than that, it’s surprising that the princess has become so self-aware that she can say something like that.”

“You’re treating me like a kid again.”

“No, that’s not it.”

Now, I don’t know what she’s saying, but the princess seemed to be in a good mood. The doll was sitting across from her.

“Teacher. If I walk by with this, will people think it’s weird? What do you think?”

I don’t think so.

“I guess so. Isn’t it strange that people are so narrow-minded?”

“That’s right. That’s how teachers live.”

There was nothing to say about this. Not caring about others could be seen as a character flaw by some.

To be honest, isn’t it a bit weird to teach other people to live like me?

Mint started to put the doll back in the box. It seemed like she was thinking of putting it back in the box and going back. Even though she didn’t show it on the outside, didn’t she secretly like the princess?

“I didn’t tell you that. That’s not ready-made, I put dried lavender in it.”

“Really? How?”

“Cut it, put it back in, and sew it again.”

“Ah. I guess so.”

Mint waved her hand, and the gift box floated into the sky. Mint slowly walked out of the lab, letting the box float.

“When will you be leaving the lab?”

“It’s 7 o’clock.”

“Aha.”

The princess disappeared into the hallway like that.

****

Today, the conversation continued to be a bit tiring, but Mint got what she wanted. She thought she had forgotten the gift, but she got it.

I asked for it outright, but where did I get it? I thought you forgot about it.

Pot. At Mint’s gesture, the gift box was dismantled, and the doll flew away to sit on one side of Mint’s bed. Mint looked at the doll.

Well, honestly, it didn’t matter what the gift was. There was no way the princess would need anything else. She could just buy things with money.

I still felt like I was being treated like a child for nothing, but what can I do since he wasn’t the one who gave me the gift? So I decided to go with it.

Is it not a matter of one or two days that we are being fooled by the teacher’s words? No, isn’t it the case that the entire academic world is being fooled by his words?

What Mint wanted wasn’t a gift, but receiving a gift. To put it bluntly, a heart.

Mint hugged the teddy bear as tightly as she could, just as the teacher had said. A faint scent of lavender rose from inside the teddy bear.

Oh… … . It might have been a better gift than I thought.