episode_0168

Episode 168. The Magician Mint

****

I was sitting in my lab, organizing yesterday’s class and dissection lab content. I didn’t know there were international students at the academy.

Your name was Melissa, right?

A recent student from the kingdom. It was a very romantic idea. He wanted to learn the advanced medicine of the empire and bring it back to his home country.

Imperial medicine has advanced considerably since I entered the Academy. This will be even more true for the foreign students who have come since then.

If you came here with the intention of stealing knowledge, it might feel like a gold mine. The pen rolled through my hand.

“Oh, hello, professor.”

Amy came in.

“What happened to the patient who had an eye injury?”

“It looks okay. But he is resisting discharge. I don’t know why.”

You’re saying you’re resisting being discharged?

I’m worried, but. I’ve seen many patients who want to be discharged, but it’s not that common to see patients who don’t want to be discharged.

There may be a good reason for that, though.

“Ask me again tomorrow. I have nothing more to offer.”

“Okay.”

Amy threw her gown on and sat down on the sofa in the lab, eating what appeared to be a sandwich.

A slightly sad sight.

When I worked in the emergency room of a previous hospital, I looked like this. I would eat cup ramen in the early morning when there were no patients or when no one was looking for me.

“What about Daisy Yang?”

“Ah. I had a hard time because there were so many onlookers in the hospital room. I had to see how the chest tube was inserted in front of Daisy’s hospital room.”

“I thought so. How did you do it?”

“I just sent it back. I couldn’t put it back in because of the onlookers. But Daisy said she would at least take questions.”

Daisy Yang. I could clearly see the sight of professors and graduate students crowding around and asking questions.

“Oh, that must have been hard.”

Surprisingly, the lecture on the structure of the lungs had a big impact. I thought it was just something obvious, so I didn’t know the academic world would react like this.

“It ended up being pretty good.”

“Have you seen the microscope?”

“I saw it in the lab. I don’t know much about it. Is the honeycomb structure important?”

“Yeah. A really small balloon.”

“I don’t really understand what it means to mix air with blood. Isn’t this ultimately a return to the 4-element theory that was so desperately disproved a few months ago?”

Why are you bringing up such a difficult topic when you’re just going to eat a sandwich? I scratched my head for a moment.

“Where did you buy that sandwich?”

“Oh, it’s the cafe on the first floor.”

Oh, I see. Buy me some too.

“Returning to the 4-element novel is an overinterpretation. Do you know that air can dissolve in liquid?”

“Oh, really?”

I nodded.

“I don’t think it will mix well. Even if we stir the water or blow bubbles inside, we don’t see the gas dissolving in the water.”

“Well… … . It will melt little by little. It’s a different concept from salt melting.”

Amy still looked doubtful.

“I’ll discharge the newly admitted patients this time. If both of you seem to be feeling better.”

“Yes.”

“I bought some sandwiches for the lab.”

****

“I think you can be discharged now.”

“Oh, really?”

Daisy was sitting in her hospital bed, her blankets wrapped around her like a pupa. One of her caregivers was sitting and sleeping next to her.

You must be tired. I didn’t bother waking you up.

“Yes. Is there anything that hurts in particular?”

“I don’t think so… … . The place where the arrow went in and the place where the chest tube went in still stings. I think that’s how it was originally.”

“I think I’ll recover in a few days. My breathing is relatively normal now.”

Daisy looked at the distant mountains.

“I got a letter yesterday. They said the person who shot the arrow was caught? They said they thought it was a wild animal and shot it, and they were sorry. They sent money for the hospital bill through the villagers.”

“Thank goodness it all ended well.”

“The world looks a little different. The person who tried to kill me apologized, and the hospital that might have treated me saved my life by developing a new treatment method. ”

I see.

Daisy’s cat ears perked up.

“Yes?”

“That, I heard from the people who came to my hospital room last time… …! They said that inserting a tube into the injured lung to drain the water and air is a method that was recently developed through research.”

I never thought about it that way. I thought about it for a moment. I guess in this world, I should consider myself the inventor of thoracic tube drainage… … .

I didn’t think much of it though.

Daisy seemed very impressed. She probably thought that I had developed a new technique for her. She wasn’t wrong.

“That’s right. Thank you.”

“How can I express my gratitude… …. Should I go somewhere and spread the word? That the fact that he is the best doctor in the empire wasn’t a lie?”

Come to think of it, there’s something Miss Daisy could help me with. That would do it.

“Why don’t you go to a newspaper and do an interview? Tell them I’ve developed a new treatment for Daisy. They’ll probably like it.”

The cat man nodded his head.

“Yes!”

It seemed like preparations for discharge were almost complete.

Next patient. I went to the room of the patient who came in complaining of eye pain. Mr. Ethan was pacing around the room with a serious expression on his face.

“Hello, patient.”

“Oh, hello.”

The patient lay down in bed again.

“The patient can now be discharged. I heard that he/she said he/she will not be discharged. Is there a separate reason why he/she does not want to be discharged?”

Mr. Ethan looked at the ceiling of the hospital room.

I waited for a moment.

“It’s a little scary.”

“In what way?”

“Isn’t it because I’m stupid that this accident happened today? Won’t a similar accident happen again when I go back?”

It’s true that it’s stupid, but… … .

It didn’t seem like a reason not to be discharged even after getting better. I shook my head.

“How many stupid people are there in the world? The patient is not stupid, he is just particularly unlucky.”

“Do you think so?”

“That unidentified drug that the patient took. Some people might have gotten better after taking it. Others might not have changed at all.”

“Oh, right.”

“The patient was just unlucky. I don’t think there’s any need to be afraid of discharge, although he may be less likely to engage in risky behavior.”

Mr. Ethan thought about it for a long time.

“Can you see well?”

“Oh, if I close my uninjured eye, it’s a little drowsy. Other than that, I think I’m fine.”

“Get ready for discharge now. It won’t be a big problem if you stay a few more days, but… … .”

The patient nodded as if he had made up his mind. I understand. Suddenly losing one’s eyesight is not usually a scary experience.

That’s why the patient reacted so extremely.

“Okay.”

This concludes this matter.

Both patients will now be discharged after completing treatment for their illnesses, and in Daisy’s case, the insertion of a chest tube will be studied with interest from the academic community.

****

Princess Mint.

After class, Mint went to Professor Asterix’s lab. There was no one in the lab today. What’s going on?

The princess scratched her head. She’ll be back later.

Anyway, Professor Asterix spends most of his day in the lab. So there were a lot of traces of the professor left in the lab.

Every day, they kept growing. Books. Now, stacks of letters piled high in the sky like some kind of sculpture. Human bones dried in salt to keep them from smelling.

and…….

Sandwich? Mint tilted her head.

Did you leave it behind while trying to eat it?

****

Mint was waiting in the lab. As soon as she saw me, she came over to hug me.

“Oh, my gown is dirty.”

“Huh?”

I motioned for Mint to wait a moment, then threw the gown on and hung it up, just like Amy did. Mint waited for me to take off the gown and then hugged me tightly.

“It seems like it’s been a long time since I’ve seen you… … !”

“No way.”

Every time I see him, he starts making that sound. I guess he gets anxious if he doesn’t see me for even a day or two.

“Nice to meet you too, Princess.”

“Wow!”

Mint pushed me onto the sofa. Mint held on to me tightly, grinning like an idiot.

The princess turned her head towards me.

“I couldn’t sleep last night. Do you see it?”

“No. What’s going on?”

I don’t know what Mint was expecting in return, but it was the same as usual. Nothing had changed.

“Look. I learned a new spell. I stayed up all night practicing it… … .”

The princess began to speak, and I listened to her quietly. It seemed like she was trying to brag about something she had just learned… … .

Mint waved her hand, and something resembling a glittering butterfly appeared and flew before her eyes. It wasn’t the first time she had seen magic, though.

It was a wondrous sight every time I saw it.

However, perhaps because Mint was still inexperienced, or perhaps the magic of this world was not that overwhelming, the scale did not seem large.

I thought it would be the latter.

“Isn’t that amazing?”

“Yes.”

“It’s the spirit of light. The spirit summoning started a few days ago, so it’s still small.”

I looked at the princess for a moment. Mint’s eyes sparkled. It was a fact that was often forgotten that the princess could also use magic.

The spirit was glowing a sky blue like Mint’s eyes. It was slowly dispersing light into the air like paint dissolving in water.

Mint snapped her fingers.

Mint’s bag was walked to its proper location in the lab, and Amy and I’s gowns, which had been lying around in the corner, were moved to the hat rack and hung there.

“Hey, should I go out and have some tea?”

“Okay, then.”