Chapter 18
"Hmm, this is fine"
When I came back to the mansion, I had my upper body stripped in the living room and treated myself.
I removed the cloth that the maids had treated me with and created an armor to adhere around the wound with a ring linked to the Leviathan.
The material, which feels like metal, but not metal, is a strange material, and I pressed it snugly around the wound to stop the bleeding.
Then I turned my attention to the girl who had been brought back.
The girl shrank back a little.
She looks like a child who is scared of her parents' anger – or something more.
"Anyway, let me hear your name."
"Oh ... Ah excuse me."
The girl panicked, poof, got down on her knees and just said her name.
"My name is Shi-Shirley Glans,"
"Shirley. Your armor is pretty well made, did you make it yourself?"
"No, It's been passed down for generations.... um."
"Hmm, what?"
"My matter earlier...what will happen to that…."
"What matter?"
"That, for the crime of accidentally hurting His Imperial Highness… ..."
Shirley gets down on her hands and knees and simply looks up.
She looks extremely scared.
I thought I told everyone not to worry about it earlier.
"That crime doesn't exist."
"Huh? But in imperial law ..."
"That's not true. I mean, if you're guilty of accidentally hurting someone, it doesn't exist."
"What kind of ... is that?"
Shirley tilted her head.
"Stand up Shirley."
"Y-Yes!"
"Try that thrust again on me."
"Huh? But ..."
"If you are a knight, you need to follow orders."
"–Ha! Excuse me."
Shirley stood up, drew her long sword and held it ready.
Her expression changed drastically, her scared look was almost blown away, and she had an imposing face.
As it was, she released a thrust with the spirit of a splendid shout of enthusiasm.
It is a thrust that is no less than the time of the knight selection.
I stopped it.
Or rather a shield put out by Leviathan stopped it.
"This much is... eh?"
Shirley immediately noticed the "difference".
She was surprised to find that the shield that she could penetrate during the selection process wouldn't budge at all.
"It doesn't budge at all, does it?"
"Yes, even if I press–pull back!? This is ... amazing."
It was as if the tip of the sword had been sucked into the shield, neither pushing nor pulling, and Shirley was taken aback by this.
"If I really wanted to prevent it, those attacks wouldn't go through. So there's no such thing as you did it 'accidentally'. I made it happen."
"W-Why?"
Shirley was even more confused.
"A knight is supposed to follow orders. You're a slave at best if you can't follow orders to the letter. I've got a lot of plans, but I don't want anyone in there trying to get in my face and not really bothering me in the first place."
"Ye-yes!"
"If I want slaves I would have collected them through the method one collect a slave. This time, I was selecting a knight. That's what I mean."
"So, ... you have no regard for your own danger?"
"I wanted to know how people would react after hurting me. And even for the second time, you came for real on my orders. You passed."
"..., yes."
Shirley nodded with a chuckle.
She rolled her eyes and opened her mouth with a pout.
Then she looked at me with impressed eyes.
"So, you've passed. Just to confirm, you intended to be my knight, correct?"
"Y-yes, sir!"
Shirley hurriedly corrected her position, got down on one knee and bowed her head.
This etiquette was rather – no, that's the one in the plays.
The formal etiquette of the aristocracy is not understood by the common people, it's more passed down to the common people as something that looks good for a play or performance or something.
Shirley gave that kind of knightly bow, the kind you do in plays.
"I, Shirley Grans. I pledge my lifelong loyalty to His Royal Highness the Prince."
Again, this wasn't an official sentence, but the feeling came through.
Above all.
Name: Noah Ararat
Wise Prince
Gender: Male
Level: 1 / ∞
HP F+F MP F Strength F+E Stamina F+F Intelligence F+F Spirit F+F Speed F+F Dexterity F+F Luck F+F Fire F Water E+S Wind F Earth F Light F Darkness F
My ability increases as I take in more subordinates.
This increase in ability for me was much more important and easy to understand than proper or improper etiquette.
Come to think of it, Shirley may have been the single individual who rose my abilities the most.
"I'm counting on you, Shirley"
"——Yes!"
After the talk with Shirley was over, as if waiting for it, the serving maid brought in a doctor.
A middle-aged man, fat and round, with a ratty mustache on his face.
Visit readel.me for extra chapters.
He's a familiar face. He's the court physician, His Imperial Physician.
His name is Goode Croy, as I recall.
Although his real name was Bade, he was a doctor, and His Majesty gave him the name Goode because it was too sinister.(TN: Well his name was literally Bad and now got changed to Good, I just added 'e' at the end to sound it better than just Good and Bad)
That's how much he is trusted by His Majesty for his medical skills.
"Even if you came, it's an overreaction."
"Ha. Let's see the wound."
"Ah."
Since he came, I shouldn't refuse him.
All I did was stop the bleeding as a first aid measure anyway.
I ordered Leviathan to release the armor that clings to my skin like an underclothing.
An instant later, blood spurts out in a pushy spray.
"–!"
"... please be patient."
Shirley gulped, but Goode, as expected of a doctor, looked at the mere non-life-threatening injuries at first glance, without moving an eyebrow.
"I will say. Luckily, the bones and tendons have been dislodged, so I hope you can keep the stitches."
"I see. Do it."
"Now, the anesthesia–"
"No, we're in the middle of a conversation, so just do it quickly."
"H-huh…Okay"
Goode nodded to me as I sat in a relaxed manner and took out a suture needle and thread.
Wiping the blood clean, he stitched together the skin's surface.
When he finished sewing the front, Goode looked up and stared at me.
"What's the matter, do I have something on my face?"
"Well, No, I've never heard of anyone who didn't change their expression with these sutures, let alone their voice."
"Really?"
"I'm impressed,"
With that, Goode went behind me and started stitching there, too.
Because Goode was gone from my sight, I saw Shirley, who had been hidden by the guy's body, actually watching the stitching with great interest.
"What's up Shirley?"
"Oh, uh, ... I thought doctors were great."
"Hmm?"
"I've never seen a treatment for a cut like this before. It's the first time I've seen it."
"Have you never seen a doctor?"
"There is no doctor in the village."
"What?"
I raised an eyebrow.
"There's no doctor in the village?"
"Yes. That ... is something wrong with it?"
"So what if people get hurt or sick?"
Asking Obabsama to pray for you, and paying her off for your sickness. "
" It s a common practice in poor villages."
Goode interrupted me from behind.
The fact that he was sighing probably meant that he felt bitter as a doctor.
"Hey Goode."
"Y-yes, W- what's the matter?"
"How can one be a doctor,"
"Well, it is more common to be apprenticed to a doctor who is already in business or is already in practice."
"Are you also taking disciples?"
"Yes, some of them."
"Shirley"
"Y-yes!"
"Your first order. Bring a clever, hard-working boy from your village."
"Uh, ...?"
"Goode, I'll provide you some apprentices."
"... Yes, sir."
After a pause for a breath, Goode nodded quietly behind me.
"Uh ... your highness? What on earth is ..."
Shirley still can't seem to grasp the situation and asks me fearfully
"I'll pay for tuition and living expenses. Bring me the one who is going to be a doctor and treat everyone in the village."
"..., thank you!"
Shirley hurriedly dropped to her knees and bowed to me as if she were on the ground.
Knights don't do it this way, so hey, I'll have to teach her something.
Shirley, who only looked up, stared at me with an increasingly respectful gaze.