[Completed a quest!]
[Gain a bonus level up!]
[Gain 10 bonus skill points!]
Hearing the message, Raymond said happily.
"The treatment is over, thank you for your efforts."
"Uh, is it really over?"
Kansir's eyes widened in disbelief.
He'd been suffering from this nasty anal disease for years, and the cure was so simple?
Raymond wiped the sweat from his brow and smiled.
"You may be sore for the next three days or so. I'll have you take sitz baths for a while. Oh, and what's a sitz bath...."
He carefully told me what to do after the surgery.
Kansir, who had just come to the bathhouse to be cured of his ailment, had a dazed look on his face.
"Go, thank you. How can I repay this favor...."
"It was a simple treatment."
"You don't need grace, you just need to pay.
Raymond inwardly smiled a smile of conversion.
If I'd known this was coming, I'd have bought some wine. To drink with the meat soup.
"How much should I ask? Twenty pesos, you look like you have some money, or thirty?
Then Kansir said something unexpected.
"How dare you make such an accusation against such a fine man."
"What?"
"Today's favor will be repaid many times over. From now on, you won't have a fly in the ointment."
"What?"
I continued unintelligibly.
"Me, sir? I don't need a favor... I just want a simple medical bill...."
"You can't repay this favor with a mere medical bill, and I'll give you an example that doesn't even compare to a medical bill."
Kansir was a man like a charging brown bear.
Once he made his decision, there was no hesitation.
He pulled out his chin money pouch, dropped it on Raymond, and stood up.
"Don't worry, I'm going to wipe out the bastards who've been bothering the healer!"
"You?"
Raymond called out in panic, but it was too late.
Kansir was gone in a flash of light, and Raymond could only shake his head.
"What the hell are you talking about?
Anyway, I got paid.
I had a whopping three hundred pesos in my pocket!
'Three hundred pesos! It's beef tonight, sirloin!'
* * *
In any case, Kansir had a big job on his hands.
"Malignant boils are the likes of you, Lance."
"Cuh! Ka, Kansir?! There must be some misunderstanding...!"
"Shut up! I've had my eye on you ever since you started stealing our poor people's spines, and I let you get away with it, and now you want to frame such a fine man?!"
Healers who tried to slander Raymond were not to be found in the Bay Area from that day forward.
An enraged Kansir gave them a good beating and kicked them out of the Bay Area.
Lance, who had led the charge, was beaten into the dust on a rainy day.
He was beaten so badly that his face turned into a bear's, and he was never seen again in the kingdom's capital.
The healers who tried their hand at such a futile endeavor collapsed before they had a chance to do anything, and Raymond continued his work unhindered.
* * *
From then on, Raymond's practice was uneventful.
Every day, word spread and more and more patients came to the clinic, and those who received treatment sang his praises.
"Thanks to you, this wound is healed, and I couldn't even afford to go to a healer before."
"Thank you so much."
There are many people who have been sick and injured and have not received any treatment.
For them, Raymond was like an angel from heaven.
A kind, skilled angel.
"There is such a person in the world."
Their voices were filled with gratitude.
Raymond was happy, too.
[Gaining experience!]
[I'm leveling up!]
Before he knew it, he had leveled up a lot.
"Now I'm level 28! Let's work hard to get to level 40!
Raymond opened the status window.
[Player Status]
Name: Raymond
Class: Surgeon (SSS)
Profession Grade: Beginning Resident
Level: 28
Experience: 15/200
Prestige: 33
Skill Points: 235
Title: Dirty Bastard
Secondary Class: Not active
[Stats]
体力 : 12
Senses: 18
知识 : 19
?? : 1
I've been investing heavily in my stats lately. I've also increased my intellect a bit.
"I don't think raising Senses alone is the answer. It needs to be balanced.
Sensory stats are the so-called fine dexterity, but dexterity is only as good as your overall physical ability.
"And with all the patients, I'm overworked.
So I increased my stamina, and I definitely felt healthier than before. I was less tired.
"My strength is better, my endurance is better, but what happens if I keep raising my stats?
Raymond wondered if this would make him as strong as a knight.
"After I get my stamina up to a certain point, I'll have to increase my intellect.
Intellect.
It's the ability to use your head.
It was essential for accurate diagnosis and judgment.
"You can't be an ignorant doctor with good dexterity.
Intellect also influenced the use of magic as an aid to healing.
In other words, physical strength, senses, and intellect were all important if you wanted to be a good doctor.
You had to build up your stats.
"I need to level up more and more, try!
"Welcome, patient!"
"What's wrong with you?!"
And so it was today, as I was treating a patient with the utmost determination.
Suddenly, out of the blue, something happened.
"Something's wrong, healer!"
It was Kansir!
"What is it?"
Raymond looked puzzled.
A dark lord like Kansir would run up to him with such an urgent look on his face?
"We must leave this neighborhood and flee!"
"What?"
"There's a plague outbreak!"
Raymond's eyes widened.
"It's the 'Reaper of Death'! If you stay here, you'll be infected and die too, so run away!"
The Grim Reaper.
It was the Lepentine word for smallpox, one of the worst infectious diseases.
Raymond's body stiffened at the sudden crisis.
* * *
The kingdom of Houston was at its height.
Chancellor Galman and King Auden were talking about the Bay Area.
"How is the Bay Area?"
"Nothing special."
"That means nothing good."
Lord Galman smiled wryly.
"You see, it's impossible to stabilize the Bay Area; it's already become a malignant boil."
The Bay Area had long been the bane of the Kingdom of Houston.
A vicious slum beneath the capital, it was a source of insecurity in times of emergency and a cradle of crime.
Generation after generation had tried to fix it, but no one had succeeded.
"It's not going to take a great man to stabilize the Bay Area."
The tersely spoken Lord Galman thought to himself.
"It might as well be burned to the ground, as His Highness Limerton seems to think.
But we can't do that, because the people who live in it are all subjects of the Kingdom of Huston.
'Speaking of which, Raymond told me he's set up a clinic in the Bay Area.'
Chamberlain Galman remembered what he'd heard the other day.
'I thought he'd be out for a while, but I haven't heard anything.
"Is he okay? Did he get in some kind of accident?
For a moment, Mr. Galman felt a pang of worry.
There was no way Raymond was going to be able to adjust to life in the Bay Area.
And now he hadn't heard from him.
Perhaps he had been harmed.
"What should we do? Should we send someone out to find out?
Then Auden said.
"I think it's time for you to leave the hermitage."
"Yes, Your Grace."
Once every few months, Auden, a renowned soldier, would periodically leave his hiding place to listen to the people's thoughts.
"This time, we will be traveling to the Bay Area, so prepare."
"...!"
Lord Galman looked surprised, and Auden raised an eyebrow.
"Why but? Is there a problem?"
"Oh, no."
Mr. Galman's next question hit home.
"You don't happen to know that Raymond has set up a treatment center in the Bay Area, do you?
But he quickly shook his head.
There was no way the nonchalant king knew about it.
"And why would you want to go to the Bay Area?"
"The Bay Area is the greatest source of unrest in the kingdom right now. We may soon be at war with the Droton Kingdom, and it is my duty as a monarch to take care of internal unrest before that happens."
Chamberlain Galman nodded.
The Kingdom of Droton!
The enemies of the Kingdom of Houston, who had been at odds for hundreds of years.
Though it was not yet widely known, the two kingdoms were slowly coming to blows.
"If a war breaks out and public opinion is shaken, we don't know what kind of unrest the Bay Area will become, so we need to stabilize it as much as possible."
"I understand, then I will prepare."
Chancellor Galman bowed and stepped away.
Left alone, the king stared out the window for a moment.
And then, by coincidence?
His gaze was drawn to the northwest of the kingdom, to the Bay District.
And to the east, where Raymond's healing center was located.
"...."
King Auden remained silent for a moment, staring in the direction of the East District of the Bay District, then looked away.
As if his gaze was a lie, the sound of flipping papers echoed in the throne room.
* * *
"The Grim Reaper, a smallpox outbreak?
Raymond's face went white.
'What kind of disease is smallpox?
With a mortality rate of over thirty percent, it was one of the worst infectious diseases alongside the Black Death.
'A disease that, according to the knowledge of 'conventional medicine', has claimed billions of victims on Earth.'
On Earth, it was said to have been eradicated with the establishment of immunization, but here in Leipenthaina, it was a regular occurrence, claiming countless victims.
'If it's really smallpox, there's nothing I can do.
If you do your best, you might be able to save a few patients.
But with hundreds, thousands, maybe tens of thousands of units dying, it didn't matter.
'...Maybe I'll get infected and become a victim.'
Raymond felt a chill run down his spine.
It wasn't a whim.
What were the chances of contagion if he was around the patient?
Almost 100%.
So much so that the Tower of Healing had an unofficial code of conduct.
-Flee immediately when the reapers of death (smallpox) and the mists of damnation (plague) break out.
This wasn't just an indictment on the morality of the healers.
You couldn't ask them to risk their lives for their patients.