I Became a Plague Doctor in a Romance Fantasy Novel

Episode 55. Threshold of Pain (3)

Episode 55. Threshold of Pain (3)

The priest, Tyriel, was sitting peacefully on the bed. Reading the newspaper he’d asked for.

Istina and I, we were standing a good distance away, watching the patient. He looks peaceful now, but you can’t ever trust a junkie.

Is it wrong to call him a junkie? Anyway, you shouldn’t trust drug addicts. Not because they’re bad people, but because their thought processes are completely different from normal people.

When tortured, people will sell out their friends, their colleagues, even their country. It’s just human nature. Pain isn’t something you’re meant to endure.

Lots of people die for their country, but very few people can endure torture for their country.

That’s an objective fact.

Actually, modern waterboarding is so effective that the problem was that the people being tortured gave up too much information.

I’m going off on a tangent here, but anyway.

What I was trying to say was this.

Being a drug addict is no different from being someone who’s constantly being tortured to get their hands on drugs. Of course you can’t trust them. He’s under surveillance right now, too.

“You think they’ll be alright?”

“My ward doesn’t use opium. At least, not while that patient is admitted, so their opium addiction won’t get worse.”

Tyriel is just taking vitamins right now.

Originally, naltrexone can only be used after a week has passed since the last time they used opium. You can only use the drug if you’ve been off for a week.

If you don’t, they might go through pain similar to the seizure they had when we administered naloxone earlier. Why are the two drugs’ names so similar?

I don’t know that either.

Maybe because their mechanism of action is similar? Naloxone is used for acute cases, and naltrexone is used to prevent recurring usage.

Istina tilted her head.

“But, is it really necessary to keep someone who isn’t even sick hospitalized?”

“It’s not that he isn’t sick, it’s that his brain is sick. Even if he looks like a normal person, it’s just on the surface. You saw it before, right?”

“When he had the seizure during admission?”

“Yeah.”

Obviously, normal people don’t do that. Istina pondered for a moment.

“It’s difficult. A patient who seems perfectly fine can be seriously ill, and a patient who seems like they’re on the verge of death can unexpectedly be fine.”

“Yeah… That happens a lot.”

Tyriel quietly turned the newspaper page. I hope he hasn’t stashed any drugs somewhere, that guy.

Istina looked at me.

As if something just occurred to her.

“Oh right, I was thinking about something.”

“What is it?”

“A gift for the Princess.”

“Ah. What would be good?”

“Clothes and such, she likely has plenty already. Plus, buying them yourself is better, it wouldn’t be moving, right? Jewelry bought with money is the same.”

“Probably so.”

“How about a doll? Something you can’t really buy with money, something awkward for someone you know through work or in public to give.”

“Is that so?”

“Yes.”

“Haa… Considering that I’ve already missed her birthday, she’s probably pissed off enough as it is.”

“This might be rude to ask…”

What’s she about to say?

“Just ask.”

“Why does the Professor have to acknowledge the Princess’s birthday? Is there really a reason…”

Ah… It’s fair for her to wonder. Why I have to take care of Mint. There were many reasons I could think of, but the most important one was this.

“Because she’s my liege. Is there any other way?”

“I see.”

“I promised to try to be there for her birthday.”

She wasn’t completely satisfied, but Istina nodded. Buy her a doll?

Where am I supposed to get a doll? This will be a pain.

Mint came to the lab again today.

It’s a relief not to be pointlessly waiting in the lab anymore. Mint looked a little tired, probably from finishing her classes.

“Teacher.”

“Greetings, Your Highness.”

She seemed like she had a lot to say too.

“Today was kinda exhausting. Apparently mana bookworms popped up at the Academy’s magic department library, so we had to evacuate and it was chaos for a while. You know what bookworms are, right? Bugs that live in spellbooks and-”

Mint was rambling about some incomprehensible stuff. Something about the classes she took, bookworms popping up at school, that kind of thing.

Aren’t bookworms like, smaller than a fingernail? Is evacuating really necessary just because a few of those show up?

I wasn’t really listening closely.

“I see.”

Lost in my thoughts, Mint suddenly whipped her head around to look at me. Like she was checking my reaction.

“What did *you* do today, Teacher?”

Jeez, that startled me.

I met Mint’s eyes.

“I just finished seeing an opium addict patient. Drugs are scary, I tell you.”

“Yeah……is he alive?”

The princess was looking at me with bored eyes.

But at least she’s making a token effort to respond. If it was before, she wouldn’t have even asked about another patient’s well-being. No, it’s even questionable whether she would have tried to have a conversation on a subject other than herself.

But not now!

“I saved him.”

“Good work.”

“That’s right, Princess.”

“Hey. ‘That’s right’ is informal.”

The Princess had her hand covering her mouth, but her eyes were smiling. Was it just something she said on a whim?

“Princess.”

“Yeah.”

“I prepared a gift. I wasn’t sure what to get, so I was a little worried…”

Mint looked at me.

“What is it?”

“A doll. I hid it behind the door.”

The Princess waved her hand, and a doll behind the door came into view. A light brown teddy bear, a little smaller than a person.

“Still treating me like a child.”

I knew it.

“I thought other people probably gave you a lot of adult-like gifts? So I thought about it and decided on this.”

“Making excuses.”

“No, Princess. What does a doll have to do with treating you like a child? What’s wrong with liking cute and pretty things? Then are all the people who raise dogs and cats kids too?”

“You just like to argue with me, don’t you?”

“That’s not it.”

She was the one who complained first about being treated like a child. Such a silly princess, I thought again today.

I suppose an adult should be patient, right?

“You’re narrow-minded, teacher.”

“Sorry. If you don’t like it, I’ll give it to someone else.”

Mint shook her head at that.

“I’ll take it myself. Thanks.”

Just offering to take the gift took considerable effort, but. It was the first time in ages Mint had surrendered. Almost an unheard-of sight.

If a normal person had reacted like that just now, they would have been pretty disappointed.

But Mint was weird from the start. It’s a relief she even accepted the gift.

“You know I’m just saying it, right?”

“What, the thank you?”

“No. The provocation.”

I checked Mint’s expression. The Princess was still expressionless. I guess it was just a thoughtless remark. Thinking about it, it was obvious.

“I’m thinking of it as tennis. More than that, it’s kind of amazing that the Princess has become self-aware enough to say things like that.”

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

“I’m not.”

I don’t even know what I’m saying anymore, but the Princess seemed to be in a better mood. The doll was sitting opposite the Princess.

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

I don’t think so.

“They’ll probably just assume it’s something. Isn’t it the narrow-minded people who would make a fuss that are the weird ones?”

“I guess. That’s how you live, Teacher.”

There was nothing to say to that. Not caring what others think, someone might see it as a personality flaw.

Honestly, I couldn’t tell other people to live like me, could I?

Mint started putting the doll back into the box. Seems she was still planning on taking it back in the box after all. Even if she didn’t show it, maybe the princess was secretly pleased with it?

“I didn’t mention it, but it’s not a mass-produced thing. I put dried lavender inside it.”

“Really? How?”

“Cut it open, put it in, and sewed it back up.”

“Ah. I guess that makes sense.”

Mint waved her hand, and the gift box floated into the air. Mint slowly walked out of the lab, the box drifting along with her.

“When are you leaving the lab?”

“Around 7.”

“Ah.”

The princess disappeared into the hallway like that.

Today’s conversation was a bit tiring, but Mint got what she wanted. The gift – she’d thought it was forgotten, but she managed to get it.

It was pretty much a straight-up demand, but hey, she got it. She’d thought it was gone.

*Pfft.* With a gesture from Mint, the gift box disassembled, and the doll flew to sit on one side of Mint’s bed. Mint stared at the doll.

What the gift actually was didn’t really matter, honestly. There’s no way the princess needed anything in particular. She could just buy anything she wanted with money.

It still felt like she was being treated like a kid, but it’s not like the person who gave it said it was. She decided to just go with it.

Being swayed by the teacher’s smooth talk isn’t new. Isn’t the whole academy being manipulated by that kind of talk right now?

What Mint wanted wasn’t the gift itself, but the act of receiving it. To put it corny, the feeling behind it.

Mint hugged the teddy bear as tightly as she could, and, just like the teacher said, a faint lavender scent wafted up from inside the bear.

Oh… maybe it was a better gift than she thought.