"How many times do I have to tell you? That's not a vein. Your angle is wrong."
"Eeeek, eeeek!"
Having recruited Chloe as my nurse, I spent about a week of my spare time training her.
The girl is diligent, and her experience gives her good fundamentals. Her timid personality was the problem.
"Are you going to poke with the needle multiple times? If you can't see it, just slap the arm a few times."
"H-how could I slap your arm, Teacher...!"
"You'll have to slap the Princess's arm later too, you know?"
"Gyaaak."
Drawing blood is a bit difficult. I initially thought it was a necessary skill to teach, but it could be postponed.
The blood analysis tools are still in development, so only I can do it anyway.
I'm teaching her techniques like measuring blood pressure and basic medical theory.
Since she has knowledge of folk remedies, she follows along well even when I skip scientific explanations.
It's amusing how she gets excited like a baby chick when I explain basic biology like the concept of viruses or human anatomy.
Healers who are deeply immersed in religion find it difficult to accept medicine.
Chloe was the perfect talent to become a nurse.
"Just get through the practice quickly. You have a lot to do. You need to prepare pharmaceutical materials too."
"I-it's fine. I-I usually only sleep five hours anyway..."
"What about days off?"
"Um... once a month?"
She had been an exploited extreme laborer.
Well, I haven't had much rest either since starting as a court physician. At the very least, I had to check on Asella daily.
Isn't there anything about the Sabbath in the Holy Book? Where did the five-day workweek go?
"From now on, sleep seven hours and thirty minutes. When you lack sleep, your brain's efficiency decreases."
"R-really? Is that allowed?"
"Yes. Match your REM sleep cycle. I'll explain it to you later."
When Chloe becomes proficient enough, I'll hand things over and take a break too. The medical field always has poor work-life balance.
I should take some vacation time. I miss Neria.
"In exchange, you must be thorough with your work. We'll be busy writing medical books too."
"B-books!"
"Yes, books."
It's always difficult to explain everything verbally, and creating medical textbooks is necessary for my medicine to be accepted by a wider audience.
It's also meaningful work to increase my achievements.
"Let's continue with the practice. Let's finish the blood draw quickly."
"A-are we really doing this? With a needle? Poking?"
"As opposed to doing it fake? Come on, hold the arm straight."
"Hiyaak."
Despite her screams, Chloe kept her eyes wide open, not looking away from my arm.
She has her own kind of courage.
Just then, thud, my door opened.
"Young Lord, I have something to deliver..."
Asella barged in with her knight guards.
She used to enter my room freely at the Marquis estate, and now she's doing the same here.
Well, Wolgwang Palace does belong to Asella.
"Huaak! P-Princess! Your royal presence!"
Upon seeing Asella, Chloe stood straight like a marmot with her hair on end, then collapsed into a deep bow.
Asella, as if it were only natural, didn't acknowledge the greeting.
Instead, she had been glaring at me with disapproval since entering the room.
What now?
"Young Lord."
"What brings you here, Princess?"
"What is this?"
Asella jerked her chin toward Chloe.
"This is my head nurse. She will assist me and dedicate herself to Your Highness's health from now on."
"You were just holding hands."
"Yes?"
"When I came in, you jumped apart in surprise."
"She's timid, but her skills are good. I'll make sure she's properly trained."
"Is that all the explanation you have?"
"What explanation?"
"You seem to have some misunderstanding since the martial tournament. Your deception is reaching the heavens."
Asella's cold voice pierced my eardrums.
[No. 077: Incarnation of Jealousy 14% → 86%]
Ah, I've done something wrong again.
Perhaps she considers it a betrayal that I brought a healer who belonged to Heike's faction until a few days ago into Wolgwang Palace without permission.
I called her here because I don't take important tools like blood drawing equipment to the royal medical office, but my judgment was poor.
"Princess, if I may be so bold as to speak."
Tanya, who had been standing silently like part of the background, stepped forward with her armor clanking.
Asella gave Tanya a sidelong glance.
"Lady Tanya, speak."
Lady?
Asella just addressed Tanya with respect.
Why doesn't she call me "Teacher"?
"The Teacher was educating the new nurse he recruited to serve Your Highness. What you witnessed was a necessary part of blood drawing training, with no other intentions."
"Hmm."
After hearing Tanya's words, Asella looked down at me with displeasure.
"Lady Tanya, how long have you served the Young Lord's family?"
"Seven years."
"Come see me during my tea time later."
"Yes."
The conversation progressed in an instant.
"Princess, Tanya is my guard captain. Without her, my safety would be—"
Asella shot me another fierce glare, making me close my mouth.
[No. 077: Incarnation of Jealousy 86% → 22%]
At least the probability is decreasing again, so I decided to stay quiet.
Wait, it hasn't returned to normal. It's slightly increased.
"Young Lord."
"Yes."
"From now on, wear gloves when teaching."
"Hygiene is important. Excellent idea."
Asella turned her back to me abruptly. The lace of her skirt fluttered.
"Lucy, deliver the message for me."
"Yes, Princess."
She could have sent the head lady-in-waiting from the beginning.
The Princess had stormed into my room like a hurricane and left just as quickly.
I could only relax after Asella left the room.
"Just coming in to cause trouble. Tanya, don't you think that's too much?"
"You're the one at fault this time, Young Master."
"Me? And why are you calling me 'Young Master' again?"
"Well, I need to prepare for tea with the Princess."
"You're just going to abandon me? Hey, isn't that dereliction of duty?"
"Since the Princess outranks you, I should prioritize her orders. Don't trip anywhere and stay quietly in Wolgwang Palace."
Tanya's attitude was so brazenly confident that she almost seemed kind.
"Good grief. Chloe, don't learn any strange things. Got it...?"
"Ack-ack-ack, gak-gak."
Chloe was still writhing on the floor, unable to withstand Asella's pressure.
"Chloe, no time to lie around. Thanks to the Princess, practice is over for today, so go back and continue the cultivation experiment."
"Urp, y-yes!"
"Is the process going well? I'll need materials soon."
Chloe staggered to her feet and hurriedly brought a folder of documents.
"The blue mold cultivation. It's progressing like this."
She had written everything in round, detailed handwriting.
She even sketched diagrams, making it easy to understand.
I had instructed Chloe to obtain bread and cheese that the palace kitchen would discard and use them to cultivate plenty of blue mold.
"You said it's an ingredient for medicine called... antibiotics, right?"
"Yes. Aspirin improves the symptoms of infectious diseases. We need antibiotics to prevent reinfection."
I plan to produce penicillin once the blue mold Chloe has cultivated reaches sufficient quality.
The current epidemic is a viral disease similar to a cold.
Usually, when patients are about to recover, their immunity weakens, and bacterial infections can occur simultaneously.
I plan to prescribe antibiotics to knights showing such symptoms.
Chloe hesitantly made a request.
"I-I'd like to see you making pharmaceuticals too..."
"You'll see it plenty in the future anyway."
"B-but still."
Chloe's eyes sparkled as she drooled slightly.
With this much progress, usable samples should be coming soon.
"Let's go test it."
I headed to the royal medical office with Chloe.
***
In an office lined with angular wooden furniture,
Heike von Württemfelt, the Empire's First Princess, was busy handling work that had accumulated during the martial tournament.
"Hmm, the availability rate of the barracks has dropped significantly. Bring me the surplus budget ledger."
"Yes."
There was no gap in her charismatic demeanor as she wielded her quill pen.
The First Prince Gunther, tacitly designated as the next Emperor due to being male, was timid.
The Second Prince Georg had ambition overflowing, but his excessive enthusiasm in everything led to misguided actions.
Lauga and Asella, being further from succession, were not considered candidates.
If asked to name the person most suitable to be the next Emperor in the imperial family, many would choose Heike.
A woman of valor who had led knight orders to subjugate barbarians even before reaching adulthood, she still deployed to dangerous battlefields without hesitation when incidents occurred.
Many people attracted by her abilities gradually gathered, and Heike's faction formed a dual power structure with Georg's in the imperial family.
"All training has been canceled. Isn't that excessive, even considering it's before and after the martial tournament?"
The secretary presented a report and answered.
"It's because of the epidemic. Particularly after the martial tournament, the knights' long-term injury rate has increased by more than 60%."
"The epidemic."
Even someone like Heike couldn't solve all problems effortlessly.
The epidemic that had spread to the imperial palace had been a headache for two months already. The number of imperial citizens making appointments at the royal medical office had increased significantly.
"The knights pushed themselves hard during the martial tournament."
"Yes. If you check the confidential documents, you can confirm that the combat effectiveness of the Imperial Knights has decreased considerably."
"It would be a crisis if an enemy country were to invade."
The Empire has many troops.
The Imperial Knights guarding the borders, the Provincial Knights patrolling the territories. Only elite knights gathered at the imperial palace.
With multiple layers of defense, there was no real chance for enemy countries to penetrate, but Heike was not the type to be complacent.
"How much are they spending on mere flower viewings? There was even a monster attack."
"It was the work of a black magician."
"If it were me, I would have taken the black magician's head before they could summon the earth dragon."
Heike continued reading the documents related to the epidemic.
"What is this content? The Wolgwang Palace is using the barracks training facilities?"
"That's..."
Heike fell into contemplation after hearing the content.
"The knights of Wolgwang Palace were all fine. There's no way they would have been assigned healers from the royal medical office. And now not a single knight is newly falling ill."
Heike turned to the secretary and asked.
"What's the cause?"
"According to rumors..."
The secretary answered.
"They've developed a medicine that prevents reinfection with the epidemic and are using it on the Wolgwang Palace knights."
"I've heard of it. You mean aspirin?"
"It's a new medicine different from aspirin. It's called penicillin."
"Penicillin."
Heike mulled over the unfamiliar name.
"I heard that factions of the royal princes sought the medicine but were turned away."
"Such technology is worth monopolizing. Asella has brought in a capable court physician."
"About that..."
"What is it?"
Heike urged the secretary who was carefully choosing his words.
"The healer who developed penicillin this time is not the Third Princess's court physician."
"Then who is it?"
"A certain low-ranking healer, but now as the disciple of the Gotberg court physician..."
"Now? Then before that?"
"...They belonged to our faction."
Heike's face froze coldly.
"Why did they switch sides?"
"From what I've heard, the Bishop fired them, and Gotberg immediately rehired them..."
The secretary stopped speaking as if feeling a knife at his throat and swallowed hard.
Heike ordered in a low voice.
"Summon Bishop Alberich."