I Became a Plague Doctor in a Romance Fantasy Novel

Episode 61. Monster Hunting Festival (1)

Episode 61. Monster Hunting Festival (1)

“Teacher. I’ve been thinking.”

“So you do that too, huh.”

I briefly looked up from my desk at Mint, sitting on the lab sofa. Mint was sitting there with a slightly displeased expression.

“I’m sorry. Please, go on.”

I awkwardly scratched my head.

“Why are there monsters on the back mountain of the academy? Shouldn’t we catch them all since it’s dangerous?”

“I wouldn’t know. Isn’t it because there’s some reason we can’t catch them all? Like, they’re especially strong or something.”

“It seems like there’s a reason, but it’s that reason that I don’t know.”

“Yeah, I guess.”

There are a number of possible reasons.

Maybe the monsters there are just particularly strong, or maybe monsters hide out in the capital’s sewers, or maybe they’re even being bred for training.

None of them are particularly logical reasons, but this world has its own set of logic. Guess I should just accept it.

*Click.* I closed the cap on my fountain pen.

“What did you do today, Princess?”

“Alchemy.”

The princess paused, thinking.

“But, from my perspective, it all seems like a scam. The magic that forms the basis of alchemy is so similar to transmutation magic, isn’t it?”

“Yes.”

I still don’t get why it’s a scam.

“If you’re just going to end up bending everything with something similar to transmutation magic, what’s the point of alchemy as an actual field of study?”

I think I see her point.

I don’t know alchemy either, but I can see why she might think that. But when you think about it again—

“Shouldn’t the main thing to study in alchemy be how much is possible without magic? Otherwise, the boundaries with other magics become too blurry.”

“Do you know what you’re even saying?”

“No. It’s just my opinion.”

If you think of alchemy as the equivalent of chemistry, that’s the kind of conclusion you get. There can be no science student who doesn’t know chemistry, regardless of their major.

Mint nodded.

“Maybe… Are there any cookies in the lab?”

“Yes, there are. Just a moment.”

I put the cookie bag on the desk, and Mint flicked her fingers. The bag floated right over to her. Still amazing to watch.

“What did you do today, Professor?”

“Morning was research writing. I have to go to the ward in the afternoon. I wish we had fewer patients.”

*Crunch*.

Mint was munching on a cookie. Judging by the size of the bite, she’s just tasting it.

“Oh yeah. I got a new grad student.”

“Huh. You’re getting rid of Istina?”

“I got one more.”

‘Got’ is kind of a weird way to put it.

I’m going to keep Istina with me until she graduates her doctorate. It’s a given, but still.

But, now that I think about it. What if Istina decides she *doesn’t* want a doctorate…? I need to think of a good way to persuade her.

Anyway.

Mint didn’t seem to be done talking yet.

“Is she a girl?”

“Yes.”

“Ugh, figures.”

“No, Your Highness. She’s a female student, but it’s not like I get to choose the grad students. Whoever applies, comes.”

“Is that how it is?”

“Yes.”

The princess narrowed her eyes.

They looked like they didn’t believe me. But it’s true! It’s not like I get to *choose* grad students. If I could, I would have taken like, seven of them.

“Do you want to see who it is?”

“Yeah, okay.”

I nodded.

Mint is prickly, but nothing happened after she met Istina, either. Meeting a new grad student should be fine, right?

“I should probably get going now…”

“Be safe, see you next time.”

Mint packed up her things and left the lab. For some reason, she suddenly looked happy. Was it because I said I’d let her meet them?

A few minutes after Princess Mint left, Istina opened the door and came into the lab.

“I posted the notice like you said, Professor. But why did we have to post it?”

“So someone doesn’t try to jump the gun during the paper review. The review process takes a few months, you know.”

“Oh, I see.”

It’s the most foolproof method.

If I post a notice with my name on it, it’ll be harder for them to steal my paper. A lesson from Rosalind Franklin, who didn’t get her Nobel.

Anyway.

Istina was wearing her glasses for the first time in ages, looking at her notebook. A strangely serious look on her face. What’s with her, does she have a new schedule or something?

I looked at Istina.

“Is something wrong?”

“Oh, Professor. Apparently, there’s a thing called the Monster Hunt Festival in a few days. It’s an event where people go around hunting monsters that are rampant in the summer, I guess?”

“Really?”

“They say there’ll be casualties.”

Well, of course there would be.

“What kind of guys are they? Sword tournament in the spring, monster hunt in the summer. Can’t catch a break.”

“Knights are people who fight, after all.”

It still looks like madness to me, but… people in this world aren’t stupid. There must be a reason for it.

I’ve heard something about it before.

That ultimately, only one person per family can receive a title. Even if you’re the second son of a knightly family, your future isn’t guaranteed.

Most who want to become a knight have to prove themselves on the battlefield.

Even those who will receive titles, to rise above them, they have to prove their worth too. On the battlefield.

So they fight each other to the death every quarter, I guess.

That’s just my guess, though.

“When is it?”

“Tomorrow.”

Well, damn. More work.

And the next day.

The monster hunt competition or whatever it was. As soon as it started, patients started coming in. I did think, why bother getting hurt?, but…

“Professor!”

“I’m right next to you. You don’t have to yell.”

The patient, carried in on a stretcher. Judging by their attire, and the staff their companion carefully brought in, it looks like a mage.

It was a surprisingly fantastical sight.

A knight, a mage, an archer, and a healer. Looked like they’d formed a four-person raid party to wander around.

It was too early to jump to conclusions, but the patient looked alright at first glance. He was breathing, at least, and his complexion was more or less normal.

The fact that he was drooling was a little worrying, though. Didn’t look like any external injury.

The patient I saw who’d ingested organophosphate pesticide looked like that. Could it be something similar?

Istina cleared her throat.

“Um, 22-year-old male patient, name is Izati. Collapsed while hunting monsters. The healer who brought him in said they thought he was unconscious from a head injury.”

Not an impossibility, but a normal person doesn’t just drool and collapse from hitting their head. I’d need to look further into it.

“Why’s he like this?”

The party’s healer was on the verge of tears.

“I don’t know! He just collapsed while we were moving. Healing magic got him breathing again, but he’s not talking, can’t walk properly. His eyes are unfocused.”

“He just suddenly collapsed?”

“Could he have triggered some kind of trap?”

It wasn’t a trap, likely. If that was the case, he would have injured an ankle or shin or something.

I pulled out a handkerchief and wiped the drool from the patient’s mouth. Looking again, his breathing was shallow and the rate seemed low.

“When did he collapse?”

“He collapsed somewhere out of sight while we were wandering through the forest. He was rambling on the way here, too.”

“What was he saying?”

“Rainbow-colored ferns.”

Hallucinating, then.

I turned my head toward Istina.

“Go get the rubber hose and the bellows.”

“Yes!”

I tried shaking the mage who was out of it to wake him. Other than not breathing as deeply, he didn’t seem to be in immediate danger. Well… it was a little ambiguous, though.

“Teacher. Try to come to your senses.”

“Uuurrrgh.”

The healer who had brought the patient to the hospital was pacing anxiously.

“See, I told you he must have hit his head on something while walking around….”

It wasn’t impossible, but there were no signs of external trauma on his head.

Maybe the healing magic made it okay for him to breathe less? There was no way to know. Istina came back with the bucket and the rubber hose.

“Looks like he ate a mushroom.”

“Mushroom? Why?”

How would I know…?

People in this world do all sorts of weird stuff. Anyway, the diagnosis was made.

A cholinergic crisis due to mushroom ingestion.

It’s usually caused by the overstimulation of muscarinic acetylcholine receptors. I’ve seen it before in my past life with people who ingested pesticides.

The main symptoms are drooling, tearing, muscle weakness, and hallucinations in some patients.

The treatment for a cholinergic crisis is atropine, but atropine won’t fix the respiratory distress.

Atropine works on muscarinic acetylcholine receptors, and the receptors connected to the diaphragm are nicotinic acetylcholine receptors.

It got a little complicated, but the conclusion is this. He can be treated with atropine, and separately, his breathing needs to be managed.

I shook the patient awake again, then injected atropine into his arm. That’s the antidote taken care of. What’s next?

Stomach pumping first, or artificial respiration first? He’s still breathing, at least, and there aren’t any signs of cyanosis or anything.

Stomach pumping it is.

“Let’s start with a stomach pump.”

I started pushing the rubber tube down the patient’s esophagus. Istina was watching me with worried eyes.

“Keep a close eye on his breathing.”

“Yes.”

The patient’s stomach fluid dripped into the bucket. The stomach pump was easier than I expected.

“Will he be okay?”

“He’ll be okay since he made it to the hospital. If he’d come just a little later, he might’ve stopped breathing.”

The healing student, who’d been on the verge of tears the whole time, relaxed a little at my words that he would be okay.