I Became a Plague Doctor in a Romance Fantasy Novel

76. Return to the Everyday (1)

76. Return to the Everyday (1)

Mint returned to the Academy dormitory. It was something she thought she’d never get used to. But after being away for a few days, she understood.

The dormitory was familiar, like home.

The princess opened the door to the neglected dormitory, and was immediately engulfed in a feeling of inexplicable comfort. She must have grown that used to academy life.

‘Haa.’

Mint waved her hand, and the luggage she was holding instantly flew into place. Mint got rid of everything cumbersome and sat on the bed. A doll that had been sitting on the bed looked at the princess.

Mint hugged the doll tightly.

Well, unfortunately. The princess’s bear doll didn’t react. It didn’t hug Mint back, wrap its arms around her waist, or even attempt to say anything.

No charm at all, that doll.

Different from the real thing.

Should I go look again later……?

Istina got to her lab and checked the calendar. The past few days had been pretty easy since the professor was out of the academy. When was he supposed to be back from the conference?

What the— It was yesterday.

Which means he’ll be in today. Only then did Istina realize the gravity of the situation.

‘What time does he come in?’

I need to clean up the lab a bit, and make it look like I’ve been doing research. Istina had spent the last few days as if on vacation.

Just feeding the mold was the end of it.

It wasn’t just Istina’s fault. At least, that’s what Istina thought. No, wait. Doing rounds in the ward, research, observing outpatient visits.

Basically, I was doing the job of three or four people all by myself. Things have gotten a little better since Amy arrived, but still.

A few days of rest wouldn’t hurt, right?

Anyway. Those few days are already past, and the professor will be back soon. What should I say?

I don’t know. Istina decided to just clean up until the professor arrived. Then maybe I won’t get yelled at as much.

Oh, right, I’d forgotten about that.

I need to ask if the professor could see the patient that came into the ward this morning. I should tell him about that as soon as he comes in…

The professor isn’t even here yet, but why does it feel like I suddenly have so much to do? Istina pulled out her notebook and stared at the list.

First, let’s confirm when the professor is coming.

I returned to my lab after a long time.

Feels like it’s been almost a week.

Istina, who didn’t come to the conference, was cleaning the lab. Was she bummed about not coming? Didn’t seem like she cared.

Maybe she was secretly thinking she dodged a tedious event.

“Ah, Professor, you’re here. Good morning.”

“You been alright?”

“Yeah.”

“What are you doing here so early?”

Istina gestured to a petri dish.

“Came to check if the cultures are doing well.”

“Ah. Came to feed the mold.”

She seemed busy, so I didn’t say more.

I put my bag down and sat at my desk. Istina, having finished cleaning, put the broom away and came over to my desk.

What did I have to do? I have backlogged outpatient visits to catch up on, and it’d be good to admit a new patient. But right now, the most important thing…

I need to check how far the penicillin purification research has progressed. It hasn’t been that long, but maybe there’s been a breakthrough.

“Istina. About extracting the medicine from the blue mold, how’s it going? Any progress?”

“I haven’t asked the Alchemy department, but I did centrifuge the culture fluid a bit.”

I wonder if there’s been any progress.

“And?”

“It was stuff we already knew. It just showed we can use it to remove the solids and non-soluble stuff, I guess?”

“Good work.”

“He mentioned that too. Said that using a specific substance, you could precipitate the target material, but it’d take some trial and error to get it right.”

It’s probably that barium we talked about before. It’d be tough to get my hands on. Still, I’ve got a feeling we’ll figure out a method soon enough.

Things are changing by the day.

“Got any big centrifuges around?”

“Looking into it. Trying to get the biggest we can, but this thing’s only been used for this purpose for a few months, you know.”

Guess it’ll take some time to build one then.

I wonder if there are machines that can handle large-scale centrifugal separation. The one we cobbled together from that modified magic fan was pretty crude.

Could they even make a large centrifuge with the tech they have in this era? Thinking about it, that sort of scale might be impossible.

On the other hand, maybe magic could make it work somehow. Gotta try to find out, I guess.

“Later, go by Professor Wolfram’s lab and see if there’s been any progress on their research.”

“Yes, sir!”

Isthina was about to leave the lab, but then she turned back, as if something had occurred to her.

“Oh, right, Professor. I asked if we could move a few patients from the ward to your care. They’re supposed to come today.”

“Really? Is there a reason for that?”

“They said that if a patient’s in bad shape, it’s best if they’re under your care.”

In hindsight, yeah, I guess that’s right. The results are probably going to be best if they’re admitted under me, rather than other professors.

“Hmm, I’ll go take a look.”

One more thing to do. Head to the ward and see the patients who want to be admitted.

I left the lab with Isthina. She went toward the Alchemy department’s research building.

I’ve been spending way too much time with mold lately. A doctor’s supposed to be seeing people.

Let’s leave the penicillin problem to the graduate students and alchemists for now.

Still, the fact they waited for me to come back makes me think it’s not a critical case, right? Let’s see, the patients who wanted to come to my ward.

Stepping into the ward, a nurse immediately walked towards me.

“Professor, you’re here.”

“Yes, hello.”

“Other wards are over capacity, so they were asking if they could admit a few patients to yours. Since early this morning.”

Figures, I leave for a few days and patients pile up. I nodded.

“How many?”

“Two.”

“Admit them both. I’ll see them.”

Hopefully, they’re not too serious.

First patient.

“Um, he says his head has been hurting since yesterday, he’s got a fever, and there’s swelling below his neck. No known cause, and medicinal teas haven’t worked.”

Amy was looking back and forth between the patient’s record and me, with anxious eyes. This was the first time for Amy, seeing a real patient with me.

“Okay.”

“He says his fever keeps rising and he feels a thumping in his chest. He tried bloodletting to draw out the poison, but it didn’t help.”

Oh, for fuck’s sake.

I looked at Amy.

“What kind of illness do you think it is?”

“Well, since they said they had a fever, wouldn’t it be some kind of bacterial infection?”

“Fever is highly likely to be caused by an infection.”

“What kind of bacteria could it be?”

“Let’s talk to the patient.”

I had a few things in mind.

Fever, palpitations, rapid breathing, altered consciousness… symptoms that were severe yet non-specific.

How do I know they’re severe? Because they were so sick they had bloodletting done and came all the way to this big hospital. No, seriously, why did they do bloodletting?

Back in Korea, it was a seasonal infectious disease, but the weather here is a bit colder, so I guess it’s coming a few months earlier.

Bloodletting, herbal teas, other folk remedies… I can’t know what kind of impact they’ve had… Anyway. I bet it’s that disease I’m thinking of.

Amy and I walked towards the first patient’s bedside. The patient looked terrible, his face all scrunched up.

“Hello, sir.”

“Ah, yes.”

I took a moment to assess the patient’s overall demeanor. Despite being in pain, he was sitting up straight, which suggests that the pain is unlikely to be localized.

For example, if it was his liver hurting, he’d be leaning towards the right, where his liver is. The fact that he isn’t, suggests the cause of the pain might be non-specific or systemic.

The man’s hands were calloused, and there was dirt under his nails. His breathing was steady, with no sign of phlegm or coughing, but his breathing rate was a bit faster than normal.

A systemic inflammatory response was suspected.

“What is your name?”

“Yosef.”

I grabbed the patient’s wrist. I needed to check his pulse… The pulse on his wrist was normal. The speed was also normal.

Aigoo, the blood draw was over there. I lifted the patient’s arm, and Amy, quick on the uptake, slapped a band-aid on it.

“What do you do for a living?”

“I grow roses.”

“Oh, is that so?”

I’d expected farming, but I hadn’t guessed that the crop would be roses.

“Have you been outside recently?”

“Yes.”

“Have you been bitten by any bugs?”

“I don’t know, probably sometimes?”

I glanced at Amy.

“What do you think it is?”

“Uh, I think it might be pneumonia. The patient’s breathing fast, he has a fever, and his breathing sounds abnormal too.”

It wasn’t impossible, but I thought pneumonia was unlikely. His breathing *was* abnormal, but not enough for me to jump to pneumonia. I shook my head.