Chapter 28: Flower Blooming in the Plague (3)

"Ughh... my head feels all warm..."

The hectic day was over.

Having spent the entire day sensing people's bone marrow(?), Erika melted onto the desk.

"Teacher. I hear a weird noise coming from my body. Do you think I caught a cold too?"

"That's the sound of your stomach, Erika."

The number of infected patients Erika had filtered out today was about four.

Most were patients with either Latent Syphilis or Latent Tuberculosis.

"Erika. Still, be proud. Thanks to you, we were able to save eight people."

Originally, Latent Syphilis is a disease I have no way of diagnosing at present.

In an era with limited equipment and technique, it's impossible for even me to make a diagnosis if there are no symptoms.

But after Erika became my assistant, it was now possible to diagnose latent diseases without symptoms.

The ability to detect abnormalities in bone marrow through magical power was this useful.

"Eight people?"

"I said eight including the children."

"Aha."

"And your magic proficiency probably went up a lot today too."

In addition to this, I could also expect an improvement in Erika's magical ability.

After looking into dozens of people, her senses had sharpened slightly.

Don't they say that even the sense of smell becomes more sensitive the more you train it?

It seemed to be a similar principle.

"Huh? This was training?"

"Yes."

"Aha. You should have told me sooner, then."

As soon as she realized what she was doing wasn't just repetitive work but training, Erika pushed herself up from the desk.

Perhaps because she was a child with a strong desire for self-improvement, she would quickly regain her energy if I just gave her this kind of motivation.

"Aww. If I'd known it was training, I would've looked harder. Ah, or how about we do some nighttime treatment, Teacher?"

"We still have tomorrow and the day after, so don't wear yourself out already."

I calmed down the belatedly motivated Erika.

I prepared for leaving work and packed my things.

Creak- creak-

Just then, Wangcho came down from the 2nd floor where the mothers in childbirth were.

"Teacher. I'll look after the mothers, so you can head home now."

"Ah, thank you, Wangcho."

"By the way, Teacher. May I ask just one thing?"

"Go ahead."

"What is that white powder you fed the mothers?"

"Ah, that?"

I pointed to the drawer containing the white powder Wangcho mentioned and spoke.

"It's a medicine made from seaweed and wood ash."

The precise name is Potassium Iodide.

It's a medicine that suppresses syphilis to some extent.

Syphilis should be treated with Penicillin, but since I still can't make it, I'm using this as a substitute.

'I know Blue Mold is the ingredient, but I don't know what comes next.'

But that's not what's important right now.

As soon as Wangcho heard the ingredients, he made a face that showed he didn't trust it at all.

"Is that effective? Wouldn't it be better to just expose them to mercury?"

"There's a child in the womb, what are you talking about?"

"I mean, well. Still, isn't being a cripple better than dying?"

"With the white powder, there's no need to die, and the child won't need to be born with a disability, so please don't say such things."

"Tch... I understand. It's true that you've never been wrong, Teacher."

Sheesh.

Perhaps because this is a tough dark fantasy, the people here sometimes say heart-stopping things so casually.

"By the way, Wangcho."

Just then, Erika, who had been listening quietly, cut into the conversation.

"You're the boss, Wangcho, so why are you so devoted to the prostitutes?"

At Erika's blunt question, Wangcho's thick eyebrows twitched.

He spat out with a somewhat uncomfortable expression.

"Why are you asking such a pointless question, Kiddo. The mothers are people of my nest, and they're assets that earn money at my brothel, so of course I have to manage them."

"Huh? Your old boss didn't, did he? He just used them and threw them away..."

"I'm different from that human, punk."

Wangcho cleared his throat and unnaturally continued his answer.

I knew the reason why Wangcho was reacting like that.

'He said he had many mothers.'

Wangcho has no birth mother. She passed away while giving birth to him.

The ones who raised Wangcho were the various prostitutes of this district.

It was because Beastkin had a culture of communal child-rearing.

That is why Wangcho treats the prostitutes preciously.

Because someone among them might have nursed him at the same breast.

For reference, I know this because Wangcho is my patient.

It was a fact I learned naturally while asking about his family history.

'Well, I shouldn't go around telling anyone about this.'

I recalled the doctor's duty of confidentiality and kept my itching mouth shut.

Wangcho himself didn't seem to want to publicize the reason he was protecting the prostitutes.

I feigned ignorance, smiled gently, and buckled my briefcase.

"In any case, you've worked hard. Please continue to give them that powdered medicine for the time being."

"I understand, Teacher. Ah, right."

Wangcho, who was about to turn, suddenly seemed to remember something and took out a small glass vial from within his thick overcoat.

And, not hiding his revulsion, like he was holding a plastic bag full of food waste, he held the vial out to me.

"Is this what you asked for, Teacher?"

"What is that?"

Seeing the vial, Erika's eyes gleamed with curiosity.

She naturally reached her hand toward the vial.

Wangcho flinched and moved the vial away from her hand.

"Don't touch it, Kiddo. What's inside isn't exactly a clean substance."

"Now that you say that, I'm curious. Will I get hurt if I know?"

Wangcho glanced at me.

It was a signal, asking if it was okay to tell Erika.

I nodded my head... no, my beak. It wasn't exactly a secret.

Having received my permission, Wangcho revealed the identity of the vial's contents.

"It's pus from a cow's udder."

"...What?"

"The Teacher asked me to get it for him ever since he first came down here. So whenever a sick cow gets discarded at the slaughterhouse, I bring it to him."

Hearing this, Erika looked at me in horror.

"Why the pus?"

"Because I need it."

"Don't tell me..."

Erika trailed off for a moment before continuing.

"...Were you a Black Magician, Teacher?"

Flick!

It wasn't me this time.

"Hey! What kind of nonsense are you spouting about our Angel of the Brothel District, kid!"

"Ow! The Teacher said my head will get dumber if I keep getting hit! What are you doing to this precious head that's going to become a mage!"

"If your head gets worse from a little hit like this, it was bad from the start."

"Hmph..."

Erika rubbed her head where she was hit and turned towards me.

Wangcho's hand must have been quite stinging, as teardrops were welling up in her eyes.

"But really, what do you use that for, Teacher?"

I carefully put the glass vial into my bag and answered.

"I have a use for it."

"So where is that 'use'?"

"Would I have any use for something like this besides medicine?"

Hearing that, Erika's eyes narrowed.

She thought deeply about something, then lowered her gaze to her own arm.

At the end of her gaze was an injection mark.

"...Teacher."

"Yes?"

"By any chance, the medicine I take doesn't have that kind of stuff in it, right?"

"..."

"...Right?"

I let out a small laugh and nodded.

"You saw the process for making Heparin right beside me."

"Ah, right."

Erika let out a sigh of relief.

I slyly turned my gaze away from her.

'I didn't use an injection. Not an injection...'

I did secretly apply it for vaccination a long time ago.

In any case, I didn't lie.

***

All my things were packed.

We were finally on our way home from work.

"You worked hard today too, Erika."

"You too, Teacher."

Erika, Otto, and I left the clinic together.

"Ah, and Mr. Otto, too."

Nod.

Otto, who wore his coat like a cape, bowed his head silently.

"Aren't you going to greet me?"

And add Wangcho to that.

The reason Wangcho joined us on our way home wasn't because his house was in the Upper District, but because of the last incident.

After I left my bodyguard duty to Otto alone last time and he was coolly breached.

Since that day, Wangcho started volunteering to escort me home from work.

— "If even a scratch appears on your body, Teacher, my own head might fly."

Seeing the situation, it seemed he had received an additional request from the Head Butler.

It seemed Otto's credibility in Head Butler Wilhelm's mind had fallen after the last incident.

But since you can't just find a Rank 1 superhuman anywhere, it seemed the Head Butler had singled out Wangcho.

Tsk, tsk.

How did Otto's treatment end up like this?

In any case, for that reason, Wangcho came to accompany us on our way home.

"Ah, I'm hungry. I want to eat soon."

"Is there anything you want to eat?"

"Everything you make is delicious, Teacher, isn't it?"

"I'm glad you like it."

Like that, we chatted amiably as we headed for the Upper District where the car was parked.

Right after the heavy snow melted, the road was a bit icy, so it was difficult for Otto to bring the car right up to the clinic.

Nightfall in the Limbus Pit was particularly desolate.

In this district, which was a step removed from welfare and administration, you couldn't find a single magical gas lamp.

And usually, what replaced those gas lamps were the red lanterns hanging from every eave.

"By the way, Teacher. Don't the gas lamps seem to be off a lot more than usual today?"

"..."

"Maybe the fire isn't catching well because of the heavy snow?"

Erika tilted her head.

Her gaze was fixed on the end of the dark alley.

It was then.

Crackle.

A red lantern up ahead lit up.

Blink.

Soon, the red lantern's light flickered off and on once.

"...?"

Something revealed itself at the end of the alley.

"What is that?"

It was far and the lighting was dim, so it was hard to see, but it was the shape of a person.

Blink.

The light flickered once, and the being was ten steps closer.

Only then did the being's attire come into view.

'A clown?'

A old, worn-out robe. A scepter with bells. A belly bulging out from under the robe.

A giant clown, who looked to be at least 2 meters tall, was holding a ballet pose.

'What the fuck.'

Blink.

The fat clown twisted its body, crossed its front feet, and came ten steps closer.

Blink.

It came ten steps closer, extending one leg straight and tapping the ground with its toe.

Blink.

This time, it was balancing on one leg, raising the other high behind it, and bending its upper body deeply forward.

"I know that one! It's an Arabesque!"

There's no need to provide commentary, Erika.

I was already wondering if someone raised as preciously as me should be seeing such a thing.

Even after that, the fat clown continued to show off its unnecessarily flexible body, getting closer each time the light went out.

Eventually, when the clown's face, which looked like it was stitched together from rags, became visible.

I thought I could vaguely tell the identity of that being.

'The Clown King?'

The day the Ironclad Special Mission Unit returned after completing their mission.

I recalled the photograph that was in the report they submitted.

Its face was a wreck, so it was hard to recognize, but its attire and the scepter in its hand became clues.

'I heard its head was blown to smithereens?'

Or did they successfully disarm the bomb?

But that couldn't have happened.

Because I wasn't some third-rate villain who throws someone off a cliff and feels relieved, I had given orders to confirm the corpse for certain.

The clown let out a bubbly laugh.

"Ooh— ho— ho—."

Dripping a black liquid from between its torn lips, the clown's mouth opened.

Only after seeing that could I tell.

"Teacher. That's..."

"It's a ghoul."

The ghoulish Clown King continued to approach, dancing like a ballerina.

However, the Clown King's gaze was fixed on one person.

"Ah, shit. We made eye contact."

Wangcho spat on the ground.

The Clown King's gaze was fixed on Wangcho's face.

"Teacher. I'm asking just in case, but that bastard came to see me, right?"

I nodded my head in affirmation.

Here's a little piece of trivia.

For spontaneously generated undead, the cause of death has a great influence on their behavioral principles.

Undead who drowned try to drown the living,

undead who died of starvation try to devour the living,

and undead who died of freezing covet warm blood.

And a vengeful ghost usually seeks out the target of its grudge first.

"Tao Che—"

The King of Fools approached, transforming its scepter into a mace.

But before the ghoul could finish its rambling complaint, Wangcho disappeared into the darkness.

Blink.

The red lantern flickered once, and Wangcho appeared above the Clown King's head.

"Huh?"

Wangcho's hand axe embedded itself in the clown's neck.

The axe, shimmering with blue energy, was buried halfway into the Clown King's neck.

"Gurgle-?!"

Wangcho twisted the embedded hand axe.

CRUNCH!

With a horrifying sound, the Narrenkönig's neck snapped.

Wangcho, having separated the clown's head from its giant torso, landed on the ground and said.

"Hey, you think you're on the same level as me, you bastard?"

It was a natural outcome.

The opponent was a boss from one of H-Sector's numerous small, cell-based organizations.

In comparison, Wangcho was a superhuman who had unified D-Sector.

Considering that H-Sector wasn't scary because they were strong, but because they were crazy, this kind of gap was to be expected.

"But this guy is persistent. Did he walk all the way here from there?"

Wangcho poked at the headless corpse.

But the giant corpse, which should have been dead, twitched grotesquely and flailed its stiff arms, trying to grab Wangcho's ankle.

The head, which had fallen into a mud puddle, was the same.

Beyond the clown's thick makeup, its two eyes, having completely lost all reason, were rolled back and white.

Its unfocused eyes were aimed only at Wangcho.

"Kaaahhhk! Hehehe... Meeeat...!"

With a dislocated jaw, vomiting dark bloody water, the head clattered its teeth like a wild beast.

"What the hell. Is a ghoul that used to be Rank 1 supposed to be different or something?"

"Kyaaak!"

"This is unsightly in front of the Teacher. Let's end this ill-fated relationship here."

Just as Wangcho clicked his tongue and raised his hand axe to completely smash the noisy head.

Just then, a calm voice cut through the Narrenkönig's shriek from behind the alley.

"I intended to send a knight befitting your status to greet you, but it seems the lowly cannot comprehend nobility even in death."

"Hm? What's this?"

Our gazes turned towards the darkness.

The voice came from the alley, where even the light of the red lanterns did not reach.

Clack clack. Tap.

The sound of shoes tapping on the wet stone floor approached.

In between the sound of the shoes, one could hear the tapping of a cane on the stone floor.

Soon, the being slowly revealed itself under the red lantern.

"An ingredient of Rank 1 is hard to come by, so I tried using it, but it seems it was an inappropriate choice for receiving a guest."

The one who walked out of the darkness was a man wearing a worn-out frock coat and a dented silk hat.

The very stereotype of a fallen noble, you could say.

The man slightly lifted his silk hat and spoke towards me.

"My apologies, Teacher Schnabel. This was not my original intention. "

The man in the silk hat placed the hat before his chest and bowed politely.

"My name is Belgian. I have come to make a truly interesting proposal to you, who deals with death as I do."

Looking at the man, I thought.

The misunderstanding genre is all well and good, but getting tangled up with things like this is a downside.