Chapter 5: Weighing Nostalgia Against the Future (part 10)

Anyway, let's get back to the story.

When she heard about the emergency case, Hilde's expression turned serious as

if someone had flipped a switch. "Tell me about the patient."

She totally had the face of a doctor now. That was a professional for you.

Brad explained the situation to Hilde plainly. "It's a pregnant woman from this

village. Her water has already broken. The baby could be born at any moment, but

the position of the fetus is bad. It's lying with its back against the exit to the mother's

womb."

"Transverse lie, huh... That's unusual and dangerous..."

I didn't understand what they were saying, but I gathered it was going to be a

difficult birth.

"The midwife has already given up, it seems," said Brad.

"Well, no surprise there," said Hilde. "It will get caught on the pelvic bone.

Normally, the mother or the child... one of them would have to be sacrificed here. In

order to save both..."

"Yeah... A surgical incision is probably the only option."

Surgical incision... Oh, a Cesarean section! But Hilde was looking at him

dubiously.

"Can you do that? I've heard that the survival rate for mothers who have their

womb opened is less than twenty percent, you know?"

"There's one very clear reason why that survival rate is so low."

"Oh... And what would that be?"

"Neither you nor I performed the procedure," Brad said, as if it were obvious.

When he spoke with such confidence, it made Hilde furrow her brow. "You say

the most incredible things as if they were nothing..."

"It's a matter of fact," he said. "To be more precise, it's because they lack my skills

and the three-eyed's knowledge of infectious disease. Their process is only cut open

the belly, take out the fetus, close up the wound, then heal it with light magic. They

don't have anesthetic, so the pregnant mother suffers. Their incision and suturing

technique is underdeveloped, so even if they use light magic, the wound doesn't

close up properly and the patient dies of blood loss. They don't have three-eyed

antibiotics, so it's easy for the patient to develop an infectious disease after the

procedure. That's why the survival rate is low."

Brad extended a hand to Hilde.

"Even by myself, I can bring the rate of success up to eighty percent. However, if

you're at my side doing hygiene management, we can bring that incredibly close to

one hundred percent."

"Geez, that doesn't leave me with much choice, does it?" Hilde scratched the back

of her head before taking Brad's hand. "Before a doctor, all patients are equal. That's

why doctors don't get to be picky about who they treat."

"Thank you. Having you there is as good as having a hundred of anyone else."

Hilde turned to face the rest of us. "Your Majesty! Refugee boss! It's just like you

heard. Sorry, but we'll be wanting to borrow your underlings for this."

"Sure, of course you can," I said.

"Of course," said Jirukoma. "We are a family. It's a chief's duty to defend the

family."

"Thanks," said Hilde. "Dragonewt girl!"

"M-Me?!" Carla jumped a little when she was called.

"Go to the medical laboratory in the capital, as quickly as you can. Bring back

equipment and medical supplies for us. If you ask for my black bag, the researchers

there will know what you mean. You can just bring the whole bag."

"I-I understand!" Carla hurried out of the tent.

Next, Hilde looked to Jirukoma. "Refugee boss, I want to borrow this tent. It's best

to move her to the most hygienic place we can manage."

"I don't mind," said Jirukoma. "Use whatever you want."

"Also, we'll be searching for someone with the same blood as the mother, so

gather the refugees around."

"Understood."

I learned this later, but this world also had A, B, and O (though their naming

scheme was different) blood types. Mysteriously, even across races, if the blood

types matched, they could almost always be used for blood transfusions. I said

"almost always" because there were some blood types that couldn't accept

transfusions regardless of the blood type used. Maybe that could be because there

was Rh positive and negative blood types in this world, too.

"Next, you know something about hygiene, right, sire?" asked Hilde. "Explain it to

the boss here and his people. I want the environment we work in to be as good as

possible. Also, boil a lot of water for us. We'll want to disinfect our tools."

"Got it! Liscia, Owen, let's do this!"

"Okay!" said Liscia.

"Understood!" agreed Owen.

"L-Let me help, too!" Komain broke in.

Komain followed us around, setting up things inside the tent and helping boil a

lot of water. With no regard for our respective positions, each of us worked hard to

do what we could.

Those who could do something did it.

In a way, I felt like we were embodying the current state of this country.

Once the preparations were finished, there was nothing left for us to do.

Inside the tent, Brad and Hilde must have been performing the procedure now. I

could hear the mother's ragged breathing from inside. All we could do was wait

outside the tent for the procedure to finish.

Liscia, who was watching the door, spoke in a voice filled with concern. "I heard

they're splitting open the mother's belly. Is she going to be okay?"

"If that's all you heard, it does sounds like a bizarre crime of some kind, doesn't

it?" I said. "There's nothing to worry about."

I put a hand on top of Liscia's head.

"Cesarean sections are a method that is commonly used for difficult births in the

world I came from, and the rate of women dying in childbirth is pretty low. The vast

majority of people there don't even think about the fact that a pregnant woman

might die when she gives birth. They just assume the child will be born fine."

"The world you came from is as amazing as ever, Souma."

"Yeah, kinda," I said. "Also... those two can do something similar to my country's

medicine. Well, my world lacks light magic, so it's not easy to do a straight

comparison." I turned to Jirukoma, who was standing beside me. "What about the

mother's husband?"

"We don't know if he's dead or alive," he said. "It seems they were separated

while escaping from the north, you see. Still, she said she was determined to give

birth to the child in her womb and they would wait for the father together."

"I see..."

Mothers are strong. It seemed that was true in any world.

"For the people of this village, the child inside her was hope," said Jirukoma. "It

gave us a sense that we wouldn't only be losing things. That's why we had all

decided that the entire village would raise the child together, with love."

"I see... Hey, Jirukoma." I turned to face him. "I know how capable Brad and Hilde

are. That's why I'm confident both mother and child will survive. With that in mind, I

want to say something."

"...What is it?"

"That child is being born into this country. This country is where it will grow up.

It will call this country its homeland, having never known the land of its forefathers."

Jirukoma closed his eyes and was silent. It seemed he understood what I was

trying to say.

"You said you would raise it as the child of the entire village, with love, right?

Well, there's no need to force a child who knows nothing to inherit your sorrow. You

can decide for yourselves whether to stay in this country or to leave. However, it's a

little much to force a child who has the option of taking this land as its homeland to

live as one of the people of a ruined land."

"You need say no more," he said quietly.

"Brother..."

Jirukoma placed a reassuring hand on the worried Komain's shoulder. "I have

made up my mind. I will entrust the role of chief to Komain."

"Wh-What are you saying, Brother?!" she cried.

"What are you planning to do?" I asked.

Jirukoma let out a sad sigh. "To be frank, the people of this village are tired from

wandering. If these exhausted people can call this land their home, I think that is a

wonderful thing. However, there are a handful of hardliners who can't give up on

returning to their homelands and are currently trying to drive the people on."

Jirukoma turned to the northern sky. "I think I will take those few hardliners and

attempt to return to the north. We will volunteer to go to a country seeking soldiers

and wait on the front lines for the time to come to reclaim our homeland."

"Brother!" Komain grabbed her brother's arms tightly, like she was trying to hold

him in place. "This village needs you, Brother! I'm the one who said the king's

proposal is cruel! I'll take on that job!"

"You can't," he said. "The reason you felt His Majesty's proposal was cruel was

because you care for the people of the village, right? With a heart like that, you will

be a better community organizer than I am."

"But didn't you say that the king's proposal was wonderful?!" she cried.

"I am simply better at masking my true feelings than you are." Jirukoma softly

brushed Komain's hands away. "In my heart, I can't give up on returning to our

homeland. However, I have been entrusted with being the chief of this village. That

is why I've put a lid on those feelings, bottling them up deep inside my chest."

"Brother..."

"However, there is no longer any need for that. His Majesty has said that if the

people of the village will love this country, this country is prepared to accept them.

The people have reached a land where they can find peace and safety. That means

my job is already done. I can set these feelings free now."

Komain was crying, but Jirukoma smiled for her. That expression was one

already filled with resolve.

Geez...

I said, "Don't make your little sister cry, you damned fool."

"I have no response to that," he said. "Please, take care of Komain and the others

for me."

"About all I'm good for is handling the paperwork," I admitted. "If anything can

truly protect them, it's the country itself."

"Then, please, make it so that this country stands the test of time. So that no one

can destroy it."

"...I'll try."

That was when we heard a weak cry from inside the tent.

While I was wondering what it was, Liscia shouted out, "It's been born!"

"Ohh! So that was a baby's cry, huh?" I asked. "I've always thought it would be

louder, more shrill..."

The child was born safely. Now, it's just a matter of the mother...

We looked at the entrance to the tent, praying for the mother's well-being.

◇ ◇ ◇

—One week later.

"So cuuuute," Liscia said.

"I-It's so soft..." Komain murmured.

"Liscia, l-let me hold it, too," Carla pleaded.

The baby with pointed ears was sleeping in its mother's arms, and Liscia,

Komain, and Carla were taking turns holding it.

That day, one week ago, we had heard from Brad that the procedure was a

success, but we hadn't been able to meet them on the day it'd happened. That was

why we'd been eager to see how they were doing, and so we'd come to visit with the

same group as back then.

I wanted to see the baby up close, too, but the three of them were hogging it to

themselves and I couldn't find anywhere to slip in. W-Was this what a maternal

nature was like...?

"Ahh, my companions seem to be making a scene," I said. "Sorry about that."

The child's mother smiled. "No, we're lucky to have the princess and the others

adore my child like this."

The mother was a calm, cat-eared beastman. I was relieved to see her so healthy.

Her recovery didn't seem to be going badly, either.